One Year Earlier
The streets of Old Town were oddly quiet, though voices spilled from bars and homes above the streets, the bridges packed with people. There was a cold chill in the air that promised snow that would blanket the streets and smother the still burning fires.
With his red and white jacket zipped up to block out the cold, Evan walked along the icy street, occasionally glancing up at the bridges. Though it was late at night, nearly two in the morning, there was still so many people out that if it weren't for the dark sky, someone would think it was the middle of the day. From what he had heard, New Town was apparently lit and glowing all night and day but it was Old Town that never slept. A riot could happen at any time and most people wanted to be prepared when it happened even if it meant having little sleep.
Evan just wanted to get home, walking quickly towards the big bridge. He glanced over his shoulder a few times, no one ever truly safe in Old Town. In his red jacket Evan stood out, daring enough to wear such a bright and angry colour. Tyler told him constantly not to wear it, fearing that he would get killed by people thinking he had money or be taken by police machines for being so revolutionary. Evan would have to reassure him that it he could handle himself, that he would be okay every time he left the apartment. Still, he gave in io Tyler's request of carrying a baton with him every time he went out. He kept it hidden in his sleeve and hoped he would never have to use it outside of a riot.
Keeping his mind off violence, he thought about home. He smiled, thinking about how Lui would have a warm cup of hot cocoa waiting for him when he got home and since he had the day off tomorrow, they would let him sleep, one or two of them possibly curling up beside him since he had the largest bed in the apartment. Evan didn't mind the company, feeling safer than he normally did when Lui, Brock or even Tyler curled up beside him.
Evan was snapped out of his happy thoughts by the sound of a car engine behind him. He turned, squinting his eyes as the bright blue headlights from the government car blinded him momentarily. Nervousness made him move to the side of the street, hoping that the car would continue past him.
The car slowed as it approached him, the dark metal paint reflecting the orange street lamps as it drove through the wet, slushy snow that covered the street. Evan felt that he should run from the car but he didn't want to bring any attention to himself, unable to do anything but watch it get closer to him. The car got closer, coming to a stop in front of him. Evan stood his ground, watching the doors open as four men in dark suits with polished shoes and guns holstered on their belts got out. They headed towards Evan who backed up, his eyes scanning the street for any possible way to escape.
"Evan? We'd like you to come with us, please." One of the New Town men said with a smile.
"Y-You have the wrong guy." Evan snapped, his eyes landing on the narrow street across from him and the open door of an apartment building at the end of the street. Once inside, he would be able to get up to the bridges where they wouldn't be able to catch him once he got into the crowd. "You've probably confused me with someone else." Evan said as he backed up to the cold brick wall, his hand curled around the baton he kept hidden in his sleeve.
"Take him." The man ordered. The others stepped forward suddenly, one with his gun raised at Evan. It took one quick move, the metal of the baton reflecting the light as it was swung through the air, coming down the man's wrist with the sound of cracking bone and a scream, the gun falling to the snow. Evan should have grabbed it, but instead he ran, vaulting himself over the car and sprinted towards the narrow street and the open door. A gunshot rang through the air, the bullet ringing off the brick wall near his head with a flash of sparks.
"Don't kill him! The project needs him alive!" Someone shouted. Another gunshot rang through the air as Evan reached the door, searing pain shooting through his thigh. He screamed in pain as he fell to the step, blood falling to the stone street. With another cry of pain, his hand pressed to the wound, Evan reached with his other hand for his fallen baton. An arm wrapped around his neck, choking the air out of his lungs as a soaked cloth was pressed to his face, the toxic fumes blurring his sight. He immediately felt light headed, his legs going limp so the men had to support him. His eyes rolled up to see the four bridges above him as the world darkened and disappeared.
Evan woke with a jolt, his dream of toy soldiers and bombs still running through his mind. The bright light stung his eyes, making him wish that he had remembered to close the blinds before going to bed. He was tempted to yell for one of the others to come in and close them from but he decided against it. Instead, he laid back down, reaching for his blanket only to realize that he didn't have one.
Evan's eyes shot open, taking in the strange room. He had no idea where he was or why, different emotions making it hard to think. At first, he thought he had died since everything was clean, white and bright. Then, the foggy, pained memories of what had happened as he had been walking home came back to him, his hand going to the wound on his leg. He could feel the gauze under his pant leg, meaning that someone had taken care of him. At least New Towners had the decency to make sure no one died from bleeding out.
Across the room from his small bed was a large, heavy looking door with a small window in the middle. Through the small window, light shone into the room from the even brighter hallway. Evan wondered what kind of place would need so much light.
With a small cry of pain, Evan pushed himself to his feet, limping slowly towards the door. He pulled the handle only to find it locked from the other side. He had to get up onto his tip toes to see through the small window in the door, seeing another door just like his across the hall.
"You fucking let me out of here!" He faintly heard someone scream from down the hallway. "You're all dead once Old Town hears about this! Ain't nobody gonna stand for New Towners snatching us off the streets!" The sound of several footsteps echoed faintly through the hall, the screaming getting louder. "You are gonna kill us all!" Two guards pulling a struggling man dressed in Old Town clothes passed Evan's door, continuing down the hall to someplace that Evan couldn't see. The screaming faded with the close of a door, the hall becoming silent again. Across the hall, Evan caught eyes with a young woman in another cell staring through her window with fear filled eyes.
Evan moved away from the door, sliding down the white wall to the floor. He hugged his knees to his chest, pressing his forehead against the red leather of his sleeves. He told himself over and over that none of this was happening, that it was all a dream. He was going to wake up in his own bed in his own room with his own friends. This was all just a nightmare.
The sound of sliding gears woke Evan who was just as startled when he woke up the first time. He didn't remember falling asleep, just remembered thinking that this a dream.
"Come on. On your feet." A man said. He was dressed in a suit with polished shoes, police machines standing behind him in the hallway. Evan didn't move, staring at them with a look of anger and disbelief. He couldn't move, not sure if it was more fear of the police machines or of the New Towner.
With a sigh, the New Towner gestured to the machines who moved forward. They pulled Evan to his feet, the harsh metal hands leaving bruises on his arms and shoulders. They ignored his cry of pain from the sudden movement, sure that it had torn the stitches.
"S-Stop! Let me go!" Evan yelled, struggling against the machines. "What are you going to do to me?"
"Bring him to the interview room." The man in the suit instructed the machines. Evan tried not to struggle, the pain making him feel numb. He wanted to fight back, look for a way out and get home but he doubted that there would be any such way. He was outnumbered and didn't even have a weapon.
At the end of the long, painfully bright hallway was a small room with a clear table and chairs. On the table was a computer and a camera, a woman dressed in a suit and a lab coat sitting with her back to the door. She glanced up at Evan as he was brought into the room, looking him over with her dark eyes. He was pushed down into the clear chair on the other side of the woman, the guard using heavy metal cuffs to bind his hands together.
"What are these for?" Evan cried, struggling to get out of the cuffs. "Please I just want to go home! I want to see my friends! What do you want from me?" Evan yelled, feeling humiliated that his eyes were starting to water. He wouldn't let them make him cry.
"Please remain calm. We aren't going to hurt you." The woman gave him a ridged smile that was meant to make him feel better but the white folder with his name on it that her hands were folded over made him nervous. Evan wanted to get up and run, staring around the room with wide eyes. There were two police machines behind the woman who would stop him if he tried to to run. "I'm going to be asking you a set of questions and I'd like you to answer them honestly." The woman's voice didn't sound real, like she herself was a machine. Maybe everyone from New Town was a machine. "Let's begin." She pressed a button on the camera, turning it on. Evan stared at it, fear making him think it might kill him somehow. Everyone in Old Town said that machines could kill you, no matter what they were. As silly as it sounded, Evan couldn't help but believe it. "State your name."
"Evan." He answered, the reflection of the bright white light catching his attention. He had never seen such bright lights before and found himself marveling at them. Of all the things he hated about New Town, he let himself admit that their lights were beautiful. The lights he had seen were colourless but he liked to imagine they had lights that were bright, and colourful. Maybe they had colours that he had never seen before. If New Town could program everything, maybe they could make their own colours.
"You are from Old Town?" The woman asked, opening the folder to look through the papers inside.
"Yes. I live near the big bridge." Evan nodded. He wasn't sure why he said it, why he thought it was even necessary to mention. Maybe because he wanted to scare them with his knowledge of knowing how to escape them. Or maybe because that apartment with the big bridge over top was his home and had been for such a long time that it just made him feel better to say. Evan couldn't decide between the warning or the reminder, thinking it over as he looked back up at the camera.
"You have been selected to be a part of the Vanoss project based on your personality and will. Though looking through your record, you destroyed a police machine in the past. That is something that no one else has done before. How do you feel about that?" The way she spoke made it seem like she would rather him dead than the machine that he decapitated. Sitting here at this table, surrounded by everything that was so strange and wrong, he would have preferred that too.
He struggled to think of an answer, remembering how he had felt in control, more powerful than he had ever been when the sparks flew around him, feeling the burn of them as they hit his skin and the machine fell to his feet. There had been several nights afterwards where he had laid in bed, kept awake by the excitement of what it would be like when New Town fell just like the machine. "Please answer the question, ." His gaze snapped up, staring at the woman with wide eyes. How could she know his last name when he hadn't said it? His gaze went down to the folder in her hands, realising that it must contain more than just the basics about him.. He wondered if they knew more about him than he did. It wouldn't surprise him at all. He felt anger replace his fear, his eyes narrowing at her.
"It had it coming. Those machines hurt people in Old Town. How could I stand by and let people get hurt?" His voice rose with his anger, struggling against the handcuffs that he so desperately wanted out of. "Why did you handcuff me? Do you think I'm gonna kill more machines?" Evan yelled, his threatening gaze on the police machines by the door.
"Only answer the questions. Do not ask them." The woman snapped, catching Evan off guard. It shouldn't have since Old Towners were never allowed to ask questions. "How do you feel about consciousness?" The woman asked, her eyes still on the folder, flipping through the documents that were on him. He stared at them, trying to see if he could pick out anything that had been written about him.
The question seemed strange when he thought about it. It seemed out of place compared to the ones that he had just been asked. He could have said a lot of things, could have made a comment about New Town didn't have a conscious but he feared that he would be completely defenseless if he angered them too much.
"It's...It's being aware. Aware of choices we make and the consequences of them; good or bad. Our consciousness is who we are. It makes us us." He said quietly, glancing at the police machines behind the woman. He wondered if they had consciousness, if a machine could even be conscious. "We're conscious when we are awake. When we're aware of the world. It's what makes us human." The questioned he wished he could ask was if New Town's machines were like humans if they were conscious.
"How would you feel if your consciousness was placed into a machine?" The woman asked. Evan wondered if she had read his thoughts when he was wondering if machines could be like humans. He glanced down at his handcuffs, the thought occurring to him that it would be like this, tied down and helpless, if he was in a machine.
"It would be...restricting.I guess it would depend on what kind of machine. I would want to be able to move, to be able to hug my friends, and continue about my life without needing someone to carry me around like the tablets some of those factories make. I want to be able to go places. To be able to see the world and live my life. I've seen what those police machines do and it would be hard for me to imagine being in a machine when people are hurt by them everyday in Old Town. So no...No I wouldn't want that." He shook his head. "That isn't a life worth living."
"If you were to disappear... would you be missed?" The woman asked, closing the folder. Evan stared at her, trying to understand the relevance of this question. He couldn't question it, so all he could do was think about his answer. He thought about Brock, and Lui and how they would probably be wondering by now where he was and why he wasn't home yet. He thought about Sydney, her smile and her laugh and wondered if he'd hear it again. He thought about Tyler, though aggressive, he was so full of love for the world and how wonderful it could be. Yet...would he really be missed? All he had done was bring trouble for them ever since he destroyed that machine. Would he really be missed?
"I-I...I think so. I like to think so." He finally said.
"Thank you, for answering this first initial set of questions. You will be brought to New Town for further progress of the Vanoss Project." The woman smiled, turning off the camera.
"No! No you can't bring me there!" Evan yelled, the machines moving towards him. They pulled him from his seat, ignoring him as he yelled, and struggled, pulling against the handcuffs and the machines that held him back. "Let me go! Let me go!" Evan screamed. He managed to pull free of one of the machines, using the metal of his handcuffs to hit the weak wiring protected only by flimsy metal on it's neck. The machine fell back, letting go of Evan who sprinted towards the door, and out into the hallway. He struggled to keep from falling, his bound hands weighed down by the heavy metal cuffs. The wound on his thigh screamed in agony, seeming to beg him to stop. He couldn't seeing the stairs at the end of the hall. He hadn't been able to reach the door in Old Town, but now he had to reach the stairs. It was his only way out.
A sudden force hit him in the back, sending him sprawling to the cold white floor. He let out a small groan of pain, blood oozing from bullet wound on his leg. Police machines approached him, a sharp pinch of a needle piercing his arm that made him wince. He couldn't fight it, feeling light headed as the machines picked him up and pulled him back to his cell, his feet dragging on the white floor, the white hall fading to darkness.
Evan woke with a start, delusional dreams of bombs, falling bridges and toy soldiers still running through his mind as his eyes opened, looking up at the bright white lights above him. He wasn't in the cell that he had first woken up, now in a much smaller one that didn't have a door. It was simply a plain white room with four walls and no way out. He wasn't even wearing his own clothes, now wearing all white t-shirt and pants, slippers left for him beside his bed.
"Hello?" Evan called out. He got up slowly, looking around the room to see if there was a door or a way out. He hit the walls, listening to see if they were hollow. Eventually, he just started hitting them because he was scared, because he wanted out. He felt like the walls were closing in on him, crushing the air out if his lungs as he screamed and hit the walls till his hands bruised. "Let me out! Let me out!" He screamed toll his voice was hoarse. "I want to talk to my friends! I want to go home! I want to talk to Tyler! Please!"
He fell back to his bed, his head hitting the thin pillow. He rubbed his eyes, fighting back the tears. He wouldn't let them make him cry. They could take everything but he wasn't about to let New Town break him.
Time began to blur. He no longer had a concept of time, the room and the lights never changing except when he would awake from a restless sleep, a small tray of food would have been left for him. He was alone, in solitary with his thoughts that were so full of anger and pain, he'd rather starve than give New Town the victory of successfully getting rid of the Old Towner who destroyed a police machine. Yet the thought of his friends back home kept him from choosing that way out, instead choosing to fight this.
Yet he didn't even know what this was. He thought about everything that had happened to him, only knowing only that he had become a part of the Vanoss Project and that it must have something to do with consciousness based on the questions he was asked. He found himself talking out loud as he thought, the only way to know for sure that it was truly him thinking. He was terrified of slowly losing his mind in this tiny room.
When thinking out loud of where he might be and why became too much, he started to recite poems. One he remembered reading as a child when he first started writing to the ones that he written most recently. He even began to compose new ones, saying words he wished he could write since he knew they would be forgotten the moment they left his lips. He composed poems about his friends, about the bridges of Old Town and the distant glowing towers of New Town, about the room with it's four plain walls and his slow descent into insanity.
"Every poet goes mad...It's seems fitting that I am too." Evan had said out loud. The next time he woke up from a restless sleep, there was a small note pad and a pen beside his regular tray of food.
"Evan? Time to wake up." It was the first voice he had heard other than his own in so long, he was convened at first it wasn't real. "Evan." His eyes opened slowly, focusing on a woman, the same one who first interviewed him, dressed in a dark suit and a lab coat. She stood in the doorway across the room from him, giving him a smile as he sat up. The door was right there, just across the room from him. It had been there all along. He didn't quite believe that it was real either.
"I-Is...Is this real?" Evan breathed.
"Yes. You have been in solitary confinement for almost two months. That time is up and I'm here to escort you to your new room." She smiled, fake and programmed.
"Why? Why did you keep me in here? For two months?" Evan yelled, getting to his feet.
"It's all a part of the project, Evan. It was a test to see how you can handle being alone for long periods of time. You are among the lucky ones who managed to pass the test." She smiled eerily. "Now come with me please." She said, stepping out into the hallway where there were three police machines waiting with handcuffs. Evan still reached for his notepad, tucking it into the waistband of his white pants before following her. The hallway was long, white and bright like everything seemed to be in this strange town but at the end of this hall was an elevator. Maybe this time, he could reach it. As much as he wanted to run, exhaustion weighed him down like the handcuffs and found himself unable to do more than follow. "How are you feeling, Evan?" She asked, glancing back at him.
"I want to talk to my friends. Why can't you let me go?" Evan asked the woman who didn't answer him. "Please just let me talk to them!"
"You'll see them when the project is over." She said, her lips stretched into her usual fake smile. They reached another cell that was bigger than the last one, with a softer bed and a small barred window that let in the glowing blue lights of New Town. "Why don't you write them a letter? I'll make sure it gets to them. Use that notepad you were given." The woman smiled as he was pushed into the cell, the handcuffs removed. The door was closed and locked with the swipe of a key card, leaving Evan alone once more.
Only this time, he didn't feel so alone. He set his notepad down on the bed as he moved towards the window, wrapping his hands around the cold bars as he stared at the glowing lights. In the distance was the orange burning sky above Old Town, smoke rising to the sky. He had been gone for two months now which meant that everyone thought he was dead. Towards the end of his confinement, he felt that he was dead too. Now that he was out and seeing the lights, seeing the world again, he felt alive. He felt like he could start fighting again. In the meantime, he was okay with just staring at the lights of the New Town. Looking down at the street below, he could see sleek cars driving along the perfect snow covered streets and looking up, he could see airships floating among the towers. Looking back down at the street, he watched people go back and forth, dressed in beautiful clothes in colours and patterns he had never seen before. He watched two young boys on a motorbike drive past the tower, their blue suits seeming to glimmer in the light. He watched the snow fall and the stars shimmer like the lights.
"It's beautiful." Evan whispered, his tears reflecting the light as they fell.
It wasn't long after Evan got out of solitary that the tests began. First, they were just mental tests, testing his intelligence as well as his other motor skills. He was confused, not wanting to do them after not doing anything for so long but he didn't want to resist and get a dose of anesthetic again from the police machines so he complied.
When he was left alone in his cell, he tried to compose a letter to Tyler and everyone else he knew in Old Town. He would always start it the same, telling Tyler that he wasn't dead. After that, it all fell apart into a chaotic mess of fear and wondering. He would tear the paper off the pad, crumpling it into a ball only to write the same thing again.
The mental tests began to take a turn eventually. He would sit in a chair, tied down by metal cuffs as they scanned his brain. The technology scared Evan when he first saw it, trying to run from the room before he was grabbed by machines and dragged back. Since then, they had to keep him tied down for fear that he would try to run again. It was during this time that he had his second interview, the questions mostly about how he felt about what he had been through so far.
"What is something you want to do?" The woman had asked from the other side of the white table, the camera recording everything he did.
"I want to run. I want to get out of here. I want to go back home." Evan said quietly. He had kept telling himself that he wouldn't let New Town break him, that he would get out of this and return home yet as time went on, he began to feel himself crumble. "I want to go home."
The sky was starting to darken, the glowing stars never seen so bright in Old Town shone above the towers of New Town. Evan laid on his bed, pen in hand as he stared at his letter to Tyler. Not feeling that this would be the letter he would send, he simply wrote about the beauty of New Town though it was such a horrible place.
"Why did you press the fifth floor button?" A voice echoed from the hallway, catching Evan's attention. He hadn't heard it before, the giggling tone catching him off guard. None of the New Towners he knew laughed.
"I thought it was fifteenth!" A second voice said. "What's on this floor anyways, Jon?" Evan got up, his slippered feet silent on the white floor as he tip toed towards the door, peering through the small window to see who was out there. He caught a small glimpse of blue, too far away for him to see clearly.
"I think it's just offices. That's what the other lower level floors are. Come on, Luke! I got a new game. Let's go upstairs already!" The first voice said. It was a voice unlike any that Evan had heard since he got here. So full of life, it couldn't be like the other scientists and doctors who all sounded like machines and smiled like they didn't know what happiness was.
"It doesn't look like offices. Come on, let's explore!" The second voice said excitedly.
"Luke! Stop it! Let's just go upstairs. This place gives me the creeps." The first voice, Jon, said. Evan was tempted to call out to them, ask them to open the door and let him go.
"Do you think they are doing experiments down here?" Luke asked, his voice filled with curiosity.
"On what?" Jonathan asked. Footsteps echoed down the hall, polished shoes clicking on the white floor. "Machines?" Evan took a deep breath, opening his mouth to call out but was stopped by the echoing sound of a door opening.
"Jonathan, sir. What are you doing here?" Another voice said before Evan could. A man in a lab coat passed Evan's door, walking down the hallway.
"Nothing. My friend, Luke, he pressed the wrong button. We're on our way now." Jon said. The hall went silent after that, the man walking back down the hallway. Evan sighed as he turned away from the door, laying back down on his bed. As he started to doze off, a voice full of life and wonder drifted through his head.
"Evan. Time to wake up now. You get to home today." His eyes opened to see the woman in the lab coat standing in the doorway. She smiled her fake smile as he sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.
"I-I do?" Evan asked, not sure of he believed it.
"Yes. We'll do one last interview, followed by one last brain scan to see how you are doing, then you will be taken home." Her smile never faded. It almost seemed like she knew it was fake too and underneath it were emotions that she wouldn't dare show Evan or the other New Towners. He got up, walking out into the hallway where two police machines put handcuffs on him and escorted him to the interview room. He didn't understand why, he didn't feel like fighting anymore. He understood. From the fake smile to the fact that the others that he had seen had disappeared, one by one when he was told they were sent home. He understood what was really happening.
The woman took her seat across the table from Evan, turning on the camera once he was seated. "State your name." The interviews always began this way.
"Evan Fong." He answered softly.
"How do you feel now the project is over for you?" She asked, glancing up at him.
"I feel...Tired. Not in an exhausted way. It's more of the tired you feel when something that has been long and torturous, is finally over and you can rest. That's is how I feel." Evan explained, watching the light reflecting off the metal. He wanted to keep the image of lights in his mind for they were as beautiful as the voice he had heard in the hallway and the flash of bright blue that came with it. He wanted to remember the beautiful things for there were far too many cruel things.
"Are you excited to be going home?" Evan shook his head.
"Not really." He sighed, glancing up at her.
"Why?"
"Because it won't be the same. I've seen things and I understand now. Home just won't be the same anymore after this." Evan said. He knew Tyler wouldn't show how he felt and that the others would be angry and upset. He wasn't quite sure how he felt yet about it. He knew he should be angry and try to fight, but he was just starting to accept it and was just sad that it had to be like this. He should have known though. New Towners just didn't care about Old Towners. Why would they be kind to him?
"How do you feel about consciousness now?" She asked, folding her hands on the table.
"It is being aware. Someone was aware of my need to write poetry and gave me a notepad, consciously aware of it's effects. It is being awake to surroundings and it is understanding." Evan could feel the tears in his eyes. "It is understanding that a lot of things are beyond our control and that the world will continue on but our consciousness and our lives don't just end when they do. They live in other people too. Everyone is aware of each other. We're conscious of each other."
"Do you have anything you want to do before the scan?" This question didn't seem like the others. Evan glanced up at her, realising that she knew that he knew what was about to happen. Her smile had faded, the folder closed and set aside.
"I want to write a letter to Tyler." Evan said as calmly as he could.
"You'll see him soon." The words sounded so forced, as if denying what he was thinking.
"I want to write a letter to Tyler." He repeated. She nodded slowly, turning off the camera. She took a blank piece of paper from the folder in front of her and slide it across the table to him, giving him her pen.
He wrote slowly, explaining everything to Tyler. Occasionally, he would have to stop to wipe the tears from his eyes, avoiding the sympathetic look on the New Towner across the table. His writing wasn't as pretty as it normally was, sloppy due to this cuffs that still bound his hands but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He told him what was about to happen, and he told him about the cruel things but more importantly, he told him about the beautiful things. He told him that this wasn't the end.
"Please...Make sure he gets this." Evan said once it was done, leaning back in his chair. The woman nodded as she took the letter, folding it and placing it into his folder. The door opened behind her, the police machines walking in. They pulled Evan from his chair, escorting him down to the end of the hall where the scan room was. He was seated in the large chair, the cuffs left on his hands. A cold chill from somewhere behind him made him shiver, seeing an open door out of the corner of his eye behind him.
"Excited to go home today, ?" One of the doctors asked. Evan didn't answer, his eyes on the elevator at the other end of the hallway. If he had run, he could have made it. If only he had run faster that night in Old Town and in that first white hallway. All he could do now was keep his eyes on it, remembering every little detail and wondered where Jon had stood when he was there, a bright splash of colour against the white. The door was closed mid thought, the helmet-like scanner lowered over his head.
"This won't be long. Now, can you say 'Hello' for me in your happiest voice?" One of the lab coat wearing New Towners asked. Evan could hear the machine working, seeing the faint glow of the blue light from under the helmet.
"H-" Barely a sound left his lips before he felt himself go numb, a sudden jolt of pain shooting through his skull before fading as quickly as it happened. He felt like he was floating, no longer bound by handcuffs. He couldn't see, couldn't feel anything. It felt peaceful.
All at once, his senses were overwhelmed with light. After a moment it faded to a softer warm glow. He struggled to understand where he was. More than that, he didn't know who he even was. He felt as though he was still floating, not sure if this was even real or if he was even real. "Hello?" He said, able to sense someone was near. "Oh...This is strange. I do-" Time stopped for a moment, as if he had fallen asleep so suddenly that it scared him when he came to again. "n't understand...Oh that was strange too." He turned his attention to the person that seemed so close by, yet he couldn't move to get closer to them. He couldn't even see them, only see colour and light. "Who are you?" He wasn't even sure where his voice was coming from or how he could hear it. It just happened, existing without explanation.
"You want to know my name?" A voice asked, sounding so light and gentle, so full of life.
"Isn't that the polite thing to do?" He laughed.
"Jonathan. My name is Jonathan…" Said the bright, beautiful flash of blue light.