Free Forgotten: a truly gripping psychological thriller by Heleyne Hammersley

all?
    Mustering up a bright smile that felt much more tentative than she’d intended she said, ‘Okay, I’ll give it a go. But there’s one other thing.’
    Ekachai raised his eyebrows urging her to continue.
    ‘You have to be there and stay there. I don’t want to be left alone with this colleague of yours. I want to know that if something bad happens you’ll be there to take care of me.
    ‘Of course.’
    ‘That’s settled then, tomorrow it is. Do I finally get to leave this room?’
    ‘As you wish. I can bring my colleague here or you can go upstairs. Whichever you prefer.’
    Kai considered for a few seconds looking round at her surroundings – everything in its place, everything the same as it always was. How would it feel to leave the safety and familiarity of her room, her sanctuary? But she couldn’t hide forever.
    ‘Let’s go there. Everything’s too familiar here, a change of scenery might help.’
    ‘As you wish,’ Ekachai repeated, ‘I’ll collect you after breakfast and we’ll go together.’
    ‘Okay,’ she agreed. ‘I just hope it helps. I really need to move forward, to have some sort of hope for the future.’ She stopped, suddenly visualising the days and years ahead as a blank, not a darkness like the coma but a milky whiteness. Not threatening, not frightening, not welcoming, nothing. She could feel the increasing pressure of the blood coursing round her body, focussing in her head, resonating, reverberating.
    ‘What happens if it doesn’t work?’ she asked the doctor, fixing his eyes with her own, allowing him no escape from the truth. ‘What will happen to me if I don’t get my memory back? Will I have to stay here?’
    Ekachai smiled. ‘I doubt that will happen. As I have told you there is no physical reason for your condition. You have made excellent progress in the past week and, if it was not for the amnesia, I would be thinking about discharging you.’
    ‘But?’ Kai prompted.
    He looked away briefly as though considering whether to reveal something to her. ‘But, there are practical things to consider.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘Medical treatment in Thailand is not cheap. Western patients usually have travel insurance to cover their expenses. At the moment we are thinking that you too have such insurance. As your memory is still trying to hide from us all and as no-one has come forward with a positive identification we must start to consider contacting the embassies in Bangkok. If you are unable to tell us your identity we will try other means.’
    ‘So I’m a liability to the hospital if you don’t know who I am? Why not just let me go?’
    ‘Because the hospital took you in and now has a commitment to helping you. I have a commitment to helping you. We will continue to treat you like any other patient.’
    ‘But you won’t let me go until my bill has been paid?’
    ‘I cannot keep you here against your will.’ His expression was evasive. ‘But, as you have nowhere to go, it is in all our best interests if you stay and continue your treatment.’
    He was studying her face as though assessing whether he’d said too much. Kai considered the implications of his words. One way or another she was going to discover her true identity. She tried to imagine being told her real name by someone else, some official from her own country. It would be meaningless. He could tell her all about herself, her past, her family and it would mean nothing if she couldn’t remember it for herself. Hypnotherapy was beginning to seem much less daunting.
    ‘I’ll see you in the morning,’ she said to Ekachai with a weak smile. ‘Let’s hope it does some good.’
     
    ***
     
    For the first time since she’d woken up in the hospital bed Kai could remember a dream. Or at least the shapes from a dream. There had been a man, tall and fair-haired, and a boat trip in the sun. He was somehow familiar and strange at the same time, like a mix of two people. All she could fix on firmly was