Into the Pages

Chapter 4

Christina was finally able to push the door open, trailing blood from her boots and claws. "They just had to push my buttons," She muttered in English as she forced the door closed. "Hello?" She called out in Korean. The room stunk of blood to the point that drools pooled in her mouth, and she covered her nose. She turned back to see the man leaning against the statue. "Hey? Where's the woman?" He remained silent. "Can you—"

A loud scream came from the darkness as the woman in the hanbok charged at her with a dagger. Without averting her gaze, she grabbed onto the human's wrist and twisted her arm behind her back, snatching the blade from her grasp. "You killed him! You killed him!"

"It's me, you crazy woman! Killed who?" The woman finally took a breath to see who stood in front of her, her hair in a wild mess that covered her face, before she finally collapsed to the ground, tears streaming down to the floor.

Whatever strength she had given out. Her voice cracked from the sorrow. "He's dead!" She sobbed, clutching her face as she cried. The brunette looked at the limp body and then back to the broken girl. Slowly squatting down to her level, she rubbed the crying woman's shoulder while offering condolences. "They killed him! And they're coming after me!"

"No, they're not."

"These people are deranged and relentless. They won't stop chasing me until I'm back with them or die. They killed him. Now they'll come after me!"

"No one's coming after you,"

"You don't understand. They will hunt me down till the ends of the earth. They found me once. Even if you delay a few of them, they'll find me again."

Christina's eyebrows knitted slightly as her head twitched to the side. "Was that not all of them?"

The woman shook her head as she tried to gather the strength to speak. "No. Just a messenger group of my fake aunts and uncles," Not once did she raise her head as she wiped her tears.

"Well, they're dead," she bluntly declared before she grabbed her bag. "They tried to kill me when I told them to leave you alone. They called you Sana,"

"That's the name they gave me," the woman confessed bitterly.

"For some reason, they thought I was—" Christina's golden eyes went wide as she jolted back from shock. For the first time, she saw the woman's face. Rounded features a heart-shaped head, large eyes, a button nose, and sweet lips. An exact match to her own. However, her skin was porcelain, smooth and scarless, and her hair was as dark as the night sky missing the stars. "Why do you...? You know what? I don't want to know," she declared in Korean. "Where are we? How did I get here?"

"We are in the country of Saiga. West to Asan. East to Mukina. We found you in the woods, injured. When we saw your face, we couldn't believe it ourselves. This temple is...was the home we shared together. Our home is at the top of the stairs," The woman looked up to see the stairs spiraling to a door in what she thought was the ceiling.

Saiga? Asan? Mukina? No wonder this all feels familiar. 'The Life of the Dragon Priestess.' I'm trapped in the book Kane gave me! That superstitious, Irish bastard! she cursed to herself before she reached into her hanbok coat. The map 'Sana' pulled her out confirmed it all. 'You have got to be fucking kidding me.' She remembered a passage she had read.

[As the priestess rested her weary body against the stature of Saige's proud religion, she stared down at a detailed map of the continent. Mukina, Saiga, and Asan. Their borders are drawn clearly with colored detail to the land. Her goal: Haswell. The capital of Asan. The letters her captors tried to hide from her revealed that is where she was from. That is where she shall go.]