Awakenings

I awoke to red light, filtering slowly into the dark void until I finally opened my eyes.

There was something around my body, some sort of glass that formed a cylinder that was slightly larger than I was. The red light seemed to be coming from the flooring of this cylinder, though there were other red lights throughout the cavernous laboratory.

Why was I in a laboratory?

For that matter, why could I remember nothing, not even my own name?

Suddenly, there was a Turan woman clad in a strange white uniform peering into the cylinder, looking at me with a mixture of hope and fear. She was looking over some small pad that was attached to the cell, glancing back to it as she watched me with her large brown eyes. Finally, once I bent forward slightly to stare back, she smiled brightly and the fear evaporated into triumph.

Who was she? Why had she been afraid?

"Teiris, can you hear me?" the woman finally asked, still peering into my strange cell with her elated grin and unblinking large eyes.

Assuming that Teiris was my name, I nodded slowly, and opened my mouth to talk only to find it suddenly filled with a strange tasting mist that I had not deciphered from the red light. It tasted bitter at first, but slowly tasted sweeter and sweeter until I realised that the gnawing hunger in my stomach had finally ceased; it must have been laced with nutrients or something.

The woman nodded to me, pressing a few keys on the little pad before asking, "I need you to give me a four digit code before I can release you. Any four numbers in any combination."

Nodding again faintly, I gave her a combination that I hoped I could remember, though it seemed like I could think more clearly now - it was as if a vast and luminous chamber had opened up in my mind, however something in the back of it made me leary of my own memory. Perhaps it was the pure lack of memory that caused me to be so hesitant about remembering anything.

"What's happened to me? Why am I in this...this thing, and why can't I remember anything before opening my eyes?" I asked in a panic.

The woman merely smiled again, nodding as she continued to work her fingers over the keypad, "You will be given access to the answers you seek as soon as I finish your release paperwork. Our training and evaluation team have been excellent in their education of the Temperions, and I am sure they shall answer everything you could ever think to ask about your new life."

Rage filled me then; I could feel it rippling down my spine, out through my arms and legs. I felt my lips curl into a snarl, and my hands clenched into fists before they raised to break the glass. The violence startled me, and I suddenly remembered I had never been prone to it before now, although I had no solid memory of why.

"New life?" I screamed, the vapors muting the roaring sound only slightly. "What the hell have you bastards done to me?!"

Her smile broke, her brows knitting as fear began to cloud around the edges of her eyes. Her hand remained over a larger key, as if she had been ready to finalize whatever transactions had been taking place during our conversation. With a sigh, she pressed that last button, and the world around me began to slowly fade away.

"The others will explain," her faint voice echoed, "goodbye, Temperion."