The Starling Saviour

Chapter 1

Slowly opening my eyes, I found myself in a very clinically white room, a large light being shone right in my eyeline. Squinting as I tried to avert my eyes from the painful light, I could see my mother and father by my beside with my sister Rose. They all looked worse for wear, as if they had been waiting for this moment for days.

As I tried to sit up, I felt a great deal of pain to where I guessed the bullet had hit me, just above the stomach. No vital organs must have been hit, I thought to myself as a doctor entered the room. He looked familiar.

'Everything seems to be in order,' he smiled warmly as I tried to recover quickly.

Looking at his badge, I smiled back at him.

'Thank you,' I said gratefully. 'Dr... Devon?'

Then his picture on the badge triggered my memory. He was Isaac's, my friend from uni's, boyfriend, the photo reminding me of the photos hung up in Isaac's and his house, where I had protected Isaac from no other than Malcolm Merlyn.

'My job is to make sure you're alright,' he smiled.

I suddenly heard footsteps come our way. It was Isaac.

'Aria!' Isaac exclaimed. 'Are you alright?'

'Isaac?' I asked in disbelief. 'Why are you... Here?'

He couldn't have remembered anything about when Merlyn abducted him; I had shot him with an amnesia sedative. But somehow, he knew I was here.

'Elliot told me,' Isaac recalled, gesturing towards his boyfriend. 'It's a... A miracle you survived!'

'What?' I asked, confused.

A miracle?

'Yes,' Elliot nodded. 'Barely anyone has ever survived a bullet wound like that with full recovery and their body functioning at optimum levels. Well, after they... Died for an hour. You're the first in this hospital to, that's for sure.'

'I was dead?' I repeated, taken aback. 'For an hour?'

'Not even in a coma,' Elliot said, himself in awe.

So maybe Anthony Ivo was right, last year on the island. I was special.

---

For the next few hours, I was surrounded by doctors, nurses and other medical staff, who were trying to understand how I was resurrected after an hour of death with no haemorrhages, no brain damage, nothing. I was clean, completely normal, as if I had just gone to sleep and woken up.

By the time all the tests and questions had finished, my family had left due to utter fatigue, the doctors telling them to go home and that they would send me home once they knew I was fine.

And then I felt the breeze lift, papers fly around the room, and a flash of red zoom towards me.

The Flash.

'Someone's going to see you!' I whispered concernedly, looking to and fro. 'Wait, weren't loads of people just in here?'

'I moved them,' the Flash explained, moving closer towards me.

'Why?' I asked. 'And why are you here?'

'To check if you were okay after being on the island,' the Flash explained.

'You were the one who put me on that island in the first place!' I hissed, getting annoyed at him now.

None of this would have happened if I hadn't listened to his advice to get on that boat, or of he hadn't saved me and put me on the island. To be honest, part of me wished that I had gone down with the Queen's Gambit and drowned.

'Look, I don't have much time,' the Flash said hurriedly. 'You can't stay here. Merlyn will find you, and kill you-'

'How do you know about Merlyn?' I asked, intrigued. 'What do you think he'll actually do? He tried to kill me in the warehouse; the moves he used, he told me in Starling that they were what he used to kill people, if he didn't have his arrows with him. So, then? You're from the future, right? Tell me what he'll try to do.'

'He will try to make you do horrible things,' the Flash stated. 'To endanger everyone around you. You can't stay here.'

'Erm, I think I can,' I protested. 'Merlyn already tried to do the worst he can. And didn't the police catch him?'

'No,' the Flash shook his head. 'I have to go!'

'What?' I shouted. 'Merlyn's... Free?'

'Yes!' The Flash shouted back. 'Goodbye, Aria!'

And then he was gone.

What was I supposed to do? I had so much toying with my mind, all the things I could do and the lives I could lead. I could stay with my parents and Rose, living a life in fear that Malcolm Merlyn might come knocking on the door. Or I could take a trip to Starling to try to find my sister, Leyla, and protect her. Or I could go to Starling and spend my life with Tommy, who was supposed to be my boyfriend back in Starling. I could even contact Amanda Waller, the woman who brought me back home from the island.

I just didn't know what to do.

What I knew I wanted to do though was to get revenge on Malcolm Merlyn. He was a problem that needed to be fixed, and even though he was Tommy's father, he still needed to be dealt with. If I could, I would have killed him right there in the hospital.

'Aria!' I heard a voice worriedly shout my name. 'Are you alright?'

It was Isaac again.

He looked so scared, almost as if he had seen a ghost.

'Where's Elliot?' Isaac asked anxiously. 'That... Assassin hadn't taken him, has he?'

'Assassin?' I repeated, puzzled.

He couldn't possibly mean Merlyn could he? I thought I gave him a sedative to forget the night's events.

'Yes, the one who you fought at my house,' Isaac nodded.

Oh dear. He did remember.

'You remember?' I asked, taken aback.

'You didn't give me any sedative, Aria,' Isaac pointed out.

He remembered. He remember it all. And I was stupid enough not to check which gun I had used in him.

'Well, I don't know who took Elliot,' I lied.

I couldn't exactly tell him the truth, could I?

'But I do want to get revenge on the... Assassin,' I told Isaac, sitting up fully. 'He was the one who abducted me in the first place. Do you remember when I was sat next to you in class and the room went dark? And I went missing?'

A look of realisation appeared in his face.

'Was that when he took you?' Isaac asked.

I nodded.

'Then we have to stop him!' Isaac exclaimed. 'He's dangerous!'

'I know,' I nodded again.

I didn't even know why I was telling him all this. I guess I just needed someone to confide in. Maybe even someone to... Help me find Merlyn.

'Do you want to join me?' I suggested suddenly.

'Join you in what?' Isaac wondered.

'My fight for revenge,' I announced. 'My fight against Malcolm Merlyn.'