20 I'm Fine

It came down the wind howling behind it. I prepared myself ready to die once again, but instead, I awoke.

Slowly prying my eyes open, I was in a white room. There were seams in the white, no different in color, just shadows between the panels.

I was floating in an oval capsule, a little bigger than my body, its silver glow reflected in my eyes as I looked around the room. I was suspended in a strange clear liquid, almost invisible. I had a ventilator on my face and wireless electromyography leads all over my body.

As I floated there she walked over, she was in a long white coat that resembled a dress, buttoned at the top and the chest. It was Mary, Cecelia's pupil, she had a large tablet in her hands.

As she tapped the screen the liquid drained, my hair fell flat across my back and chest and the leads separated, slotting into groves at the top of the capsule along with the ventilator. My feet touched the ground and I struggled to keep my balance, leaning on the back of the capsule, I stood up straight.

The glass slid into the metallic cocoon and she stepped closer.

"Good morning. How was your nap, or should I say comma." As she spoke she looked me up and down.

"Co...mma." My words struggled to come out.

"Yes, you were in an induced comma... induced by your subconscious."

"Why?" I asked confused.

"Really? Your gonna pretend you don't know?"

"I... don't."

"Trauma, your subconscious put you into a dream like state so you could confront your problems." She said looking at a golden ring on her finger. "Have you been through anything... traumatic recently?"

"No." I said stumbling out of the capsule.

"Lying won't help you, what I said is a fact, I know you were dealing with trauma. I'm not asking. And, you have counseling sessions at the start and mid of every week." She sounded frustrated, mad.

"I'm not going." I said looking her in the eyes.

"As I said before, I'm not asking I'm telling." Her words were rough but her face was emotionless.

"Fine." I said looking away.

Having a good view of the room, the left side I was on had up to six hundred capsules. The right side not too far away had panels with the relevant information of its counter part.

"Come with me." She said as she walked away.

Following her we came upon the end of the room. There was a white flat door with glass at its center to the right and straight ahead was a wall of small compartments sealed with a green hue. As she tapped the tablet one of the compartments opened.

"There's the stuff you had on you." As soon as she had finished speaking she walked back into the room.

Looking into the compartment it had my wallet, mask, phone and I.D, not to mention all articles of clothing. I realized then that I was completely naked. Swiftly covering myself and stashing my items, I started to walk out. I didn't want to spend a minute later in the room. As the door slid open, she spoke.

"You have counseling tomorrow, and make sure to tell that friend of yours thanks for coming to see you everyday." what she said was annoying, but interesting.

"Every... day?" I asked looking at her.

"Haha... haaaa. You were asleep for three days. How long did you think you were asleep for?" She continued to chuckle to herself as I left.

("Three days? Three?") Her words felt surreal.

As I left the room I could see an elevator a door down to my right and to my left was more doors. As I walked towards the elevator it opened.

"Oh... Your finally awake." He said crunching the green stick in his mouth.

"Your the person who came to see me everyday." I said entering the elevator.

"Yeah, when they said you were "sick," he made air quotes as he said sick, "I didn't have an excuse for people flocking me, so I came and visited you everyday." Nothing personal.

"Well you can stop now." I said waiting for the elevator to reach its destination.

We were on the negative first floor.

"You didn't miss much, but I'll catch you up on what you did miss." a message came in on my phone as he spoke.

"All caught up, your welcome."

As the doors opened I realized where I was, I was in the school. The corner I had never been interested enough to look around had an elevator. As we disembarked Zack followed close behind me.

The usual shine the windows had were not there. It was night. We walked all the way to dorms not a word being said. As we entered it seemed barren. Checking the time it was only seven, it seemed strange.

"Where's everybody?" I asked looking in all directions.

"At the stadium... arena, who to tell. Their at the arena. Yesterday we had an assessment of our physical, combat, intellectual and magical abilities, so their basically sizing each other up. Creating the hierarchy I guess... pathetic." He sounded annoyed, distain in his voice.

"How about you?" I asked looking over at him as we entered the elevator.

"I don't care, the tests are over, I don't need their validation."

I did not respond. The elevator reaching the third floor we walked towards our rooms. Then when we got there he stood behind me waiting.

"I'm going to have to let you in, aren't I?" I asked hovering my I.D over the scanner at the door nob.

"Yup." He said his words jumbled by a full mouth.

Not answering I opened the door and as I walked in I held it open. Now in the room I looked around, ensuring everything was where I left it. It was unchanged, I was relived.

I walked over to my bed and sat on it, Zack stood near my weapons and ammunition stockpile.

"Not going to say anything." I asked watching him survey the boxes with his eyes.

"What do we have to talk about?" He said staring at the sniper.

"So this is gonna be awkward then, understood." I averted my gaze and started to focus.

I was worried about the state of my mind and my expanse. Though my worries were quickly shot down when I entered the familiar room. Everything was in its place, I was fine.

Having nothing better to do I did a little house keeping or rather mind sweeping. I reactivated my spatial awareness spell and remembered I had another one to activate. Bringing the marathon of a spell to the front of my mind I imbedded it into a panel like the last and did the same as before, activating it.

"Hello. My name is... insert name for convenience." My own voice rang in my head.

"The hell!" I said looking around." Who are you?" I asked looking at the spell on the panel.

"I am you, or rather now I am. I am an A.I designed to help you with your troubles, an experiment Mr. Rockwell thought might work, and as you can see it has."

"So you're an A.I... in my head." I asked confused.

"Yes. Now please give me a name before I fall into despair succumbing to a personality crisis that is no name. That's a joke by the way."

It sounded weird at first but seeing all that had happened, it was one of the tamer experiences I had.

"You're me so, Psychí." I wasn't good at names and wouldn't pretend to be.

"Thank you."

"Are you the panel on the wall." I asked intrigued.

"Yes, but my form can be changed for your liking. Would you like that?"

"Yes I would."

As soon as I finished speaking the panel shrunk and morphed into a black box the size of my head. It was suspended, yet it balanced on one of its vertices and spun like a planet.

"Better?" It asked moving closer to me.

"Better." I responded more comfortable being able to see its entirety.

"Would you like me to converge all the knowledge in your expanse and become your source of information for ease of access?" It asked moving between the shelves.

"Yes."

As soon as I answered all the books afloat started to move towards the cube and as they did they were absorbed making the cube larger. When all the books had finished merging with the cube it grew to the size of my torso.

"Done."

The space now seemed empty, and boring. It didn't bother me though, it only represented my personality.

"I think we should ask about the assessment, we will most likely be doing it tomorrow." The cube said floating its way beside me.

As I left my mind I could see Zack standing a few feet in front of me.

"what?" I asked surprised.

"Thank God, I thought you had gone asleep again, you were just staring... blankly."

"I'm fine. So about the assessment, what does it entail?" I asked standing up and walking towards my stockpile.

"If you'd look at the message I sent, you wouldn't need to ask me that." He sounded smug, but not disrespectful.

Looking at the message it was all there, but before I even finished reading it, in my head I heard my voice once more.

"Done. There is no need to continue reading. All the relevant information has been acquired and a strategy has been created."

Hearing these words brought confidence, but discomfort. It gave a new meaning to talking to myself.

"It's not hard. You'll fight some auts, do a written test, cast some spells and lift some weights." His info was valid, but a word he spoke was unfamiliar.

"An aut is a robot, an automaton." My voice informed me." All we need for tomorrow is our pistols and a set of magazines, I am confident we will ace the exams."

Hearing my own words I sat and started to load a magazine. Zack sat next to me putting away his tablet and dish of sticks loading one of his own.

"You don't..." He interrupted.

"I'm doing this because I want to." He said loading the mag.

It was a shock to have woken up three days late but I was soon readjusting. Finishing the preparations for the test, I had nothing to do. I was tired and decided I wanted to go to sleep. Seeing this Zack left of his own accord.

I was slightly afraid but I'd have to sleep sometime. Closing my eyes I soon dozed off as if I wasn't sleeping for three days straight.