Previous Time

3

The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK

"Hmmm..." 

"She's waking up!"

"Call the nurse, you idiot!"

SLAM!

"Are you alright? Can you speak? Do you see the number of fingers am I holding? What do you smell? Can you feel it? Do you know who you are? Or even better, do you know who I am?"

I heard different noises, but the most prominent ones would be the questions that an unidentified male would throw right at someone within the room. He kept screaming questions after questions as I can hear a second person sighing and hitting his or her skin. I can hear shuffling around the room as I start to slowly open my eyes. I blinked slowly, trying I adjust to the lighting of the room. I then saw an unfamiliar face as I stared at the male with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. His nose is a little crooked, probably due to a brawl or accident, that I do not know of.

He looked older than I am. Maybe by a 6 years difference?

The male then leaned forward, so near that all I can see now is his dark brown eyes and how he looked as if he is... a kid? I then tuned their argument out, not wishing to hear their shenanigans that would probably wake the dead. What? Now that is a new kind of difference. Am I in some-

"-hospital?" the woman asked incredulously. I felt like her voice is strained. This is utterly different from the one I'm in. It's not loud so perhaps I am in a private hospital quarter? Before I could even descend myself further into my thoughts, a door opened, the hinges creaking loud that I fear it might wake the dead. A man wearing a doctor's garb was by the door, a stethoscope at his neck, and a nurse with dirty blonde hair by his side.

"Greetings, young lady. How do you fare?" How do I fare? A man is by my side hurling questions after questions at me. How do you think I fared doctor? But of course, I can't speak properly for the time being. So I just remained silent, feigning ignorance at what the doctor states. "I see. So your auditory functions are still well. Nurse Caitlynn is here to assist you in your recovery, young lady. These fine gentlemen and lady rescued you from a cryo-pod of old age. Further investigations are still conducted about the place you were kidnapped but for the foreseeable future, I'm afraid you have to stay here." The doctor stated, his voice telling me that he is at least sympathetic. It is all too blurry for me but I can see the figure of a woman in white, or at least it is a woman, heading towards me.

"Nurse Caitlynn is here to see you through your recovery ma'am, as well as the rest of the hospital staff. Now, you waking up, heck, you with a heartbeat is already shocking as it is! All I need to do is to monitor your condition and it may take a long time for this to happen so I hope that you would be alright with this, ma'am. Not to worry though, these lovely folks are all nice and friendly," not really, these fellow men and woman are all strangers to me, oh dear doctor of no-name " so no need to be afraid young miss. Now, Nurse Caitlynn will begin her usual check-up in your vitals, I hope you don't mind." I remained silent, my face didn't betray the emotions that are welling up inside of me. 

The rest then came as a blur for me as I once again tune everything out. I then tried to recall any past events that I could remember before waking up... none. I know certain words and mannerisms as if it is by instinct. Yet, I still have difficulty even understanding what the doctor was talking to me about. It felt like I was physically present in the situation yet my mind is elsewhere. I have no clue about what a certain thing that he is spouting about but it sounds crucial just by going off about scientific names of certain chemicals that I know are medicinal. Or as far as I know, IS medicinal. I couldn't quite tell, science is not of my expertise. 

The three strangers that I woke up to strangely acted as if I would break and thus, have been treating me like glass. I have no clue whether to be grateful to them thinking of my well-being or act offended as if they underestimated my worth. Yet, I cannot blame them for the thought they now have of me as I recover. I cannot actually tell on how many days or months I have been in this hospital room, recovering, going through therapy and interrogation by the police (and they aren't as helpful as they have yet to believe) but I can tell that I have yet to reach a year inside this sickening white room. I have managed to get a grasp of the language, though the difference might be there, it is still English, but more different in a sense I have yet to grasp on. I manage to whisper only, though I can barely finish a sentence without coughing due to the soreness of my throat (and it could possibly be also due to the many, many years I am in a coma-like state inside a water tank, frozen). 

I also underwent physical therapy to get a better grasp on my body and even then, I knew that it wasn't enough. I still felt restless despite my body aching and shaking from the pain that I am in. I would indulge myself in the current affairs as well as the history of various countries around the world, from England down to the political issues in Africa. I understood less of it due to the nurses' insistence that I am less exposed to a strange device that is a phone. Truly fascinating, it just hurts my eyes more. Unlike with the TV where it is placed at a safe distance away from my eyes, this one hurts more like a needle being pierced on my eyes, except the needles are felt in my head. 

No one bothered correcting the scared male when he visited me later claiming I was an alien that was kidnapped (or aliennapped in his words) and that the royal family has decided to hide this horrid secret of theirs, calling it a dirty royal secret. The nurse gasped while the girl hit him on the head, their other serious male companion just telling me to ignore the "Bozo with the brain of a child". Then three more months passed by like a dream, and I managed to move my body like a typical healthy child and I manage to learn subjects that am confident will fare me in the future. Another couple months passed and I finally am ready, as the kind doctor has stated...