"I have two potions, the newest creations from my lab, and the only two in the world."

Lying on the couch with Kyungsoo, feeling his warm embrace all around her, Kai flicked the two delicate glass vials between her slender fingers back and forth. "The green potion is an antidote: it will neutralize all the residual drug in your body. Your reality and dream will never blur again. But we will also go back to being the enforcer and the criminal, two of the opposite ends." The emerald green potion glowed inside the transparent vial, with a small black label that read "AWAKE".

"Or there's the red potion: it's an extremely concentrated version of the Pillar. Remember how the original Pillar allowed us a minute of hallucination, which translated to a week of dream time? Based on the dosage of this new potion, we will be knocked out for about ten hours, which will give us more than 10 years of dream time." She looked up at Kyungsoo, her eyes glistening with hope."10 years! We can live in a blissful world without our pasts and responsibilities, a life of complete freedom together."

"So this enhanced version of the Pillar has not been tested?" Kyungsoo stared at the label on the red potion vial that read "ESCAPE", and seemed lost in contemplation.

"Correct, but the only side effect we've noticed to date from the Pillar has been the blurring of reality and dream; otherwise it's pretty safe and reliable. This is just a much more concentrated dosage of the same formula." Kai tried her best to downplay the hint of excitement in her voice. "So which one should we choose, Mr. Detective?"

After a long pause that felt like eternity, she heard Kyungsoo's low whisper. "Up to you, my Queen of Hearts. Whichever potion you choose, we go down the rabbit hole together."

Kai flashed him an alluring grin, and slowly opened the red potion. With one swift swig, she drank half the potion, and handed Kyungsoo the rest. "Well, you know I've always been a risk taker."

They woke up together in bed. Next to them were wide open floor-length windows, allowing a gentle breeze to bring in salty ocean scents mixed with the bright fragrances of tropical flowers. Kyungsoo and Kai smiled to each other in satisfaction. The great thing about the Pillar was that the dream scenario was always created by the user's own mind, under the influence of a flood of pleasure seeking endorphins. Hence every dream was a reflection of the user's ultimate fantasy, and could be changed on a whim.

And they began to live through many fantasies, scuba diving deep in the crystal clear ocean, bonfire and barbecue on the beach, visiting the quaint little neighboring towns... When they were tired of the seaside life, Kyungsoo and Kai teleported to glitzy metropolises all over the world, each with a unique culture to savor. With their bodies relaxed and their minds losing track of time, the two of them felt their past memories slowly slipping away in this boundless paradise.

But then Kyungsoo started to notice something was wrong from time to time. Kai would get a little quiet, and things would go awry in the dream world they created together. It started small, a sudden thunderstorm that cut their dreamy picnic short, or a few moments when they couldn't teleport at will. Kai always seemed frozen in thoughts for a while, and required Kyungsoo to physically intervene to snap her out of the trance. A peck on her cheek, a gentle back hug, it always worked and Kyungsoo could see the spark of life creeping back into Kai's pretty brown eyes.

Slowly Kai didn't want to leave the house anymore. They would look out of the window together, at a blurry non-descriptive landscape under an overcast or rainy sky. Despite Kyungsoo's various attempts of injecting joy and hope into the dream world, Kai started to mumble about her fears. She mentioned hating to kill bugs, and they began to notice roaches and spiders all over the house. Kai also described to Kyungsoo an instance in her childhood when she twisted her ankle while practicing ballet, and sure enough one of her ankles started to throb constantly with pain. The world seemed to be gradually closing in on them, with everything in it turning a bit more hellish as time passed on.

Kyungsoo tried to get out of the house on his own, but each time he would get lost in an endless fog and eventually circled back to where he started. He understood why: their minds were tied together in this downward spiral, so were their fates.

"Kai, what do you think is happening?" During one of Kai's moments of clarity, Kyungsoo asked the question he had been too afraid to ask.

"It's pretty clear, we took a gamble and lost." Kai avoided eye contact and spoke impassively. "While the Pillar itself doesn't have any particular side effect besides blurring worlds, our physical body out there might be getting a little too comfortable with the dream state. Not sure why I'm showing symptoms earlier than you, but my body is probably going into a coma."

"So.. what does that mean for us? What's next?" Kyungsoo held her and tried to seek some comfort from her warm soft figure, but the realization of what she's describing only added to the sense of horror that's slowing creeping into his thoughts.

"It means as my body and my brain continue to slow down in the outside world, I will eventually die. These hellish hallucinations we are experiencing may just be my mind's way of alarming me, a futile attempt at surviving. The only way to get out of this dream now is to use the antidote, but we can't physically do that in the real world." Tears started to well up in Kai's eyes, as she continued to look away.

Kyungsoo felt a wave of panic overwhelm his thoughts. It's only a matter of time before he would suffer the same symptoms. The words rushed out of his mouth before he could stop them. "I should've picked the antidote that day, Kai, I'm so sorry."

"You know that's not true, my love." Kai finally met his eyes, and all Kyungsoo could see was deep affection. "And I don't mind seeing it through to the end, as long as we are together."

Kyungsoo knew she was right. It didn't matter anymore what choices were made before, their love for each other never wavered, and they would be by each other's side until the very end.

So when Kyungsoo felt the whole world shake violently one day, as the house started to crumble, he ignored it and clutched onto Kai's frail body even tighter. Everything around him began to crack and burn, while Kai, now ghostly pale and constantly transitioning in and out of a deep trance, felt cold and immobile in his embrace.

His last memory of the dream world was being dragged away from Kai by a powerful force, out of the house and receding out of that world at a blindingly fast speed. Kyungsoo woke up choking and desperately gasping for air. All around him were the concerned faces of his police department colleagues, and medical response personnel.

"Thank god it worked!" The crowd burst into cheers and audible sighs of relief. A medical staff rushed to check his vitals.

"How did I wake up? Where's Kai?" Kyungsoo struggled to speak, and one of his colleagues motioned for him to relax.

"We followed you to this house, and had to knock down the locked door once we started to get concerned. You were already unconscious then, barely breathing and did not respond to all our resuscitation efforts. We saw this bottle and it was our last-ditch effort to revive you from the Pillar." The colleague showed him the half empty green potion bottled labelled "AWAKE".

"We were cautious and only injected half into your bloodstream. But the good news is, now we can use the other half on Kai and bring her out of unconsciousness also."

The words brought such relief to Kyungsoo it almost seemed too good to be true. He glanced at Kai's motionless body still lying on the couch. "So this nightmare is over? We will both be ok now?"

"Yes, we were extremely lucky to have found you guys on time..." The colleague's hopeful answer was cut short by the sudden shouting of the medical personnel attending to Kai. " Her heart just stopped beating! We need to defibrillate her right now, hurry!!"

A few more medical staffs bolted to Kai's side and started the defibrillator. Kyungsoo watched as they shook her lifeless body with electricity, and his mind started to race.

"It's not working, she's not responding to defibrillation!"

He ignored the panicking voices all around him, and started to desperately search through Kai's desk in the room until he found what he was looking for.

"Time is running out, let's use the left bit of antidote on her." Said the police colleague.

Kyungsoo screamed."Stop! No! The antidote will neutralize the hallucinant, but it may not bring her heartbeat back. It's too risky, you can't waste the only bit of antidote left." He held up what he found for everyone to see, a vial of the original Pillar. "I need to get back into the dream, and snap her out of her trance. It's the only way of assuring her body hangs onto life and has a fighting chance at receiving the antidote."

"No, Kyungsoo, the drug almost killed you just five minutes ago. If you take it again, we have no idea if your brain will ever self awake from the dream state. Plus, how do you plan on snapping Kai out of her trance when her body has already given up? If I give her the last injection, there will be none left for you. You may both be doomed...."

Kyungsoo took one last look at Kai, and calmed his thoughts as he opened the vial. "I have to help her, even if it's just a hunch, I won't let her struggle alone... Listen carefully, once I pass out, wait for a few seconds, then give her the injection."

There was no stopping him, as the familiar dizziness faded Kyungsoo knew he was back in the dream state again. He opened the door to the house, and saw that the inside had turned into an inferno. Blazing flames each collapsing wall, and the sounds of wailing and anguish filled the suffocating air. Deep in the middle of the room, was Kai, unconscious and curled up on the floor like a little forgotten child. Kyungsoo ran to her side and grabbed her into his arms.

"I'm sorry it took me so long to come back." He her long wavy hair, and wiped the tear streaks off her expressionless face. "But sweetie, you have to wake up now. We need to revive your body even just for a second, so the antidote can do its job. Please Kai, I beg you.. Please wake up before it's too late."

Kyungsoo could no longer tell if the tears he's wiping off was Kai's or his own. He clumsily kissed her cold lips and felt his heart sink with each attempt. It's too late, she's gone, in this dream and in the real world. And both their sparks will eventually extinguish without a trace, deep inside the rabbit hole. Kyungsoo knew this was the moment when he would finally give up, as the fiery inferno engulfed and consumed them both.

Then he saw Kai's closed eyelids flutter ever so slightly, and then she opened her eyes. "You always make me wait." Kai's soft whisper resonated in his ears, a small smile blooming on her face. Kyungsoo's held breath escaped in a muffled sob, as he clung onto her tighter. He knew neither one of them would be ready for what would happen next.

The infernal world started to tremble and shake again, as if an invisible force was trying to rip it into a million pieces. Kai's eyes started to open wide as she felt the powerful drag on her body. "Kyungsoo, what's happening? Where is it taking me? Please make it stop!"

Kyungsoo quietly loosened his grip on her, and felt his last murmur being carried away along with her quickly receding figure, before she disappeared into nothingness. "Everything will be ok now. I love you, Kai."

The quakes had finally stopped. The house had by now crumbled away, and Kyungsoo could see all around him, an endless landscape of fragmented ruins and dying embers from the subterranean flames. He gazed beyond the horizon for a while, and then slowly began to walk. He was unsure of his destination, but a glimmer of hope started to grow in his heart. Maybe he will find a way out of this desolate dreamscape. Maybe somewhere, some day, Kai will find a way to reach him again.