"Please can you stop swearing? It's annoying. And I'm not that naive, I mean I'm just a twelve years old kid, yes but I'm quite smart. Your name is Marc, tell me that your name is Donald duck." Said Nathaniel with mirth.
"And why would I do that?" Marc asked, puzzled.
"Please, humor me."
"My name is …. my name is… What the hell?" Marc shouted, seemingly lost.
"That's one of the first things I learn while trapped here, we can't lie in this form. Not even to yourself." Said Nathaniel with a bit of sadness in his voice.
"How long have you been trapped here kid?" Asked Marc with a tinge of warmth in his voice.
"I don't know honestly but I think years must have passed now even decades. I have no way to know." The sadness in his voice, more obvious now.
Marc drew near Nathaniel and extended a bit of crimson light to him. It was almost like he was trying to put a hand to his shoulder in a sign of comfort but ended up looking quite weird.
"What do you believe happened here? Why are you here and why I am with you right now? The last souvenir I have is when I die in Peru."
"I don't know but if I were to guess, I believe I was destined to give up and died a long time ago and you have been given the chance to reincarnate into my body. I don't know by who or what though, I don't really believe in those kinds of things. I'm not a religious person." Nathaniel confessed.
"You really believe that is the case?" Marc asked, doubtfully.
"That's the only thing that I can think of besides us supposed to fight to the bitter end and then the winner gets my body."
"Ah ah! That's actually funny. No, I don't think that's the case, your first guess sounds logical to me even if nothing about this situation is. There is one thing that you must know about me though. I did a lot of bad things in my life. I killed a lot of people, some because I was ordered to, some to protect myself but globally I already abide by a set of rules I fixed myself. I never touched children. Now, you are telling me that I was destined to get your body? Bad luck for the one who runs the entire show but I'm not going to do it."
"Really?" Nathaniel asked hopefully.
"Yes, I'm a killer but I'm not a thief, especially to a child. I made good and bad decisions in my life but the thing is that I had the privilege to make them, would I make the same if I was given the chance to go back? Maybe but I'm not certain. You on the other hand never had the chance to make them. I believe it's time for me to leave this world and face the consequences of my actions to the big men or women or aliens running the entire show. Maybe give him or her a piece of my mind in the process." He laughed.
"I don't know what to say except thank you. You're giving your life away for me to live."
"I have something else for you if I manage to make it happen." Marc said.
At this moment the white and crimson balls of energies merged together taking the form of a Yin Yang symbol. One part was a pure, indomitable white, while the other was domineering red. The symbol then began spinning faster and faster until he disappeared from the void around him and reintegrated with his body again. After all those years, Nathaniel was back.
******
After a few moments, Nathaniel started hearing people talking not far from him.
"You know as well as I do that there are hundreds of explanations for rising blood pressure on a comatose teenager Nancy! That could mean nothing!" Said a stern masculine voice.
"I know sir! But I believe that it is significant! We need to do a head scan." Urged the woman, probably Nancy.
"A head scan for a kid in a coma for more than 4 years! And for what? A blood pressure that went up for 2 minutes? That's insane! How are his vitals now Melanie?"
'Well now I know, 4 years… goddamnit, my moms must be heartbroken…' He thought internally, feeling extremely sad and guilty.
'I need to open my eyes now. I need to say something.' Nathaniel thought.
His eyelids were so heavy, so painful, but the pain was good. Pain proved that he was alive. Pain was a relief for him after years feeling absolutely nothing and it had a familiarity that was a little disturbing but soothing. Suddenly, he felt a woman's hand on his arms and then something cold and metallic that must have been the stethoscope. His eyelids begin moving slowly and a blurry form starts to appear in front of him, with white and blue around it.
'Okay, now that I see, sort of. I need to talk. Tell them that I'm here.'
"It's good, Doctor." Answered Melanie.
"errrr" Croaked Nathaniel.
"Good, we are going to observe him and if something happens again then we will do a scan. I'm sorry I shout at you Nancy but you know as well as I do to which family he belongs to and I'm sure not going to give them false hope asking for consent to perform a head scan that will not accomplish anything."
If Nathaniel could frown right now, he would have. He had no idea what he was saying about his family. His parents were working as a guitar instrumentalist and a state appointed lawyer. They belonged to the lower side of the middle class family. Thinking about it now, he had no idea how they could afford to keep him in a coma all those years. Letting the matter aside for now, he knew this was bad. They were going to leave his room anytime now, he needed to try harder to get their attention. His vision starts to get a little clearer and Melanie enters his vision. She seemed to look around, searching for something.
'She must have heard me! I need to try harder!' Nathaniel exhorted himself.
"Y… o . ouuu.. uuu" Croaked Nathaniel with a bit more force.
Melanie whipped her head around and looked at Nathaniel, eyes full of awe and disbelief.
"Doctor! He's awake!" Shouted the intern, startling her colleagues.
Hearing that, they all rushed to his bedside but Nathaniel chose to ignore them and keep looking at Melanie, captivated by her beautiful brown, kind eyes.
"Youu...rrre... pprr...et.ttt..yy" Nathaniel managed to said with a rough almost inaudible voice.
Finally spent and with the last sight of a blushing intern, he blacked out.