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I’m stiff and sore. I had been dreaming about the hole, during the time when the special ops troops came in and pulled me out. I couldn’t walk on my own because I had been curled up in the same position for so long, and my leg muscles had atrophied.

I crack one eye open.

I’m in a hospital room, hooked up to various monitors, and there’s an IV tube running into my hand. My nose itches, and I realize there’s one of those oxygen tubes taped to it. I open my eyes a little wider. The room is fairly dark. The only light comes from a dim table lamp near the door.

What the fuck am I doing here?

The monitor beside me starts blinking red, matching my heart rate as it starts to beat faster. There’s no one in the room, and when I try to sit up, my aching muscles protest.

The light brightens suddenly, and I squint against the glare. A woman in lime green scrubs enters and moves quickly to my side. She leans over, and I feel her hand brush my arm.

“Mr. Arden?” The sound is muffled, and I think there might be something covering my ear. “I’m Kim, the night nurse. Can you speak?”

I find her question ridiculous until I realize that I can’t utter a word. My mouth is parched, and the corners of my lips are dry and cracked. It hurts just to open my mouth.

“Let me get you some water,” she says.

A moment later, th

ere’s a straw at my lips. I suck just a bit of water into my mouth before I start coughing. She places her hand on the back of my neck, and I manage to get some down.

“Try again,” she says.

“What…why…?” I can only croak.

“Hang in there for a minute,” Kim says. She reaches over and taps a button beside the bed. “I’ll get the doctor for you.”

A small, dark-haired woman in a white doctor’s coat arrives within seconds. She grabs a clipboard from the end of my bed and sits down on a rolling stool next to me.

“Mr. Arden, my name is Doctor Reiss. I’ve been taking care of you while you have been here. I’m going to have Kim take your vitals, and then we’ll see if you can answer a few questions for me, okay?”

“Yeah.” The air from my lungs hurts my throat.

“Can you tell me the last thing you remember?”

It takes a few tries before I can form coherent words. After a few more sips of water, I can speak.

“I just woke up. What am I doing here?”

“What do you remember from before you woke up?”

I get another drink to wet my throat and try to remember.

“They had me in a hole.” I close my eyes. It hurts to have them open. I know my answer isn’t right—it’s not what she’s looking to hear, but it’s the only thing that comes to mind.

“A hole?” Dr. Reiss reaches over and adjusts a tube at my arm. “Can you tell me more about that?”

“Sand…um…” I try to focus. I know I’m not saying the right words, but everything in my head is jumbled up. The hole—that’s not real. It was just something in my head. I finally find the right word. “It was a dream.”

“You were dreaming about a hole?”

“Yeah.”

“Can you think back to what you remember before you were dreaming?”

Memories come and go, and not all in an order that makes sense. I remember standing in the rain, watching the priest pray over Rinaldo’s casket. Another hole comes to mind, and I watch a woman’s body as I shove it into the pit with the toe of my boot. I remember waking up in a submarine, and I’m unable to get warm. I remember Alina and the scent of lavender on her skin.

Alina. She went to give her key back to her landlord. I was in my apartment…

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