Memories

Chapter Three: Who Are You?

Disclaimer: I don't own Blood+ and I don't think I ever will, which makes me sad…

This chapter is dedicated to HajiandSayaForever. Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter of every Blood+ fic I've ever written! I love you so much, you're too awesome!

2/24/12: Revised and edited. Hope you all enjoy the new and improved version.

x-X-x

Haji pushed Saya away. Hard. Less than a moment later, he was being carried away by the out-of-control car. He felt his bones crunch at the impact, so he guessed that he'd shattered his entire left side.

That wasn't good.

Neither was the fact that his coattails were being drawn into the grill of the car, and adding the speed and momentum that the car had, he guessed he probably wasn't going to be able to get loose. Especially since his skin was beginning to melt and burn and stick to the hood of the car.

Oh yeah, this was painful.

He was surprised that he was still thinking coherently.

Unlike the car's driver. He was being ridiculous. There he was, sitting safe and sound in the front seat of the car, screaming his head off. What Haji wouldn't give to be the one in that car right now…

He was pressed painfully against the front end, but he could still see people on the sidewalk staring as they passed. The car made a hazardous turn onto a quieter side street. That was good; that meant that the driver still had some control, maybe it was just a problem with the brakes. Now there was less of a chance that anyone else would get hurt.

He really hoped Saya wasn't hurt. He didn't think he could take that.

He remembered when she got ran over by a horse drawn carriage many years ago. She had broken both her arms and her right leg. But that was back in the late 1700's when there weren't many medical advances, so no one knew if her injuries were worse or not, but now he guessed they probably were. Haji ran back to Joel, but by the time they got there, Saya had been dragged several blocks by the carriage. She was bloody and unconscious. Haji bundled up her broken body and carried her carefully back to the Zoo with Joel. She spent days locked up in the medical hall with Amshel, trying to be put back together again. And since it was so long ago, there wasn't any pain medication available unless you were royalty—and even then it didn't really work, it was weaker than modern Tylenol—so he spent his nights listening to her screams echoing down the halls. Of course, when she eventually healed and got better, Joel blamed him for not keeping a better eye on her. Never mind that he was only about fifteen at the time.

The car slammed into a light pole, jerking him out of his reverie and away from the car. His skin ripped as he was peeled off the hood and thrown onto the concrete sidewalk below him. His head bounced against it and cracked open. The man freaked out, jumped out of the car, tried to run away, tripped over Haji, saw Haji lying bloody on the ground, tripped yet again, and fainted.

Yes, these injuries would take quite some time to heal…

x-X-x

Six Days Later…

"What the hell happened to me?" I glanced around, trying to figure out where the hell I was and why all I could remember was a pair of headlights heading directly for me.

My side hurts…

I looked down at my body and had a very personal conniption. My entire upper left side was missing clothes. It looked like there were burn marks up and down my ribcage. What the hell?

A couple blocks away, I could hear cars and people. They were loud and obnoxious, like usual. Why people had to go around screaming their heads off at their companions who were walking less than a foot away from them, I could never guess. And cars. How annoying could this place be? All the buildings are smashed so tightly together that there's absolutely no need to have such noisy, nasty, smelly transportation units. I also noticed the lack of animals. Mainly horses. So that meant that cars could operate without horses pulling them.

And what the hell was a car, anyway? And how did I know what it was?

Actually, I have an even better question: Who am I?

And where the hell am I?

I looked up from myself and saw an elderly woman walking along the sidewalk and ran up to her.

"Goodness, young man, you scared me!"

"Forgive me, ma'am, but you wouldn't happen to know who I am, do you?" I said with a stiff bow. Joel would kill me if I didn't address my elders properly.

"Oh my, no. I'm sorry, lad, but I've never seen you in my life." She said, patting my arm—the covered one.

"Please forgive my indecent attire. I'm afraid I don't know how I became like this."

"That's alright. You look like a fine young man. Much better than the hooligans that run around her at night shooting each other."

"Excuse me, ma'am?"

"Why goodness, yes. If you don't know that then I'm guessing that you're not from this part of town at are you?"

"I'm not sure," I began with another apologetic bow. "Forgive me for asking, but what part of town am I in exactly?"

"Why New York, of course! Queens actually, but you seem to be more like the Manhattan type, or maybe Staten Island."

"I'm sorry?"

"My word, child, don't you have any memory at all?"

"It seems not. I apologize for taking your time." I bowed one last time and turned to go.

"That must've been a lovely suit you're wearing," She called to me.

Crap, it was bad manners to walk away from an elder who was talking to you.

"I don't know. Do you know why I might be wearing a suit at all? Is this attire normal?" I said, turning back around to face her again.

"Goodness, no. Not unless you're rich. Or there's a special occasion."

"Do you know of a special occasion that I might have been attending or have finished attending?"

"Today? No, but about a week ago, there was an opera…that may have something to do with your tux. I read in the paper a few days ago that a man was lost at the opera house.

"I see. Thank you, ma'am."

"Oh, not at all, not at all. It's not every day I get to talk to a polite handsome young man like you."

"You flatter me. My grandeur is not such."

"My word, no one talks like that anymore, child. Not in this day and age."

"I am beginning to assume I am not from this day and age. Where is this opera house? That may be where I was traveling to."

"I think you should go to the hospital, child. You look a little rough around the edges."

"I shall be fine. I have assumed much worse injuries than these."

"You be careful, you hear me? Don't go getting into trouble. You look like a good lad; people aren't always so nice to your type."

"I shall keep that in mind. The opera house?"

"Oh yes, it's next to that new Science Compound. I hear they're doing memory extractions there to work on building a virtual world. Useless in my opinion. This world's been good enough for centuries, no need to make a new one. But anyway, the opera house is right across the street. It's huge, you can't miss it. It's called Goldschmidt Theatre."

"Thank you. How do I get there?"

"Oh yes, of course. Go about twenty blocks down this street, then turn left and walk two blocks. That should take you there, and if it doesn't, you'll be within sight of it."

"Thank you."

"Of course, child. You may want to go to the Science Compound, they may be able to put memories back, too," she joked.

I walked away and wandered in the direction she pointed me in. This was a fairly heavy trafficked street, so I could always ask someone else for directions if need be. I was going to the opera house at the moment, but who knows what I was doing before I got knocked out by that car.

Maybe my family is looking for me. Maybe I don't have a family. I really hope I have a family. It'd be sad if I didn't. Hell, it's sad that I can't remember if I have a family or not. Am I married? Am I old enough to be married? How old am I?

I reached around to my back pocket, but no luck. No wallet.

Do I have a girlfriend? Where do I live?

Questions like that flooded my mind as I walked down the sidewalk, towards who knows where. It was confusing that some of my thoughts and words mirrored this city, while others seemed much older than this place.

I saw a girl with short dark hair and bright blue eyes out of the corner of my eye. My heart lurched toward her as it wrenched my head in her direction. I raised my hand to wave at her—maybe she knew who I was; she seemed familiar—but she smirked at me and ran away. She ran into the arms of a serious looking man wearing a dark violet suit. I sighed and carried on.

After an hour of aimless walking—I wasn't really paying attention to what the old woman said to me—I bumped into a man on the sidewalk.

"Hey! Watch where you're going! Ya wanna apologize for that, rich kid?"

I nodded my head toward him in apology. "Forgive me."

"What's that? Forgive you? You think yer too good to say sorry like normal, eh? Think I don't know what yer sayin'? Ya wanna start somethin', jerk?"

He reached across the sidewalk and shoved me into the wall.

"…Sorry?"

"Aah, now yer jus bein' a smartass! You wanna go, then let's go!" He reached his hand back and threw a punch right at my jaw.

My body acted on its own. The burns that covered my side pulled at the healthy skin around it and ached, but my left arm flew up to easily block his punch while my right sent a fierce uppercut into his gut. The man coughed and doubled over.

"Ya think yer smooth, eh? I'll show ya smooth!" He pulled a small knife out of his jacket and ran in low to jab it at my stomach.

I slid to the side and slammed my elbow down in the center of his back. The man got knocked off balance and fell onto the street. He stayed down for several minutes, so I started to walk away.

"Where do ya think yer goin', eh? I ain't done yet!" He got up again and ran up behind me and jumped on my back. He started choking me, and dragging me down onto the sidewalk. I spun us around and slammed my back into the brick wall, making him loosen his grip. He didn't let go, and I was starting to get dizzy from lack of oxygen. I grabbed his arms with mine and the burned bandages on my left arm ell away.

There was a man hanging off my back and I was face-to-arm with a very non-human, very attached-to-me arm. I yelled and threw myself back into the wall again. I tightened my grip on the man's arm and watched with sick amazement as claws sunk into the man's flesh. He screamed and finally let me go. He sunk down and sat on the ground. I turned around and stared down at him.

"What the hell are you? What is that thing? You're not human, get away from me!" The man gently grabbed his arm, got up and ran away.

I stared at my arm in awe. That was a very good question. What the hell was this thing? I flexed my fingers and sure enough this strange appendage moved exactly the way I wanted it to.

Maybe I should pay a visit to the Science Compound, too when I'm finished here at the theatre.

I kept walking toward the theatre—with more direction this time—and reached it fairly quickly. I was about to walk through the doors when I felt a strange presence wash over me. It was strangely calming. Like swimming in cool, river water after you've been working in the hot sun all day.

I turned around to see a young girl that looked like the one I saw earlier, only with dark brown eyes. She seemed very, very familiar. Like a best friend you can't remember the name of no matter how hard you try.

She walked up to me from the Compound after tucking a stray hair behind her ear and waiting a substantial amount of time before crossing the street. She stared at me for quite some time, looking confused and slightly horrified, before she came closer and placed a small hand on my arm.

It felt so good. The moment she touched me, all the pain and worries and thoughts all fled my mind. At that moment, it didn't matter if I didn't know who I was or where I was from. I felt safer than I ever had talking to the old woman or walking alone down the side streets. I was completely calm and at peace, but a little flag went off in my head with Joel's warning ringing in my ears: Never talk to people you don't know.

Granted, I'd already broke that rule several times already, it seemed prudent to hold to it at this moment. I trust my instincts after all. And no matter how happy I felt looking in her eyes, I wasn't completely sure I could trust her…

She stroked my arm and smiled up at me, "Haji…"

I looked down at her, "Who are you?"

Chapter Three: End