𝐂 𝐀 𝐌 𝐁 𝐈 𝐎 𝐍 | ᴀᴛᴇᴇᴢ [𝘴𝘦𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘐𝘯𝘤𝘶𝘣𝘶𝘴]

𝐗𝐗𝐗𝐈𝐗 - 𝐄 𝐏 𝐈 𝐋 𝐎 𝐆 𝐔 𝐄

Seonghwa's body was crumbling into grey ashes in front of Areum's eyes, however, she couldn't bring herself to celebrate, maybe because she had no reason to do that: Hee-Young was nowhere to be seen and the same thing went for Jongho and Wooyoung; Mingi was lying on the floor defenceless and, last but not least, her husband was dead with a splinter that she had placed in his heart.

What brought her attention back to the demon were his claws piercing her skin, puncturing it to the point where a tiny and thin rivulet of blood escaped to run down the length of her neck, reaching the collar of her t-shirt. Without losing the connection with her eyes, Seonghwa placed his forehead against hers and started murmuring words and sentences that had no meaning, to Areum, since they were pronounced in an unknown or obsolete language, probably Latin.

When he completed what sounded like a prayer, he slowly created some distance between him and Areum, before pronouncing one last sentence, this time, to the woman's dismay, she understood every single word of it.

"We'll meet again, kitten. I'll be waiting for you."

And with that being said, he crumbled on her knees, the warm ash almost burned through the fabric of her trousers.

Was it the end?

It was, right?

If it was, where was that sort of magical smoke that years ago had fixed everything? Why weren't Mingi and San waking up as if nothing had happened?

The sudden silence was deafening, now that Seonghwa was finally gone. The only sound was coming from her blood that was flowing through her veins and droning in her ears. Hongjoong rushed towards Areum, his place face was reflecting the red light of the neon sign coming from the hospital.

"Areum! Are you okay?"

Screamed Hongjoong as soon as he realised that the demon was finally gone. His feet seemed to have been planted to the ground by the fear and, to him when he moved them, it felt just like a tree getting uprooted. The male dashed towards Areum, who was now staring at her hands that had killed her husband and, despite not being dirty at all, she could see them dripping with the blood of the person she loved the most. Hongjoong's voice reached her ears padded and far away, while he was actually a few meters from her. In her mind, there was only one sentence repeating itself like a broken record.

I killed him.

I killed San.

I killed the man I swore to love for the rest of my life.

Hongjoong only by looking at her pale profile could understand her thoughts, reading them as if they were levitating above her head. After a couple of times blinking, the male's sight became blurry as he quickly approached his friend. Soon, his knees gave up under his weight and found himself on the ground with both of his arms in front of him to avoid falling on his face. Hongjoong was feeling weirdly weak, his head was dizzy and could feel the lethargy on the back of his throat. His surroundings were spinning and his sight was blurry if he could've walked he would've had no idea where he was going.