𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑, j.mori

𝐒𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍

—— CHAPTER SEVEN / "who's screaming?"

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"DADDY, CAN I HAVE A PUPPY?"

The older man looked up from his work and puffed out some smoke from his pipe to see his daughter, no older than five, giving him the best puppy dog eyes she could muster. As a father, he wanted to get his beloved daughter a puppy, really, but his wife may object. "Well," he started, patted her head with his big hands and giving her a kind smile any father would give his daughter, "we'll have to ask Mum." Her face lit up like a Christmas tree, and she spewed gibberish out of joy as she pulled on her father's hand with the little strength she had. "Mummy, Mummy!" she dragged her father along with her to the kitchen where she cooked supper. "Mummy, will you get me a puppy?" she asked, mirroring her previous actions of innocent eyes which she had given her father.

Her mother set down the wooden ladle and gazed at her young bundle of joy, momentarily stopping serving the vegetable soup into the handmade ceramic bowls made by the village craftsman. The woman smiled a sad smile and bent down to ruffle her daughter's short, jet black hair. "Sorry, sweetie, not now. I'll buy you one when you grow up." Her daughter's button nose crumpled itself in displeasure and she hugged her mother's legs. "But Mummy, I want one now!"

"I'm sorry but we won't be able to take care of the dog. When you grow up, you'll be able to take better care of it." explained her mother, trying to pry her daughter's hands off her slim legs clothed by a curtain of her dress. "I'll take better care of it now!" whined the girl. The two adults looked at each other and her father shrugged, his lips pursed. Her mother huffed, playfully annoyed at her husband's reaction and then spoke, "Okay, we'll bring you a puppy."

The little girl celebrated in her own way, jumping and running around her parents. "I'm going to go tell Jimin!" she said, dashing out the door.

"Aella!" called her father before she could dash out the door. "Yes, Daddy?"

"Be back before dark," he instructed and she smiled, her eyes crinkling at the corners. "Yes, Daddy."

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She awoke with a hand shaking her shoulder. She opened an eye to see a fuzzy figure looking down on her from where they were standing. She smacked her dry lips and wiped traces of saliva off the corners of her mouth then slowly lifted her head off her arm that was outstretched on the table. I fell asleep? "I fell asleep?" she questioned out loud to no one in particular. The librarian who woke her up put her hands on her waist, "Yes, you did. Hurry up and pack up, we're closing soon." Aella turned her attention to her things and surroundings. She was in a library, the library that was near her house where she usually went to study. The lack of light the sun poured through the window of the library caught her attention and she checked her wristwatch: 7:29pm.

I fell asleep in a library while doing homework and had a dream, she chanted in her head a plethora of times before sluggishly moving on to pack up her books and stationary sprawled onto the smooth ebony surface of the table. In her millenium years of living, she had never had a dream. Ever.

She remembered the events but the faces of the people were not clear at all. Well, they must have been clear in her dream but she didn't seem to recollect their facial features after waking up. I had parents? Were we happy? And who's Jimin? For once, the voice in her head was quiet, contrary to almost every day when it always had an opinion of its own. Stiffling a yawn, she walked out the doors of the library that was now lacking more than one person's presence. Her house was quiet, as usual. She lived alone at home now that her grandmother was in the hospital.

Her apartment was on the seventh floor, and it was rather big, with three rooms: one belonging to Aella, the other for her grandma and the third one was just a simple guest room which was never used because they never had guests over. There was a small bar in the living room, where when her grandma still stayed with her she'd made her favorite drink: the Bloody Mary. It was not only Grandmama who liked Bloody Mary, Aella liked it too, in terms of making it. It was always fun to mix the drinks and serve it to her smiling grandma, whose eyes were always twinkling with excitement. Chuckling at the little memory, she went on to the bathroom to have a nice bath and then she'd eat dinner she had stored in the morning in the fridge. She started untying her hair that was in a pony.

And then her eye ached.

She didn't know when she clutched onto her left eye, crumpling the bandage under her fingers and tearing it off her head. And in the mirror, she saw her left eye glowing a blood red. Her eye felt like it was on fire, maybe it was; it felt like fire in the sockets of her eyes, burning with rage, trying to kill her and blind her. Someone was screaming, she heard her throat ache, her vocal cords ached.

Who's screaming?

Her hands gripped the sides of the sink, trying to gain balance, trying to gain control which someone, or something wouldn't give her.

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"Jimin!" she skipped towards the fields, where he usually was, plucking flowers. "Jimin, I'm going to—"

She cut herself off, no words coming out after taking one look at the sight before her. Jimin's blood was sprayed onto the tall grass, his limp body laying on the grass, pressing it down with the weight of his young body. Blood seeped through his scalp, tainting his straw-colored hair red, his limbs twisted in an ungodly shape which didn't seem to have any chance of being healed. His head, oh what a gruesome sight it was, was torn from the base of his neck, profusely spilling blood like a waterfall. Everything was red, the disgusting liquid pooling around his corpse. His eyes were wide open in shock, his tongue ripped from the back of his throat. Bloody handprints ran down his face, his pale features barely distinguishible. The once beautiful boy whom she had a crush on was now laying, dead, in the fields in which they used to play. The sight was... grotesque.

"Jimin?" she called to the corpse, her stubborn self refusing to believe he was dead, and hoping, praying this was some sick joke set up by one of the bullies of the village. She took a step forward, trying to take a closer look and verify. Her foot went on ahead, but twisted and she fell with a cry of pain, her ankle immediately throbbing. What did she slip on? Her hands planted themselves on the ground with the intension of making her body heave itself up to stand. Her fingers curled in, expecting to meet soil but becoming wet with... water?

No, blood. It was blood. Her fingers curled into Jimin's blood, she had slipped on Jimin's blood.

And then someone screamed.

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I just realized I put in the name of the Jimin from BTS. I'm don't listen to BTS, but I thought it seemed familiar (no wonder I got the name fast), so I Googled the name and I was like, "Fuck, I killed a BTS member."

Seriously.