Hidden Motives

Who?

"Ma'am....ma'am! Can you hear us?" I heard voices say. "I don't think she looks too good. The fire did a lot of damage. I wonder who did this....and why?" another man voiced.

I finally began to peel my eyes open.

The first man noticed this and sighed in relief "She's awake. Good"

Both men wore uniforms that said "fire and rescue service members." "Firefighters" I mumbled. "Why do they look so weird"

"Oh so she must be American." one of them said to the other. The man closer than said, "What's your name?"

As I opened my mouth to respond no words came out. I couldn't remember. "I...I don't know" I mumbled quietly.

Both men glanced at each other. "Um well, that ok...we should probably get you to the hospital. Maybe they can help you. .There's probably some record somewhere. We also don't know how long you breathed in the fumes from the fire so there could be some lung damage.

"Great" I whispered.

They then carried me into the back of an ambulance that had just arrived. I closed my eyes and dozed off again.

My sleep didn't last long though. I awoke rapidly and the paramedic nearby huddled over to check on me. I jolted up and was breathing heavily. I didn't have any nightmares though.

"Are you ok maam? We are almost at the hospital. Sit tight and breathe." she said. I knew I had panicked here and I felt bad.

For the remainder of the ride, I sorted through my thoughts and memories. The only issue was I didn't know who I was. Or where I was. Everyone spoke with an accent. Was I in England? Why was I here? What was happening! All I knew is that I was from Los Angeles and I lived with Betsy and Jace. Where were they? Why was I in a fire? Why were there burns covering my body?

Soon we reached a hospital. I was checked into a room and after a short while, a doctor stepped in.

He had the same British accent. "Well hello Zara. It hasn't been long since I last saw you."

I looked at him puzzled. I had never seen him before. The doctor looked up at me with his glasses perched on his nose before quickly looking back down.

"It appears that you were in a fire. I heard you are having some memory loss, so this might be unfamiliar to you. We are going to run some tests then take care of those burns on your body. They don't seem too bad, but they aren't going to be fun. I will be back in a couple of hours with a nurse to help me out. You need some rest first. Do you want me to call your mom?"

"Mom?" I thought. "My mother had disappeared. How was he going to call her? This man sounded crazy. I knew I had some memory loss from this "incident", but this was just absurd. I couldn't figure out what was happening."

"Uhm no thank you.." I responded hesitantly.

The doctor looked at me again. "Well, you need to have someone here. How about Max Payne? He was here last time."

I thought for a second. That name seemed a bit familiar. I shrugged. Well if I really needed someone here I guess whoever that was would work. Maybe I could see if he could give me some answers about what was going on.

"Yeah, that's fine. Call him over." I muttered.

I was feeling weak and the burns on my body were starting to cause pain.

The doctor nodded and walked out with his clipboard. "Ok, I'm assuming he will be here shortly then."

I watched him exit and I once again fell into a painful sleep with plenty of questions on my mind.