Gained Approval | Chamber & Viper

Eighteen

A clenching feeling in his heart overcame the loneliness and emptiness he's been feeling ever since he woke up from his deep slumber that night.

He barely knew where he was, and pain seeped in everywhere. Every move he made, every breath he took, all he could feel were his muscles tensing up, followed by the burning feeling. Images of acid melting his skin off came to mind, flooding it with flashes of a lady screaming in front of him. But, her yelling wasn't the mad kind. It was more of with worry and fear. He didn't know who she was, nor could he clearly remember what she looked and sounded like.

Though, upon seeing a woman sitting with a man inside a clinic, a thought sparked - the similarities to the one he saw that night, there was a possibility that might've been her. But why? She was with another man.

He couldn't remember much, obviously, and to top it all off, he doesn't even know who he is. Not a single memory of the past in his mind. Nothing.

All he could recall was the acid, screaming in pain. Waking up day by day with voices in your head wasn't ideal, nor would it be in someone's bucket list. He didn't know what to do. Everyone in the building avoided him like he was some kind of plague. There were a few exceptions, though. An agent in all-purple clothing along with the ends of her. She often had a sharp glint in her eyes, but it did soften every time her eyes lay upon a way younger agent with green hair.

Another one was a lady whose hair had almost the same length as the one with purple color to it, but hers was pushed aside and had a gray-ish ombré. She had a long scar that ran from the left side of her cheek, stopping right in the middle of her right cheek. She had more than five piercings. Two underneath her bottom lip and others where he could not remember. Though, she had one striking feature that he definitely noticed.

Heterochromia.

Other than those two, there was the healer who did her best every day during their operations, and that was about it.

He didn't know nor understood why until he caught a glimpse of his reflection. From all of those continuous attempts during operations, all there was was failure. The middle-aged man's whole body was draped in purplish clothing. What he thought of his face were only three vertical slashes that glitched from time to time, which stirred questions in his mind. Was it just the tricks his eyes performed, or did it really glitch? Did he even have a head? Any real facial features at all?

For all he knew, his appearance wasn't like this before. Or maybe, it always had been. Who knew? Even he, himself, doesn't know who he is.

Despite all of that, aside from the pain and voice in his head, every time his eyes landed on that specific lady with a bob cut, her face always stayed in mind.

Those piercing emerald green eyes. That was what caught his attention. Until a pair of hazelnut ones came by, and somehow, those two colours went well together.

"Omen." A soft voice called him back into reality, dropping his gaze from those two people who sat quietly on the hospital bed after an operation. A young lady with long, black hair tied up into a ponytail, strands of hair framed her face, stood beside him, offering a small, genuine smile.

What was her name again?

Omen tilted his head to the right, questioning why she called him and who she was exactly. "I'm sorry. My memory is... fuzzy. What's your name?" He felt bad for asking, not wanting to offend the healer, but she waved her hand after noticing his body language.

"Sage." Sage paused before continuing. "It'd be great if you could rest your body for a bit. You've been standing for a while now. It might cause exhaustion on your body."