Author's P.O.V

A tantalizing fear echoes through your sudden hollowness. The man was inches, in fact, much further away from you, passing much further from your brother. But why could you feel the foreboding danger and strike of power of the man?

His geniality shows through his poise and ends to the very tip of his shadow. He was a sophisticated connoisseur of everything and anything, but he was a cougar, brooding an amiable facade of urbane.

It was an image, you realize. A strong image of someone powerful but affable in terms of socializing and whatnot.

He was a real king.

Because a real king does not only have power and riches.

But also the ability to have two personalities in one and conceal whatever hell and heaven he was in.

The pair of obsidian stare at your form, no emotions, no expressions, just mere cold ice wisping with white smoke.

It isn't much long before a line of doctors and nurses come bursting into the open door, bowing their bodies in a curve to show high veneration to the powerful character stood by the side. And then they start dispatching to different stations on both of your sides.

Tubes, large and small come off your body, clicks of releasing valves and lock mechanisms fill the room. One attendant wearing all white plunges herself down under the bed as the locks of the wheels go with a distinct click and ring.

And then you find yourself being pushed outside a long corridor, endless walls of white fill your vision, trapping you in an illusion.

"I'll follow you!" you could hear your brother's voice, distant and unbidden.

Footfalls and heavy clicks of heels dredge throughout the hallway, pushing your bed out and to somewhere.

You couldn't protest nor speak, for the fatigue and anxiety conflicts with your confused thoughts. So you let them be, safety is no longer your priority. You knew you were already in danger, and it's starting now.

You weren't going to fight but you weren't going to give up either.

At last, you end on a path swerving to the right, they push you there and into a large hall where it was eerily quite and desolate.

One woman strikes through your vision, she was hurrily catching up with your bed as she latches at one of the metal bars supporting your sides.

She breathes in heavily and scoots closer and closer to somewhere down your body, you couldn't see what she was going to do. The people in white does not seem to notice.

You could realize now why, the woman was wearing their uniform and she does not seem out of the ordinary, she was like a regular worker doing her job by assisting a patient.

But it was better if you thought that way.

She wasn't aiming for anything other than your hand which was continuously lolling to and outside the cell of bars, with a quick motion she dips something into your hand and wraps her hand around yours as if to close it.

And with that, her latch releases, completely stopping her pursue. She stays behind with anticipation and drenched in perspiration.

The people in white push your bed into a van, an ambulance. The inside was clammy in all the right spaces, shelves of white are stuffed with medical kits, disorganized and implacable. A single short stick of a silver IV pole stood, flagging by your head.

Two people stay with you inside, seated in stoic faces. Their eyes were trained on you, watching you like a dangerous convict instead of an injured patient. They were of two opposite genders, one with emerald-blue eyes and one with dark raven.

It was hypnotic, the eyes that were doing nothing but riveting you. The car starts to move but they never remove the watchful gaze, but during the ride, they never touched you nor scoot closer to you.

They weren't perusing.

They were...just there.

And they made it clear that they didn't want to spark a blabber as they left a good amount of space for you, enough to make you feel lonely despite of the strangers' presence. It was the white plastered flooring that had been the boundary.

The car hollers to a stop as you hear the door in front slam to its frame and a shifting follows. The two main doors open as you get dragged out.

You hadn't noticed that the creamy, gold embossed walls of the palace had surrounded you once again and you were taken to a room as they transfer you to a plush bed.

The wound on your back pulsates as they move your body, torn muscles regenerating are flanking to your bruised bones inside, squishing and contracting.

The door gently closes with a click and you're left alone with your thoughts. You lay in the bed, floating in the mattress like a buoyant ball. And for a while, you were nothing.

Just existing.

Why did they bring you back?

Frankly, you were too focused on the thought of the king instead of thinking about your future. He wasn't the accommodating person like the one you met by the lake. He wasn't the person who gently pushed you on your back and guided you to your brother.

The lake.

From then on, everything went haywire. Odd and baffling things had pushed itself into the small bubble of your life. A little more and you'd pop from the fullness.

Squeezing your hand you squint at a sudden pain in your palm.

Holding it out you peruse the thing inside.

It was a paper, crumpled beneath mending, obstructing your flow of thoughts.

Paperback.

It was how it felt and look like. Pushing it up to your face, although restrained from the pain shooting like daggers behind you, you try your best to open the folded paper with a single hand.

Lines of nexus cover the words inside, acting as a background of the black inked sentence.

But it was the message that had alarmed you the most that had pushed every single problem back to your brain, alive and breathing like a monster breeding infectious viruses. Taunting you until you'd explode.

Inside said:

"No matter what happens, never let anyone see your back."

———

[A/N]
UNEDITED.
Scroll or swipe bitches, next chapter is up.