Title: Change of Iris
Warning: Swearing, errors (probably lots of them), nonsense, plot-twist, and first-timer!
Genre: Drama, Family, General
Rating: PG, T for Safety
Summary: Anything could happen to your loved one when they come back from being captive.
Disclaimer: I do not own Maple Story
The room of the hospital was deadly quiet. On a bed, a girl with black hair laid under the bed sheets. With bandage wrapped around her head, she was asleep. Beside her, a doctor and a boy quietly conversed, occasionally stealing glances at the unmoving body.
"Good thing that the rescue team were about to find Korea just in time. If they haven't found her…" The doctor's voice trailed off as Stephen glared at him, daring him to finish the sentence. "Hopefully, they'll able to find your other cousin, Learon, as well."
Stephen stood close to the bed, his thoughts consuming all his attention. "I can't believe how fast things have changed…" He mumbled. Black eyes flickered in the light. His right hand played with his Korean Fan that was attached to his side, a small sigh that betrayed his worry.
Stephen was in Victoria Island for less then 6 days. He needed to finish some business concerning about the house that his cousins and he used to live in when they spent their time in Victoria. Plus he really hadn't wanted to deal with his troublesome family. But now they had bought a condominium in Ludibrium. Within 3 days after his departure from Ludibrium, his two cousins went missing.
Stephen wasn't very surprised when he heard about his cousins missing, although it triggered a twinge of worry. The two would always get lost while they went traveling the Maple World. But what did frighten him was when he got a phone call from his cousin, Learon, on the 4th day of his trip in Victoria.
The older boy sounded frightened and out of breath. Stephen couldn't really make out the words that his cousin was trying to say. Before Learon could finish a full complete sentence, a sharp gasp was heard and loud, terrifying crushing sound was heard from the other end of the phone. It was then when Stephen realised that his cousins were in serious, serious trouble. He called everyone he knew and contacted the Game Masters.
It took 2 days for Stephen to go back to Ludibrium. By then, a search party was sent out and they managed to find Korea, the eldest of the family. When Korea was found, she was severely injured. Angry chain marked her wrists and arms, purple and black spotted her body, her legs were declared useless, and she probably couldn't walk for months or for years, even with therapy. But her head injury was the worst. Stephen had to leave the room when he saw the state of her.
"Hey Stephen?" brown tufts of hairs peeked out from the doorway. The newcomer came in to the hospital room.
"Hey Mark," Stephen replied, looking at his friend with weary eyes.
"You look tired," Mark commented, his copper eyes narrowing. A growl was heard. Mark's head turned to Stephen. "Let's get something to eat." Mark dragged Stephen out of the room without another word.
"The GM has tracked down the kidnappers' location. It won't be long 'til they'll find your bro." Mark said, finishing off his sandwich. He wondered if Stephen heard him.
A slow 'huh' escapes from Stephen's mouth. He moved his attention away from the café's window, which looked at the hospital few block away, to his friend. His mouth twitched as he lifted the cup of coffee with extra sugar to his mouth.
"Aren't you too young for coffee?" Mark asked.
"Blame Korea," Stephen stopped then continued to drink his lukewarm liquid.
"Damn this," Stephen cursed, after a moment of silences, "How can those two get into trouble so fast! I shouldn't have gone to Victoria just because of the heating system..."
"Don't be so angst, man. The two could have been at a wrong place at the wrong time; bad stuffs happens to them, a lots of the times. You can't help that. And don't worry. The GM and the party will certainly find Learon, like I told you before." Mark tried to cheer Stephen up.
"You did?"
"Yes I did… Anyways, for now, just be at Korea's side when she wakes up." With that, Mark smiled.
"… Thanks man," Stephen felt much better.
A Sin came running in the café, surprised some people near the entrance. She looked around the café and spotted the two friends and speed walked toward them.
"You're needed," She said to Stephen, "Your cousin might wake up soon. She'll probably want someone she recognises near by." Stephen and Mark went up from their seats and followed the girl to the hospital.
Stephen, Mark, and the Sin swiftly ran to the hospital. Stephen was the first to reach the door of Korea's hospital room. Catching his breath, Stephen knocked on the wooden door before going though it. Inside, a doctor with a clipboard looked over Korea with a nurse, who was changing Korea's bandages.
"This is very unexceptive. Korea's wounds are healing rapidly. It would have taken weeks and months to heal the major cuts and broken bones. If she was a cleric class, it would have explained the fast healing. This is a phenomenon!" The doctor looked at Korea then back to his clipboard and scribbled something down with his pen.
"A-hem," The doctor finally noticed that there was a visitor was in the room. Mark also came into the room after saying good-bye to the Sin, who left when Stephen went into the room.
"Ah, you're here," the doctor said
Well, no duh. Stephen wanted to roll his eyes, but fought the feeling to do so. Be serious, be serious, Stephen told himself.
The doctor gently pulled out one of Korea's arms from under the sheets. To Stephen's surprise, the cuts, the bruises, and the chain marks were barely there.
"As you can see, your cousin is marvellously healing well." The doctor put her arms under the blankets. "You saw her previous state. It would have taken a very long time to heal them, but about 20 minutes ago, she has been showing signs of healing."
"Do you know why she's healing so fast Doctor?" Stephen asked.
"No sadly. The other doctors and I were hoping if you know anything of this." The doctor looked at Stephen, then he continued, "But unfortunately, I guess you don't. I suspect something must have happened while she was captive." The doctor sighed and went to the door. "I'm going to report this to the head doctors. Just call for a help if something happens." And out the doctor went with the nurse, who finished dressing the bandages. As the doctor left, a tentative silence fell over the occupants of the room.
"Do you have any idea what the cause of this is? 'Cause this really isn't normal." Mark asked. No one answered- they feared for the worst. Mark noticed a piece of paper under the bed. He bended down to pick it up and he read it. Few minutes later, he had a serious look on his face.
"Hey, Stephen,"
"Yeah,"
"Do you have heard about the testing done on Korea?" Mark looked concerned.
"No, I haven't. Why?" Stephen went to read the paper. "'Testing shows positive of those cells that are similar in… Frank-en-roid?'" Stephen spelt out the word written in chicken scratches. "What's a Frankenroid? What's going on? I don't understand." Stephen sat down on a chair. His young, well educated brain tried to digest the hard facts.
Mark hung his head down, shadow casted over his sharp face. This sounds like one of the projects that my father used to do long time ago… Why is it still happening?
Rustling sounds disturbed the tense atmosphere in the room.
"Korea?" Stephen quickly went to his cousin's side.
"S- Stephen?" Korea's voice strained into Stephen's ears, "It hurts. It's hurting me. My body hurts." She curled herself into a tight ball. She wasn't being herself. Stephen started to get scared, and didn't know if he should hold his cousin or not. Mark went out to get some help.
"Shhh, it'll be ok. Just hang in there, alright?" Stephen tried to calm Korea down with words. Images of his cousin fighting fearlessly in a field of monsters danced into his mind and he frowned as he compared the difference of the present and the past. What happened to you?
"My head feels too tight," Stephen could see his cousin relax a bit. "Help me take the thing off? Please?"
"Sure," Stephen never thought about his cousin looking so fragile. His fingers went to the bandage on her head and started to undress them. He could feel Korea trying not to fidget while he was taking the bandages off.
"Okay," What felt like forever, Stephen was finally done, "You can open your eyes, Korea"
Korea opened her eyes. Stephen immediately froze; he couldn't believe his eyes. Scarlet red eyes stared back at him.
"'-Scarlet red coloured eyes stared back at him.'" The words printed themselves into the computer screen as Korea typed on the keyboard. Would that be a good ending for this? Hum… Korea thought as she finished her story. Well, this story is lacking some things in it, but I can't really squeeze a whole heck of stuffs into a one-shot. If it was multi-chapter story, I would have added how Stephen finds Learon and more stuffs in it. And I really do sound out-off-character... She placed her hand over her black hair and her ruby eyes stared at the screen thinking. She suddenly shivered.
"So what are you doing instead of doing that essay the Dark Lord told you to do, Korea?" Her pesky little brother dragged a chair beside her.
"Well, I was writing that essay, but one thing led to another and…" Korea trailed off.
"You were thinking about your eye colour and how lucky that you got red eyes from the guy in New Leaf City, though you wanted blue eyes?" Learon asked, just reading the title. He continued, "And you managed to convince me to change my eyes in NLC and coincidently, I got red also" two pair of red eyes met each other.
"Um… basically," Korea just pouted, "Well, sorry that my mind had to make up these stories, Lea! I couldn't help it; I really had to release my… creative side. And this time I really did finished the fiction! Though, I still need to practice on how to finish a story."
"You're always 'creative' Korea." Learon deadpanned, "Anyways, try to finish that essay before the due date, sis. And good luck." He left his sister in the dark room, shaking his head.
Note: Well, this is my first fiction. There'll probably some errors on the Fiction, like the italic and the line might look funky. Well, hope you enjoy it. If you don't understand this fiction, basically everything until the computer part was all a fiction that Korea wrote on her computer in her house. So yeah… :x If you're still confused by this, PM me and I'll try to clarify the fiction for you. Thank you for reading this.
AND A BIG Thank You to Lyrie, who helped me with the story and gave me really good advices :D Thank you Lyrie! Sorry to Lyrie if I made it worse T^T
Another note: I have to admit, this was confusing I am so sorry...