A/N: i went through and edited it. i noticed that there were A LOT of typos :( half of it being due to the fact that i had the most difficult time transferring the chapter from my writing app to this. so there is no new content except the image and correcting of the spelling for those who have read it already :3

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A whisper is in my head. A voice calling to me.

...........

Words that I can't make out. Everything is just dark now with swirling colors. Like a blank dream-land. The swirling colors in the darkness become more violent as I feel myself being shaken.

"Laime~" I hear the voice gently. "Laime---" With each shake I feel.

Stillness. 

My eyes slowly begin to open to a dark sky scattered with tiny white lights....and a dark figure hovering over me. My instinct would have been to lash out, but I can tell I'm still a bit in lala land. 

"Wake up." the voice is no longer gentle and unfortunately recognizable to my ears.

Leaving lala land and remembering where I am, I roll my eyes and sit up off the hard, cold ground. When I get to my feet I raise my arms over my head to get a stretch. It was me up but then I start to feel an irritating tingle in my nose. 

A sneeze. The loudest sneeze I've ever heard in such quietness. A sneeze that makes my sides hurt. I sniffle my nose a bit to stop another sneeze from coming. 

No luck. A torrent of sneezes escapes me one after the other taking the energy of that stretch away from me. Making me cringe from the pain on my sides.

"I think I'm getting sick." I manage after the sneezes. "It's so cold."

Silence. Nothing but his still dark figure in the woods. Then with a soft snap a flicker of light appears in the darkness. A tiny flame in the palm of his hand illuminates the little area around us. Also illuminating his face. 

Right then I get this odd feeling and a smile pulls across my face. A very feint one, but enough for me to tell it's there. That moment from my dream, when the faces next to me became clear, floods back to me. The one next to me who made me feel safe was...him. 

Immediately, I drop the smile from my face and look away. 

"Okay, where do we go now?" I ask quickly to clear my mind.

He doesn't speak, just turns and continues on in a direction. Like before I follow at a distance behind him. I quickly realize when I drift too far behind when the warmth of his fire starts to fade away. After some time I find myself keeping pace with him just to stay warm.

The darkness soon turns to a warm orange color as the sun rises. With this light the woods are clearer to see and I don't have to worry about tripping over branches. It's still as thick as ever. I stop thinking of the clear view when the flame, that was keeping me somewhat warm, goes out.

"Finally, sunlight." Chanyeol sighs in relief and places his hands in his coat pockets.

"Why did you stop the fire?" I demand unhappily.

"It's day time." he answers in an obvious tone as if I'm stupid or something.

"I know that." I defend myself feeling offended. "I'm cold."

He scoffs and rolls his eyes at me. "I didn't have that fire to keep you warm."

 "Well, you don't have to be a jerk about it." I snap back smartly. Even though I sound strong, when he said that there was a sharp pain in my chest.

We continue walking to what I presume to be nowhere. With me sniffling and sneezing uncontrollably. I'm definitely sick because of sleeping outside in the cold. But I don't complain to him about it. I don't need any of his smart replies. 

"Will you stop sniffling?!" he shouts over his shoulder to me.

"I can't help it." I reply with another sharp and quick sniffle. "I'm freezing."

"Oh, stop complai---" he spins around, ready to reprimand me, but stops mid-sentence.

The look on his face is shocked. With wide eyes yet still able to frown slightly.

"What---?" he says lowly as he comes towards me.

"What? What is it?" I ask with a frown of my own.

"Your face...your skin..." he starts and stops.

"Spit it out! What is it?" I ask frantically.

"I think you're infected with something. You're face...there are blue veins traveling up to your eyes. You're skin is...grey."

"Huh...?" I give him a confused look.

"Look at your hands."

I do just that. I gasp as my eyes go wide at the sight of my hands. A sickly grey color with blue veins stripping up them.

"What is this?" I ask even more frantically, raising up my sleeve to see that the color and veins continue. I sneeze and in the process feel as if a rib has crushed in to me. I grimace and grab at my sides.

"Wait." he says and pulls my hands from my sides. In a quick second he grabs the bottom of my shirt and lifts it up.

"Hey!" I shout and drop my hand hard over his head causing him to release my shirt. "What are you---?"

"No! There's something there!" he complains to me, pointing at my stomach.

An expression of confusion as I look down at my shirt. First I see that the shirt is really dirty and in need of a wash. Then I turn my attention to the six tears in my shirt. Three on each side where that thing had a hold of me. Around the opening it's black. Not a dirt type of black though.

Without thinking, I lift my shirt to see the area around those scratches, and the scratches themselves, to look even worse. The six gashes are covered in this disgusting looking black stuff. Around that it's a dark red where those blue veins begin to branch out over my body.

"Wh-What is this?" I ask in a voice barely louder than a whisper, feeling light headed.

"I think you've caught an infection." he concludes. "It's bad."

I give a dry and hysterical laugh. "Really?"

"You are human after all." he starts, looking closely at the infected area. "There's no telling how dirty those things claws are. They do everything with them. Things you wouldn't want to know about and is enough to cause this."

"What do we do?" I ask, dropping my shirt, not wanting to look at the area.

"There's not much I can do." he shrugs helplessly. "I didn't learn about the herbs as well as the others."

"So am I supposed to just die?" the strength coming back to my voice.

"Don't be dramatic." his tone changes from concerned to his usual harsh tone. "I'm sure you'll be fine. It'll wear off."

"This? This will wear off?" I gesture towards my sides.

The hard look on his face lets up to show a glimpse of a worried face. That is before it pulls back straight.

"Yeah. Most of your kind survive illness. They fade off after time, right? Like the common cold?"

"This," I point to my sides again, "is not common. It's not an illness. It's an infection."

"Either way, I say you'll be fine." then he turns and walks.

I look at my hands and arms one last time before following. Yeah, I'll be fine. I think to myself, trying to pick up his thought. But I can even tell that he isn't so sure that it will just go away. We'll just have to see. If I'm not alive in the next 24-36 hours then we will know.

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A/N: of course i didn't forget to put up the chapter. i had to take care of lots of things and just finished some class work. 

it's getting serious...no? (".")