Chapter 1 - The Girl in the Hospital Bed

The first thing she noticed was the silence.

Not the soft, comforting kind that cradled you to sleep, but the sterile, mechanical quiet of machines humming in rhythm, broken only by the faint hiss of air vents. She opened her eyes slowly, as though the light itself might shatter her. A ceiling—white, cracked in one corner, a slow water stain bleeding outwards. The smell of antiseptic stung her nose.

Her throat felt raw. She tried to swallow, but her mouth was desert-dry. A soft beeping beside her pulsed in sync with her heartbeat, reminding her she was alive. At least, she thought she was.

She shifted, and pain rushed up her body, sharp and electric, as if her bones themselves had been wired wrong. Her hands shook when she lifted them, pale and bruised, an IV needle taped clumsily against her skin.

Then a door creaked open.

A woman in scrubs entered, a smile already plastered on her face. The nurse carried a clipboard, her footsteps brisk, confident, as if nothing about this situation was unusual.

“Good morning, Elara,” the nurse said warmly. “You’re finally awake.”

The name snagged in her mind like a hook. Elara. It echoed, unfamiliar, hollow. She opened her mouth to respond, but the only sound that came out was a cracked whisper.

“Who…?”

The nurse leaned closer. “Don’t strain yourself. You’ve been through a lot.” She adjusted the IV, checked the monitor. “You’re safe now.”

But she wasn’t safe. She knew that instantly. Because if that name—Elara—belonged to her, why did it feel like it belonged to someone else?

“I—I don’t…” She struggled to breathe. Panic licked up her chest. “I don’t know who I am.”

The nurse’s eyes softened with something like pity, but there was no surprise there. Almost as if she had expected this. She smoothed the blanket over her. “It’s normal, sweetheart. Memory loss happens after trauma. You’ll recover in time.”

Memory loss. Trauma. Words heavy enough to crush her, yet they explained nothing.

The nurse patted her arm and left the room with quiet efficiency, leaving her alone again with the machines and her thoughts.

Elara. She mouthed the name silently, testing it, but it didn’t fit. It was like trying on a stranger’s coat—familiar in shape, wrong in weight.

The next visitor came an hour later. A man.

She heard him before she saw him, his shoes tapping a steady rhythm down the hallway, growing louder until the door swung open. He was tall, with dark hair combed neatly, wearing a suit that looked more expensive than practical. His face lit up when he saw her.

“Thank God,” he said, striding to her bedside. His voice cracked with relief, but she felt nothing. “Elara, you’re awake.”

She froze. The way he said her name—possessive, intimate—should have comforted her. Instead, her chest tightened.

He took her hand in his, warm and steady. “I was so worried. Do you know how long we’ve been waiting for this moment?”

She pulled her hand away, instinctively. He blinked, surprised.

“I… I don’t know you,” she whispered.

Something flickered in his eyes. Pain? No—something else. Something measured. “It’s me,” he said carefully. “Nathan. Your fiancé.”

Her heart hammered. Fiancé? The word might as well have been in another language.

He studied her face with a tenderness that made her skin crawl. “It’s all right. The doctors said this might happen. You’ve been through so much. But don’t worry. I’ll help you remember. I’ll take care of you.”

She nodded weakly, because she didn’t know what else to do. But inside, everything screamed wrong, wrong, wrong.

That night, she couldn’t sleep. The room was too quiet, her mind too loud. Shadows stretched across the walls, long and menacing, twisting into shapes her memory refused to name. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw flashes. A car sinking beneath water. Hands clawing at glass. A voice—urgent, terrified—screaming her name.

But not Elara.

She jolted awake, drenched in sweat. Her eyes darted around the room. Empty. Silent. Safe.

And then she saw it.

A folded piece of paper, slipped halfway under the door.

Her pulse quickened. She dragged herself out of bed, IV tugging painfully, and shuffled across the cold floor. Kneeling, she pulled the note free. The handwriting was rushed, almost frantic.

Don’t trust him.

Her blood ran cold.

She looked at the door, at the window, at the shadows that suddenly seemed too thick, too alive. Whoever had left the note could still be close. Watching.

Her hands trembled as she clutched the paper to her chest.

The man—the one who called himself her fiancé—would return in the morning. So would the nurse, with her pitying eyes. And they would both smile at her, say her name like it belonged to her, tell her everything was fine.

But it wasn’t fine.

Because if everyone here already knew her name, then why didn’t she?