Remember

Chapter Two (edited)

Minutes, hours, days, and then a week passed as Colette worked diligently in the hospital to track the brains of all the patients. Nurse Garner still refused to tell her what the tests were for or what they were even looking for. Colette was put under numerous tests, yet Nurse Garner's brain was never even peeked at.

Between the constant feeling of being watched and the secrets Nurse Garner kept from her, Colette was beginning to suspect something major was going on and she did not like it. In a town that was supposedly perfect -- no crime, no poverty, and no sickness -- secrets and insecurity were enough to terrify her.. or maybe it only sparked her curiosity.

Colette had been curious of everything ever since she was little. It was not so much that she wanted to learn everything, but to discover the things that no one else had and understand the things no one else did. The darker and unsettling things, that is what she was drawn to. The way shadows formed on the ground from the sun, the way the stars twinkled in a pitch dark sky and illuminated the moon. The whispers in the dark never scared her; they made her wonder what lurked in the unseen.

Things were not supposed to be perfect, that much she knew. Maybe the rest of the world was convinced that perfection was possible, but Colette knew better. She saw the things she was not supposed to see: the flaws in the system. If the world was perfect, why was there still a reigning government? Why did they need protection? What was the protection for? There were simply things that just did not fit.

After a long and grueling two weeks had passed she, once again, threw on her ugly, tight scrubs and walked to the hospital.

She was not late like every single other day. In fact, she walked right into the hospital a whole ten minutes early, signed her name on the sheet, and started playing her new game.

As she opened the glass doors, there was one thing on her mind: find the person lurking in the shadows, the one she had seen that day in her reflection in the glass. Find the man that took so much caution to watch her in secret, the one that she constantly felt watching her ever since that day.

Now for the game; to find the person that hid, she must first hide herself. She must draw the person out from his pitiful game of hide and seek. This time the roles would be reversed. Colette would no longer be the seeker, being watched silently from unseen places.

Colette would find the person and she would not stop until she did so.

As more hours passed, she glimpsed parts of the person more than she ever had before. Glimpses of a stark black suit could be found as she rounded a corner to the next patient's room and a shoulder in every single reflective surface as she helped Nurse Garner monitor the last group of patient's brains. At times, whispers of breath tickled her neck and she found herself checking behind her constantly.

Colette did not understand why, so suddenly, whoever was watching her was allowing her to see them so often. Perhaps it was because she was more cautious of when she looked up or perhaps the person was getting lazy. It seemed either the mystery stalker wanted to be found or they were teasing and playing with her mind to get a rouse out of her. Either way, she was determined to find them and demand answers. She would not go another day being watched.

For all she knew the person was a pervert and wanted nothing more than the perfect opportunity to snatch her. Though that was far fetched considering there had not been any kidnappings in the last two hundred years. It scared her knowing that this should not be happening, but it also made her all the more determined to expose him.

"Colette?" Nurse Garner's voice startled her out of her thoughts. The older woman was staring at her in confusion, head tilted slightly to the side. "Is everything alright?" Colette could not tell if the concern in the woman's voice was for Colette or for the fact that Colette was gripping the handle of a scalpel to the point where her knuckles were snow white.

She loosened her grip on the scalpel, her mind slowly but surely returning to the patient's room around her. Colette did not remember picking the scalpel up but she did remember every detail of the face she finally caught a glimpse of in the patient's heart monitor. Brown eyes, brown hair, mid forties and a small scar that reached from the top of his cheekbone and ran diagonally to the bottom of his nose. She had never seen him before in her life, yet she lived in one of the smallest circles in Paradisium. Newcomers were rare and never went unheard of.

"I'm fine Nurse Garner." She replied, quickly removing the shock from her face, and returning it to her normal bored one. She managed to tear her eyes away from the heart monitor to meet Nurse Garner's gaze. "Just in my own little world, that's all. I didn't sleep much last night," She lied. Colette paused for a moment, still thinking about the wave of her stalker's hand, almost as if he was beckoning her to follow him. "Are we almost done with the patients for the day?"

"This was the last one." Nurse Garner started to pack up the supplies. "Just help me get this back to my office, and you are free to do whatever until your shift is over." The nurse forced a fake smile, glancing down at the tools and back up at her. Colette nodded slowly and glanced once more in the screen of the monitor, but the reflection of the man had long disappeared. He was like smoke, appearing a disappearing within seconds. He was temptation and all of her curiosity wrapped up inside a person. She would not let him escape this time.

Hastily, she shoved the tools into their proper spots in her medical bag, wrapping the cords up in a rather destructive manner. This earned her stern looks from her mentor but Colette could care less, hardly even noticing that she was being utterly obvious that she was, in fact, not the least bit fine.

Her mind was spinning and drowning in useless thoughts that led to nowhere but more confusion. Questions she had no answers for vigorously popped into her mind to taunt her until the very second she set the tools down in the office and practically sprinted towards the last spot she saw the suited man. What did the man want? Where did he come from? Was she the only one he followed? Why did he choose to reveal himself to her now?

She waited inside the last patient's room and held a staring match with the heart monitor. Mere seconds passed, but they felt like the slowest hours of her life. There was no sign of where to try and to find him. Perhaps seeing him was only a trick of her overly eager mind. Colette could have imagined the whole thing.

Minutes passed and she felt like she had been staring at the monitor screen for days on end. Colette was beginning to give up and doubt she had ever seen him. After all, insanity was common among the patients in her hospital. Perfection was too much for people to handle and caused paranoia to eventually ensnare their minds as it waited for the perfection to end -- as it should.

Finally, a flicker of black in the corner of her green eyes caught her attention. Once again, she found herself whirling on her heel and stalking out of the room. The black fabric of a men's suit was now the only thing in her vision as she followed the very subtle, but very real signs of the man as he weaved his way silently through the hospital with Colette close on his heels.

He led her through hallway upon hallway until even Colette had lost her way in the hospital she had roamed for the past seven months. Then there was a slam of a large door, one leading to a darkening dusk sky littered with light that emitted from the stars thousands of years away. Outside the hospital doors is where she saw finally met the man face to face, his suit blending in with the dark sky. He looked nearly invisible and his facial expressions were hidden in the shadows the stars casted upon his face.

They stared at eachother for a long moment. Each waiting for the other to begin speaking. After moments of haunting silence, the sudden noise of a soft spoken man's voice erupted the peaceful night.

"You know, curiosity killed the cat, Colette Blair Degornè. I'd be more careful. You might end up learning something you shouldn't, and I don't think you'll like what comes after that." And then, as if every star in the sky winked out and said its very last goodbyes to the earth it shined upon, Colette's vision went black.

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