daybreak || minsung

Chapter 25

The fire didn't stop. It burned through my body bit by bit, slowly setting each atom aflame. It only got worse. Every time I thought it was subsiding, releasing me, it just came back — and the intensity crippled me each and every time.

Jisung told me it would speed up the process, biting me, injecting more venom into my system. Chan and Felix had bitten me as well.

After that, I had been moved to Jisung's bedroom. Jisung stayed with me — even as I screamed and sobbed and thrashed around for hours on end.

He talked to me. He told me that he didn't want this for me, that he was sorry it happened this way, that he wished I could have made the decision for myself. He asked if I liked it when he talked, and I reached out to him — my arm shaking and twitching. He took my hand and held it to his lips.

He decided to tell me our family's stories. I didn't know if the others were in the room for it — I was only focussed on him. Everything not focussed on him was consumed by fire.

"Chan was a farmer," he told me. "His father — a religious man, with a vendetta against evils Chan thought non-existent — ordered him to join a raid on an alleged vampire den. Chan went off on his own, rebellious, and was bitten, all but torn apart. He knew, if his father or anyone else from the raid found him like that, they would kill him.

"He hid himself. He changed, experiencing the pain you're experiencing now — only alone, stifling his crying and screaming to avoid being caught.

"After the change, he couldn't see his family again. He always says that walking away from his old life was painful — worse than the pain of changing — but it was also freeing, in an odd way. Finally, life was something he could create for himself.

"He was still tremendously unhappy, lonely, slogging through decades without ever really knowing anyone. His passion was helping people, healing people — it was all he wanted. It became a bit of an obsession, practicing control over his thirst. He knew he could reach more people if he could handle the smell of human blood.

"That was all his life was, for a while.

"And then he heard a heart in distress. He found a man's waterlogged body lying on a beach — Haseong's body. He wouldn't survive as a human.

"Chan was nervous. He was sure in his stability around blood, but he'd never turned a human before, hadn't even tried. He nearly walked away, fear overpowering his desire to do good, to help this guy on the edge of death."

Jisung's lips twitched into a tired smile, an emotion like pride on his face. "Chan is... good. He's truly good, and his passion was stronger than his fear.

"So... he finally had a friend. More than that. It didn't take Chan and Haseong long to fall in love. They felt as if they were made for one another, fated, like lost souls coming together again.

"More stories, love?"

My answer was a strained, trembling sound that hurt my stripped-raw throat.

He kept rubbing and petting my legs as he continued.

"Jeongin had been hiking up the Seoraksan with his friends, taking in the wild rivers and plant life — the rocky slopes, pitching downward for miles and miles. The depths below him and the never-ending sky above him made his head spin.

"All it took was one foot in the wrong place. He fell — plummeted down the jagged mountainside until the rock gave way to a cliff. He dropped into a lake and broke his neck on impact.

"The smell of human blood drew Chan and Haseong to Jeongin. It was by chance — a perfect coincidence. Chan bit him, changed him, and welcomed him into their little vegetarian club. Jeongin thought they were a cult at first. I can't really say he was wrong."