chapter.16  »  merry go round.

The piece of paper that had Jonghyun's note on it was ripped in pieces, indeed.  They lay by Prince's front paws, and I sat there dumbstruck.  What had just happened?

“Prince...”  I looked at him disappointingly and sighed, picking up the torn pieces one by one.

Prince barked, “I'm sorry!”

“It's fine— Wait, WHAT?!”

My heartbeat quickened.  Did he just... talk?  I picked him up and shook him, asking him all sorts of questions to see if he would reply and mutter real words again, but he didn't.  Instead he whimpered and tilted his head up at me when I brought him back down to the floor.

“You don't... talk... right?”  I took sharp breaths.  Prince just walked away calmly into the bedroom.

After staring at him with disbelief and remembering what just occured, I followed him to the room.  There was no point in me stressing out about something that might have been a trick pulled on me by my brain.

I was freaking out.

I did everything I could to conceal the facts that yes, I did hear myself talking over the part where I was supposed to bark and that yes, I did talk.  I talked.

My brain was going around in circles as I circled the bed around and around.  I couldn't imagine myself talking in any way like I did.  I felt as though the spell was wearing off little by little, unnoticed until they were fully evident.

But I knew in me that the spell was not going to wear off any time soon because... I still have yet to learn the lessons.  I couldn't feel myself learning anything, and instead I found myself in constant quicksand-like mess as if there was no way out until the end of everything.

Soojin came in the room without making a noise, and neither did I.  She simply picked me up and settled me on the bed and then she went to turn the lights off.  The bed lowered as her weight pressed down on it, calm and quiet.

It was too soon to go to bed, and so I stayed awake for the rest of the night.  Dark circles weren't so obvious on dogs, but my brain was still that of a human's, and soon I was off to sleep.

I couldn't though.  I moved around carefully on the bed, tried to jump off but didn't, changed my sleeping positions, but none of them worked.

If earlier, I talked at an unexpected moment, then surely I would talk unexpectedly in spurts, too, in the upcoming days.  Expecting the unexpected was like... sitting in a burning cabin with fire surrounding you, and you sit there silently pondering whether someone would save you or not.  There were two ways the road could lead to, and I wasn't sure which to take.  Of course.

Each movement I was bound to make would lead to the end of the endless labyrinth I was in, and at the end would be the lessons—or lesson, the witch could have been tricking me into having to learn more than one lesson—I needed to learn, and the road back to the kingdom.  Slowly, my lids drooped, and I was forced to fall asleep with the thought of a lot of things.

author's notes.

waaaaah, Prince can talk?!  omo, we'll see in the next chapters if it continues c; anyways, hello loves!  i'm sorry i couldn't update yesterday, i was at a sleepover and i just came home today (it's Sunday here).  i hope you guys liked this update ~ i love you all, and happy easter!  ^^

-