Her.

"Even the brightest star in the sky will fade away, in the face of the never ending flow of time."

That phrase echoed inside my head, as I saw her blade piercing through my torso.

The pain was unbearable and it seemed as if time had stopped, even though I knew that wasn't true.

I could barely make out the figures around me through blurry vision, but the one thing that stood out to me was the tears flowing down her face.

Her lips quivered with silent sobs as her hand gently caressed my cheek, trying to hold back her own tears.

"What happened?" I managed to rasp out, still feeling the warm blood dripping from my body onto the floor below me.

There were so many questions I wanted to ask her, but the words stuck in my throat when I felt a small amount of wetness on my forehead.

She brushed some of the strands out of my face and whispered, "It's all right. Everything's going to be fine." Her voice was filled with so much conviction that even I almost believed her.

My eyelids slowly fluttered shut. I didn't want to leave like this, not after everything we'd been through, but every ounce of energy left in me vanished when I felt myself falling backwards into darkness.

***

When I finally opened my eyes, I found myself lying in an unfamiliar room. Items scattered all over the floor, and a terrible smell that wafted all around the room.

I tried lifting my head up but found that the only way I got any movement out of my limbs was to twitch slightly, or raise my hand.

After a moment of struggling, I managed to get enough strength in my arm to push myself upwards against the mattress beneath me, which made me gasp in shock.

I had a hard time breathing at first, as it felt like something was lodged in my chest, but eventually I realized why, and felt my heart beat faster in panic.

All around my body were bruises. From my stomach upwards, most of them were deep purple in color, but some looked worse than others.

The ones that were most visible on the surface had already turned black, while other areas were a bit lighter in hue. There were also several scrapes and cuts that seemed to cover more than just the top surface of my skin.

And, of course, there was the wound directly above my heart. The gash that used to be my chest was now covered by bandages, but I could still see the dark red liquid seeping through the white cloth.

Touching my bandaged chest, an unbearable pain instantly spread throughout my body.

It took every ounce of strength remaining in me for me not to let out a painful scream as another wave of intense nausea hit me.

I closed my eyes tightly, willing myself to control my breathing. After several minutes had passed, I finally felt calm enough to open my eyes again.

But this time, instead of seeing the dirty and dusty ceiling, a sky blue coloured screen appeared in my vision.

As I was focusing on what the blue screen that appeared in front of me was, a loud bang sounded as the door suddenly slamed open.

A soft voice spoke from somewhere behind the screen, "Welcome back from your nap! Would you like to see anything else? It seems that our next activity will require getting your injuries treated."

The tone of her voice sounded like she was smiling.

I couldn't help but wonder who this beautiful stranger who appeared in my room was.