More Fractured Tales stories!
His body felt lethargic… no energy… and all he wanted to do was sleep.
He felt groggy… as if he was waking up from an induced sleep. Sleeping pills? He rarely used them and could not remember taking any recently. Anaesthetic? He couldn’t recall any planned surgery. So, what was going on?
He could hear what sounded like voices… but they were distant… muffled.
Something felt strange… his left arm… not exactly painful, but… sort of like something was holding it in place, as if to prevent him from moving it. He tried to lift it but it felt too heavy.
He squeezed his eyes shut tight… he was dreaming… that was the only plausible answer. But why couldn’t he wake up?
Had he been in an accident and injured his arm? It might be secured to prevent movement in order for it to heal. But he couldn’t remember an accident… or anything else.
Where was he? Who was he? What was his name? He realized he could not remember anything about himself.
Okay… take it easy… calm down, he thought and drew several deep breaths as he felt the panic begin to rise in his chest.
After a few minutes, when he felt a little calmer, he tried lifting his other arm… it felt heavy but not like it was actually restricted… more like he didn’t have enough strength to move it.
He tried raising the left arm again… still the same… it was being held in place somehow.
He tried to sit up… but was quickly pushed back again.
“Recharge cycle is incomplete. Please do not move.” The voice sounded artificial… perhaps computer-generated.
He blinked his eyes to assure himself they were really open… but he could not see anything. Either he was being kept in total darkness for some reason… or he was blind.
But… was he really awake? Or was he still stuck in this nightmare? In panic, he yelled out, “Untie me… let me move… turn on a light… something… anything to let me know I’m still alive. Please?”
“Recharge cycle is incomplete. Please do not move.” There it was again… that strange disembodied, cold mechanical voice.
Was he still dreaming? He couldn’t sense any immediate danger, so he forced himself to be still while he tried to make sense of what was happening.
Perhaps when the ‘recharge’ was finished… whatever that meant… there would be some answers. He tried to relax but his heart was racing.
He kept his eyes closed and tried to convince himself that it was just a nightmare… that it wasn’t real… that he was at home in his own bed.
But… his mind could not conjure up a picture of what his own bedroom looked like… he could not picture a bedroom…or any other part of a home that was familiar.
He did not know where home was. Did he own a home? Or was he a renter?
Turning his head slightly, he imagined he could see a cord plugged into his left arm but couldn’t see the other end of it… maybe an intravenous drip. That probably meant he had been injured somehow and was receiving blood or other fluids and possibly… drugs of some sort. That might explain the weird dreams.
Then the head of the bed began to rise slowly… until he was sitting upright and the heaviness was gone from his arms. On some level, it felt like he was really waking up this time.
“Recharge cycle is complete.”
His eyes flew open and he blinked several times, then slowly turned his head… expecting to see something familiar but… he saw nothing… nothing except empty white space.
The only tangible object in the room was the steel-framed bed that he was sitting on.
He felt as if he was trapped in some endless nightmare. Or was this whole thing real?
Then he saw the little USB port that had been implanted just underneath the skin of his left arm.
“Recharge cycle is complete. Please vacate the room.” That odd voice again.
His heart began to pound as he felt the panic rise… and then he opened his mouth and… SCREAMED.
