Waking up with Amnesia

At first, all I could feel was pure darkness.

It was a darkness of the mind and soul that was as lethal and potent as poison. I couldn't explain it, but I felt the presence of a dark and foreboding force. It seemed so lively that I believed I could reach out and touch it with my fingertips, like if it were a living thing.

As I became more conscious of my surroundings, I noticed that I was lying on what felt like moist earth. I had no idea what time it was or how I had ended up lying on the ground with my eyes closed.

I couldn't even remember anything before this moment.

I needed to figure out where I was, so I tried to pry my eyelids open, but it seemed like an impossible challenge. Everything within me felt as if it had been broken, repaired, and then broken again. My bones, my organs, and my mind. Absolutely everything felt old and then new again.

As I laid there, I strained to listen, but it was deadly quiet around me. Something told me it was the dead of night, though, and if I wanted to live, I should get up.

I tried to move, but my body was numb. I tried to fight against the feeling, but my arms and legs were heavy as lead, and my head throbbed uncontrollably.

"He's alive," a sultry voice muttered from above me.

What the hell was that?

Who the hell was that?

"He? What do you mean, he?" another shrill, feminine voice demanded. "How is that possible? This has never happened before … maybe it's an illusion or some kind of test."

"It's no test," the other voice answered. "Mother said the chosen one would be here. Therefore, we have no choice but to take … him to the devil."

The devil? Did I hear that correctly?

Now, I knew I had to get up.

I slowly lifted my head and peeled my eyes open, and shock instantly spread through my body as I adjusted my eyes to the vision before me. My mouth hung open when I realized I was staring at a group of cloaked figures, all dressed in long black robes. Their faces were all hidden, they stood as still as stone, and there must have been at least ten of them circled around

me.

Then, suddenly, two of the figures stepped forward, and it took me another moment to grasp that they were women, but they didn't look like ordinary women. They were breathtakingly beautiful … but too beautiful and too strange to be real. No, these had to be actresses from a movie or fashion models on a shoot.

On the right stood a tall woman with the longest, raven black hair I'd ever seen. Her eyes were illuminated, and they shone a vivid, ice blue.

The other woman had similar hair in length, except hers was almost white in color. Her eyes were moonlight yellow, and it felt like they were burning right through me.

The skin of both women glowed, though, like they were a pair of menacing angels, but what stood out above anything else was the fiery, green glow that illuminated their celestial faces. Flames were spurting out from the palms of their hands, and it almost looked like emerald fire.

I tried to make sense of the vision before me, but I couldn't collect my thoughts in order. I could barely find the strength to open my mouth to speak.

There were just too many questions roaming through my mind at once.

"Are you hurt?" the raven-haired woman asked. "Can you speak, mortal?"

"What--" I tried to say, but my voice was hoarse, and it felt like I hadn't had water in days. "What's going on?"

"Ah, so it does have a tongue." The other woman smirked. "Well, I suppose that's somewhat good news."

"Who are you?" I asked as I shook my head. Maybe if I tried hard enough, I could wake myself up from this senseless dream.

"We'll explain later, now come along," the dark-haired one ordered.

"Stand up."

With no other choice, I stood slowly and with shaking legs. As soon as I was upright, I could feel something thick running down my forehead and into my eyes, and when I wiped it away, my fingertips were stained with dark blood.

My blood.

"You'll be fine, now follow us," the white-haired woman commanded.

I nodded robotically, and for a brief moment, I did consider following them, but then something took over. An animalistic instinct of terror.

It told me to run.

I didn't know who these women were or what the hell they wanted from me. They were clearly not human, and they mentioned something about the devil, so I wasn't about to take my chances with them.

Not without a fight.

So, I took a small step forward, and they smiled as I neared them, but with all the energy I could muster, I shoved past them.

Then I fucking ran. And I didn't bother to look back.

"Stop him!" one of the women called out. "Stop him now!"

Something glowing and purple whipped right past me and hit a nearby tree, and then it made a hissing noise as it dissolved into the bark.

"How could you miss?" one of the women shrieked.

"Don't try to kill him, you fools!" another woman screeched.

I heard someone yell something in a foreign language I'd never heard before, and then something hit my back. It felt like a rubber bullet, and it stung, but I kept moving.

"How the devil did he do that? That's not possible!"

"It doesn't matter, we can't lose him!"

As I sprinted through the night, a thicket of trees loomed before me, and I slipped into a forest. I ran aimlessly through the darkness, and the only light I had to guide me was from the moon hanging high above the canopy of trees. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, but I dug deep and pushed more strength into my muscles. I needed to get as far away from those women as possible.

That's all that mattered right now, even if I had no sense of direction or a plan.

My breathing grew heavy and ragged, and blood pumped in my ears. My boots were caked with mud, and I nearly slipped as I ran past the trees and thorny thicket.

When I couldn't run anymore, I finally came to a halt by a river.

As I stopped to catch my breath, I glanced around the deep, dark wood and listened carefully. Were they still behind me? Or had they given up?

All I could hear was the coursing river, the sound of owls, and the calls of other night-time creatures echoing all around me. There was no sign the women were chasing after me, either, since I couldn't hear any voices or footsteps.

I bent down with relief and splashed my face with icy water. Then I stared at my murky, moon-lit reflection.

I didn't recognize my face.

My skin was pallid and drenched with sweat and blood. There was a massive gash over my eyebrow, my light blue eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot, and when I stared down at my white t-shirt, I found it was also stained with sweat, blood, and dirt.

Again, questions began to race through my mind. Why couldn't I remember anything? Where the hell was I? How did I get here? What happened to me?

I couldn't even remember my own goddamn name. All I knew was that I didn't belong in this world … it wasn't my own.

I decided I couldn't dwell on it any longer. At least not out here in the open and in the darkness. I couldn't hear the strange robed women anymore, but that didn't mean they weren't a few dozen yards behind me.

I needed to keep moving.

As I was about to take a step past the river, something made my blood run ice cold, and I froze.

It sounded like a low rumbling growl.

Silence followed, and I strained to listen as I wondered if it was just my imagination.

But then I heard it again. A deep, mean, and feral growl.

I whipped around, and what I saw before me made me freeze in both awe and bloodcurdling fear.

There was a bear-like beast staring right at me.

At first, I thought it was an oversized grizzly, but then I realized it didn't look like an ordinary bear. It was much, much larger, and it was hunched over, with massive saber-tooth like fangs protruding from its mouth. Thick saliva dripped from its razor-sharp, yellowed teeth, and its beady eyes shone a crimson red.

The monster growled again and stood up, and it towered over me as it blocked out the moon. It tossed its head back and let out a raging roar. Then it lowered its ugly head, and when it stared at me, I felt like the creature was sucking the soul right out of my body.

Well, fuck. This was bad.

I should have been frozen with fear, but I found myself taking a tentative step back, and as I did, I tried my best not to look into its red eyes and hoped it was just territorial and not ravenous.

But as soon as I moved, the beast leaped toward me, and my heart started to race.

Then I spun around and ran for my goddamn life.

I sped through the thicket and avoided the roots and rocks below me. My sweat-drenched and matted hair kept falling in front of my face, but I didn't have time to brush it aside. I could hear the beast panting and growling as its heavy footsteps followed me into the wood, and the only advantage I had was that the creature was slower due to its enormous size.

With the moonlight now guiding me, I saw a path leading upwards and followed it. I ran hard and fast and then took a sharp turn. I thought I was going to outrun the beast until I ended up at a dead-end with a small cave built into a stone wall.

"Fuck," I breathed.

There was no way in hell I was going to run inside a mysterious cave where that fucker could corner and devour me. I knew, deep down, that I had to find a way to fight it off.

There was nowhere else to run.

I knew the monster had caught up with me when I heard the same, deep, alarming growl behind me, and when I turned around, I was face to face with death.

The beast was staring at me, with its body positioned and ready to leap and attack. I slowly crouched down, and without taking my eyes off the monster, I searched the ground for any kind of heavy rock. The creature stared at my hand, and I could have sworn it smirked at me for my efforts.

It had no idea how hard I was willing to fight to survive, though.

Finally, I found a cold, heavy, sharp stone and curled my fingers around it. Then I lifted it up and steadied my feet.

"Bring it on, motherfucker," I growled. "Come at me."

As if the thing understood my words, it suddenly leaped into the air and pounced on top of me. My body hit the ground, and the wind was knocked out of me. I still held the rock in one hand, though, and I used my other hand to grasp the beast's throat as it tried to chomp down on me. I had to do whatever I needed to in order to stop it from biting my face off.

The bear-creature snapped its jaws violently, probably frustrated and perplexed as to why its meal was fighting it off. Its nasty breath stung my eyes, and its hairy and massive body was crushing me.

Then, impulsively, I raised my other hand and struck the beast on the side of the head with the rock. The bear-thing flinched back with a cry and shook its big head, and I used that critical, life-or-death instant to raise the stone and struck it in the head as hard as I could.

My would-be-killer yelped and was stunned for another second by the force of my blow.

So, I beat it again and again.

I pounded the beast with all my power until it dropped to my side, and as soon as its body was free of mine, I was able to breathe again. Then I took a long, breath and got up on unsteady legs.

Fuck this guy.

I stared down at the monster, which was as motionless as stone. I wasn't going to risk it getting back up, so I picked the same rock and bashed its face in with a satisfying crack with one more hit. I was coated in gore as blood, brains, and bones were exposed.

I let the rock fall to the ground while trying to control my rapid breathing. I had just met and vanquished death. Nausea rushed over me as I tried to inhale sharp intakes of air; everything was spinning, and I thought I was ready to pass out.

When I heard a nearby twig crunch, I immediately came to my senses. I grabbed the same rock and frantically glanced about for the source.

"Interesting … " muttered an eerily familiar voice from behind me.