ALEKSEY
I gently open my eyes, and a breeze caresses my face. Golden locks surrounded my sight as it tunneled my vision to the clear blue sky. I blink lazily to focus my eyes. The golden locks turned out to be wheat, dancing with the wind. I propped myself up, sitting cross-legged, but I still couldn't see where I was. So I stand up and look around.
"Wow." I gasp, my brows lifting, and an awed smile tugs at my lips. My eyes sparkled in wonder.
I'm standing in the middle of a golden field, framed by trees. The breeze was chasing away the excess heat from the sun, cooling my senses. I don't know who I am or why I'm here, but it feels like it's the first time in a long time that I could… breathe. I've never felt so peaceful before.
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. I look around to see what's making that noise. Flickering, buzzing sound. The sound seems out of place in this world. Buzz. Buzz. I look behind me, and I pause.
Instead of the same golden fields and trees in front of me, the view this time is of a suburban house. A neat, trimmed lawn with all sorts of flowers that framed the grass and the walkway towards its double doors. Ivy ran up to one side and across the roof, framing the house and making it have that modern-ish cottage feel.
I furrowed my brows, and I squinted at it. Something about this house seemed… familiar. I took a step, and the wind stopped abruptly.
A feeling popped into my head. This is my house. This is my house? Whoa, this is my house!
A spark of excitement filled my guts as I ran up to the doors. My chest loosens. This… feels like home. A memory came to me as my hand gripped the doorknob.
"Hey, babe, where do you want me to put this box again?" I look back and see a handsome man sauntering towards me. His thick biceps bulge angrily as they flex as he carries the box. He smiled that megawatt smile of his. His smile made my cheeks blush, and I couldn't help but mirror his smile back at him. "Keep smiling at me like that, and we'd never get this done." He smiled even brighter.
Derek. The name suddenly came to me, and I bit my lower lip. This is the day we moved into our home after our honeymoon. He winked at me as he walked past into our home.
I turned around to follow him, but the door was closed. Maybe I was so dazed standing on our porch, daydreaming of how the rest of our life is gonna be, that I didn't notice he had closed it. I wrapped a hand on the knob again and excitedly entered. When I went inside, a physical heaviness enveloped me, and the whole house felt wrong.
I swallowed audibly. Where the outside scene was bright and vivid, the inside felt cold and dark. Like, there's a haze that covers everything, a prickling sensation underneath, making my senses dull.
"Derek?" I called out. No answer. I took a step toward the stairs directly in front of the main doors. I took another tentative step, and my shoe stepped on something soft.
I picked it up and looked at it, like really looked at it. My breath hitched as I dropped the shirt, and I jolted, as if the shirt itself bit me. I hear a bed creaking and muffled moaning coming from upstairs, from our bedroom.
Suddenly, I couldn't breathe. My hands shook, and my whole body trembled. Memories flooded into my mind, making me wobble, throat dry. This is the night when I found my brother in bed with…
Cold sweats prickled all over my body. I'm having a full-on panic attack. My fingers feel too far away. My vision tunneled, and my heartbeat is in my throat. I look around to see if there's a way out. Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. That noise again! This time, it sounds like it's buzzing next to my ears. I covered my them. It's too loud! This is all too much!
My breath quickens more, and I think I'm gonna pass out. I stumble and fall backward, and I fall. And I keep falling. Keep falling into the abyss.
"I killed him." I whimpered. Buzz. Buzz. Who did I kill? Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. "My younger brother." Buzz. Buzz. You liked it, though.
I open my eyes, and the bright white light of the fluorescent light above me hums. It flickers, and it buzzes. I blink away my blurry vision, looking for clues to where I am.
To my right, I see a window. Blinds drawn down. Sunlight seeps through the sides. I blinked and moved my gaze to look at my body. My leg feels like it's on fire—like something broke through bone. I see my right leg wrapped in bandages. Metal rods sticking out from it, knots and bolts holding it in place.
I tried to rub my face, but my left hand snagged on something. An IV tube was stuck on the back of my hand. My brow furrowed in confusion.
Am I at the hospital? I try to make sense of what's going on, but my head feels foggy. Thoughts are hard. My brain struggles to connect the dots, or heck, any dots. Maybe it's the meds that they gave me?
"You're awake." A deep rumbling voice came from the corner of the room. I sluggishly look in that direction to find a tall, muscled man with a scar that runs across his handsome face. My mind is delirious from the pain and the drugs.
I smirked at him. "You're lucky that I'm married, or I'll eat you right up! Hehe." I laughed at my own joke.
He smirked back. "Are you coherent enough to talk, Mr. Wiseman?"
I huff. "Mr. Wiseman is my husband." I protest groggily, my speech slurred. "I'm Mr. Redverse-Wiseman!"
"Okay…" He looked at me with amusement in his eyes but his face stayed neutral.
"Redverse-Wiseman." I reiterate my point. "It's hyphenated! Redverse hyphen Wiseman. It's important to hyphenate your name when you get married!" I pointed at him. "I've told you this before, Derek! I want to keep my father's last name! I owe them everything… I'll honor them." I tilt my head to my chest. I didn't even notice I was sitting up in bed now. "Ow…" I groan as a steady, dull throb pulses in my temples. I rub the bridge of my nose. "Ow!"
I flinched as another pain shot through my injured leg. This one is more intense.
"I guess not." He smiled at me.
"Guess not, what?" I glanced at him as he casually walked towards me. My vision is turning hazy.
The walking figure shifts in form in my eyes, shifting from Derek to a scary-looking guy for a second and then back. He neared my bed and leaned in. I puckered my dry lips at him and closed my eyes. A buzzer rang in the direction of the headboard of my bed. I open my eyes and look up at my husband in confusion.
"Why won't you kiss me?" I pout my lips at him. He chuckles, and it brightens my heart up, so I smile up at him.
He quickly covers his smile with a hand and rubs his chin. Erasing the smile. Moments later, a nurse walks in, carrying a chart and a tray.
I looked at my husband, my heart leaped—then dropped so hard it hurts when I realised it wasn't him.
I look back at the nurse, squinting in confusion. "Who are you?" She looks at the guy beside me and then back at me. She took out a syringe with something liquid inside.
My eyes bulged out of my sockets, I yelped. A strong hand pressed on my left shoulder, and I gazed up at the man with a steadying gaze. He nodded at me.
I let out a sigh, and the nurse lady came closer, injected the contents of the syringe into the IV tube to mix with the saline solution. The scary-looking man at my side pushes me back to bed, and in mere seconds, I doze off again.
***
When I regained my consciousness from the hazy fog I was in. I blink up at the ceiling, trying to gather myself and make sense of what the fuck just happened.
I'm so confused that I can't make heads or tails of the situation. But at the very least, my head is clearing up a bit. The meds must be wearing off.
I feel so exhausted, even though I felt that I slept like the dead for days. I let my heavy lids flutter shut, and I try to get in more rest. But the discombobulated memories of the events that led up to why I'm in this hospital bed came crushing into my skull, and I jolt up, eyes wide open in horror and dread.
A pang of guilt washes over me. But I push it back down. This is not the time to examine my guilty conscience. I look around at my surroundings and assess my situation. I'm at a hospital of some sort.
My forehead creases as I sort through my overwhelming memories. I recollect them piece by piece. Akin to picking up shards of shattered glass and gluing them all back together.
Did I get captured by the Council? I bit my lower lip as I mull this thought over. Who would be after me if not them?
The Petty Court Council, or The Council for short, is the lower branch of our magicratic diarchic government system. The magicratic authority part of our system runs alongside the civilian government but still outranks it whenever magic is involved in a significant way.
What do I remember… what do I know? I asked my muddled brain to cough up some answers. I saw the… incident… I killed my… I paused, shaking my head to clear the creeping guilt.
I don't need to think about what I did too hard right now. I need to focus. What happened next? I ran… I drove to the nearest park… to think… I called 911 and reported what I did and where I am, to turn myself in… black vans appeared, but they weren't cops… they weren't from the council either, I think?
I swallow deeply as I grasp at anything and every possible identity of my captors.
Weren't they from the council? The black vans that pulled up in front of me at the park didn't have the Supreme Court Council seal or the seal of the Petty Court Council of the city of Ontario, where I'm from, and where the local Council Officers are stationed.
The Supreme Court Council after me is highly unlikely. They deal with the big stuff, magical terrorist groups, national or continental-level threats, or even otherworldly ones. My crime can hardly be called an act of terrorism, more like manslaughter, cause it is. So it's safe to rule them out.
That leaves the ordinary judiciary court and the Petty Court Council, which makes sense since I used my magic to harm. But what does not make a lick of sense is why they mobilize such a force?
Derek works at the police force, and I've met the guys, and those weren't them. They look more like special forces, like Derek used to be. I bit my lower lip harder, drawing blood. The memories of that night crept in, how I entered our room, and saw him and my brother.
Focus brain! Don't get sidetracked on your cheating husband.
The vans they used didn't have the council seal—I already established that— but also, they didn't have any seals from any government agencies that I knew of.
It did have a logo. I closed my eyes and tried to summon the memory.
What was it? I concentrate even harder. There was a lotus flower after the company name. What was the name? My mind's eye shifts back and forth underneath my eyelids.
Something felt off about them. I know the trope that police officers arrive late to the scene, but the squad that pulled up, arrived way too fast. I fled the scene of my crime and went to the nearest park, so they must have been close by. But still, something doesn't add up.
I did call the authorities because I want to give myself up, but why did I run?Why did I run?
I was about to get arrested by them; they were closing in on me, but my instincts, no, my magic, told me to run. Which doesn't make a whole lot of sense since magic is not sentient. Or is it?
"Fuck I'm going crazy!" I open my eyes and groan.
I lift my hands to rub at my face when I abruptly stop mid-way. Eyes bulging out, my face draining of color as I think about my magic.
A memory from deep within the crevices of my brain that I thought was lost forever lights up. A memory from way before my time at the orphanage. A memory of a woman. A memory of my mother.
She knelt in front of me, her eyes gave my four-year-old self a kind impression. So opposite to my adaptive mother, Lilia's sharp, cold eyes. Her face is blurred and unfounded in my memory, like any other memory you have of someone you haven't seen in a very long time.
She speaks to me, but like the blurred recollection of her face, her voice doesn't have any discernible uniqueness that makes it hers. More like the thought or the meaning of what she's trying to convey left an imprint on this memory.
"Aleksey Te%$#*^~` v$#&^)%n," she said my name, but the rest was inaudible, like the sound traveled underwater. I hold on tight to the fleeing memory, like fine sand seeping through your fingers. "Hide your powers." Is the last words I made out of it as the memory fully lost its footing.
"Ahem." A cough interrupted my intense, bewildered stare at the wall across from me.
I jolted and looked looked at the direction of the voice. A hulking man stood in front of the door, arms crossed across his broad chest. A scar ran across his face, looking at me with a practiced neutral expression, but I could sense interest in his green eyes.
"Are you conscious enough to talk to me straight this time, Mr. Redverse-Wiseman?
This time? I've never seen this man in my life. My fists clenched at my sides; my fight or flight response is wired up. Although not much of the running away part, since my leg is busted and looks like a porcupine with all these rods sticking out. I glared at him, keeping my mouth shut.
"I guess you are."
He walks towards me, and I flinch and lean my body away from him, my eyes following his every move. He leans in towards me, and I ready myself to get in the first hit.
I may not be able to make a run for it, but I sure as hell won't take whatever he has planned lying down without a fight.
He reaches for a switch above the headboard of my bed, and it buzzes. He lifts an eyebrow at me, and the corner of his lips lifts. I can't tell if he really did smirk at me or if it was just my imagination since it vanished as quickly as lightning.
The door opened, and a nurse walked in. He has a kind, rounded face, framed with thick glasses. The lenses made his eyes shrink comically.
"Does he need another round of sedation?" He looks at the man standing beside my bed and back at me.
I tense up with his words. I swallow audibly, and my mouth turns even drier.
"No, I think he's calmed down now." He glanced at me for a second before returning his gaze to the youth at the door. "Call the good doctor in for me, Fox. I need to know if he's okay for a little… chat."
Fox—if that's really his name— nods and exits the room, leaving the door open. The scarred-faced man pulls up a chair beside my bed and sits on it, looking directly at me, meeting my eyes.
"Now then, shall we?"
I clench my jaw as I keep his eye contact. I'm not gonna break so easily, pal.