Clear and Present Danger

Secrets

Sleep Paralysis

A feeling of being conscious but unable to move. It occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. During these transitions, you may be unable to move or speak for a few seconds up to a few minutes. Some people may also feel pressure or a sense of choking.

What happened to Yeonssi was that. I am not a stranger to the feeling, because I experienced it. The feeling of not being able to move nor breathe gives an awful sense of fear and uncertainty. Will I die? Will I ever wake up? Will I get through this?

Those questions make up on your mind every time the moment passes. And even if you are awake, the feeling never completely goes away. It will try to haunt you, which then forces you to avoid sleep for a few minutes to an hour. Or not at all.

When I realized she was having such, she was already twitching and as I was about to stop the car momentarily, she woke up and sucked a sharp breath. I felt her catching it but then I continued driving. I asked her if she was okay, and she answered no.

There is something more to it. I feel like I have the need to know what it was.

When we arrived at our destination, I was surprised to see that we were in a cemetery. She got out and as I followed her, she took me to a chamber where I presumed someone important was there. I prepared myself to know what it was, and I actually prepared likewise for what might happen. My mind raced likewise, and I wanted to know from her everything that happened just this morning as we were heading for work.

'SJ, do you want to get to know me?' she asked earlier. Clueless as I can be, I nodded at her.

'Meet my father,' she said. I turned to look at the man whom she called father. As I saw his picture, my mind tried to remember where I saw him and indeed it has proven something I never thought I would come face to face with.

I bowed at the image that was right in front of me. Gave my respect to the man who was the father of the woman I love. A dear friend. A fighter until the end.

The man was Kim Eui Song. The man was one of the bravest I knew, who never backed down even to the point of death.

The man whom I could have saved from the evil hands of the people who were my colleagues. The man who was brave enough to uncover the secrets that lied within the system I previously worked with.

I never realized a tear that fell from my eyes, until Yeonssi asked me what was wrong.

'Are you okay?' It was her turn to throw the question to me that I have been asking her since this morning.

I turned to look at her, and I smiled sadly. 'Yes, I am. I am just happy to have met him, even if it was this way.'

She smiled, and paid respects to her father likewise. When she was done, she led me to a small bench where we both sat, and we talked about the things that surmised earlier in the day.

'SJ, I don't know how to tell you about this but, I think I know who was following us earlier,' she said. The trembling in her voice was something that I could not dismiss, and I knew then that she was afraid.

'Who was it?' I asked, holding her hand in the process. She held it tight likewise.

'I think those men are the ones who killed my father,' she replied. I wondered where the Yeon Hong I knew who was sure of herself and her wants, when all I could see right now is a little girl fearing something.

'Can you tell me about it?' I asked her, even though I know a thing or two about the connection of what happened.

'Someone killed him,' she said as she looked at her father's picture, without letting go of my hand. 'And I think they know where I was and are now trying to hunt me down.'