Memory

Part 1

 Mari's POV
I quietly walk down the long, dark hallway. My white hospital gown almost dragging on the white, clean floor' a sickening kind of white. Where am I? The voices I heard when I was on the cold, hard, table that bolted me down, and pricked me with needles, referred to me as 'Mari' and said that I had 'lost' my memories and started to laugh as if they made me lose my memories on purpose. Is 'Mari' my name? Did I lose my memory? I feel a shudder of pain run through my head like a lightning bolt. Trying to stay as quiet as I can I grasp my white gown in fist fulls, trying to wait out the pain as I walked. For some reason I knew that this pain was only a minimum of what I felt on that experimental table. A big mirror stood at the end of the corridor, it reflected a medium tall girl with long black hair, and silver eyes that seemed to pierce the glass. But the most stunning thing was that the girl in the mirror looked strangely familiar. Crash! A door was banged open, knocking a white vase full of forget-me-nots to the ground. A man wearing a doctor's uniform points a gun at me. Did I even like doctors before I supposedly 'lost' my memories? The man moves his lips, as if he was talking. Wait, he is talking. Did he just say, 'Get down and put your hands up Mari, or I will shoot you?' How does he know my name? Too late. The gun rings loudly in my ears. I see blood. But not my blood. The man's blood. I do not know what happened. I got onto the floor and swiped my leg under the man's feet and he fell down, hard. He dropped the gun, and I squeezed the trigger, it shot directly into the middle of the man's chest. Score. 1 point for me, no points to the weird doctor people. The one thing that I am certain about is that the doctors took something valuable away from me, so in my evil opinion they should be punished. As I turn my head to the tall, long mirror I notice the man's blood on my white dress. No, it is not a dress, it is a piece of clothing that people put on in the hospital. Sick people. I continue walking down the white hallway. The black gun still in my pale white hand.

People are running. Smoke burns my lungs, as I take in a deep breath. The night illuminated by the moon and by bright, big flames that devours homes, shops, and workplaces. The citizens are screaming, and running away. Away from me. The light rain drips down my back. I see a short man in his near 30's slip and fall down into the puddle of mud and water. I jog over to help him up, but as I get closer he takes out a straw like stick and shoots me with something in the neck. The pain makes me bite my lip so I would not cry out. A dart. The kind of dart that we use to capture rabid stray animals with. How dare he?! Using a dart against me like some kind of crazy animal! I fall into the man's arms against my will when my vision starts to blur, and my body turns to jelly. Everything goes black afterwards. The last thing I hear was the short man whispering into my ear I drift off into the blackness,
"I promise you that you will never see your family again. I'll make sure of that myself. At least they will make use of you, Monster." I open my eyes and see the floor of the white hallway. What had just happened? Was that dream or a flashback? What was I doing? Why were those people running away from me? Did I hurt someone? And most importantly, what did he do with my family? I feel something cold and hard under my head. The man's black gun. I better get moving, or they will catch me. I run down through the maze of hallways and find myself at the entrance. But in my case, exit. I push the heavy metal door open. The sun greets me with a warm hug and the long green grass tickled my legs playfully. Free. I was finally free. Free from the needles that pricked my skin. And from the people who experimented on me like a lab rat. I took a good, long look around me. Trees, long grass, and bugs. And in the distance there is a forest of tall, thick trees. Nothing much, but everything to me. A large stone that looks like a gravestone says, 'Dallas Texas Hospital For The Mending Sick' and beneath that someone has written, 'and for the crazy and stupid experiments that nobody would believe are true' in black sharpie.

I walk around and eventually see a dirt path leading away from the white building. I walk down the dirt road and after a while I notice a metallic blue bird stuck in a hunter's trap. I go over to the small bird, I help the beautiful bird out of the trap. The small bird darts into the sky, singing it's thank you. Free at last. Like me. Hopefully the little bird won't be caught in a trap again. Like me. I think ruefully walking down the worn out dirt path. Looking down at the old path I notice that I had no shoes on. Not like the people even gave anything else, apart from the gown of course. My usually clean, pale feet are covered in dirt and pink cuts and scrapes from the small rocks on the dirt road that I hadn't noticed. Hoping to find some water to wash of the dirt and to clean my cuts, I continue to walk down the worn out path until the sun starts to lower itself from the sky. Hearing the gurgling of water, I dash towards the clear sound, hoping that in luck this would also confuse the people if they had dogs go after me.
I dip my hands into the cold, crystal clear lake and take a good long drink. Thinking about all of the dirt, and the cuts on my feet I walk waist-deep into the refreshing water. My white gown starts to drag me down into the water, as if wanting to drown me. Looking around I search for something sharp to cut the gown shorter. I get out of the cold water, and back to the dry land. Seeing a normal gray rock with a sharp point I use it to cut my gown just below my knees. Happy that I found something useful I go back into the water to clean the dirt off my arms and legs. Washing off with no limited water, or limited time I allowed myself to relax. Just a little. Sighing I get out of the cool water and put my clothes back on, when I am done I hear a branch snapping. Pointing the man's gun at the sky I shoot into the air once to warn anyone, and anything that I have a gun. And that I wasn't afraid to use the gun if I needed to protect myself. The sun had almost already set, casting an orange illumination over the forest. I continue walking in search of finding a safe place to sleep, knowing that I would need my energy to continue walking away from the white building and the people inside it. I find a sturdy, hollowed out tree and I check if any animals are living inside. Finding no residents I crawl into the small place and pull my legs up to my chest tightly. I place the man's gun next to me, if a nocturnal animal was living here and was returning for the day I may have to use it. I didn't get much of sleep that night, I was paranoid of the people in the building. Rubbing my bleary eyes I get out of the hollowed out trunk and continue searching. Searching for something better.

I walk down the dirt road and spot a tab of yellow duct tape, the kind hikers use to not get lost in a dense forest. Seeing more I follow the line of yellow tags till I find what I wanted. A camp site. Seeing that no one has been in the camp site since a few weeks ago I step into the open. Eyes and ears alert for any sudden danger. 'CANIS LUPUS (GRAY WOLF) IN THIS STATE' is on a wooden sign right next to a tree to the left. Perfect. I don't know who I am, only my name 'Mari'. I know that I am in Dallas, Texas which has Gray Wolves running wild. A branch cracks under someone's weight. Feeling exposed to anyone who may be there I take a step back into the thickness of the forest. Why are you timid, human? A sweet low voice asks inside my head. Hoping that I haven't gone crazy I tense up. Do not worry. Nothing is wrong with you.
"Who are you?"

My voice rings across the campsite.

Think of what you are saying and I will hear you, there is no need to speak. The voice inside my head answered. Should I speak like this then? Can you please step out so I can see you? I ask as politely as I can. Can you make sure to not scream or panic? Also can you please put the gun on the ground, it makes me uncomfortable? If yes, I will come out. But if no, then I will just talk to you like this. The voice answered back. I agreed to not make a commotion, as I put the man's gun on the ground covered with old car tracks. I looked ahead as I saw some movement near some thick trees. A black wolf. Looking closer I notice that on the wolves forehead there is a crescent moon with four thin lines pointing North, East, South, and West like a compass.