The Life Before Now

Testing Begins

It is now the next morning, I am woken from the sound of machines buzzing, each of the sounds echo off the walls throughout the laboratory, groaning as I sit myself up, looking around, remembering where I am - my body starts to catch up, realising what may happen today. Kind of put off to the fact that this place has no natural lighting at all, not a single window to be seen.. Okay, I slept in my clothes, oh well, I have no idea how long I'm going to be staying here for testing, but I'm sure this scientist will answer my questions eventually.. I just don't want this to end up with me being stuck here until the day I die doing test after test until she's satisfied with the results.. All of her machines are quite intimidating, I wonder what she's used them for or what she plans to use them for.. I need to calm myself down, stop panicking for one second and just remember that she is going to help you remember what happened in your previous life and maybe help you track down who that woman was, the woman that you fell in love with. 

I nod my head, taking a deep breath, slowly taking a few steps out of the room where I was sleeping. I look down the hall, barely any lighting, difficult to see anything, okay, I'll just walk and see where I end up. Completely leaving the room and into the hallway, no sign of the scientist yet, I wonder where she is, walking carefully, trying to see where I'm going, I stumble across a room with a big machine installed in the middle, there was a computer connected to the machine, stepping into the room, making my way closer to the machine, is this the Animus? I wonder to myself, sitting at the desk beside the machine, looking through the computer, there seems to be an input list for whoever uses the machine, a data collecting software by the looks of it. Carefully searching through the software, interesting, nothing appears to be in the data bank, this is clear, she hasn't tested the machine yet..

I hear footsteps approaching at a steady pace from the hall, quickly setting everything the way I found it and removes myself from the computer, the scientist walks into the room, surprised to see me looking around, she questions my actions, I just respond with I was lost and didn't know where to go due to the lack of proper lighting. Wait, I actually said that, oh jeez.. Closing my eyes quickly, realising what I said was a stupid thing to even think of saying, she chuckles at my remark, apologising for the lighting, my eyes snap open after she chuckled, she was rather amused by my comment, placing her hand on my shoulder to comfort me. She shows me the Animus, explaining what it does - The patient lays on the machine and their body is scanned and processed into the data software, then the patient is to close their eyes while the machine does the rest -

I sit on the machine, laying my head back, my breathing becomes a little heavy as I see a visor slides from the Animus and presents in front of my eyes, she tells me to relax while my body is scanned. The scanning has been completed and now the test begins..
My body slowly begins to lean into a sleeping state, allowing my eyes to shut, the Animus buzzes, attempting to load, the scientist begins to mention that I am the first person to test the machine and not to worry if something goes wrong, great, now I'm even more worried - how am I supposed to know if I'll make it out alive or not.. I guess I'm just gonna have to continue and hope for the best. An image slowly begins to appear, yet my eyes are closed, this machine is somehow seeping into my brain, collecting any memory it can get a hold of and showing me what the data base is collecting.

Whatever the Animus is showing me, the scientist can also see what I'm seeing - She begins to input the data, leaving no information behind. What am I seeing? I see myself, but, not a human, no, it seems like an anthropomorphic wolf, okay, this is starting to seem familiar, yes, I see everything clear as day. This machine is allowing me to see what my brain can remember, more like enhancing the basic human memory. Leading further into each part of the memory - I can't control any movement, I'm simply, observing, like watching a movie - I'm seeing the memory of when I was a pup, in the market place with my mother and younger brother, we're collecting some fruit, I wander off, looking around, just being a curious young pup, looks like I loved to wander off and explore more rather than just staying around and waiting, as my younger self is wandering around, I bump into someone, our eyes meet and they lock.

I introduce myself, my name is Zerith - Her name is Luna. As I get further into the memory, the machine glitches, sending shocks through my body, causing a lot of pain, my eyes quickly open as my body realises I'm in pain, forcing myself to get up, falling on the ground, how long was I in that machine for. I shout at the scientist, anger is driven by the pain - she informs me I've been in the machine for 2 days -  She apologises for the machine glitch, quickly silencing herself as she fixes the machine, trying to figure out what went wrong, what caused the glitch. Carefully standing up, feeling pain through my hands, keeping myself quite, I walk out of the room, to try calming myself down. Taking myself to another room, away from the scientist, I sit myself on the bed in the room,  trying to recollect my thoughts, noting down what I saw, remembering the names of the people I met.

I hear the scientist make her way to the room, seeing me sit on the bed, still in a bit of pain. She carefully sits beside me - I apologize for getting angry, I was in a lot of pain and I was confused as to what just happened - She accepts my apology, also apologising for the machine glitch, mentioning she collected a lot of valuable data for her research, asking me how I felt after the test. Apart from being in a lot of pain, being in the Animus has, unlocked a few memories, only I'm having trouble retaining the information, my brain appears to be, worn out? - Being in this current state of pain, it isn't exactly safe for me to get back to the Animus - She offers the chance to try again in a few days, allowing me to rest and recover from this test, I agree to her offer, taking in a few breaths, she recommends I get some sleep. Following her orders, I lay myself down and sleep..

Once I fall asleep, I can hear noises coming from the Animus room - clicking of the keyboard, sounds like she's putting in more information about today's experiment - I hear her leave the room, I carefully sneak in, sitting at the desk, reading the information she has put down:
Test subject - Male - 20 years old - 6ft tall - brown hair - hazel eyes
Test #1:
ANIMUS has scanned patient's body and collected any additional data that is required to access his memories - bypassing regular memories, going straight into memories from over 100 years ago - seems impossible yes, but, with the help from the ANIMUS - it can be possible.
Patient entered ANIMUS: 20/07/2019 - 1900
ANIMUS scan/patient's DNA added to database: 1930
Test lasted 2 days before a glitch, causing the patient pain throughout the whole body - Glitch was caused by a sudden change of emotions from the patient - Once patient latched onto the memory of meeting Luna - it seems the patient remembers being in love with this creature in later memories - Will conduct further research to confirm this theory.
Signed off: 22/07/2019 - 2100

I sit back, not quite sure how to feel about the test report she put into the system - I wonder what made her come up with this theory, so many different thoughts and feelings rush through my mind - But I also wonder, maybe her theory could be correct? I did feel strange when I went through that memory, seeing Luna, when the Animus glitched, before the pain shocked me, I saw 10 years into my younger self's future, I saw that I spend 10 years without being around Luna, then all of a sudden, I see her again.. Okay, the scientist's theory could be correct. I guess we'll have to see what happens the next time I get back into the Animus..