The Past Isn't Always Beautiful

Waking up from his stupor, Nei looked around himself disoriented.

'Where am I?' Was his first thought upon seeing nothing but white.

A sudden stream of pain awakened him and made him remember who he was.

"The world of fog, my clone… Did I survive?" Confused, Nei scanned his surroundings.

He noticed that he was in a place that had many similarities to a hospital room. The walls were all white, and complicated-looking machines filled the corners of the room.

If it wasn't for the fact, that he was bound to a chair with hundreds of needles injected in his brain, Nei would have thought that it was just another normal hospital and that he was here because of just an accident.

"Mister Homer, please don't move and stay calm, the procedure will start soon!" An older voice sounded through the room, but Nei couldn't pinpoint from where.

And who was Homer? Was there another person in the room with him?

Nei began to panic a little bit and tried to escape from the confines.

When another somehow familiar voice spoke. "Homer, you don't have to worry! You have lost your memories so it's totally normal to feel scared, but please believe that we just want the best for you and Nei! Please calm down and stop struggling!"

Nei thought he knew who the voice belonged to, but at the same time, he just couldn't access the information in his brain. At the very least the tone of the voice really made hi calm down more.

'Homer and Nei… My wife? Why does the same sound so masculine?'

Nei didn't know what he should make out of the man's words, did it mean he had a wife that was ill and they wanted to cure her? But why was he in the fog world beforehand? Didn't he lose his memories too? That didn't make sense then… Only if he wasn't Nei, butHomer!

Nei couldn't open his mouth and ask, he was forced to sit in the chair and wait for whatever was to come, with his questions unanswered.

After a few minutes of waiting, he heard the door behind him open. A young man looking like a doctor and two guards walked into the room, with what seemed to be a chair like Nei's, and a woman sitting inside of it.

The moment his eyes crossed the woman's, a new part of memories were freed in his brain, this time it wasn't painful physically, but emotionally.

Tears were rolling down his cheeks, the woman before him, as he just found out, was the love of his life and wife… Nei.

He himself was in reality Homer, he was the one who was ill, he was the reason they were here and he would become the reason why she died.

Nei couldn't speak, but he didn't have to his wife understood him. "I love you too! Don't be worried, we will soon be out of here and then we can be happy again!"

But Nei already knew better, he had seen the future in his memories. But he couldn't help to still hold a little bit of hope.

Maybe his memories were just illusions, maybe everything was going to be fine and he could go home with his loved one.

'I want to go home… '

The procedure, on the other hand, was still on its way and all preparations had been finished.

A robotic voice spoke. "Start of the experiment: Memory Chip. Connecting links between subject A and B. 5..4..3..2.."

Looking into his wives eyes, Homer as he called himself now, couldn't help but think back to what he saw in his memories would happen next.

As if to confirm, that all of this was only a past memory of his. The countdown hit zero and memories of his wife's life slowly purred into his brain, it brought with it torturing physical pain, but what was even more difficult to endure, was seeing his wife's agony filled expression as her head slowly expanded till it was as big as a watermelon and exploded. With much of the blood and brain landing on his own face.

However, Nei didn't have the time to mourn or cry his loss, because in the next moment an even bigger wave of memories forced itself into his brain. Till the pain and amount of foreign memories became so gigantic, that it broke his mind into a thousand pieces and killed him too.

The next thing he saw wasn't his wife's headless body anymore, but only endless darkness.

….

When Nei opened his eyes once again, he found himself back in the to him familiar environment.

With yellow fog still surrounding him from all sides and lighting thundering in the distance. All but two things changed. The dark creepy shadows in the lighting began to vanish, and all Nei's wounds were mysteriously healing!

"So it was really just my past… I wished to know about it, but now I know it would be better without." Nei lied on the ground with tears running down his cheeks while ordering his new memories.

Remembering the experience, he became depressed with only more questions popping up in his head.

For example, why was he still alive?

But most importantly, how could God be so cruel as to show him the love of his life and make him fall in love with her once again, just so that he would mourn her death for the rest of his life, with no chance of ever seeing her again?

Cruel! Why was he punished?

Looking into the yellow sky while recalling his past, Nei couldn't hold his emotions back any longer and began to cry, scream and curse out of his soul.

"AHHHHHHH!"

"NO! WHY ME? WAAAah… "

She was his love! The love he didn't even know existed moments ago and just like that, they took her away from him again!

Angry he bellowed into the sky "What now?! What is there still to live for! There is nothing here that holds me, I should have died long ago!"

At that moment, a voice suddenly appeared in the depths of Nei's mind.

[Beep! Scanning host ended: please finish the setup process to start!]

When a screen, through which he could look, appeared before his eyes.

[Use your mind to fill in the following!

(Memory Chip reads host mind)

AI name: …

To finish setup and start Memory Chip!]

Nei was shocked silly, why was there a voice coming from his head? Memory Chip?! Didn't he hear that term somewhere?

"What are you?" Nei asked and a short explanation instantly appeared in his eyes.

[The Memory Chip, is a computer chip that gets installed into the brain to help with different things, but its main use is for memories.]

'Is it from the experiment?'

Understanding its origin, Nei didn't feel scared anymore and asked more bold questions. "What do you exactly mean with its main use?"

[The memory Chip has 3 main uses:

(1)Importing/Exporting memories

(2)Editing/Deleting of memories

(3)Recording/Reliving memories

Under the 3 main, there are many sub uses]