Lab Rat by Brandon Newton (the false prince series txt) 📕

     The sunlight burned through his eyelids. Bright. Brighter, burning. The heat grew ever stronger, until it felt like someone was piercing his eyes with burning daggers. In spite of the extreme fatigue taking a grasp on his body, he could stay in rest no longer.

That's what he thought.

The thoughts were in vain; as soon as he tried to open his eyes, they felt heavier than before. He persisted. Heavier still. Thoughts became blurred. His world, blind as it was, began drifting. He was stuck, and sifting out of consciousness again. Whatever had hold of him, wherever he was, it was--...

...

Black.

_ _ _

He didn’t know how much time had passed, but eventually, seemed to fall into a dream- or rather, a sequence of.  His vision was assaulted with numerous images, a seemingly random order of scenes burned into the back of his mind. There seemed to be no order to it, the scenes rampaging through him- he saw himself entering a building, a small square jutting from the ground, inside was a downward staircase, leading into the incomprehensible shadows, the next moment, that image had disappeared and was replaced with numbers, repeating, scrolling, appearing and disappearing, his view was overrun with codes and sequences, and as quickly as they’d appeared, they were gone again, in their place, a new scene entirely.  There was a girl, she was standing alone,  the room around her serene, but almost blank. She was fixing the dark of the room with a piercing gaze, her glare almost challenging the shadows to advance. She took a step forward. The world flashed, the scene was masked in shades of red; the girl was no longer standing there.  On the floor where she had been was someone laying in a lump, a still body, with dark liquid pooling on the floor around her.  Above her stood a silhouette, and recognition flashed across the dreamer’s mind.

_ _ _

His eyes shot open, heart racing, hands grasping at nothing in particular. He felt gravel, or.. concrete beneath him, his fingers scraped it, the stone was cold, and he couldn't remember what had him in such a panicked start. He thought back, what was the last thing he remembered, where was he?

Try as he might, he just couldn't remember.

Anything.

Fear struck him, adrenaline coursed through his veins. The man pushed himself from the stark floor into a sitting position. Why was he here, How long had he been here? His eyes scoured the space around him, looking for some clue, some bit of recognition- but all he saw brought more confusion. Did anyone know he was there, Did he even know anyone? He seemed to be out in the open, the night sky expanding around him; but the land on which he lay didn't stretch and disappear into the horizon as it would have had he been on normal ground. He could see the guard rails surrounding the square of concrete he was on. Standing up, he walked to them, peered over the edge. The distant ground below spanned out in an ever reaching expanse of streetways and miniscule buildings. A few cars drove on the road far beneath him. Leaning over the edge of this high rising building, the dim glow of night illuminating his features, he couldn't keep his entire body from shaking

Who am I?

...

What's my name?

     It wasn’t long before he’d found a sign of recognition. After his moment of shock and confusion began to settle, he had time to more thoroughly take in his surroundings. He was clearly on the rooftop of a considerably large building, though the area of the roof wasn’t too large. The rooftop was mostly empty, save for a few ventilation ducts, an out of date machine or two, and a small square jutting from the far corner of the rooftop; an exit/entrance into the building below he assumed.

     That’s when a wave of nausea hit him. He became dizzy, the world around him spun as his mind went into a whirlwind of failed recollection. At the edge of his memory, he had the slightest bit of remembrance, he knew he’d seen rooftop entrance before- it seemed important,  but he just couldn’t quite..      He began seeing double, and had to fall back onto one of the guardrails to keep himself from collapsing. The longer he thought about that entrance, the worse he became. Staring through the newly developed tunnel vision, he tried to focus on the door, only to have dark spots begin dancing across his vision. He had to look away.     Clenching his eyes, his body did a full 180, putting his back to the direction of the entranceway. Sweat dripped from his brow. He tried to calm his mind, took deep breathes, and gave himself a moment for his nerves relax.

     It took minutes, but finally, he began to feel somewhat normal.  He didn’t yet open his eyes, but allowed himself a moment to think, while trying to keep his mind as eased as possible- to avoid a relapse of whatever it was that had just taken ahold of his body.  The door, he remembered it, that much he knew- but from where?  He only had the vague understanding that he’d seen it before, but got the strangest feeling that he knew he would walk into it, that he had to.

     But why?  Of course he needed a way down, so naturally he would have anyway, but what was with this feeling that he got.. as if it had already happened? That his choice in the matter was non existent, already made.  Just as well, why was it that of all the things he could have remembered, a doorway on the top of a building came back to him? Could he not have gotten a glimpse at his past life? His family, friends?

     He supposed it wouldn’t have mattered, even with this memory staring him in the face, it felt like nothing more than a scattered dream, a vague idea teetering on the precipice of his thought.

     A deep sigh left the boy’s throat. He didn’t even know his own age.

     He let his eyes slowly drift open, to be met with a slight pang in the back of his head. He ignored it.  Once again, the scattered city lights danced across the ground far below. He couldn’t help but watch cars as they passed, look at the lit up stores and imagine the people inside.  He wondered if anyone down there was looking for him, wondering where or why he’d disappeared.  His mouth went bitter, and a sick feeling hit his gut as a new thought entirely hit him.  What if nobody cared?

For all he knew, they could have put him up here, or he may not have even had any real connections, or the connections he did have could have been sour.. or..      He had to stop, this wasn’t helping him, it wouldn’t bring his memories back, or bring him back home.  His eyes felt hot.. Quickly he shook the thoughts from his mind. Turning, he faced the entrance with a new determination. This place wasn’t going to control him, he would get his memories back.

     He would enter that doorway, the choice would be his own.

_ _ _

The choice, as it turns out, wasn't so simple. Hands trembling, he wrapped his fingers around the chilled dorknob, only to have it go stiff at his pull.  Locked.  He cursed under his breath-- of course it was locked. He was stuck up on this building, without an inkling of a clue as to where the building actually was, or where anything was for that matter, and now he had no means to find out, or to clear any bit of his clouded memory, because his only method of escape was, coincidentally, not a method of escape at all, but yet another wall put in front of him. He stepped back and closed his eyes, taking in yet another moment of thought. It was all he could do not to send his fist aimed with full force into the door.

He considered trying to ram straight through the doorway, but somehow felt that he wouldn't be able to even if he tried.  So breaking the door down was out,  but what other options did he..   The thought trailed off, as an image from moments before crept into his head: the ventilation ducts.

'There's more than one way into a building,' he thought, as he swiftly made his way to the pileup of machinery

Publication Date: 04-27-2013

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