Time To Save You!
Dark, Figures, Billboard

St. Thomas Medical Care, North Carolina, USA. 29 June 2020

Jose and Anna decide to leave their child one to two days ahead, as doctors say Ruth needs time to adapt. The girl had just come to her senses from a long sleep, and none of them knew what she was going through in the subconscious. Not infrequently patients who just woke up from a coma experience temporary disorientation, but in the case of Ruth, disorientation is actually very different.

Ruth, she still doesn't recognize herself as Ruth Madison.

She's not Ruth Madison, she's Lucy Ainsley.

There was nothing wrong with her consciousness, she was indeed Lucy. It's just, Lucy felt her soul was in the body of a woman named Ruth Madison, a woman she had never known before. Several times Lucy got out of her bed, took small walks around the room, and during that time Lucy felt her feet treading on the floor for real. The sensation of walking and moving that he felt was all the same, only again he used different legs and body.

Oddity after strangeness continues to be encountered Lucy, and the peak is when she finds a mirror and sees her reflection there.

"Oh my God..."

"What happened to me?"

Lucy's hand trembled slightly, touching her face which now appeared in front of the mirror. Sharp and firm jaws, pale skin, a pointed nose, pliable eyelashes, thick eyebrows, thin red lips, and gray irises, all of which are not the features of his face that he used to be. The face was completely new, and Lucy increasingly did not understand why.

Shortly thereafter, the girl's daydream broke as one by one the room lights went out, leaving her suddenly pitch-black. Lucy's heart was racing, her eyes were wide, her breath was hunting, her hands were looking for something to hold. The fear that became the last feeling he felt before his soul moved into Ruth Madison's body was back.

Feelings of fear, confusion, and despair when chasing the figure of a faceless man who is Paul's killer, who somehow happens when compared to the current time. Lucy was frustrated, now she was terrified of the darkness and emptiness around her. "Please..."

"Hhhhhhh!"

A mysterious reverberation was heard, and it was the same sound Lucy had heard just before she fell into the abyss that night. Not only that, the same light and smog appeared out of nowhere. The difference is, this time there is no bridge or anything behind Lucy. The girl was just leaning against a cold wall, cornered there.

"Well..."

Lucy saw his hand, or rather Ruth Madison's hand. Something glowing appeared on her forearm, showing a six-digit number that Lucy herself did not understand what she meant.

A TAP!

A TAP!

The same sound of footsteps now rang out, and Lucy felt like she wanted to die as soon as she found the faceless man in black clothes standing within a few steps of her. The figure faced Lucy from the window, motionless, walking, doing nothing.

"Go..."

"Say away!" sergeant Lucy, but the figure remains standing there.

The longer, the more stressful. Lucy even seemed to be glued in place, her legs could not move to get out or just move places. Likewise with his hand, with the figures glowing light yellow in his hand that never disappeared, even more brightly glowing.

Before long, the black figure disappeared, but not with the numbers in his hands. The figure still shimmered though weak, the light was not as bright as when the faceless figure appeared, the color was almost even disguised with the pale skin color of Ruth's hands. The figures now look like tattoos, and the tattoos are slowly disappearing as the lights of the room return.

"What the fuck is all this?"

The night breeze hit his face, brushing Ruth's long hair loosely. However, just a few steps up the balcony, Lucy immediately stepped back. Lucy was unaware that she was above height. I don't know what floor he is currently on, but Lucy felt dizzy when she saw the crowded scenery below.

Lucy never saw a vehicle pass that loud on the highway. Not to mention the colorful lights and tall buildings that were currently also visible before him. The atmosphere of the night in that place was very luxurious, very different from what he used to see before: quiet, silent, silent.

Something caught Lucy's attention. The girl stepped back, heading to the edge of the balcony to take a closer look at the moving portrait on a large, glowing board across from there. Lucy is confused, she does not know that it is a billboard that is serving an ad.

A man appeared on the billboard, he was holding a man's facial care product. The man also demonstrated himself who cleansed his face with a cheerful expression in every second.

Then both of Lucy's eyes squinted as the man on the billboard seemed to smile at her for a few seconds before the entire ad was repeated. Lucy couldn't have seen it wrong, she clearly knew who the man was.

"P-paul?" muttered. "You..."

"Miss Ruth?"

"Oh?" Lucy quickly turns around, unaware that the doctor handling her is coming.

"What are you doing there? Come here, I have to check a few things."

Lucy nodded, approaching the doctor. Though puzzled, it seems Lucy will have to adjust herself as Ruth Madison starting today. "So.. You're my doctor?"

The doctor raised his eyebrows in confusion. "You don't remember if I was the first person you met after you opened your eyes?" her question, helping Ruth lie in bed, began to examine her.

Ruth kept staring at the doctor who seemed to be her age. There were many things he wanted to ask, at least about where he was, and how to live in a place he had never imagined.

"Ruth..." The doctor removed his stethoscope. "Do you really not recognize your father and mother?"

"No..."

"Well how do I explain this self known as Ruth Madison, hm? Know it? I've known you for years, and I know your family, Ruth."

Lucy as Ruth sighed, rolling her eyes lazily until she locked her gaze on the television screen. Paul's face again appears in the same show, but this time on a smaller screen.

"Ruth Madison," called the doctor again, taking Lucy's eyes off the television screen. "What?"

"Tell me by what name I should know you. Lucy Ainsley, or Ruth Madison? I'll obey you." The doctor gave an identity validation question, checking whether Ruth's orientation had returned or not.

"I'm..." Lucy starts to get confused, glancing at the doctor and Paul's face on television turns. The girl thought hard, because her answer would determine what her life would be like in this place.

"I'm..."

"Ruth Madison."