Jordan is a unique character in our story and one of the main characters. He awakes lost in the woods with no memory of who he is, who he was, where he is or how he got there.
He runs into, or more correctly is ran into by a mysterious older woman. As quickly as she appears, she disappears. Jordan makes his way into a town, where a freak accident lands him wrongfully in the Morgue.
Saved by Dr. Lorena, she helps him try and figure out what happened to him. Until he finds his real name, he goes by Fred.
Below is a sneak peak at the rough draft of chapter three of To Break a Soul
Awaking Once Again
Chapter Three
A loud pounding made Fred's head throb. Someone was yelling in the distance. Fred groaned and tried to move. His body refused. He felt like he was floating in a thick liquid. Drowning, his lungs burned with each slow breath. The comfort of unconsciousness pulled at him, but a strongly accented female's voice kept him awake. His eyes fluttered open, to blinding bright lights. "I'm Dr. Lorena, you are at the Seville general hospital. You have been badly injured, please lie still, stay quiet. Don't attempt to talk. You are going to be okay." She sounded miles away, yet each word was clear in his mind. Fred felt his face flush, before his world faded to black again.
He awoke again. He was moving. Or perhaps the world was moving. He watched lights on the ceiling above pass by. Fred knew ceilings didn't move, he felt like he was flying. Suddenly his bed rounded a corner into a room. It was empty and dark. The lights flicked on silently as he was moved in. The bed he was in made a few maneuvers before stopping in the far corner. His eyes felt heavy and the room faded out of focus, when movement caught his attention. It was another person. ‘Perhaps it’s that doctor. What did she say her name was again?’ Memory was not something his brain wanted to focus on. He couldn’t even remember how he got to the hospital. A bright light flashed into each of his eyes. He didn’t like that at all. His head hurt. He tried to turn away.
“Your pupillary response is slow. Which is common with brain injuries.” The strange woman’s voice sounded again. She sounded closer, yet still not close enough.
‘Did I hit my head?’ Fred thought, closing his eyes wanting to sleep again.
“You are still in pretty bad shape mister, lots of broken bones, all of your organs are at least bruised if not worse. However you are breathing, your er heart,” She paused oddly, “Yes, your heart is beating. Your appendix is producing quintessence, your kinesis energy is stabilizing, but still weak. You seem to be on the right track. Now, can you talk yet?” she questioned.
Fred opened his eyes again, he could faintly see the outline of the girl. She was wearing white, and black, but his vision was blurred. Bright colors surrounded her head, perhaps her hair? Or a mask. He opened his mouth, ‘how did I get here?’ He wanted to say, but the voice caught in his throat.
“Hmm, not yet it seems. Eleanor, please keep monitors running on his vitals using Masia’s systems and not my EoKhaiir.”
The girl spoke of many strange things. Quintessence, kinesis, EoKhaiir? Fred didn’t recognize these words. He thought he knew body anatomy, but appendix wasn’t something he thought was important, yet she mentioned it. These thoughts took too much energy. Fred drifted back to sleep again.
By the time Fred awoke again, his room was dark. A deep turquoise light glowed illuminating along the base of the walls. As he tried to sit up pain flooded through his body, the throbbing in his head returned. Fred didn’t know what hurt more. As he tried to sit up, he decided it was his shoulder. It wouldn’t move. “He-Hello,” He rasped. His throat was dry and sore. He knew he was in a hospital but it wasn’t like any hospital he had ever seen.
Light flooded the room, blinding Fred as he was used to the dark. As quickly as the light filled the room it disappeared. Leaving bright spots in Fred’s eyes.
“You're awake.” The accented voice of his Doctor returned.
“Y-yes, where am I?”
“I told you, you are in Seville’s Hospital. My name is Dr. Loreena. You’ve been in a nasty accident. You were badly injured.” She repeated firmly.
“I can’t, I can’t move my arm.” Fred blinked trying to see the mysterious Dr. Loreena.
“Hmm, Eleanor give me an internal structure scan of his shoulders.”
Fred waited for a nurse or someone to respond. Slowly his eyes adjusted and the spots faded. In the darkness of the room he could make out the silhouette of Dr. Loreena. As she neared his side, the sight of her made his heart race. The blue light glared off the metal of the mask obscuring her face. Like a fancy masquerade mask, a face of a bird loomed over him.
“Yes, it makes sense. Your shoulder is dislocated.” The doctor replied, “No the Attocytes just heal the bones.” She paused as if talking to someone. Fred couldn’t see anyone else. “His shoulder was dislocated before treatment, They are only programmed to rebuild and fix bones. It's not my fault that the program doesn’t take in account dislocations.” She argued.
“Who are you talking to?” Fred asked all of her arguing, confusing him. The doctor looked almost startled when he spoke.
“Yes, sorry.” She straightened up returning her focus back to him. Before Fred could blink she climbed up on top of him, straddling his lap.
“Wait! What!” Fred managed to ask as she grabbed his wrist, and roughly shoved him back against the bed. With a sickening pop She yanked his arm forward, setting the shoulder back in place. “THE FUCK!” He screamed as pain surged through him again, making him nauseous.
“Breathe, this will pass.” She soothed holding him down firmly. Her hand felt oddly smooth against his skin, like marble. Fred clenched his eyes, breathing harshly through gritted teeth. He didn’t feel the needle go in his neck. A warm feeling flooded his body, washing away the pain. His vision turned golden blinding him temporarily. The feeling slowly dissipated. Fred opened his eyes to find the lights in his room were on. He could see clearly now.
The room was plain, soft grey walls, dark grey floors. No windows, and strangely the room had no doors either. His eyes trailed back to his doctor, who was still straddling his lap. His face flushed with the realization he once again was without clothes.
“Feeling better?” She asked gently. The mask stared emptilly down at him.
“I, umm, would feel better, if you got off of my lap, and I had some clothes.” He stated, averting his gaze. Swiftly the doctor climbed off his lap.
“Right, the clothes you came in on weren’t yours were they?” She asked, helping him sit up.
He shook his head no. He looked at his own legs as they swung over the edge of the bed. They were swollen, black and blue. “No, I don’t think so. What happened?” Flashes of being in a strange room and pain were all that he could remember. “How long have I been here?”
Dr. Loreena pulled Fred to his feet, “Er well, you’ve been here just over Ri Veriex and a half.” “A what now?” These words did not make sense. Perhaps he hit his head a lot harder than he thought.
“Ri Veriex.”
“What?” He repeated his head hurting, as they slowly walked across the room. The tile was warm beneath his feet.
“Nevermind,” She huffed, “I actually don’t truly know what happened, I was hoping you could fill me in on some gaps.” In front of them the wall faded away to reveal a passage into another dark room. As they neared the room slowly illuminated.
This was a familiar place to Fred. A bathroom. A walk-in shower with a seat, a toilet, sink and mirror. All things he knew. He grasped onto this small accomplishment. “I don’t remember, I remember waking up with you-” He paused.
A new memory flashed before his eyes. No longer was he standing next to the strange Dr. Loreena. He was alone. Surrounded by dead trees, near a frozen lake. A woman shouted at him in foreign tongue. Pain surged through his body. With a loud gasp he was back in the bathroom. His hands gripping the edge of the sink. A putrid taste stuck in his mouth. He could barely breathe. Dr. Loreena’s hand rubbed his back gently.
“You are okay, you are safe here.” She soothed, “What did you see?”
Fred could barely understand it, let alone put it into words. “I don’t know. It was a blur. It happened so fast. I- I- I can’t,” His knees felt weak, and a ringing in his ears returned. He heaved into the sink, only bile came up.
“Breathe, this will pass.” She said in a stern voice. Fred felt as if she wasn’t reminding him, but commanding. Dr. Loreena sat him on the toilet, “Stay here, I’ll get you some Reikor.” Fred didn’t dare question anymore. The room spun around him, he focused his best on trying to breathe. Dr. Loreena returned with a clear glass with a clear liquid in it. “Here, Drink.”
“Water.” Fred mumbled while taking the glass with shaking hands. The cool liquid felt amazing against his dry lips. He slowly drank the water taking small sips. His throat burned as he swallowed. Slowly the water washed away the bitter taste in his mouth.
“Water?” She echoed. “Do you know your name?”
“Fred.” He answered. His mind flashed again. “Wait. No.”
“No?” Her head tilted slightly in confusion.
“No.” Fred said firmly. “I know my name isn’t Fred, but it’s the only thing that's coming to mind. You can call me Fred.”
“I’m no Fae, it's okay to tell me your real name, Fred.” Dr. Loreena took the empty glass from him. She set it on the counter near the sink. Fred couldn’t tell if she was joking or not. “Lift your arms.” She instructed. He listened. As he raised them everything burned and ached. Dr. Loreena dressed him in a plain grey shirt and helped him into plain grey pants. Fred followed Dr. Loreena’s guidance and soon he was back in the bed.
“Dr. Loreena, where am I?” Fred asked again.
“You’re in Seville Gen-”
“No, I know I’m in a hospital. What is Seville, I- I’m,” Thoughts blurred together, a street sign flashed to his eyes, a large city, then nothingness again. “Am I in Spain?” The thought was wrong, her accent didn’t match.
“No. You are in Seville, the Nogreun of Nayelutae. You came from Nytern.”
“I don’t know any of those places! You keep saying all these words and they don’t make sense!” Fred yelled. His own raised voice startled him. He hadn’t meant to yell.
“It’s okay, you are okay, Just Breathe, this will pass.” She soothed. The lights in the room dimmed, “Get some rest, I’ll return with some food.”
Fred nodded with a yawn. He was exhausted. As soon as his head hit the pillow his eyes closed and sleep returned.
Dr. Lorena’s voice echoed in Fred’s head, waking him up from the darkness of sleep. Blinking his eyes open he glanced around, the blurry room emerged into focus. Dr. Lorena stood as if she were holding a clipboard, her hands empty. “I must be dreaming,” Fred murmured. In the middle of his room a tree had grown. It’s top branches brushed against the ceiling. It seemed to make noise with the wind, but he felt none. Slowly he sat up, Dr. Lorena didn’t seem to notice and continued to jabber in an unfamiliar tongue. It had a familiarity to it but thinking about where it was from made his head hurt. Fred watched with curiosity as Dr. Lorena pointed to places in the air, explaining things to the tree. Fred started to laugh at the sight of Dr. Lorena talking to the tree as if it were her supervisor. Someone had even draped a grey lab coat around it. Fred couldn’t contain himself at the sight.
“What in nalahiem are you laughing at?” Dr. Lorena snapped, looking up at Fred.
Fred stopped. “You and- and the tree,” losely gesturing towards the tree in the center of the room. Fred watched as Dr. Lorena turned towards the tree, and he swore the tree turned slightly to face her. As if exchanging a worried glance, yet the tree had no face and Dr. Lorena’s face remained obscured completely behind a metal mask.
“I am so dreaming.” Fred reiterated again.
“Why do you think that Fred?” Dr. Lorena’s voice was cool and calm. She slowly walked to his bedside and placed a hand gently on his wrist.
Fred’s smile vanished. The doctor’s hand on his wrist was far too cold to be imagined. “The- the tree, that wasn’t there last night!” He glanced around her to look at the tree draped in a doctor's coat. Fred dropped his voice to a whisper, “I could have sworn it moved.”
“Fred, that isn’t just a tree. That’s Dr. Oak, he is one of our attendings at this hospital.” Dr. Lorena explained. As she did the large tree began to move towards his bed. As it got closer Fred could clearly see the grey coat was not just draped around the tree but that it was actually wearing it. It's branches and leaves shuttering and shook with a wispy rattle.
Fred paled. Trees couldn’t move, they couldn’t talk and most certainly trees were not doctors. He felt his chest tighten, perhaps he was still sleeping. All he needed to do was to go back to sleep and wake up for real. Fred put his head back on the pillow and closed his eyes. He opened them to see Dr. Lorena and Dr. Oak still standing in the middle of his room.
Dr. Lorena spoke again, nodding. The tree started to move more. It turned towards the doorway and slowly moved out. Fred sat up to watch the tree move. It had legs, that when standing still looked like the trunk of the tree. This fascinated him, he had never seen such fantastical creatures. His mind swirled with vacant memories of childhood stories, creatures of great destruction, but none of it seemed real. Fairy tales. He was living a fairy tale.
“No!” Dr. Lorena gasped, spinning on her heel to face the departing Dr. Oak. “Let me, he is my patient after all. I need practice doing these sorts of things!” She cleared her voice before continuing, “I- er- I’ll just send it to you when I’m done to make sure there are no mistakes.” The large tree shuttered and stomped out of the room.
Dr. Lorena breathed a sigh of relief and turned back to Fred. “I’m sorry we woke you. You see, I must admit I’m not a full doctor. I’m studying to work with living patients. I work in the morgue, that's where I found you.”
The more Dr. Lorena explained the less it made sense. “I was in the morgue? Did I die?” He interjected.
Dr. Lorena froze, “Er- well they thought you were dead. You were pretty close to it. Your heart wasn’t beating when I found you.” She seemed reluctant as if she was holding something back.
“Dr. um, Dr.” Fred searched his mind. Her name was on the tip of his tongue and frustratingly just out of reach.
“Lorena,”
“Yes, sorry. Dr. Lorena. I was brought in from a bad accident, nearly died. I don’t know where I am, you won’t tell me what happened. Where is my family? Why don’t you know what happened? If there was an accident, there should have been police or some sort of investigation. Who brought me in?” Fred couldn’t stop. The thoughts in his mind spilled out. He felt his throat tightening and his voice cut out.
“Breathe, I’ll answer your questions. To start, you were brought into my morgue, how many veriex now?” She paused, “Ah yes! Thank you Cava, You are on xine almost bahr veriex now. So xine eixlun and this is your xinein halueam.”
“Ah yes that explains absolutely nothing.” Fred snided. Getting frustrated with these forgien words. Fred couldn’t see her expressions, but her head tilted ever so slightly down in thought.
“I brought you some food to eat.” changing the subject, Dr. Lorena moved the side table with a covered tray on it, over his lap. She then sat on the edge of his bed at his feet watching him. Fred didn’t feel hungry, but he wasn’t sure when he last had solid food. He straightened up and removed the cover of the tray. As he set the cover down on the other side table, he realized the table over his lap was floating. “How- How is this floating in the air?”
“The table tray? Oh, it's levitating like your bed. I don’t quite know the specifics of it. I’m not really an mechanical engineer, I focus more on biology, chemistry, and Kinesistry. I mean I know a bit about mechanical but more biomechanical than veriex to veriex use.” She rambled on.
The smell of his food drew Fred’s attention away from Dr. Lorena’s ramblings. He had two glasses, one with water the other seemed to have a pale ashen pink juice in it. As he reached for the glass of water Dr. Lorena stopped her ramblings with a small gasp, “What do you call that.” She asked suddenly and intensely pointing to the cup with clear liquid in it.
“Uh, water, I think?” Fred took a sip, “Yup, water. Why.”
“Reikor! That’s it! I’m sorry Fred. you speak Clthonaul, I mean I speak it too, it's what were speaking now, but I also speak Synsauli, and technically I know Quiallian too but not many creatures speak Clthonaul. Although you are using a very ancient version of it, but-”
“I speak English, not whatever the hell Clthonaul is.” Fred huffed, feeling like a child as Dr. Lorena explained.
“Interesting, so you call reikor, water? What other words do you not recognize?” Dr. Lorena leaned in eagerly awaiting Fred’s answer. “Uhh, well I still don’t know how long I’ve been here, or where here is exactly.” Fred picked up the fork sitting near his plate, and tried the eggs. They were quite a bit larger than he imagined eggs to be but they tasted the same. “So, how long do you think you’ve been here? Or what do you measure <Time> in? Er measure time in?” “Days, weeks, months? What year is it?” He retorted moving onto the dark red meat. “Days.” Dr. Lorena repeated, “huh interesting.” “What?” “Nothing it's just that the word day, means something else that's all. Viriex. That is what I believe you want. Viriex is day. So you’ve been here nearly barh viriex now.” Dr. Lorena explained holding up four fingers. “So I’ve been here nearly four days?” Fred became increasingly worried. “You still don’t have any information on what happened?” “Speaking of information, I do need to enter you into the system before Dr. Oak gets upset.” Dr. Lorena turned to the side and moved her hands about the air, making weird gestures and drawing invisible symbols. “Okay so we need a name for you.” “All I know is Fred.” “No, even if it is or isn’t your name, I don’t want to risk it. Being not in the system is rare, and something you want to hold on to. Let’s use Oswald James. Blood type: AB-. Status: Kezelő, Classifier:?” She paused to stare intently back at Fred for a few moments, “Einn, yes Einn is best. Now for Quintessence-” “Whats that? Quin Essence? Whats ‘the system’? Why is it bad?” Dr. Lorena sighed, “<Firstly> it's Quint-essence. <Secondly> You really don’t remember anything do you?” Fred shook his head, “It’s as blank as a white board.” “A what? Nevermind, anyway quintessences is a quirx,” Dr. Lorena paused seeing Freds vacant expression, “ a being’s ability to manipulate kinesis in a specific way. In simple terms. Such as the ability to manipulate deirya, ki, reikor, ati.” “Oh, so reikor is water, to manipulate water. deirya is air?” Fred asked remembering the four elements, water, air, fire, and earth. “No, deirya is terra, ki is air, and ati is fire.” Dr. Lorena corrected. “Do you have a quintessence? Do I have one?” Fred asked, bringing his hands up trying to focus on making fire with his hands. “I do, and I believe you do but I don’t know what it is. I’ll put it down as deirya though, it's quite common.” Dr. Lorena continued to make symbols in the air as if writing the information down. “Earth quint essence.” Fred repeated trying hard to focus on creating dirt in his hands. After a few moments of nothing happening Fred felt a bit silly, “Nothing’s happening.” Fred wondered if this quint essence thing was real. It seemed a bit far fetched in his mind, but Dr. Lorena seemed far too serious about it. “Well if I were you I wouldn’t be surprised. Considering you don’t even remember what quintessence is.” Dr. Lorena chided, “Do you at least remember kinesis?” Fred thought for a moment, “You mean like cell movement?” “Er no,” She shook her head slightly, “Kinesis is the energy of the universe,” “I remember you said that when I first woke up, my kinesis energy was stabilizing. What does that mean?” Fred’s head was getting heavy again. He turned back to his half eaten plate of food, perhaps eating more would help his strength. “Everything is made up of pure energy in a way. Depending how the energy acts determines what is formed. Kinesis is that energy, it has patterns that can be traced. Each soul is tied to the body and has a special kinesis pattern. Kinda like a heartbeat, it's a pattern of energy that runs through your body. I’m trying to explain this the best I can in Clthonaul It’s more complex than that, but-” Fred nodded slightly, “I think I understand.” He reassured her even though he barely understood what she was saying. Fred finished his food and took a sip of the pink liquid. He watched Dr. Lorena as she continued to wave her arms around quickly, “What is it that you are doing? Is it something in the mask? Why are you wearing a mask?” “Everyone wears masks here.” “Why?” “Fred, this place not just Seville but all of Nayelutae quirx wear masks. Mostly to hide their identity, to keep out of the system. It’s a bit deeper than that, but those like you and I, perfects,” “I remember being called that!” Fred exclaimed, remembering nearly being run over by the cart in the woods. The room spun and he thought he may become sick again. He closed his eyes and felt a sharp pinch in his neck. When he opened his eyes, Dr. Lorena was pulling away with a weird device in her hand. “It should help with your nausea.” She reassured him, “It's good that you are remembering more. Tell me, what you do remember if you can.” Fred nodded slowly, the room still seemed to spin, but he no longer felt like he was immediately going to throw up. “I remember being in the woods, I came to a small pathway. There were these two beings they yelled something at me. It was heavily accented.” Fred sat up and tried to imitate the voice of the one, “Idj’it Perfict, is what the one called me. I think they also had masks on. I- I followed them! I was lost before. I made my way to this town?” Fred paused, “I thought it was uh, it was empty- no. Not just empty.” He was becoming frustrated over the word he wanted. He knew it in his mind but the word itself would not be said. “It looked like it was empty for a long time, no people, it looked very old and- and.” “Abandoned?” Dr. Lorena gently suggested. Fred nodded. The word was what he wanted but his own brain would not give it to him. “That word you used, people,” Dr. Lorena asked her head tilted curiously, “What does it mean?” “People? Like you and I. More than one person.” Fred replied, factually. “Oh okay, your word for quirx.” She nodded, “continue?” “Well it wasn’t abandoned, I think.” Fred murmured, “This is where it gets more fuzzy. It still doesn’t explain why perfect is an insult? What defines perfect?” “Please try and focus, I need you to try hard to remember more. I know it is not what you want to do, but you need to remember it.” Dr. Lorena pressed. Fred nodded and closed his eyes trying to focus hard on the memory. “I found a tavern. I could tell because it smelled like one. I went inside, I remember feeling very small. Everything was too tall for me. There were lots of people in masks. They were huge, the building was made for them.”
“Good, keep going.”
“The bartender told me I could warm by the fire. I did. I was so cold. Why was I cold.” Fred questioned himself trying to focus, “I had this cloak, I think that's all I had on. I remember looking at this paper, a poster. A-a- A wanted poster! It moved which was strange to me. It was a bounty board most likely.”
“Do you remember who was on the poster?”
“Yeah, it was this girl, it showed her running away on a stone bridge outside a castle.” Fred felt like he was back in the tavern looking at the paper in his hands. “I think it was the same girl who gave me the cloak.”
“What happened next?” Dr. Lorena asked.
Fred concentrated, his head began to throb. He felt hot, his ears began to ring then he suddenly felt cold. The world faded black around him. He could hear Dr. Lorena’s voice echoing in the distance, but soon that was gone too.