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AUGUST 17TH 

"Liar! He's dead." 

"We don't have time for this, you have to trust me."

Trust me ... trust me... trust me... 

The voices fade away and whatever dream I was having vanished as I gradually lifted my heavy eyelids and the strong scent of disinfectant filled my nose. My mouth was dry and I licked my lips a couple times, yet even that caused me discomfort. I was resting in a room that was excessively bright, the light from the window reflected off the white walls, making me want to close my eyes again.

My first thought when I woke up was that I was in heaven, however I doubted the roof of heaven was made of white plaster tiles. When my eyes acclimated to the light, I looked around the room; it was embellished in colours that were most likely intended to be serene and restful however they appeared to be as akin to a decorator's decision of a funeral home and just then, somebody came in wearing all dark, fitting in perfectly with my imagination of this place as a funeral home.

I heard the beeping of a machine and gradually turned my head towards the source of the sound. The muscles in my neck were stiff and sore and my left side was in an intense amount of throbbing pain, making me regret moving.
I felt like I had dozed for a considerable length of time, yet I was still drained. Aware of the stranger's eyes on me, I turn back to face him properly.

"You're awake," he states. 

Quite observant.

"Quite observant," I voice my thoughts. My voice sounded foreign to me, it was hoarse because of my sore throat and it felt like I was hearing it through someone else's ears. 

"And sarcastic," he adds with a chuckle. 

"Who are you? Why am I here?" I ask. 

Another person comes in before he could answer. 

"Will, I told you she's-" he stops abruptly once he realizes I'm awake. "She's awake," he finishes.

I try to sit up, but fail miserably as pain shots through my body. 

"Easy," the one in black, whom I've concluded his name is Will, says as they both approach me. 

The other one who's obviously a doctor because of the white coat he's wearing checks something on the paper attached to the bed. 

"I'm Doctor Lucas," the doctor says. 

"Why am I here? What happened?" I ask again in confusion. 

"We were hoping you'd tell us actually," Lucas says. "We don't even know your name yet."

Lia. 

"Lia," I reply automatically. 

I try to remember anything else, but my name was the only thing I could recall. 

"I don't remember anything else," I voice my thoughts. 

Will sighs and Lucas nods in understanding, "It's normal, you've been out for three days, you might feel a little bit ... disoriented," he says. 

"Three days? How? Where's my family?" 

Something felt wrong. I tried to remember anything that's happened before I wake up here, but my mind was blank and I desperately needed someone to tell me what was going on. 

"We couldn't reach your family Lia, because your fingerprint wasn't registered in the citizen's database here in London and there wasn't any form of identification card on you," Will explains. "A nurse found you unconscious in front of the A&E doors." 

"Wait why didn't you check for a match on the other databases outside London?" Lucas asks him. 

"Because The Agency implemented the fingerprint system in England and Germany only," Will replies. 

The only thing I heard was London.

"What year is it? London is in the US now?" I blurt out without thinking. 

Lucas stifles a laugh and Will gives me an incredulous look. 

I admit, this is not my proudest moment, my cheeks are burning with embarrassment and I will forever be tormented by the fact that my first thought was London being in the US rather than me being in London. 

"I mean-" I clear my throat, "how?" 

They both stood there looking as clueless as I felt. 

"Tell us what you remember, anything about you that could help us get to your family," Luke said after a few silent seconds. 

I just told them I couldn't remember anything. 

"Who are you?" I ask instead, looking at Will, "I get that he's a doctor," I say, referring to Lucas, "but you?" 

"I'm ... I work with high, complicated police stuff... you wouldn't get it."

Excuse me? 

"Really humble," I mutter. 

I eyed them both carefully; they both seemed to be young, in their mid-twenties maybe. Both had brown hair and dark coloured eyes, Will appeared to be taller than Lucas earlier but now that they were standing side by side it was clear that Lucas had a few centimeters over Will.

I find myself wondering about my own appearance. I forgot what I look like but I could identify the smell of disinfectant the moment I woke up? 

I pull a strand of hair in front of my eyes to examine it. I have brown hair. I wonder what colour my eyes are. Do I have a big nose?

"Is there a mirror here?" I ask and look up to see them both staring at me quizzically. I try not to panic and tell myself that it's just because I've been unconscious for three days like the doctor said. But what happened in the first place?  How did I end up here? Why am I so sure that I'm not supposed to be in London? Why does my face hurt so much?

"I...I don't remember what I look like," I admit while Lucas fumbles with the contents of the medical cabinet, looking for a mirror. Will unlocks his cellphone and hands it to me. 

"Use the front camera," he says and walks to Lucas. His voice is loud enough for me to hear him asking if this is normal.

Is it?

I look down at the phone in my hand. I recognize this, I know how it works. 

I click on the camera icon and hold it up in front of my face. My eyes move to the scratches on the hand that's holding the phone first and I trace them along my arm. I try not to think about how I got them and look at my face on the screen instead. I stare back at my brown eyes with no sense of recognition whatsoever. But now I know that I don't have a big nose. I bring the phone closer to my face to look at the big, black/blue bruise on my cheekbone as I lift a hand to touch it. It hurts without even having to apply pressure on it. How did I get all of these wounds and scratches?

"What do you remember?" Lucas tries again upon seeing the look on my face. 

I thought about his question for a few seconds. Nothing? 

"My name, Lia, I live in the US... I think... I mean when you said London earlier I just knew I didn't live here ... and I don't sound British," I pause. I thought about my family but I couldn't remember them, not their names or what they do for a living. Not even their faces, everything seemed to be like a blur in my mind. 

I take a long shaky breath, "I don't remember," I say. "I don't remember anything." 

They both share a quick look and Lucas moved to the foot of the bed, removing the paper attached there and flipping through it quickly, scribbling some notes. 

"Thought you said that's normal?" Will asks and Lucas sends him a silencing glare.

"I have anemia?" I ask, when neither of them spoke. 

"You do?" he looked up from the papers. 

"I don't know, you're the doctor, I can't remember anything and I'm not sure if that's because of the three day blackout or because I have anemia," I explain. 

"Jesus Christ Luke! What is in her medicine?" Will actually laughs this time. 

I look at them both in confusion, "What?" 

"You mean amnesia," Lucas corrects. 

I think I let out some sound that encapsulated my complete humiliation. What is going on with me? 

"Shouldn't you call your father? He definitely knows more about this, right?" Will looks to Lucas who nods and mumbles an 'I will' as he continues scrolling through the papers. 

Will turns back to me, "So you remember nothing about your parents? Siblings? Home? Nothing at all?" he asks. I shook my head, telling him no, I don't remember. 

Gunshots. I suddenly remember. 

White room. 

Locked. 

Run, Lia!

Gunshots. 

It was like my brain was trying to get me to remember something, but all I got was fragments of visions, nothing made sense. My head was spinning fast, I could feel my heart beat in my temples and the pain in my body intensified. Neither of them were aware, Lucas was still reading the notes and Will had his back to me as he paced back and forth next to the bed. "Do you think you've been in a car accident? But the wounds and bruises on your body seem to be more of, like an attack. But it would take a hu-

"Stop!" I scream, holding my head with both hands, desperately trying to block out his voice.
I want to leave.
What the hell is going on? Why can't I remember anything?
I pull out the IV line and felt a sharp pain as I tried to lift my body off the bed again. "I want to leave," I cried, Will had his arms around me, partially supporting my body and partially stopping me from collapsing on the bed or getting up. The pain was unbearable but I was still thrashing and fighting against him, trying to get up. 

"Luke she's shaking terribly," he was shouting. 

The world seemed to be tilting, and Will slipped sideways in my vision. I couldn't breathe properly; it felt like there was no enough oxygen reaching my lungs. 

"I can't... I can't breathe." 

The deeper I tried to inhale, the tighter my throat constricted. 

"Just calm down," Lucas was next to me in seconds, "you'll be alright. Everything is going to be alright." 

"Let ... me go," I still fought against his hold; I needed to get outside, to breathe, to see someone that my brain will recognize, to get away from here.

All of my instincts were telling me one thing, run!

I felt a sting in my arm and someone's hot breath on my neck, a minute later my body started to relax, and I was slowly placed back on the pillow. Last thing I saw was Will; he pulled the covers over my body, looked at Luke and said, "I have a bad feeling about this." 

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 A/N 

HI! 

Thank you for deciding to give this book a chance and taking your time to read my first attempt at writing, ever.  

I hope you enjoy this entirely fictional story that I'm not really sure how my brain came up with.   

Let me know what you think! xx