The smell of blood was everywhere.

It hung in the air in waves of acid and salt; it lingered on my tongue and coated my teeth. I tasted it first, as I sat amongst the bodies, the limp things rolling off me as I shifted. Arms and wings of the tiny creatures moved as though possessed before they hit the floor with a lifeless ‘thunk’, joining the piles of the others.

They were everywhere. Hundreds of them. They covered the floor, they hung from the television and the hard plastic chairs, they sagged over the rails of the hospital bed that Kaye lay under.

Breathing.

Panicked.

Her eyes were wide as she stared at me, the brown flooded with fear.

“Are you okay?” I asked with that same heavy accent I had in my dream.

The three words were a trigger and she breathed heavier, letting out several soft screams as she scuttled out from under the bed, ripping off her jacket as she jumped to stand.

“Kaye,” I said in an attempt to get her attention, but she continued to pour over her body, ripping off shoes and jeans so as to continue her frantic inspection.

“Katenka,” I said again, using her full name as I rushed toward her, stepping on the tiny Vilỳ in my attempt to get to her.

She still did not turn.

“Kaye!” I yelled grabbing her forearms as she finished removing her shirt, the fabric wadded in her fist.

Her focus finally shifted back to me, eyes wide in panic as she stared at me. She stood in only her underwear, chest heaving behind a bright red bra.

I didn’t look away from her eyes, I forced myself to maintain her focus, to breath slow to help calm her down.

But I still saw.

I saw what I had seen before but in the panic hadn’t understood.

Her hair was longer, her face was thinner, her body matured.

She was older.

Older than the girl who had giggled in hiding on the side of my bed.

I could feel my own panic growing, but I pushed it away.

“What happened?” I demanded, the accent thick under the power of my voice.

Angry tears welled behind Kaye’s eyes as she attempted to jerk away from my hold, the panic that momentarily ebbed flooding right back.

“I have to check…” she growled, continuing to push me away. “I have to know if I was bitten.”

“You would feel it if you were. It would burn like fire in your veins. You would already be screaming.”

The words were confident, self-assured, and I knew that they were true.

It was only then that Kaye looked at me. The fear of a bite left, the panic of what had just happened subsided and she froze under my hands, finally seeing the bodies of the things.

“I need you to answer me, Kaye.”

“You’re alive,” she panted, taking a step closer as though she was going to rush into my arms. Luckily she thought better of it.

“Yes.” I kept my voice calm. She was talking, and I wasn’t about to impede that. “But I need to know what happened Kaye. What happened to me? What is going on?”

“You’re …” Her awe vanished in a snap, her focus twisting from me to the Vilỳ, and back again. “What happened?”

I wanted to laugh at the absurdity of it all. Instead, the twisted humor came out in one crooked smile. I let my hands drop from her arms in the hope that she had calmed enough to at least talk to me.

“That would be what I need to know…” I hunched my back so I could look her in the eye. It was only now, as I stood beside her, that I realized how tall I must be.

Joclyn only came to my chest. Right to my heart.

“Last I remember we were discussing how to track down Joclyn,” I continued, “Last I know they showed her picture on the television...”

“You were in a coma...” Kaye’s deadpan voice smacked against me, sucking the wind out of my chest.

“A coma?” I gasped. The response as unexpected as the war zone I had woken up in.

“All of that…” She hesitated, looking away in obvious agitation. “The pictures. That was more than two years ago.”

“Two years?”

She stepped away from me then, careful not to trod on the things with her bare feet as she retrieved her pants.

I knew how this scene would go. I would roar in shock over the time and she would retell a story of woe and triumph.

None of that happened. I just stood, staring at the wilted bodies and twisted tubes that I had pulled from myself. Tubes that had kept me alive.

“They thought you were brain dead…” She shook her head, as she threw a shirt over her shoulders, the threadbare shift stained with blood and dirt. “They kept you alive, kept you here…”

She kept fading in and out, everything she said more of a half thought then information I could use to piece together the last two years that I had missed. It was more than that, I realized. It was more than unsurety. It was discomfort. It was protection.

“What did they do to me?”

She froze in place, a sock and shoe dangling from her fingers as she slowly uncoiled to face me, her jaw tight as she looked right into me.

“They tried to figure out what you are, Jan.”

What. Not who. It seemed fitting somehow.

“What did they do, Kaye.” My voice was harder, the demand for information clear.

Kaye looked away, turning back to the bodies, back to her strewn clothing, determined to look anywhere else.

“They still think you are the man from the photo,” she kicked one of the Vilỳ, it’s corpse flopping over with limbs and wings twisting end over end.  “They know you were there. They think they know what you can do. They want to figure it out. They aren’t wrong though. About what you can do.”

Eyes wide, she faced me head on, standing half dressed amongst the corpses like an apparition. Her jaw tightened as she waited for a response, determined to get it.

“You know they aren’t.” I refused to look away from her, I didn’t think I needed to say anything more after what happened. “Will you tell them?”

Her eyes narrowed at my question, her focus still on the garden of corpses that we stood in the middle of. “What did you tell them, Kaye?”

She shook her head, her lips pulling into a tight line before she finally turned to me.

“I told them nothing and that will not be changing. The SSU doesn't know I exist and I plan to keep it that way. I’m not registered and that means death. But now that you are awake, and now that you can do…” she hesitated, gesturing around her as she struggled to find the right word. “What did you do, Jan?”

“That’s not my name,” I bristled, a single brow raising as she turned away from me making her way over to the bed.

Her question was clear, but I said nothing, I had nothing to replace it with. I still didn’t know who I really was. Not entirely.

“It doesn’t matter what your name is. I’ll call you whatever you want.” She snapped as she pulled pants and socks back on. “All that matters is getting out of here. Can you do that again?”

We faced off, the air heavy with the question, my body heavy with that same power that ignited the question, with the thick implication that lined it.

“I…”

“We need to get out of here,” Kaye said as she slipped her shoes back on, now freely stepping over carcasses as she retrieved her knife. “Can you get me out of here?”

I didn’t understand what she was asking. I didn’t know anything that had happened. I stared at her, waiting for clarification, trying to focus on the energy, on the power. To know if I could do it again. The answer was only a weak hum somewhere in my soul, “I’m not sure.”

Everything froze at my response, our breathing was loud in the silence, the sound the countdown to whatever end we were quickly hurtling toward. The two questions hung in the air until the silence exploded with a bang.

The sound echoed through the hospital from somewhere in the distance, the loud thud followed by a stampede of footfalls.

We both looked toward the sound, our faces lined with a different panic.

“They are here,” she whispered as she began to look around, obviously desperate for somewhere to hide.  

“Who is here?” I rushed toward her, trying to pull her focus, but she didn’t stop her search, although I was sure she already knew it was hopeless.

“The Cleaners,” she gasped as if that made sense to me. “The state police.”

The clarification didn’t change much for me, but it didn’t need to. The look in her eyes told me everything.

“Can we hide?” I asked, my eyes joining her in her search.

“I can,” She spat, the words a growl “I don’t exist to them. You are supposed to be brain dead… and this…” she gestured around us, the panic in her growing. “What did you do?”

“I used my magic.”

I was aware of the absurdity of the word. It grated on me, it twisted in my stomach. But not because I didn’t believe it because I knew that she wouldn’t.

“Excuse me?” She froze in place, all thought of searching for a weapon gone as she stared at me. “I’m going to pretend that made any kind of sense…”

“I used my magic, Kaye,” I interrupted her, the same heat rising to consume me as I walked toward the corner of the room, pulling the computer table toward me.

The metal feet scraped loudly against the linoleum, the sound sure to lead them right to us.

“No, Jan.” she stuttered, at a loss for words. “That’s not possible. You may think that… but magic isn’t real.”

“But Aliens are?” I didn’t even try to hide the smile from my face. “You have seen the images. You saw the one… of The Oheň, of Joclyn. What did you think it was?”

Her jaw hinged in shock, but I just smiled, shoving the computer off of the table with such noise that if they hadn’t tracked us yet, they had now.

“Look, you don’t exist and I am supposed to be dead, right?” She only nodded in response. “I can fix one of those things, but we don’t have time for this. We can argue the reality of magic and aliens later. You need to hide.”

“How do you suggest…”

She didn’t get to finish before I lifted my hand above my head, that same electric buzz seeping from me as the ceiling tile shifted, revealing a large open cavern.

“The ceiling will be reinforced along the walls and near the televisions. Stay along those lines and you won’t fall through.”

I could tell she wanted to fight me on it. I could see the disgust mixing with fear for one split second, but it vanished as the sound of footsteps began echoing toward us, the clear voices of military orders echoing right behind.

With one last look toward the door, she rushed toward the desk, only giving me a single sidelong glance before she was gone, lifting herself up into the rafters.

The ceiling tile replaced as I dragged the desk toward the bed, collapsing on the ground between them.

The floor began to shake as the footsteps grew louder, the bodies of the dozens of Vilỳ I was surrounded by shaking and flopping around at the vibration. I sat still, the buzzing of my magic growing as the sound of their stampede did.

I restrained it. As much as it wanted to explode, I did not know what would happen if it did. I did not know if I could control it or how long it would last. Even then, I now had a reason to wait. I needed to get Kaye out of here.

I needed to know what ‘here’ was first. I needed to know more of me. Know what they thought of me.

Coma patient.

Possibly from Prague.

No memory.

I would give them that.

I slumped against the bed just as the door opened with a bang, the rhythmic sound of combat boots coming to a quick and sudden stop as the expletives began.  

Their shock was quickly followed by fear, many rushing to get someone as a few ventured further into the room, their heavy footfalls rippling through me in a countdown to an inevitable end.

To me.

To them.

I looked up to the first soldier as he saw me, the man shrouded in heavy riot gear, a smear of yellow paint on his chest.

The Cleaners.

I didn’t know what they were, but judging by the anger in his eyes, he was expecting fear.

Forcing my eyes wide as I put all the wide-eyed panic into my face that I could, I reached toward him, letting my hand freely shake as I locked the tiny sparks of magic inside.

“You have to help me,” I said clearly in Czech before I collapsed to the ground in a heap, very much alive.