From Satan with Love (bxb)

Chapter 14 Body of Elam

For the first time in a very long time, Leon dreamt of his mother. He was in his childhood house in Bergamo, yet Leon was no longer a child but his grown-up self. It felt like he had lived in the house his entire life and never had to leave.

The lace curtain danced lazily with the warm breeze, and the amber-coloured gloaming light poured through the window and splashed a dappled yellow puddle on the wood floor. The air was fermented with the scent of rose, lavender, and baked bread's milky aroma. Leon was sitting at the dinner table in the kitchen, grading a student's paper on his laptop. Apparently he was an associate professor in the dream.

Young-jin was lying on the couch in the living room, listening to music while reading a book. His complexion was rosy and healthy.

And then someone knocked on the door.

"Young-jin? Can you get it!" Leon shouted.

No one answered. The music was probably too loud for Young-jin to register his shouting. Leon sighed in annoyance, walked past the living room, knocked Young-jin's headphones off on his way, eliciting his brother's angry protest, and then pulled the front door open.

His mother, Jung Seolhee, was standing in the warm afternoon sunlight. Her aged yet still beautiful face was radiant with ethereal beauty. She was carrying two fully loaded shopping bags, seeming to have just returned from grocery stores.

"I forgot the key." She said apologetically.

"Why did you buy so much stuff? We still have a lot of food in the fridge!" Leon instantly took over the two heavy bags.

"Your father is coming back tonight. I want to make his favourite gamja-tang and samgyeopsal."

"You spoil him too much. He should be cooking you dinner." Leon turned back and took a few steps toward the kitchen, yet he noticed his mom didn't follow.

"What are you waiting for?" Leon asked quizzically.

"Can I come in?" Seolhee asked with a gentle smile.

"Of Cour—" He couldn't finish answering when another voice suddenly interjected, "No! Don't let her in!"

Leon was startled. He turned around and saw Angel standing in the living room.

Leon blinked, finding it a little strange that Angel was in his house.

"Don't let her in. She is not your mom." Angel said gravely.

Leon frowned, "What do you mean?"

"Nae adeul..." Leon's mother's voice sounded...different. He looked back, and his heart froze in a familiar horror.

Seolhee was still standing at the doorway, but she was now wearing a dirty psychiatry ward uniform, her once silky black hair now dishevelled and matted in dirt and sweat. A kitchen knife stuck in her chest. Blood drenched her clothes and continued to pool under her bare feet.

Her once beautiful face was now distorted in an unnatural, ear-to-ear grin, and her eyes were two lightless black holes.

"Let me in, nae adeul." She commanded in a raw, menacing voice.

"No..." Leon felt he couldn't breathe, and his body was petrified in primal fear. He felt like he had been thrown back to that fateful night that had changed and shaped who he was today.

"LET ME IN!!!!" The mother screamed. The shriek was so sharp and high-pitched that it no longer sounded human.

In overwhelming terror, someone suddenly grabbed his hand tightly. Leon looked at his side and fell into Angel's crystalline irises.