That One Moment

Prologue

Prologue

She hadn't even stepped onto the stage and yet she could already feel the hype of the crowd. Their energy was overwhelming and she poked her head around the curtain. Thousands of fans packed a room so full that people had to line up outside just to hear the concert. They were all here to see her.

  Her heart gave an anxious leap, but she forced herself to smile and relax. This happened every time she performed. The love of her fans always seemed to overwhelm her in an unexplainable way that warmed her heart and gave her an endless amount of butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

  "Are you all set?"

  She whirled around in time to face her manager, Dong Jin-ho. He was a thin man only slightly taller than herself, one whose stern expression never changed, although she knew he was a content person. She nodded, a smile lighting up her face. "Yes."

  He turned, giving a thumbs-up sign to the crew behind him. They all began getting the lights and sound ready as Kim Ye-rim took her place, center stage.

  "Yah, Ye-rim!" Dong Jin-ho called and she glanced his way. "Do your best today."

  She smiled back, her dark eyes sparkling as the curtains rose and the fans screamed even louder. This was it, the moment she anticipated every single time, the moment the lights blinded her, the music started, and everything around her seemed to stop, with no warning whatsoever. The moment where everything was as it should be.

  Except it wasn't, for that moment never arrived.

  Before  she could even put together what was happening, she heard several, unexpected gunshots, followed by what sounded like a thousand earth-shattering screams. Her heart dropped as the shots echoed in her ringing ears. She wanted to do something, anything, but she didn't move. She couldn't even breathe. All she could do was stand, frozen in place even as the crew came rushing over to her from backstage, all of them trying to figure out where the shots had come from and whether or not anyone had been harmed.

  Ye-rim wanted desperately to move, but her mind raced as dozens of unwanted memories came back, flooding her mind and tormenting her all over again. She felt someone grab her arm, but she wasn't sure who it was, for she felt like she was somewhere far away. She scanned the crowd, trying to see if anyone had been hurt, but the lights were still keeping her from seeing anything past the front of the stage.

  Before she could even react, the lights above her turned off entirely and she found herself in complete darkness, a hand cupping over her mouth. She tried to scream, but she no longer could. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew she should be getting out of there, but her fuzzy thoughts were soon overcome by first the numb feeling and then the blinding pain welling up in her side. Someone familiar was staring down at her in the darkness, smirking. And that was the last thing she remembered before her consciousness slipped away and everything went completely black.