Chapter 2: Recovery

Voices call out, but where from? He cannot see anyone. He is alone in this dark, cold alley. Not one other person is in sight and yet, he hears someone speaking. The words are ineligible, but it is obviously a voice. He stands up, looking towards the light of the frozen street. A bench sits there, shrouded in darkness. Fear creeps into his skin, raising his hairs. The light of the street calls to him. He walks towards it, escaping the darkness. The alley stretches on forever; each step only takes him further away. Panic sets in, and he begins running. Still, the light flees away from his desperate escape. His breathing grows sloppy and he sprints with all of his effort. The light of the street fades with each step, as the darkness around the bench envelopes the alley. He stops in his tracks for a moment. The alley appears just as it was before; dark and cold, but the exit only steps away. Taking a big breath in, he approaches the light calmly. Each step brings him slightly closer, but the light no longer seems as bright. Just as he steps into the threshold between the alley and the street, everything goes dark. No light reflects off the snowy sidewalk, in fact there is no sidewalk. What once was an exit is now only unending darkness. He steps back and turns around, to be met with more darkness. His heart beats with ferocity, his face caked in sweat. He covers his face and sits against the brick wall beside him. There is nothing, but silence and the cold brick against his back.

Dull light shakes him from his trance. He stands to his feet, feeling stiff as though he had been sitting for decades. The darkness has vanished, exposing the icy street and bench. He cautiously steps towards the exit, getting closer with each movement. All of a sudden, something grabs him from the back. He is flung deep into the darkness of the alley. Falling to the ground, he peers towards the exit. The faint light of the street is barely noticeable. As he slowly stands, he can feel his body quake and his heart pound. Something is wrong, but what? He takes off sprinting towards the light, but it diminishes instantly. The sound of his footfalls don’t stop, as he books it toward where the exit once was. His desperate escape is suddenly stopped by a figure standing in his path. Darkness emits off the figure like fire, spreading to the surroundings. He backs up a few steps and turns around, only to find two other figures looking down at him. His vision slowly fades and he stumbles. Everywhere he turns, all three figures stand before him. He falls to the ground, looking up to where the sky would be. An infinite number of dark figures blot out the sky, looking down at him. They wobble and bob, as if they were laughing silently. They stop just as soon as they start, standing motionless around him. His body refuses to move as the figures slowly move in on him. The darkness grows and grows until there is nothing left, not even him.

Aiden wakes up in a panic, his heart thumps against his broken body. He sits up slightly, but the pain thrusts his body back down into the hospital bed.

“Take it easy, sweetie!” Ava pumps into his mind. The words do not reach him. Aiden glances around his unfamiliar surroundings. Daylight fills the room from his right, revealing a cream coloured room with a plant in the corner, beside two red chairs. The rapid beeping of the machine attached to him draws his attention. He winces as he breathes out; the beeping begins to slow.

“Where am I?” he thinks.

“Xander Hospital” Ava replies, “you were taken here after emergency responders found you. How are you feeling?”

“Shit” Aiden replies. He shifts in his tiny hospital bed, getting more comfortable. Just as he closes his eyes, a nurse walks into the room towards the machine to Aiden’s left. Aiden opens his eyes and looks up to the nurse, who is occupied with reading. She moves her hand away and glances down at Aiden, before stepping back, surprised.

“Oh!” she exclaims, “I didn’t know you were awake, sorry! How are you feeling?”

“Really awful” he replies, weakly.

“Well, you do have broken ribs, bruised organs, and you were bleeding internally” she explains, reviewing a sheet on her clipboard. “You also have a concussion.”

“That all?” Aiden jokingly responds, with a tiny smirk.

The nurse doesn’t react and continues in a serious tone “It’s a good thing you have AIs to call emergency services, otherwise the internal bleeding would have killed you.”

“I’ll have to thank them for that.”

“I’d do anything to keep you alive, sweetie!” Ava says in his head.

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“So, how long until I recover?” Aiden asks the nurse.

She brushes her long brown hair out of her eyes and says “We will release you from the hospital in about a week, but you won’t be fully recovered for a couple months probably. Avoid physical activity, any alcohol at all, fatty foods, and keep away from screens until your concussion is gone. You’ll make a full recovery, but you have to take really good care of yourself until then, alright?”

“Yes, ma’am” Aiden says quietly, hiding his annoyance. He isn’t much of an active person, but being slightly disabled was no treat.

“Alright, Aiden. Let know if you need anything, just hit the small red button to your left there.” She walks out of the room and closes the door. Aiden closes his eyes once more, feeling weak and tired. His thoughts race around his mind, thinking about this and that, but the alley keeps popping in every few moments. He remembers parts of the attack, feeling the weight of his emotions on his mind. His chest burns with discomfort. Aiden calls his AI Data at that moment.

“Sir?” Data responds.

“Can you read me a random story from my preferences? I’m not feeling so great” Aiden asks internally.

“Of course, sir.” His comfortable butler-like voice begins reading a story,

calming Aiden’s nerves. His body settles and he drifts away with the words of his AI.

*

A few days pass, as Aiden recovers in the hospital. No visitors come to see him, just a nurse checking on him hourly. However, when the door to his room opens on Monday morning, two police officers walk into the room with the nurse. They quietly talk in front of the door for a few moments, before the nurse walks out. The short female officer with red hair walks over to the bedridden Aiden.

“Hi, Aiden” she says, “mind if we ask you a few questions?”

“Sure” he responds, his voice much stronger than it was a few days back. The officer pulls out a pad of paper and a pen.

“We know you didn’t beat yourself up in that alley, so can you explain to us who did this and why?” She shifts her serious gaze from her notepad, to Aiden. It unsettles him slightly.

“I had just attended and purchased a VR headset from VR Life at the release event. I was walking back to my place of work where I parked, when two men sitting on a bench forced me into the alley. Their friend waiting in the alley began threatening me. He was caucasian -they all were- about six foot five, no facial hair, brown eyes, and horrid yellow teeth.” Aiden pauses for a few moments, his expression tenses up.

“What about the other two?” the female officer inquires.

“I… I didn’t get a good look at their faces” Aiden mumbles, feeling a bit disjointed. “Data, do you have any recollection?”

“Only partially” Data replies, “one of them was approximately six foot three, with green eyes and a crooked nose. It was hard to determine anything else about him. Unfortunately, I did not get a good look at the other one.”

“Alright” Aiden responds. “One of the other two was six three and had green eyes and a crooked nose.”

“Anything else?” the female officer questions.

“Sorry, that’s all I have got” he sighs.

“Alright, thank you for your help” she clicks her pen, “we will contact you if we learn anything else or find your attackers.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem, you take care now” the male officer says, before they walk out of the room. Aiden lies there for a moment before Ava speaks up.

“Did you want me to order another headset for you, sweetie?”

“Yeah, that would be great, Ava. Thanks” Aiden replies, “Data, please set up a reminder once the order has been confirmed.”

“Will do, sir” Data confirms. Aiden lets out a sigh and settles back into his bed. He looks around the room, dwelling and worrying about work and his crippled body. Moments later, the nurse walks in and smiles at Aiden.

“How are you feeling today?” she asks.

“A little bit better than a few days ago, but this could just be the drugs” he responds, with a dry chuckle.

“That’s good to hear, when we release you at the end of the week, we will give you some prescriptions to help your body recover and help you tolerate the pain. Until then, just keep getting rest okay?”

“Will do, thanks” Aiden replies, giving a slight smile. The nurse turns around and walks out of the room. Aiden turns away and looks out the window, breathing out heavily. He smirks slightly, feeling a twinge of excitement about going home soon. His eyes slowly close as he succumbs to exhaustion, falling into a deep sleep.