"Sir, can you hear me?" A voice spoke through my darkened mind. To me at the time, I had no idea what was said. It was drowned out by a constant pounding in my head, loud ringing in my ears. Almost unbearable. Slowly the sound faded, and is was silent once again. Then it came again, only this time louder. "Sir!!" My eyes rushed open, and I saw a man staring down at me, with concern in his eyes. "Are you alright?" He asked and tried to help me up but I shook his arm off.
"I'm fine." I lied and struggled to my feet. He frowned, nodded once, then rushed off as if he was afraid what would happen if he was caught with me. I looked around and didn't really know what to think of my surroundings. It was dark, wet, and very untidy. I was soaked all the way through to my bones and shaking from... something. I thought about how I got there, but nothing came to mind. I couldn't remember where I was or who I was for that matter. I couldn't remember my family, friends, home, anything. I only knew the basic things you'd expect everyone to know: How to talk, walk, and take care of myself. There was a light down at one end of the narrow alley and I assumed that was a good thing so I started walking towards it.
In front of me, there was a building that read Cafe on the front. There was a flashing sign in the window. I read the letters out loud as they appeared. "O... P... E... N.... Open." I went to the door and stepped inside, sitting at the nearest couch thing surrounding a table. (I was later told that it was a booth.) A young woman approached me and I instinctively tensed up.
"Hi, can I get you anything?" She asked with a smile.
I studied her for a second and instantly my head was flooded with thoughts and memories and words and questions. It was almost overwhelming. I held my head in pain.
"Are you alright?" She asked concerned.
I sat there for a second and the pain subsided. "Y-yeah. I'm fine." I managed to say.
She nodded. She didn't believe me. As for how I knew that, I couldn't figure out. She walked away and left me in silence. After a few minutes of nothing, a boy came to sit down next to me. "This seat taken, man?"
I slowly shook my head. "No, it's not."
He grinned and held out his hand. "I'm-"
"Your real name is Regaiuston but you'd rather be called Gaius. You thought your full name was too long so someone called you that and it stuck." I blinked and realized what I said.
He stared at me. "How in the world did you know that?" He was mystified. I had just said exactly what he was about to.
"I-I.. I don't know." I shyed away. "Sorry..."
He stared a second longer then shook his head. "No... No, don't be sorry." His eyes were filled with wonder. "What's your name?"
I looked down and noticed my hands were shaking. "I... I don't know."
He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"
"I mean I don't know what my name is." I told him.
"You hate your name that much or do you really not know what your name is?"
"I really don't know." I confirmed.
The woman walked back over to us. "Can I get you two anything?" She asked with a smile.
"Um, yes. I'll take a coffee with no cream but lots of sugar. And for my friend..." Gaius looked at me. "How about a Mountain Dew."
"And what flavor would you like?" She asked, looking at me with that smile of hers.
I didn't know what to answer but, luckily, I didn't have to say anything. "Code Red." Gaius requested.
She nodded, said it would be a moment, and rushed off.
"So," Gaius turned his attention back towards me, "you don't have a name?" I shook my head. "Well... You're gonna need a name. How does... Owen sound?" I said no. "Hmm...." His eyes lit up. "What about Psych? Seeing how you read my mind earlier." He said with a laugh.
I thought about it. "Yeah, alright." I agreed.
"Here are your drinks." The lady came back, setting a cup with a top in front of Gaius and a plastic bottle in front of me. Gaius nodded his appreciation and she left us.
He took hold of his. "Let's get out of here. I've got places to be and I don't think it's safe for you to be out there on your own." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few green slips of paper and some round metal... objects.
Money... I thought. I grabbed the bottle and nodded. "Where are we going?" I asked.
He grinned. "You'll see, won't you?" He led me back outside.
Now that he was standing, I was able to get in what he looked like. He had dark orange hair and was wearing a weird-looking white long-sleeve shirt and a black cloak with the sleeves torn off. On the white shirt, there were a few straps of leather and a whole bunch of candies latched on. He had a bobby pin in his mouth and wore knuckle gloves. He had a black strip of cloth tied around his forehead with the loose straps hanging down on the side of his head. His eyes were a deep blue, almost like a crystal pool. His pants were baggy with a lot of tears and holes and twice as many patches. Adding on to that, a whole lot of pockets. Probably more in his cloak. Both with the pockets and candy. I laughed a bit at the thought.
He turned around and noticed me staring. "Ah, I see you've noticed my little profession. I'm in the sticky finger business, you see. Excellent under pressure and in tight situations. Also, I've got my defenses." He patted the side of his cloak. I guessed he held a dagger or another form of a handheld weapon there.
I also saw a pocket on the inner right side of his cloak. There were small cane-shaped objects swirled with color, round objects wrapped up on the end of a short stick, and a small cloth pouch that bulged with more small things. "What are those?" I questioned curiously.
"Huh?" He checked his cloak, seeing where I was looking. "Oh, these." He pulled out the sticks with orbs. "They're suckers."
"What do they do?"
At first, it seemed he didn't understand the question. "What do they..." Then he figured it out. "Oh, you've never seen one of these before." He took the plastic off, revealing the orb was colored blue. "Here." He said, holding it out to me.
I reluctantly took it. Without thinking, I put it in my mouth. At the taste of it, my body panicked and spit it out. The orb cracked in half upon hitting the ground. "What was that?!"
"Remind me never to give you the blueberry ones again." He muttered.
"I don't know why I put it in my mouth like that..."
He chuckled. "Relax, Psych, that's what you're supposed to do with it. The only thing it does is taste good. Unless, for you, it's blueberry."
I felt my face heat up. "It tasted... good, I guess... My body just put it in and spit it out."
Gaius took a sip from the cup but didn't swallow. He actually spit it out, much like I did with the sucker. "I should've tasted this before I payed for it. She put cream in it."
"Mind if I try it?" I asked.
He looked at me, the cup, then me again. "Take the whole thing, I'm not gonna drink it."
I grabbed it from his hand, feeling the heat from the drink inside of it. There was a small hole in the top where a faint white wisp rose. Upon reaching my nose, my mind filled with color. The smell was impossible to explain, it was just one of those things you know. So this is what coffee smells like. I realized. I put my lips to the top where the hole was and tipped the cup upwards slowly, being aware of the temperature of the liquid inside. It was sweet and had a hint of a white taste. My face must have changed expressions because Gaius noticed it.
"That's vanilla you're tasting mixed in with it." One of the sticks wi-.. One of the suckers was in his mouth. "The flavor of the cream she put in there. I wish I knew why she put it in though."
"Maybe she didn't hear you correctly." I suggested, taking another sip of coffee.
"Hey, are you gonna drink your Dew or should I take that off your hands?"
I forgot I had it. "You can have it."
"Sweet." He took it and opened it, pressure releasing from the bottle before the cap was even all the way off. When he raised it to his lips, bubbles of air rose and popped at the surface of the red drink. "Oh yeah!" He started when he finished with his sip. "I have some friends you'd probably want to meet." I realized he wanted me to follow him when he started walking down the dimly lit street.
