Book 2: Seven Demon's Hearts

Episode 56: Arrival

Episode 56: A r r i v a l

H a n u l

"No way."

Jin's eyes widened as he placed down his glass of liquor on the bar table. He quickly spun around only to face V and me.

In a flash, Jin grabbed the two of us and went to a quieter spot in the club.

"When," he widened his eyes, glancing at the two of us in disbelief. "When exactly did you arrive?"

"Just a few days ago." I smiled, relieved to finally see a familiar face. After what had just happened to us in Hell, it made the constant bickering we experienced on Earth seem like child's play.

"But I thought...I thought you two were dead."

"Jin, is everything okay here?" V quickly spoke up, ignoring formalities.

"Yeah, I'm trying my best. The kids are a handful, but I'm glad you guys are back. You need to tell me what happened. How did you even manage to get into hell?" Jin narrowed his eyes, especially at V. "Without us..."

"Jin, I know you're going to act all hurt about it, but there wasn't much I could do." V sighed. "At the time I couldn't hold the portal up with just two sacrifices."

"Sacrifices?" Jin's face scrunched up.

"That's a story for another time." I quickly interjected, not feeling too great about how we managed to get to Hell. "How's Aiko?"

"You can come to see for yourself...you two are going to stay right? I mean, I'm confused. If you came from hell, why didn't you open a portal to the mansion as soon as you got here."

Jin immediately saw the grim looks on our faces and braced for the worst.

"We couldn't," V spoke up. "We knew that Aiko was most likely going to be with you, and if we opened the portal there, then we'd risk our identities being revealed. Meaning that we'd also put Aiko in danger."

"So where did you end up staying?"

"Well, Hanul here took me to a place I'd least expected to visit." V glared.

"Okay, but I didn't have a choice!" She defended herself. "You should be grateful, he brought you back from the brink of death."

"Like I'd want that half-angel bastard's help." He scoffed.

"You seem to forget that you fell in love with an ex-half-angel."

"That's different!"

"I definitely don't miss this daily bickering you two always have going on." Jin sighed. "There's only one half-angel, so I assume you're talking about Arabxas. Good job Hanul, that was definitely the right move. That guy is a supernatural repellent. Anyway, there's a lot that happened on my end too, but I think knowing what you two were up to will be more helpful since it seems a little bit more serious."

I nodded, biting back on my words. "Jin..." my voice came out low, re-thinking the miracle of how we even managed to escape. "What happened in Abaddon was literally Hell. War broke out and it was all thanks to Deealah that we even managed to escape."

"Deealah?" Jin furrowed his brows, probably never expecting her name to be brought up. Neither did I. I didn't expect she'd sacrificed so much just so we could get away. "Well, is she okay? Did she come back here with you two?"

"No she didn't, and I'm not sure what happened." I shook my head. "We left before I could see, but I--I had no choice." V looked down at me with a sorrowful look. "I thought we were all going to die...s-so I couldn't look back. I couldn't...I..." my body trembled with a cold chill. "I just wanted to see Aiko. That was all I was thinking about. I couldn't hesitate when she opened up a chance for us to get out of there."