The Long Way Home (FrUk)

Chapter Three:

*Arthur's POV*

I woke up surrounded by shouting people and a brilliant white light shining down on my face. I opened my eyes and started cursing loudly.

"He's awake!" I heard a man yell. "Someone get the doctor!"

I rubbed my temples and inspected the scene that lay in front of me. Dozens of hospital staff were frantically rushing in and out of the small room I was in. It felt like days until the foot-traffic calmed down. Soon, night fell.

There was a knock at my door. I was expecting another nurse, instead it was a boy who appeared to be in his late teens. He wore a leather bomber jacket and faded jeans. He approached me carefully.

"Hey Arthur...How are you holding up?" He said rather quickly and far more nervously than he meant to let on.

"I suppose I'm faring proper well..." I responded as casually as I could. There was several seconds of uncomfortable silence before he spoke again.

"So what's wrong with you exactly?" He wondered forcefully.

"The mental prognostication is that I have amnesia. Physically, I've managed to get a concussion and multiple bruised ribs."

"Amnesia?" The boy tilted his head. "Isn't that where you can't remember things?"

"Yes. Last I checked, it involves damaging the temporal lobe in the brain. Which means I must have suffered from head trauma."

"Arthur...How much can't you remember, exactly?"

I had been avoiding this question for as long as I could.

"Well...I....I don't know exactly...It's hard to say."

"What's my name...my full name?"

I laughed weakly.

"Why the devil would you ask me that?"

"Answer me Arthur." The boy said sternly. I sighed.

"The truth is that I haven't the foggiest who you are, what your name is, or what relationship we have...For all I know, you can be a stranger off of the street."

The boy simply turned around and walked out, but not before swiveling his head around to look at me.

"I'm not a stranger. I was like a son to you. I just hope that someday you'll remember me...until then, I can't bring myself to talk to you. You're not the same....and call me selfish, but that breaks my heart more than anything else in the world. Goodbye Arthur."

He turned the knob and exited the room, leaving me with a million questions more to add to my already impossibly massive collection.