bChapter /bb116 /b

    Valencia

    I frantically grabbed Killian’s arm and wiped away the blood that seemed to be everywhere around me.

    I was crying, sobbing bitterly.

    “Hold it tighter,” I growled at the ass of a man who was supposed to save the prince because he was clumsy as fuck and couldn’t even stand straight.

    “Put that paste on his wound, quick.” I shouted at Mary next.

    “But I…”

    “DO IT!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, and she let out a terrified squeal but hastily gathered some of the coarsely ground paste on the bandage and pped it on his abdomen.

    “Killian,e on, please look at me. Talk to me”

    I frantically patted his cheeks, almost pping him, but he was not responding.

    I held up his arm and checked his pulse, but I really could not feel it.

    “No, no, no, no,” Net out a teary wail, my voice choking as tears continued to stream down my eyes.

    “You are not going to leave me!” I shouted and wiped my eyes again to calm myself.

    I gently lowered myself and ced my ear on his heart while cing my finger on his wrist.

    There had to be a pulse.

    But I could not hear it over the thunderous beating of my own heart. I willed my heart to stop bursting my eardrums and focussed hard on his pulse and simultaneously also trying to hear his heartbeat.

    At first, I heard absolutely nothing.

    And then Mary screamed.

    “The paste, it stopped the bleeding!!”

    I had frozen in shock, willing Killian to open his eyes and talk to me. I thought I heard Mary say something, but her voice was drowned out,

    It was as if I had zoned out and been transported to a different realm. I only wanted to hear Killian’s voice again, and to help him

    heal.

    “Please” I looked up at the sky, hoping that the Goddess or whatever divine power it was up there was hearing me.

    “Please save him. Please, I will do anything. Anything. Please!!”

    I begged through bloodshot eyes.

    “Mydy, the paste, its working!!”

    Mary shouted at me again. But I only could see her moving her lips and staring at me with shock.

    I could hear nothing, not her shouting, not Killian’s heartbeat and neither the curtains fluttering in the wind.

    Everything was suddenly muted, and for a second I thought that I was hallucinating. That maybe stress and fear had fucked up my

    senses.

    But then I heard something. A light scraping sound.

    Timmediately tried to locate the source of that sound but could not find it. Were my senses tricking me?

    My gaze flew back to Killian, whoy there on the bed, his breathing growing shallow and slow by the second.

    “Killian!!” I screamed, but, surprisingly, I could not hear my voice either.

    And then I felt a tug. It was gentle at first, but then it grew insistent pretty quickly.

    I looked down to see if there was something pulling at my stomach but I could not see it. Even when I tried ito /ifeel it with my hands, my fingers only brushed against the fabric of my robe.

    But I could still feel it.

    A sharp tug at my navel as if an invisible hook had attached itself to my body and was pulling me away, dragging me.

    “Nooo,” I tried to resist, but it wouldn’t let me.

    I scrambled for purchase and tried to grab onto something, anything I couldy my hands on.

    But I was being dragged away from Killian. I screamed for help, I shouted out loud, but it was as if I was in a bubble of some sort that blocked my voice from the outside world.

    And when I tried to grab onto a nearby chair, my hand went right through it.

    Something was pulling me away from this world. I didn’t know how I knew it, but that tugging feeling at the gut…it felt like this was not my first time.

    I didn’t recall when I had felt it or what exactly had happened that time, but I knew that I did not want to leave Killian.

    But before I knew I was swept up from my feet and felt I was floating away from the room and being carried somewhere else.

    I felt like I was forced in some twisted tunnel that sucked me out of Killian’s room- my room and brought me somewhere else.

    I crashed onto something hard, something rock solid, and groaned due to the impact.

    My eyes struggled to focus, and my head wanted to burst out of my body due to the pain.

    “Argh!”

    I cried and felt something warm trickle down my bnose/b. When I touched my face, my fingers came streaked red.

    Slowly, I held my head with my hands, but it did little to stop the painful throbbing, and looked around.

    I was not in Killian’s room or even the castle anymore.

    ??

    10:59 Tue, 2 Sept

    I was somewhere different entirely.

    Scared, I clutched my chest and tried to get up on my wobbly legs but swayed from side to side dangerously.

    And I heard a raspy voice again.

    “You…are….back…again”

    @X.71%8

    The voice drawled out, sounding creepy and downright scary. I could not even tell for sure if the voice belonged to a man or a

    woman.

    40

    It was thick and deep and felt like somebody was scratching sandpaper against a wall.

    It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up sharply as goosebumps appeared ion /imy skin.

    “What…what is that?”

    I asked, and that voice rumbled around me, making me look around dazedly.

    “I thought the same when I heard you.” The voice said, sounding both amused and curious.

    I looked from side to side, up and down, but the voice was echoing in the huge chamber.

    “H–heard me? When did you hear me? What do you want from me?” I asked.

    That deep voice broke out intoughter so vicious and cruel that I stumbled back though nothing had pushed me.

    “That is what I should ask you. What do you want from me?” The voice asked, and I stared at the empty walls in confusion.

    “There should be a mistake. I…I dont know who you are and I dont want anything from you.”

    Theughter stopped abruptly, and silence fell around me. At first, I was relieved that maybe the voice had left me alone, but then I realized I had no idea where I was.

    I had to go back to Killian…he must be…no, I could not finish that thought.

    1 would not think that about him.

    “Let me go! I don’t know you. Please!i” /i

    I begged, and again there was absolute silence around me. I rubbed my eyes and pinched my arm before shaking my head vigorously, hoping that I was hallucinating.

    But when I opened my eyes again, I found myself still in that gloomy ruin of a cold dark room.

    “Help! Is anybody here?” 1 shouted when that voice had not spoken for a long time.

    This time I felt something brush my back as if a shadow had passed behind me, grazing its icy cold fingers across my skin.

    I whipped my head around, but there was nothing.

    What was going on?.