You and I | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 2

"Sit there." Yoohyeon calmly ordered the young woman who stared blankly down at her clasped hands.

She stepped back behind the camera and took the camera flash in hand, holding the camera trigger in the other as she counted down from five.

The woman's face looked up slowly as Yoohyeon lowered her last finger and clicked the trigger, illuminating the small room in white light. The woman's eyes briefly lit up in the light, widening in realisation as the flash finished the danger of the situation.

She disappeared from her position on the seat, leaving nothing behind and Yoohyeon straightened, stretching out her back.

"That's done." She smiled briefly and took the box with the roll of film inside out of the camera.

***

Dami, clad in tight white shorts and a laced white shirt, stood from the stone platform with a bored roll of her eyes.

She wandered over to the edge of her confines a  nd touched a hand to the smooth glass surface.

She was trapped in this class cage. Her eyes wandered up along the domed shape of the glass and kicked the side in frustration.

Locked away, forced away and out of her human host.

"How typical of the strong-willed girl!" She raged. "But I'm stronger than a human." Dami tapped the glass. "I will find a way out of this."

***

Carefully, Yoohyeon took the film in its box out of the camera and stepped down back into the main room before heading upstairs to the darkroom.

She knocked once on the door and waited a few seconds for the people inside to say something, but she heard no sound, so she walked in and closed the door again.

"Got the film?" Siyeon looked up from the back table.

"Yes." Yoohyeon replied.

"Great. Handong, start developing it."

Yoohyeon handed the small box containing the film over to her.

She took it to a bench at the side, checking around that the equipment she needed was in an easy to access place.

"Lights are going out." Handong warned. "Neither of you get in my way."

The two of them walked to the plush chairs in the corner of the room and Handong flicked off the wall switch.

The room shifted to complete darkness and the only sounds they could hear was Handong's developing of the film  and her soft tense breaths. The red light above blinked on.

Yoohyeon had time to think once silence enveloped  the room.

There'd been lots of periods where she'd suddenly come to, unsure of where she was and what she'd been doing.

One of the key moments was waking for the first time in this mansion. In an unfamiliar place, with no other memory apart from placing her hand on the mirror at the French mansion.

She had walked the corridors, finding JiU first. She'd been incredibly sympathetic, though she hadn't been sure why, having no idea what had happened during her apparent blackout.

When she had asked what had happened, JiU had sighed, huffed and then wept.

JiU told her what had happened according to what she knew and that she too, had woken in this mansion; a seemingly darker version of the mansion.

From there, Yoohyeon blacked out again, waking as she took the photo of a young woman who promptly disappeared.

Siyeon had then snapped at her "C'mon, get the film out and give it to me, idiot. Don't just stand there like a twerp!"

***

Back in the present, Yoohyeon blinked rapidly as Handong turned the lights back on and poured different solutions into the film tube and regularly agitated and set it down to rest.

Handong looked back at them with a deadpan face as she shook the tube jerkily.

Apparently the jerkiness was a side-effect of dying in the other reality. And she was the one who had done it, though she had no memory.

She finished doing that and took the film out of the tube, unrolling it. "You want to cut it, Siyeon?"

"Of course." Siyeon stood. "Your hands aren't the most steady with a pair of scissors. She rounded the room and stood in front of the lightbox and switched it on, the white light cutting through the red.

Her hand picked up a pair of silver scissors and she pressed the film to the box so she could see which negatives she wanted to cut out. Each cut was a quick slice of the plastic film, finishing with several squares of plastic.

She handed Handong the cut pieces, obviously not trusting her to pick them up herself. She took them to the enlarger, turning out the lights again and letting the red light fill the room again.