Another You // Alan Ashby {discontinued}

Chapter 1

 The next time I awoke, I was greeted by a blindingly bright white light. Out of instinct, I pushed myself into a sitting position and started to rub my eyes until I was completely aware of my surroundings. Beside me stood a nurse with a smile so wide it looked forced.

“Um, what am I doing here? Better yet, how did I get here?” The questions and how cliché to the situation they were made me laugh mentally.

 “I see you’re awake.” The nurse responded in a cheery manner that frankly made me want to puke.

 “Thanks, Captain Obvious. Now answer my question.” I spat. The hospital scene always had the tendency to make me nervous, and thus my temper rose.

 “Your brother found you passed out with a bleeding head, so he took you here. There was no damage other than a cracked skull, but we fixed it up. Would you like me to call your brother back in?”

Wait, brother? I don’t have a brother, at least not that I knew of..

Curious to see who my said brother was, I nodded. “Yeah, send him in.”

The nurse simply nodded before exiting the room. A couple minutes later, she returned, this time with an unfamiliar man with shaggy ginger hair and a bunch of tattoos. I stared at him in confusion, searching my mind for some sort of recognition, but it came up blank.

“I’ll leave you two alone.” The nurse spoke, breaking the awkward silence between them, before once again leaving the room.

“Who are you?” I near-shouted as soon as the door closed.

“Dude, relax. I’m Alan, you know. The guy that saved you.” He rolled his eyes.

“Why are you claiming to be my brother then? I don’t know you!” 

“Do you really think they would let me see you if I wasn’t related to you?” 

“But why would you want to see me?”

“I wanted to make sure you were okay. It’s not every day that you accidently run into someone and watch them pass out.”

I sighed, folding my arms across my chest as I admitted defeat. He had a point, and there was no use arguing anymore about it. “Well you best be going then.” I stated.

The man - Alan - shook his head. “I’m not leaving until I get a name.”

I raised an eyebrow, “What?”

“I never caught your name. I’m not leaving until you tell me it.”

I stared blankly at him, desperately trying to remember. “Uh.. I don’t know my name.” I said quietly.

Idiot. How the hell do you forget your name?!

Alan let out a laugh, rolling his eyes. “You’re joking, right?”

As soon as he saw the seriousness in my eyes, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion, and his mouth formed a straight line. “The doctors said nothing about you having amnesia.. I’ll be right back.” He said, before walking out of the room.

I sat there in silence, awaiting his return. Soon enough, he walked back in behind a doctor.

“Uh, miss. Mr. Ashby informed me that you seem to have undergo memory loss. Do you remember anything from before today?”

I shook my head no.

“Well, the best and only thing we could do is send you home with your brother and see if you can recollect some of your memory.” 

The thought of living with a complete stranger frightened me, but I knew at this point it was the only option. I didn’t have a house from what I knew, after all. 

“Alright.”

“Great! Alan is going to sign your release papers and then you’re free to go.”

I nodded and watched as the two disappeared from the room again, taking the opportunity to search the room for my clothes so I was able to change out of the itchy hospital gown.

Soon enough, I was walking towards the entrance of the building where Alan stood. 

“Hello, Jacklyne.” He smirked.

“What did you just call me?”

“Jacklyne. That’s what you’re going to go as now.”

“I’m not your fucking pet, Ashby. You have no right to name me.”

“Too late.” 

I sighed and shook my head disapprovingly, crossing my arms in front of me. “Let’s just get going.” I muttered.

 Alan nodded in agreement before leading me out to his car. 

“Where do you live exactly?” 

“Not that far from here. About ten minutes away.”

I nodded and stared blankly out of the window, trying to process everything that happened in such a short amount of time. Surely, it seemed surreal. These things don’t exactly happen to normal people.

It wasn’t long until we pulled into a large house; big enough to fit at least three families. I was shocked to say the least, because from the looks of it, Alan lived by himself. I had expected something far more subtle from him. “So you’re rich, yeah?”

“You could say that.”

I dropped it at that and shrugged, exiting the car and waiting for him to take the lead. I followed him in and was immediately left in awe at the interior.

“There’s a empty room in the left wing, with a bathroom attached. That’ll be your room. I need to go out for a bit, help yourself to whatever is in the fridge. We’ll go shopping later so you can get clothes and whatever you need.” Alan rambled.

Wait, he was just leaving me here, right after arrival? It was kinda rude, but I didn’t question it. He was nice enough to actually let me stayhere, so there was no use complaining. “Alright.” I muttered.

Alan nodded and twirled his car keys around his finger and shot me a smile smile before heading out of the house.

Like he had told me, there was an empty room on the left side of the house. It was huge, as expected. The various pieces of bedroom furniture gave away the fact that Alan had set it up so it could be used as a guest room. Immediately, I threw myself on the large bed. It seemed that as soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell into a deep slumber.