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Four months earlier…

"Has the patient been prepped for the surgery?"

Eric heard the voice through the wall. He felt terrible, his eyes hurt, and most of his body felt numb. He managed to look around and saw that he was in some kind of hospital. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. As a matter of fact, he couldn't remember who he was or what he'd ever been. He was starting to panic and the constant beep of the heart monitor wasn't helping matters much. He tried to move, to get up, but even if he hadn't been tangled up in various cords and IVs he wouldn't have been able to because his arms and legs felt like they weighed somewhere around 100 pounds. He couldn't even roll over.

His eyes were getting wider and his breathing was speeding up. Everything was freaking him out, but he was managing himself quite well for waking up in the condition he was in. He heard another voice say something else,

"Let's go check on him. He should be awake by now and wondering where he is. Let's hope that his meds haven't worn off yet."

Eric could hear the door open but he couldn't turn his head to see who it was who entered. He wondered what was going on and what was going to happen.

"So you're awake are you? Well we're going to have to put you under again for this surgery." Said a man's voice at Eric's right.

He tried to respond but found that he couldn't talk.

"It's okay," the man said again, "You don't need to talk to me. I understand that this all must be very confusing for you and just let me reassure you that this surgery will save your life. You had quite an accident but I'm sure you don't remember that. Don't worry; everything's going to be alright now that we've got you."

For some reason, Eric didn't calm down much. He wanted to ask so many questions and it bothered him that he couldn't talk or feel much of anything. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't remember just about everything. He knew that his name was Eric and he knew that he was alive, but as you can imagine, this was doing crap to help him calm down.

He heard something start making hissing noises over to his left and things started getting dark. He realized that they were putting him under again, and the last thing he thought before blacking out was that he smelled dirty socks.

When Eric woke up, he was sitting on a park bench dressed in normal street clothes. His arms hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before, it almost felt like they were broken. Or most like they were in the process of breaking very slowly. Everything was still a little fuzzy and the inside of his mouth felt like it was covered in hair.

Wait a minute… I was in a hospital last time I woke up. Where am I now and what happened? I can remember that they were going to do some sort of surgery but what was it? Did it work? Why were they going to do it in the first place?

He tried pulling off the long sleeve shirt he was wearing but he had to stop because his arms were in excruciating pain. He wanted to see what they looked like because then maybe he'd understand why they hurt. He found a piece of broken glass not far from the bench and used it to half cut, half rip the sleeves off.

As the tubes of cloth fell to the ground, he stared in horror at his fore-arms. They were beet red and had weird line shaped scars all over. He got to his feet and staggered forward still looking at his arms. He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes, breathing hard. He felt a little faint.

What have they done to me? What are these scars? What am I supposed to do now? So many questions and I have no answers. This has been one heck of a day. If it's still the same day as when I woke up last time.

He took some more deep breaths to try and calm himself down and looked around. He hoped that no one had seen that. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know anything about what was going on. He wasn't even sure where to start. He didn't know if he should go to the police or if they'd even believe him.

Finally, he decided that he would go to the police but not to do anything but find out who he was. They wouldn't believe him about the whole hospital thing anyway. He looked around again, trying to determine the location of the nearest police station, but didn't succeed. He did, however, see a man taking pictures of birds so he thought he'd start there.

He started walking towards the photographer and found that it was all he could do just to walk in a straight line.

I probably look like some drunken bum. I hope he doesn't run…

To Eric's relief, the photographer didn't run and seemed more than happy to point him in the direction of the police station, especially after he'd gotten a good look at Eric's arms.

He got to the police station and walked inside. The only cop on duty that Eric could see was sitting and drinking his coffee, not at all aware of what was walking towards him. When he finally did look up and see Eric, he almost dropped his cup. Eric didn't know it, but he looked like he'd just gone three rounds with Mike Tyson. You can't blame the guy though, he hadn't looked in a mirror in quite a long time.

"C-can I help you son?" he asked a little startled by Eric's general appearance.

"Yeah, you can run my fingerprints or whatever you guys do and figure out who I am." Eric said, "If that's not too much trouble."

"Wha—wait a minute. You're saying that you don't know who you are?"

"Long-term amnesia, runs in the family. At least, I'm pretty sure it does." Eric has just found out that he's good at lying under pressure. Well, okay, maybe he's good at lying to bored cops.

The police officer gave him a long look before finally saying,

"You should probably see a doctor about that."

"Oh I have. They weren't much help though because they kicked me out." That part was true as far as Eric was concerned.

"That's too bad. I'll see what I can do but I've never heard of someone coming into a police station to find out who they are. How do you even know that we'll be able to help you?"

"I don't but you are my best option right now."

"You ain't got any family?"

Eric smiled at him and said,

"None that I know of, right?"

The police officer smiled and stood up from his seat.

"I'll just go check with my superior officer and make sure it's okay. I'm sure it will be though. You just wait right there and I'll be right back."

Eric watched him go and wondered if they'd be able to help. He hoped so because he didn't know what else he could do. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do if they could help him.

I wonder what these scars are on my arms. They're just lines, about two inches long I guess, and they're going all the way from the elbow to my finger-tips. They're not going straight down either; they're perpendicular to my arm, sort of horizontal if you like. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. What's weirder is that they look like they're fully healed meaning I must've been cut a long time ago. I wonder how long I was in that hospital. This is all so confusing. I hope that police man comes back soon.

The cop did come back soon bringing with him the sergeant.

"Hello there son, my name's Sergeant Johnson. Herald here tells me that you don't know who you are, is that right?"

The sergeant seemed nice enough.

"That's right sir. I—"

"Sergeant." Interrupted the sergeant.

"Sergeant, sorry."

"It's okay, most people make that mistake. Please, continue."

"I have long-term memory loss which means that I have usually had very large gaps in my memory but now it's completely gone," Eric lied. "I was hoping that you could help me somehow."

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yeah, they threw me out."

"Why'd they do that?"

"…They kind of thought I was crazy. You see, this type of memory loss isn't supposed to exist. No one can naturally lose all of their memory without some kind of help. Either drugs, drinking, or a bonk on the head."

Eric had no idea where he was getting this information but he had a good bet that it wasn't true. He just hoped that Sergeant Johnson wouldn't know that. He knew that Herald wouldn't know that.

"Hmmm, I see. So you've got this extremely rare condition that the doctors won't help you with so you came to us?"

"That's right si- I mean sergeant. I was thinking that maybe you could run my prints or eye retina or whatever you do."

"We can sure try."

"Thanks, I'd really appreciate it."

"Let me just talk to Herald for a minute. Wait right there."

As soon as they were out of earshot, Sergeant Johnson turned to Herald and said,

"That's him."

"It is? I mean, I thought he'd be bigger or something."

"That's him. I know it's him. Did you see those scars? I bet he got those in the surgery. And why else do you think he wouldn't remember who he was?"

"But what about that reason he gave us? Made sense to me."

"He's just a good liar and he must think we're stupid. Who ever heard of doctors kicking someone out of a hospital? Think a little why don't you."

"Okay, what do we do now?"

"Just what they said. Arrest him for suspected murder and see what he does."

"You think he'll… you know…"

"Yes I do so make sure you stay clear. Don't shoot him and don't try to stop him if he runs, you got that?"

"Loud and clear boss."

"Sergeant."

"Right, sergeant, sorry."

"Let's go back now."

As they walked back to Eric they pretended to look nervous.

Sergeant Johnson spoke first,

"I think this might be some sort of mistake young man, but I'm going to have to arrest you."

"Arrest me?" Eric repeated stunned. "What for?"

"I'm really sorry about this but we think you're the suspect to a murder case we've been looking for."

"Murder?" Eric was starting to panic. He was thinking that this might have something to do with whatever had happened to him in the hospital.

"Now hold on there son, nobody said you did it. We just need to arrest you and do the usual procedure to make for sure you're innocent. Now, if you ask me you are, innocent that is, but you know the people higher up don't go for what I say."

The police officers took a step forward and Eric took a step backwards.

Sergeant Johnson held his hands up and said,

"Just calm down young man, there's nothing to be afraid of. You didn't do it, did you? Of course you didn't so what have you got to be scared about?"

Eric wanted to say that there was plenty for him to be scared about but he was too busy thinking about the best way out. Even though there were only two of them they had guns, and his arms still hurt. They were starting to get closer but since Eric's back was against the door, he bolted.

The two police officers looked at each other a second before running after him. They knew that this couldn't end well for anyone.

Eric was already across the street and making his way towards the super-market that wasn't very far from the police station.

I can't believe that I trusted them! They must be working with the doctors somehow. Why else would they try and arrest me?

Suddenly, another thought crossed Eric's mind. A thought that was as frightening as it was logical.

Maybe I did kill someone. Maybe the doctors made me kill and the police don't know anything about them.

That thought almost made him stop, but he couldn't. He knew that if he really had killed someone and he couldn't remember… that would be bad. The police probably wouldn't believe him and he would get sent to jail for the rest of his natural life, or worse. He knew that kind of thing happened to criminals who couldn't afford a lawyer.

He could hear the police running right behind him as he slammed into the doors at the entrance to the super-market. He barely slowed down as he ran past displays and dodged frightened shoppers. His mind was screaming at him to stop, but his body just kept going. He knew that if he stopped, he would be in a heap of trouble, but if he kept going, he would eventually get caught and then be in a bigger heap of trouble.

He almost rushed head on into a soft drink display before skidding to a stop. By now he had two store employees and an assistant manager chasing him plush the police. He'd heard them yelling multiple times that 911 had been called and that he should just give himself up. He'd taken a right turn after stopped at the display and was now heading for the exit door. Just a few seconds before he reached freedom, a very large man stepped in front of it. That very large man also happened to be holding a taser. Eric slid to a stop just inches from the man, and he wondered where a guy like that could get a taser as he turned to get away.

He doesn't look very much like a cop, or any kind of law enforcement officer for that matter. As a matter of fact, he kind of looks like a… *ZAP*

Description
Four months earlier…

"Has the patient been prepped for the surgery?"

Eric heard the voice through the wall. He felt terrible, his eyes hurt, and most of his body felt numb. He managed to look around and saw that he was in some kind of hospital. He couldn't remember how he'd gotten there. As a matter of fact, he couldn't remember who he was or what he'd ever been. He was starting to panic and the constant beep of the heart monitor wasn't helping matters much. He tried to move, to get up, but even if he hadn't been tangled up in various cords and IVs he wouldn't have been able to because his arms and legs felt like they weighed somewhere around 100 pounds. He couldn't even roll over.

His eyes were getting wider and his breathing was speeding up. Everything was freaking him out, but he was managing himself quite well for waking up in the condition he was in. He heard another voice say something else,

"Let's go check on him. He should be awake by now and wondering where he is. Let's hope that his meds haven't worn off yet."

Eric could hear the door open but he couldn't turn his head to see who it was who entered. He wondered what was going on and what was going to happen.

"So you're awake are you? Well we're going to have to put you under again for this surgery." Said a man's voice at Eric's right.

He tried to respond but found that he couldn't talk.

"It's okay," the man said again, "You don't need to talk to me. I understand that this all must be very confusing for you and just let me reassure you that this surgery will save your life. You had quite an accident but I'm sure you don't remember that. Don't worry; everything's going to be alright now that we've got you."

For some reason, Eric didn't calm down much. He wanted to ask so many questions and it bothered him that he couldn't talk or feel much of anything. Not to mention the fact that he couldn't remember just about everything. He knew that his name was Eric and he knew that he was alive, but as you can imagine, this was doing crap to help him calm down.

He heard something start making hissing noises over to his left and things started getting dark. He realized that they were putting him under again, and the last thing he thought before blacking out was that he smelled dirty socks.

When Eric woke up, he was sitting on a park bench dressed in normal street clothes. His arms hurt like nothing he'd ever felt before, it almost felt like they were broken. Or most like they were in the process of breaking very slowly. Everything was still a little fuzzy and the inside of his mouth felt like it was covered in hair.

Wait a minute… I was in a hospital last time I woke up. Where am I now and what happened? I can remember that they were going to do some sort of surgery but what was it? Did it work? Why were they going to do it in the first place?

He tried pulling off the long sleeve shirt he was wearing but he had to stop because his arms were in excruciating pain. He wanted to see what they looked like because then maybe he'd understand why they hurt. He found a piece of broken glass not far from the bench and used it to half cut, half rip the sleeves off.

As the tubes of cloth fell to the ground, he stared in horror at his fore-arms. They were beet red and had weird line shaped scars all over. He got to his feet and staggered forward still looking at his arms. He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes, breathing hard. He felt a little faint.

What have they done to me? What are these scars? What am I supposed to do now? So many questions and I have no answers. This has been one heck of a day. If it's still the same day as when I woke up last time.

He took some more deep breaths to try and calm himself down and looked around. He hoped that no one had seen that. Now that he thought about it, he didn't really know anything about what was going on. He wasn't even sure where to start. He didn't know if he should go to the police or if they'd even believe him.

Finally, he decided that he would go to the police but not to do anything but find out who he was. They wouldn't believe him about the whole hospital thing anyway. He looked around again, trying to determine the location of the nearest police station, but didn't succeed. He did, however, see a man taking pictures of birds so he thought he'd start there.

He started walking towards the photographer and found that it was all he could do just to walk in a straight line.

I probably look like some drunken bum. I hope he doesn't run…

To Eric's relief, the photographer didn't run and seemed more than happy to point him in the direction of the police station, especially after he'd gotten a good look at Eric's arms.

He got to the police station and walked inside. The only cop on duty that Eric could see was sitting and drinking his coffee, not at all aware of what was walking towards him. When he finally did look up and see Eric, he almost dropped his cup. Eric didn't know it, but he looked like he'd just gone three rounds with Mike Tyson. You can't blame the guy though, he hadn't looked in a mirror in quite a long time.

"C-can I help you son?" he asked a little startled by Eric's general appearance.

"Yeah, you can run my fingerprints or whatever you guys do and figure out who I am." Eric said, "If that's not too much trouble."

"Wha—wait a minute. You're saying that you don't know who you are?"

"Long-term amnesia, runs in the family. At least, I'm pretty sure it does." Eric has just found out that he's good at lying under pressure. Well, okay, maybe he's good at lying to bored cops.

The police officer gave him a long look before finally saying,

"You should probably see a doctor about that."

"Oh I have. They weren't much help though because they kicked me out." That part was true as far as Eric was concerned.

"That's too bad. I'll see what I can do but I've never heard of someone coming into a police station to find out who they are. How do you even know that we'll be able to help you?"

"I don't but you are my best option right now."

"You ain't got any family?"

Eric smiled at him and said,

"None that I know of, right?"

The police officer smiled and stood up from his seat.

"I'll just go check with my superior officer and make sure it's okay. I'm sure it will be though. You just wait right there and I'll be right back."

Eric watched him go and wondered if they'd be able to help. He hoped so because he didn't know what else he could do. He wasn't even sure what he was going to do if they could help him.

I wonder what these scars are on my arms. They're just lines, about two inches long I guess, and they're going all the way from the elbow to my finger-tips. They're not going straight down either; they're perpendicular to my arm, sort of horizontal if you like. Weirdest thing I've ever seen. What's weirder is that they look like they're fully healed meaning I must've been cut a long time ago. I wonder how long I was in that hospital. This is all so confusing. I hope that police man comes back soon.

The cop did come back soon bringing with him the sergeant.

"Hello there son, my name's Sergeant Johnson. Herald here tells me that you don't know who you are, is that right?"

The sergeant seemed nice enough.

"That's right sir. I—"

"Sergeant." Interrupted the sergeant.

"Sergeant, sorry."

"It's okay, most people make that mistake. Please, continue."

"I have long-term memory loss which means that I have usually had very large gaps in my memory but now it's completely gone," Eric lied. "I was hoping that you could help me somehow."

"Have you seen a doctor?"

"Yeah, they threw me out."

"Why'd they do that?"

"…They kind of thought I was crazy. You see, this type of memory loss isn't supposed to exist. No one can naturally lose all of their memory without some kind of help. Either drugs, drinking, or a bonk on the head."

Eric had no idea where he was getting this information but he had a good bet that it wasn't true. He just hoped that Sergeant Johnson wouldn't know that. He knew that Herald wouldn't know that.

"Hmmm, I see. So you've got this extremely rare condition that the doctors won't help you with so you came to us?"

"That's right si- I mean sergeant. I was thinking that maybe you could run my prints or eye retina or whatever you do."

"We can sure try."

"Thanks, I'd really appreciate it."

"Let me just talk to Herald for a minute. Wait right there."

As soon as they were out of earshot, Sergeant Johnson turned to Herald and said,

"That's him."

"It is? I mean, I thought he'd be bigger or something."

"That's him. I know it's him. Did you see those scars? I bet he got those in the surgery. And why else do you think he wouldn't remember who he was?"

"But what about that reason he gave us? Made sense to me."

"He's just a good liar and he must think we're stupid. Who ever heard of doctors kicking someone out of a hospital? Think a little why don't you."

"Okay, what do we do now?"

"Just what they said. Arrest him for suspected murder and see what he does."

"You think he'll… you know…"

"Yes I do so make sure you stay clear. Don't shoot him and don't try to stop him if he runs, you got that?"

"Loud and clear boss."

"Sergeant."

"Right, sergeant, sorry."

"Let's go back now."

As they walked back to Eric they pretended to look nervous.

Sergeant Johnson spoke first,

"I think this might be some sort of mistake young man, but I'm going to have to arrest you."

"Arrest me?" Eric repeated stunned. "What for?"

"I'm really sorry about this but we think you're the suspect to a murder case we've been looking for."

"Murder?" Eric was starting to panic. He was thinking that this might have something to do with whatever had happened to him in the hospital.

"Now hold on there son, nobody said you did it. We just need to arrest you and do the usual procedure to make for sure you're innocent. Now, if you ask me you are, innocent that is, but you know the people higher up don't go for what I say."

The police officers took a step forward and Eric took a step backwards.

Sergeant Johnson held his hands up and said,

"Just calm down young man, there's nothing to be afraid of. You didn't do it, did you? Of course you didn't so what have you got to be scared about?"

Eric wanted to say that there was plenty for him to be scared about but he was too busy thinking about the best way out. Even though there were only two of them they had guns, and his arms still hurt. They were starting to get closer but since Eric's back was against the door, he bolted.

The two police officers looked at each other a second before running after him. They knew that this couldn't end well for anyone.

Eric was already across the street and making his way towards the super-market that wasn't very far from the police station.

I can't believe that I trusted them! They must be working with the doctors somehow. Why else would they try and arrest me?

Suddenly, another thought crossed Eric's mind. A thought that was as frightening as it was logical.

Maybe I did kill someone. Maybe the doctors made me kill and the police don't know anything about them.

That thought almost made him stop, but he couldn't. He knew that if he really had killed someone and he couldn't remember… that would be bad. The police probably wouldn't believe him and he would get sent to jail for the rest of his natural life, or worse. He knew that kind of thing happened to criminals who couldn't afford a lawyer.

He could hear the police running right behind him as he slammed into the doors at the entrance to the super-market. He barely slowed down as he ran past displays and dodged frightened shoppers. His mind was screaming at him to stop, but his body just kept going. He knew that if he stopped, he would be in a heap of trouble, but if he kept going, he would eventually get caught and then be in a bigger heap of trouble.

He almost rushed head on into a soft drink display before skidding to a stop. By now he had two store employees and an assistant manager chasing him plush the police. He'd heard them yelling multiple times that 911 had been called and that he should just give himself up. He'd taken a right turn after stopped at the display and was now heading for the exit door. Just a few seconds before he reached freedom, a very large man stepped in front of it. That very large man also happened to be holding a taser. Eric slid to a stop just inches from the man, and he wondered where a guy like that could get a taser as he turned to get away.

He doesn't look very much like a cop, or any kind of law enforcement officer for that matter. As a matter of fact, he kind of looks like a… *ZAP*