Frozen Heart - 24. Chapter 24 - Blank

Dear reader, let me start this chapter in the most unusual of ways, let me start this chapter with a question. Have you ever starred at nothing, oblivious to the world around you? Have you ever felt like your mind was completely blank? If yes then you can probably relate to the next paragraph, for you already understand how Max felt in the nurse’s office. For those that don’t, well, read on and keep an ‘open’ mind!

Max opened his eyes slowly, he was lying on a rather uncomfortable bed, and a harsh white light shone above his head. He guessed he was in the nurse’s office, which nurse he had no idea, and for what reason also eluded him. He knew his name was Maximilian, though he let some people call him Max. But in that moment, he couldn’t recall who… It was a troubling feeling… He tried to pierce the veil that surrounded his mind. It was a soft fog of fluffy white clouds that surrounded him in a circle, yet it was solid, it had consistence he tried to push on it but the fluffy white clouds didn’t change, didn’t move. Puzzled he tried again, but still nothing happened. It was then he realized that there was absolute silence. Not a sound managed to find a way to his ears, even when he clapped his hands. He mentally sat down and gave up trying to fight the fog: it was there for a reason after all (at least that was how he felt). He stared into the light of the neon above him, and he let his mind wander. However, there was nothing to wander to, and so his mind remained blank.

A woman, who he assumed was the nurse of this office, came over to probably check on him. Seeing his eyes were open, she started making sounds with her voice. That, Max knew were words, built in structures called sentences, but the sounds came muffled, distant, and incoherent to his mind. So much so that he could not decipher their meaning, and so he remained still, enjoying the blankness of his mind. The nurse propped him up slowly, and shook him ever so slightly. Max’s eyes looked straight ahead at nothing in particular, and they did not move when she shone a light in them. She frowned and started feeling his head for any sign of… something… She took a step back and went back to her desk, not letting Max out of her eyesight more than the moments she blinked. A few seconds later a man came in. For a while, the two of them talked, looking at him often. The man finally came in front of Max and started talking in a very calm, soothing voice. Once again, however, the voice was distant, and Max couldn’t make out the words.

Obviously worried, the man and the nurse started talking louder until the nurse stepped out of the room. To come back with another woman, who, after a brief conversation with the both of them, went back out. Minutes later, two men came in, both wearing white coats over green hospital clothes. The two of them carried Max in a wheel chair, which wasn’t very hard considering how small for his age the boy was. They rolled him outside to a waiting ambulance.

Much later, but how long Max could not tell, his mind refusing to function more than a few random thoughts here and there, he sat in a bed with white sheets. He had been change in a simple white nightgown, and he could see his cloths neatly folded on a chair nearby. He still had his watch on though, and that seemed important. His watch was special, he knew that, but why he could not remember.

Doctors had run tests on him, though ones where they asked him what he assumed were questions got no answer. He was now peacefully not thinking on this bed, and he still had no idea why. Would they let him go home? But, where was home? Did he even have a home? The surge of activity almost brought him a headache, so he stopped thinking once more. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep.

He was on the verge of falling asleep when his door was opened harshly, and a boy stumbled in the room. The distant noise made him open his eyes, though they kept looking straight ahead at nothing. The boy rushed to his side, his eyes red and puffy, had he been crying? Two girls, another boy, and a nurse followed him. The nurse was telling them something, and they looked at Max, shocked, and worried, mostly the boy that had first came in.

Said boy started calling out, a sound that came closer and closer to Max’s dazed mind, he could almost make it out.

“Max!” he finally figured out.

Max turned his head towards the boy, he looked very familiar and important. Max struggled against the fog, his mind pushing on it, trying to break free. The boy was important, who was he? WHO WAS HE??? Max’s mind panicked, it crashed against the fog trying to break free. Cracks started to appear in the clouds, memories flooded through them, returning to him. A face, a voice, a name: Aaron. In the silence of his mind, Max shouted that name. That important name, the name that was the link to himself, and the name of the person he loved. As it echoed, the fog fell. Memories flooded back all at once. Sounds became clear again, as if his ears had popped. His eyes saw again, they dashed around taking in new details of his surrounding, before crossing Aaron’s. Then they stayed fixated on that point, holding on as memories and emotions took Max’s mind on a rollercoaster. Max regained control of his body, and he gasped, taking in a much needed gulp of air. All of it came back to him, who he was, where his home was, what had happened on The day, what had happened today. Surprisingly, memories of The day did fill him with terror anymore, they were very unpleasant, but they didn’t make him go mad. In the few seconds it took him to awaken, Max also realized that his greatest fear was gone. What happened under the tree was what he had feared. He had been afraid of confronting his past, and when he had, he had been so afraid his mind had shut down to prevent him harm. Was it his subconscious? Maybe. Whatever the case, the fear of those memories had almost dissolved. He still felt anguish at their mere presence, but not absolute horror.

“Aaron,” he articulated carefully, relishing the rolling of the word on his tongue.

“I’m here Max,” Aaron answered taking Max’s hand in his.

Slowly, as his mind had not completely regained full control, Max leaned in and kissed him on the lips.

“Thank you,” he whispered before breaking down, crying tears of joy.