It was all so disorienting.

My center of focus was completely thrown off, my vision fuzzy and my hearing impaired, like I was submerged deep  underwater. Still, I could hear the sirens blaring and was able to identify the colors of multiple first responder vehicles. Cries for help were thrown everywhere, but none from voices I recognized.

The pain was dull; I couldn’t feel it all. I knew it was there, lingering in all parts of my body, but I was so numb, so out of reality that it didn’t feel like it existed. As my senses slightly cleared up, a sudden ringing began, shrill inside my eardrums. I wanted to scream for help, to make it stop, but my mouth wouldn’t open.

I couldn’t speak.

In front of me, through the haze, I could see the airbag, deflated and crumpled against the steering wheel. I could also see glass shards, scattered everywhere around the dash and my seat. Trying to move my neck was hopeless. No parts of my body would cooperate with my orders. Nothing was working.

 Was I paralyzed?

Or was this death?

Starting to panic at the possibilities, I could sense my breath quickening, my heart ramming against my ribs with excessive force. It felt like I was in a mold of myself. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t move a muscle. Everything was numb, and some of my limbs didn’t even feel like they were there.

My eyelids, against what little power I had, began to close. I was too weak to make them open, and nothing was making sense. If this was death, why was it so weird? I had always had this depiction of a peaceful death, where everything was done quickly.

This was slow and excruciatingly bizarre.

Focusing on my hearing more than my vision, the muffled sounds of first responders shouting orders at each other and the sound of heavy metal creaking against moving. I tried to remember everything before the obvious car accident, but nothing was clicking. All I came to my senses with was fighting with Jongin… and then here.

“Kyungsoo!” the usually smooth, deep voice was now broken and crying. I briefly registered something touching my shouder, a hand, I supposed, but I was already too far gone, completely sunken into the black waters of unconsciousness, to recall anything else.

It was quiet. I felt like I was floating, the sky and everything around me completely pitch black. It was scary, yet curiosity hit me hard. I couldn’t move here, either, but suddenly, I was moving on my back, like a conveyor belt, into a white light. I could tell this was it. The white light was always the cliché sure sign of death according to every movie I had ever seen.

But I wasn’t dead.

This time, right after the bright light flashed, I was standing up. The ground was moving slightly above me, and the metal railings around the small walls and multiple buttons told me I was in an elevator. Sighing, unsure of where I was going, I looked down at my body. The sight was appalling. From head to toe, I was covered in large, purple and blue bruises and blood spatters. My clothes, the ones I had before the accident, were now tattered and missing pieces.

The elevator doors slid open smoothly, revealing a plain white room, completely empty. The door stood out, in the corner and the black hinges poking out profusely, but, otherwise, vacant. Hesitantly, I stepped out of the elevator, bewildered and reluctant of my actions.

The door burst open, startling me and making me jump as I turned to face whoever had opened it. It was a man. The figure had a tailored suit on his body, down to the silk baby blue tie in the middle of his chest. His lips were tight, his jawline defined and his hair a bleach blonde that almost matched the wall.

It could only be one person, someone I hadn’t seen in months.

“Sehun?” I asked in disbelief. This had to be heaven; Sehun had died from the exact same thing as me so long ago. Jongin still went to his grave to talk to him sometimes. Bowing deeply to me, Sehun had an amused, almost peaceful smile on his face.

“Hello, Kyungsoo. I didn’t think I’d be seeing you around here anytime soon,” he mused, intertwining his hands in front of him. “That was a pretty nasty accident down there.  You hit your head quite hard. Hopefully your memories transferred here. I’d hate for you to lose them.”

I hadn’t forgotten anything, which I guessed was good. “They’re here,” I assured him, but something else was bugging me. “Where… exactly… am I?”

“Why, you’re dead. I don’t think you should be, but you are.”

The realization hit me hard. I was dead, never to return back to Earth. This wasn’t fair… no… “There has to be a way for me to go back,” I asked frantically, panic bubbling in my throat. “I’m not done doing what I want. Please. I can’t be dead!” I cried, begging now.

Sehun looked me up and down. “You know, when you come here, they give you a soul. You can use it to revive anyone you want. I expected to use it on someone like my mother, but… I can see how happy you make my best friend every day. It’d be cruel to take you away. And while they’re in surgery and trying to fix your injuries right now, Jongin is crying his eyes out as they wrap up his broken ribs.”

“Is that all that’s wrong with him? Broken ribs?”

Sehun nodded. “He got lucky. And so did you, because I’m giving you this soul.” He reached his hand into his pocket, pulling out a faded white marble, holding in his palm like it was the most precious thing he had ever touched. “Take it with you on the elevator, and you’ll wake up in the real world.”

Taking it carefully, I couldn’t express how grateful I was to Sehun for giving me a second chance in reality. I rolled my hand into a fist, carefully protecting the soul with my knuckled. “Thank you, Sehun. You have no idea how thankful I am.”

Sehun only nodded, smiling for the first time I’d seen. “Go make my buddy happy.”

I was about to step out of the bright white room, when another question came to mind. I turned around. “Hey, Sehun?”

He raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”

“When Jongin talks to you at your grave… can you hear what he says to you? Because you don’t respond,” I explained, honestly intrigued by his answer. I wouldn’t tell Jongin, though. Not about any of this.

Sehun grinned, his eyes crinkling. “Yes, every word. Now go. I don’t want to see you back here for a long time, understand?”

“Yes,” I replied, nodding for emphasis.

“Oh, and, don’t break up with Jongin, or this will have been for nothing. Got me?”

I nodded with a smile. We exchanged our bids goodbye, and I quickly got on the elevator, my view of Sehun cut off by the metal doors breaking our gaze. Ecstatic that I was going back to where I belonged, I waited for the white light to claim me and pull me into reality.

~*~

“Doctor! Dr. Sung! He’s waking up!”

The first thing I noticed as my heavy eyelids slid open was the amount of thirst I was experiencing. My throat was parched. I could tell that my head was wrapped in something, probably gauze, as the parts hanging into my forehead itched. The walls were white, and the beeping of a machine nearby was steady.

I was once again reminded that I hate hospitals.

As I turned my head, I was aware of a medically dulled pain throughout my body, starting at my head, the sorest point. But it was easy enough to push aside. My hospital gown was grey with blue diamonds all over, and on my hand was a thick IV leading to some fluids. Squeamish, I hid my hand under my blanket and focused on the figure rushing through the door.

A man in thick, square glasses and balding hair stood over me, a white coat with his name sewed in holding all of his pens and necessities. He pulled a light out of his pocket and roughly pushed my eyes open, flashing the light in and making me uncomfortable. “Pupils look good,” he muttered, now looking me in the eyes. “Hello, I’m Dr. Sung. You’re in the hospital.” As if I hadn’t figured that out already. “Can you tell me your name and age?”

This was an easy question. I opened my mouth to speak, but my tongue was sealed with how dry my mouth was. Seeing my struggle, Dr. Sung muttered, “Ryeowook, water,” to the curiously peering figure behind him in lighter scrubs than his obvious boss. His cheekbones were high, his hair cropped short, and he looked anxious beyond belief.

“Got it!” he squeaked, quickly pulling a cup of water with a straw off of the nightstand. He slowly brought the straw to my lips where I gulped down the refreshing, lukewarm drink. When it was half empty, the boy named Ryeowook set the cup down.

Relieved at my ability to have a wet mouth, I answered his question. “My name is Do Kyungsoo and I’m twenty one years old,” I answered easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world. Naturally, it was.

Dr. Sung seemed pleased by that. He began examining the steadily beeping monitors next to me, quietly mumbling things to himself. Finally, he turned to both me and Ryeowook. “Well, his vitals look good, he seems to be recovering well already. Finish up here, Ryeowook. Replace his IV, make sure everything is in good shape.” Dr. Sung excused himself out.

Ryeowook turned to me, excitement glowing in his eyes. “I can’t believe you survived that.”

“What? The wreck?” I asked, bewildered.

“Yeah! Your head slammed into the side window and shattered all the glass. If they hadn’t gotten to you as fast, you probably wouldn’t be here…” he trailed off. “I watched the surgery they did to relieve the swelling of your brain, so it wouldn’t put so much pressure on your skull, and when you didn’t wake up sooner we thought you were brain dead. But you’re here,” he explained, completely immersed on charting the numbers on the screen of my monitors.

“And I look like crap,” I muttered, catching a glimpse of the bruises littering my arms. Ryeowook’s head perked up, and he laughed nervously, like he was working hard to assure me of something.

“Oh, those bruises will go away eventually.”

It was silent after that for a few moments. Finally, as Ryeowook wrapped up what he was doing, he smiled at me warmly. “Can I get you anything?”

That question dwelling in my head, I remembered my boyfriend, who had been in the car right next to me. If Sehun was right, he only had some broken ribs, so he probably could be mobile, right? “Uh, can I see Kim Jongin? I don’t know where he is but I need to see him.”

Ryeowook raised an eyebrow. “Is he family?”

“He’s my boyfriend… well, maybe,” I finished sadly, remembering the argument from just before the crash.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Ryeowook flipped up the papers of the chart attached to his clipboard, grabbing some more things of his. “Well, I think you need to get some more rest right now. You’re not in the best shape, especially not your head. I’ll try to go get him when you wake up in a few hours.”

“Thanks,” I mumbled, bummed I couldn’t see him now and tell him everything was okay. Even though the pain was slowly starting to emerge from the shield of painkillers, I knew that this would all work out. It was just a bad accident.

With a smile, Ryeowook left the room, and I settled back into my stiff bed, quickly falling asleep with the drip of medication flowing through my veins.

~*~

Happy now?

Are your tortured souls satisfied now?

Just kidding. :D Hope you liked this chapter! Please comment~ Thank you! <3