You and I | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 3

It's her fault.

That's what she sincerely believed. That's why they were stuck here.

It made her feel sick and lethargic to constantly pushed between the conflicting sides of her and she seemed to be the only one aware of her two sides.

JiU may be the only other one like her, yet she always seemed more...normal. But also infinitely worried.

Hidden in her different corners of corridors, SuA had observed JiU many a time wandering the corridors, running along the corridors, crying in the corridors, screaming in the corridors.

Not once had she wanted to comfort her, caught up in her own consuming emotions.

Selfish. That was the word that came to her mind every second, attacking her thoughts relentlessly and she was stuck in the consuming guilt that the situation they were stuck in was all her fault.

So easily, she had been fooled by her sister on that walk into the woods, letting her docile self be dragged further into the woods and through the clingy white fog.

The fog had been scary, but without any hesitation, Siyeon had pulled her into it with sweet reassurances.

SuA had awoken staring up through a window at a melancholy Handong.

Gahyeon had been holding her hand with a slight grin as Handong started in horror, meeting eyes with SuA.

SuA opened her mouth to speak, but Handong was already gone.

She had turned to Gahyeon, who turned to her as well and smiled broadly.

"Gahyeon?" She said in an unsure tone, but Gahyeon continued to smile without reacting to her voice.

Though she woke again and again, SuA found she could do nothing of use, having no idea what was happening.

She had been the leader, the one to turn to for help whenever the girls felt a little low.

And it wasn't as if she 'awoke' every time, she became aware of what was happening in the frequent times of when her body wasn't hers and watching through her eyes as the most indescribable horrible things happened.

SuA had been in control as Yoohyeon plodded slowly to meet JiU, intent on the act of closing the gates.

She had been awake. So she then tried to fight back against whatever was ruining her and her friends, running after Yoohyeon, who was now only a few metres from the oblivious JiU.

Yet again she had failed, tripping on the rough gravel just as JiU turned from the gates and she sprawled without dignity as the world fell away beneath her. 

It was only her infallible spirit to protect her from falling into the darkness like the others. She had kept it, even now. But that spirit of fire inside her couldn't stop that doubt and guilt.

She was the failure, the one who hadn't prevented the irksome tragedy which had befallen the seven of them.

***

JiU walked down the corridor, silently growing more maddened by the repetitiveness of every day.

It was also hard to tell when a day had passed and a day had ended - Outside of the windows, only blinding rain smashing down on the windows could be seen and through that, there were only clouds of thick fog. 

A spinning top. It looked to be made of brass, skilfully carved with intricate engravings in the hollowed middle. The top spun at a stationary point on top of a small circular platform made of the same metal.

It showed no sign of stopping, though she watched it for a couple of minutes to see whether it would topple.

One thing was certain, it should never be allowed to stop or bad, bad irreversible things would occur.