No Title Yet-Work in progress

Chapter 1

“Are you sure this guy is alive? His heart has taken too much damage. I doubt he’ll make it another hour. We’ve done all we can, I’m going to close him up. ”

Kristof opened his eyes and looked around. He was lying on a bed in semi-darkness. Machines were attached to him, some emitting evenly timed beeps. Wires and tubes connected him to the machines. The tubes were connected to bags, some with clear liquid and one with reddish-purple contents labeled, O-Neg.

A light blue curtain was pulled partially around Kristof’s bed. The white ceiling tiles had an eerie yellow quality to them.

A subtle change in the filtered air circulating through the room brought Kristof’s attention to the opening in the curtain.

Honey-gold eyes that had born witness to more in their owner’s twenty-six years than most see in a lifetime, penetrated Kristof to the core. They were set into a flawless pale oval that was enhanced by minimal artificial color and framed by a shoulder length ash-blonde mane.

“Mr. Vasilescu, you’re awake. How do you feel, are you in any pain?”

“No.” Oddly enough, Kristof felt nothing. What was more alarming was the realization that he remembered nothing as well.

Kristof searched his mind and found a vast expanse of nothingness. He could recall snatches of disembodied conversations from the operating room, but nothing before. His own eyes, the color of cold steel, held uncharacteristic panic.

“I can’t remember anything. I don’t know who I am or how I got here.”

“My name is Caterina. I’ve been on duty since last night. Don’t worry, Mr. Vasilescu, what you’re experiencing is normal in a case like yours. It’s called traumatic amnesia.  Your memory should come back soon. You’re in St. John’s Hospital, in Longview, Washington.”

She checked the slim gold watch on her wrist and continued. “I’m out of here in about an hour, but I’ll have my relief come in and check on you as soon as she comes on.”

“How long have I been here? What happened to me?”

Caterina took the clipboard from the end of the bed and began checking Kristof’s vital signs. “You came in about ten last night. You were in some kind of explosion in a warehouse down by the docks. You had a piece of metal bar, like from a fence or something, stuck in you. You had to have emergency surgery and you’d lost a lot of blood, so we had to give you a couple of transfusions.”

“How do you know my name?”

Caterina smiled and her features softened. “We went through your wallet. I’ll let Dr. Bradley know you’re awake. Are you sure you’re not in any pain?”

“No, thank you Caterina, I’m fine.”

A slight heightening of color over high cheekbones assured Kristof that Caterina was affected by his use of her first name. She turned back to him when she reached the opening in the curtain. “By the way, your first name is Kristof. If you need me, just push the buzzer by your hand.”

It was Kristof’s turn to feel her voice move over him as a caress.

A primal feeling gripped Kristof. He knew he must leave here to find out who he was, but he didn’t know where he was or where he was going or how he was going to get there. First he had to find what was on him when he got to the hospital.

Kristof sat up. “Good, still no pain, just a little dizzy and weak, must be from the blood loss.” He opened the bottom door of the sickly green cabinet next to his bed and found a plastic bag with his clothes, all but a shirt, and his wallet. Behind and to the right of the cabinet by the bed Kristof found a narrow closet that had a black nylon jacket hanging in it and a pair of boots on its floor.

So far nothing jogged his memory, so Kristof opened the wallet. Inside was a Washington state driver’s license with his picture and address. Credit cards also bore his name and there was a little over three hundred dollars in cash.

Kristof, still connected to the beeping machines, dressed and prepared to make his escape. He inched his way out the door opening so he could peer out and get an idea of which way he would have to go.

Kristof pulled out the tubes and wires and closed them into the bathroom door to buy himself some extra time. He moved silently down the hall to the elevator door as the elevator doors closed he could hear alarms in the distance.

A green light at the top of the elevator informed Kristof he was on the third floor. He punched the button labeled “G” and began the whirring decent. The elevator stopped when the green light said “LL” and Kristof found himself staring once again into the golden-brown eyes of Caterina.

“You’re supposed to be in bed. You just had a big piece of metal removed from your stomach and you are weak.”

“I’m not going to get my memory back lying up there in a bed.”

“You might. Besides, Dr. Bradley was a little concerned with your anemia. The blood transfusions should have stopped it, unfortunately, they didn’t.”

“I have this strong gut instinct that tells me I’ll be much better off if I get the hell out of here.”

As they left the elevator at the underground garage level, Caterina asked, “Where are you headed?”

“To the address on my ID, it must be my home.”

“Fine, how about I give you a lift? That way I can make sure you don’t pass out in a cab somewhere.”