He wakes with a jolt. The cold floor under him causing him to bolt up in a seated position. His hands bring themselves to rub across his arms. He guess he must have been laying there for quite a while. Unfortunately for the man lying across there, the man had found himself bare naked as well. Wherever he had woken up must have taken his clothes too.

It just like that time when he... Hmm... This was odd.

He had no memory of that past memory he was attempting to recall. It was beyond bizarre.

Even more so was the place he had found himself awakening in. A dark void with nothing visible except the black marble floors under him. It seemed to expand forever in every direction, the emptiness of the void being reflected off of the black marble tiles.

There was something beneath the surface of his memory the more the man tried scratching at his own thoughts. He began to think of his life before this point in time and what could have possibly happened to him. Trying to make sense of the faint images in his mind that could very well be his own past. The man held his head in his hands, still feeling the cold sting of the black marble floor as he does so.

Pictures of faces he doesn't know and places he can't put a name to flood the man's head. Appearing and disappearing like splashes of ink being dropped into the vast sea of nothingness. There a faint groan of desperation from the man as he tries to keep the images steady, but to no avail.

The one image he can remember is that of a hospital room.

Did the room belong to a loved one or was it possibly his own? The man could not yet say. Whoever brought the man here was certainly aiming to keep any amount of answers. That was for sure. The man huffs in annoyance, settling on standing up from the black marble floor as he began to call out into the void.

"Hello! Is anyone out there?"

His voice is alone. The emptiness of void overpowering and ultimately smothering the man's loud exclamation. The man began to continue his attempt at finding some kind of answer, but he wasn't too keen on what that answer might be. Nor how that answer might display itself as. He looks around himself and manages to spot a lone statue behind him. It stood tall on a small pedestal made of the same black marble as the floor. A stoic and blank expression met the man's surprised and frightened expression.

"Holy --!" The man gasps as he lunges himself back and away from the suddenly appearing statue. His heart beat had quickened and his body tensed at finding the statue suddenly appearing in front of him. As the man caught his breath, he couldn't help but find its face familiar. His eyebrows knit together as his mind tried to parse who the face might have belonged to.

As the man continues to hold eye contact with the statue, he feels an influx of memory begin to flood him. A faint voice from someone he remembers starts to fill his head before visions of that hospital room once again.

"Come on, man. You can't let one little fainting spell get in your head. You got lives to save." He hears another man's voice say to him. "The ERs packed and we need all available hands that we can get."

The voice felt like it belonged to someone the man couldn't stand, gruff, bossy, and annoying, and yet there was a sense of respect that the man couldn't help associate to this voice. "So, are you with me, Virgil?"

'Virgil! That's my name, isn't it?!' He thinks excitedly at the memory.

Indeed, the man's name was Virgil, Dr. Virgil Thrall. The man pleading for his help was his supervising head cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Jason Leeds. He can't yet remember for how long he's met him, but Virgil knew Jason meant a lot to the budding cardiothoracic surgeon.

"Where do you need me?" Virgil begins to ask, donning a pair of sterile gloves as more and more patients entered the emergency room.

"Someone please help me!" A booming and commanding voice catches Virgil's attention. A tall and fairly built man in overalls rushes inside, carrying a young and pale looking boy in his large arms. Jason motions to Virgil towards the tall man. With a nervous breath, Virgil adjusts his stethoscope to his ears as he walks towards the man and his unconscious friend.

"Lay him down here." He presses the drum of the stethoscope to the pale man's chest once laid on a patient bed.

"I'm not sure. He was talking about some voices going on in his head before going limp on landing on the floor." The larger man began to explain. Virgil's eyes furrowed as he continued to asses the boy's health.

"Poor kid. Well, at least he's still breathing. How old is he anyway?" Virgil asked, beginning to place his stethoscope around the back of his neck.

"Twenty-Seven."

"You're kidding! Guy looks young enough to be my son. It's impressive."

"He gets that a lot... Actually, he rarely gets sick as well. That's why I brought him in so quickly. Wouldn't know what to do if I'd lost him." The larger man replies, his anxious demeanor only seeming to become more prominent with each minute the pale man stay unconscious. It seemed as though the commotion inside the emergency room wasn't helping either. Virgil looked around curiously, hoping to at least know the source of the commotion to help calm the larger man. Scanning the room, Virgil fixes his eyes on a tv monitor tuned in to the news. Big letters and exacerbated expressions from the news anchors weren't encouraging Virgil in giving the larger man some good news.

"There saying it's another disease spreading around." The larger man begins to say lowly, sinking himself down to his knees besides the pale man's bed.

"I'm sure it's nothing." Virgil comments, his voice carrying his distracted tone as the words "Breaking News" flashing on the tv monitor. His eyes widen at the sight of what was shown next. Footage of large spacecrafts lined up patterns along the sky cause Virgil to freeze. An unnatural tension digs into his gut at the surreal display. The emergency room continues to roar in chaos, growing into a panic.

The large man slowly stands up as he watches the news screen too, before calling out, "I.. I'm starting to hear something too, someone's talking to me in my head too!"

The large man pants a couple of quick panicked breathes before collapsing on the floor.

"Virgil!" Jason calls out behind him, "Careful with the Goliath--."

Jason's words are cut off as he too falls unconscious.

"Jason!" Virgil exclaims in a panic, sliding to the floor and holding the other man by the shoulders. He shook him lightly while calling out his name, but there was no reaction. As he tried to get Jason to wake up, Virgil could begin to feel a lightheadedness that the doctor was desperately trying to fight back.

"No. No no no no, you.. You get out of my head!" Virgil begins to say, his body swaying slightly as he tries to resist whatever was trying to take hold of him.

"Be not afraid." A toneless whisper begins to fill Virgil's head. "Let us help you."

Virgil groans, shaking his head side to side in defiance of fainting. "Not a chance.. I... I need to help these people, I can't just leave them here!"

The heavy feeling continued to grow within Virgil as he continues to fight the hold on his mind.

"Please" Virgil pleads, "He's my best friend, I can't leave him here like this. I need to save him."

The hold of sleep continues to pull Virgil deeper.

"Let us help you and you'll be able to save them all." The voice adds. There was an eerie and emotionless timbre to the voice. And yet, Virgil trusted it. Slowly releasing control of his own mind, the doctor faints as well. Joining Jason on the floor.

Virgil gasps as he found himself right where he started, face to face with the statue from before. He sighs a breath of defeat. On one hand, Virgil was happy to have an inkling of memory as to how he was in his current predicament. On the other hand, he has yet to understand what he is meant to do in this void all on his own. He turns to look behind himself once more before find more statues standing behind himself. Virgil flinches once again.

"Alright! I get it, me naked while flinching at moving statues is really funny. Can I please go back home now, I have patients I need to save!" Virgil calls out to the void. The adamant stillness of the void around him seems to smother his words a lot quicker this time. Virgil wasn't even sure he voice out that last statement.

He decides to walk past the newly presented statues, hoping to make sense of the so-called prank. There was a statue of a man, posed with his hand raised up high and fingers curled together as if holding something. Virgil could only see so much in the darkness, walking towards the next statue of a woman. She carries a goblet with her. The goblet seemed to be the only thing with visible brilliance compared to the other statues. Walking on by, Virgil spots another statue of a man. However, it's not a full figure like the others had been. This one was only a face, and the features of it made it look plant like. Virgil scratches his head before turning around to spot more statues appearing behind him.

He flinches once again, this time covering his eyes before peering out between his fingers. Even more statues had appear before him. An uneasy feeling now being felt in Virgil's gut. He closes the spaces of his fingers to cover his eyes once more. Opening them only to find again that the statues numbers had multiplied.

"How are you doing that?!" Virgil exclaims, looking around himself as the statues continued to fill the empty spaces of the black marble floor. "At least do something cool."

Almost as though they were taking on his orders, the eyes of the statue began to glow brightly. The beams of light made the void above them more pronounced, stark and oppressive above Virgil and the statues. Virgil squints at the sudden brightness, his hand raises itself up to shield himself from the harsh light. As he did so, Virgil couldn't help but find one statue blinding him more efficiently than the rest. He felt a pull within himself and the statue, similar to that when he was hearing the voice in his head. It was worrisome, but for some reason Virgil knew to trust it above the others. He trusted the energy emanating from this statue even though he could not view it himself.

Virgil could feel movement under himself as he stepped closer to the blinding statue. What felt like rapid thuds across his feet caused Virgil to finch and jolt once more. He raises a legs cautiously as he continued along. The heat and the brightness now seemed to cast a heaviness onto Virgil, one he wasn't sure he was ready to take on. With each step, the more Virgil could feel vibrations against his feet. What sounded like pulled rope could be heard behind him, but adamant like the light in front of him, Virgil continued on forward.

Virgil began to think back to the people he needed to help back at the hospital. He began to think about the large man kneeling besides the pale man's hospital bed. About his patients and his desire to heal them. About Jason and his need to protect them. He let this voice into his head under the promise of being able to help them all.

As he continues to step closer to the bright light, hisses could be heard at his feet. Each step began to feel much heavier than the last. A tightness around his ankles also began to pull Virgil back and away from the statue. Virgil stumbles, falling to the grow in a pile of snakes. They all slithered about, trying to cover Virgil's view of the statue.

"Remember our deal!" Virgil shouts at the bright light, "Remember what you promised me! Let me save my patients! Let me save my friend!"

As Virgil crawls himself towards the statue with determination and rigor, he reclaims his life and comes back with the full power of...