AU 1 - Waking up with amnesia
At some point the conscious part of his brain resumed control and what it processed first was the feeling of drowning in a deep, dark ocean, his arms and legs trapped and his body under a heavy weight.
As he was busy trying to set himself free, struggling against invisible chains, the childlike voice inside his head remained unheard.
You don't know what's outside.
Under his heavily closed eyelids his eyes moved voilently, his breathing became erratic and the muscles of his body contracted, sweat dripping down his back. Surely this wasn't real, right? There had to be something else...
And then he saw it. In the distance, hundreds of miles away and in the middle of the consuming darkness, he spotted a sliver of light, tiny but bright as the midday sun.
Filled with a renewed sense of hope, he tried to spread his arms and fly towards it but he was still held captive. A cry for help tried to desperately rip from his throat, but only a helpless grunt could escape his mouth. Inaudible except to his own ears.
And then he felt it.
There, on his right forearm. Moments later it had been cold and stuck under water. Now it was liberated and a strange but oddly familiar warmth shrouded it. His motionless fingers laced through something that pulled him forward. To the light.
Come to me my darling love. Please come to me.
He couldn't hear them, but he could feel the weight of those words around him and the way his heart began to pound in his chest. As he got closer to the blinding light his mind and body began to receive dozens of different instructions he barely managed to process. He wanted to take charge of everything they say and at the same time he wanted to get swept up.
Is this death?
The light got bigger and brighter and the sensation on his arm -a caress, maybe?- and the invisible guide bound to his hand redouble their efforts to get him out of there. Darkness began to fall behind him replaced by warmth, peace safety and... something else.
"Lucien"
The man opened his eyes and saw the world for the first time.
Scared as wild animal out of his cage, his whole body tensed instantly and he began to search frantically for something to hold on and being safe but there was nothing. People in white were talking to him asking him questions he didn't understand, the flickering light above him couldn't be the same one he had spotted minutes ago. And the noise, the smell... where was he?
Outside isn't safer.
But just when panic was about to set in, he felt it again; the force which had taken him from the darkness. His eyes locked on her hand caressing his forearm -gently, lovingly-, then on her other hand laced with his and finally on her eyes –grey as the winter sea and filled with tears, fear and... care?
He stopped drowning the moment he saw her smile and his mind and body relaxed as she kissed each of his fingers reverently. For the first time since he had been "awake", he could discern one voice among the hundreds in his head.
Trust her.
He could do that, yes. Between him and his memory there was still a dense fog and each passing second, the fear of going back to the depths of darkness became greater. But beside him, there was someone whose only intention was to keep him afloat.
He couldn't remember her name yet, but there was something he did know.
She would save him.