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Seething, teething! Frothing, it clamors, screaming with hot! hot! hot! It pops and bubbles, blistering her - his? - their? guts from the inside. Squirm and snap and bite but no, it doesn’t help! Can’t get out, can’t stay in, what to do? What to do, what to do, can’t bear it any longer, a hole in the stomach - the others howl and throw themselves at the rock-tree but it’s no use, no use. It hurts them! White light burns, the nose stings with fur and lightning and pain, and it hurts them, hurts - hot! hot! hot!

Something flops over the rock-trees, all sour and off like it’s nastied itself, and the others shriek over it, slashing for a chance at relief from the hurt inside, and she - he? - they? shrieks along because hurt! hot! need to snap a piece of the stinking grey-green nasty to stop the burning bubbles, and all that matters is the screaming emptiness inside that scours the throat and tears at the belly, and wet! hot! red! the nasty slides down the tongue. Can’t get out, can’t stay in - hot! hurts! What to do, what to do?

The clamminess of soaking in a pool of her own cold sweat jolted Jandi awake. Oh God. She reeled, dizzy and struck immobile by the ringing in her ears and head. Oh God, oh God, what was that? It was pitch black in the room, as always, and chilly, and the sickly sweet stench of the flower arrangements leftover from the dinner party plugged her nostrils. Can’t breathe.

She swallowed convulsively and shut her eyes, forcing her lungs to fill and press out on the bone prison of her ribs. Inhale. Exhale. Just focus on the breath. With her eyes closed, she felt a little better. She’d rather face a natural darkness from the backs of her eyelids than the artificial blackness that smothered their room, at any rate. With the extra oxygen clearing her head, her breathing evened out slightly, and the ringing in her ears thinned out into a hollow buzz.

Am I going crazy? Jandi closed her fists around the sheets. That dream… I haven’t had one so vivid in ages! It was odd - usually she at least had some idea of what was happening in her dreams, but this time she didn’t, and already the details of the dream were starting to slip from her mind.

I must be stressed, she decided, finally opening her eyes as her pounding heart calmed. More stressed than usual, with Namgu being as dangerous as it is and all the new information about the Midnight Railway and the Golden River weighing down.

Their imminent departure from Namgu couldn’t come soon enough for her - while she would miss Raina and hated the idea of leaving her with Jeongmin, something about the city made the back of her neck prickle no matter where she was at what time of day. She knew it was taking its toll on Kyungsoo too - for all his feigned confidence and ease, she’d spotted the tightness near his eyes and the way the tension never left his shoulders.

Another shudder ran down her spine. It wasn’t normal for Kyungsoo to be so nervous, so out of control. One of us needs to have some semblance of control over the situation, and it’s certainly not going to be me.

Not without the radio, at least. Grimacing, Jandi almost wished she hadn’t left it at the Do mansion, just so she could pretend she had some way of knowing what was going on. It had taken her several days to decide before their departure for Namgu, but ultimately she’d concluded taking the radio on tour was too great of a risk - staying in the same room as Kyungsoo meant she wouldn’t have the opportunity to use it anyway, and the servants were constantly packing and unpacking her luggage. The chances of being discovered were far higher on tour, and Jandi couldn’t risk losing her only source of information. Not now.

Something rustled outside her window in the stale blackness, and she jolted upright, heart pounding. What was that? The sheets, soaked in sweat, clung to her skin, and she peeled them off with a shudder. A spy? Could it be one of Jeongmin’s people? Her mind raced, the clammy sweat returning with a vengeance. Did he find out Raina talked to me? Is he trying to kill us? Hurt Kyungsoo?

Trembling, she gathered up her courage, pushed the bunched-up sheets off her lap, and stepped out of bed.

“Arrghh!”

Eyes wide, Jandi squeaked in surprise and tripped over the warm body she’d just planted her foot on. With a nasty thud and a jolt of pain to her poor elbow, she landed half on top of the body, half on the floor.

“Ow,” the body groaned under her, then rolled over, dumping her fully on the icy floor. “What - Jandi?”

Now nursing her bruised elbow and cringing away from the floor, she managed a whimper. “Ouch.”

“Jandi, wha - what are you doing there?” Kyungsoo groaned again, then rubbed at his eyes and propped himself up on an elbow. “Are you alright?”

“What are you doing there?” Her voice quivered. “Who said you could sleep there? And why aren’t you in bed, and why did you have to be right there, and why is it so damn dark in here, and -”

“Jandi?” He sounded more awake now, and a note of alarm was entering his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“Everything’s wrong!” Maybe she sounded childish, maybe she sounded ridiculous, but she couldn’t stop herself, and now she was gasping for air between sentences and choking on the suffocating darkness. “First I had this awful dream, and then I heard something outside