Page 2 of Beyond Reason

It was the spiking beep of the machine beside me that actually got the attention of someone—it looked strange.

Everything looked strange. It was an odd version of uncanny valley where all the objects in the room were a little too polished, a little too shiny.

“Sir, are you—”

“What the fuck is going on?” My voice was raspy… and it wasn’t my voice.

It was softer.

Lighter.

When my fingers came up to rake through my hair, I was met with curls instead of the wavy locks I usually kept pulled back.

This wasn’t…

“Mr. Lister, I know you’re probably confused, but—”

“Who?” I interrupted her again and forced myself into a sitting position. I felt weak, but it probably had something to do with the IV attached to my arm and the fact that I could only vaguely remember moving around. I’d spent every day of my life—at least, as much of it as I could remember—training and honing my body… but when my eyes flicked down to my arms, the muscle wasn’t there.

I was lean and paler than I should have been. My eyes roamed over my fingers.

So slender.

Without scars.

They weren’t my hands.

“I understand that you’re probably confused. Your name is Marshall Lister.” I wanted to interrupt her again, but I couldn’t jerk my attention from my fingers as they flexed open and closed. “We found you outside of a burning building with a head injury.” I did manage to look up then, and my eyes narrowed. I didn’t get head injuries.

I didn’t get hurt like that. I was careful.

“What building?”

What was the last thing I could remember? It wasn’t going to a building…

It was…

Soft blue eyes staring at me and a smile pulling reluctantly across a scowl, like every inch he gave was a painful concession.

“Axel…” I murmured the name under my breath and sat with how it felt on my tongue.

“Excuse me?” The nurse stepped forward, her eyes scanning the black device she held. “I don’t see anyone on your chart by that name.”

A chart for someone named Marshall Lister.

I had no idea who the fuck Marshall Lister was. I didn’t know why they thought that was my name. It wasn’t any alias I’d ever gone by that I could remember, though I’d had more than enough that it was possible I’d gotten confused.

“It’s… nothing.” I looked her up and down. She seemed to be a normal nurse. As far as I could tell, I was actually in a hospital and not some fucked up experiment, or someone’s really weird idea of torture.

But I still couldn’t remember how I’d gotten here.

“You said I was hurt?” I asked the question as I tested my range of motion. I felt weak, but my body could still move. I wasn’t completely helpless.

“You’ve been with us for nearly three months, Mr. Lister.” I twitched at hearing the name again. It was wrong. “You’ve been in and out. Do you remember any of that?”

Brief flickering moments of motion, of bright lights and pain in my head. Moving my body, people moving my body for me. My mind scrambling and trying to remember…

To remember what?

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