I hear the soft babble of voices in the background and the buzz of equipment as I manage to open my eyes. The blurry figures approach me and babble a little louder but I couldn’t understand.

I tried to say something but the words came out as if I was underwater.

My vision faded in and out before a wave of cold rushed into my veins from the needle in my right arm. I look down surprised that I hadn’t noticed it earlier. As I traced my eyes up from the tube taped to my wrist my eyes began to droop. I see a white coat and hear a feminine voice before I quickly slip back into unconsciousness again.

— — — O — o — O — — —

My consciousness faded in and out after I woke up a few times. My memories were fuzzy and everything blurred together into a soupy mess in my mind. I still couldn’t understand anyone or tell if anyone could understand my slurred speech.

The time I was awake was getting longer each time and my mind became a little sharper. Each time I felt like I was thinking fine until I woke up again and realized how slow my mind had been. Until it happened again and again as my mind reconstructed itself each cycle.

I still couldn’t speak to the hospital staff, but I felt I could almost understand their words when they spoke to me. Exhausted from the effort of thinking so hard I lay back on my pillow and fell asleep again ready to begin another cycle.

— — — O — o — O — — —

All of a sudden I was startled awake at something. I looked around at the empty hospital room. Everything felt so clear now, unlike the muddled water of my memories at the hospital so far still swimming in the back of my thoughts.

The curtains were drawn and the room was dark.

My head was still fuzzy but at least I could string some of my thoughts together now. I strained my ears for a second before realizing what had startled me.

The silence. The low conversation and shuffling of feet in the hallway heard through the walls had cut off and left only Serenity. But maybe I was wrong? I weakly lift my arms and press the call button on the side of the hospital bed. At least I vaguely remembered one of the nurses pointed at it after looking at me for a bit and making some noises with a concerned expression. Yeah, that made sense she would make sure I was awake for something like that. I waited. And waited. And waited some more.

— — — O — o — O — — —

Nothing happened. Eventually, I just laid back and tried to go back to sleep.

It seems no one was coming.

Why was I here again? Let’s see… I watched some TV, finished the birdhouse, then the eldritch came to the door… Wait but hadn’t it come earlier at the usual time? No, so it came twice? I reached the door twice?

But that didn’t make any sense… But then something bad happened… But what? My eyebrows furrowed as I tried harder to remember. My headache grew a fraction as I thought deeper. Finally, after a few minutes of disjointed flashes, it all came rushing back as all the scattered memories condensed into a coherent picture. I remember it all, the foreign eldritch, Enemy, the mental assaults, and how my eldritch, Ally, apparently fought it off while I was passed out.

My head pulsed as I thought of each of their names. Something seemed strange about them, but I couldn’t place it for the life of me. Weird that Ally didn’t show up until the other one's hand was already through the window though…

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I sat and thought over the past day for a second before the reason for the silence came over me. Shit, it had been a whole week! I was in Serenity! Everyone in the hospital had disappeared as usual when I entered Serenity, waking me up presumably. I flopped around in my hospital gown for a moment, but yeah I’m definitely not walking anywhere. I sighed and slumped back into the hospital bed. Damn, this was going to be hard to explain to the staff tomorrow given I could barely move my arms let alone stand to open the hospital room door.

It was strange. I had only fully been awake since what was presumably sometime just after midnight in Serenity yet I could feel my mental recovery improve by the second. I had slept fitfully through the night as it was still dark out, and each time I woke my thoughts felt clearer and clearer and my headache receded.

By the time the sun filtered through the blinds, I only had a slight headache like after a cold. Even that was fading quickly after a few more hours and it reached late morning. Yet my body remained weak as ever and despite my mental recovery, I could still barely move my arms. Which led to the next issue. I was bored. There was nothing to read, no one to talk to, nothing to watch. I counted the pits in the ceiling and specks of dirt on the tiles, but even that can only last you so long.

Absolutely none of the entertainment in the modern world. I couldn’t even go back to sleep as the sun was shining directly through the window into my face now. I had to weakly shade my face with my hands and squint as I did my duty and counted whatever I could within sight to stave off the boredom.

Occasionally I strained my legs a little to test them but made no progress on that front. They moved shakily, but at least they were moving in the direction my brain told them to move now. Maybe a little more motion each time as morning turned to afternoon, but not enough to even attempt walking or leaving the bed. I didn’t really want to try taking out the IV or, uh, other tube they installed in my current state either. I’m almost glad I didn’t jump out of bed initially and rip either of those tubes out. Especially the lower one.

I shuddered and quickly shifted focus back to counting the wrinkles in the bedsheet if I didn’t move. Anytime I finished I would just shift around a bit to reset the board. Genius! Hah, as if… Around five extremely boring hours later by my reckoning I tensed as I heard something approaching the door from the outside. With bated breath, I stared hard at the door as the footsteps stopped outside. Then I heard a familiar knock at the door and sighed in relief. A calm one and not a rage fueled assault.

It was my eldritch, Ally. Then it knocked again when I didn’t respond. Then again. Then dozens more. Or even a hundred. It felt like that at least. “Clack rrrriippp. Clack rririiiiipp”. I shifted slightly in the bed knowing I was in this for the long haul, invalid as I was unable to answer the door.

— — — O — o — O — — —

“Clack rrrriippp. Clack rririiiiipp. Clack rrrrrriiiippp, clatter clunk clunk”.

Oh, looks like the metal lock finally fell from the door due to the pounding from the eldritch. With one final knock, the door swung open with a splintering of wood. There standing in the shattered doorway was Ally with its red plating. Something at seeing the color sparked something in my memories. Several of its eyes were scabbed over and one of its little tentacles below its mouth was hanging limp. The feeling of familiarity rushed over me for a moment before I remembered what I had forgot. I had named it Red in my mind. How could I have forgotten...

I met one of the big eyes on its skull and one of the weakest mental connections I had ever felt from it formed between us. I think it was trying to not injure me more? That was considerate. I didn’t even think it knew how to do that. It skimmed my thoughts not delving deeply into any particular topic. As I thought of the other creature that attacked me I felt the eldritch’s probe hit the thought and snag on it.

It brought the memory of my encounter to the forefront of my mind again and scanned through it several times slowly and with focus. I could sense a little frustration from it and it seemed to be struggling to make sense of the memory through my senses directly. After a minute it withdrew and clicked softly.

“Click caaaa. Ennnnneeee. Cla… ennaaaaaamiiiiiii”.

I did a mental doubletake. Wait, ‘enemy’? Did I hear that right? I opened my mouth to say something despite knowing the futility, but before I could say anything it just turned around and left. I could hear the crunch of the splinters as it stepped back through the shattered door hanging loosely off its frame, metal lock on the floor. I closed my open mouth and settled back on my bed. Well, Enemy wasn't exactly a name, was it? I think I'll be creative again. I'll call it Yellow after the color of its plating. It's worked well so far.

— — — O — o — O — — —

Ten minutes later I startled up as I heard crashing and screeching out the window in the parking lot. The fight between what must have been Red and Yellow felt like it lasted a long time. The screeches and crashes from the parking lot below faded into the distance as the fight continued. I waited for what felt like hours as I strained my ears in the silence.

It was hard to tell the exact time without a clock in the room though. The sun went down and Red didn’t come back, but neither did the other one. As I started to drift off to sleep one thought kept rattling through my mind. ‘Yellow, it's going to keep coming back until it gets me. What am I going to do when it can bring me to this state with one look?’