*Dong Dong Dong*
The snow was pure white, almost soft-looking. It fell gently onto the floor. Looking around, the campus was overrun by nature. Vines grew on the walls of buildings, trees sprouted out of other buildings, and the sky. The sky is beautiful, almost a different hue of blue.
Just then, I realize something—
"What happened?" Ael said.
I was back at the entrance of the bunker, where the vault-like door was. The whole scenery, the fresh wind hitting my face, and the same hurting pain from the wounds I got down in the bunker. It was back.
My memories of where I was and what I was doing were hazy, but I was certain I had been here before—in this same exact situation. Thinking of this, a flash comes to me. I was in this dark abyss a few moments ago, and not far behind that, I was at the edge of campus, where a veil was.
"Ael? Amiel?" My voice slipped from my lips, thinking they were in the same situation.
"Yeah?" Ael looked back at me with a wondering face, as if nothing had happened.
"We—were we just in the bunker?" I asked, hesitating. That wondering face had me thinking as if he didn't know.
"Yeah?" He turned towards me and tilted his head with concern. "Are you okay? Are you feeling sick?"
'Did he not know?' I thought.
"So just a moment ago, we came up from the lift?" I asked one more time to make sure.
Amiel looked at me. His expression didn't waver.
"Yeah?" He replied this time, but with more concern. Walking up to me, he places his hand on my forehead. "No fever."
My stomach turned.
"I'm fine, just a little disoriented," I replied. "I think the lift just messed with me, maybe some motion sickness or something."
"You do look pale." He took a step back and looked me over. Amiel's eyes stayed on me.
'What the heck is happening. Was I going crazy?' I thought.
The only explanation for this was that I went crazy. I had to be.
I looked over to Ael, "Anyways, I'm fine now." Clearly a lie.
He asked me if I was sure—I wasn't, but that didn't stop me from telling him, "Yeah." Looking over to Amiel, he didn't look convinced. I must have looked like a ghost if Amiel doubted me.
"Come on, we should get to the medical center, no?" I walked forward, trying to get past this conversation.
"Right..." Ael said, following behind just to pull next to me moments later.
Walking through the campus, everything was the same as I remembered it to be. The flowers, the buildings, the same animals running around. It had me thinking I didn't go crazy. That I might have gone back a week. How was that even possible? It shouldn't be.
Arriving at the entrance of the medical center, we made our way up. Ael told me to take my shirt off, and he set up his equipment like I remembered. Looking over at his tray, I don't see the anesthesia.
'By chance...' I thought to myself.
"Hey, do we not have anesthesia?" I asked.
"Couldn't find any." He said, not taking his eye off the materials as he cleans them.
"Did you check everything?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Do you think I want to cause you pain?" He retorted.
"I don't know what goes on in that brain of yours." Pausing, I looked over to the cabinets just for Amiel to come in from cleaning the clothes that Ael told him to. "Amiel, when you get the chance, can you take a look at those cabinets?" I pointed towards them, half lying down.
"Anything you're looking for?"
"Just some anesthesia," I replied.
As he checks each cabinet, one by one, he ends up finding something in the second-to-last cabinet. "Here's some."
'Was I not crazy?'
"Hmm, I thought there wasn't any," Ael said, continuing on like he didn't make a mistake.
"I thought you said you checked everything." I stared at him.
"Yeah, well, I guess I might have overlooked it."
I let the silence build in the room.
"Can you not stare at me? I can feel you burning holes into my skull." He let out, unfazed.
Sighing, I lay back in bed. "It's fine. Amiel, thank you."
Amiel then handed off the anesthesia he found to Ael.
"Well, are you ready?" He turned to smile at me.
"You know you're not going to hear the end of this, right?" I said.
"What? I can't hear you." Just then, Ael shoots the anesthesia into my veins, knocking me out.
***
I woke up to the donging of bells. The sun was setting, and Ael was sitting next to me.
"Well, if it isn't Mr.I love pain," He said.
'Not one moment of peace with him around.' I thought.
"And good morning to you, well, I guess night now," I replied, as I turned my head, seeing the sunset.
I turned towards him just to see him eating a can of potatoes we brought up from the bunker. It looked like it was steaming, probably heated from an amber stone. My stomach groveled.
Putting down the canned potatoes, he let out a small chuckle. "Hungry? Well, you can't eat anything right now. You are bound to throw it up. You need to wait for the anesthesia to wear off."
The ends of my lips curl down. "That's dumb." I don't say much since I was tired, just waking up from a deep sleep.
"Anyways, now that you're awake and I know you are okay, I'm heading off. Have to get some sleep tomorrow. Amiel and I are exploring the campus. Hopefully, we can get some clues about what happened here." He got up from his chair. "So if I don't see you tomorrow, you know why."
"I see. Well, let's hope we find something."
"Yeah, well, either way, you should get some more rest when you can. I know you just woke up, but right now what you need is more sleep."
"Alright, thank you."
He started to make his way to the door. "Anyways, good night."
"Yeah... good night."
As he leaves the room, I think to myself, 'I actually might have gone back a week.'