I WILL EDIT THIS AGAIN 

            Reality hit her all at once as she lost her breath and jolted up from the bed with such a start that her head started throbbing. Kyungsoo was gone. Habaek was gone. The palace, the guards, the strange dream-like city…gone.

            Panic seized the mermaid. Screams left her dry lips while her voice cracked and screeched as she clung to her hair and curled up into a ball. Pain took over her body that pierced everything inside of her like knives, cutting her from the inside out. She felt everything but at the same time nothing. The numbing serum wore off and the world—the reality—of her condition hit her. She was not okay. She was dying, a slow painful death that didn’t have any comforts or cushions to ease the pain.

            “Taura!” A million voices seemed to call at once as the door to her room burst open and hands held down her arms and legs, applying a pressure that made her feel worse. She screamed out, tears blurring her vision. She could not see the people around her, but made out the faces and heard familiar voices. They all seemed to blend together in the dark. Was this even real?

            What was happening to her?

            She couldn’t distinguish what her mind had dreamt up and what was actually happening. Kyungsoo felt real and this didn’t. She felt pricks in her arms and leather at her ankles that restrained her from moving. Her screams and cries had died down, was dry and her stomach was empty. She felt tired again.

            Taura. Taura. Taura. How many times did she hear her name be called out in the dark in different directions from different mouths? She didn’t know but it got her chanting her own name under her breath that had people stop and ask if she was okay and that she needed to listen.

            Listen to what? No one had told her anything. Did they? Taura’s breathing grew heavier as she felt pressure in her chest and made it hard to catch a breath. Her hands trembled when she felt something warm intertwine with her clammy fingers. It’s okay, it’s going to be okay, she heard someone say, you’re okay.

            She clenched the person’s hand when her eyes grew wide when they adjusted to her dark surroundings. She began to see faces. Talya. Kai. Doria. Lay. The King.

            Sehun.

            His absence weighed more on Taura’s chest than the presence of the people around her. Where was he? Her eyes frantically searched the confined and crowded room but his blonde hair was nowhere in sight. She shuddered and stared openly at the man holding her hand, Where is he?

            Sehun. Sehun. Sehun.

            His name leaving Kyungsoo’s lips, she could hear it as if the deceased male w