~Intro~

The steady hum of the car engine and the relatively soothing vibrations of the vehicle always soothed Luhan into a sense of ease. Watching the world fly past his window as they drove down the open roads, it never failed to bring a smile to his lips. Thankfully there wasn't a lot of traffic, so their journey was a smooth one.

"Hey turn up the radio. I love this song." Looking to his side, the young twenty two year old male smiled in amusement at his childhood friend.

"Why don't you turn it up? You're the one driving."

"Ah," His friend started, lifting a finger off of the wheel in emphasis. "But that's exactly the point. I'm the one driving and you know it's dangerous for a driver to take his hands off of the wheel. I wouldn't want to cause an accident now."

Rolling his eyes Luhan shook his head in amusement, soft brown hair falling into his vision at the movement which he quickly swiped away. "You've been driving for years, Ge, and you've never even been close to having an accident."

"Hey, don't jinx it!" The other laughed, the warm pealing sound echoing throughout the car and bringing a soft smile to Luhan's own lips.

"I'm not." The younger of the two giggled, his eyes crinkling into soft crescents. "But you know my point still stands."

"Yeah, yeah. Just turn the radio up will you? Before the song ends and I miss my chance to prove my amazing vocal prowess."

"Oh please, we both know that I can sing circles around you." Luhan laughed, but he still leant forward in his seat and fiddled with the volume dial until the song was blasting through the speakers. Immediately the two young men began to bob their heads along with the beat, opening their mouths to sing-a-long, unafraid to be as loud as they wanted to be.

It was summer, they were enjoying their free time away from studying and work and other stresses that being of the age they were tended to bring. Maybe it wasn't a real vacation with going to a new location and forgetting all of their troubles. But just driving back to the other's home town for a week of relaxation was more than enough. They were young, happy and they deserved to have a little fun, no matter how small.

The song soon changed to another but the volume remained at the strength they had set, the two males quickly shifting into singing along with the new song. And so they continued on for a few more tunes, and Luhan mused about how he hadn't felt so free and relaxed in a long long time. It was nice, to feel like this again, and he wouldn't have been able to wipe the contented smile off of his face if he had even tried.

At some point he had ended up looking out of the window again, his vocals fading down into a gentle hum, his friend doing the same as he continued to drive the car to their intended destination. The sun was beginning to set, turning the horizon a warm orange as the day began to merge into night. They were almost there, he knew. They had been driving for a while now, and he could even see the city in the distance. Soon they could stop and rest, ready for the festivities to start the following day.

Luhan must have dozed off or lost himself in thought or something similar for the next thing he knew he heard a loud curse from his friend before the car began to swerve. What was going on, the younger of the two had no idea, but he gripped onto the car door as hard as he could to avoid being thrown around too much.

He could hear someone screaming, and it took a while for him to feel the burn in his throat. Oh, so it was him. If the car hadn't been out of control, and he hadn't been holding on for his life, he would have felt the need to be a little embarrassed. Not that his screams could be heard above the brakes screeching.

His head impacted against the window and Luhan became dazed, no longer truly realising what was going on any more. He looked around but everything looked, felt and sounded like it was happening outside of a bubble which had wrapped around him.

Gradually though his senses began to return. And suddenly there was too much noise, too much light, and his head pounded with pain making him dizzy. His eyes only began to focus just in time for him to see the large red truck swerving into view. It was too fast. It was heading for them way too fast. They were going to...

There was a loud crunch of metal impacting metal and everything went black.

---

A quiet beeping was the first thing that Luhan was aware of. It was steady, repetitive and it almost lulled him back into unconsciousness. But a nagging at the back of his mind made him struggle through the bog that was his muddled state until he was blinking heavy eyes open.

White, everything was white, and Luhan was suddenly terrified. Where was he? What was going on? What happened?

He tried to move, to push himself upwards so he could look around better but his body wouldn't cooperate with him. It was just too stiff, too sore. Why? Why was his body in that state? Again that nagging at the back of his mind returned. He should know what had happened but he couldn't quite remember.

A rustling at the other end of the room caught Luhan's attention, not that he could really move to see what was going on. But he didn't have long to wait before a team of doctors and nurses flooded his vision. They buzzed around him like flies on a piece of candy, and the sudden barrage of voices only managed to confuse his already muddled mind.

One nurse though bent over him and deliberately caught his gaze. She had a friendly smile, not that it did much to quell the fear rampant inside of him.

"Ah you're awake, that's good... that's very good. We were worried about you, Luhan. You're in the hospital, do you know what happened?"

Luhan opened his mouth to try and reply but his voice wouldn't work. His mouth was incredibly dry and any attempt to wet his lips resulted in him feeling like he was on cotton or something.

The nurse, apparently, could see the fear and confusion in his eyes for she placed a comforting hand on his shoulder whilst the others continued to flit around him, checking his vitals and running basic tests on his body. "You were in a car accident. Your vehicle hit the front end of a truck and you sustained heavy injuries, especially to your head. You've been in a coma for the past year." She said, clearly trying her best to explain and yet still keep Luhan calm.

Car crash... Head injury... Coma... A Year... Luhan's eyes widened and his mouth fell open though no sound came out. Did he hear her correctly? Did she just tell him he had been in an accident that resulted in a coma? Did the nurse really just say that he had not only been in a coma but it had been for a year... A year!?!

He was still struggling to find words when the other doctors and nurses retreated. "Stats are fine. We just need to work on his rehabilitation now. Get him back on his feet. Get him used to eating solids again. The usual. We'll leave him in your hands Nurse Jia."

The friendly nurse, with apparently terror inducing information about how he had got there, gave the departing team a nod, only turning back to face him when it was just the two of them in the room. "Shall we sit you up?"

Luhan merely blinked at her. Sit up? He had just been told some horrible yet incredibly confusing news and she wanted to know if he would like to sit up? No, what he wanted was for him to wake up from this nightmare and be back in that car with Ling driving them to his home town...

Wait... Ling. He had been driving when they... when they had hit that truck. Oh no...

Opening his mouth, Luhan at his lips a few times, trying to moisten them enough so he could at least try to speak. "L-L..." He started, before pausing, taking a breath. "L-L-Ling...?"

"Ling?" The nurse asked. Luhan watched as recognition passed through her eyes and the smile on her lips was all the answer he needed. Ling was okay, she wouldn't look so happy if he wasn't... right? "Oh, that's the young man who you were in the car with, right? He's fine. A few broken bones and a mild concussion was all he sustained. You got the worse deal with your injuries than him."

That was such a relief. Ling was okay. He was alive and, Luhan assumed, healthy now. Relaxing into the bed, he finally allowed himself a breath. Everything was fine. Yes he had to get himself back on his feet and try to pick his life back up but after the accident that they had been through, they had both survived. They had been lucky, so very lucky.

He ran his tongue across his lips again, managing to swallow a very dry throat as he looked up at the nurse. "S-S-Sit u-up?" He asked, being flat out on the bed was starting to feel a little uncomfortable as sensation began to return to his limbs properly. And not being able to see most of the room was starting to get a little unnerving too.

"Of course." Nurse Jia replied, giving him another warm smile. Before she did anything else though she reached out and with careful hands she fluffed up his pillow. "We can't sit you up all the way yet, obviously. Your body is still too stiff for that. But we'll get there okay? I'll be with you every step of the way with your rehabilitation."

She certainly liked to talk a lot, Luhan thought, Ling would like her. Maybe he should introduce them to each other.

He nodded his head, the tiny amount he could manage without causing himself any more pain, in understanding and received a warm smile in response. "Okay then, let's raise you up a little at least. The ceiling can't be very nice to look at."

Luhan's own lips twitched at the edges, trying to return the smile but failing miserably as it made his whole face tense as if it was an elastic band being stretched too far. The nurse didn't seem to notice anything though and she began to hum quietly as she fiddled with what looked like a remote that was attached to his bed.

Soon enough Luhan felt his top half beginning to be pushed upwards ever so slowly. And he watched as the dull view of the ceiling vanished to be replaced with the actual room he was in. He guessed he could call this room his, he had been occupying it for a year after all, even if he had been in a coma throughout the whole time. He wasn't raised as far as he would like though, the nurse stopping the progression at thirty degrees, but it was better than nothing.

Immediately he began to look around, trying to take in as much of the room as possible as the nurse chattered in his ear about contacting his family to help him recuperate faster and about getting various people to come in and visit him since he wouldn't be discharged until the staff all thought he was well enough to not need their constant care. Luhan didn't really hear any of it, he was too preoccupied.

The room was a fairly decent size, especially for being in a hospital. He had been granted a room to himself apparently since there were no other beds there. That thought made him wince. A year's worth of hospital bills, including a private room for the whole time? That was going to be expensive.

The walls were white, like he had seen earlier, and aside from a vase of flowers in the window and a television hooked up in the corner of the room, there wasn't much else, bar medical equipment anyway. They had taken him off of the machine that had been beeping, but it was still in the room, along with a currently empty IV stand.

A flash of grey caught his eye, and Luhan glanced over to see what it was... but it was gone. Strange, maybe it was just a mistake in his still confused mind? Most likely.

Nurse Jia had moved on to talking about his meal plans. They would have to start him off with liquids still but they would gradually build him back up until he could eat a proper solid meal again. She was absent-mindedly his hair, but he didn't really mind. It felt nice, soothing. And he almost began to fall asleep.

Another flash of grey, though, brought him back to full attentiveness, and this time he kept his eyes focused. It wasn't long before he wished he hadn't though. A small grey figure, the shape of a young child probably no older than 6, was skipping around his room. He didn't have time to call out to her though before she skipped over to the wall and passed right through it...

What... What was that?

Luhan couldn't tear his eyes off of the patch of wall where the young girl had vanished. Was he seeing things? Was it all in his mind? What was going on? That... That couldn't have been real right? He was just confused, tired... he had just come around from a year long coma, of course his mind wasn't going to be working right yet. Yes, that was it.

Letting out a breath he didn't even realise he had been holding, Luhan was relieved to find that the friendly and over talkative nurse hadn't noticed the sudden tension within him. Good, he didn't know how he would have explained it otherwise.

He tried to focus on her words but his heart suddenly felt like it was thudding hard in his chest and he knew that if he had been able to raise his hands up properly that they would be shaking. He was afraid, and not because of the fact that he had been in an accident, or had been in a coma, or was currently in a hospital. No, he was afraid because of what he had seen.

Luhan could feel himself getting more and more anxious, and he was wary of looking anywhere but at the nurse. His curiosity though, the cause of many childhood accidents, got the better of him once again, and after swallowing somewhat awkwardly with his still dry throat, he looked back around the room.

Immediately he wished he hadn't, for his eyes locked on to yet another grey figure, only this one was a lot more intimidating and terrifying than the little girl. This one was tall, the size of a full grown man, and was big built. That wasn't what struck fear into Luhan's heart though. No, what did it was how the figure was completely covered in burns, with his skin peeling off in a most grotesque manner.

He prayed that the figure would pass through the wall and leave him alone, just as the little girl had done. But he wasn't so lucky. It turned, looking directly at Luhan and gave the most terrifying smirk that he had ever seen.

Everything around him blotted out except for the figure. He could no longer hear happy Nurse Jia, he could no longer see the startlingly white room. All he could see and focus on was the figure and his decaying skin.

"This one is pretty... maybe I'll take his face..." It said, it's voice low and definitely dangerous.

Luhan just stared at it in horror, beginning to hyperventilate as it took a menacing step towards him. He could feel small hands shaking his arm and a worried voice asking him what was wrong, but he couldn't react. Not with that man stalking towards him like a predator would it's prey. He didn't want to be prey though, not when he was confined to a bed.

He tried to convince himself that it wasn't real. This was all just a figment of his imagination. It wasn't real. But the fear was very much real, the panic was too and the anxiety.

And when he felt a brush of a touch through the bedding and on his foot, that was when he began to scream. That thing was real. It was real. And it wanted his face. It was going to kill him.

He tried to move, he tried to push himself up his bed, away from the peeling fingers of the burnt man, but he only succeeded in thrashing around. The nurse's loud voice was trying to get him to calm down, but he couldn't. How could he when that thing was there?

Tears ran down his cheeks, and his screams became more and more hoarse.

Nurse Jia must have called for backup for the room was full of more nurses and even some doctors. Their words all mixed together and Luhan couldn't understand any of them. He did see, though, how three nurses in succession just walked through the burnt man... They walked through him. Yet Luhan could still feel his hand on his ankle, the fingers slowly closing around his skin. His shrieks became louder and his thrashing more pronounced as he tried to escape.

"We're gonna have to sedate him." One of the doctors said, loudly above the din of the room.

No... No they couldn't sedate him. If they did that then the man would get him and take his face. No, he didn't want to die. They couldn't sedate him. Luhan began to thrash harder, trying to escape not only the burnt man but the doctors and nurses too.

His eyes briefly caught sight of another figure, this one dressed all in black. They were just stood there, watching everything calmly. They were tall, with blond hair, and they stood with their arms crossed over their chest.

They weren't like the burnt man. Their form was more solid, more colourful and though the doctors and nurses paid him no attention, Luhan knew that he was definitely in the room. He didn't feel as threatening but there was a darkness to him.

With his attention focused on the new stranger in the room, he barely felt the prick of a needle in his arm, nor did he notice the slowly deadening of his limbs as they succumbed to sleep. And with his eyes locked on to the endless black ones of the stranger, Luhan fell into unconsciousness once again.