1 CHAPTER 1 The Unknown Memories

"NI-CO!"

"D-DON'T KILL US, NICO!"

In that shadowy place, I heard a familiar voice crying out my name, pleading for help. As the echo of explosion erupts, I heard people screaming at the top of their lungs, metal pillars falling down one by another, binding down civilians.

Blood painted the place, fire engulfing the scene, and men forcing themselves into each other. A man in a black coat, gripping a gun in his right hand, shows up. Thus, he points the gun in my direction.

As his mouth moves, the sole words I remember before he pulled the trigger accompanying with a deafening sound of a

single gunfire, "RUN, YOU MONSTER."

Thunderclap sound emerges as I woke from the vivid dream. Sweat swelling up around my body with the unease feeling forming up. Same hour and same dream I saw for the past 3 months that kept coming back.

Gazing around my room and finding my alarm, I noticed it was 3:15 am. Suddenly, the storm starts. Raindrops shower down my window like it was knocking on it, and lightning cracks with the sound of thunder echo around the city.

"Who are you?"

That was the question I ask myself every time I dreamt about it. Minutes pass as I stare out at my window, knowing that there's nothing I can do if I remember none of my past. I'm back to my bed, figuring out how this day will go through. Begging this day would be as normal as it has been, but I was wrong.

It was a Sunday morning; I need to meet Mr. Cadell Mayer, which is my doctor, and need to go in the 4th Ward carrying these dark circles around my eye, evidently showing I had a terrible night, again.

I wore this semi-fit white colored shirt, topped up by a denim jacket where I can put my wallet and badge, paired with my black pants I got on a bargain sale near my apartment which is cheap and affordable. As I entered the facility with a finger cross. Seeing Mr. Mayer wave his hand with that dreadful smile towards me, I waved back, wordlessly muttering in my head that this session was going to be hell.

He's tall, has this grayish-brown hair color that perfectly matches with his orange leaf like eye, age range maybe in his 30s, the total package you want to have. However, he's a total jerk being a doctor as is.

"It looks like someone didn't sleep," looking at me as he raised his eyebrow up and down, while making an eye contact with me.

I just laugh uncomfortably while trying to gaze away from this awkward situation.

'Stop seriously, please, why is this dude making this cringe look at me every time I have to meet him.'

We went through the hallway; seeing patients wearing this white robe, a man wearing a black suit, and nurses wondering all over the place until we reach our destination, which is his office.

"Come in, it's been a while since you have an appointment with me. Does your medication don't help you anymore?"

Honestly, I don't know what to say about this dream. I don't even know how to come up with a perfect alibi that's not weird, making me hilarious in front of him.

"Um... Mr. Faust? Are you alright?" he asked with this puppy eyes of him.

"YES! I'M ALIVE," the only word I said that came out of my mouth.

'I felt so humiliated and wanted to curse.'

Visibly suppressing a laugh, he said, "You have been focusing on my skull figure in a while, and you're making this cat meme face vomiting over food."

'I WANNA DIE, LORD TAKE ME AWAY FROM THIS EMBARRASSMENT.'

"There's no need for you to be this nervous, besides we know each other for ages. Just sit right there and we'll start," he said, trying to comfort me.

I met Mr. Mayer from the past after the incident happens.

I just laugh it away at the moment and told him this dream was messing around for the past months like a 6-year-old child clinging to his mother and telling that he wants to poop.

As he heard this, he immediately shifts his mood, for instance, like he's a totally a different person. I freaked out just looking towards him; he has this uncertain look that he might know this man in my dream.

"Sir, do yo-," before I can finish my sentence, he immediately response in denial

"There's no way, Mr. Faust, that I know that man in your dreams. You have been stressing yourself out from work. Plus, it looks like your medication is not working well for you, let's have a test and see if there's something wrong."

He called out to a nurse that escorted me to the lab. Before we finish doing the physical check-up, he asked me to take a blood sample and examined it if there's something wrong. I didn't understand why did he needed to do that but I just let him take my blood sample.

"I'll call you when the results show up," he said calmly, like nothing unusual happened earlier.

I just nodded and picked up my belongings as I'm ready to leave this facility and never come back ever again. Before I can go, Mr. Mayer looked at me seriously and said, "Be careful Nico."

This is the first time he called me by my first name. I just thanked him and opened the door, but the last thing I heard him say before I shut his door was, he murmured something, "It already begun, huh."

I rushed to go outside and looked at my watch; it was already 12:30 am. It took me 2 hours in that facility and I'm starving that I could practically feel my stomach slowly devouring my organs. There's few fast-food chains in the 4th Ward. Before I could take my chance to eat, a girl bumped into me out of nowhere, frantically crying for help.

"He-help me, ple-please they'll k-kill me," she said while trembling and exhausted.

Tears welled from deep inside and coursed down her cheeks. She wore this ruined red dressed with full of scars and bruises around her body. She could no longer stand still, terribly shaking, probably because she was running far away from someone.

I looked around and tried to focus my sight as if there was to have appeared to be suspicious, and I was right. I saw two men searching for someone and I knew at that moment that they were trying to find this girl.

"Stay here, I'll handle this don't worry about it and besides I'm an officer," I said with a smile, with hunger swelling up deep inside of me.

As soon as I looked away, a maniacal evil grin formed onto her supposedly beaten up face.