{Again, graphic content warning for the fever dreams. I didn't want to tag it M since (I hope) it doesn't go too far over the line, but I want to warn you nonetheless.}

The next two days were hell. Sometimes, when the fever was terrible and my perception of reality was warped, time would go by really fast, and I'd be watching things happen in a time-lapse. Other times, everything would move very slowly, and I'd spend hours watching the cartoon dog on the TV screen sit for his owner. I fought like hell to stay awake, fearing the terrible nightmares that would plague me in my sleep. But I couldn't tell when I was awake or when I was asleep, and so when the blanket that was wrapped around me turned into a mass of snakes, or when I started seeing blood dripping from the cracks in the walls, they'd catch me by surprise and I'd wake up cold despite the warm blankets.

And I was so hungry. Unbearably hungry. My stomach grumbled loudly, and every time it did, something squeezed painfully inside of me. But I couldn't hold anything down!

It was just as my stomach was clenching painfully that another brief moment of clarity fought its way through the haze of fever. I had to tell them something... But what? What did I have to tell them? I pushed off the blankets and rolled off the couch onto the floor. I was still wearing my bathrobe. It stuck to me with sweat. I heaved myself up onto my hands and knees, and, once my body had adjusted to that, I slowly pulled myself to my feet. I shuffled across the hardwood floor to the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe when I made it. Where were they?

Suga and J-Hope were sitting at the table in the kitchen. Suga saw me first. "Kimmy! What're you doing up?" J-Hope turned to look at me. Concern marred his pretty face as he stood up.

"I need to tell you something." I said in a croaky voice, though I still hadn't remembered what I wanted to tell them.

"Kimmy, you're sick, you need to rest!" J-Hope said, trying to guide me back out into the living room.

"No!" I protested. "I need to... Tell you..." But the clarity was already slipping away. I fought to hold onto it.

"What do you need to tell us?" Suga asked.

I frowned as I tried to focus. J-Hope had picked me up and was carrying me bridal-style back to the couch. "I don't..." I said. "I don't... Know..." J-Hope dropped me back on the couch, and as I hit the couch, my robe fell open, the blanket bound me to the cushions, and suddenly J-Hope was towering over me with a long, blood spattered blade.

"Tell us!" he commanded, and I cowered away from him. I tried to speak, but I couldn't. "Tell us!" he screeched, and when again I didn't answer, J-Hope brought the blade down on my neck.

I sat up in the couch, breathing heavily. My robe was still on, and the blankets slid off the couch when I moved. I looked around, one hand on my neck. When I didn't feel a cut, I came to the realization that I'd fallen asleep on accident again. I sunk back into the cushions, shivering with cold and trying not to cry. It was getting dark. I tried to remember where the boys were. Had Rapmon and Jin really gone out, or was that another fever-fueled delusion? Had Jimin really walked through the walls to get to his bedroom?

Taehyung suddenly appeared on the other side of the coffee table with J-Hope. They each carried a couple of classic Grims. Tattered, leather-wrapped books were lowered onto the coffee table.

"What happened to your blankets, Kimmy?" J-Hope asked, bending over to pick up the blankets. "You must be freezing." He wrapped them back around me.

Taehyung was kneeling in front of the coffee table, opening one of the Grims. "I need to see her arm." he said. J-Hope helped me untangle my arm from the blankets and held it out for Taehyung to see. It was my first time seeing it too. I focused as hard as I could on it. Everything kept swelling and shrinking suddenly, but I managed to see that the tattoo J-Hope had given me of the snake and the sword, the manifestation of a healing spell, had risen what looked like an inch above the rest of my skin. It was yellow and red and bumpy and so very obviously infected. You could see jagged blood vessels crawling out of the infection. If I had anything left in my stomach, I'd've vomitted again at the sight of it.

"It's corrupted." Taehyung said. I stared at the ceiling. Everything being said sounded muted, and there was this sound like I was listening to them, and holding a sea shell to my ear at the same time. "You ed up, Hoseok." J-Hope cursed. "You didn't give her enough juice. If the mark of the spell cast lasts longer than the spell, the mark has nothing left to sustain it, and starts to deteriorate, undoing what it was meant to do and then some."

"I'm so sorry, Kimmy." J-Hope whispered, brushing my sweaty hair away from my face.

"Sap isn't going to make it better." Taehyung snapped.

"But if it's like this because the mark is deteriorating, can't we just remove the mark?" Jungkook asked. I could barely hear him. "Or just wait for it to deteriorate completely?" Taehyung shook his head.

"A removing spell was one of the first things I tried." he said. "It didn't work. And look, the tattoo is only barely faded. Any deterioration it was doing is stopped now. It must've found something else to sustain it."

"Like what?" Jungkook asked.

"Like Kimmy's magic." Taehyung said. "This ing thing's mutated into a parasite." I heard pages flipping. "I