Forgotten

She was stirred, almost jolted awake by a light being shined into her eyes. She groaned as she tried to pull the sheets over her face, only to discover that there weren't any sheets at all. Something wasn't right. There was a horrible pain in her left shoulder and she couldn't feel her left arm at all. It must have been a nightmare.

"It's just a bad dream….." she thought. "Mama will wake you up soon and it will all disappear….What did Mama's voice sound like again? I would remember something like that. I can kind of remember her face….just not the voice." She kept her eyes closed as she tried to concentrate on her mother. Round rosy cheeks, lilac eyes, a delicate nose, a small set of pout lips and thick locks of hair about her face …but no voice. Was her mother able to speak? Her thoughts were interrupted when she felt someone place a hand on her shoulder.

"I think she's awake…"

"Can you hear me? You need to open your eyes." She didn't recognize the sound of his voice but she obeyed nonetheless. She rubbed her eyes for a moment, then slowly let them open. The first few seconds were painfully blinding. The room was well lit, probably excessively so and everything seemed to be a shade of white. The walls were white, the counters were white, the shelves, the curtains, the floors, her gown and the bed…all white. She might as well have been bleached white too.

"Why's it so bright in here?" She groaned. She was almost startled by a scarlet furred figure moving in her peripheral vision and she quickly glanced at him. He didn't seem amused by her reaction and kept a straight, expression as he wrote something down on a clipboard. He glanced at the top of the piece of paper where the name "Julie-Su" was printed in a bold lettering.

"Do you know where you are?" he asked. He spoke to her so slowly…almost like he expected her to be stupid. She gave him a questionable gaze.

"A hospital?" The man nodded. Of course that was obvious. What she really wanted to know was how she got there in the first place. "If this is a hospital, then that must be the doctor." She thought. Stethoscope around his neck, taking notes on her, asking her obvious questions and he was wearing a lab coat in a "lovely shade of white". "Big surprise…" she thought. Why was everything white?

"Well, she's lucid." He mumbled. She glanced over in the other direction. A male with orange fur was digging in the drawers as if he was looking for something. "Better give her the 'once over' though to be sure all of her vitals are strong."

"The 'once over'?…"she thought. "Great…just what I need. A couple of doctors poking and prodding at me." She casually glanced down at her hands, expecting to find one of those plastic hospital bracelets. Maybe that would give her some answers. She instead, made a horrifying discovery. Her left arm was missing from the deltoid, down and was replaced with a mechanical prosthetic. The brief moment of disbelief and silence was immediately followed by screaming and hysterical crying.

"My arm! What happened to my arm!"

"Settle down!" the doctor growled as he struggled to restrain her. The orange furred echidna, who she assumed was the doctor's assistant approached her with a vial and needle in hand which, of course frightened her even more so. "If you don't calm down, I'll have you sedated!"

"What have you done to me!" She was thrashing and squirming incredibly hard. How could such a small girl harbor such strength? Within seconds the doctor knew he wouldn't be able to hold her down alone and he gave the assistant a slight nod.

"Shoot her up…" He grasped the side of her head with one hand as he tried to hold the rest of her with the other. All the girl could do was watch in horror out of the corner of her eyes as the needle sank into her neck. First she lost the strength to hold up her head, then the sensation slowly crawled and stretched to each one of her extremities. Down her spine, creeping through her remaining arm and legs, tingling in her toes and fingers until every part of her was immobilized. Her eyelids were getting heavy. "You're in shock. Once you've calmed down and come back to your senses, I'll tell you what's happened." Her vision started to fade as her senses dulled. The hospital room that had looked like nothing more than a white abyss only moments ago was beginning to transform into a kaleidoscope. Abstract shapes and vibrant colors seemed to dwell in the air like butterflies, listlessly drifting about. She didn't feel angry or scared anymore, in fact she was rather curious about this new sensation. Being that she'd lived in the legion her whole life, she'd never seen anything so mesmerizing. She sighed as a bright blue mist drifted just above her. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but neither her arms nor fingers seemed to move on command. What the hell did that man inject her with? She waited what seemed like hours before the colorful shapes and patterns slowly transformed back into white tiles and bright lights. She looked back down at her replaced arm and concentrated on the contour of the wires and metal plates. When she was finally able to move again, she reached over and slowly touched it. She wasn't afraid of it anymore, but the fact that it was there certainly wasn't comforting by any means.

"I look like a monster…" she thought. "Like one of those brutish grandmasters. And where's the doctor? I'd like to give him a piece of my mind." She wished it was a nightmare. After all those are easy enough to get rid of…you just have to open your eyes.

"That's better now, isn't it?" She turned to watch as the doctor stepped back into the room and sat next to the hospital bed.

"What happened to my arm?" she asked softly as she looked at the prosthetic. She had a timid look in her eyes and the doctor could see she was still quite upset.

"You and your mother were both in a nasty accident. Your arm was crushed under a piece of debris and so badly damaged that the only option was amputation, however you should be grateful. You were lucky enough to escape with your life…your mother was not so fortunate though, I'm afraid." He said as he placed a set of slim framed glasses over his eyes. Tears began to run down her cheeks.

"Mother?...I still can't even remember her voice…"she cooed. "Why can't I remember?" Was the memory of her mother truly so insignificant that she would forever abandon it? Was she so ignorant and shallow to allow herself to...or was it something else? The doctor gave her a questionable look.

"You don't remember her voice?" He pulled the clipboard off of the nightstand next to the bed and glanced at her name as he realized something obvious. He hadn't heard her say what her own name was. Not once this entire time. "Can you tell me what your name is?" She gasped as she stared blankly at her hands. She couldn't believe it. What was her name? Was she stupid enough to forget that as well? Her mind raced as she tried to remember and she was completely unaware of how sinister the situation really was. It was as if her memories had disappeared. Empty, like a blank canvas. Like the white hospital room. Nothing.

"My name? I can't remember…" she whispered to the doctor. He glanced at her expectantly. "I can't remember my own name. Please…can you tell me what it is?" she asked in disbelief. "I have forgotten…"