Dressed in Feathers | K.TH FF

2: The End...?

Even a few days after lunch with the gracious and generous stranger, I still couldn't comprehend how gorgeous and beautiful he was. He was like a constant flashback in my mind, a leaching memory. His handsome image was a thread that wouldn't cut.

However, I caught a bad fever. I wasn't surprised at this point. I knew I was due for another one eventually. I even had to call out sick for how bad it was.

My fever was all part of my condition; a symptom of my AML, a type of blood cancer. Because of my cancer, I've been trying to live my life the best I can. The mysterious man's hope about me staying well and healthy in the future was already depleting.

I could only hope that I survive this fever. There's still faith resonating inside of me.

I'd taken some pills to help with my congestion, sore throat, headaches, and all that jolly good stuff. NOT. They were helping, but I still felt blegh.

I had some leftover coconut chicken curry for dinner, but I wasn't very hungry, so I didn't have a lot. I barely had an appetite because of my stupid fever. Only a few times each miserable day I snacked for something to eat, but I didn't have any actual meals. I snacked on whatever I had in the kitchen.

After finishing my curry snack and leaving the rinsed out dish in the sink for future me to clean up because I didn't feel like doing anything at all from how exhausted I was, I left the kitchen into the hallway to go to bed.

(From here, I would recommend you play the MDP orchestral cover of "Tear (Haunting Vibe Mix)" provided at the top for scenic vibes.)

Before I reached the door, my vision fogged and blurred. I couldn't hear my steps anymore—my hearing was fading in and out. My body suddenly felt heavy and I had a hard time carrying myself.

My muscles gave out and I collapsed to the floor in front of my bedroom door, my sense of hearing dead and my blackening vision catching a very fuzzy glimpse of someone in a black cloak with the hood up and a boney-looking mask—similar to a European plague doctor's mask, but not quite.

Author's POV

The mysterious cloaked figure knelt down to poor Gyeowool and reached a hand out to her with an open palm, not touching her. A blue and green, pulsating orb with a bright core excreted from her torso and hovered above the figure's hand.

The figure stuffed the glowing orb into a pouch under their cloak, then levitated off the floor and phased through the walls and ceiling, flying up into the black night sky and hovering high above the country of South Korea.

The illuminating, pulsating orb the figure had taken slipped out of their pouch, expanding into a female stature, taking Gyeowool's form.

Gyeowool's POV

I saw it clearly now. Or them...? One of the two.

Is it the same thing I saw when I fainted?

The strange person in front of me was wearing a mask like a crow's skull, but not entirely. Or was it shaped like a raven? I couldn't tell the difference between the two. The point was that the boney-looking mask appeared to be skull-like. The beak was wide and low enough to cover the entire bottom half of the face.

Of course, the mask covered the entire face, so I couldn't see who was hiding under it. Even the eyes weren't familiar to me. It was too dark to see them.

The cloak looked to be made of crow or raven feathers, from the very tip of the hood to the very bottom that draped over the feet. It was beautiful. I couldn't see anything behind it. It covered every inch of the body.

The feather cloak and bird mask was an intriguing, yet terrifying combination. It only made the person even more mysterious by the second.

As soon as I looked down, my heart and chest was so struck with fear that I suddenly felt heavy. Stars were beneath my feet. ...no... Not stars... Lights. City lights. There was a moonlit ocean, too.

I screamed.

My instinct had no hesitation to latch onto the strange figure for safety. Clinging to their body helped me feel safer, but barely.

The figure held me securely, as if they were protecting me. After a moment had passed, they carefully removed their arms and gently, yet slowly pushed me away from their body. When I saw their masked face again, still freaking out and panicking, they hovered their finger over what I assumed was supposed to be their mouth, signaling me to be quiet.

Staring into the person's eyes, they were dead, yet lively somehow; dull with a spark. They were calm, dark pools. The longer I gazed, the more relaxed I became. I didn't know how I was able to see their sharp eyes in the dark, but I could.

The figure signaled me to calm down with their hands, still keeping silent. Not sure how I was able to understand that, but I did. They pointed at me, then at themself and flew around in front of me like Peter Pan. After that, they pointed north.

It... wants me to go north...? Flying... together?

They gently took my wrist and went the way they pointed. I had no idea what was happening. Was I flying? It felt too much like a dream.

In about a minute or so, the environment was getting snowy.

Winter? In the middle of summer??

Ahead of us were colossal mountain peaks covered in thick white sheets of snow and ice.

The figure flew toward one. I thought we were going to ram straight into it.

"W-WAIT!!" I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to know what was going to happen next.