Chapter One

He was supposed to be dead.

There was a light shining at his eyelids. Maybe that was heaven. Maybe he was dead. He opened his eyes, just to see, and saw a large, beaked face staring at him. He closed his eyes again. Nope. Not dead.

"He's not dead." The voice was muffled, and he opened his eyes again to see that the beak-masked figure had turned it's face away. Well thanks for that obvious fact. He blinked rapidly and looked around. There were more people around him, two men, one of which had turned to face the beaked person, the second of which stared at him.

"Sir… Captain Gavin, are you alright?"

He wasn't sure what was happening because he was pretty sure he was supposed to be dead, and he was also pretty sure Gavin was not his name.

Captain though… he liked the sound of that again.

"W-" He broke off, licked his lips, coughed out his sore throat. "What happened?"

The plague doctor turned towards him and took off his mask to reveal another man. "Do you not remember?"

He- well he supposed his name was Gavin now apparently- shook his head. "N-no? I think I just died and I'm supposed to remember?"

The plague doctor was a red headed man with a long beard, and he now stroked his gingerly, eying Gavin. "Fascinating. Truly fascinating." The scent of herbs wafted around him, sharp and prickling at his nose.

"What is?" Before he had even finished the words there was an… an itch inside of him. It niggled at his mind, like he wanted to remember, but… couldn't. Gavin frowned, and the plague doctor frowned back, thinking Gavin's expression was directed at him.

"You remember nothing? Truly nothing? Do you know who I am, at least?"

"Am I supposed to?"

There was a long pause, and the doctor and Gavin stared each other down.

"Well, I suppose it didn't work. Raul, Polin, get him back. It might take him a few hours to get his bearings back, but all other tests showed that he'll be fine by then. If he still doesn't remember, have him executed."

"What?" Gavin shot up, and he was surprised to feel that he wasn't dizzy or tired. He felt alive and well, but he just… couldn't remember. "W-why would you execute me? What-" Things were moving too fast for his muddled brain to keep up, and he didn't know what would be the right thing to say or do in this particular situation.

"Raul. Polin. Now please." The two men nodded and came to stand on either side of Gavin. They helped him stand against his protests and questions.

"What happened? What's going on? You have to tell me something." Instead of a pleading tone, Gavin dug his heels into the ground, and the men around him froze. The plague doctor eyed him, amused.

"The truth of the matter, Captain Gavin, is that the experiment didn't work and that might have had consequences. If you don't remember within the next few hours, or I'll even give you a day, like all my test subjects have, then that shows that this has worse consequences than I would have thought."

"What-" Gavin clamped his jaw on his question of 'what consequences and what experiment?'. He didn't want to risk getting executed earlier than he was supposed to.

Gavin stared the doctor down.

The doctor only smiled. He held his mask in the crook of his elbow. Then he turned, the smell of herbs still wafting around him like an unpleasant odor.

"Bring him to me tomorrow. We'll see what to do then."

Then he was forced to move by Raul and Polin. They hitched their arms around his elbows and practically dragged him out of the room.