The Afterlife

16) A Leash on My Heart

(a/n: hi, hello
let me say just one thing before we go ahead, starting this chapter, you miiiiiight need to pay special attention to names, like real real special attention if you wanna keep track and understand everything, okay? Yeah? Les go.)

By the time Sihyeon had sight again, every inch around her was void of that which picked a fight with her blood; as if nothing ever happened, the hall was terrifyingly empty, and Sihyeon was doubting the sight she regained.

There was a hand where her heart was, and she slowly realised it was hers because the only other pair she expected to be touching her was around her from the back, locked and secure around her frightened body, and it made Sihyeon aware of how badly she trembled.

Nothing about her own fingertips looked real, and nothing about the rest of her body felt like it was hers to control. Not even the bed beneath her seemed to be holding still before the ruckus she faced, and Sihyeon was fighting to breathe.

"It is okay now," she heard Yeonjun tell her, but she had no idea how she went from the coldness of the tiles to the warmth of the hospital bed and his arms; she had no idea how amidst all that comfort she was still freezing from within, her teeth chattering and her lips quivering and her eyes watering, "please calm down."

One attempt to swallow had Sihyeon's stomach filling with rage, screaming at the attempt to give it visitors when it was so obviously burdened. It turned and twisted and inflicted pain like an eruption, and the only sound Sihyeon made was her own attempt to shut it down, to swallow back again the lump and sickness that rose to her throat.

Again, it hurt to just try, and Sihyeon's whole body inclined forward at once, both her hands rushing to hold her stomach to tame it. Sihyeon felt the pair of arms fly in response, too, and she saw Yeonjun right before her in an instant.

"Sweetheart," the frown made home of his brows, and every inch of his face spoke volumes of the worry he surely wanted to hide, but he, too, was sweating, and he, too, was in a cautious surprise, "breathe, please; it is all you need."

Sihyeon shook her head for an immediate answer, as if she had known to reply like that for months, as if she knew exactly what she would say and why, "I am seeing things," her hands squeezed her shirt as it clenched harder to her stomach, and her face twisted with the pain that rose to her chest, "I am imagining things; this- this cannot be true."

"It is okay," Yeonjun had little to do; he could only hope the sedatives that were given to her could help ease the tangled nerves, but Sihyeon was slowly falling deeper into a fit of panic, and it was messing with his head the most, "we can figure if it is together, so calm first."

"Yeonjun," Sihyeon had no time to acknowledge Yeonjun's words when Taehyung stepped in to join them, and her head snapped up his way without warning, without consent from herself, looking at him with eyes that lived for curiosity, eyes that seemed to vow to show nothing but fear and longing, and plea, "I just talked to her."

"Taehyung," Sihyeon was first to speak, and while her whole body revoluted at the new information, and while she fought to keep it still by tightening her arms around them, her eyes paid attention to Taehyung utterly, wholly, like he was all there was to the world, "what- what did she say?"

"They are your parents, Sihyeon," Taehyung nodded, but cautiously still; from where he was at the door, he pursed his lips before he spoke, and breathed heavily with what was to come from him, "they were never killed," the clench his had on his own fists spoke of his inability to believe his own words, but his eyes moved between Sihyeon and Yeonjun all the same, and he continued the rest of what he had prepared to say all the same, "they were kidnapped.