Chapter 280: When Memory Draws Blood

He quickly gathered the bottles, doing his mixture rapidly so he could administer them to her immediately.

But then he turned, and the sight he saw made him drop the small bowl with the mixtures in shock. It clattered to the ground with a soft sound, but Lysander didn’t care.

Sophia had her hand in her hair, pulling at it violently. She twisted it with rage and yanked it hard, multiple times.

Lysander walked over the wet floor, urgency in his steps as he tried to stop her from hurting herself.

"Sophia," he called out softly, but she wasn’t listening. She couldn’t even hear him at that point.

"Sophia, stop!" he said. "Stop, you are hurting yourself!"

She wasn’t hearing him. Her eyes were open, yes, but she couldn’t see him. She wasn’t in the medical facility with him after all. Her face was twisted in terror and pain.

"No... no, please—don’t—" she cried as she pulled at her hair again.

Lysander tried to dislodge her fingers. He tried to set her hair free, but she wouldn’t let him.

She instead twisted out of his grip as he tried to come close to her. And when he even finally did, her body surged with a strength he hadn’t expected she would have in her state.

She shoved him hard, pushing him away from her.

He staggered back into the edge of the chair that was placed by her bedside, his back hitting it, sending a jolt of pain through him, but that wasn’t enough to make him give up.

"Sophia!" His voice broke this time as he called out to her.

But she was already sliding off the bed. She fell off the bed with a thud, her knees hitting the floor. Her grip didn’t leave her hair; instead, it tightened more.

She crawled.

Dragging herself across the floor, not minding that her knees were in pain from the impact. She dragged herself across the floor as if someone held her by the head.

As if she was being pulled.

"No—no—stop—please stop!" she sobbed, dragging her knees, her breath erratic.

Lysander rushed after her, kneeling.

"Sophia, look at me! You’re not there! You’re here, you’re safe, you hear me?! Snap out of it!" He tried to make her come back to herself, but she didn’t hear him.

Lysander stopped her crawl and thought maybe for a moment it was over, that she would stop — and for a moment, it did. She stopped crawling, her eyes unfocused, but then they widened in horror.

"Please... please..."

Her words were cut off, and suddenly her head tilted back. Her eyes rolled back and her mouth opened as a gasp tore from her throat.

Then another.

Her chest hitched.

Her fingers loosened from her hair.

Her hands slapped weakly against the floor as if searching for something.

For air. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

Her entire body arched.

Lysander’s blood ran cold from what he saw. It was like she was fighting for air. And the way she gasped... it was like she was drowning.

"Fuck!" he cursed as he stood sharply.

Whatever memory Sophia was reliving right now, it was three times worse than the other ones they had witnessed.

There was no water present, but from what Lysander could see, it didn’t matter that there was no water here; as long as it was present where she was, then she would drown.

She clawed at nothing, choking, making desperate sounds for air.

Lysander ran to the door, then shouted down the hallway.

"I need help! I need about two people down here!" he called out, then rushed back to Sophia, whose face was pale.

"Sophia!"

He knelt beside her and grabbed her shoulders, trying to snap her out of the intense hallucination she was having at that moment.

"Sophia, listen to me, it’s not real!" he said, shaking her carefully. "There’s no water! It’s not real—breathe, breathe with me!"

Her body shuddered as her lips turned faintly blue.

But then suddenly she stopped and gasped for air. She coughed as she tried to breathe, and Lysander thought that it was done — but then it started again, worse this time.

Her eyes turned red and Lysander cursed again. He tried to stop her, but she once more twisted out of his hold. He had no idea how she was even able to do so when she wasn’t conscious.

He needed help. And thankfully, help arrived. The hallway thundered with footsteps, and soon the door to the room flew open as one male healer named Benson and Mira entered the room.

Mira had been the first person to witness Sophia in her state the last time, so she wasn’t even shocked when she saw Sophia like this again.

They dropped immediately beside her.

But they paused because they had no idea what to do.

"What should we do?" Mira asked Lysander with a frown. "This seems like it’s worse than before."

"That’s because it is," Lysander told them.

Sophia made a noise like she was gasping for air or trying to, but the sound didn’t even come out freely. It was halfway out, but it seemed to be stuck in her throat. Her hands tapped the floor where she lay as her face became pale.

Benson frowned. "Is she drowning?" he asked Lysander.

Lysander nodded.

"But there’s no water."

"I fucking know that, Benson!" Lysander snapped, then calmed himself down. "Sorry about that, it’s just... we need to make sure that she doesn’t drown...at all." Benson nodded.

He moved closer to her to try to get her to stay still, but that in itself was a feat they were not sure they could achieve, especially with the way she was twisting and gasping.

Benson, Mira, and Lysander tried to hold her in place so that Lysander could do some CPR for her, thinking that maybe if he did it, she would get better since she was drowning in whatever hallucination she was having right now.

Sophia’s chest jerked violently.

Her back arched again.

She inhaled—

Then her body froze. And soon she was coughing and gasping for air.

"Sophia... listen to me, you need to listen to my voice," Lysander begged, but she didn’t hear him.

There was only one person whose voice she listened to... and he should have called him from the beginning.