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Chapter 25

Humming resonated down the hallway which pulled me from my sleep. I sat up groggily, fully focused on the humming. It was an electrical hum. I figured that Yeosang must have stayed up again to work on connecting stuff. I scanned around the room.

All three other beddings were taken up.

It seemed that Yeosang decided to crash in here. If he was here then what’s the humming noise?

I slid out from my covers, hissing a little when my feet touched the cold floor. I slowly and shakily stood up and crept out of the room to peer down the hallway in both directions. A faint blue glow spilt from my office room, akin to bioluminescence. I couldn’t sense any other presence nearby so I slipped into the room to satisfy my curiosity. 

The source of the glow came from the cabinet at the back of the room. It was the same one that I was told not to open. Curiosity got the best of me (as it should) and I strode up to it, carefully and quietly sliding the drawer out. I peeped into the half opened drawer.

The drawer was barren other than an hourglass that sat in the middle. The electric sensation that danced around my fingertips returned and this time caused my wrists to tingle. I heard distant calls coming from the object. Some of desperation, some of loathing and others longing. The whispers swirled and mixed together, drawing me in. I hadn’t realised that I brought my hand up to touch the hourglass before it was tightly gripped and wrenched away. My body followed and I spun around to meet a furious captain. 

The drawer had been slammed shut once again. Hongjoong dragged me to the middle of the room and forced me down into a chair. He turned on the light and I shielded my eyes away from the light. In the process, pens were knocked off the table. Rage was barely restrained with eyes burning into my head as I leaned down to pick up the pens. The tingling in my hand remained as well as the glow emitted from the hourglass. 

“Mind telling me why you are awake?” 

I hesitated a bit and played with a pen in hand. I could still hear the whispers from the cabinet though they were more muffled. How was I going to explain it without sounding insane? Either way the captain was getting impatient and the ice was dangerously thinning. 

I can hear it. 

The captain’s eyebrow furrowed. He moved closer but stood motionless. 

Crying, yelling, screaming, I hear all of it. 

In a split second, surprise passed through his features. He turned around and re-opened the drawer, producing the hourglass in hand. I could see it clearly in the open. The curves of glass were encased by three vertical columns that all met at an apex. Inside, a murky swirl of mist replaced the sand that was normally held within. He placed the hourglass in front of me and I stared into it, the whispering growing louder yet undisturbed.

It was cool to touch. The tingling ran up my arm and circled around my body. There was an instant click in my mind and a connection with the hourglass. I held it up, watching the swirls float in my grasp. The glow from the hourglass pulsed under my palms and I peered at the violent shaking of the swirls.

A new image had formed. It was a figure holding a bow, the arrow fletched onto the taut string. I placed the hourglass down on the table, completely mesmerised by the wisps of mist that encircled the image. The cries grew louder, now thrumming at the back of my throat as if they were my own, and yet, I made no sound.

Shock flitted across the captain’s face as he stared at the image in the hourglass. The shaking from the mist dissipated the image, leaving a translucent film of grey. Whispers from the hourglass hushed, leaving only those that called urgently to linger. I pulled my eyes away from the hourglass to inspect the captain’s reaction closely. It occurred to me that he trusted me and knew more than what he led on. He could hear my silent questions from a distance but didn’t make the move to answer them.