"You don't remember your name. I'm supposed to address you in some way. That's the first thing that came to mind."
"Dead or not, most importantly, I'm handsome."
"I can't take it anymore."
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I'm going to find the bathroom," Everett said as he ran out of the room.
Barefoot and in just a hospital shirt, he ran just ahead. The cold floors felt horribly uncomfortable, he was beginning to panic even more. The cold white tiles, the silence and emptiness around him quickened his stride and behind him, Jasper accelerated too.
"Wait! You don't know where you're going!"
"I have to understand!"
"What's going on here? Wait!" exclaimed the nurse who was pulling the medicine cart. "You! Where did you come from! Stop!"
"She seems to be running after us."
"It's a trap!" Everett shouted, grabbing Jasper's arm, and running even faster somewhere forward.
"You're a fast runner! Stop! There's a ladder!"
Around the corner and up the stairs, they ran upwards, startled by their own breath and shadows.
"Catch them! They ran that way!"
Hearing the nurse's voice, Everett opened the door, which was between floors.
"Quick, let's hide."
In the pitch blackness and surrounded by the unpleasant smell of blood and damp, they stood without moving or even taking a breath. But when the voices disappeared, they relaxed a little.
"It hurts," Jasper whispered, only now feeling how much his arm was numb.
"I'm sorry."
"What is this place?"
"I don't know."
Reaching forward to feel something, Everett was glad when he touched something hard.
"I think I found a switch," he whispered, trying to press down on this hard object. After all, he didn't even particularly remember what a switch felt like to the touch.
"Actually, it's not what you think," Jasper said before Everett could press any harder. "It is my flesh. Do you understand?"
After exactly ten seconds, Everett realised what he'd just grabbed. Namely the organ that can at times harden and which is responsible for the manifestation of love. That was the definition he gave to that organ when he realised what his hand was gripping in the darkness.
Jerking his hand away as if he had touched a bare electric wire, he nearly fell backwards and when his head touched something iron and icy, he screamed and the scream was very thin, like a girl's.
"What is it? Are you all right?" Jasper asked, catching him by the waist before he fell.
"Are you laughing? There's nothing funny about it. We're standing in the middle of nowhere and I touched your... And why are you so tensed anyway? What are you, a pervert?"
There was a low and sly laugh from Jasper, who was clearly amused by this strange situation for everyone.
"Are you laughing? Stop it."
"For I know now that I am not dead. If I were dead, would I have experienced something like this."
"Let's get out of here."
"What if they catch us?"
"We don't even know where we are or who we are. I don't think we should run away."
Carefully opening the door, they looked out and there was no one on the landing. Silence was everywhere again. Not a single sound or hint that anyone was in the place. Also, neatly and without any noise they closed the door and without even looking into the room where they were, they stopped, not knowing where to go next. But a new plan immediately appeared in their minds as soon as they heard the distant voices of people.
"Let's go upstairs," Jasper suggested, now, grabbing Everett's hand and pulling him along.
Voices came from below and the higher they climbed, quickly running past the white intimidating corridors.
"Handsome, this way," Everett managed to say before they were spotted by an elderly woman who was moving very slowly on a walker.
Leaving many floors behind, they stopped perhaps on the topmost floor, easily and stealthily passing the nurses who were trying to solve the crossword puzzle.
Luckily for them they were able to hide in the nurses' lavatory, which was behind a glass door, behind which another corridor stretched and at the end of which strange lights glowed.
"Finally!" exclaimed Everett, as if he had found the treasure everyone was trying to find. Opening the door of one of the toilet cubicles, with happiness in his eyes he walked over to the toilet and began to do what he had wanted to do for a long time.
"When did you manage to drink so much water?"
"I just woke up. I didn't drink anything."
"You woke up with me, didn't you?"
"When did you wake up?"
"When I opened my eyes, it was dark and then I saw you in the bed next to me."
"We must have woken up at the same time."
"Keep your voice down," Jasper said, opening the door to see someone. But still, it was as if they were alone throughout the hospital.
"Don't you want to go to the toilet?"
"No. I'm just a little tired and my feet are terribly cold."
Finally, having closed the lid on the toilet, Everett, the happiest man in the whole world, went to the sink and began to carefully wash his hands, sticky with sweat. And while he washed his hands, he looked at his reflection in the mirror.
"Do I look like this? I don't even remember what I look like. It's my face," he said as he touched his tired face, which expressed only surprise.
"I wonder why we don't remember anything."
"I don't. But I'm not so scared anymore."
Looking at his face and then at Everett's face, which suddenly turned red, Jasper stepped closer to him and reached forward, to touch his face.
"What are you doing?"
"I wonder how old we are."
"Judging by your face, you're about 30 or 27."
"You think so? I'm so young and I don't remember anything."
"How old am I then?"
"39 or 37."
Approaching the mirror, Everett opened his mouth, looked at the straight row of his teeth, then moved even closer and studied his face. He found no wrinkles or signs that he was ill or already an old man. He was even relieved to see a flat and trim belly under his hospital gown, which had not yet had time to swell with fat. He was even relieved to see that he was still young.
"And I really am handsome. You were right. Look at that face and that hair. I must have been an actor. What do you think?"
"So why don't we remember anything?"
"I don't know."
"Did you hear that?"
"What?"
Grabbing his arm again, Everett quickly locked himself in one of the toilet cubicles, covering Jasper's mouth with his other hand.