Finally another chapter of this! :D I hope you guys like it! Sorry for such a long wait if anyone at all was waiting for it.
It hurt. Everything hurt, even the lights above. His arms were bound, but he didn't bother moving. He didn't have enough strength and his body hurt too much for that. A beeping sound came from next to him, keeping time with his heart. He wanted to look around, but the slightest movement sent sharp pains radiating throughout his entire body. He was at grateful that he could at least blink without feeling any pain from the small movement. Slowly he began to move his fingers bit by bit, overcoming the pain until he could curl the digits into a fist with minimal pain, loosening up the tendon and bones.
A murmuring sound came to his ears, someone's voice, lowly speaking to another. He wanted to open his mouth, call to them and let them know he was there, that he was awake, at least, but a breathing mask over his face prevented him from doing so, not that he figured he could muster the strength in the first place. His voice would probably just crack and die in his throat before it even made it to his mouth and past his lips. The voices grew louder and he heard the swish of fabric as part of the curtain was moved aside and someone peered through the gap in at him. He could only move his eyes to glance at the intruder and, even then, they had darted back out so fast he hardly caught a glimpse of them.
He glanced down at his body, noting all the white around him. The sheets were white, the clothes he was wearing were white even the casts and bandages were white. The back of his left leg was aching more than the rest of his body. Not to mention about every square inch of his body was itching underneath the casts. His eyes felt heavy again and he let them close once more, but didn't slip back into sleep, but hung there in a suspended state. Blackness was all around him but the sounds of life were still seeping through between the cracks and situating itself in the corners of his mind. He heard the rustling of the curtain echo through his mind, as though it came from a distance and traveled far to reach his brain. Voices murmured, louder than the last one he had heard while fully awake, but still distorted by the state he was in.
"I thought you said he was awake?"
"He was when I looked in here. His eyes were open, at least."
They were both female, he noted. But whether he should open his eyes again and let them know he was awake or to keep them closed was beyond him. He had no clue what to do, really. Someone's clothes whispered next to him as they neared the machines attached to him and they checked the monitors.
"I swear he was awake. Maybe I just thought his eyes were open..." they drifted off and the other woman sighed. He opened his eyes again, startling them both. The other woman rushed to the side of the bed to peer down at him. His sight became blurry before he could get a clear picture of her and he felt his eyes begin to close again.
"Hey, wait," she snapped, "Stay with us, dammit."
He allowed his eyes to open back up, barely able to focus on her. All he wanted was to rest here. Was that so much to ask? She leaned back and said something to the other woman, who scurried out of his vision, the curtain moving as she did.
"Can you hear me?"
His throat didn't respond to his signals, nor did his head feel ready to move. He didn't exactly want to feel sharp pains pierce his brain again. Instead, he resorted to clenching his fist, the only part of him that he could bear to move. For some reason if he tried to move the fingers on his other hand, more pain would come from it. She noticed the movement and grabbed his chin in her hand. He groaned in discomfort, his brow furrowing in pain, and she quickly let him go with an apologetic glance.
"Clench your hand for yes and don't for no, okay?'
He wriggled his fingers and then bent them back into a fist, his eyes never leaving her.
"Do you know where you are?"
He let his hand relax.
She frowned, but continued, "Do you know why you're here?"
His hand stayed the same and her frown deepened. Apparently she wasn't getting the answers she wanted.
"Do you remember anything that happened to put you here?" She asked in an almost desperate voice. His eyes left hers for the first time as he looked up at the ceiling, and the smallest of frowns found its way to his face as he concentrated. He swallowed deeply before his eyes looked back at her.
"No," he managed to croak out. Her face was that of shock and exasperation as she backed away from him. She didn't know what to do now, so she awkwardly brought her hand up to bump her glasses back up on her nose. He blinked a few times to try and clearer view of her, but he still couldn't see her features clearly. His eyes wanted to close again, growing heavy. She must have noticed his drowsiness, as she caught his eyes again.
"You tired?"
As answer, he let his eyes close and this time he actually slid into sleep quite quickly, his breathing evening out.
His eyes snapped open and he stared at the ceiling. Where was he? He sat up quickly, the tubes attached to him stretched to their capacity, tugging at his skin. His gut felt like it was being sliced open with a dull knife and pain shot through his entire body. He let out a cry of pain, cursing at himself as he let his body fall back down, a layer of sweat already coating his forehead. His breath came in short gasps as he squeezed his eyes shut.
Next to him, the monitors were beeping rapidly as his vitals went all over the place. The curtain was shoved to the side as doctors rushed in to check what was happening. His face contorted in pain as more agony stabbed his body, his hands gripping at the sheets as his teeth clattered in his skull. A cold sweat was covering his entire body now. A hand landed on his forearm and he looked at who it was. The woman from earlier was leaning over him, her lips moving but he couldn't quite catch the words. They became lost somewhere in the air on the way to his ears. Finally, he caught it.
"Relax. Just relax. Clenching up like this is not helping your sore muscles and wounds," she squeezed his bicep with her other hand and he clenched his eyes, trying to make his body relax, but it seemed impossible. He made his breathing slow down and his muscles relaxed slowly. The beeping of the machines slowed down to a regular speed and everyone backed away from the bed a little to let out a sigh of relief. He opened his eyes again and looked at the woman, whose hands were still on his arm. She seemed to realize this at the same time and quickly removed them, stepping back and tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear, her gaze avoiding him.
He reached up and removed the air mask from his face, letting it rest at his neck, air still hissing out of it. Taking in a few breaths, he felt his body finally relax completely and the pain fled from his body. His head fell father back into his pillow he let out a shaky breath as his body returned back to normal. Someone reached up to put the mask back on his face, but he swatted their hand away. They exchanged a look amongst themselves at the action, but pulled the mask off gently, shutting the air off. The annoying hissing stopped and he shut his eyes in relaxation for a second before reopening them as something cool circled his wrists, followed by a clicking nose as it tightened.
He cracked his eyes open and strained to see what was around his wrists without sitting up again. Finally he glimpsed the metal circling his wrist. Handcuffs. They were attaching him to the bed for whatever reason he couldn't remember. He tugged at them, testing them, and they bit into his wrists. They were definitely sturdy and wouldn't come off anytime soon unless the people removed them on their own with a key. All the doctors eventually left, leaving him alone with the woman with glasses, who was busy pushing them farther up on her nose to distract her self and staring at the watch on her wrist, as though waiting for someone.
Finally, after he stared at her for a while, she walked to the side of his bed, peering down at him, "Any better today or do you still not remember what put you here?"
"…car accident?" He put his best guess forward, though he probably wasn't right with all the weird treatment he was getting at this hospital. She pinched the bridge of her nose between her thumb and pointer finger, accidently making her glasses slide down her nose again. While she awkwardly pushed her glasses back up, the curtain moved to the side and some men walked in, their eyes gazing at him in a distrusting way, like they were wary of him. He pulled a little on the cuffs and settled back into the bed. They had gathered into a little group to whisper amongst themselves, glancing over their shoulders at his nearly still form.
"Go ahead and talk about me. I'm tired anyway," he murmured, slurring his word as his eyes slid shut again. He momentarily wondered why he was so tired despite all the sleep he had been getting lately. He was awake just long enough to hear a few words uttered from their little group.
"So we've finally caught The Black Reaper… now what?"
By the next week he was much better, even able to move his body a bit without withering around in pain. His gut, where he had apparently been stabbed was the worst part of his body, still radiating pain through his stomach. The back of his left leg still throbbed dully from what he had discovered was a bullet wound, but it was bearable now. The IVs in his arms were beginning to become irritating, even though one was giving him the nutrients he needed to survive, not that his stomach thanked him for that. He was starving and suspected that his stomach was currently trying to consume itself. As if knowing that someone was needed, the woman with glasses pushed her way through the curtain, stopping suddenly upon noticing that he was awake.
He pulled at the cuffs, "Any chance I can get these taken off?"
"No. They are they as a precautionary measure incase you try to attempt an escape."
"They only place I'd like to escape to is the cafeteria. Is it too much to ask for a little sustenance? This tube of gunk here isn't doing my stomach much good."
They stared at each other for a while before the woman finally blinked in shock, "Um, yes, of course. I can get some food over here for you and that removed from your arm if you're feeling up for it."
"Yes, please. I need food and a lot of it. Maybe a whole table covered in food will be enough."
"I don't know what I can do about that, but I'll see what I can do," she back right out of the area, completely confused as to what had happened.
When she returned with a tray with one plate on it, she moved the table that slid over the bed over to the side, positioning the shelf in front of him before placing the tray on it. Next she pressed the button to tilt up the top of the bed so he could sit up a little. She stopped it as soon as she say the smallest of grimaces cross his face and standing back.
"This is it?" He asked after a while, looking up at her.
"Look, trust me, you may feel extremely hungry, but your body still can't take that much at this moment. The same thing goes with your stomach. You have to give it all some time."
He jangled his right hand against the bed, the chain of the cuff clinking, "Um… a little help here?"
"You sure you're strong enough to feed yourself?"
"I'm fine, now please release me."
She hesitantly released his cuff and he eagerly picked up the chopsticks, positing them in his hand. That was when he realized that she had been right. He actually was too weak to feed himself. He could feel his whole hand and arm shaking with the mere effort of holding the chopsticks in his hand correctly. He practiced using them just once in the air and immediately lost his grip of them. The tumbled out of his hand, clattering onto his tray. He picked them up again and only got the same result. He slowly looked up at her, a sheepish grin on his face.
"Would it be too much to ask for a fork?"
"Yes, it would. You're already in an awkward position to eat. Just wait a little bit," she turned and left, returning a few minutes later with a fork in her hand.
He quirked his eyebrows, "I thought you said it was too much to ask for a fork?"
"Just sit back," she growled, pulling up a stool. She stabbed the fork into a bowl of rice, scooping up some and carefully bringing it to his mouth. He opened it obediently once the fork neared his lips and scraped the rice off the utensil. She continued feeding him until all of the rice was gone from the small bowl. Next, she stuck a straw into a glass of water, letting him relieve his parched mouth. Even after feeding him the rest of the food that she had brought, he was still hungry and she went back for another tray of food despite the fact that she didn't want to. Finally, after the fourth tray of food, he said he was full and she let out a sigh of relief as he settled back in his bed, his stomach finally content, his eyes closing.
"Before you fall back asleep," he jerked his eyes back open fully and stared at her, "I want to ask you a few more questions, BK-201. What is your real nam-"
"BK-201? What's that?"
She blinked, wondering if he was pulling her leg, but his eyes looked so innocent. She knew that contractors were excellent liars, so there was a possibility that he was just pretending right now.
"Li, please don't lie to me."
He squinted, "Li? Is that my name? Or is it BK-201? I don't…"
His head began to throb and he grimaced, reaching up to hold his head in his hand. He let out a strangled breath and he heard the woman move quickly next to him, reaching towards the button to lower his bed back down. It made no difference, though, as his head continued to beat like a drum. She reached over to the morphine machine, upping the amount until it was as high as it could go, although they had already put it at a high level.
"You sure it's okay to do that?" He groaned between gritted teeth.
"They told me it was okay if you ever had another fit of pain. Where does it hurt?"
"My head. Just my head," he let out a cry, threading the fingers of his free hand through his short hair and pulling on it.
She reached out and unthreaded his fingers, laying a hand on his head. She raced away and returned moments later with a cloth soaked in cool water. Placing it on his head was like pouring a bucket of water on a fire. Immediately his head calmed down, as did he. His hand left his head, brushing over her wrist. She jerked away at the touch, holding her hand to her chest.
"What caused the pain?" She finally asked once he seemed to be much better.
"I think it was my question about what my name was."
"So you don't know what your name is?"
"No, I don't. I don't know anything. I don't know my name, where I'm from, where I am, who you are…" he trailed off as another pain shot through his head. He bit his bottom lip to keep the cry bubbling up in his throat from escaping.
"O-okay… um… get some sleep, I guess. We'll continue this some other time when you're more ready for it. Right now your body and brain doesn't seem to be in the best condition."
"Yeah, no shit," he snorted and she blinked in surprise.
"You've never spoken like that before."
"Well I've never been like this before, now have I? … no, seriously. Have I?" He looked up at her, worried.
"Not that I know of," she kicked the stool back from the side of the bed. Awkwardly standing there, she made use of her hands by tucking some of her loose hair back behind her ears. He settled back into bed, reaching up to move the wet cloth higher up on his head, glad for the freedom of his arm.
"Are you going to reattach my arm to my bed before I go back to sleep and you leave?"
"No. I see no reason to do so at the moment. If what you're saying is true, then you really pose no threat to me and the others in this building. In which case, your other arm may find freedom eventually."
"That-" a yawn cut into his sentence, "That would be nice," he murmured as he slid back into sleep. She stood there for a while longer, staring over his still body, wondering if he was being truthful when he said that he didn't remember anything. If that was the case, they couldn't get anything from him. The only thing they could do was to lock him up or use him as bait, perhaps, to draw out the rest of his team. But another glance down at him made her realize just how wrong that would be. If he was truly being sincere in his words then using him as bait would do nothing but hurt the both of them in the end.
She let out a groan and backed away from the sleeping man who, despite her best efforts to stop it, was bringing the slightest of blushes to her cheeks. Why did he, of all people, have to be the contractor they had been searching for? He had seemed so sweet and innocent those few times they had bumped into each other. Which, now that she thought about it, should have been really quite suspicious. It wasn't common to run into someone so many times in such a large city. If she had thought past the beating of her heart back then maybe all of this could have been avoided. But it was too late for that. It was too late to dawdle around in the past. She needed to talk to her teammates, to let them know what new things she had learned that day.
She also had to search for that Contractor that had been the attacker. He was still at large, as his star had apparently not fallen from the sky. Perhaps he had some kind of doctor on his side or one which he threatened. They would have to check in with all their known underground medics to check if any of them had encountered the Contractor and patched up that knife wound BK-201 had dealt him before falling back into the hole in the ground. She ran her hand through her ponytail and left his small curtained area, preparing her mind and body for the long workdays ahead of her.
I hope you guys liked the chapter! Hopefully the next one will come out much quicker than this one did. Please review! :D