Forcing open my heavy eyelids, I saw a strange bright light up above me on a white ceiling. I looked at the one light source for about twenty seconds before I thought of looking around. There were other lights around, and it seemed to be a very wide ceiling.
After that, I thought that I could now concentrate, look around for hints on where I was and why I couldn't remember anything from before I slept, through the very strange dream I thought I had.
That moment, I could not feel any part of my body due to the fear of moving. I even had no clue how I or anything else looked like, until I heard a very soothing voice saying "He's awake, come over here, he's awake". I painfully turned my head right, towards the voice I just heard. Seeing nobody scared me, but that gave me the idea that "yes, I had a neck", and also a rough idea of where I was. I saw a chair right next to whatever I was laying on, then a structured barrier of fabric all around me. I looked the other side and noticed a sophisticated machine right over my head, making beep sounds that welcomed my ears into the reality I was in. It beeps accordingly with a green light line that draws up and down on a noticeable surface. From around the machine, I traced some wires up to what I could only assume as my right hand. To my surprise, I could lift up my left arm, and when I knew that, I reached to my right arm and pulled out the wires that were attached to it. Suddenly, the beeps I was hearing turned into a long sound that irritated my ears.
Withstanding the pains I felt from my neck to spine, I sat up and pulled away the sheet covering the rest of my body. I felt much happiness and hope knowing that my legs were attached. But I immediately stopped and thought again, where was I and how did I get there? Before I thought of anything again, the strangest question I feared came into my head; "who was I?".
Right at that moment, I heard the voice I have heard earlier saying "hurry". Pushing aside the sheet barrier between us, a beautiful woman with black hair and brown eyes walks in in a hurry and said to me "hi". Behind her came in another woman, blonde, wearing very fine spectacles and a white dress or a coat and said to me "oh, what were you thinking? Do I have to go through this with every patient here?" She held up my right arm, which I saw was bleeding from the area I pulled out the wires, used a sticky sheet to cover the bleeding. She said to the first woman "wait here and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid again, I'll be right back", then walks out.
Now I could hear the voices of people around where I was. The beautiful woman looked into my eyes and said "hey there, what is your name?" But I had more serious questions than she did, so I asked "where am I? What happened?" She said "I found you at the beach, the water brought you to the shores. You're in the Central City hospital, my name is Samantha, but you can call me Sam. And what's your name?" I looked around one more time and said "look Samantha, I really don't know anything about myself right now, and....."
The other woman came back in and interrupted me by saying "madam, he might be having temporary memory loss then, I urge you to keep calm and let him rest until he recovers fully", then she walked out of the area. Samantha looked at me and said "you have a rest okay, I'll be around when you wake up", then she walked out too.
What I just experienced gave me a little more hope, because even though they were strangers, at least, Samantha was very nice. Thoughts and questions kept hovering around in my head, until I finally went to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up to the voice I heard the first time, it was Sam's. She was sitting on the chair beside me and said "good morning you, how are you feeling now?". "Good, thanks", I responded. She then asked "can you remember anything now, or a number, anyone I can call?" I thought hard for a while and said "no, not a bit". She then said "alright I'll see the doctor now, he says you're good to go. I think you should stay with me, until you remember something that can help, is that okay with you?" I hoped she would say that before she did, so I answered "yes" immediately after she finished, then walked out.
I sat up and stretched my legs down to the ground, stood up, looking around myself for a while. I noticed drawings on both my palms, drawings of symbols in a fine circle. I looked hard on the drawings on my left palm until I recognized the first symbol. I began reading as "Shh.." then Sam came in and said "Oh, you're already standing, waiting, I've signed your discharge papers and we're good to go now". She leaned a little closer and said "Hey, I told them that I am your sister, and that your name is Andrew. Crazy right? She giggled. "Here, I've gotten some clothes for you. I wonder how you ended up almost without any at the beach. Your shorts were almost torn apart".
Sam gave me clothes to wear, and I got dressed up in no time. They were Black trousers and a red shirt that had "Spider-Man" written on it. It looked ridiculous on me but, that's more than enough.
It was a very strange experience for me, walking through the vast hallway. People being moved on beds, others being held by the arm, rooms full of people, coughings, and particularly, a man being wheeled in, bleeding from the head caught all of my attention for some seconds.
What I never thought would happen eventually did happen, we reached the exit door. My first look outside dazzled my sight, and I wondered if I was really alive. Iron carriers were moving all over with people in them, moving on rolling circles. No horses pulling any of them around, and the perfection they moved with really interested me.
Next stop were the tall buildings all around us. At that moment, I knew that whatever I couldn't remember, I had never seen anything like that. I nervously moved my hand towards Sam's, slowly held her hand tight and didn't let go. She looked at me and smiled, then turned looking at the buzzing traffic of the strange vehicles.
For a minute, I wondered what she was waiting for, then I wondered why she was being so nice to someone she claimed she didn't know. Was it because I looked so handsome? I turned and looked at the reflecting glass from the door behind us and said to myself "yeah, maybe that's it".
After a while, she waved to a yellow coloured vehicle passing by and called "taxi". The vehicle immediately stopped right before us and Sam pulled my hand towards herself, towards the vehicle. To my surprise, she didn't know the person inside, she told him a location he would take us to, and he held on the wheel before him, turned it left, and we were moving. I moved a little closer to Sam and asked "who is he?" She said " I don't know, he's just a taxi driver". What she just said confused me a lot and I asked "what is taxi?" She quickly looked at me and said "oh my God, never thought your problem is this serious. You can't remember even the taxi? Okay see, prepare your questions and when we reach home, I'm gonna answer them, okay." I wasn't satisfied with that but, that was the best I knew I could get.
It took about fifteen minutes of driving through other vehicles, around corners and through other tall buildings to reach a stop. Sam got out and motioned me to step out too. She took out a piece coloured paper from the bag she held and gave the driver. I had no questions on that, it was obviously a transaction. She said "come on", held my hand and moved through the door of a four storey buildings. "She seems to like it when we hold hands" I gossip to myself.
We walked up some bunches of stairs until we reached the third floor, where we walked through a hallway. Walking through the hallway was no problem now, I did more than that earlier.
We reached a door that had the number 53 on it. Sam brought out a key, slide it into the keyhole and opened the door. I had no expectations of what her apartment might look like, but I was pretty impressed by what I saw in it. Books, books everywhere. At that moment, I felt within me that whatever my life had been before, I enjoyed reading.
She had a taste for writings on paranoia, magic and history. I thought I would love being with her for a while, during which I might learn something that might help explain how weird I see the world.
When I went into the apartment, I stood around the soft cushioned chairs, wondering, whether it is appropriate to sit before being asked to, while Sam headed directly to the cooking area to prepare something which I was guessing should be for me. I didn't think much about that before Sam said "hey, you can sit there, or anywhere. Feel at home. I'm sorry, I didn't have the time to tidy up the place, it's a bit messy, right?" With a quick response, I said "no, I'm actually amazed by what I'm seeing. You like reading a lot".
As she continued with what she was doing, a book that was on the chair which I sat on caught my sight, "Symbolic Windows of the Occult" was noticeably written on it.
Something told me to open it, but that "something" was definitely my curiosity. I opened the first page, then the second, which had a table of contents. I could hear Sam talking, but I only concentrated on the book in my hand. I looked through the contents until my sight stopped on a particular chapter called "Sigils for remembrance and knowledge". It was almost halfway through the book. As I opened the page it directed me to, I was surprised and shocked to see a drawing almost like that on my left palm. Not minding the writings anymore, I opened the next page. I wasn't so much surprised to see an exact copy of the symbols in my palm.
I began reading through the writings underneath the drawing, which said "this sigil was believed to help witches and wizards remember anything they want to. The words written under the drawing are it's signature, the keys to using it..." Those statements, I thought, were directly talking to me. But what are witches and wizards anyway? Looking back up to the drawing, I looked carefully below it, seeing the words "Shaknan tunut, waíse". It took me about forty seconds to figure out how to pronounce them, but when I did, I couldn't resist what happened.
The drawing on my left palm shone with a very bright blue dazzling light, intensifying at intervals of milliseconds. I was quite terrified but before I could say anything, the light was bright enough that I couldn't see a thing. I can only remember feeling so much weakness that I fell to the ground. I tried closing my eyes to avoid the light, but it seemed to be beyond my eyes and into my head. It's intensity began reducing with flashes of memories I didn't think I had. Roughly, pictures appeared and disappeared in my head, and that caused me great headache. It all happened so fast that I didn't get to clearly see some. I suddenly began hearing faint voices, which I later could understand saying "Hey, wake up, wake up, can you hear me?!" It was Sam's voice, and it really helped in bringing me out of my agony.
As I opened my eyes, I could see Sam helping me up, putting me down on the chair. She asked "are you okay? Can you hear me?" She was asking those questions when I was busy analyzing what I saw. It was pretty strange that at that moment, I could remember almost everything of my past life.
When I could concentrate, I looked at Sam, whose face looked troubled by my condition and said "I remember, I remember everything. I'm a Wizard".