chapter thirty / samship
Wake Up
(30)

I hear so many voices, all so frantic, but I can't make out anything they're saying. It's as if I'm underwater. I open my eyes, but it feels like there's a sticky film covering them, and I can only see blurred lights and moving figures before me.

Confusion sets in and mixes with panic. Where am I?

"Miss Yun? Can you hear us? Are you alright?" I still struggle to see, but I can see from the face mask on the person in front of me, I'm talking to a doctor.

My throat feels dry and I cough and sputter as I try to respond. I feel careful hands assist me in sitting up, and then a cup is placed to my lips. I take an eager gulp, but immediately start to choke.

"I- I don't understand. Where am I?" It feels like my throat is being ripped apart as I choke on my own voice.

"Don't worry, Miss Yun. You're safe now. You're back in the real world." The room spins around me and my heart sinks. I clutch tightly onto the bed sheets under me.

"What happened? Where're my friends?" I hear the heart monitor next to me start to beat rapidly, matching up to the thumping I feel against my chest and inside my head.

"Please, I know this is a lot to take in right now, but try to remain calm, I'll explain-"

"No! You don't understand," I panic, "we were all- we were all trapped. That man is going to hurt them. I have to go back, I have to save them!" I start to rip out all of the cords attached to me, the I.V fluid, the heart monitor, countless other things that did a number of different things to keep me alive for the past few months. A team of nurses all rush to restrain me. I try to put up a fight, but my body is incredibly weak from being bed ridden and not eating for so long.

"Wren! It's okay, calm down, sweetie." I freeze when I hear that familiar warm voice that I could only dream of for so long.

"Mama?" I look up to see her standing in the doorway, her eyes glistening and her bottom lip trembling. She quickly runs to the side of my bed and crushes me in her embrace. Her fingers tangle through my messy hair. She holds me so tightly and it feels too good to be true, her being here next to me like I've dreamed of all this time. I wonder if at any moment I'll wake up.

After a long moment of shared sobs, she breaks away to hold me at arms length and take in my appearance. A sad smile tugs on her lips as she tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. "I missed you so much, baby. I'm so glad you're okay."

Even though I had been working so hard to finally have this moment, sacrificing everything to be back in this world, all I feel is confusion and this gut feeling that something isn't right. "Mama, I have to get back to my friends. I need to know they're safe." Never would I have thought in a million years that I'd be asking to go back.

I see the gaming headset sitting on the table next to me. I reach out to grab it, ready to enter the virtual reality I had been trapped in to make sure my friends were okay. Before my hand could reach it, my mother was quick to stop me. "Wren, you can't go back. If you try to go in there I might never get you back. It's a miracle that you got out in the first place. You did it; you got past all of the bosses." She looks so relieved and proud, her face beaming though pearls of crystal heartache falls from her eyes.

I shake my head, my brows furrowing in confusion. "But we didn't. We still had a few bosses to get through, and now I'm here. This is impossible."

"If it were impossible, you wouldn't be here. Yugen broadcast the fight against the last boss across the world to watch. We all saw it, and we've all been waiting for you to wake up since then."

I drop my head in my hands. Having to process this new information is almost too much for my brain, and it hurts. "Why- why don't I remember that?" I try hard to focus, to latch onto a memory that should be there, but I might as well be chasing after the wind. "The last thing I can remember-" my skin goes cold as violent pictures flash through my mind like a distorted dream, fragmented by my own mind to spare me the worst of it.

I'm pulled back down to earth when mama gently places her hand on my shoulder, a concerned look on her face. "Maybe you shouldn't try too hard to remember. There might be things your brain doesn't want to remember right now."

"I need to remember! I need to know if they're okay." Without my notice, a tear slips past my eye and falls down to my cheek. Mama gives me a smile as soft and sweet as honeysuckle, and wipes the tear off of my skin. Her touch is soothing and I feel myself leaning into it.

"Don't worry, I'll make sure everything is okay."

I tried my best not to worry, just like mama said, over the past few days, but I just couldn't get rid of this nagging feeling that something was missing. I had been through so much to get where I am now, but it doesn't feel right. I should be happy, I should be relieved, but I only feel on edge. Mama says it's normal considering all the traumatic experiences I went through, and that's what I keep trying to tell myself. I just keep hoping that once I find my friends, things will finally feel normal. Maybe then I'll finally feel like I'm home.

It's not long after I'm released from the hospital that mama is finally able to contact my friends. I can't stop the tears from flowing when I finally learn that they're safe and made it back to the real world. I wouldn't be able to deal with the guilt if even one of them weren't here with me.

I expressed to mama how much I missed them, and that's when she told me they had all been making arrangements to travel to the states and visit us. It honestly didn't feel... real. Life feels so normal now. I guess I'm just having trouble adjusting to it after everything that happened. Maybe they'll understand how I feel.

Today is the day I'll get to see my friends. Life just hasn't felt the same without them, so when I hear my doorbell ring, I'm quick to run and answer the door. As soon as I see their faces, all of the walls I've had up since I woke up from the game come crashing down. I fall into Namjoon's arms and immediately I feel the others arms rushing to embrace me.

"I'm so glad your safe!" I blubber. My heart feels complete and for the first time since I came back into the real world, I finally feel whole. My mind isn't aching to pick up my headset so I can go back to them because they're here and they're safe and I have everything I need.

After our initial reunion, we go to the living room to talk. It doesn't take long for my curiosity to get the best of me. A puzzle piece in my life has gone missing and I don't know if I can sleep until I find it. "So do you guys remember how we escaped?"

The boys all give me quizzical looks and Taehyung even giggles. "Yeah, of course. Don't you?"

My lips form into a disappointed pout. "I don't. The last thing I remember is being trapped by the boss i-in Satsujin-sha." I mentally rebuke myself for stuttering. Why do I still feel paralyzed with fear when thinking of that boss? I find myself glancing at Yoongi. He seems to be the only person that seems visibly bothered by my mention of the psychotic man that tortured the both of us. The anger that shows on his soft features surprises me, and before any of us can say anything, Yoongi abruptly stands from his seat and stalks off into the hallway that leads to the bedrooms.

I give the other boys a concerned look, but no one else seems to share my sense of unease. I get up to go find Yoongi, but Namjoon tugs at my sleeve, stopping me from leaving. I turn to see him pouting. "Where are you going, babe?"

My heart flutters. "I'm going to go check on Yoongi."

"Don't worry about him, he's just grumpy because we woke him from his nap on the plane. Stay with me." Namjoon gives me his best pathetic, pleading face while tugging on the sleeve of my shirt.

I laugh and pull my arm from his grasp. "I just want to be sure. Give me a minute, okay?"

Namjoon almost looks hurt, but just gives a simple sigh. "Don't take too long." I wonder if he still doesn't trust me because of what happened with me and Yoongi. The hurt in his eyes makes me want to sit back next to him, and the guilt makes me want to forget that something is off with Yoongi, but just as much as I'm Namjoon's girlfriend, I'm also Yoongi's friend. Namjoon is just going to have to trust me.

I make my way down the dark hallway searching for him. I open the door to my mother's bedroom, but I find it empty. He's nowhere to be found in the bathroom, or the guest room. The only other room that he could be in is my bedroom, and for some reason the thought of that makes me feel nervous. I slowly open the door and peak inside to find him sitting on my bed, facing the opposite wall.

"Yoongi?" He doesn't even flinch at the sound of my voice, and he doesn't turn to face me. It's almost as if he was expecting me to follow him.

"Why have you been ignoring me?" He asks quietly.

"What do you mean? If anything, you've been ignoring me by locking yourself up in here."

"That's not what I meant." He shakes his head and stands up, turning to face me. The look on his face causes a chill to run down my spine. He points a finger to the gaming headset that sits on my desk. I feel paralyzed. "Why have you been ignoring me?" The air in the room goes cold and I feel like someone is behind me.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I lie.

Yoongi stalks up to me, his face heating up to a dusty rose. He closes my bedroom door and locks it. "You've heard me calling out to you the past few days, haven't you? I'm crying for help, but all you do is ignore me, Wren."

I shake my head, tears filling my eyes. "I don't understand. Why can't I remember? Why do I keep hearing voices?" I jump when I hear a knock on my door. I go to answer it, but Yoongi blocks my path.

"You can't remember something if it never happened."

"What're you talking about? If we never beat the last boss, then how are we back in the real world?"

The person on the other side of the door knocks louder. "Wren, are you in there?" Hoseok calls out. I glance at the door, having the strange feeling that it's protecting me from something bad.

"That's the thing. This isn't the real world, Wren." I laugh at him thinking this is all some joke, but the serious expression on his face remains the same. The smile on my face melts away when I realize he isn't joking at all. The knocking get louder. "You're dreaming, but it's time to wake up now, okay?" His hand comes up to caress the side of my cheek, and I feel like the room around me is spinning.

"That's impossible. Stop saying crazy things, you're scaring me." I push his hand away and go to unlock the door.

"If this is the real world, then how are you walking?" My hand drops to my side. "Your mind is trying to make a perfect world for you to stay in so you don't have to face the nightmare that's waiting for you. It gave you everything you wanted; your mom, your friends, your mobility, but it's not real. You can't stay here." I almost laugh at the irony of his words. Not too long ago, I was telling Jungkook those exact same words.

It all makes sense. The reason I can't remember anything after Satsujin-sha is because I'm still there. The reason I kept hearing Yoongi's voice begging for help these past few days is because he's still in danger, and my subconscious is telling me to go back to the game to save him.

"How do I wake up?" My voice is weak and so is my body. I'm afraid to go back, and it'd be so much easier to just stay here, but we all have to face reality at some point, don't we?

Yoongi walks over to the gaming headset and hands it to me. For the past few days, mama has done her best to convince me to never put this back on and go back to the game, telling me I'd be stuck in that virtual reality forever and I could never come back. The thought makes me hesitant, but as I look into Yoongi's eyes and he gives me a reassuring nod, I know I have to do it.

The knocking outside my door grows more intense and for a moment I think my door might get broken down. I hear the voices of my friends outside telling me not to listen to Yoongi and to unlock the door.

I ignore them and put the headset on, trembling as I do so. Yoongi leans closer to me and presses a soft kiss to my forehead before whispering, "see you soon." He powers the gaming device on.

I wake with a splitting headache and the smell of blood instantly wafts through my nose. I swallow the bile in my throat and try to adjust my eyes to my surroundings.

"You're full of surprises. I really thought you weren't going to wake up this time." The boss walks over to his wall of torture instruments that he's been using to create an orchestra of screams to escape from my throat. He skims over them and picks one I've grown familiar with. "Ready for another round?"

__________

A/N -

Hahaha guys I promise I'm not a bad writer that forgot her character couldn't walk. It was just a part of her dream. Her mind was trying to create a safe and happy place for her to escape the trauma she was facing in the real world.