I stared into his dark green eyes, so changed and clouded with hatred, as I tried not to flinch away from the gun pressed against my head. The gun he was currently holding against my head. My hands started shaking as I held them up in surrender. Not out of fear only, but also shock that he would ever do that; threaten me. I know he’s not in his right mind, but it still hurts.

“Please,” I begged, “don’t do this. This isn’t you.” I spoke barely above a whisper, but I knew he heard me. He took a step forward and I stumbled back a bit, closer to the edge. I stopped myself from turning to check how close I was. They’re sure taking their sweet time. What if they don’t bring it in time to save him, or me? If he ends up killing me after all this, I’m gonna find a way to haunt those idiots who killed us both by wasting time.

This isn’t how this was supposed to go. The serum was supposed to bring him back to his right state of mind, but it only provoked is anger further, and led to him hurting all those innocent- well, random, people. Some of them, he seemed to personally have something against, so maybe he had a reason, but then again he seems to hate me right now. And I know that isn’t true. It can’t be. Anyway, plan B is to capture him again until we can figure out the right way to... “un-brainwash” him.

“I’d stop talking if I were you. You’re only getting on my nerves, and it’s not very wise to annoy the person with a gun at your head.” He looked up as if contemplating something, then back at me. “Then again, you’ve always been rather stupid.”

I can’t stop my face from showing that I took offense at that, but it also hurt. “There’s a difference between knowledge and wisdom, you know,” I couldn’t stop my voice from trembling either, but I had to keep buying time, “neither of which you seem to be practicing at this moment.”

Stupid, stupid, stupid! Am I trying to get myself killed!? He glares at me and I shut my eyes, waiting for the end.

I know I was expecting it,

preparing for it even,

but my heart still broke when I heard the gun click.

I opened my eyes slowly to look at him. His face changes from confused to frustrated as he continues to try to shoot me, to no avail. The gun ran out of bullets. He must have used them all up earlier. My arms feel weak and I let them go limp beside me. He throws the gun down and grabs my throat tightly, the force making me stumble back and almost slip off the edge. I don’t try to stop him as my vision darkens, but I hear the others as they finally arrive and -

And everything goes black...

Two weeks later, I can talk normally again and we’re all here, waiting for him to wake up. We tried twice already to bring him back to normal, and as the saying goes, third time’s the charm. Hopefully he doesn’t freak out when he sees us all just staring at him, as we’re gathered around his bed. He has restraints on this time. We learned that lesson the hard way.

I unconsciously hold my breath as his eyelids start moving, like he’s trying to wake up. He slowly opens his eyes and then blinks once, twice, and then his eyes suddenly widen and he sits up so abruptly that he falls back down when the restraints, well... restrain him.

Nobody says anything as he sits up slowly, looking at each one of us. When we make eye contact, I see no hatred, no anger, only confusion and... fear. Does he remember?

“W-what happened?” He looks down at his wrists and looks back up with more concern and fear in his eyes. “Why am I-?”

“It wasn’t your fault.” Someone tries to reassure him. I’m too preoccupied at the moment to take notice of who.

He turns to whoever said that, and tears start forming in his eyes, “What did I...?”

I walked closer to him and started undoing the restraints. “It’s a long story,” I say without looking at him. “We’ll explain after you’ve had something to eat.” We’ve kinda kept him prisoner for the past two weeks, but we didn’t starve him; he just refused to eat. It’s going to take a lot to explain what happened during the time he can’t remember. Apparently he does remember getting brainwashed, though. He... killed people. Almost killed me.

It’s gonna be a long day.