1:30 am

Erika unlocked the door to the apartment. She ducked her head. Her father was still awake. Perfect. She closed the door and walked lightly to the kitchen. “Appa?” Her father was sitting at the table drinking some Tiger Beer. Erika saw him and tears started to appear in her eyes. He looked up at her startled; he hadn’t expected her home for another hour. She walked over to him swiftly and hugged him. “Appa, I love you. I don’t regret moving away from England to live here with you.” He was shocked and nearly spit out his beer as she held him. Putting the beer onto the table he put the other hand on her back and returned the unusual hug. Erika had been so rebellious. Staying up all night and clubbing. Failing her tests in school. Refusing to even be in the same room as her father. It was all her way of saying she didn’t like being in Korea away from her mother. What had changed her attitude?

10:36 am

You breathed slowly. You were in a happy place. The surgery to stitch up your arm had taken forever. After they splinted and caste your arm you were left in the ER while they monitored your blood pressure. When some nurses moved you to another room it had already become daylight. You didn’t like nighttime. The room was white. You were alone, but the constant beeping of your heart let you know everything was real. It wasn’t some strange trick that NIGHTMARE was playing on you. Safe, alive, protected, awake, in the day.

Your mother and father were sitting by your bed when you woke up. They were concerned. You had gone up to your room and two hours later you were in a hospital. They wanted to know what you had done to break your ribs and get shot at. You wanted to know what had happened to Jaejoong. With your insistent pressing they confessed that he had also been admitted into the hospital as a patient. He had several broken bones, from the falling, and he had suffered a light concussion, during the time you were being drowned by vines. He had refused to leave your side and had been dragged away by some nurses to his own room.

You were NIGHTMARE partners. You had fought through all that pain together. That was the only attachment. Comrades from the same war. You turned your head from your parents, not wanting to answer their questions. They wouldn’t understand. The feeling of being taken away somewhere and not having anyway to escape. It was a constant terror, what would happen next. The horrible feeling of wait. The terrible knowledge of knowing that someone had died. Constantly getting injured and getting your hopes up, hoping for the nightmare to end soon. Your parents wouldn’t understand. They thought you had snuck out and got into some fights. Yeah, in your pajamas.

4:16 pm

You smiled brightly to the doctors as you left. Recovery, success. Rehabilitation, success. Seeing Jaejoong again to thank him, phail. You hadn’t seen him at all in the last two months. You knew he lived near you, but you hadn’t seen him. Your parents refused to tell you anything else about him. You didn’t even think they knew anything. They thought you were some stalkerish daughter that had a thing for the neighbor’s son. You just wanted to thank him. You also wanted to talk to him. He was the only person that would understand how you felt about NIGHTMARE. Even if you could have met the other eight, it wouldn’t be the same. Seven of them died and Amara didn’t get a single scratch on her.

It was only Jaejoong that would be able to understand your feelings. Only he had been with you all the way. Only he had cared about you. He had saved you countless times. You had a debt tethering you together. You needed someone to spill your guts out to. The fear you held inside was growing and it threatened to tear you apart. The fear from the I staining your wrist. Like you would return. You wanted to feel safe with Jaejoong again. The smile you had disappeared as you entered the back of your mother’s car. You had started thinking about it again. Whenever you thought about NIGHTMARE you felt alone and powerless. You needed to see Jaejoong.

2:18 pm

How many Kims lived in your neighborhood? You looked at the long list and crinkled your nose. Why did he have one of the most Korean names? He just had to make it hard on you. You swore, stood up, and left. You had better chances just walking up to each house pretending to sell something while trying to see if the person that answered the door looked like him, or if he answered the door. You had many doubts of that working. If they weren’t home, if the people that answered the door didn’t look like him, if lived alone and didn’t answer, if he was adopted. You didn’t think he was adopted, so that never really bothered you.

7:02 pm

It was your third day of searching. You really had gone to every house and pretended to sell things. The houses that no one answered, you went back the next day. You were visiting a house for the third time, it really annoyed you, and why were they never home? Were they just not answering the door because they did like you soliciting? You banged on the door, hoping that someone would come. You waited five seconds before the door creaked open. He was there. Standing behind the door was Jaejoong. You smiled and took a step forward, but Jaejoong started closing the door again. You were shocked and quickly shoved your knee in the remaining space.

“Kim Jaejoong, what are you doing?” You pushed the door open with your not shot at arm. “You know I am good at opening doors. Don’t test me.” He sighed and stepped out, closing the door behind him. He sat on bench and motioned for you to do the same. Your face was calm, but inside you were a mess of hurt and anger. What was his problem?

“------, I don’t think we should see each other anymore.” Was he breaking up with you? That’s what is sounded like. You had never been dating. He was talking nonsense. “------, I have been reading things. I don’t think we should meet outside of NIGHTMARE. It is dangerous.” He was being serious. You shifted, not quite catching on.

“What have you read? What could you have possibly have read that would relate to NIGHTMARE? Is there some study about people having hallucinations and getting broken bones and getting ing shot? What is the problem?” HE shook his head, you weren’t getting it. Of course you weren’t, he hadn’t told you .

“I was searching online and I found out that this isn’t so exclusive after all. There are hundreds of people going to NIGHTMARE. They all said that they were allowed to live by someone getting vials and nearly dying in the process. Their stories vary after that. Some say that they would use of the vials to heal the hurt person while others kept them and didn’t give it to anyone that had died. There were also different numbers of vials, always only enough for the dead and not enough for the injured. The person that got the vials was injured in different ways, but flame, getting cut, blow dart, numerous things. The torture was different for everyone too. Some were locked away all alone and drove themselves insane. Others were thrown into space and exploded. I read a real gruesome one of a person being thrown into a pit of starving bodies and being eaten alive.”

“Jaejoong –.” He cut you off.

“They always went back. After that, they weren’t allowed to live. They were pitted against other groups of ten and forced to battle. Some died and never came back alive. The visits to NIGHTMARE were never the same as the first twenty-four hours. It was never that long again. The visits become more frequent as people level up. Leveling up is surviving to midnight. After leveling up the Roman numeral increased and the horror stepped up. -------, we can’t see each other.” He saw the hurt and fear in your eyes. “If we got to attached it would be a problem. Almost everyone dies. Of the hundreds that lived the first twenty-four hours, only a couple of complete groups remain. New groups are being made to join in and –.”

“Jaejoong shut up. Shut up shut up shut up. I don’t want to hear anymore of this. I’ll just leave.” Walk away. You didn’t want to live like this. Constantly in fear.

**************
The only reason Erika is mentioned is because she is the only other character with a story going on that I kind of threw out there. Amara and Dae are sort of storyless. And Junsu has been solved. Changmin is just a gamer and Yunho is sporty, but they have no real background going on. Yoochun, what up with him. I personally hate Haruka from my first description of her... even though she is Japanese... BTW, you didn't actually get shot by a gun, it just seems that way in the nightmare. The black shadow thing just went through your arm.

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