Seunghyun felt weightless like he was floating upon the ocean and drifting away.  It was so nice. 

Peaceful. 

He tried to recall where he was and what had happened, but his brain was running like an old computer, so slow to start that he gave up trying to think about anything. 

He could see light through his eyelids, but he didn’t want to open them.  He didn’t want to come back to the world just yet, if that’s where he was.  No, he wanted to just keep drifting awhile longer in peace.  And that’s what he did, fading in and out of consciousness as the waves carried him out to sea.

There was a dull ache in his shoulder.  He thought he should know why it hurt but he couldn’t find the memory.  As he drifted on the pain lessened, so he put it from his mind. 

Occasionally he heard voices nearby.  When he first heard them they were frantic and concerned, but he didn’t understand why.  As time went by, they became less so.  Most of the time it was quiet. 

Sometimes he heard a TV on.  He could hear the laughter of a variety show, every once in a while a drama or a movie, but he paid little attention to it.

Someone was holding his hand as he drifted.  They were gripping it hard and try as he might to grip it back, he couldn’t do it.  The connection jus wasn’t working properly. 

He thought he heard his mom and could only wonder why she sounded so upset.  It was peaceful here, why was she so sad?

“She wants to let him go.  I understand her thinking but…”

Jiyong?  Seunghyun thought his voice sounded odd.  Strained, as if holding something back that he didn’t want to let loose.  Why was Jiyong here? 

“If that’s what she wants, there’s nothing we can do.”

Seungri, too? 

Seunghyun continued floating on.  He felt as if the end was coming, that he was reaching the end of the world. 

He hadn’t heard anyone in a long time.

Someone was holding his hand.

“Hyung, if you can hear me, you have to wake up.”  They were squeezing his hand so tight.  “If you don’t wake up…just…you have to wake up.”

Something wet hit his hand.

There was nowhere left to drift to.  Seunghyun had reached the end and he knew what that meant.  He was a little disappointed that there was no bright light, no tunnel, no angels to accompany him to wherever he was going next.  He just knew that when he was ready, he could go and that would be the end of it.

“Seunghyun?”  Someone was holding his hand again.  “We’re here.  I don’t know if you can hear us, but…we wanted to say goodbye.  Everyone’s here.  It’s me, Jiyong.  I’m sorry things turned out this way, I…” he didn’t finish and suddenly his hand was gone.

“It’s not your fault.”  It took awhile for Seunghyun to place that voice.  Youngbae?  “We hung on long enough.”

Someone else was holding his hand now.  It felt familiar, too, but like Youngbae’s voice, he was having trouble placing it. 

“I don’t want to say goodbye.”  This voice was quiet, barely above a whisper.  “But I have to think that letting you go is better than letting you stay like this.  If you can’t come back to us, then...I have to…” he felt soft lips brush against the back of his hand.  “I love you, you know.”

Daesung?  Was that…?

Suddenly Seunghyun felt himself sinking.  The peaceful place he was in fell into darkness as he sank into the depths below.  He was fighting to breathe in the stifling darkness as everything came back in a torrent of memory and emotion. 

He was kicking for the surface as it all rushed back.  The end of the world, the monsters, the blood and the pain.  He was sinking into the abyss as the memory of Daesung plunging a knife into his chest came back to him.  Seunghyun tried to scream but he had no voice. 

And just as he thought he was going to sink down into the depths of hell, his eyes snapped open and every painful memory came back to him in excruciating detail. 

Seunghyun blinked in the harsh fluorescent lights as panic settled into him.  He was still alive.  It wasn’t over.  A million questions flooded his brain.  Where was he?  What had happened?  How was he still alive? 

He struggled to sit up, to move, to get out and escape, but he was connected to too many machines and wires.  Besides that, his muscles were stiff and protested against the sudden movement.  But it didn’t matter because when they realized what was happening, he found himself wrapped up in several hugs.  Daesung was crying on his shoulder.  Seungri, too, sobbing just as much if not more than Daesung.  Jiyong stood next to the bed fighting back his own tears, while Youngbae was trying to gently, but firmly pry the two youngest from Seunghyun. 

“What happened?  What’s going on?”  He was shocked to hear his own voice come out low and hoarse like he hadn’t used it in months.  “Why are you all here…?”

“You don’t remember?” Jiyong asked.  “Nothing?”

Seunghyun stared at them all.  “We were…the world was…everyone was gone.  Everyone died.”

“First of all no one died.  You just woke up, you’re confused that’s all.  Maybe we should get a nurse,” Jiyong said, giving a worried look to Youngbae.

But Seunghyun was persistent.  There was no way that was all a dream!  Aoi and the others?  A figment of his imagination?  The end of the world?  Those people?  That woman?

“We killed each other,” he said quietly, more to himself than to any of them.  “We died.  We went mad and we…you don’t remember any of it?  The world ended.”  he looked frantically to each of them, but they only stared back as if he was man gone insane.  They didn't believe a word he said.

Daesung gripped his arm lightly.  Seunghyun stared at him, calming slightly as he looked at his face, getting lost in his dark eyes that were full of love and sympathy and concern. 

“Hyung, the world is still here.  There was an accident.”

“Accident…?” Seunghyun echoed the words, trying to recall any memory of an accident happening. Nothing came to mind.

“Car wreck," he continued quietly.  "We all got banged up, but you…the other car hit your side.  They said you hit your head pretty hard but that you would be fine and wake up.  You never did.”

“There was blood everywhere.  A piece of glass the size of my hand went through your shoulder, too,” Jiyong added.  “Doctors said you’ll always have a scar.”

Seunghyun looked at his shoulder.  Glass?  A car wreck?

“That’s impossible…”

“You’ve been out for a year, man,” Seungri said.  “Of course you’re a little ed up in the head.  I think we should call that nurse.”  Youngbae nodded and slipped out of the room.

Seunghyun looked at Daesung, desperate and pleading.  “You don’t remember any of it?  The world ended.  It wasn’t glass, I got shot, don’t you remember?  You saved me!  And then…we killed each other,” he whispered.  “Jiyong and I…and Seungri…we’re dead.  This isn’t real, we’re dead, Daesung, we’re ing dead.”  Daesung wrapped him in his arms, looking to Seungri and Jiyong for help but they were just as confused as he was. 

“It was a nightmare, that’s all,” Daesung tried to soothe him, but it didn’t make Seunghyun believe it any less.

They stayed that way, quiet until the door opened with Youngbae and the nurse.  She smiled as she stepped into the room and walked over to check Seunghyun and the machines.  Daesung moved aside for her, but still kept hold of his hand.

“Wonderful to see you awake.  Your mother will be relieved,” she smiled and for the first time Seunghyun looked at her, only to feel a chill go up his spine.

It was her.  The woman from the subway that had haunted Seunghyun all through his nightmare. 

 “Oh, would you look there,” she said, suddenly picking up the remote for the TV that Seunghyun hadn’t even realized was on mute in the corner.  “I like this band.” 

Seunghyun stared in horror at the screen to see Aoi and the others in a music video.  His hands started shaking almost violently when the camera gave a closeup of Aoi’s face and he could have sworn that he was staring straight through the TV at Seunghyun, eyes begging for help.

“I’m in hell, aren’t I?” he whispered.  “It all happened, didn’t it?  We’re all dead.  We’re all in hell.”

Her thin lips stretched into an dark smile.

“Well, it’s certainly not heaven, is it?” 

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End.

It's a cop-out really.  Or is it?

If you know the original Twilight Zone, I think you'll see the influences (like the world going dark).  I like those kind of things.

But that's all she wrote. 

I appreciate all of the support, I really can't believe anyone enjoyed this except myself.

I would like to write more and finish some other fics like Stray.

Anyways, thanks for sticking through the years and enduring my long update wait times.  I doubt it was worth it, but thanks!

<3