CHAPTER SIXTEEN

I jerked awake to find the doors to my balcony threw wide open and chilly breeze entering my dark room. I can't remember well if I did or did not close the doors last night.

Releasing a long sigh, I shook my blanket off away from me to close the balcony door but before I can do so, my crystal pendant starts convulsing and released a blinding light. It's also warming up that I had to take it off to prevent my skin from burning and throw it away into the floor. That never happened before, there are times that the pendant glows but not to a blinding point.

Slowly, the lights emitted by the crystal died and the jerking of it stopped. I waited for a matter of seconds before I went to fetch it from the floor and I saw that my once star-freckled pendant was reduced into a plain black stone. I even held it out against the light to ensure it but my stars were really gone!

Upset by the lost of my most precious gem, I went to the balcony to have fresh air and when I look up, the nightsky is clear. Not a single star can be seen twinkling up above, I swear, this is beyond saddening. I in another deep breath before deciding to finally close the doors. My stars have gone and even the sky is starless, is there anything more distressing than this? 

I've been waiting for you...

The dream that I had earlier came rushing back from my head. Taemin—Taemin was in my dream and those are the last words that he mumbled before I was torn off from my dreamland. Is it possible that my dream has something to do with the heating up of my pendant? Is there something bad happened to him? I don't want to think a lot of things especially the negative ones but what if, what if something is currently happening in Verboden? 

I've been waiting for you... 

I was busy contemplating on different possibilities that might have a connection with my pendant and the starless night but then I suddenly heard my sister Chorong screaming. It put me instantly into action and run as fast as I could to check up on her. Once I reach her doors, I tried opening it up but it's lock! I ram and ram my hands into her door, and shout her name but she won't open it up, my sister is still screaming and I could tell how frightened she is from her screams. 

"Chorong! Chorong, open up!" I anxiously said while banging into her door, then suddenly her shouting stops making me in a more serious state of panic. I look around and saw a servant approaching me so I shouted for her to get the keys to my sister's room, luckily the servant acted quickly. 

I've been waiting for you... 

Taemin's words in my dream is still echoing in my mind, it keeps repeating and repeating and it's making my head hurts. I need to open this door and see if my sister is okay. Gladly, the servant arrived and quickly give the keys to me. My hands are shaking, panic seems eating me up, it took me at least five tries before I successfully inserted the key into the hole. 

I've been waiting for you... 

Stop—I need to make those words stop from repeating, it's getting unbearable. I open up the door with too much force which made my sister yelp in surprise, there she is, seated on the floor with a wild look into her eyes. I run towards her, she's soaking with sweat. 

I've been waiting for you...

Finally, the words got reduced into whispers. I held my sister close and she clings into me as if there's something that is making her frightened. I tried shaking her but the wild look in her did not falters, I call her name countless of times and she only look at me when I tried calling her for the tenth time now.

"I remember everything," those were the first words that she mumbles after she get into her senses. "I remember all of it."

"What do you mean?" 

"The man—the faerie had trespassed from our home, Naeun. And, and he went to get you. He said that you killed one of her brother. Y-You went with him, didn't you?" 

​"B-But.." I didn't got the chance to answer because she continued telling me all her memories. 

"That faerie said that you should spent the rest of your life in..in V-Verboden. All these months there was no Seungwan, we have no cousin. You have been in the forbidden lands all along. Right?" 

"Yes.. But how did you remembered?" 

"I-I don't know. I'm asleep and then suddenly, all of those  things came rushing back into my mind. I screamed, I was frightened. I thought I was out of my mind but I realized.. I realized that those were really my memories."

"I'm so sorry, Chorong.. I have to do it. T-That way, I can ensure that you'll have a good life. I'm really sorry."

"I know, I know it all. I thought you'd been banished there, how did you escape?"

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