Tales Of The Void

Out The Door

A Short Story By

Black Waltz 0

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Magi did not have the coherence to remember the first place he had woken up in, though he fancied it may have been outdoors because he recalled sunlight and the vague touch of wind on his face. This new place was darker and he was warmer than he was supposed to be, alluding to his fever as well. He thought that he hadn't had a fever this bad since he was a child, but he could never be sure.

It left him in a bit of a daze. His skin felt hot and sweaty and more than that his mental acuity had gone on vacation. Magi could hardly tell where he was now, let alone have the strength to get up and find out the answers for himself. It didn't hurt to breathe but it seemed like he had an invisible pressure on his chest, making breathing nearly a conscious effort. It was almost as if he had never breathed before, had never opened his eyes or had the ability to speak in the first place. This was a sickness that felt very serious, if not life threatening.

He must have caught pneumonia while out doing something or other. Sometimes he did that, going off to god-knows-where without even thinking about packing proper supplies for the trip. He'd tell himself that he didn't need them, that he was a good enough outdoorsman without them.

Seemed like he had finally paid the price for his overconfidence.

When he opened his eyes he saw a great deal of grey blurs. These turned into huge stone blocks in the ceiling, sturdy and old, and his powers of dazed deduction told him that wherever he was, it was an old place like a castle or a stony keep. The problem was that only castles and things like that didn't exist anymore unless you traveled all around the world to seek them out. He hadn't been intending to do anything like that, he didn't have the money or the time, but he was here now and here he was going to stay until his fever broke, or until he gathered enough strength to move his arms.

God, he had never felt so helpless in all his life. Strands of hair were in his eyes, he at least wished he could brush those away. Somebody a long time ago had told him to get his hair cut or he'd be kicked out of the something-or-other for violating some kind of regulation, but that had been his thing way back then and he had stuck with it. Magi couldn't remember when, where or how that had been. Must be because of his fever.

He decided to close his eyes and wait for the sickness to pass. It had to pass eventually, the only other option was that he would die. One or the other, he would wait for it. Magi was just on the verge of passing into sleep again when he heard some footsteps, light ones, hard against the stone floor. He had been trained to listen to his senses at all times, deeply, so this was enough to snap him out of his growing drowse. He couldn't sit up or turn his head to see who had come into the room so he had to have patience.

Magi must have been the most important thing in the room because the footsteps went straight to him and somebody sat down beside the bed, on a stool or some kind of chair. He could tell he wasn't tucked in under the blankets but he also couldn't see what he looked like either. Magi paused suddenly, in his thoughts and in his breathing. Why would he want to know what he looked like? Didn't he already know?

He didn't. He hadn't the foggiest idea of how old he was, how tall or how much he weighed, let alone his hair or eye colour or how he sounded when he spoke. Actually… he did not even know his name. No fever in the world would be able to do that to him, give him an amnesia so deep that he couldn't remember who he was or a scrap of where he was from. Somebody must have hit him hard enough to make him lose his memories, only that his head didn't hurt in the right way for it to be the victim of physical abuse.

It felt like his entire mind had been placed in a maze, one with so many dead ends that had once been doorways to information. Magi groaned slightly, more out of frustration than pain and somebody put a hand over his forehead, checking his temperature with a touch. He tried to look at the person sitting beside him but she was on the very edge of his field of vision. It was so demeaning to be trapped in a position like this, just a helpless patient.

"Good, it's not as bad as it was an hour ago. Let me help you up a bit." Said the mystery person and suddenly strong arms were under his armpits, pulling him up just enough to rest against the head of the bed. Those same strong arms took him by the shoulder and held him long enough to tuck another pillow behind his head to support him. He didn't like being pulled about like an invalid but in his current position there was nothing else he could do.

The first thing he noticed when he looked down at himself was that he was wearing a uniform. It was coloured light blue, dark blue and white and it was pretty clean and in good condition, save for a couple of dirt and grass stains. He seemed to have a slightly above-average height and he was in pretty good physical condition, but that had been mandatory for his career. Magi couldn't remember what his career was however, only that this uniform had been a part of it. Well, he knew what he looked like now. That was one small victory for him.

His belt was hanging on the foot of the bed. His holster was empty and his gun was missing, but his radio and other tools were still there. The people who had brought him here must have disarmed him at the same time. Magi looked over at the person sitting beside his bed. It was a brown-haired girl in a yellow dress, and it had been she who had spoken. He hoped she hadn't taken his gun. A girl like that wouldn't know how to handle one without hurting herself.

"Hello. Are you capable of talking? It's okay if you're not." The girl said with a pleasant smile. She put a hand over her chest and introduced herself politely. "My name is Mara Rhinehardt, what's yours?"

Magi carefully gathered his strength and took hold of his throat. "I can speak." He rasped dryly and winced at how it ached just to talk. It felt like he had been swallowing crushed glass. This was no time to give up though, he had to keep going. If he stopped he'd be helpless again, but he had been too busy focussing on trying to speak that he hadn't heard her name. "Where… am I?"

"You're safe. You were found lying on the side of the road near the forest. It didn't seem like you had been there very long, but you're lucky a carriage didn't run you over first. Lots of caravans have been using the roads lately. You're in my home and I'm only watching you until Sister Margaret comes back." Mara explained. It had been a real shock going out the door to pick up a few things at market and finding a man passed out during the middle of the day. He had been dressed in the likes of which Mara had never seen before either.

She had evaded his question. "Where am I?" He asked again and with a little more strength in his shaky voice. It wasn't like him to pass out anywhere, let alone in the middle of the day by the wayside. The fever might have been masking a hangover but of the very few things that Magi remembered about himself he was quite certain that he rarely drank. The next question he asked was pretty cliché but it needed to be said. "Do you know who I am?"

Mara leaned over him and took his hand that had been faintly gripping his neck, laying it by his side again. She couldn't be any older than fourteen or fifteen years but she seemed completely in control of the situation, as if this was a common occurrence to her. Maybe it was. "I already told you, you're somewhere safe. The doctors say that with this kind of fever you're not supposed to put any extra stress on the patient. Don't worry about things like that until you're better. I can guarantee that this fever will be gone by tomorrow morning. It's just your body adjusting to being in this new world."

What did that mean? Castles or stony keeps weren't a regular thing nowadays but was she suggesting that he had fallen down the rabbit hole and wound up sick and feverish in some other world? A wave of burning weakness settled upon him as he thought of this. She was right, the more he stressed the worse he felt. "You don't know who I am." He concluded. If she did know she would have answered him earlier.

The girl looked apologetic. "I'm sorry. I'm not used to looking after new lost souls, so I don't know how to explain it properly. You're a stranger to me, sir. Is there anything that you remember that might give you a clue about who you are?" She watched Magi close his eyes and tilt his head to the side as he thought about it for her. Kindly she brushed away some of his blond hair from his face. The fever was abating for now, but when nightfall came it would double in intensity again and then vanish shortly after midnight. She had sat up with Sister Margaret enough times with others to know how it worked.

"All I remember is… shoving my wallet in my pocket, placing my ruger in its holster and then walking out the door. There is nothing after that, only a long blackness and then this. I do not remember where I was when that happened or where I was going." Magi looked down at himself again, at his uniform. "I must have been on my way to something important."

"I don't know what any of these things you have are. I know what the gun is because I've seen a few lost souls carrying them before, but everything else…" Mara shrugged a little to complete her sentence. She had handed the gun to the first adult she could find. Weapons like those made her feel nervous, especially when his gun had been black and amazingly lightweight, like it had hardly been made out of metal at all. The brown-haired girl had a thought. "Oh! Your wallet! Maybe it has your name somewhere in there? Do you mind if I look?"

That was a rather good idea. Certainly he wouldn't have thought of that in his fever-addled condition. Magi shook his head lightly to say that he didn't mind and Mara slipped her hand into the pockets of his pants to find his wallet. There wasn't anything in the front pockets aside from some blue lint, but then Magi found enough energy within to lift himself up under his own power and take the small leather case from out of the back pocket. He had felt it there but he hadn't been able to do anything about it earlier.

Mara took it from him and studiously began to take it apart. There wasn't much in there, just a handful of coins and many pieces of paper, along with several strange pieces of something made out of a light material the girl couldn't place. They were very colourful and had small print upon them like a handheld stone tablet, but a simple white one with black text had a picture drawn upon it of the man lying in the bed. It was a perfect little portrait no bigger than a gold coin.

Fortunately the text was in a language that she could understand. Lots of other lost souls from the past had come with trinkets containing languages that no-one else was able to decipher. "Does the name Magi Magemere have any relevance to you?" Mara asked gently, watching his face to see if he reacted to it.

When Magi heard the name he didn't jump up immediately or experience a flood of memories that would give him answers to all the questions he desired. Truthfully, when he heard his name Magi didn't feel anything at all. How was he suppose to know that was his name? He had amnesia. Magi raised his hand a little to pluck the card from Mara's grip but she gave it to him willingly. Yes, that was definitely his photograph there. He flipped the card over. He wasn't sure but he guessed that was his signature there as well.

"My name is Magi Magemere." He stated just to hear those words hover in the air. It was a good a name as any he supposed, and he needed some way to address himself in the future. Mara nodded at him and smiled. She had a nice smile, it made him feel just a little bit better even though he was feeling like utter crap. "What did you say your name was again?" He asked.

"Mara Rhinehardt. It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Magemere. Can I get you something while your fever is ebbing? Maybe some water or a sandwich or something? It's not a problem. You should eat something before it gets dark." The lost soul from the wayside listened to her generous babbling for awhile and then managed a very small smirk. The more he heard his name out loud the more it felt like it belonged to him. He had been dislocated from it but they were slowly coming together again.

"Some food and water would be a blessing." Magi said but as the girl stood to go and prepare it for him he very weakly reached out and grabbed her wrist. It was a baby's grip that she could have easily escaped from but she halted anyway. The man had a piercing sort of quality in his eyes, dulled by the fever but it still was there. Fit and healthy this man really would be somebody to contend with. "Before you go, may I say something?"

"Of course."

Magi bowed his head slightly. "Thank you for saving me." He meant it, too. He had no idea why he was here, or how he had gotten there, but circumstances had left him sick and vulnerable in a place where he couldn't protect himself, only somebody had stepped in to do the protecting for him. Magi was very grateful for that. Where he had come from such acts of kindness weren't so common. He was lucky.

"It was nothing. I couldn't leave you lying there by yourself." Mara reasoned but blushed anyway. She never would have anticipated walking out the door, just as Magi had walked out the door in his last conscious memory and finding a lost soul in the middle of nowhere. New lost souls were a rare occurrence nowadays, but whether they were common or uncommon didn't matter; helping them did. Mara just wanted to know if Sister Margaret would praise her for doing this or scold her for bringing an unknown transient into an orphanage.

"Would I be stretching your hospitality if I asked you to help me get back on my feet later?" He pressed softly. He meant it figuratively, not literally, though the latter might also be true. This girl was the first person he had seen in, well, ever according to his limited memory, so he felt a little threatened if she was going to leave the room and then somebody completely new was going to replace her instead.

"I'll do what I can. Please get some rest now." Mara promised honestly. Magi appeared to be satisfied with that and let go of her wrist. He settled down in bed with his slowly-growing strength and closed his eyes as if to go back to sleep.

Fifteen minutes later after the young girl returned with a cool glass of water and some sandwiches that was exactly where he had gone. He seemed much more peaceful than he had been before and Mara was glad of it. She set the food down on the table and covered it with a napkin. He could have them later.

His real future however, that was far more uncertain.

But one thing was sure, Mara felt that she was somehow going to become a part of it.