Five years ago

Darkness, it seems endless, like falling through space with no stars to light the way. I can't seem to remember just how long I've been here.

Minutes, hours, days, there's no way of telling how much time has actually passed. Thought it's hard to tell since I haven't really gone searching for a light source in the first place.

The darkness seems safe and just the thought about being out in the light makes me nervous for some reason. Suddenly a repeating noise echoes all around me, making it more uncomfortable in my peaceful sleep. 

"Can someone please turn off that annoying machine?" I ask. However, the darkness on echoes my question back at me. The more the machine beeps the more irritated I become. 

I take in a deep breath, when I try opening my eyes I realize that my eyelids feel heavy and hard to open. It takes me several minutes to open my eyes.

Only to immediately snap them back shut. The bright lights feels like the sun, I didn't know that normal lighting could hurt so much. 

I take a moment to recover from my sudden blindness. With my eyes closed my other senses are able to pick up the little things. For instance the room I'm in has a strong order of cleaning products. 

I take the chance and slowly opened my eyes as I take in my surroundings. The light above me is still bright, but it isn't as painful as before. The room I'm in is plain with white walls and floor. The bed has bars on either side of me, to my right there is an end table. 

To the left side of the room there's a small couch and a black screen hanging on the wall. The room is unfamiliar to me which is starting to freak me out.

The beeping sound that’s next to me starts beeping faster. I slowly move to the other side of the bed, I’m not sure what this thing is, but I do not like it. 

A slight discomfort in my arms makes me look down, needles bulge under my skin makes me cringe. The fact that you can see them under the surface just weirds me out.

Gently I remove the needles and the other odds and ends on my body. The sudden loud wailing of the machine next to me has me bolting to the other side of my bed, fearing that it might explode. 

As soon as me feet touched the ground I realized that my legs aren't going to support me. I came crashing hard to the ground and felt a sudden jolt of pain from the knees meeting the floor.

I lift my body up by grabbing the bars on the bed. Getting halfway off the ground a door opens drawing my attention to the old woman barging in. She looks worried till she turns her head and sees me struggling to stand. 

“Who are you?” The sound that comes out of me doesn't sound like my voice. Now that I think about it, my throat is really dry and I don’t remember the last time I drank something.

The woman walks over to a cart that I haven't noticed and pours water into a cup. Seeing the water has me licking my parched lips. 

She turns back to me and holds up the cup, “Let me help you back to the bed so you can drink.” she says softly, after a moment of thinking I slowly nod my head.

Besides what was I going to do? Attack a woman who’s only trying to help, that doesn't sound like something I can do at this point. 

The woman helps me into the bed and hands me the cup, I greedily drink ice cold water. “Thank you.” I say softly as I put the cup down, the lady nods her head as she holds a caring smile. 

“I’m glad to see you awake, the doctor should be here soon, how are you feeling?” She asks as I nodded my head.

“I’m okay, a little confused as to where I am.” I said as I look up to her, hoping she would be able to fill in the blanks. 

“You’re in Dignity Health Hospital.” She explains, my confusion is still on my face, I know I’m in a place for injured people.

However, the name is not ringing any bells, seeing my confusion she explains further. “You do know your in California, Los Angeles USA right?” She asks and I shake my head not recalling those names. 

The door opens and a two people enter into the room, the first is a middle-aged white man wearing a white lab coat.

The other is a tall black woman wearing a black suit, the old woman who’s been keeping me company walks over to the man. As the two speak quietly I turn my attention to the woman. 

Now that I’ve had time to relax there seems to be a part of me missing, digging deeper my eyes widen with the sudden realization. “I can’t remember my name.” My voice is a little more than a whisper. 

“That makes my job much harder.” The woman in the suit says as she takes a seat, I give her a confused look hoping she would fill me in. “You’ve been in a coma for about two months, within those two months we’ve tried everything to learn more about you, but your a ghost." The way she says it tells me that she really did try. 

"A ghost? What does that mean?" I question. 

"Meaning that we went through every database to find you on file. There's no birth certificate, internet history, or police records. The only thing that was found on you was an ID card, but the make of the card isn't made in any country." She explains as she reaches in her pocket and pulls out a small object. 

She hands the small item to me and I look at an image of a young woman. My eyes glance over the name. "Maia Glass Fall, is this really my name?” I ask as I look up at her. 

“Well we were hoping you could tell us that, but I have my answer.” She says as she looks over to the approaching doctor. Standing up she looks down at me, “I’ll let the doctor check you out, I’ll be back later to explain how we’ll precede things." She says as she turns and walks away. 

The doctor comes up to me with sincerity in his eyes, “So I understand that you have amnesia, I would like to do some tests to see how severe it is. I don’t see the harm in it as I nodded my head. 

~♥~

“Hopefully through therapy you might be able to remember bits and pieces about yourself. You’ll have police protection and be able to smoothly transition into society.

"To make things easier we went ahead and found you a room you can rent from. She also happens to be in the same therapy group as you.” Nia says as she hands me a huge folder that has all the citizenship paperwork, the first detective I met when first waking up. 

The last couple of months have been exhausting, I’ve learned that I’m a ghost. No matter how hard they try the police can’t find any records of my existence.

Birth records, social media, or facial recognition just doesn't exist. More than once I’ve felt depressed, I can’t remember who I am or where I came from, I didn’t even know the history of this place known as the United States. 

I had to learn a lot about this country and how they run their day to day life, the doctors ran every test and I’ve learn the physical aspects of my body. I look at the folder and took it in my hands as I look at Nia with gratitude.

“Thank you for everything you guys have done for me.” I say as I put the folder in my light backpack. I didn’t have much when I first arrived, I wasn’t even given my original clothes back. Stepping out of the car, I take a look at the building before me. 

This will be my first time meeting this roommate of mine and I’m slightly nervous to say the least. ‘Come on Maia, you can do this.’ I think to myself as I look at the door number, I find the door without much hassle. Taking in a deep breath I knock on the door and wait. 

The door opens and I’m greeted with a smiling woman, “You must be Maia, come in I’ve been waiting for you.” She says as she steps to the side to let me in. 

"Girl where are the rest of your bags?" She asked as she looks out into the hallway. 

"This is all I got." I feel awkward admitting that I didn't have much to begin with. She has a look of disbelief on her face that she shakes her head.

"All this money and they can't even loan you some money so you can at least have a small wardrobe. Come on we're going to the mall and it's going to need my treat." She says as she takes hold of my hand and drags me out of the apartment. 

"But that's asking too much." I said with a look of disbelief that someone would go to such lengths for me.

"Nonsense, we're roommates and maybe even become like sisters. By the way my name is Edyth." She introduces herself, so far I really like her personality. Edyth seems laid back and easy to get along with.  I just hope everything works out in the end.