Who am I?

She wakes up to a blinding light. She groans, closing her eyes for a second. "Juli?" Someone says from her left. She pushes all of her weight on her left hand on the bed, lifting herself, while the other rubs her eyes. She opens her eyes to see a worried man with no ID in the chair next to her bed. "Woah, Who are you?! Don't get any closer!" She says, shuffling away from him. His charcoal black hair and icy blue eyes seemed familiar, but she couldn't place it. "W-wait, calm down!" The tough-looking guy spoke in his semi-deep voice. He put his hands up and slid his chair back a little. "Do...do you not remember me?" He says, a bit sad. 

"NO! WHERE EVEN AM I?!" Juli blurts out, looking around frantically. The man gets up and holds the back of her left shoulder and the front of her right. " Juli, calm down, please!" He whispers. Every bone in her body somehow calms down. "How... How did you do that?" Juli asks. " I'm your brother." The man replies softly. "I know everything about you!" Juli looks at him up and down and then looks at a mirror in the open bathroom. "You don't look a bit like me......" Juli mutters. "However, I do remember your face here and there..... Is your name Christian?" "Yes, it is! Great! So we need to find a photo album or a family portrait and, Viola! We can get your mem-" The older brother states. 

"No." The younger sister insists, cutting him off. Christian cocks his head, questioning her. "I don't want to remember." She mutters.  "But..." Christian whined. "Why?"  "I don't know why... something inside me is just telling me not to know." Juli groaned. "Why is that?" She turns towards Christian, looking for answers. Christian, heartbroken and surprised, takes her by the hand. Before he can say anything, a nurse walks into the room. "Ah, she's awake!" The nurse rejoyces. "She barely remembers me." Christian fills her in. The nurse takes the sister's arm and takes her blood pressure, listening to Christian. 

The nurse takes Juli's temperature and then writes down the new information on her computer. "Well, she seems perfectly fine. I don't understand why she would have memory loss." She remarks, shrugging. "Well...." Christian replied. "It seems that someone hit her against the head. I found her laying on the ground with a pipe next to her." Juli whips her head toward Christian, surprised. "Could the pipe had accidentally fallen, maybe from a vent or air valve above her?" The nurse says, typing more down. "There was none around her, only a blank ceiling and a vent in the wall." The older brother responds.  The nurse writes that down and then proceeds to add. "She'll be here overnight. We need to run some tests." Christian nods as the nurse exits. As soon as the door closes, Juli turns to her brother and belts. "What happened?!" 

Christian sighs and explains. "I was getting back from a lesson with my teacher for lawyer school, walked into our house, and yelled out your name. When I didn't get a response from you, I searched around the house and ended up finding you in the kitchen, passed out with a pool of blood on your head. You had a bloody piece of a pipe laying next to you. I have no clue where it came from or who brought it. I heard footsteps scrambling out the back door, but I was too late to see anyone. I did spot a knife on the ground next to the back door. We have security cameras around the house, so when you get better, I'm going to catch them. " With the last bit said determined, she nods sadly, looking down.

"What's up?" Christian quakes, giving at Juli with a worry-filled look. "I just..." Juli responds. "I don't understand why I don't want to know about my past." Christian looks at her and then looks at the floor, gathering his words. The sister wonders how such kindness could come from someone so tough and fierce. "We didn't necessarily have the best past. We come from a broken family and, let's say the siblings had our fair share of bad times." Christian answers. Juli's head goes down sadly, not expecting that answer. "However," The brother starts again. "We also had our fair share of good times. Although I'd like to keep you away from the bits that were horrible in our lives, Life is a rollercoaster, and I'd like you to experience the good in the bad!" Christian gives her a big smile.

She smiles too. "Alright," She giggles. "I'll give you a chance." The doctor comes in and runs scans on the sister, pulling the two apart for a while. Christian stays the whole time, waiting on the results. Once they had finally come in, the doctor enters and fills Christian in on what has happened. "We have good news!" The doctor cheered. "The injury was not that bad, there are no infections, and the memory loss isn't permanent. It seems that the brain still has a bit of those old memories left. The rest should come back if you tell her stories or show her old photos that mean a lot to you guys." "Great!" Christian rejoyces. "Does she still have to stay overnight?" The doctor replies with a "Hmmm... I suppose not. Everything seems to be great!" 

After Juli gets ready to leave, they take Christian's car to arrive back home. Christian first gives Juli a small tour of the bottom floor of the house. Juli starts to remember as Christian goes from room to room, collecting pictures, journals, and old stories. Juli gets a popsicle from the fridge before walking over to the floor where her brother sits. After hours of scrolling through the words of the books and the withered torn pictures, they gain the old memories back while also making new ones. "Now that every bit of the puzzle has gotten stitched back together..." Christian sings. "Let's catch this criminal!"

They go to the computers and search through the footage taped by the cameras. "10:30..." Christian mutters under his breath. "There!" His sister points out the figure shuffling out the back door. The clumsy villain trips, his hood falling, and Christian pauses the tape. "No way..." Christian stammers. "What is it?" The younger sister asks, hoping he has a lead. Christian turns to her. "I know them..." He gulps.