HUNTERS || ENHA/LSFM || - A K-pop Ghost Hunting Story

51. Fear

"Nobody's going to die. You've said it time and time again. So I said it again, as well." Sunoo told him, attempting to calm his nerves.

"Nobody's going to die..." Sunghoon repeated in a breath.

Sunoo nodded his head.
"Yes, nobody will."

"Nobody?"
Sunghoon turned to Sunoo, who smiled back at him.

"Nobody. Not a single one of us."

...

Time: 20:13, October 23

"How long shall you dwell on it, Hong Eunchae?"

Eunchae was curled up, sobbing and shaking violently. She couldn't bare the thought of it.
The thought that the spirit was going to kill Sakura and Chaewon.
They were two people she held dear.

And they were going to die at her hands.
Eunchae shook her head, her hands coming up to her ears. She let out a yell of pure desolation, one so heartbroken that even the spirit was slightly taken aback.
But the creature showed no remorse. Just triumph.

"YOU- YOU MONSTER!!! W- WHY!!! WHY!?!?" she cried, her head in her hands.

She couldn't even look up at the spirit.
Her heart felt like it had been split in half and ripped to shreds. The amount of anguish she felt was agonising.
She had lost everything and everyone.
Her friends and herself.

She had nothing.
The spirit had taken everything from her.

"Denial in the face of reality... Everything has changed, Hong Eunchae. Your life might not be over yet, but it will be. Why deny the truth?"

The creature grabbed Eunchae's shoulder, forcing her to look up at it.
Her eyes were tear-filled and bloodshot. All the colour was lost from her lips, and her eyes sagged, all of its cheerful youthfulness lost.

"It's what you've been told, Hong Eunchae..."

The spirit took a moment to recall the words it had said to her in the past.
"'Everyone you care for will die at my hands'... you've heard that one before, haven't you?" it taunted.

Eunchae closed her eyes, taking a hand through her hair.
"No- they can't- they- Sakura... Chaewon..."

The girl had completely lost herself.
As she had lost everything else.

"They will die, Hong Eunchae..." the monster jeered.

She frantically shook her head.
"No, no-"

Eunchae cowered down to the ground, tears flowing from her eyes, muttering the same phrase over and over again.

She was weak.
And her emotions were controlling her.

The spirit spoke to her again, in a voice welled up to the brim with a sadistic felicity.
This was it.
Everything was about to go down in history.
And Eunchae couldn't do anything about it.
It was fate.

"They will die... just like how Garam did."

...

Time: 20:15, October 23

"Up for a spar, Chaewon?"

Sakura glanced at Chaewon, a wooden grey rod in her hand; the sparing swords.
Chaewon looked at Sakura, blinking slightly. Being away for so long, she even had to get used to the luminance of the gym lights again.
To her, everything felt odd again. Like everything needed time to get used to, despite this being their own headquarters.

"A spar?" she inquired.

Sakura nodded at her. She handed Chaewon's dummy sword to her.
"We never got to do this in the past... you know, just the two of us. It's always ever been with the others. And plus, it's good practice."