“It’s my face,” the man on the bed murmured as he stared at the reflection of his face on the mirror.
The man wearing the white coat looked puzzled and asked, “Yes. That’s your face. Is something wrong with it?”
The man on the bed suddenly broke out of his trance and looked around at the nurse and then at the doctor.
“Oh no. I’m fine,” he stammered hurriedly.
The doctor smiled and replied, “Of course. I understand your pain, having something that ugly wrapped over your head, but trust me. You’ll be fine after staying here for a couple of days. Alright?”
“Yes, mister doctor,” the man replied with a nod of his head.
This remark surprised the doctor, and he laughed before asking, “Mister doctor? Did you think that’s my name?” When the man on the bed nodded, the doctor chuckled and stated, “That’s funny.” Then he introduced himself as, “My name is Andrew Williams. I’m a specialised doctor here at the hospital. Oh, and her name isn’t nurse, it’s Lina Morris.”
“Hi,” the nurse named Lina Morris waved cheerily at him.
“H-Hello,” the man on the bed replied with an embarrassed look.
The doctor let out a laugh and said, “Isn’t it common sense to know that the names ‘doctor’ and ‘nurse’ are actually titles?”
“Sorry. It seems like my head injury rattled me a little,” the man on the bed replied with a wry smile.
“I can understand that,” the doctor replied with a smile, “but you’ll be fine, so don’t worry and get plenty of rest.” Then he looked at the nurse and told her, “Keep checking up on him.”
“Yes, doctor,” she replied courteously.
With a nod of satisfaction, the doctor and the nurse bid the man on the bed farewell and they departed from the room, closing the door with a shut as they left. The man on the bed was smiling at them as they left, but the moment they left, the smiled vanished, and he began to contemplate about the things he just found out.
“So, this face is alike to my own from the time when I was alive so long ago, but that’s impossible. I destroyed myself in trying to kill that twisted thing, but how can this be my body then? On top of that, there is this unmistakable familiarity I have with this body.”
Every time he had possessed a body, he always felt very foreign with the possession and how the body did not belong to him. However, he felt this body that he currently inhabits belonged to him, like it was the body he had be born with from the very beginning.
“This is quite confusing, this familiarity, that familiar face, but in a completely different world,” he thought to himself as he looked at the window and saw a vastly different scenery to the one, he had been used to.
Outside, he could hear the sound of horns of vehicles moving back and forth somewhere far below. He understood that to mean his room was located somewhere high up off the ground level. It made sense considering he was able to get a wider view of the world and it just baffled him even more.
“Could this be a coincidence?” He thought to himself for a brief moment before shaking his head. “No. That’s impossible. I don’t believe in chance, luck or something as convenient as coincidence. This must be planned and no doubt by the Gods.”
With that, he looked up at the ceiling, but not really looking at the ceiling. He imagined himself being watched over by the Gods that dwelled in their dimensional plane of existence. The plane that he currently was in was the mortal plane, also known as the Physical Plane, and there were several more planes above his before the eventual God Plane could be reached.
He let out a sigh of weariness and muttered, “No point thinking about something that’s out of my control.” Then he tried flexing his free hand and thought, “I’m certainly sore and weak.”
At that moment, he was reminded of what the doctor had said to him about his brutal injury.
“Someone was trying to kill me,” he thought, “or at least the previous owner of this body. I don’t know anything related to this world or even to the previous owner despite feeling so familiar to this body.”
He understood the dilemma that he would be facing soon, like the common sense of this world as had very little knowledge of the world he was currently in, as demonstrated how he mistook the titles for the doctor and the nurse as their actual names.
“If only I could gain the memories of the previous owner, even if I could speak to him, perhaps I can better understand my situation or what lead things to the current situation,” he thought dully. “Anyway, I’ll first focus on resting and recovering like the doctor said. I’ll revisit these things once I’m able to sit upright.”
With that, he closed his eyes and quickly dozed off into a deep dreamless sleep. For the next few days, he spent the time resting and recovering while getting occasional visits from the nurse, who often spoke cheerily with him.
Speaking to her, he was able to grasp a bit more about the current world. For starters, the flashing lights he saw the time he was being carried to the hospital was not a technique but a device that took still pictures of those it was pointed at while flashing a light to brighten them up.
This puzzled him as he asked her, “Why were they taking photos of me being carried away? Was that something interesting?”
“Youth these days are quite messed up,” she replied with a sigh. “They’d do anything to get some traction all for views.”
She pulled out the small device from her phone and used it for a bit before turning it around and showing it to him. The man squinted his eyes to get a better look and looked surprised by what he saw.
There was the image of him being clearly carried away on a stretcher with a caption below that read, “Homeless man getting taken by the meds!”
Below it, there appeared more text that were separated by some kind of border for each of them.
“What kind of homeless man gets carried away like that lol?”
“I wonder if he’s on drugs or something for them to come in like that.”
“Looks like the guy forgot to pay his taxes, haha!”
The man reacted in surprise and exclaimed, “What the heck?”
“I know right?” The nurse said, shaking her head with disapproval. “These people have nothing better to do and no empathy as well to put down comments such as these.” After a pause, she added, “At least, not everyone falls in that category,” and she showed him the device once more.
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The man looked at the device and was startled by seeing a moving picture of him being carried away into the white vehicle.
“What the?! The picture moves!” He exclaimed in alarm, to which she was taken aback.
“That’s called a video, silly,” she said with a chuckle.
“Oh yeah. I forgot,” he stammered, but quickly looked at the device to read what it said.
The so-called video of him was captioned as, “Badly injured man gets hurried away by the medics!”
Below the video were some of the so-called comments from people saying things like, “I hope he’s alright,” or “Oh my god! Look at all that blood! I hope he gets well soon!” or “Damn, I’m glad they got to him soon and hope he gets the help he needs!”
Unlike the previous negative comments, these positive comments surprised him and made him feel a little happy. Despite him having conflicting feelings about the body he currently inhabits, it was still his body nevertheless, so he was happy some people showed concern for his wellbeing.
“These people are nice,” he remarked with a smile.
“Yeah,” she said, withdrawing her device and pocketing it. “There’s all kinds of people all around, so don’t mind them and you get well soon, okay?”
“I will, he replied with a smile.
A few days after that exchange, the doctor, whose name was Andrew Williams, came to a visit him, where the man on the bed was able to sit upright. The doctor proceeded to unravel the wrappings over his head and got him to check himself in a mirror to see that no scratches or the likes remained.
“You’re nearly recovered and give or take a few more days and you’d be good to go,” the doctor said with satisfaction.
“Thank you, doctor,” the man replied with a smile.
“It’s my pleasure,” Andrew replied with a pleasant smile.
One the check-up was done; they bed him farewell and departed from the room only for a different group of people to enter the room. The man felt something different about these people as they were wearing completely different clothes to the doctor and the nurse and had an air of authority about them.
“Hello. We’re the police,” he informed the man with a brisk tone. “We’re here to ask some questions regarding your incident.”
“Oh, okay,” the man replied, but he thought to himself, “Police? Is that some sort of group of people that enforce the law on the general people?”
“We asked the doctor, and he informed us you were badly injured to the point of being in a life-threatening situation. We wanted to know if you were aware of the situation?”
“Kind of? I mean, the doctor told me that I was hit multiple times with a heavy object or some kind?”
“Yes, and he elaborated that it could’ve been some kind of bat or something like a metallic rod since there were apparently tiny metal pieces stuck at the point of injury.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, so I’m wondering if you knew of anyone in particular that you know that could’ve been aiming for your life?”
“Um…” the man on the bed hesitated to answer as he appeared uncertain.
“I know it might hurt for you to remember this horrible event, but it would help us put the people responsible for such an atrocity behind bars,” the man asked earnestly. “So, please try to remember any small details.”
The man on the bed continued to look hesitant to give a reply. He could not simply come out and tell the police officer that he was the person that was attacked and that he had taken over the body after the incident. The man was sure the man asking the questions would think he had gone crazy from the injury and not take him seriously.
So, he instead said with an uncertain look, “I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t really know who would do that to me.”
The man continued to look earnestly at him before giving a sigh and looked dejected.
“If you say that, then we’d have to mark the case as a random assault on the street and close it. Is that okay with you?”
“I guess,” the man said with a shrug. “I’m unsure myself of why I was attacked, sir, so do what you must.” Then he said apologetically, “I’m sorry that I wasn’t of much help.”
“Oh. Don’t be like that,” the office said with a reassuring smile. Then he closed his folder and said, “Well, we’ll keep searching around for any information of your attackers before we make any final decisions.”
“Sure, sir,” the man replied with a smile.
With that, the officers were about to leave when the man suddenly remembered something. He turned around and pulled out something like a wallet from his pocket and handed it over to the man on the bed.
“I believe this is yours. We recovered it from the site of the incident.”
“Oh. Thank you, sir,” the man said and opened what looked like a folding object made out of leather.
He opened the leather object and found a card in a sleave. He took out the card and his eyes widened in alarm by the details he found on it. This card had a smaller image of his picture as well his name, age, date of birth and his residential address.
“The name is Zayden Kardos, age is 25, date of birth so and so, and the address…” the man muttered to himself as he thoroughly checked the card. After a moment, he finally said, “This must be the identification card belonging to the original owner of this body.”
As he was lost in thought and the officer looked on with a hint of worry on his face, the door sudden opened and a woman rushed in with a concerned expression on her face.
“Zayden!” The woman exclaimed as she rushed forward and hugged him.
“H-Huh?” The man reacted with surprise as she rushed forward and hugged him.
“I’m glad you’re safe!” She exclaimed, tears pouring down her concerned face.
“Um…?” The man asked hesitantly, and looked worriedly at the police officers.
“Who are you, miss?” The police asked her shrewdly.
She wiped away her tears and turned to tell the officer, “I’m his girlfriend, officer.”
“You’re his girlfriend?” He asked her with an eyebrow raised.
“Yes, sir,” she said adamantly.
“And your name is…?”
“It’s Serena Bolloward.”
“Serena… Bolloward…” he muttered as he noted down her name and further asked, “and do you have any proof of your relationship with the victim? Like photos of you two spending time together?”
“Yes, sir,” she said with a nod of her head.
Then she opened the small bag she was carrying and pulled out a similar looking device to the one that nurse was using. She began to look through it before showing it to the police officers. This made them look at the device, then at her and then at the man sitting on the bed.
“There’s more proof of our relationship, sir,” she said and began swipe at the phone to show the officers while the man looked quizzically at them.
After a moment, the officer straightened up and said, “I think I’ve seen plenty to verify you really are his girlfriend,” and his expression became serious as he asked, “Then, would you perhaps know of anyone that might have anything against your boyfriend?”
“I’m not sure, officer,” she said while putting her device away. “He’s a very good man, always hardworking, nice to everyone and is just a friendly person to be around, so I can’t imagine anyone would do such harm to him!”
“Hmm,” the office said with a thoughtful look. “This is a difficult situation.” A moment later, he smiled at them and said, “Alright. I guess we’ll keep searching. Well, then take care of yourselves,” he told them before departing.
As they left, the woman named Serena Bolloward, turned to him and asked with concern, “Are you alright? How’s your head?”
“I-I’m getting better,” he replied, but in his mind, he thought, “My girlfriend? Must be the girlfriend of the original owner of this body. If so, how come she came so many days after I got admitted?”
“By the way, where were you all these days while I was admitted here?” He asked her curiously.
To that, she hesitated before saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know what happened until today when I saw news of you getting admitted here from the online feeds.”
“Oh. I guess that makes sense,” he said, but inwardly, he thought, “But I’ve seen feeds of me being carried away in the medical vehicle a few days ago when the nurse showed it to me, so how come you didn’t see it till today?”
He was filled with suspicion about his so-called girlfriend when the door opened and this time, a burly man entered the room. He was quite tall, built like a man that works out rigorously, but the air about him gave off a sense of arrogance.
“Yo! You’re actually still alive. How remarkable?” He asked as he looked arrogantly at the man on the bed with a dangerous glint in his brown eyes.
The man on the bed stared at him for a moment and as the tall man gradually walked closer, the man’s eyes widened as he began to say, “You…?”
Suddenly, the man on the bed experienced a sharp pain in his head and instantly felt something happening to him. In the next second, he began to see flashes of memories, the ones that had been disconnected from him, re-attach themselves, and he was filled with everything, from the moment his childhood, his school days, his university, the time he spent with his girlfriend and the conflict that lead him to becoming hospitalised.
As the flash ended and the memories reconnected, the man felt like he was about to pass out from the overwhelming number of memories he had just experienced in that instant. However, he received a vital information from the reattached memories.
His final memory before being cut off was seeing this same tall man standing before him, out in the middle of a street, smashing his head repeatedly with his hands that seemed to be made out of metal. Finally, the memory ended with the tall man sneering and putting his hands together and slamming them down hard on the man on the ground, knocking him out cold in the process with blood from his wounds surrounding him.