~JIYONG’S POV~
“Is that supposed to be a joke?” I asked.
She stepped back. “No”
“We had a deal” I gritted. “We made a fucking blood seal!”
“Well, you see. . . .” she trailed. “I kind of chanted some wrong words so the blood seal doesn’t really have any effect” she finished with a laugh.
I should have known better than trust her, believe her. Now everything I worked for, everything I gave up and willing to give up were all for nothing. NOTHING! Dara’s hatred for me and the self disgust I’m feeling ended up with nothing. I failed. I hate myself now more than ever. I clenched my fists tightly at the realization.
“You really are a motherfucking bitch” I slowly said.
“Why?” she asked merrily. “Did you really think I’ll change into a masked shadow? I’m not that stupid to know what you’re trying to do. I perfectly know that only a masked shadow can defeat a masked shadow. I know the real prediction, Jiyong. You can’t fool me”
When she started laughing again, I felt my blood boiled with hatred. It was strangle enticing and poisonous. I loved how the feeling of it consumed my whole being. But Sulli did not pay heed. Instead, she walked past by me. I turned around and found out she was heading towards Dara. She then lifted Dara’s face up. A strange electrifying feeling suddenly shoot up as I saw HER face – she had her eyes closed and there’s a trail of blood at the side of her lips.
“Don’t touch her!” I hissed.
Sulli looked back. “Well, will you look at that, the black and violet smoke around you became more violent. I’m curious, why aren’t you losing control yet? You’re supposed to be out of your right mind already”
“I’m going to kill you”
“Oh, go ahead and try” she rolled her eyes, chuckling.
I suddenly felt heavy, like I’m being made into a stone. I tried to move but when I can’t, it only made me angrier and frustrated. Bloodlust started pumping in my head that it fuelled me up. With a frustrated growl, I mustered some great amount of strength and forcefully moved my feet. When I successfully did that, Sulli took a step back, looking shocked. A warm happy feeling enveloped me when I saw looked uneasy for a moment.
“I will kill you” I hissed and sent angry waves to her direction but she was able to block it. Without having physical contact, we fought. It was more of the mind matter and shadow powers. She was strong, that’s already taken but I won’t let that get to me.
I felt myself being frozen again but I was able to get out of it just like a while ago. I was becoming more and more frustrated as she kept on blocking my attacks. I want to hear her scream from pain already, I want to see her blood stain her white nightdress, I want to see her bleed to death already and I want to wipe her face off.
There was nothing but hatred inside my head, my body, my everything. It drove me senseless that I started losing everything. I felt everything was starting to slip away from me. I’ve lost all reasons, I can’t and don’t understand everything, I can’t and don’t remember anything. I just want to kill her, I just know one emotion as of the moment. And it’s unbelievably pleasurable.
~AUTHOR’S POV~
Unbelievably strong as he was right now, it proved to be useless as Sulli kept on blocking him in every way. But there was this one time that he was able to get close enough to her that he was able to pull some of her hair off, which infuriated the girl more. His body has been thrown to the ceiling, to the wall to the floor over and over again because of it. The body pain didn’t register at all at first but when his strength started waning, like its being sucked off him, he then felt it.
“I’m really getting bored with this” Sulli said, sighing heavily. “I’ll just go and sleep. Call me when your tantrum’s over” she added and started heading towards the door when she suddenly remembered the other guests. She turned around again, planning to finish them all when she stopped dead in her tracks; her smile froze on her face when she saw that they weren’t up against the wall anymore. Her eyes darted to Jiyong, who was still breathing heavily on the floor. Her eyes swept the chamber and saw them at one corner. She hissed under her breath when she found out that Dara’s dead body was not with them. She looked around the chamber again and saw Jaejoong far away from where she was standing. He was kneeling on the floor with her wrists hovering above Dara’s open wound. She could just hear the soft and consistent chants Jaejoong was ushering. The impact of seeing Jaejoong alive exploded in her mind first before the realization that the boy was trying to bring Dara back to life. Anger burst through her system. She screamed angrily and froze everyone in the chamber. She decided that she’ll just have to use the sudden death on everyone so she won’t receive any surprises anymore.
As she was about to do it, the chamber was suddenly veiled with darkness. A high-pitched humming sound then echoed, making Sulli drop to her knees and cover her ears. The sound was making her head pound. Her insides started to turn over painfully in a twisted manner. Her eyes and ears started to bleed while the pounding pain in her head intensified. As it did, she went to hold her head and bend over.
“STOP!” she shrieked in a mixture of fear and anger. But the humming sound continued as well as the soft flapping of wings started to penetrate her ears. “AAARRRGGHHH! I SAID STOP IT! STOP IT NOOOWWW!”
But the darkness went on, the humming sound continued. Sulli curled herself in a ball on the floor, still clutching her head as a throbbing pain hit her now. As if on flashback, every pain and suffering she caused and inflicted on others went back to her tenfold that she started screaming and writhing in agony. She thrashed wildly on the floor as her cries went on and on. Her eyes and ears continued bleeding and as if those weren’t enough, her nose and mouth started bleeding, too.
“MOTHER!” she shrieked. “HELP ME!”
But the pain went on. The agony continued. The suffering didn’t stop. All of it made her weak. The only thing she could do was to scream and scream; to cy and cry; to shriek and shriek. It went on and on until she couldn’t take it anymore, she started begging when she realized no one would come to her rescue. For the first time, a masked shadow started begging.
“MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!”
There was a gentle brush of feathers in her face. Her insides then stopped trembling and all the pain vanished. She sobbed lightly as she thought it was over but two large claws suddenly gripped her face.
“NOO!”
And then, it stopped again. She waited. She waited for all the pain to come back but nothing came. Thinking it’s all over, she started laughing but a low grumbling sounded in her throat instead. She tried to open her eyes – nothing. She tried to open her mouth – nothing. She tried to take a deep breath – nothing. Her hands reached out to her face and a loud scream could have filled the chamber if only she can. With hands trembling heavily, she reached for her eyebrows but she felt nothing. She reached for her eyes – nothing. She reached for her nose and lips – nothing. Her face was blank, like a blank canvass – no eyebrows, no eyes, no nose, and no mouth. It’s as if her face was wiped off, erased. There was nothing on her face but skin. The only consolation to her was her ears. But soon, having ears wasn’t much of a help at all as she started needing air. Since she doesn’t have a nose or mouth anymore, she slowly felt weak. She needed air desperately. She tried every way she could think of but nothing worked. Her body started surrendering to death and then, she was gone.
Meanwhile, the darkness in the chamber lifted as everyone unfroze. As if he wasn’t interrupted, Jaejoong resumed what he was doing.
A large black bird at the middle of the chamber then took the attention of the others. Its dark metallic silver eyes gazed upon Jaejoong’s back, as if waiting for something to happen.
“What’s that?” Seungri asked loudly, not taking notice of Jaejoong and Dara and the slightly hidden corner.
“It looks like a. . . phoenix” CL answered.
“A phoenix?” Seungri echoed. “But why is it black?”
“How would I know?” CL snapped.
Seungri then turned his full attention to her. “Are you alright?” he softly asked, making CL turn red. She looked away and chose not to answer him. her eyes landed on Youngbae who’s cradling Bom’s body tight to him.
“Hey” CL called. “Is she alright?”
“She’s trembling” Youngbae gravely answered. “Sulli must have used a strong force on her and she lost consciousness just a while ago”
A loud moan suddenly broke into their senses. Seungri was the firs tone to notice Jiyong at the far-end wall. Seeing his terrible state, he quickly rushed to his friend, momentarily forgetting about the recent events.
“Jiyong!” Seungri called. “How are you feeling? You’re not gonna die yet, are you?”
“Is. . . Sulli dead?” he weakly asked.
“I really don’t. . . .”
Check her out” Jiyong told him.
“But you-re-“
“Make sure she’s dead” Jiyong hissed.
“Okay, okay” Seungri mumbled and went to where Sulli’s body was lying. As he neared and what’s supposed to be Sulli’s face, he gave a yelp of fright.
“What?” Jiyong called out loud.
“H-her f-f-face. . . .” Seungri trembled.
“Are you really a shadow?” a female voice asked from behind him. “What are you so afraid of?”
“I’m not a coward!” Seungri defended himself. “But look at her face!”
CL turned silent as she finally saw the girl’s face. It scared the hell out of her! “Well. . . .” she cleared her throat. “I think it suits her better. I wonder who did this”
“I don’t know. . . .” Seungri trailed and frowned when his eyes strayed to the silent bird at the center. “Do you think THAT has something to do with this?” he asked CL, nodding at the creature.
“I have no idea” CL shrugged. “I think so. But whoever it is, I’m grateful. At least, Sulli’s dead. We – ya! What are you doing?!” she hissed when she saw Seungri approacjing the black bird.
Sensing Seungri’s presence, the bird turned its eyes on him.
“H-hi” Seungri hesitated. “Err, are you responsible for Sulli’s death?”
No answer came.
“Silence means yes” Seungri continued. “So, err, thank you”
Silence.
“Err, can you turn into human?”
The bird then gave a high-pitched cry.
“Okay, okay” Seungri quickly said and went closer, wanting to touch the bird. Realizing what he was trying to do, the bird gently flapped its wings, sending Seungri flying backwards. He then landed on the floor besides Jiyong.
At a corner, two closed eyes started blinking, followed by a gasp. But before those eyes fully opened, a soft fading whisper was heard, “Dara”
~DARA’S POV~
My head was spinning. I can’t understand the swirl of thoughts running around my mind. I slowly pushed myself and looked around, feeling rather confused. I saw Youngbae not too far from me, cradling someone in his arms. I think its Bom, I’m not really sure since he’s blocking my way. As my eyes wandered, I saw CL hissing at Seungri who seemed to be in pain or something. Then, my eyes went to Jiyong. He was looking back at me too with a pained expression. I guess it came from how badly beaten he looked. Eventhough he looked in a bad state, I found myself not worrying over him so I pulled my eyes away from and chanced upon a black bird at the center. It blinked and gave a low cooing sound.
I blinked and frowned. I couldn’t really stare that long at the bird. I feel like there’s something missing, more like someone actually. I tried to move but I felt something cold and a bit soft in my hand. I looked down and saw an old man’s body turned onto his stomach. I frowned. What’s an old man doing here? I looked at the person wonderingly. His gray hair and badly wrinkled skin looked soft. My frown deepened as I saw that he was skin and bones, his skin was sticking to his bones already. My eyes went to the old man’s clothes. They looked oddly. . . familiar. I tilted my head to the side, trying to remember where I saw it. And then it hit me. everything flashed into my mind like a slide show. I gasped out loud and looked down, my hand automatically went to my stomach. There’s a large hole in my shirt and dry blood at the side. But my skin. . . . it’s as smooth as before, scarless even. I looked at the ‘old man’ again and slowly pushed the person onto his back. My heart froze as I recognized Jae’s gentle face amidst the wrinkles and old face. I looked down at his wrists.
“Oh God” I gasped out loud as my hands went to cup Jae’s wrinkled face. “Jae. . . .” I called brokenly and started shaking him. “Jae, please don’t do this. Don’t leave me. Please, not you too!”
But my cries were left unheard. I pulled his head up and cradled it up in my chest. I kissed his hair and let my tears consumed me once again. I don’t know if I can still survive after receiving so much heartaches from Jiyong and now, Jae’s. . . . dead.
“JAE!” I cried out loud. “Please. . . . Jae. . . . oh God!”
Above my scream came a mournful cry. Despite the pain, I looked up and saw the large black bird spread its wings. As the cry grew louder, the whole place started trembling really hard, as if an earthquake hit the place. Cracks started appearing on the ceiling, walls and on the floor. He bird flapped its wings and gained altitude. A black fire then surrounded it and in just a blink, the bird disappeared.
“The place is going down!” I heard an urgent voice from somewhere.
“Let’s get out of here!” another shouted.
I know I should panic and run for my life right now but I remained in my spot, still cuddling Jae’s head in my arms. I don’t find it in me to save my life. I just want to. . . . I just want to fade away.
“Dara, let’s leave”
“Don’t touch me!” I hissed upon recognizing Jiyong’s voice. I don’t care if he was limping or that he was wounded, badly hurt or badly beaten.
“Dara, don’t be-“
“Leave me alone!” I shrieked.
He straightened up a little and took a step back. “Seungri, Youngbae” he called. “I’ll take CL and Bom out of here. You two take care of Dara and Jaejoong”
“But-“ Youngbae protested.
“Please” he cut off.
The sound of the whole place caving in followed as Youngbae fell silent. After a while, he sighed. “Okay” he answered. “Seungri, come”
“Leave me alone!” I cried as Youngbae and Seungri headed towards me.
o=o=o
When the whole place caved in, we were already out. I can’t recognize the place at all. I can only see trees and hear chirping birds. As of the moment, I don’t really care if I’m in the middle of nowhere. I just kept holding on to Jae’s body. Somehow, I felt happy that I kissed him a while ago, that I told him I love him.
“Dara” I heard Seungri called me. I looked up with angry tears in my eyes.
“Why?” I asked. “Why did you let this happen?!”
“I’m sorry” he mumbled. “I didn’t realize he was. . . . there were too many things going on down there. . . .”
“YOU SHOULDN’T HAVE LET HIM!” I screamed, standing angrily on my feet. “YOU SHOULD HAVE LET ME DIE, NOT HIM!”
“Dara, it’s-“
“You shouldn’t have. . . .” I cried weakly. He pulled me in his arms and hugged me tight as I started beating my fists on his chest. “He can’t die. . . he can’t. . . he shouldn’t have sacrificed himself. . . .”
“He loves you” he said.
“HE SHOULDN’T HAVE!” I screamed, pushing him away. “HE SHOULDN’T HAVE LOVED SOMEONE LIKE ME! ALL I EVER DID WAS CHEAT ON HIM! I CHOSE. . . I CHOSE AN EVIL PERSON OVER HIM! HE SHOULD HAVE STOPPED LOVING ME WHEN I BROKE UP WITH HIM!”
“You know love doesn’t work that way” he calmly said.
“THEN HOW DOES IT WORK?!” I went on. “TELL ME!”
“Dara, you know that-“
“NO!” I cut off. “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT LOVE! I THOUGHT I DID! BUT ALL I EVER GOT FROM THAT NO GOOD, EVIL FRIEND OF YOURS IS NOTHING BUT PAIN!”
“You can’t talk like that” I heard Bom weakly said. I glanced at her and saw that she was being supported by Youngbae on her feet. “You don’t know what Jiyong-“
“I DON’T CARE!” I screamed.
“Dara, you-“
“Bom, drop it off” a calm voice joined in.
“Yes, drop it off, Bom!” I hissed. “Stop defending him! He’s not worth defending! I just realized that today”
“I never asked you to defend me before, Dara” Jiyong continued in that irritably calm voice.
“Yes, you never did!” I came. “That’s why I feel awful! I regret defending you to my parents and to everyone else! All of them were right. You’re nothing but a murderer, a criminal! You’re heartless! You’re cruel and evil! Even your mother said you’re the best liat there ever is. And she’s right. All the things you showed me before were all LIES! The Kwon Jiyong I thought I knew was just an act!”
Silence followed my outburst. I tried to calm myself down but I failed. I glanced at everyone else and found out there had all their heads bowed.
“All I ever did was love you, Jiyong” I then quietly whispered. “I can’t understand why you have to hurt me like this in exchange of being a masked shadow”
“It’s not like that!” he snapped angrily.
“Then why?!” I burst out. “Why?”
I waited for him to answer but when he remained silent, I shook my head in dismay.
“If all of these came from you wanting to shoo me away, well congratulations because you succeeded. Right now, I don’t feel anything except hatred towards you. You heard that? I hate you! I despise you! I loathe you and you disgust me!”
When he remained still and silent, I suddenly exploded and went to slap, hit and scratch every part of him I could reach. Still, he didn’t move and it only made me angrier. I then felt two arms around my waist. I started thrashing wildly.
“Let me go! Let me go!” I shrieked.
“Let her be” Jiyong quietly said.
“Jiyong, you’re already beaten up” Youngbae’s familiar voice entered my ears. This irritated me. How could Youngbae sound so concern with Jiyong? Didn’t he saw what KWON JIYONG did? But I guess birds of the same feather, flocks together, LITERALLY.
“I HATE YOU!” I screamed at Jiyong, still trying to get away from Youngbae’s hold. “I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!”
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*a/n: ok, just like some of you pointed out, 'why use a tool/instrument to kill Dara?'
if you remember at some point of this story, the shadows can have healing abilities but only limited to some people. in order to do that, there must be an open wound of some sort, so yeah. . . . but in this case, well. . . . hehe
nyahahahahaha.. CAN YOU GUYS SMELL/SENSE SOMETHING? lol
