I... kind of lost track of where I was going with this story halfway in, and then I realized everything with it was wrong and I just... But I wanted to get it done with so I finished it and have a story that was an awesome idea but failed in the execution! Just to prove that someone as awesome as I can make mistakes as well!
(j/k, I make mistakes all the time)
His name was Emil, he remembered that much. He was also pretty certain about his age, and that he was supposed to get up and prepare for today's lesson. And that he'd get pancakes for breakfast, because it was Wednesday.
He did not, however, know who the man sitting beside his bed was.
His bed didn't feel like it used to either, but for the moment that was less of a concern.
"...Who are you?"
He tried glaring at the man, who only frowned and looked through the door. Emil was certain the door hadn't been in that spot when he went to sleep. The man said something gibberish, someone answered from the other side and then the man turned to Emil again.
"I'm Lalli. How are you?"
The man had a weird accent, and Emil raised an eyebrow.
"My mom says I'm not allowed to talk to older men. She says their minds are always in the gutter and I should stay away from them."
Lalli looked confused, tilted his head.
"I'm your friend."
"I'm not allowed to make friends with older men. Mom says they'll do bad things if I follow them."
The man looked more confused and looked through the door again. A small woman entered the doorway and looked at Emil.
"He's the same age as you are, Emil."
"Nu-huh! He's all ancient and stuff."
"...He's nineteen."
"That's ancient!"
The woman opened her mouth to answer, but a large hand was placed on her shoulder and she stepped to the side to let an even more ancient and much bigger man inside. The man ushered Lalli and the woman out before settling down next to Emil.
"How are you feeling?"
The large man talked slowly and sounded like he had a potato shoved down his throat. Emil tried to settle up and move away from him, but the man held him down. Emil decided not to resist, his head had started pounding anyway.
"Emil, I'm going to ask you some questions, could you please answer them?"
Emil puffed his cheek, tried to cross his arms over his chest but moving was painful so he decided not to. Sometime during the night, he concluded, he must have fallen out of the bed and recieved some bruises. He gave up on protesting and nodded.
"What's your name?"
Emil rolled his eyes.
"Emil. You just called me that anyway, that's a stupid question."
"Yes, yes. Bear with me for a couple minutes. Do you know where you are?"
"Not in my bed?" Emil tried and the man frowned. "Okay, I guess someone redecorated my room while I slept then, because I clearly remember the door being on another side."
"...How old are you?"
"Eleven." Emil was certain he was correct, but the man frowned again. "Why do you care?"
"What is your mother's name?"
"That's also a silly question. Her name is Mom, of course!"
"Mikkel, that's a stupid question", a red-haired woman peeked into the room. "You don't know what his mother's name is anyway."
The man smirked.
"No, but I'm pretty certain her name isn't Mom."
"Anyway, what's the verdict? Is he fit for fight?"
The red-haired woman leaned against the doorframe and Mikkel shook his head.
"Amnesia. It should be alright in a couple of days, most cases work themselves out."
"Otherwise we'll just knock him over the head again."
"Sigrun, that is not how you treat amnesia. And either way with all the damage he has sustained he would not be fit for fight anyway. The best thing we can do for him is to just have patience. Emil, you should try to get some more rest, I will see to you again later. Sigrun and I are heading out, but the other three will be here to keep you company."
Emil could see Lalli peeking in through the door beside Sigrun and frowned a little.
"Why isn't mom here? Where am I? What happened tonight?"
"Your mother should be back at home in Sweden", Mikkel started. "You are currently in the Silent World together with us and found yourself buried beneath a giant and half a building yesterday. It is vital to your recovery that you rest, so I am ordering you to stay in bed for the time being."
Emil raised an eyebrow again and looked at Mikkel.
"...I don't believe you."
"I am not ordering you to believe me, your memory will return in time."
He got up from the chair, left the room. Sigrun looked at Emil, but spoke to Mikkel.
"...and if it don't?"
"If it does not, we might have a bit of a problem."
Emil shivered at Mikkel's answer, but the red-headed woman smiled at him and gave him thumbs up.
"Don't worry, little viking, you'll be alright soon."
She hurried after the large man and Lalli came back inside, settled down on the chair. Emil turned his face towards the wall, sulking. The man didn't say anything, but carefully patted his head. Emil frowned again, the pat felt familiar somehow.
"You should get some rest."
It was the woman's voice again, Emil still didn't know what her name was.
"Don't worry, Lalli will stay with you. Just tell him if you need anything."
Emil wasn't about to tell someone who obviously must have kidnapped him anything. Friends, pff. Like Emil would disobey his mother and make friends with someone so much older than he was! He yawned and closed his eyes. There was no way he'd be able to sleep with the headache he was having anyway.
Emil wasn't sure how much time had passed when he opened his eyes, but he was pretty sure he had missed the morning call from the sergant. He yawned, tried to stretch, but each movement sent jolts of pain through his body. He saw movements in the corner of his eye and turned around carefully. He didn't recognise the person, but was pretty certain he was at least a couple years older than Emil.
"Hi there. My name's Emil Västerström. Are you new here?"
The man straightened up and looked at Emil.
"I'm sorry I'm not settling up to greet you, I seem to have been in an accident. Great start to my cleanser career, right?"
The man didn't answer, but put his gray hair behind his ear. Emil had never seen anyone so young with gray hair before.
"When did you get here, anyway? I don't think I've seen you before..."
The man said something, but Emil couldn't understand it. He frowned.
"I'm sorry, I can't... You're not from around here, are you?"
Emil made a move to try and settle up, but pain shot through his back, his chest, his stomach and his head so he laid down again. The man got up, looked around, placed a hand on Emil's shoulder and gently pressed him down.
"Tuuri!"
"Hm, Lalli? What is it..." Tuuri fell quiet when she noticed Emil. The Swede looked at her, tried to speak but was busy breathing. "Emil, are you okay?"
Emil forced a smile and nodded, gathering himself.
"Nothing I can't handle", he said after a while. "Are you new to the Cleansers as well? I mean, I just started a couple months ago so I might not have met everyone yet but you feel new."
"Thank you, I guess?" Tuuri said and pulled down the blanked covering Emil. She frowned at what she saw and covered him again, turning to the gray-haired man. Emil couldn't understand what she said, but the man frowned, shook his head. Tuuri added something more and the man let out a sigh and got up, leaving the room. She turned to Emil again.
"Don't worry, he'll be back soon. With Mikkel. You'll feel better once he's taken a look at you." She settled down on the chair. "Why don't we talk a little while waiting?"
"Who was he? What was those words he was speaking?"
"Oh, that's... you know him."
"I'm pretty sure I'd remember ever meeting someone speaking like that..."
Tuuri let out a sigh.
"He's Lalli, my cousin. We're from Finland."
"Oh, you're one of those nature people, no technology and stuff."
"We do have technology..."
"Yes, but not a lot of it, right?"
Tuuri didn't protest.
"Was that why you joined? To learn about techology and teach those back at home?"
"No, I just wanted to see the world."
A red-headed man peeked into the room and Emil tried to settle up, flinched and stopped, still staring at the man.
"You're certainly not a cleanser."
The man said something, Tuuri carefully pressed Emil down in the bed again.
"He's Reynir, we found him in a crate earlier. Emil, please, you need to rest."
Emil looked at Reynir, then closed his eyes, letting sleep catch him again. Next time he woke up a large man was leaning over him. He blinked, turned to the side, looked around in the room.
"Do you know who I am?"
"I'm not stupid, Mikkel."
"I am glad. Then I assume you remember what happened?"
Emil remembered a roof bulging above him, he remembered dust, a large crack. He remembered darkness. He shook his head.
"Hm... Do not worry, I am certain your memory will return any moment, most of it seems to have returned already. Do you know where you are?"
"Denmark." Something in Mikkel's voice told Emil to be serious. "In the tank. And uh..." He looked at the bed above him. "In Tuuri's bed by the looks of it."
"That is good, you seem to have returned to current times at least. Tuuri told me you still did not remember them last time you woke up."
Emil frowned slightly, he couldn't remember waking up at all since the thing with the roof. He looked at the ceiling, the pain in his body made it hard to focus his thoughts.
"Are you in pain?"
"...yeah."
"Naturally. Here, this should help relive the pain a little."
Mikkel gave Emil some liquid and Emil accepted it, his head pounded when Mikkel helped him lift it just enough to drink the thing. Emil looked curiously at Mikkel.
"What happened?"
"You will remember soon, do not worry."
Emil closed his eyes, then opened them again.
"I won't, just tell me."
Mikkel settled down on the bed, and Emil winced a little as his body moved ever so slightly.
"We did not actually see what happened. We heard part of the building falling in and then Sigrun ordered me out while she went to investigate. I heard gunshot, and after ten minutes she came outside to fetch me again. There was dust pretty much everywhere, but she pulled me to what I supposed was the ceiling merely minutes earlier. I could see the shape of a giant next to it, but she pulled me past it, started lifting stones and beams from the floor."
He looked at Emil.
"You were pretty much a bloody pulp when we got you out."
Mikkel tried laughing and Emil forced a smile. Mikkel patted his shoulder carefully, got up. Emil moved to grab Mikkel's arm, but pulled back when the pain hit him. Mikkel stopped and turned to him anyway.
"Where's Lalli?"
"Oh..." Mikkel looked at the door. "I do believe he got hurt when you did not remember him, but I can not say for certain. Tuuri sent him to fetch us and last time I saw him he was outside the tank. Do you want me to send him in?"
Emil nodded, closed his eyes. He didn't hear Mikkel opening the door.