Shell

Chapter 3: An Empty Awakening

"Something is wrong, something is very wrong" I thought to myself as I opened my eyes to a blinding light.

I squinted at first to the light above me but I quickly adjusted to the room that I saw I had to myself. I was laying on a bed in a hospital room though there were no windows, I tried to remember how I ended up in the hospital but I was drawing a blank. In fact when I tried to remember anything before now I couldn't see a thing just a sea of darkness with flashes of dreams and and ripples of pain. I sat down on the icy floor, pondering why I couldn't remember anything about myself for the moment I was an almost empty shell with no past. As I was drowning in frustration something caught my eye, a mirror on the other side of the room and as I looked at it I saw who I was. Normally one would think they should see something familiar in a mirror, I couldn't recognize a single aspect of me. I was about 5'7 in height with a dainty figure, silver hair that reached my shoulders but the most noticeable part was the ears. I had cat ears atop my head.

"CAT EARS!" I yelled as I began to panic and hyperventilate.

As I tried to calm myself I saw that cat ears weren't the only thing out of the norm for a human, I saw that due to the light my pupils had taken the cat slit shape in my ice blue eyes. I continued to eye at my body when I saw something swaying behind me, I turned my head to find a matching silver tail complementing my ears.

"What happened? Why am I not human? I'm human right?!" I began to ask as I fell into despair for how my life would continue.

The door to my right opened and in walked a man with a dark grey coat. Whom I instinctively became wary of and had a hatred for that I couldn't explain.

"Ah my dear Artemis, you've woken up earlier than expected" he said with a funny accent.

The only response I was capable of was to look at him with tears and anger in my eyes.

"Why the sad face my dear?" he asked with sincerity in his voice.

"I-I'm not human anymore, not only that I can't remember anything about who I am or why I'm here" I murmured with self hatred laced in my words.

"Ah I see, this was to be expected from the process".

"Worry not my dear Artemis, all will be made clear to you soon and you will have the answers you seek in due time. First though lets get you some some better clothes and some warm food".

I nodded at him cautiously, something deep down in my gut told me this man was evil, yet here he was being kind. What did I know about him before. We walked out of the room and into a hallway but before I left the room something caught my eye, behind the bed on a counter was a person's left arm with a hole in it contained in a jar with some liquid preserving it. Out of everything in that room including myself it was the only thing that felt familiar.