Chapter 1:

NOTE 2

The Equipoise


She couldn’t remember.

She had been staring the mirror for hours, yet she did not remember a thing. The young girl’s body is lean, with straight black hair that hung down to her waist. Her eyes were as blue and clear as the morning sky, looking brighter than the room she was in. But from all that, one feature that caught her interest more. A scar, just above her waist and from the looks of it, it almost tore her in half.

“Looks like you’re awake,” said a woman in a lab coat as she entered the room. “How you’re feel?”

“Where is this?”

“Hospital,” she replied.

“Why?”

She sat down beside the bed. “Before that, can you tell me how you feel?”

“…I don’t know.”

“Can you elaborate?”

“I don’t know. There are so many…” She could feel her stomach throbbing, twisting her body with a sense of unfamiliarity. She clutched at it and tried to wipe it out to no avail. “Where exactly is here? Where am I? Who are you? What about this scar? And—” Suddenly she felt like someone had just punch her throat. She realised that her face did not leave any trace of expression. “Who am I?”

“From there huh,” the woman scratched her head. She looked more frustrated than confused. “How about sitting down first?”

She looked at the woman, trying to read the expression on her face. Suddenly she realised how cold the floor was. Hoping the coldness would leave her, she walked toward the woman. The more she walks, the more her body felt lighter that even a gentle breeze could blow her away. When she arrived, she could only keep his head suspended in the air.

“Before we begin,” the woman leaned forward. She attached something to her ear before pulling out a pocket-size gadget from her lab coat. “Comfortable?”

She nodded.

“Good. Before we begin, at least let me introduce myself,” said the woman. “Lika Tadakami. A doctor and the person responsible for your recovery.” Her thumb began to move on the pocket-size gadget she held.

Her body jerked back slightly as an image suddenly appeared right in front of her eyes. The picture contained detailed information about the young girl named Alanka Jangkarbumi. Age, sixteen years old. Height, one hundred and sixty-seven. Blood type, O. Bright blue eyes. Black long hair. Body comp, slender. Everything written there was more than what she could process at the moment.

“Do you see it?” asked Doctor Lika.

“Yes. A record of a young girl.”

“Can you tell me what her name is?”

“Alanka Jangkarbumi.”

As her eyes tried to filter and store any new information she could get her hand on, the image suddenly changed. This time, instead being full of text, it’s displayed a picture of this girl named Alanka.

“Tell me when you want to continue,” said Doctor Lika.

She nods.

Focusing on the first phot, he saw a picture of Alanka holding a bouquet of orange moon orchids. In the photo, a wide smile bloomed across the girl’s face. Her eyes blinked slowly, exploring every nook and cranny. She nodded when she was done, prompting Doctor Lika to move on to the next picture.

This time it was a group photo. Alanka is still there, standing in the centre, with two people on either side and posing in front of a huge gate. She was focused on them, the other figures in there. Two girls and two guys, but her eyes focused on the girl on the far left. Unlike Alanka and the others, she looked more composed, more graceful, more… beautiful. For a moment, she sat still before nodding again, bumbling.

Another picture of Alanka. She only glanced at it briefly before nodding again. Another nod, another photo. A different photo. Sometimes alone, sometimes with one of them from that second picture. More and more pictures were shown to her in the rhythm of her nod.

“Something wrong? You’ve been staring at this picture for quite some time.”

“Nothing. It just…” She stared at Alanka’s face in the picture in front of her.

She had scoured inside her head for words but found nothing. When She tried to speak, her chest began to feel ache. She clenched her chest hard but the pain would not leave him.

“If there is anything—”

“I’m fine,” said her more calmly than she expected. “Can you tell me what actually happened?”

For a moment, Doctor Lika looked her straight in the eyes. With slight sniffle, she leans forward and took back whatever she put there earlier. “You have been missing,” she placed it back in her lab coat. “For six months and twelve days, you have been missing. A massive search has been launched to find you and yet we still can’t find you. Well, until a week ago.

We found you on the beach near Ereveld Ancol, unconscious yet fortunately unharmed.”

“But I don’t remember—”

“You didn’t. But still, it was fortunate. You could have lost an organ, a limb, both, or worse.” She leans her back on the chair and sighed. “Even though we manage to find you, we still can’t determine what actually happened. We scanned you, your brain, your body, everything, but there was nothing out of the ordinary found.”

“Is that so?”

“Alanka Jangkarbumi,” said Doctor Lika. “That is your name. An honour student from the renowned military academy, Bhumi Pura. Wasn’t that written on the profile?”

“It is.” She remembered it since that was the last thing she saw before they moved on to look at Alanka's photos—her photos. “What about… My parents?”

“It will be an insult if I say they were worried.”

“But I can’t remember them.”

Doctor Lika looked at Alanka seriously. “They just want to see their beloved daughter back. It may hurt, but I believe they’ll be delighted to see you again.”

“I’ll believe in you,” said Alanka. “What about my memory?”

“I’ll try my best to help you regain it.”

“Tell me what are the odds of curing my amnesia?”

Doctor Lika groan softly. “To be frank, the stack is quite against you. Even with treatment, it by no mean guarantees your chance of getting your memory back. The only thing I can suggest is that we undergo therapy.”

“Will it help?”

“It will most definitely help you to adapt to your surroundings, that I can promise.”

“Adapt.” As she muttered, her eyes suddenly widened. Something just flashed right through her mind.

A vision… and a favour.