Charles Eleven

A man struggled to pull himself upright in a hospital bed but couldn't.  Glancing to the side he noticed someone familiar sitting in a chair. "Do I know you from somewhere?"

“I have that kind of face Charles.”

The man in bed began to feel stronger and propped himself up.  “My name is Charles?”

“You'll begin to remember much more shortly.”

Charles wiped the sweat from his brow.  His fingers touched a wire attached to his temple.

“You can remove that.  Just pull at the base of the cable.”

As the wire fell away Charles covered his eyes as if to protect them from brilliant light.  “I'm seeing flashes.  I'm remembering, something.  But it makes no sense.”

The man touched a button on his watch as he addressed Charles.  “Please try to focus there isn't much time.  Try to remember the key pattern for the lock.”

“Yes, the pattern.  It protects...”  Charles froze in fear as he looked up to meet the stranger's eyes.  “The key protects The Hold.  From you Micheal.”

The man rolled his eyes up to the ceiling in disgust.  “Yes I'm Micheal and once again I've wasted my time.”

“You would destroy without reason, without mercy!”

“Guardian number eleven, you are irrelevant and swiftly dying.  One of your clones will give me the key and The Hold will fall.”

Charles' eyes followed Micheal to another bed where he pulled a cable from a someone's temple.  He collapsed with a faint smile, too weak to speak his last thought. “I am the lock fool, not the key.”

Micheal looked down at the man in a bed tagged 'twelve'.  The man opened his eyes for the first time.

"Do I know you from somewhere?"