Blue Eyes and Dogtags

Chapter One; An Unexpected Meeting

Pain.

That's all he could think of. Pain. Everything hurt. Muscles and appendages he didn't know he had hurt. He could feel every torturous inch of his body, aching and painful. Just more and more pain. 

Hurts.... Hurts... Pain... Bright... Bright?

Yes, bright. Something is bright. It hurts how bright it is. Why is it so bright? What's going on?

How could light hurt so much when his eyes were closed? Oh, his eyes were closed. He didn't realize that before. Maybe he should open them. It'll probably hurt a lot, but then he would know why it's so bright.  But it already hurt... A lot. 

Well, can't hurt anymore that it already does.

Tentatively, and painstakingly slowly, he began to pry his eyes open. 

Oh how wrong he was. The pain doubled, DOUBLED! How was that possible? How in the world could it be humanly possible to be in this much pain? And the light that he mentioned earlier? It got brighter. His eyes shut immediately again, too bright, too painful. But he had to know why. He had to know how. 

He pried his eyes open again, slower than last time. Yup, the light was still there, and it still hurt. Oddly enough, he was becoming accustomed to the pain.  Well, that's a blessing at least. Slowly, so slowly, the bright started to fade slightly, just enough to lessen the pain in his head to let him focus enough to notice other things. Things such as the brightness was coming from a light embedded into the ceiling above him, the now incessant and annoying beeping coming from his right, and the itchy feeling in his right hand. He turned his head hesitantly to find out what that beeping was. And the itch. The itch needs to stop. 

As he turned, he saw a blob. That didn't explain anything. Blobs aren't supposed to beep, are they? 

He tried to focus on the new blob that was now filling his vision. Slowly the blob became more defined. It's a person. A woman. Now colors are becoming visible. Yellow colored hair, mild tan colored skin, black colored clothing.  She's smiling at him. Not a menacing smile, but not a pitying smile either. But it wasn't a happy smile, it was sympathetic, friendly... Warm. It was a nice smile. Just like her eyes. They're brown. 

"Hey, there." She says. Her voice is quiet. He appreciates that. At this point, he doesn't think he could handle much more loud noises. "How are you feeling?" 

Horrible, intolerably awful, like I got run over with a bus, like every cell in my body is on fire.

He opened his mouth to try and say all this, but all that came out was a scratchy, raspy and guttural groan. He wasn't even sure that sound was human. It sounded horrible, and it hurt. Why does everything he do hurt?

The woman didn't seem nearly as surprised or concerned by the noise. She looked at him with sympathy. "That good, huh? I'm not surprised. You were half dead when I found you." 

Found me?  What was she talking about? What was going on? And what the hell is that beeping noise?

"You're in a hospital." She explained. "St. Mary's in Starlight City, to be exact. I found you in the street. You were beaten pretty badly, your wallet was stolen. Can you tell me your name?" 

His name? Of course he could tell her his name, does he look stupid? This time, he tried clearing his throat before attempting to speak. It hurt, of course, but he still did it. He opened his mouth again and started to speak, raspily, "I'm... My name.. Is...." 

I don't know. I don't know my name. I don't know who I am! Who am I? 

Panic.

Panic, panic and more panic. Wave after wave it came crashing through him. He doesn't know who he is. He doesn't know who he is! And that damned beeping is getting louder and faster and he can't think, can't move, can't breathe. His head is pounding with his heart, swimming with his emotions and he's drowning.