A man in a white coat stood beside me, flipping through a clipboard with quick, precise movements. His eyes widened for a split second as they met mine, then he pressed a button near the bed.
"He's awake!" he called to someone beyond the curtain. Then he turned back, a faint smile forming. "Easy now."
My throat burned, dry and raw, but I forced the words out.
"What… world is this? Who… are you people?"
The doctor raised a brow, then chuckled, as though my question were the rambling of someone shaken by trauma.
"You're on Earth. Seoul, South Korea. I'm Doctor Lin Kim. You're at Asan Medical Center—one of the best hospitals in the country."
I froze. Earth… Seoul? Hospitals? These words should have made sense, but they didn't. My mind still felt… elsewhere. Somewhere other.
I stared down at my body. The blankets were neatly tucked, but something was different. My hands—stronger, steadier. My chest—no lingering burn from my fall. My legs—intact, perfectly aligned.
"We found you lying on the ground," the doctor continued, pulling the covers back slightly. "Your legs… twisted, broken, mangled. You were bleeding out when the rescue team arrived."
I shook my head, trying to grasp it. "And now… I'm… fine?"
The doctor nodded, exhaling slowly. "Not a scar. Not even a bruise. No treatment. No surgery. It's like… your body reset itself."
I slowly sat up, ignoring the dull ache blooming in my ribs. I ran my hands down my arms, feeling the weight, the strength, the life coursing in them.
What happened to me when I said yes?
The doctor then said "it's a miracle that your alive, I'll thought you would never wake up too you were still unconscious when you all arrived here."
I replied "what do you mean all?"
The doctor hesitated, as though weighing whether to continue. "You… aren't the only one."
I froze. My eyes snapped up, sharp. "What do you mean?"
"Others arrived," he said, voice lowering to a whisper. "People like you. People who don't belong here—who came from… another realm. And with them… monsters."
Cold air seemed to seep into the room. My fingers clenched the sheets.
"People… like me… and monsters?" I echoed, barely audible.
The memories came crashing back.
Blood. Smoke. My father—torn in half. A thing… humanoid, monstrous, holding him in one clawed hand.
"Run… away…"
Then—the explosion. My father's body ripped apart. Warm blood sprayed across my face. Screams tore from my throat. The world had collapsed around me, and I had run. I had cried. I had survived.
I gasped aloud. My chest burned, adrenaline and grief colliding.
The creature's face. Those eyes. Human… and not.
I realized now, with sickening clarity.
They were here.
On Earth.
And I wasn't the only one who had crossed over.
My head spun. My vision blurred. The weight of everything—the awakening, the loss, the world I didn't belong to—crashed down like a tidal wave.
I felt my knees buckle. My hands gripped the bed railing, but the room tilted, stretched, twisted.
"I… I can't…" I whispered.
The doctor's voice cut through, distant now, faint, almost underwater. "Stay with me… stay awake…"
But it was too much.
The room faded. The lights, the smell, the reality—they slipped away.
And I let go.
Blackness claimed me again.
But even in the dark, even in the void between consciousness and oblivion…
I knew.
The cycle had not ended.
The monsters had followed.
And now, so had I.