Chapter 13: Haunted Echoes

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Yeji's Pov:

I just have been too stressed with work these days and the counter with the murderers at the hospital has just made it even more frustrating. And on top of that I'm getting vivid flash backs more often ever since I tried to find out more about Hyunjin.

I sigh and turn off my table lamp and get ready to go to bed.

As I lay on the bed I get a notification. I check it and it's from Ryujin...... Oh right the girl I met at the graveyard.

Ryujin

Heyy still up?

Yep, are you okay now?

Better :) sorry to text you this late btw

No worries. What's up?

Just wanted to check on you. You seemed really stressed when we met.

Yeah, work has been a lot lately. But I manage.

I get that. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here.

Thanks, Ryujin. That means a lot. How about you? How have you been?

Pretty good, just busy with some personal stuff.

Anything you'd like to share? I'm a good listener too.

Maybe someday. For now, just take care of yourself, okay? You deserve a break.

I'll try. Thanks for reaching out, Ryujin. It was nice talking to you.

Same here, Yeji. Sleep well.

Goodnight, Ryujin

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I feel a bit lighter after our conversation. It's nice to know that someone cares about me, even if we barely know each other. With a small smile, I close my eyes and try to get some much-needed rest.

As I drift into sleep, the weight of the day finally lifting off my shoulders, I find myself in the middle of a nightmare.

In the nightmare, the storm is ferocious, each clap of thunder shaking the car, and the rain slashing against the windows like a relentless torrent. The car's headlights barely penetrate the thick curtain of rain, casting eerie, fleeting glimpses of the winding mountain road.

I sit in the backseat, my small hands clutching a stuffed animal to my chest. My father, normally calm and composed, looks strained, his eyes darting nervously between the road and the rearview mirror. My mother's hand rests on his arm, her knuckles pale with the force of her grip. She turns to look at me, her eyes wide with fear, but she tries to smile reassuringly.

Beside me are the two boys, one my age and the other younger. They sit silently, their faces blurred, their identities just out of reach. Despite the chaos, I feel an instinctual bond with them, a sense that they are important, but I can't grasp why.

Suddenly, the car starts to slide on the slick road. My father's desperate attempts to control the vehicle are futile as it fishtails dangerously close to the edge of the mountain. A deafening roar fills the air, and I look up to see a massive wall of mud and rocks hurtling down towards us.

"Hold on!" my father shouts, but his voice is drowned out by the sound of the landslide.

The car is hit with brutal force, spinning and tumbling off the road. My mother's scream pierces through the cacophony, a sound of pure terror that chills me to my core. I feel the world turn upside down as we roll over and over, each impact jarring and painful. My head hits something hard, and stars explode in my vision.

Amidst the chaos, I catch glimpses of my parents' faces, contorted with fear and helplessness. The boys beside me remain silent shadows, their faces blurred and unrecognizable, their identities lost in the storm. The car finally comes to a halt, landing on its side with a shuddering crash.

For a moment, there is silence, broken only by the steady drumming of rain and the distant rumble of thunder. My head throbs, and I can feel the cold seep into my bones. I try to move, but my body feels heavy and unresponsive. I call out for my parents, my voice weak and trembling.

"Mom... Dad..."

There is no response, only the eerie silence of the aftermath.

"Hyu...Ni.." I again tried to call out for someone but couldn't.

My vision blurs as tears fill my eyes, and I am left alone in the wreckage, the faces of my parents the last clear images before everything fades to black.

With a start, I wake up, my body drenched in sweat and my heart pounding in my chest. The nightmare lingers, the vivid images of the storm, the landslide, and my parents' terrified faces seared into my mind. The blurred faces of the boys haunt me, a mystery wrapped in the shadows of my past.

I wake up with a small headache and disordered visions, the remnants of the nightmare still clinging to my mind. My room feels strangely disorienting, the shadows cast by the early morning light playing tricks on my senses. I sit up slowly, trying to shake off the lingering fear and confusion.

The images from the dream flash before my eyes: the storm, the landslide, my parents' terrified faces. My head throbs as I try to piece together the fragments of the nightmare. The blurred faces of the boys in the car haunt me, their identities slipping through my grasp like sand through my fingers.

I rub my temples, willing the headache to subside. The vividness of the dream has left me rattled, the lines between reality and nightmare still blurry. I take deep breaths, trying to ground myself in the present, but the echoes of the past refuse to fade.

The memory of my parents' faces, so full of fear, sends a shiver down my spine. The boys' blurred faces gnaw at me, a puzzle I can't solve. I wonder who they were and why I can't remember them clearly. The questions swirl in my mind, adding to my growing sense of unease.

I force myself to get out of bed, hoping that a change of scenery will help clear my head. As I move through my morning routine, the headache gradually subsides, but the disordered visions linger, a constant reminder of the nightmare that felt all too real.

I can't shake the feeling that the dream was more than just a random nightmare. It felt like a piece of a larger puzzle, one that I need to solve to make sense of my past. The headache might fade, but the questions it has stirred up won't be so easily dismissed.

As I go through my morning routine, the remnants of the nightmare cling to me, refusing to let go. The headache is fading, but the disordered visions and unsettling feelings linger. I don't even know why I'm getting these nightmares; I've never been in a car accident, and my father died in a war when I was very young.

The confusion deepens as I try to make sense of the dream. My father died a hero, fighting for our country, not in some tragic car accident during a thunderstorm. My mother has never mentioned anything about an accident or landslide. So why do these images feel so real, so vivid?

I splash cold water on my face, hoping to clear my mind. The memory of my father's death is already painful enough without these inexplicable nightmares. My father was a soldier, brave and steadfast, and he lost his life on the battlefield. These dreams of a car accident with him behind the wheel make no sense at all.

I sit down at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, staring at the steam rising from the mug. My thoughts are a jumbled mess of memories and dreams, the lines between reality and imagination blurring. The blurred faces of the boys in the car haunt me, their identities just out of reach, adding to my growing frustration.

I decide to call my mother later to see if she can shed any light on these disturbing dreams. Maybe there's something from my early childhood that I've forgotten, some event that might explain why my subconscious is conjuring up these scenes. For now, I need to focus on the day ahead and try to push the nightmare to the back of my mind.

As I prepare to leave for work, the questions continue to swirl in my mind. Why am I having these nightmares? What do they mean? And who were those boys in the car? I can't shake the feeling that there's something important I'm missing, some piece of my past that holds the key to understanding these disturbing visions.

Unevitable | Ryeji |Where stories live. Discover now