Chapter Thirty Two

It felt like pins and needles were pricking into her skin as the cold waters enveloped her. She quickly swam herself to the surface and gasped for air. Moving her hands and legs accordingly, she was able to tread and keep her head above the water.

She thought back to when she was forced to tread during swimming lessons when she was younger. She didn’t realize how valuable those lessons were until now. Although the lessons were helpful to her then, she wasn’t taught to tread in the water absorbing cloths like the ones she was wearing now.  With the extra weight, she needed to find something to grab onto quickly before she ran out of strength.    

So, she quickly tried to assess her surroundings, looking for something she could possibly hang onto.  She saw something floating in the distance and swam to it as fast as she could. When she reached it, she painstakingly pulled herself and her wet clothes up onto it. When she succeeded, she plopped herself on her back and panted. She wasn’t given much time to catch her breathe because she felt something digging into her shoulder with increasing force.

She sat up gripping her shoulder and she finally realized what it was she was laying on. It was a clock, a working clock according to the minute hand that was now digging into her bottom. She quickly stood up and stiffened when the clock started to sway.

Something about the clock was strange. She realized that the minute hand was going counter clock wise and was moving at a pace much quicker than a minute hand should. She watched the hand as it moved around the clock. It hit the 12^th hour, the hour hand went down to the 11^th hour. She yelped when the clock jolted and sunk a little deeper into the water. She stared as the minute hand made another round around the clock, the hour hand went down to the 10^th hour and the clock jolted again, sinking even further into the water.

It’s… a timer? But what for? She thought. The minute hand hit the 12 again and the hour hand struck the 9. When it did so, the clock sunk even more. That’s when she realized that the clock was counting down its own capsizing.  And she had no idea how to stop it.

She looked out onto the water, searching for something in the distance and saw nothing. She dropped her gaze when something caught her eye off the clock’s edge. She gripped the edge of the clock and stared in amazement.

There stood holographic images of the men she had met through the vision when she first appeared on EXO. Suho, D.O, Chanyeol, Luhan , Sehun, Kai, Xiumin, Lay, Chen, Baekhyun, Tao and Kris were all standing side by side in the watery image. She leaned down and touched it, but her hand only felt the cold water.

The image disappeared as quick as it came and something deep in the water caught her eye. There was someone floating through the water. She felt the clock jolted down again and water touched her knees.

She quickly went into auto pilot mode and dove into the water. She swam vigorously, deeper and deeper into the waters until she was next to the person. She gripped their arm and wrapped it around her shoulders. Her lungs were feeling uncomfortable with the lack of oxygen but she kicked her legs as hard as she could.

When she finally made it to the surface, she took the deepest breath she could. She continued swimming with her aching muscles to the clock along with the person still hanging onto her shoulder. When she made it to the clock, she stared at it helplessly. How on earth was she supposed to get the both of them up there?

She eventually figured it’ll be easier for her to drag the person up instead of pushing him from the water. So, she rolled herself on the clock, making sure not to let go of the other person as she did. When she finally got onto the clock, she stabilized herself and started to pull the person up. One final tug and the person was onto the clock. That’s when she had the time to recognize who it was.

“Sehun!” She cried and leaped to his side. She looked over his dormant features. “Come on come on , wake up!” She slapped his cheeks lightly, hoping to wake up him. She leaned her head down to his chest and listened for breathing. There was none. But, she could feel a pulse, a very light one that was declining though.

“Oh no you don’t!” She cried desperately. The clock jolted down again, she looked over and saw it was at the 3^rd hour. She quickly turned back around. Okay, CPR. How do you do CPR again?

She tilted Sehun’s head back, clearing his airway. She laced her fingers together and stationed them above his chest. She then started to push down on it repeatedly. After what she thought was a decent amount of compressions, she in a deep breath before opening Sehun`s mouth and pressing their lips together. She released her breath, making sure none of it escaped from their connected mouths.

When her lungs emptied, she pulled back and started pumping against Sehun’s chest again. The clock shook and sunk a little more. “Stop that!” She yelled at the clock, “I’m trying to save a friggin life he-“ She stopped in her speech when Sehun’s body lurched upward. Water gurgled through his mouth and she quickly turned him on his side and rubbed him on his back. Sehun hacked some more before calming down.

“Are you okay?” She asked quietly. Sehun fluttered his eyes open.

“Ileana…” He rasped out, “I…I, what happened?”

She gently brushed his hair away from his eyes, “You nearly drowned…” She whispered. “I had to perform CPR.”

“Too bad I wasn’t conscious for it.” Sehun lightly chuckled and stared at her through lazy eyes.

“That’s not funny Sehun.” She lightly hit his shoulder and tried to hold back tears, “I thought I lost you…”

“Don’t worry. I’m still here.”

She lightly smiled and looked up. The clock had stopped moving, which was great. She looked behind her and saw that the elevator was a few feet away with its doors wide open.

“Sehun.” She shook his shoulders, “we need to go now.”

“No, you need to go now.” Sehun told her, “I can’t go with you yet.”  She snapped her head and glared down at Sehun.

“I don’t think so Sehun, you’re coming with m-“ The elevator starting beeping again and slowly started closing its doors.

“Go, Ileana. Before they close.”

“Sehun-“

“We’ll meet again, just go.”  

Ileana took a shaky deep breath in, before picking up his hand and kissing it. She dropped it and bolted upwards. She took a few steps back and ran across the clock. With one big jump, she landed into the elevator with just seconds to spare. She stared at the closed elevator doors for a few second before kicking the bottom of it. It wasn’t fair. Why couldn’t she help them? Why couldn’t she take them with her?

The 4th button lite up and the elevator began to rise again.  It’s doors open to a simple cement looking room with sand scattered about the floor. She exited the elevator cautiously and ventured further into the room.

There was really nothing to it. Until Kai walked in, that is. As soon as Kai appeared through one of the corners of the room, the room began to shake a little. And then, the walls slowly started to inch together. She realized the room was shrinking. This cannot end well. She thought, panic starting to set in. But, if she thought a shrinking room was the worst of her troubles, she had another thing coming. She turned over to Kai who had a familiar look in his eyes.

She groaned. “Not again!” She whined when she narrowly missed being kicked in the stomach. She avoided most of Kai’s attacks until he had her pinned against a moving wall. His hand coiled back and aimed for her face. She squeaked and ducked just in time. Kai hissed when his hand met with cement.

She heard a noise coming from the elevator and saw that the doors had opened just the slightest. She also noticed that the room was shrinking at a slower pace. A sad realization hit her. You’re…you’re kidding right? No. I’m not- Kai grabbed her by the front of her shirt and lifted her off the ground. She struggled the best she could, legs flailing as she did. When she was let go all of sudden and landed on the ground, she realized her legs flailed right into Kai’s groin. Robots are sensitive in that area as well? She thought. Well, Sehun did say he was made from human cells…

The elevator once again opened a little more and the room started to slow it’s shrinking pace once more. That unfortunately confirmed her suspicions about this test. She had to hurt or prevent Kai from hurting her in order to get out. And she was definitely not okay with hurting Kai in anyway. So, how could she prevent him from continuing to hurt her?

“I have to knock him out somehow.”  She concluded, backing away from a recovering Kai who was slumping upward. She squeaked when he launched himself at her and quickly jumped to the side. She now was pretty much running around in circles, avoiding everything Kai threw at her. The room was shrinking and she was low on ideas.

And then, she realized. Her satchel, her wonderful wonderful satchel. So, as she was running, she opened her bag and eagerly shoved her hand inside. Give me something, anything to knock this guy out! She prayed in her head. Her hand finally found something and she pulled it out. She observed it in her hand and she had absolutely no idea what it was. It looked like a little electronic bug and that’s all she could get from it.

While she was distracted, Kai grabbed her by the neck and slammed her into a wall. She gasped for air but Kai’s grip only tightened. She squeezed the bug in her hand and it started beeping. She smacked it on Kai, hoping it would do something. And boy, did it ever.

At one point, Kai was staring her down with his cold eyes and the next he was being electrocuted. Shortly afterward, he fell to the floor in a heap. The room immediately stopped moving and the elevator’s doors opened fully. She knelt down to Kai and looked him over.

“O-oh my god, I killed Kai…” She voiced out in disbelief. She wasn’t sure if she should look for a pulse or breathing. Did Kai even need to breathe? She placed her ear against his chest, maybe hoping to hear gears moving or something. His body twitched a little and she leaned back. Kai’s eyes were open and he was muttering something over and over again. She leaned in closer and found out he was saying, “Emergency rebooting.”

The annoying beeping of the elevator hit her ears and she nearly growled. She hesitantly stood up and stepped away from the frozen Kai. At least he’s not dead she thought before rushing to the elevator and squeezed herself through the doors.

That test was definitely not fun. She lightly touched her neck and winced. Yup, definitely a bruise forming.  The 5^th button lite up accordingly and the elevator moved up like it had the times before. She looked over the panel and saw that there were 10 buttons in total. So, she was almost half way done. She wasn’t sure how far the others before her had gotten, but she knew she needed to hurry.

The doors opened again to a cubic white room, with specks of grey squares pasted onto the walls. She stepped into the room hesitantly, learning from her mistake in the clock test. So, far nothing was popping out or attacking her. That was always good.