Chapter : System Error?

A persistent beeping filled the room as Victor's eyelids fluttered open. 

"Hmmm…." Victor mumbled, his voice raspy and dry.

He blinked a few times, the fluorescent lights above him assaulting his sensitive eyes. His head throbbed like a drum solo, growing stronger with every sluggish blink.

His hand instinctively tried to reach up to rub his forehead when the sterile white ceiling of the room finally blurred into focus, but a jolt of pain stopped him short. He looked down, eyes widening. His right arm, from wrist to bicep, was encased in a bulky white bandage.

"What the..." he rasped, his voice hoarse and barely a whisper. He tried to sit up to have a better look at the bandage, only to realize the effort sent a fresh wave of nausea crashing over him.

"Damn it...ugh…" He groaned, suppressing the nausea as much as he possibly could with his left hand covering his mouth. As he tried to move, a groan escaped his lips as a sharp pain shot through his stomach. 

"What the heck?!" He yelled out, looking down at his torso, to see bandages covering his stomach after lifting the blanket. His confusion deepened even more as his gaze darted around the room. 

White walls, sterile, with a single window showing a sliver of blue sky. Beside the bed, a metal pole held a clear bag filled with amber liquid, a thin tube snaking down to his left wrist.

"Am I…in a hospital? How did I get here?" Victor muttered, trying to figure out the situation and he even tried to recall the last moments that happened in his memory.

However, as he attempted to do it, he felt like he was trying to grasp blurry smoke in his head—a vague image of several cars swerving, several loud screeches from unknown creatures... and then nothing.

Badump~

"Ughhh!!" Victor groaned, grabbing his forehead with his left hand when a headache suddenly came out of nowhere while he was trying to dig deeper into his memory.

As his mind was calming down from the pain, he was surprised to find a thick white bandage swathed his head when his fingers felt something rough, and quickly noticed the edges crinkled and stained with a faint brownish-red. 

"Honestly…What the hell is g-wait a minute, huh?" He muttered feeling really annoyed before finally realizing something was off. 

It was his voice. 

It sounded different and….unfamiliar?

More like it's less worn, more smooth, and almost youthful sounding.

He frowned, a shiver running down his spine. Tentatively, he spoke again, but more carefully. "Excuse…me?" 

The words came out in a smooth baritone, rich and young. Panic clawed at his throat. This wasn't his voice. It couldn't be.

His voice, the one he knew and hated, was a gravelly mess, a testament to years of cigarettes and bad decisions.

"No, no, no, this isn't right…" he hissed at the bedsheet, his voice cracking with a hysteria he couldn't control. He then immediately tried to get off the bed, ignoring the dizziness that threatened to topple him. 

!!!!

The movement sent another jolt of pain through his bandaged abdomen, forcing him to gasp.

"Okay, okay," he murmured, sinking back down while trying to quell the uncontrollable hysteria within. After a while, he tried again, whispering this time, but the unsettling youthfulness still remained.

"Maybe it's temporary," he forced the words out, his voice barely a whimper despite desperation fueled him before lightly shaking his head.

"No," he croaked, his voice trembling, realizing that being optimistic in this situation wasn't going to offer any real comfort for him. 

"There must be…some explanation," he rasped, squeezed his eyes shut, and covered his face with his left hand.

A sob soon escaped his lips, a pathetic mewling sound that mirrored the terror gripping him. Was this some bizarre punishment? A cruel joke?

With a sob that turned into a choked cough, he scrambled to sit up again, ignoring the stab of pain in his stomach. Reaching for the call button beside the bed, his trembling hand fumbled with the plastic button, pressing it repeatedly.

"Nurse! Doctor! Anyone!" he even tried to shout, but the alien voice only wheezed out a pathetic whimper. 

Suddenly, a translucent, shimmering screen, like something ripped from a sci-fi comic book, materialized right in front of his face out of nowhere, leaving him bewildered by the unexpected sight. 

It was a vibrant, almost electric blue, the edges hazy and undefined. 

"What the...?" he rasped, flinching and even accidentally letting go of the plastic button from his hand. 

Out of curiosity and confusion, he instinctively reached up to swat at the apparition.

His fingers passed harmlessly through the screen, the cool, shimmering surface seeming to distort his own reflection back at him.

The screen itself flickered, the blue light pulsing erratically. Text began to appear, pixelated and distorted, scrolling rapidly down the translucent pane.

[Initializing Zeroth System]

[Identifying User's database]

Then, a jarring halt. The scrolling text froze and the color of the screen suddenly went from electric blue to bright red.

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[Warning: Critical Error Detected]

[Foreign Entity was detected within the user's database]

"Huh?" Victor blurted out, his eyes widening at the unexpected turn of events. Before he could fully comprehend the controls, the already ominous reddish screen soon took another sudden turn.

[Commencing analysis for further asses-@#&$%@%&#]

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[Warning: System No.00120104 Integrity Compromised]

[Commencing Emergency Repair Sequence]

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[Emergency Repair Sequence Failing] 

Victor's jaw dropped. What was this? Foreign entity? Emergency repair? What in the world was going on?

He blinked rapidly, squeezing his eyes shut and then reopening them. The screen was still there, pulsating a sickly red, the text flickering ominously before another unexpected took a turn.

[Warning: Unidentified Interference Detected]

[Initiating Emergency Protocol]

[Commencing Elimination Prot-@$#%&^%^$%#$]

[ERROR]

[ERROR]

[Emergency Protocol…Unsuccessful]

[Elimination Protocol…Unsuccessful]

[Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance]

[...]

[Connection Failed]

[Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance]

[...]

[Connection Failed]

[Initiating Contact with System Administration for Assistance]

[...]

[Connection Failed]

[...]

[Commencing Temporary System Reboot Protocol]

[Warning: Reboot May Cause Unforeseen Consequence]

"Wait, what!? Temporary reboot protoc-?" Victor muttered as his confusion intensified, only to be cut off abruptly as the room blurred into focus. 

As his body fell back on the bed, he squeezed his eyes shut and a low moan escaped Victor's lips. 

A jolt of searing white-hot lightning bolt soon ripped through his body, making him scream and his body arched off the bed, muscles contracting involuntarily, the sterile sheets bunching beneath him.

The scream died in his throat as abruptly as it had begun as the weight of memories, not his own, suddenly pressed upon him and flooded his mind in a torrent. 

Images flashed before his eyes like vivid snapshots, each frame carrying the weight of the unknown past's history — the sight of a bustling street market near a childhood playground, the scent of spices thick in the air, a worn leather satchel bumping against his thigh, an unknown lover's gaze, moments of joy and sorrow not his own. 

As he was going through the memories, Victor gasped, his chest heaving and his fists clenched in response to a wave of pain being inflicted in his mind.

"Who… who are you?" he rasped, the question tumbling out before he could stop it.

Another jolt, this time milder, sparked in his head. A name surfaced through the chaos, a single, desperate thought: "Eme...lia."

Victor's eyes snapped open. "Emelia?" he whispered, the name feeling foreign on his tongue before another wave of dizziness washed over him, and he squeezed his eyes shut again, willing the nausea away.

During the chaos, a group of nurses burst into the room. Their eyes widened to find Victor thrashing on the bed, his face contorted in pain.

"Whoa, whoa, easy there!" David, a male nurse barked, rushing to the bedside. He quickly assessed the situation – labored breathing, dilated pupils, and a wild look in Victor's eyes. "Sarah, call Dr. Rodriguez, stat! We might have post-traumatic stress reactions here."

Sarah scrambled for the phone, her voice tight as she relayed the situation. David, meanwhile, worked to calm Victor down.

"Hey, hey, it's okay," he said gently, his voice soothing yet firm. "You're safe now. We're going to take care of you."

Victor, however, was lost in a sea of his own pain. The memories, the shock, the sheer agony of the system reboot – it was all too much. He could only whimper, his body still spasming in response to the phantom electrical storm that had ravaged him.

David wasted no time. He expertly attached an oxygen mask to Alex's face, the cool rush of air doing little to calm the storm within. "Just a few deep breaths, buddy," he murmured, his voice a steady anchor in the chaos. "Dr. Rodriguez will be here soon."

The door to the room burst open, and Dr. Rodriguez, a wiry man with a no-nonsense demeanor, rushed in. He took one look at Victor and immediately understood. "Post-traumatic stress, most likely," he confirmed, her voice calm and efficient. "Let's get him sedated. Sarah, prepare the IV."

To Be Continued