Chapter 2

She couldn't see anything. Her mind was muddled. Attempting to complete a thought was impossible for Kear. It was dark everywhere and she started crying from loneliness. In a way she could sense the surroundings, but at the same time she was numb to all feelings. Time went on forever and she started to cry, because she couldn't understand a thing. Then she felt a strong force. It was like she was falling and falling into an endless abyss.

Kear felt a strong pain on her head, wait she could feel. With her eyes half closed, she was tired. She looked and realized she fell off her bed, and she climbed back into it. She had a horrible nightmare where she was stabbed during the peace summit.

Then that means it's today. She had to get up and ready; she shot up from her bed and looked around. The next thing she saw scared her.

'This isn't my room. Where am I?'

Kear thought as she looked around. The amber colored wooden floor was shiny. It reflected the rest of the room on it. There was a dresser; a desk with something like a screen from a tech pad and a box underneath it; a slightly ajar door leading into a small closet. This place felt warm and cozy, but she didn't know where she was. Could this be the hospital space station?

There was a window to her left and she could see buildings outside. There was grass and trees! She stared out the window watching humans walk around and cars like they had a long time ago. She noticed some of them from ancient earth recordings.

She wasn't sure how long she had been watching out the window, because the next moment she felt someone touch her shoulder. She turned to look at this young man. He was a teenager with blond hair. He had an athletic build, but nothing like the men in the military. At first she wondered if he was a doctor in training, but his clothes were casual looking. Nothing like a doctor's coat.

He was moving his mouth, but no sound came out.

"What?"

Kear said that out loud, but she couldn't hear herself. She started freaking out. Did she lose her hearing? She tried to unclog her ears, but that didn't help. She looked towards this young man next to tell him she couldn't hear.

"I can't hear anything."

There was a questioning expression on this young man's face. He started talking. She could read lips as a part of her job and she read the man's lips. Also the language he was talking in was easy for her to understand as she knew it.

"Veno are you being serious right now?"

"Of course I am!"

The young man looked at her. Kear guessed that he was trying to find out if she was being serious. She didn't wait.

"Where is the doctor?"

"A doctor? Veno why do you need a doctor?"

"My name is Kear and I cannot hear anything. Who are you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I'll do it myself."

Kear got up from her bed slightly pushing aside the young man. She noticed that she was wearing some kind of pajamas. Nothing like the military fatigues she has worn.

She opened up the door and walked into a hallway. The room wasn't made of metal, it was wood too. This was a weird space station. Well it was one in neutral territory, so she thought that maybe it was for VIPs. She wasn't sure how she was one, but it didn't matter. She needed to find a doctor.

She started opening every door she could. She found more rooms the same size as the one she was in. It looked like other patients. Children and teenagers. She didn't understand why she was in the children's ward, but it didn't matter.

She still couldn't hear, but she felt that young man's grip on her wrist. He kept saying 'Veno', but that wasn't her name.

She found an open area. There were tables and chairs; an area with a carpet, couch and chairs; there was one of those screens again. She didn't look further and found another door further away to her right. She ran over there as she didn't see anyone else around. However she could smell something cooking, that didn't stop her.

She opened up the door and there was a sun shining down on her body. Looking around it was the same as that projection outside the window. She could feel the warmth from that sun. The people and vehicles passing by her. Kear couldn't stop looking around at the landscape.

Another hand on her wrist. This time it was a much stronger grip with the same person from before. She couldn't understand anything that was going on. If she wasn't on a space station, then of course it was a planet. Wasn't she stabbed though? She pulled up her shirt and looked at her stomach. No scar. Kear freaked out. She couldn't feel her chest; it was flat.

Her entire world started spinning. What was this place? Could she have been captured and this is just a hallucination? It would make sense, but why were their children in those rooms? She was thirty years old this year, but she could tell this wasn't her body. She fell to the floor as she tried to process all the information she had.

Kear looked at the boy. He had to have the information she needed.

"Veno what is going on. Please talk to me."

"Where is this?"

"We are at the orphanage."

His face started to show how worried he was feeling after he answered Kear's question.

"Who are you?"

"I'm Granno, your best friend. Veno you don't remember?"

"Who's Veno?"

Kear could see his face turn pale as she said that.