Page 112 of Rebirth

My chest expands and I take a deep breath, only realizing the moment I do that I shouldn’t be able to breathe. And yet. I can.

I take another breath as I spin slowly, vision clearing to reveal more of the room and my heart arrests the moment my eyes land on the being in the tank beside mine.

He’rox?

I swim closer to the barrier, pressing my hands against it as my heart hammers in my chest.

Is he alive? His tentacles float so still, his face at peace.

“He’rox!” My fist slams into the tank, a dull thump vibrating through the water as I stare in horror at him.

He can’t be dead. He…he can’t be.

As my panic rises, somehow through the fog overtaking my mind, I notice the barely perceptible rise and fall of his chest. He’s breathing. And the wounds in his chest the last time I saw him? Gone.

He’s asleep, not dead.

And… I’m not dead either.

But how? I should be dead...

My gaze drops to my frame, skimming over my nakedness.

Nothing is different.

Nothing, except for the fact I can breathe underwater.

Turning back to face the male before me, thoughts race through my head.

He’rox tried to save me. He did save me. But how…

Lowering myself to the base of the tank, the mechanism reacts the moment my feet touch the floor. The water drains as the tank lowers, and soon, I am standing in cool air.

I step out on unsteady feet. My body feels weak yet alive, defying all logic.

Blinking, I look around.

Everything seems sharper than before. More vivid. I can even hear the dim hum of He’rox’s cylinder.

And there is something else. Something thrumming through my veins that I feel now that I’m no longer in the tank.

For a moment, I freeze, the horror of before coming right back to me. The parasite. The network. It was taking over, flooding through my veins.

I glance down at my arms again, but only my pale skin meets my gaze.

It’s…not there.

And yet I can still feel a pull to something. The source of which I cannot yet determine.

I move to He’rox’s tank on legs that feel new, and place my palms on the glass. “He’rox, wake up. Please wake.”

His tentacles remain still yet I sense a connection between us, faint yet undeniable. What he did for me, how can I ever repay him?

I owe him my life.

I owe him everything.

I can only stand and stare at him floating there, some part of me screaming for him to open his eyes while another part wishes to break the glass just so I can touch him again.

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