My blurred vision cleared, though it was still black around the edges. A fit of coughs wracked my body and pain shot through every part of it. I lay still in the unfamiliar surroundings, breathing heavily. The sound of my heartbeat filled my ears. I wanted to cry, but I couldn't manage to release any tears. The memory of whatever had happened before faded from my memory… The glowing men pushing me off the side… The million colors flashing before my eyes… Everything faded quickly. Wait…
…Who am I?
A bright light greeted when I opened my eyes. I squinted, my vision clearing. A dull pain throbbed in the back of my head and in every part of my body pain could reach. I coughed the pain sharpening. My head fell back onto the pillow and I groaned as the light on the ceiling bore into my eyes, not helping my headache at all. I looked around. I was in a bed with straps holding my arms and legs down under the blankets. A long white curtain enclosed the space around me, giving me some privacy, though I wasn't sure what I'd need privacy from.
The sound of a door opening startled me and I let out a strange sound that was supposed to be a gasp, but came out weird. The curtain was pushed aside and a man walked up beside me. He had kind blue eyes and thinning blondish-white hair. He looked at me with amazed look on his aging face.
"You're awake," he said, the amazement clear in his voice. Unable to say anything, I nodded. "Incredible." He looked at a screen beside the bed that I hadn't noticed before. Wire reached out from it and under the blankets. I wiggled my arm under the strap and could feel the wires attached to my left hand. I didn't know what they were for, but I didn't like it. He looked at me. "Can you say anything?" I wanted to know myself, but didn't dare. I didn't know him and didn't trust him.
"Selvig," said a voice from the door. A dark skinned man with an eye patch over his right eye stood in the doorway. I was able to see most of him through the space between the wall and the curtain. "Is she awake?" The man called 'Selvig' nodded. The dark skinned man walked in. He was tall and very intimidating. He looked at me curiously with his good eye.
"She's full of gamma radiation," Selvig reported to him, "I haven't seen anything like it since the tesseract was still on earth." Tesseract. That word seemed to ring a bell in my mind, though I didn't know why. "It shouldn't be possible for someone to have that much radiation in them."
"Is she giving any off?" the one-eyed man asked.
"No, she's safe for now. She hasn't said anything, so I don't know if she has any clue what gamma radiation is." Now that he mentioned it, I didn't know what that stuff was. If I was full of it, it wasn't affecting me. I think.
"Who are you?" the one-eyed man asked plainly. It was clear he wanted a reply, but from my empty mind, it was hard to find one. I swallowed to dampen my dry throat, but it seemed my mouth was dry as well.
"I-I don't know," I stammered, my voice as dry as my throat.
"Can you remember anything?" Selvig asked. I shook my head, my brain throbbing. The two men looked at each other.
"If she remembers anything, tell me right away," the one-eyed man said and left the room. Selvig checked the screen one last time and then looked back at me.
"Don't hesitate to tell me if you do remember anything. We're your friends here." He gave me a small smile and left as well. My mind was blank. It'd be a miracle if I did remember anything. The only thing I could think of was all the pain I was going through. I decided the best option was sleep for now. I couldn't do much more, strapped to the bed and all. I closed my eyes and drifted off quickly, my mind fading into the realm of sleep.
Him. He haunted my mind like a ghost torturing my thoughts. His cold green eyes seemed to bore into my mind, though I knew he wasn't real. Or was he? A few small trinkets of what could have been memories echoed through my dream. I remembered him standing there, holding onto something that I was apparently in. I could see him through the clear glass, his face littered with cuts and bruises and an awful looking muzzle covering his mouth. I shuddered at the thought of wearing it myself, though I knew I was asleep. He looked at me as if trying to tell me something through his eyes. The thing I was in moved and the world behind him turned into a thousand colors, all stretching upward. This all seemed so familiar, but the only thing that was truly clear was him.
"It burns you to have me in your head doesn't it?" His voice echoed behind me and I turned, the images I saw disappearing. "You have no clue who you are, nor any about the identity of me."
"I have a feeling you won't tell me either," I said, or thought, though it was starting to feel less like a dream. A smirk appeared on his face, giving me the clear answer to my question.
"You'll know soon enough, and when you do, you'll wish you hadn't remembered at all." A sharp pain shot through my head and everything went black.