Book 2: Seven Demon's Hearts

Episode 68: Creeping

Episode 68: C r e e p i n g

"Aiko!" She laughed out loud, spreading her arms wide open as the little boy ran over from across the field of sunflowers. 

"Mommy!" He laughed, his small legs doing their best to pace over fast so he can jump into his mother's warm embrace. Yet too fast was how he found himself falling to his knees, skidding down from his trip. 

Quickly, Hanul ran over to him, covering the rest of the sort distance they had left. Immediately, she took his huddle frame into a hug, resting her face against his shoulder. "Are you okay?"

When she pulled back she was staring back at the older, current version of him smiling back so sweetly. "Of course, mom!" A bubbly release of laughter echoed out of him as he threw his arms around her into another hug. "Thank you." 

"Thank you?" She scoffed with relief and combed through the ends of his shaggy mullet. "For what, love?" The upturned corners of her lips, forming a small smile, slowly found themselves dropping back down to place. A feeling of terror and shock froze her in place as she watched the field around them burst into flames. Dried, ashes of the sunflower petals flew into her face as Aiko pulled away from her. A look of pure sin took over his psychotic smile, his holographic eyes curled up with shimmering excitement that seemed to find joy out of her terrified expression. 

"For giving birth to me. Mother."

"AHHHHH!! NO! NO! NO!" 

V had already taken action when he first felt the extreme heat radiating out of her body--only a few seconds before she woke up. She managed to fall asleep in his arms only about an hour ago, but while he was watching her sleep there seemed to be something very wrong that troubled her. 

"What the hell! Hanul? Hanul! What's wrong?" He bit down on his teeth, pinning her shoulders down into the mattress as the skin in contact started to peel off from the intense flames bursting out of her. Just looking at her clouded white eyes, it was obvious that she was still dreaming. V could only imagine the worst while he retrained her down with his body.

"No! No!" She cried and screamed, her arms struggling to grasp at something that wasn't there.  A strangled scream croaked back a reply as her they tightly wrung around her own neck. 

"Hanul!" V's heart leaped, the color in his face draining as he watched his wife try to strangle herself. With all of his energy focused, he managed to force off her wrists and hold them away. A tear slipped down his face and in the helpless state he found himself in the only thing he could do was tightly grab her into an embrace and press his lips against hers. 

Even as his body continued to burn against her, V didn't let go. He was prepared to let his body burn completely if it had to--as long as it meant saving her from whatever madness that could have triggered her towards self-harm. Desperately, he tightly held on, dragging out the excess energy flowing out from her and trapped it within him to alleviate some of her madness.

A confused blink followed by the sudden pause of silence finally signaled that her consciousness was back. Hanul's iris slowly retained back its brown color and when she came to, V was collapsed on top of her, his entire upper body and part of his lower face melted into a bloody black and fleshy color. It was so bad, that she was able to see his teeth and part of his jawbone peek out from the torn skin. 

Startled, she covered a gasp behind her hand and quickly rolled him onto his back. Her hands trembled with disbelief and guilt as they hovered over his burnt chest. The wounds were healing, but very slowly. Quickly, she tried to pour out her energy into healing him, but she was practically drained of it.