REMUS BENNET
The smell hit him first, and it was a too-familiar smell of special cleaning agents often used in hospitals.
By now, he was all too familiar with it, and for as long as he could remember, the Hospital had become a second home to him.
He had been very young when the hoarseness had begun, and for years his family had brushed it off as nothing more than a common cold.
He was no different, but then more than a year went by, and it refused to settle.
The first sign of danger was a small lump on the side of his neck.
His family carried him to the Hospital at once, but by then it was too late.
It was laryngeal cancer, and it would have been treatable if they had come earlier, but the neglect had made the matter much worse.
It had already metastasized by then, and such was the beginning of his marriage to the Hospital.
He was advised surgery, in which they removed his vocal cords rendering him dumb.
It was hard for him to lose his voice, but what came afterward was harder.
Multiple sessions of Chemo and radiotherapy, yet it was too late.
The doctors tried for a year, but in the end, his body gave out.
He had dreams, ambition, goals, and desires.
He was no different than his peers, yet where they were offered full lives, he was offered a half one.
He had died when he had barely crossed into his twenties, entering the highlight years of one’s life.
Yet, now as he lay in bed, he wondered if the doctors had saved one last miracle for him.
he glanced at the roof, and though the smell was familiar, the roof was different from his usual hospital.
It took effort to blink his eyes, and the changes became more and more glaring by the second.
The room was larger and cleaner than the one he remembered.
He could hear the small beeping of a machine by his side, and as he lowered his eyes, he noticed the massive cast covering his leg.
He was in pain, but it was not the usual ache he was used to.
He felt smaller.
Younger.
He felt different.
He tried to move his head, but there was a collar around his neck, making it impossible to move.
By then, he noticed a nurse walk into the room.
“You are finally awake,” and he tried to nod, but for some reason his instincts prompted him to speak.
“Ye….!” and his eyes widened at the sound that came out of his mouth.
Impossible.
This was impossible.
The nurse took his surprise as anxiety, and the monitor around him began to beep more loudly.
“It’s okay. It’s okay,” she came and assured him, picking up a tablet.
“You need to calm down, Remus. You are fine,” and that was not his name.
Remus.
That was not his name.
His heart was racing, and his BP was rising.
“Where…?” and once more he was able to speak, much to his surprise.
“You are in Palisades General. You were in an accident while driving with your sisters. You sustained heavy injuries, but we were able to intervene in time,” and his head ached at the mention of sisters, as two blurred faces appeared in his mind.
He had sisters.
When?
How?
Accident.
He was bedridden for as long as he could remember.
“You have been in a coma for ten days now…” but then the door opened once more, and a woman walked in.
She was not a nurse, and her eyes widened as soon as she saw her.
“Remus! Remus!” There was desperation in the way she called out his name while she jumped towards him.
“You are awake. You are awake,” and seeing his face stirred something up in him.
Memories.
Old memories of her.
Of them.
Memories of him playing with her, of him crying with her, of him standing beside her in front of a coffin.
“AGH!” he felt a sharp pain in his head and winced as the nurse came in.
“Mrs. Bennet, I am going to have to ask you to step out for a minute,” and he saw the nurse reach for her pager as she clicked a button.
“What is happening! Is he alright?” she questioned the nurse.
“He is fine, but we just need to calm him down and remove any stimuli that may affect him. You can meet him once he is stable again,” and with that she led her outside, and then she came and looked him in the eye.
“I am just going to give you something to calm your nerves,” and she injected something into his arm, and a few minutes later he felt his anxiety begin to vanish.
The headache remained, as more and more memories flooded his conscience, and so an hour later he found himself speaking to a doctor who was keenly reviewing his charts.
“It seems like he has stabilized now,” she began, as she gave him a smile.
“How are you feeling now, Remus?” she asked, and that was his name, or the name of the person who had previously resided in this body.
“Disoriented. Anxious,” he answered, and she nodded.
“Well, that is typical after such a long coma. The nurse told me that you were having trouble remembering things,” and he nodded slowly, and he could speak now.
He had a soft voice, yet one that was wholly unfamiliar to him.
“It’s all a bit hazy,” he answered with a half-truth.
“What is the last thing you remember?” she questioned, and he closed his eyes, trying to make sense of the continuous influx of memories.
“Driving,” he answered after a second.
“What else?” she asked, and he tried a bit more, but the pain became too sharp.
“Nothing much,” though he did remember that the nurse had mentioned an accident.
“It’s ok,” the doctor rushed to add in, and she was a woman in her late thirties.
She had a slight accent in her English, very slight, one anyone else would have missed, though he had heard it before.
“You don’t need to worry about it,” she assured him.
“It’s probably just aftereffects from your accident. I believe you will be able to remember everything in some time as the swelling dies down,” she assured him, while guilt and anxiety filled him up.
“I need you to relax and rest as much as you can. I will see you again in the morning,” and with that she gave him a nod and walked out of the room.
He saw her talking with the woman from earlier—his mother.
He saw her gasp as she glanced towards him from teh window as he tried to make sense of what he had managed to piece together.
His name was Remus Bennet.
The woman—who was his mother was Leslie Bennet.
He had two sisters, named Rue and Gia.
His father was dead, and he was the older brother.
That was all.
There was more.
But it was not easy to make sense of it, given just how unbelievable it all was.
A part of him still believed that this was either an elaborate ruse or a dream.
But it refused to end.
It felt too real.
The woman finally came into the room, walking in with caution.
She seemed nervous, and her eyes were swollen as she offered him a smile.
“Are you ok now?” she asked, and now that he looked at her, he found her familiar for some reason.
He nodded, or at least tried.
Her nervousness eased slightly at his answer.
She came and stood by his side, barely holding back the tears in her eyes.
She was tired and weary.
He could tell, but she was happy as well.
“I knew that you would come back. I knew it,” she added, as she passed her hand through her hair lovingly.
“You are my strong boy after all,” and the words seemed familiar to his body, and he felt his own eyes tear up.
“The doctors told me that you were having trouble remembering things,” and he gulped down before he answered.
“Yeah,” and speaking felt strange to him.
Strange and different, for now, he seemed to be much more aware of the act than before.
“It’s all a bit blurred together, but they say that it will come back slowly,” and she nodded, and her hesitations were obvious as she looked into his eyes.
“Do you know who I am?” she questioned, and he could tell just how much this meant to her.
He did not really know her.
He knew her name.
Knew that she was his mother, but nothing more.
Still, he was in her son’s body, and he would not cause her any pain anymore.
“Yes,” he answered.
“You are my mother,” and her face brightened in an instant as she kissed his hand.
“Of course I am. My dear,” she added as she rubbed his hair.
“Do you remember your sisters?” she asked with hope, and he nodded.
“Rue and Gia, though I can’t remember their faces,” he added, and her smile dulled.
It was obvious that she was pained by his response, but she recovered quickly.
“It’s fine. It’s fine,” and it felt more like she was trying to reassure herself.
“Let me show you a picture,” she added excitedly, and began to rummage through her bag and took out a phone.
She unlocked it quickly and scrolled over the screen before her eyes lit up.
“Yes, this is it,” and then she pushed it towards him, and he found himself staring at a family photo.
They were all sitting around a Christmas tree, and smiling at the camera with a small pile of gifts around them all.
He recognized his mother easily.
There was a single boy in the pic, and he presumed that to be himself.
He had not yet had a chance to look at himself, but his skin was of a lighter shade.
Adopted?
He wondered for a second.
But it did not seem as much, and then he remembered the face of another man.
His father, and it all clicked together.
He had taken after his father, but then suddenly he stilled as he saw the other girl in the picture, for he recognized her in an instant.
He was not a deviant, but he knew well who she was.
Nearly everyone on the planet knew who she was.
“This is not a joke, right?” he questioned, and his mother frowned.
“Of course not, dear. This is us. All of us,” and she sweetly began to point towards the people in the picture.
“This is me,” she began after pointing towards herself.
“This is you,” and he had made out that much, and now she pointed towards teh all too familiar girl.
“And these are your sisters. Rue and Gia,” and so it was not a joke.
She truly was Rue, but she was not really, for he knew her by a different name.
A name famous all over the world.
“Zendeya,” he whispered, and the pieces came together at once.
“What did you say?” he asked, and she seemed concerned, but she handed him the thing, and he began to scroll through the pictures, and it was the same face all over.
It really was her, and that could mean only one thing.
He was in a different world.
He was in the world of Euphoria, and then he glanced at the date, and his world unraveled in full.
.
.
.
.
Leslie Bennet woke slowly as the Sun came up.
By now, she had become numb to the faint sounds of the machines her son was hooked up to.
Though if the doctors were right, they would soon be removed from him.
For a time there, the doctors had told her that it was touch-and-go.
Her son had sustained heavy injuries during the crash, and for a second she had feared losing him just as she had lost his father.
But then a miracle had happened, and he had woken up after being in a coma for ten days.
These were perhaps the longest ten days of her life, but as she saw him sleeping soundly, she could not help but thank God for his mercy.
Remus was her eldest son, named after one of her husband’s infamous obsessions.
She had lost a bet, otherwise, she would never have let him give their child such a name.
He had forced her to watch all of the Harry Potter movies while she was pregnant with him.
He had named him after one of the characters from the movies, and though it was strange, their son had taken up quite a few traits from his namesake.
His father would always point out excitedly how he was so quiet and responsible, even as a child.
He would take credit for it, for giving him such an awesome name, but then tragedy had struck, and he was taken from them.
Leslie had been heartbroken, and she knew that she did not have the heart to suffer such a tragedy again.
The nurse strode in first, slowly opening teh door so as not to make any noise.
“Doctor Al Hashime wishes to see you,” she told her as she walked in, and Leslie nodded and found the doctor waiting for her outside.
The woman offered her a smile.
“How are you, Mrs. Bennet?” she greeted her, and Leslie offered her a polite smile.
“Better,” she said, glancing towards the window.
“Well, I just wanted to speak to you about your son. About his memory?” Leslie nodded, and she had been the one to advise her about talking to him about it and showing him pictures.
“Thank you.
Your advice helped greatly, and it did indeed.
“He doesn’t remember everything, but he was getting better,” the older woman beamed at him.
“Good. Very good. Your son has gone through a great ordeal. The memory lapse is probably just an aftereffect of one of the injuries he suffered, but given that he is starting to recall some of the things, it is a good sign,” and it was indeed.
“Still, you will need to be patient with him,” and Leslie nodded quickly.
“Of course,” she offered.
“You will have to be non-judgmental and let him recover peacefully. I will have one of our psychiatrists come down and have a look at him as well, but I believe he will make a full recovery,” and she gave out a sigh of relief at that.
“He has woken up, but he still has months of rehab ahead of him,” and he was not the only one.
Rue was in rehab as well, though for entirely different purposes.
“When will he be discharged?” she questioned.
“I cannot say yet, but we will have to wait to see the progress of his rehab for that,” and she nodded, and Leslie smiled at the doctor who had been very kind to her in the past few days, as she sat down and began to think about all the bills that had piled up.
Insurance would cover much of this, but not all.
Her car had been totaled as well, and she would need to replace it soon for work, yet she pushed all those thoughts away as she drew in a deep breath.
“It will all be fine. It will all be fine,” she reassured herself, when suddenly a familiar voice reached her ears.
“Mother,” and she looked up and saw her youngest daughter running towards her, all dressed up for school.
“What are you doing here, Gia?” she questioned as the girl hugged her waist.
“Alice told me that Remy’s awake,” and she looked up and saw her friend walking behind Gia, carrying a small tote bag.
“I have brought you breakfast,” she said, handing him the tote bag.
“Thank you,” and Alice had been a great help to her over the last few weeks, and she was not sure that she would have made it through them without her.
“So, he is awake?” she asked, and she nodded happily.
“He woke up last night,” she told her.
“That is good,” Alice agreed.
“Can I see him? I have to see him,” Gia added, and she gave her youngest a nod.
“Ten minutes only, but after that you are heading right to school,” and she did not wait for her to finish as she raced towards the room, leaving her alone with Alice.
“How is he?” she asked.
“Better. The accident affected his mind, and his memory is a bit jumbled together, but the doctors think it will all get better with time,” she told her with a deep breath.
“That is good,” and they both sat down, as she saw Gia speaking with her brother excitedly.
“Speaking of that, the manager has been going off lately,” Alice added guiltily.
“We tried to talk to him, but he is adamant,” and Leslie closed her eyes as Alice continued.
“He wants you back at work tomorrow,” and she could make that work.
“I will be there…”
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