Revealing The Truth

Azil paced around the office waiting for Neo to arrive. In the past, he would always sit still when he needed to think about things but since arriving in such a complex world, he found himself feeling the urge to move a lot more. The tension in his heart was suffocating but he didn't know who else to turn to. 

"Rahey." The door swung open at last and Doctor Neo walked in. She looked tired but had a warm aura nonetheless. Since getting to know her better, he realized that it was easy to misunderstand her as being distant which was the inverse of reality. 

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

She had been helping him through his memory loss and explaining whatever he didn't understand without asking many intrusive questions. Even Emmy had helped him quite a lot with things he didn't understand and some health check-ups that he needed conducted.

Since that day at the hospital, he had never received a single call or message from either of his parents. He still used their card to pay the bills though it had taken him a while to understand how the card worked. It was fortunate that Rahey had a list on his computer with all the passwords to his many accounts. For some reason, he used a strange code to hide the passwords which made Azil think Rahey must have been overly paranoid.

Who was going to go digging around in his laptop and look through every single file until they found a useful one that was even labelled incorrectly as 'geography homework' instead of passwords.

Well, Azil did do that but it was different for him since he was technically Rahey now.

Beyond that, Rahey added another layer of security to it by turning everything on it into a code. It was a blessing that it didn't take long for Azil to figure out the code which was simple and related to the position of the letters and keys on the computer. 

While Rahey had been lost in thought, Neo had already taken a seat and gestured for him to do the same. He sat down didn't immediately respond to her question. As if sensing his temporization, she changed it- "First, how have you been settling in?"

Azil paused again, wincing as he remembered some unfortunate incidents during the settling in process such as Haver asking him why he typed so slowly and having to secretly beg Alder to teach him how to navigate the college. 

Neo looked at him sympathetically, "Don't worry. You'll be back to how you used to be in no time. What's important is patience."

Azil finally snapped out of his long winded day dream and shook his head, "I'm sorry but that's not possible."

"Huh?"

"I mean I can't go back to how I used to be."

Neo nodded, suddenly sitting up straight, "I don't mean to tell you that you can just return to a normal life after what happened. Rather, I want you to keep in mind that the frustration you feel will pass eventually."

Azil shook his head again, "No that's not what I mean either." He could see the slightly pained expression on the doctor's face as she tried to understand what he was saying. Azil had gotten slightly better at reading people so he knew that she felt pressured to reassure him. Before she could cut him off- he raised his hands. 

"Please. I want you to listen to me even if it sounds ridiculous."

But Azil was desperate. He needed at least one person to know the truth about him and the doctor for all intents and purposes was still a stranger to him. He could never tell his parents, Professor, roommates or Violetta because all of them were people he saw regularly but if he told the doctor and things backfired then he could just run away.

'But why?' The small voice in his head was silenced. A part of Azil knew that returning to his own world was as much of a hassle because he had changed in ways he didn't fully understand. Paranoid, uncertainty, dishonesty- such traits had somehow rubbed off on him and he wasn't sure if it was the effect of the world or the fact that he was inhabiting Rahey's body. 

"...I'll listen." The doctor said at last. 

***

Outside, the sky was dark blue and occasionally, a star or two could be seen. The crescent moon was suspended above the reaching skyscrapers and the sounds of horns blaring and the wind rustling the trees could be heard like nightly music. Azil stepped outside the hospital, turning back to see the many white lights still on in various rooms. The area outside the entrance was deserted and he could see a few nurses still going back and forth inside as the receptionist left for a coffee break. He wondered vaguely if that would be his last visit to the hospital.

It wasn't like he expected Neo to believe him. He could hardly believe anything himself but somehow, he thought the people of the modern world would be more open-minded. After spending less than an hour narrating his story, he waited and gave the doctor some time to process. She sat before him like a statue- unmoving and rigid. 

Just as he coughed, clearing his throat and trying to ease the tension- the door to her office swung open and she was called away for an emergency of sorts. Technically, it was time for her to go home already so Azil felt slightly guilty for keeping her so late. Neo stood up and gave him an indecipherable look before leaving. He didn't think she hated him or anything because she had patted his shoulder awkwardly before leaving instead of saying anything.

Azil sighed loudly but his disappointment was lost in the sounds of the city. He stood by the sidewalk, using an app to call a cab and shivering slightly in the cold. It was nearing winter where they were.

He contemplated changing his story to make it so that his accident was the reason he forgot all rudimentary knowledge but that felt like too much of a stretch. Despite not understanding the extent to which 'memory loss' could be taken, Azil's memory wasn't only incomplete but ancient. He knew things from his world that may or may not align with the current world. He also knew that if he kept pretending not to know anything then they might take more serious measures, stopping him from living with the normalcy he acquired.

The cab finally drove up and the driver asked for confirmation. Azil gave it and slid into the backseat, yawning. His only current priority was to go home and get some sleep.