Danger Zone

Darkness. 

It is what Daime sees the first time he opens his eyes. He tries moving eyes but they are somewhat glues or there is another person in the room that are covering them with their hands.

Usually, if someone is covering his eyes, he will feel their skin or their hands. But lifting his hand towards his eyes, Daime didn't feel anything. 

He is also sure that he didn't see his hand. Is his eyes really open or it is covered and the thing that he is seeing is just an illusion of his mind. 

Daime tries to move his head from left to right to see if someone is indeed holding him down. But there is none.

Whatever is happening with Daime is making him curious. 

He inhales a deep sigh and tries to move his hands and fingers to feel whether they are still there or not. 

He tries making a fist, clenching his hands as they turn white and feels the lift of his shoulder against his naked shoulder blade. 

Wait… Naked?

Daime turns his head to the side and tries to mutter a word. But nothing comes out of his mouth. His eyes widen in surprise but nothing can tell him if he is really shocked. 

It is as if he is on his own in this vast dark space in front of him. 

Where am I?

It's a normal question that anyone will ask when they are not sure of their location. But in this situation, no one can answer Daime but his own. 

Moments later, he hears footsteps coming his way. They are not too heavy and they are not too light as well. 

He tries to focus on the sound of the footsteps before concluding to what kind of creatures it belongs to. But there is no idea comes to his mind. 

Who are you?

He wants to ask the approaching figure but his voice is a bit restrain and there is no sound coming out of his mind.

What do you want from me?

Daime needs to stop doing this because no one can hear him anyway. In this vast dark space that he can call a void, where a petite guy name Aiden does not exist and the past that he tries to erase.

Maybe it is a good thing that he is here. He cannot bother any couple that is trying to leave their life and make their relationship work. 

He cannot bother to tell Grandmama that he will marry a woman of her choice even if it is bound to happen in the near future.

He will not bother to talk about his misadventures in Russia after the plane crashes down in the mountain hills.

And then he stops. 

He stops at his last thought. And that's when he remembers that he is in a flight to Russia when a turbulence happened. 

Thinking about it now, he is sure that there are two people sitting right beside him. Those two elderly couple that he tries to save before the plane crashes to the ground. 

Where are they?

He will never know since this will be the last time that he can speak to a single person before being trapped to this void of nothingness. 

Daime can only sigh when he suddenly hears a voice coming from a distance and the footsteps eventually stop. He turns to his other side and feels hot breath against his cheek.

Who is this? Who are you? Show yourself to me! Give me a sight!

After feeling that hot breath, Daime shivers when a wet-like object damps on his cheek where the hot breath came from. Daime tries to groan to see if there will be a sound that he can produce.

A groan that can be a sign of life. A sign that can give anyone a hope of survival. 

He tries once again until he produces a tiny sound that can resembles a groan. He feels a sudden shift beside him and it made him smile.

I am not alone in this void. Let me try once again. Maybe this person beside me can talk.

Daime groans once again and is happy when he hears a muffled voice of an old lady, speaking in another language until he hears the word "Doctor" somewhere in her language.

Doctor? I am in the hospital? I am alive? 

Daime can't believe what he just heard. He tries moving his finger and his finger toes to hear if he can get more reaction from the muffled voice.

And yes, finally, he does hear the old lady calling for the doctor a bit louder this time. 

Therefore, Daime can conclude to himself that two out of his five senses are working properly. He tries to breath in to see if his nose is still working properly or he needs to ask his sister to lend him money for nose repair.

He smells the scent of lavender and coriander. Which is far more familiar than he thought before. 

Wait… am I back in Switzerland? Or this lady just smells like Primo after cooking dinner because he uses the coriander most of the time?

Daime's mind stops thinking when he realizes that maybe this person beside him is related to Primo. But that will be impossible since his mother and brother are already dead.

And according to him, his father is dead as well after getting hit by influenza and did not go to the doctor out of guilt of being caught and sent back to jail after he escaped.

Primo doesn't have any living family except his own. So if that's the case, who the hell is this old lady?

That's when it hits Daime. 

Primo never said that his grandmother is dead. Even in his stories about her, Primo never said if she is dead or still living somewhere in Russia.

Or did he?

Daime tries to clear his head when he hears a very familiar name. Something that will question Primo's knowledge about things when it comes to his own family.

"Mrs. Novinchi, your grandson is responding. Congratulations! He is the third survivor of the plane crash!"

Wait… Third? Who are the other two?