Blurry

Rough Morning

Everything was a big blur after he passed out in that woman's lap. He remembered waking up in the ambulance, and the next time he opened his eyes he was watching the ceiling roll by as doctors were yelling orders left and right. It was all a garbled mess to him, and he was starting to prefer the silence of sleep over this chaos. He wanted to slip away, but those around him kept prodding at his wounds, reminding him of his pain, and breaking the peacefulness he tried to attain. The next time he passed out, it was because someone injected him with some sort of syringe rather than letting him slip into a more peaceful sleep.

He was regaining feeling now, however. Though his sockets refused to open, he could feel his pupils able to move beneath the heavy lids. Though straining at first, he could start to hear sounds. An arrhythmical beeping noise sounded from his left side, along with some sort of device that pushed air out every few moments. He tried to move, but all that resulted was his hand twitching, breathing hitching. The offset beeping got a little faster, and he felt himself panic. He had no idea where he was, or what was going on.

"A-Are you awake??" He recognized that voice. He tried to respond, but he couldn't. Whoever it was rested a hand on his shoulder. "They really sedated you, it's okay if you can't move yet... Can you move your hand again?"

He felt himself calm a bit. He didn't really understand where he was still, but if he was still alive, he knew this voice was trustworthy enough. It took some effort, but his fingertips twitched in response.

Marie sighed in relief. "Good... So, we can kinda talk this way.." She pulled her chair closer to the skeleton's bedside. "Alright, so... let's do it this way. I'll ask a question, and you can move your hand in response." Gently, she leaned over him, lifting his fingers the way he had before. "Do this once for no, and twice for yes, alright?"

Again, to her relief, the skeletal fingertips lifted up slightly from the bed, twice this time in a response of yes. Marie was thankful he was at least still able to function mentally. "Alright.. so, I guess I can try to ease some of your concerns first.. Do you know where you are?"

No was her response.

"Umm.. well, for starters, I'm the one that.. found you with my car." She grimaced. "I called 911, and an ambulance took you to the local hospital. We're in the middle of the big city right now. You, uh..." She shifted uncomfortably. "You lost a lot of blood, and your soul was pretty damaged. They were really afraid we were gonna lose you." Marie stared at him concerned. His head was wrapped and bandaged, and the individual ribs were in white, hard casts that held his body together. She didn't know how the bloodloss affected him, but judging by the machine detecting his magic levels, it had done quite some damage. If the skeleton could, he'd be cracking a joke about how he didn't understand any of this either. But he couldn't, and so the room remained tense and quiet.

"I-I... I know you're having some memory issues... we've already established the name issue, but... do you happen to remember anything new now?"

There was an uncomfortable pause. No.

"I thought so..." She sighed. "Unfortunately, you weren't really carrying anything on you either. No wallet, no phone, no ID... Umm, do you happen to know any names? Any that could help us find someone who knows you?"

The beeping quickened a bit. No.

"Do you remember anything before the car accident? There was a bright blue flash, and-"

No. No.

"Do you not remember anything??"

Marie wished she could take that back as she watched the panic that contorted his face. He didn't respond this time, but his hand was shaking. "I-I'm sorry, I'm not helping... You're okay, we're going to figure this out..." She took his hand once more into her own, rubbing it gently with her thumb. "I promise you... no matter what happens, I won't leave you until we know exactly who you are..." She let out a slightly uncomfortable laugh. "It's the least I can do for you after what I've made you go through..."

Though there was no verbal response, Marie smiled softly as his hand squeezed weakly around hers.

Frisk ignored their stomach lurching as the car came to a stop for what felt like the hundredth time. They had stopped watching as Papyrus would get out of the car, showing flyers to people and asking as calm as he could if they had seen the skeleton in the photo. As calm as he could, however, was already borderline intense panic. They had also tuned out Toriel's incessant phone calls at every stop. She'd call Sans' places for work, call Undyne and Alphys, Muffet and Grillby, Mettaton and Asgore, desperately hoping that at least one person had heard from him. But the callers never had new information, and the strangers on the street never had a good answer, and so Frisk had stopped paying attention.

"Anything?" Toriel asked in replacement of hello. The calls automatically went to the car's speakers. Asgore's tired voice answered back. "No... I stayed out all night searching with Grillby. There's no sign of him anywhere."

"I... I see." Toriel pursed her lips, trying to be the calm one in this situation, but it was getting to be too much for her. She and Sans had been dating since they had left the underground, and to her, he meant way too much to lose. "Did you get the email?"

"Yes, thank you." Asgore sighed. "I feel bad using her this way, but it's the only thing I can think of to spread the news quickly."

"Thank you for doing this, Asgore."

"Anything, Toriel." He paused a moment. "We'll find him.. alright?"

"Yes... Thank you."