The Strange Familiar

Thick, dark eyelashes fluttered restlessly on pale hollow cheeks before slowly opening to reveal hazy iceberg blue eyes, but the iridescent light that flooded her sensitive vision caused her to snap her eyes shut before they were even fully open. Warm, bitter tears trailed down her face from the violent display and when she tried to suck in a calming breath she choked on the feeding tube down her throat.

Panic instantly set in and with weak trembling hands she tried to pull the offending plastic tube out of her esophagus, but only succeeded in causing more harm to herself than good. A strangled cry left her dry, bruised throat when her weak hold faltered and dropped, leaving the tube stuck half way down her raw, bleeding throat. She was choking to death on her own tears and the tube. She was too weak to even do anything about it.

Barely a moment later a swarm of white clothed men and women clad in baby blue scrubs rushed into the room in alarm which only upset the already frightened and confused woman more which sent her heart monitor into a state of chaotic beeps. Their words were rushed and loud to her sensitive hearing and their grip on her shuddering, fragile form was too rough. There would probably be nasty bruises later leftover from their manhandling. She felt so weak, so breakable in their hold.

Struggling, she watched with wide frightened eyes as more people walked through the door. The newcomers were all men and not one of them looked remotely normal or particularly friendly. Their expressions were dark and somewhat confused, but she didn't have time to think on the strangers as a doctor finally pulled the loose feeding tube out of her throat while a couple nurses needlessly held her down. The sudden motion caught her gag reflex and she vomited all over the stainless white coat of the doctor closest to her and herself.

"VOI! You trash better be careful with her otherwise the Boss will have your heads you fucking waste of-!" A rough thunderous voice yelled out and the startled patient began her desperate struggles for freedom anew.

"Mou, stop it Squ-kun, you're scaring Ria-chan!" A strangely effeminate male voice chastised in a calming coo, successfully cutting the rest of the loud male's rant off.

"Mmm, Ria-sempai looks worse than when we brought her here, almost as bad as your haircut Bel-sempai." A dull, monotone voice announced without preamble or any true care.

"Shishishi -" A strange sniggering laugh quickly followed, which instantly struck her as frightening. "-does the frog wish to join her?" The following monotone, yet snarky reply was a jumble of slurring words she couldn't identify as she began to slip back into the darkness she had barely managed to escape from.

A weak plea to not be sent back to the inescapable void left her lips as the Doctor with the stained coat slipped an empty needle out of her arm. The strange group of men moved closer to her bed as the Doctor and nurses quickly left, but she never got a good look at any of them as her eyes finally closed and she once again drifted off into the dark. The only thing she was ever aware of anymore was the constant swamping darkness that surrounded her.

Perhaps even the darkness and the occasional flecks of hazy white were an illusion cast by her comatose mind. She hated the feelings the darkness cocooned her with. The feeling of utter aloneness and uncertainty ripped and tore at her soul like a pack of starved hyenas and she could do absolutely nothing about it.

She couldn’t even remember her own name, age or even her own hair color, but what was worse was she couldn't remember if she had a family. Surely she had even that? But nothing came to her. No names, no faces, no memories of any kind. In her dream which was more of a nightmare really, she saw herself as nothing more than a pale canvas in the vague shape of a female human being. Her gender was the only sure thing she truly knew about herself.