Page 23 of A Game of Queens
They'll be here soon.
Wait. My brain stuttered. Confused. They... who?
I didn't know. I just felt an overwhelming sense of urgency. Something wasn't right. I wasn't safe. I would never be safe.
Lights flashed, making me flinch. I braced for pain and fury. Light was bad. I knew that much.
And then it dawned on me.
It was dark. Like actually fucking dark.
It never got dark in...
I waited for the name to pop into my head, but I couldn't remember. My brain felt like a ten-thousand-piece puzzle that had been stirred up and dumped out across the world Pieces were missing. I could feel the holes like haunted bits of myself that were there but faded, weak and empty. A bare shadow of what I had once been. Or maybe what I had supposed to be. Before...
Someone came toward me. I strained my senses, trying to decide if he was a friend or foe in this unfamiliar place of darkness. The lights hadn't hurt me. Somehow I knew that was important.
"Yeah, I've got a body," the man said. "Checking for any signs of life."
He started to reach toward me, and I flinched away, though it made my body scream in pain.
"Hey, it's alright." He held his hands up soothingly. "I'm here to help. I'm Detective Harris with Chicago PD."
It was so strange to be able to understand his words—but have no idea what he meant. "Where am I?"
"Chicago," he repeated, as if that should mean something to me. "Can you tell me your name? Who put you here? What happened to you?"
My name. Words bubbled up inside me, but my instincts told me to be cautious. I still had no idea who he was. "Karmen."
"Karmen, great. Do you know what happened to you?"
I closed my eyes, fighting to control the sudden surge of terror inside me. Pain flared through me in waves, some real, but some remembered. So much pain. Endless agony.
I must have drifted off into unconsciousness again. My eyes fluttered open, catching snatches of movement. A new face. A woman. She wore a simple blue shirt and pants. Some kind of uniform, I thought, but the word didn't connect in my brain.
The color was so beautiful. I couldn't remember seeing such soft, pretty colors. Like flowers. Or... the sky. A memory flickered, a hint of blue sky and some kind of tree with green oval leaves. I'd climbed those trees when I was very small and picked strange little berries off of them. Not berries. That wasn't the right word.
Olives.
The woman had a nice face and soft hands as she touched me, pressing cold instruments to my skin. Had anyone ever touched me so carefully? Without pain? I didn't think so. Not since I'd been that child climbing an olive tree.
I opened my eyes again and I was moving, on my back, staring up at lights that blurred with our speed. More people crowded around me. Their mouths moved, but I couldn't hear them. Or rather, I heard the noise of their words, but I couldn't understand the meaning. What was wrong with me?
I felt so... thin. Weak. Unsubstantial. I couldn't remember how I'd gotten here, or even where here was. But it was important. I had to remember. Before.
Before they came to bring me back. Back to pain and torture and endless light.
I closed my eyes again, reveling in the peace of darkness in my own head. Sleep, quiet—a miracle I hadn't known in so long. One didn't dare sleep there. It was impossible. The sun was too bright. Too painful.
But where had I been? Why couldn't I remember?
"Karmen? Can you hear me?"
I forced my eyes open. A young man stood beside me, studying some papers on a clipboard in his hand. He wore awhite coat that for a moment made me flinch. But light didn't bounce off the whiteness of his coat or cause me any pain. It didn't sear my eyes. It was just... white. A color. Not pain.
Amazing.
He looked up and smiled at me. "Excellent. I'm Dr. Mason. Do you remember what happened?"
