maze in the mirror

insatiable pain

soobin wakes up with a jolt to see yeonjun curled up next to him on the floor.
Rubbing his eyes, he slowly stands up and looks around him.
He was in some sort of destroyed world, rubble and dirt flying through the air and all over the floor as if a building collapsed.
But most surprising was the sky.
It was colored with the most vibrant and beautiful hues of purple.

Soobin turns around to wake yeonjun up, but he wasn't there anymore.
Out of nowhere the voice of the cat is heard again. "Well, I guess it's finally time. Time for this to be all over. Mostly." the cat goes on about enjoying our pain but warning us to be careful but soobin wasn't hearing any of that.

Because out from the rubble infront of him was emerging the biggest living creature he had ever seen, a dragon to be exact.
Its scales glinting like polished stones and its sharp teeth and talons ready to tear into the flesh of anything that got in its way.
He slowly takes a few steps back, but the dragon didn't seem to be looking at him, instead of at someone that was far from soobin's left. After a second glance, he realizes that it's yeonjun, holding some sort of sword in his hand. The dragon opens her mouth, but instead of a roar, the voice of the cat came out. This time, less distorted and more feminine. "This is your final challenge yeonjun. Show me your worth. Fight and kill me, and you will save you and your lover.
Fail to do so, and you will both die. And the rest of your human species will share the same fate of death."

moments later, it lunges at yeonjun, and soobin attempts to run forward but is stopped by a sort of glass box surrounding him.

point of view of yeonjun

I look down to see a sword in my hand.
It was in similar colors as the dragon, purple, red, and a green stone in the middle to match her green eyes.

I was too busy staring wide-eyed at the sword that I didn't notice the dragon lunge forward and I was way too late to move away. I feel the impact of the hit and hear my ribs break before I realize what had happened.

I get flung to the right and hit the ground hard on my side, clutching my stomach in agony. From the distance, I hear soobin yelling, but I was too weak to look up.
Why did she have to make him watch this?

I slowly open my eyes and flinch when I see the dragon in my face, her hot breath wafting over my face, smelling of rotting flesh. I squeeze my eyes shut, waiting for her to kill me.

Waiting for me to be finally released from life but instead, I feel my soul pulling out from my body and into the dragon.

yeonjun in the mind of the cat

I sulk around the alleyways of the city looking around for any sort of scraps I could eat.
My previously shiny fur was now matted with dirt and my blood.

Out of nowhere I was being lifted and thrown back onto the ground. I lift my head to see some of the younger boys of this city here to abuse me again. Almost every day, they would pick up weaker stray animals and hurt them, most likely to prove themselves to the other boys.

They go about as they usually do, kicking me around and such, laughing whenever I cried out in pain.
Humans.
Oh how much I despised them.

Suddenly, the boys were shooed away, and in their place, an older man picked me up and carried me to his house.

Every day since then, I lived with that man. He wasn't particularly kind, nor particularly hurtful.
He was special though.
That I knew as soon as I reached his home. He was a magician.
And through that magic he could communicate with me.

Over this time, my hate for the human race grew until I could bear it no longer, and was greedy for revenge.

I told the man about it, but instead of stopping me as I assumed he would, he encouraged me.

And he offered me a proposal.
If I would promise to torture the human race as much as I possibly could, he would grant me the powers to do so.
Upon asking him why he would help me take down his own people, he replied by saying that he too hated humans just as much as i.

After accepting his proposal, I grew my abilities and sought out a plan. And from there I had small test subjects.
Humans who were desperate enough to want to travel to the past or the future. Then I would take what they owe to me. Either by being tortured and stealing their emotions, or watching them suffer.

I knew I was supposed to be enjoying hurting my enemies.
But it was taking its toll on me.
I was starting to lose my lust for killing.

Yeonjun gasps, slowly returning to the real world.
He looked up at the dragon -or the cat actually- with newfound understanding.
But from her eyes, he could see the deep pain and loss in it.

And at that exact moment, both yeonjun and the cat stared up into each other's eyes, and they both slowly accepted and longed for death.

But the cat was more cunning and still had enough murderous intent.

And almost as if in slow motion, it swiped its claws, aiming at yeonjun one last time.

But yeonjun didn't feel the impact of the hit.

Instead, he was pushed softly to the floor as soobin intercepted infront of him, taking the blow.

And the last thing yeonjun felt was soobin's blood trickling around him into puddles before everything exploded.

okayyy so i hoped you enjoyed this chapterrr there's only around two-ish more left so be sure to look out for those because they will be coming out soon!

and as always, thank you for reading!