REGRETFULLY YOURS

Katherine's eyes flung open, greeted by a blinding whiteness that felt cold and foreign. Confusion swirled in her gaze as she stared at the white board looming above her. Its presence is both strange and unsettling. Her brows furrowed as she tried to make sense of it, but a sudden, searing pain shot through her skull, making her wince. A low gasp escaped her lips as her fingers instinctively reached for her aching head, fear beginning to rise in her chest.

"Katherine, Katherine!"

Throughout the room, the sound of her name echoed each repetition bouncing off the sterile walls like a cruel reminder. It wasn't just a name anymore,it was a trigger, a sharp needle that pierced deeper with every call. The voices stirred something raw inside her more like a dagger and with each sound,the pain in her head increased, harder, pulsing in sync with the relentless sound.

A glimpse of something buried within surged up Suddenly like a flash exploding behind her eyes.Two blurred faces swam into view, their features smeared like paint in the rain, yet oddly familiar. Their eyes filled with warmth, hands patting her gently, carefully with love, they came closer as they called out her name softly, yet laced with urgency, "Katherine!" Their voices are soft yet urgent, laced with emotion. As if the name once meant everything to her,an ache of longing stirred up in her chest.

"Doctor! She's awake!" A Male voice called out, rising to his feet in a rush, voice trembling with disbelief and joy. The stillness of the room shattered, replaced by the hurried footsteps of medical staff responding to a miracle he had dared to believe in.

Katherine blinked rapidly, the fleeting vision dissolving like mist under sunlight, leaving her breathless and shaken. The warmth from the blurred faces had vanished, replaced by the sterile chill of the present. Her heart pounded beneath the thin hospital gown as she tried to sit up, only to be met with resistance-a soft restraint around her wrist.

Her eyes scanned through the room and then it went pale. White walls. Machines. A faint beeping rhythm that matched her racing pulse. The air smelled of antiseptic and something faintly metallic. She wasn't home. She wasn't anywhere she remembered.

Then came another voice again, muffled at first, as if underwater.

"Katherine... Can you hear me?"

That voice, male, calm, but unfamiliar. A shadow shifted at the corner of her vision. Another voice followed, this time female, gentler, almost maternal.

"She's waking up. Look at her eyes."

Who were they?

She strained to see them through the blinding overhead light. Two figures stood by the edge of her bed, faces obscured by surgical masks and scrubs. Their eyes watched her closely, but not with the warmth from her vision. These eyes studied her like a specimen.

Katherine's throat tightened. Her voice was trapped somewhere beneath the pain and fear. Her lips parted, but no sound came. Only a shaky breath.

"Her heart rate is spiking," the woman said. "We may need to sedate her if she panics."

Sedate?

No way!

The word rang like an alarm in her mind. She didn't know who these people were. She didn't know this place. She can't go back into the dark, she doesn't want it.

A strangled cry escaped her lips as she tried to resist the effect of the drugs being injected into her drip.

And then, just before the darkness clawed her back under, she heard it again-her name, whispered from somewhere distant... but this time, it wasn't from the strangers. It was from one of the faces in the vision.

"Katherine... Katherine"

The harsh white light above made her squint as she slowly opened her eyelid and shadows loomed around her. She saw anxious faces, laced with hope staring at her vividly.

One of them, a woman with kind eyes yet expectant, waved her hand gently in front of her face.

"What do you see Katherine!" She asked with an expectant heart hoping the response she got would be good.

Katherine's gaze followed the movement of the lady's hand which should have a positive result. She could now see clearly and distinguish between the figures standing before her clearly.

A gentleman who had silently stood at her bedside all this while stepped forward. His eyes flickered with concern and relief. With caution, he carefully slid an arm beneath her back, helping her sit up with slow, steady movements.

"Easy now," he murmured, steadying her.

She weakly nodded her head. Her throat was dry and the clouds in her mind began to fade little by Little.

After the doctor and nurse had finished their careful examination, checking her vitals, asking brief questions, and making quiet notes. They exchanged a few words with the man who had remained by her side. With a final reassuring nod, they stepped out of the room, leaving her in his care. The atmosphere shifted, softer now, quieter. The gentleman moved closer, pulling the chair beside her bed and settling into it, his eyes never leaving her fragile, recovering form.

"Who are you? Why didn't you leave with the doctors?" Katherine asked.

He scanned her face in hope for recognition,"You don't recognize who I am?" His brows arched as he asked, voice laced with disbelief. A beat passed. His smile faltered. Concern crept in, tightening his jaw.

He didn't let out a single word. He only watched her like she was a ghost wearing someone else's skin. His reaction made her uncertain and intrigued. She blinked, shifted, unease but oddly amused. Did he expect her to remember him?

He leaned forward, voice soft but urgent, eyes searching hers like they held the key to a locked room. "Do you remember how you got into the accident? Where do you work? Anything about you?" The words hung between them, fragile and weighted. His gaze flickered with hope and fear, watching her face for even the smallest flicker of recognition. But she only stared back, lost in a fog where nothing had a name.

"I don't remember? You still haven't answered my question!" She demanded.

"I'm your fiance! Damon is my name!" He said his voice was laced with affirmation

"Fiance!" The words echoed in her head.