Maria

I woke up in a hospital bed, surrounded by people I didn’t recognize. No, not didn’t, couldn’t. I was in such a daze that the capacity of recognition was beyond me, at this point.

A woman stood over me with a concerned expression on her face.

“Do you know where you are?” She asked softly. I answered with a firm shake of my head to signal I didn’t, but even that was a big challenge. I was clearly heavily wounded.

I only now realized the woman was wearing a white coat, so I deduced that she was probably a doctor.

I tried to sit up but pain flared through my entire body and I instantly fell back down. I could feel the casts covering my entire body, it seemed I’d gotten in a terrible accident of some sort. I was probably insanely lucky to still be alive altogether.

I tried to speak but my mouth couldn’t even open. The woman looked at me with a sad expression.

“It’s alright, don’t exert yourself.” She said quietly.

The other people in the room hung back, probably attempting to not overwhelm me, which was thoughtful of them.

“…Where’s Jack?” I asked. “What happened to him?”

I see, so my theory had been proven correct. These were Louise’s memories, yet she just asked about me…and we were in a hospital with technology far too advanced for it to exist on Obrillis….which meant that….

Louise was Maria.

But how? Why? It didn’t make any sense. What are the odds that the two of us would end up in The Void at the same time? Did she know who I am this whole time?

“Maria, Jack is….”The doctor hesitated, clearly about to deliver some bad news.

“What?” I-Well, Maria, asked impatiently. “What happened to him? Where is he? Is he alright?”

Why was she asking about me? It was my fault that she was in this mess in the first place. I was so damn stupid. Why wasn’t she furious at me for doing that to her?

“…Maybe you should get a bit of rest, right now, Maria.” The doctor clearly did not want to deliver the news to her in such a condition, and I wouldn’t blame her at all. But Maria was persistent, and she showed it.

“What?” She yelled. Well, tried to yell, but she barely managed an angry whisper. “Tell me!”

The doctor looked over at some of the other people who had remained silent, but they nodded at her, so she turned back towards Maria and braced herself.

“Your boyfriend…Jack, he’s in a coma…”

“What!” Maria shot up, only for pain to grasp her in every part of her body, causing her to fall back down and groan.

“It…It wasn’t the accident.” The doctor continued. “We don’t know what happened. You’ve been in a coma yourself, Maria, and he waited every day. Physically, he was fine, but mentally, he was completely broken. He most likely blamed himself for your condition. And then one day…he just shut off. His psyche completely shut itself off. His body is perfectly fine, but his…his mind, it just isn’t there.”

I see. So that was what happened to my original body after my soul had been forcibly ripped out and taken to The Void. It made complete sense, now that I thought about it, as I’d never considered before now what had actually happened to my true body, but now I knew. So, a coma, huh? Interesting.

….I can’t believe I even remotely considered the option of leaving them all and staying in that place.

“Why?” Maria asked. “Why? Why?”

“We’re working on it, but we’re not completely sure yet.”

“Aren’t you a doctor? Aren’t you supposed to know!” Maria’s voice was slowly returning to her, as she was now capable of raising her voice in a slightly higher tone than before.

“We’re doing the best we can, please believe me.” The doctor tried to reassure her, but it was no use.

“I have to go see him.”

“You can’t, not in the condition you’re in right now.” The doctor turned back again towards the others and then immediately back to Maria. “Your family is here, to talk to you. I’ll give you some time alone with them.”

The doctor then exited the room, but Maria had zoned out. Her family talked to her, they cried at seeing her, but she barely answered them, her thoughts focused on me.

Weeks passed before she was allowed to see me. She started both physical and emotional therapy, making good progress on the physical side of things but almost none on the other. Finally, she was allowed into my room and was dragged in on a wheelchair. She took a look at my face with tears in her eyes as she choked up.

My body had almost no visible injuries, which was a large contrast to hers. My only wound was the one to my soul, but none of them knew that. Of course they couldn’t. How could they? How would any of them know?

But…At some point Maria ended up in The Void. This I know for a fact. But how? How?

I didn’t have to wait long to get my answer.

“He’s not in there.” The same doctor who had explained things to Maria when she woke up was the one holding on to her wheelchair.

“What do you…what do you mean?” Maria asked.

“Did you know there’s another world?”

“No, I’m being seri0us, stop joking around.”

“That world is commonly known as The Void. It’s where everyone with clinical depression, or similar problems, go to in order to stop feeling hurt, to stop feeling miserable.” The doctor completely ignored Maria and continued explaining. “It’s possible for you to meet him again, yu can go see him in that world.”

“What…What are you saying?”

“I’m saying I can let you see him again. But if you do, you’ll never able to see any of these people here on this planet again. Your family, friends, perhaps some other potential loved ones…for them, you’ll be in a neverending coma. But for you, you’ll be somewhere else. You’ll be with him again.”

“He-He chose to go to a place like that? A place where you can’t return?”

No, I didn’t. I didn’t choose to go.

“Yes, of course he did, everyone does.”

Shut up! Shut up! You don’t know anything! You stupid fucking moron!

Of course, my insults were useless since she couldn’t hear me.

“…Okay.” Maria said after deliberating on it for a while.