Anaïs smiled softly at Ethan... Whatever the joke was supposed to mean, she hadn't quite caught it, but she laughed anyway. The boy before her was an awkward, normal guy from America who had been spending a semester in Nice, the pianist's home. He was young, but what was three or four years with your entire life ahead of you? She hadn't felt any need to tell him about her condition. She hadn't had any problems in quite some time and if he was leaving soon, he would never have to know. They walked along the paths of her favorite, little park, just far enough from the shore that most of the buildings would hide it from view, but close enough to smell the salty air as the breeze swept across the girl's own mini-paradise.

It had taken a lot of work on Ethan's, or Étan's as her accent so adorably referred to him, part to convince her that they could at least hold hands when they took a walk. She was glad he had, too. He managed on nearly a daily basis to make her feel like she could express herself in real terms of communication, rather than keeping to herself and her music. Around her neck, she wore a lucky rabbit's foot of white on a small chain. The trinket was undoubtedly fake, but it was special to her. Usually, it ended up tucked beneath whichever scarf she chose on a particular day, just as it was today. A regular day in her regular, beautiful city with a guy she liked more than she ought to. She cleared her throat as the silence grew and looked up, releasing a deep sigh as she tried to regain her balance. She didn't want Ethan to see her experiencing another bout of vertigo; it had already happened twice prior during the walk and it was such a lovely day... worrying him would only cause undue distress. No dice.

"[I]Hey, you okay?[/I]" He asked, tightening his grip on her hand, "[I]You need to sit down?[/I]"

She laughed; his vocabulary was perfect, but the boy had no tongue for the subtleties of the language. "[I]I'm okay... But, yeah, I guess we can sit,[/I]" She said, deciding not to argue. Rather than taking the bench from a mother and the baby she was trying to calm, the two of them found a seat beside a tree in the soft grass. "[I]Just a bit light-headed is all, it happens, I probably just need to eat... You know how I forget,[/I]" She reminded him. As her head gently laid against the tree trunk, she already felt sleep coming. A nap did sound wonderful, didn't it? "[I]I think I'm gonna fall asleep... Do you mind?[/I]" She asked.

"[I]Of course not, lay down, we've got all day, right?[/I]" The boy pointed out with a warming smile. As Anaïs lied down, she placed her head in his lap; it wouldn't be long beefore she'd be too old for naps in the park and crushes. But sitting and thinking about the future was never on her to-do list, it was undue worry. She gave herself enough stress as it was and today was a day of having none of it. She closed her eyes, feeling content between sleep and waking. She listened to the soft whistle of the wind, the coos of a mother and her child, the yipping of dogs large and small... "Je t'aime," Ethan said quietly, believing she was asleep. The corners of her mouth perked up slightly, but she made no response otherwise, letting him think she was still under as her stomach filled with butterflies and her heart gave a little flutter...

[I]Thump... Thump thump thump.... Thumpthump... thump...[/I]

It fluttered again and she felt something tightening. [I]Breathe,[/I] she reminded herself. [I]Slowly, calm down... Calm down... let the ICB do it's job.[/I] She told herself reassuringly. Her breathing became more focused to the point that it was noticeable in the way she was trying to control it. Ethan, however, thought she was still asleep as he relaxed against the tree himself. "Anaïs?" He started in English without looking down, "I know it's kind of a long shot... But... I was wondering if maybe you'd come back to the US with me, or come visit some time... Maybe we could figure something out to make this last? I just... really like you, and I don't want to let something die without giving it a chance to live..."

She heard his words, but they didn't make much sense... Not now... Please, not now. She clenched her eyes and choked on a breath before she felt Ethan moving under her as he looked to see her reaction. It was far from what he expected as her eyes shot open and she began to convulse slightly.

[I]Thumpthumpthump... ... ... Thumpthump ... ... thumpthump.... thump.... thump thump th... ump....[/I]

She felt the pulsing as it fought with the device in her chest to keep her rhythm automatic. Please... She begged to whoever was listening to her mind as his words finally processed. [I]Let me answer...[/I] She couldn't form the words as she saw the look on his face turn to dread and he pulled out from beneath her and looked around, calling for help.

"[I]Somebody! Please, call a doctor... I-I-I don't know what's happening...[/I]" He sputtered, but his words began to run together before disappearing altogether for the girl on the ground.

Something was pressing on her chest and releasing... pushing, releasing... pushing, releasing... Waiting... What were they doing? A figure was over her, but what happened to the thumping? Black spots clouded her vision and all she could do was try to form one word. Nothing... No sound, her lips wouldn't even move. It felt like such a normal day... Everything went to black, then took shape. Why was everybody underwater now? Her eyes rolled without her controlling them... Why couldn't she move [I]anything[/I]?

Black, white, fog... Black, foggy... Black... Black... It was over... Where the hell was she? Panic tore through her body - no, she'd wake up in an ambulance... or a hospital bed, like last time, and the doctor would give her a new medication and they'd monitor her for a while... They'd check to make sure that everything they gave her was still working and all would be fine... But what if it wasn't? What if she didn't wake up?

...

[I]Thump, thump... Thump, thump... Thump, thump...[/I]

It was the most beautiful feeling in the world. That rhythm... It was so reassuring, but for some reason, she felt it was too... on-tempo. For a moment, she mused that perhaps they'd replaced her heart with a real metronome. It seemed to keep the pace at perfect intervals. She took a deep breath in and expected to hear her mother's excited cry, but she didn't hear anything. The wind came back and blew her hair over her face, so she passively reached up to push it away. Oh... Maybe it hadn't been so serious; she was lying in the grass, feeling the wind, after all. So that must mean that they were still in the park. But then... She didn't hear Ethan. She heard other voices, but none were recognizable and she tuned them out. Her hands softly ran over the grass around her... It was so fluffy. No sharp blades or prickly points. It was soft and silky, dulled even. For one more moment, she waited... Filling her lungs to make sure she was still intact. The rest could wait for at least a moment as her eyes slowly opened. Where was the tree? Did they move her?

Gradually, she pulled herself up and crossed her legs, rubbing at her eyes. She could have fallen asleep and stayed there for hours, but she could still hear it... Ethan's question ringing in her ears... Then his cries for a doctor... Why didn't anybody come pick her up? Or notice her sitting back up after passing out? As her eyes adjusted and she looked at the ground, feeling the soft blue-green grass running through her fingers she wondered what had caused her color vision to go so... odd. Grass wasn't usually this... blue, was it? Even if it still looked green, she knew that there was another hue mixed in there. She shook her head and finally looked around...

What?

No, seriously... [I]What?![/I] She gasped and slowly rose to her feet, her neon green sneakers crunching the grass gingerly. The shoes led up to her black skinny jeans, a tight white top, and a [URL=http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81FiVJkg93L._UY606_.jpg]purple leather short-length jacket[/URL]. She had a glittering, sheer scarf of a similar but darker colour around her neck. It was one of her nicer outfits, sure, but it had been the one she put on this morning... She thought. It was rather hard to remember. Her hand reached up to her chest and she furrowed her brow... Wait... She pulled the neckline of her shirt out for a moment and looked down. Where was the scar? She had one just around her heart for her ICB, but it wasn't there, which meant the device wasn't, which meant her heart was beating unassisted... And it was at a beat more perfectly than she could remember it ever having beaten.

The sky appeared almost lavender from this angle, with a beautiful orange and blue mixing that swirled together so perfectly... It was reminiscent of [I]Starry Night[/I], one of honestly few paintings she could recognize by looking at it. She was less familiar with visual art than she liked to admit, but that was an unmistakable piece. The voices behind her registered moments later and she shook off her confusion at the [I]floating god damned castles[/I] - that was an issue for later... if she didn't get home, at least, to tell Ethan that she was okay and yes, she would love to join him, and yes, she wanted to see where their relationship could reach... But, then again... Was she okay?

It was clearly a question they were all asking, but she honestly didn't know what truly happened in the park just before she woke up. She assumed it was a heart attack, but she'd woken up before, so that wasn't quite so surprising as [I]where[/I] she woke up. God, these people were so fast when they spoke... What were they saying? She had sort of... melded into the group without her presence being known, but now everybody was suddenly expected to introduce themselves. She shifted in her spot, trying to keep her breathing at a normal, "natural" pace, despite how quickly her mind was moving at that precise moment. In fact, attempts to look natural were so obvious that they didn't look quite so natural. They all seemed to have a story of dying, so... Logically, that would mean... It would mean that, back home, wherever home was now, Ethan watched her heart stop and, for the first time in twenty-six years, [I]not[/I] start again. All those people in the park would see her dead; they'd never see her smile, or try to hide a laugh, or sing to her piano... No, they'd remember that day that some girl in the park decided to up and die, right there, while they were trying to have a nice day with the family. Their day would be ruined by sirens and shouting and sobbing and... Anaïs shuddered and blushed at the thought of what they would think of her now...

"Oh, uh, sorry," She said quickly, the English feeling as strange on her tongue as castles on the floating bits of ground. She [I]could[/I] speak English, but she so rarely used it anymore that her accent seeped into her speech. "My name is Anaïs... I uh... Merde..." She looked to Wen and pointed at her heart, "J'ai fait un infarctus... Help, please?" She asked desperately, embarrassed that she lacked the knowledge for even the simplest medical terms in her second language as she rubbed the back of her neck.