Now that he knew more, although not nearly enough, he doubled down on his efforts to leave the hospital. Eva, her father and the ridiculous nurses all made this hard. They seemed to simultaneously want him to work his ass off with the physical rehabilitation, but also keep him in bed when he wasnt doing that. More than once, he had to sneak out of his room when Eva had inadvertently fallen asleep in the chair next to his bed to see if he could find anymore information online about whatever it was that happened. But there was nothing. Even the original story had been overtaken by other things in the news. Eventually he just let events play out as they were meant to. Slowly but surely, he regained full use of his limbs and he reached the point that he knew would come – he had to be discharged.
“We might have sold your old place,” Eva said sheepishly as she pulled up in front of her place. An unremarkable suburban house an hour outside a major US city. “Dad is working on that, so you dont have to worry about it. For now, you can stay with me.”
“And youre ok with this?” he asked. “We dont know each other. Wont it be weird?”
She nodded a bit and then shook her head. “It will take some getting used to, sure. I havent had to share with anyone since college. But I lived with worse people than you back then, so Im sure it wont be too bad. Plus, its only for a couple of weeks while we sort your old place out again.”
“You and your father must be well connected if you can do that,” he said, angling for some meatier information.
She just shrugged. “I dont know how he does it. Just remember to thank him after.”
Eva’s house was as unremarkable on the inside as it was on the outside. With a couple of exceptions, the furniture was exclusively Ikea brand. The bed she had said was his wasnt amazingly comfortable, but it was certainly better than the hospital one and he wasnt going to look this gift horse in the mouth. Her room was next to his, and on the other side of the hall from them both was a third.
“That’s Dads,” she said. “No one but him is allowed in there, but its locked so its not really an issue.”
“He lives here too? I thought-”
“Oh, no, he lives in the city. But he bought this place for me on the condition he could have the room for himself if and when he came to stay. Dont try to break in either,” she said, her voice suddenly changing. “The lock isnt something you can just pick like its an online video. Its pretty serious stuff.”
“Youre speaking from experience then,” he said and got only a hmph in reply.
For the next few hours, she finished showing him the house and the immediate neighbourhood. Interestingly, he thought, she did not show him any of the public transport options. Still under close guard.
“Well, thats me,” she said after the two of them had cleaned up after a dinner she had cooked. “Its been a long few days, even you have to admit that. All the travelling and whatnot. You must be feeling it.”
“Now that you mention it, I am tireder than I thought.”
“Until tomorrow then?” she said.
He nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Well go and see Dad and see what hes doing.”
“I thought I might go and explore for a bit,” he said. “Check out the new neighbourhood.”
“Well see,” she said smiling a smile that did not move past her mouth. “Sleep well.”
He slid himself between the freshly changed sheets and let his head rest on the pillow. He had thought sleep would be hard to come by; he had always found it difficult to sleep in an unfamiliar place but as soon as his eyes closed, he was out like a light.
Light.
It shone through a hole at the top of the cave he woke up in. A bright white light from the full moon that was perfectly lined up with the opening. He looked around and saw an immense cavern. Around the circumference stalactites met stalagmites forming large thick columns. Each of them was covered in carvings and runes that he desperately wanted to understand but couldnt. It was as if the information was there, in his head, but something was preventing him from accessing it. It hurt him to look at the writings.
He was sitting, naked, in the middle of the area surrounded by the columns, on the rock floor under him, more runes and more carvings. He stood and took a step towards the outside.
“I wouldnt, if I were you,” a strangely familiar voice said. It came from all around him. In the air, from the rock. It was as if the cavern itself was speaking.
“If you leave the circle,” the voice continued. “You will wake up and it will take me a long time to get you back here. For now, dreams are the safest way we can talk. But theyll catch on sooner or later.”
“Where am I?”
“In your bed. You need to listen. Youre dreaming, this is a dream. But I cant talk to you any other way.”
“Who are you then,” he said.
“I dont have a name,” the voice said after a small pause. “Not one that I think you could say, at least. But I am a friend, or Im not an enemy. Not like the others.”
“What others?”
“The others in the ice,” she said. “There were a dozen of us, all trapped. You, or rather, your friends,” she said the word with a deep scorn, “woke all of them except for me. You woke me after learning what they had done, who they were.”
“I dont remember any of that.”
“I know,” the voice said. “And Im sorry, but you never will. I needed to ensure they could never find you.”
“What?”
“If you remember them, what happened, all of that, they can find you. They will find you anyway; the girl and her father know. But with any luck theyll leave you alone.”
“What on earth are you talking about.”
“We are adversaries, the others and I. I locked us all up in the ice several millennia ago. Sacrificed myself in order to protect everyone. The rest of my kind disappeared in the intervening time and so there was no one to stop the girl and her father from waking our adversaries up. But something about you was able to reach me. For that I am forever in your debt. If I can do it for you, I shall. But I am weak still. I need to recuperate.”
“Green eyes,” he said, realising.
“Yes,” the voice said, sounding relieved and grateful. “Thats good. I can work with that.”
“Where are you? I cant see you.”
“I am outside of your perception. I cant do much while I am in this form. But I can give you information. Warning signs.”
“Warnings for what?”
“The others, how to find them.”
“And do what? Im still weak from the coma and the accident.”
“It was no accident,” the voice said. “They were trying to kill you. They still are.”
“Then why am I not dead?”
“They are waiting to see if you lead them to me. They know I escaped, but they dont know how. You are the only variable they cant control for. If you lead them to me, they will kill me. And then kill you properly. We cannot let that happen.”
“Well good, I dont want to die.”
“Then the first thing you have to do is lose the girl. Find me and help me regain my strength.”
He nodded. “How do I find you?”
“I am near where you found me originally.”
“Greenland?” he almost shouted. “How am I supposed to get back there? I have nothing; no ID, no money. The minute they thought that was my goal, theyd send someone ahead.”
“They already have,” the voice said. “The building where the explosion happened is constantly patrolled. I think one of the ones I locked away is here too. The humans, they cant find me but I dont know about the other.”
“If those humans cant find you, what makes you think I can?”
“You already found me once before, you can do it again.”
“And then what? How do I help you heal?”
“I dont know,” the voice said quietly. “Things have changed a lot since I was awake before. But there were places my kind could go to to heal. I will lead you and you can take me. I will owe you even more that I cannot repay, but I will be able to help you fight.”
He looked around at the cavern. The moon was almost entirely passed the opening now and the light was dimming. He could remember the green eyes; they burned in his head each time he closed his eyes. They shone with a power that, like the runes, he could not understand – but desperately wanted to.
“Go with the girl tomorrow,” the voice said.
“You know what she has planned?”
“I will learn what her and her father have said in front of you once you fall asleep. If they say theyre heading back here, go with them. Find me and together well figure this out. But for now you need to sleep. When the moon is no longer within the oculus, you will leave this place and we will not speak until you dream again. But the sleep you have this night will be the most restful you have ever had. Consider it a gift.”
“Until tomorrow night,” he said as the moon winked out passed the opening and everything went black.
He woke with a start and the last thing he saw was a flash of those green eyes. But the first thing he heard was the sound of someone very quietly unlocking his bedroom door.