Lucas blinked, disoriented, as his surroundings slowly came into focus. Standing in the confines of a cramped room, the cold tiles beneath his feet sent shivers up his spine.
'How did I get here?'
His mind felt foggy, memories swirling like distant echoes in the darkness.
And then it hit him like a wave crashing against the shore—He remembered.
"I'm... I'm in the bathroom."
'But why? What was I doing here?'
Panic fluttered in his chest as he struggled to make sense of it all.
"I… I tried to kill myself—by drowning!" Lucas exclaimed terror laced in his words.
Amidst the confusion, fragments of memories began to surface, like shards of glass scattered across the floor of his mind. Lucas remembered his life—or at least parts of it. Two years in college. He remembered the loneliness, the isolation that gnawed at his soul like a hungry beast. The suffocating weight of expectations boring down on him like a heavy cloak. The endless cycle of days.
'My parents… They're dead. They had long been dead...'
Lucas had tried to drown out the emptiness with alcohol, but the hollow ache remained, a constant reminder of his inadequacy.
"So, I even failed to kill myself, huh." Lucas mumbled in self-deprecation.
Standing in the unfamiliar bathroom, memories flooded back with a force that left him reeling. But there was something else, something strange and unsettling.
'I remember things that do not belong to this era—images and sensations that seem otherworldly. Technology and places, like fragments of a dream from another lifetime.'
Confusion washed over him like a tidal wave as he struggled to reconcile the pieces of this puzzle.
'What are these foreign memories? Who am I?'
Lucas gazed into the mirror before him, the reflection of a man that seemed to be haunted by his own demons stared back at him.
Collecting his thoughts, Lucas decided to study his face again. An unremarkable face with an air of quiet mystery, complimented by his deep black eyes. Standing at 174 centimeters, long blonde tousled hair—seemingly forming locks, reaching his ears, and adorning his round head.
"At least I don't look that bad." He mumbled.
Judging the scene that was left, strewn in the bathroom, Lucas concluded that he had tried to drown himself in the bath tub filled with water.
"Perhaps the intoxication has gotten me."
Quickly tidying his bathroom up. He opened the door and looked at his room, the place he was most familiar with. A simple one bed bedroom, a table that was filled with notes, and a single small bathroom—a typical for dormitories.
The silver moon blindingly peeked outside the windows. Looking at the clock, the short arrow-head pointing straight up. Lucas fell into a deep thought.
'It's already past twelve…'
After the death of his parents, at the age of eighteen, Lucas moved into the dormitories within Rutgers Normal College. It has been two years since he moved, he didn't have any siblings, therefore, he thought it was for the better to stop renting the house which he and his parents used to live in. The College offered free dormitories for their students, hence why, Lucas thought it was a good opportunity for a student like him who did not have a job.
The 'Education for Everyone Act' that was established during the year, 1560 of the New Calendar, helped students that wished to further their education. This act offered students that passed the scholarship admission for any public Colleges a free tuition, a dormitory, and an allowance of 15 pence per week.
(Author's note: 1 pound = 20 pence)
Remembering the time, Lucas decided to forget about what transpired, for now at least. He decided that he would figure things out at daybreak. Laying on his bed he wafted the blanket over his head—just like he always used to.
"I still need to attend to three classes tomorrow…"
Sighing, he added, "The cycle shall continue." His voice muffled by the thick cotton blanket as he mumbled, slowly succumbing to rest.