~Prologue

The voice was distant, like it was coming from far away. It said things I couldn't understand, in dark tones that could only be used for speaking of bad news. My thoughts were clouded and blurry, and there was only one thing I could concentrate on at that moment—Pain. A burning, awful pain. The voice began to talk again, still far-off and distant, but I realized I could understand what it said. I only heard a small bit, but I understood well enough.

"You have a choice, Miss Hinamori. You can die—Or you can live."

I heard someone cry out, and realized that the sound had come from me. I couldn't see, everything was dark, and all I could hear was the voice, repeating itself in my head— "You can die, or you can live." I felt cool hands pressing against my skin, on my forehead, my arms, and I vaguely heard other voices, their words undecipherable.

Finally I started screaming, writhing in pain. I couldn't stand the pain anymore. I wanted to tell them yes, I want to live, but my tongue felt swollen and I couldn't manage anything more than indistinguishable screams and grunts as I dug my nails into anything I could reach. I didn't care that I was going to die, I just wanted the pain to end.

I heard more voices, they seemed louder than before. I felt my mouth being pried open, and something was poured down my throat. It had no taste and I gulped the water down, almost choking on it, and started shouting hoarsely as loud as I could. "I want to live, please, please I don't want to die!" I started coughing violently, and I couldn't say more, but I knew they had heard me. Already I felt them lifting me up, carrying me to some other unknown destination, but all I could think was "Please stop please stop please stop please stop."

Eventually they set me back down, on something hard—Like a table—And I felt them open my lips again. Thinking it was more water, I hastily drank the liquid they'd poured into my mouth, but it tasted sour and disgusting, and I gagged and tried to spit it back up. They forced it down, and finally the sickening substance was down my throat, though the taste remained in my mouth.

They lifted up my arm and I felt them jab something into my forearm, a needle or something, and the sudden pain caused me to bite my tongue hard enough to taste blood. I heard myself shouting all the curse words I knew, most of which would've earned me a slap on the mouth if I'd said them in different circumstances, but they were garbled from the blood in my mouth and my own near-deliriousness.

But I soon realized that the pain was dimming, the voices becoming more and more distant, and eventually I didn't feel anything at all anymore, just a dull numbness. I almost wanted to cry from the blissful lack of pain, and I started to feel just how tired I was. I decided that as long as the pain was gone, I didn't care if I was dead. I calmed down, willing my breathing to slow to a steady, even pace, and let the sleep overtake me.

I sat up, yawning, and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. I felt groggy, and I had a slight headache. I started to stretch, but I froze, staring wide-eyed at my surroundings. I was in a white room, with no furnishings other than the bed I was laying on and a toilet, and it was completely unfamiliar. There was a camera watching me from the ceiling and I stared at it for a second, confused, before sliding my legs off the bed and standing up. My knees buckled underneath me and I fell, my arm shooting out to grab the edge of the bed, and I groaned before standing up shakily.

I glanced down and realized that I was wearing some sort of white dress. I was starting to freak out by now, my fists clenching in fear, but I told myself to stay calm. What had I been doing before I fell asleep? I tried to remember, but I blinked and realized that I didn't remember anything.

Not my name, where I lived, my family, not anything. Fear welled up in my chest and I took a deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate, and looked up at the camera. A small green light flashed repeatedly, signifying that it was on, and I cleared my throat and tried to talk. My voice cracked and it sounded terrible. My mouth was dry and dehydrated but the only water in the room was in the toilet.

I coughed and tried talking again. My voice still sounded weird but at least it didn't crack. I looked at the camera then hesitatingly said, "Um... Is anyone there?" I waited for a few seconds, in case the camera had a speaker or something, but nothing happened and I continued, "Where am I...? What's happening?" Once again there was no answer and I felt tears starting to well up in my eyes as I sank to my knees. My headache had worsened since I'd first woken up and it had gone from a dull throb to a shooting pain, my mouth felt sticky and sour and I had no idea where I was or even who I was.

Just as I was about to start sobbing I heard a beeping sound and a click and a section of the wall slid open, revealing a woman in a white lab coat. She walked into the room, the wall sliding closed behind her, and she looked down at me on the floor, her face expressionless. I stumbled to my feet and blurted out,

"Where am I? Why can't I remember anything? Who are you? Why is there a camera? What's going on?"

The woman rolled her eyes at me. "You're in a laboratory. Your questions will be answered later, for now I just need to test you." She looked down at the clipboard in her hand.

"Test me...? What is that supposed to mean? I just want to know what's going on..." More tears streamed down my face even though I tried to keep them from coming, and I wiped them away quickly.

She continued to look at her clipboard for a minute or two before finally looking up at me. "It's not my job to explain things to you. Now, first I need to check your height and weight." She pulled a tape measure from one of her pockets, instructing me to stand up straight, and I stared at her blankly before slowly standing straight as she measured my height, writing down the results on her clipboard.

She then walked over to one of the walls and a small section slid open, and she pulled a digital scale out from the wall and set it down in front of me. I gave her a deadpanned look and she raised an eyebrow at me. Frowning I stood on the scale and she wrote down the number that appeared, taking the scale and putting it back in the wall. She had me do several other tedious things that seemed unnecessary to me, and when she was finally done I was trying my best not to start screaming in frustration.

The woman scanned through the notes she'd made, and when she looked back up she frowned. "Hmm... No changes." She straightened up and glanced at me. "I'll be back in an hour or two. You might as well sleep, I suppose." She turned away and left, the wall sliding open and closed once again. I scowled, glaring at the section of wall that opened, and after a few seconds sighed and sat down on the bed. Pulling my legs up, I rested my head of my knees and frowned at the wall, until finally I groaned and laid down, closing my eyes until I eventually fell into a restless sleep.

When I woke up again, I felt like I'd been sleeping for hours. I rubbed my eyes and sat up, looking around. Everything was exactly the same as it'd been before I went to sleep. Had it been two hours yet? Maybe the woman had come and gone while I slept. Grumbling to myself I laid back down and stared at the ceiling blankly.

Since there was nothing to do in the room, all I had left to do was sleep, but I wasn't sure that was possible. I felt like I'd slept for much too long, and I wasn't tired at all. My headache had also come back, and it was hurting more than ever. My throat burned and my eyes stung, basically I felt like crap.

I heard a beep, like the one from earlier, and I looked up hopefully at the wall. Sure enough, it slid open and the same woman from before walked in, looking through her clipboard again. She didn't bother to look at me as she said, "Come on. The others will want to meet you."

I stood up, yawning involuntarily, and asked questioningly, "The others...?"

She nodded and looked up at me, then frowned. "You're a mess. Well, whatever, I doubt anyone will care."

"Well, it's not like you gave me any other clothes, or a brush, or even water," I said accusingly.

She either didn't hear me or didn't care enough to answer, and she turned around, motioning for me to follow. The door from my room opened into a long, white hallway. I saw other doors like mine on the walls, and I noticed they were a lot easier to see from this side than from inside the rooms. "So, you said we're in a laboratory, right? What's it researching? How people react when they're kidnapped and not given any food or water?" I asked, jogging forward until I was walking next to her.

"No." She sighed, and then said, "Fine, do you really want to know? You should be dead right now."

I frowned. "Um... What does that mean?"

"You were dying when we found you. If we had come just a few minutes later you probably would've died. But we saved you. That what this place is for—Saving peoples' lives."

I went silent for a moment, then said, "So... I have amnesia? From almost dying?"

She shook her head. "No, we erased your memory. It would interfere with what we had to do to save you."

"What..? What did you have to do?"