Briar Rose - Taekook

Chapter 11

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XI: Jungkook 

I was standing on a hill overlooking a city. A vast sprawling city, full of skyscrapers and malls. Planes flew overhead, their wings glittering silver in the setting afternoon sun. The people down below looked like ants, all bustling around in multicolored clothing. Tiny cars lined the jammed streets, honking their horns and moving at the speed of a snail. And was that the Empire State Building in the distance?

Which meant only one thing.

New York.

I was in America.

I had never been to New York, but my parents had sent me postcards from this place often enough. I knew what the city itself looked like.

I blinked my eyes a few times, wondering if I was looking at a hologram. Just a few minutes ago, I was sure that I was asleep in my bedroom at Armad Castle. And that was in the vampire world. Now, I was most definitely in the human world. No other place would be so crowded with lights and people. After spending two days staring at black and white, all the colors and brightly lit buildings blinded me for a moment. I had forgotten that cities could be so bright.

I looked down, just to find myself dressed in a plain white t-shirt and jeans. My flowing white robes were gone, and there was a gold hilted dagger tucked in my belt. Taking the knife out of its sheath, I tested the blade on my finger. A drop of blood fell from the cut. Sharp.

Suddenly, I heard a quiet boom. The people of New York must have heard it too, because drivers stopped honking their horns, and people on the streets stopped talking. The whole city seemed to be holding its breath, waiting for the next explosion. Then I heard the screams. Straining my eyes, I saw that a fissure had opened in the Earth, traveling rapidly along the roads of the city. It broke through the concrete easily, and became wider by the second. People pushed and shoved to get away from the crack as fast as they could. It was mayhem.

As if matters couldn't get worse, flames shot up from the opening like a geyser. It drenched everything and everyone around it. The lucky people escaped, either by running towards the nearest building or seeking refuge. The not so lucky ones... didn't. But it didn't matter. The flames became so intense that I felt the heat all the way from here. I could only imagine what the people down there were thinking.

Large pieces of rock started shooting out of the fissure as well, falling down like hot molten pieces of hail. The people wailed in agony as most of them were overcome by the burning stones. One came hurtling so close to where I stood, that it made a burning crater a mere 5 meters away from me. Too late, I realized that I should have moved. I stood powerless as a massive boulder flew towards me, flying down like a burning comet.

I close my eyes waiting for it to slam me into bits. To pulverize me.

And... nothing. I was still alive.

Slowly opening my eyes, I realized that I wasn't standing on the hill anymore. Instead, I was on some kind of beach, with the water about 30 meters away from me. A lush forest lay behind me, towering redwoods reaching toward the sky. Over the lake, I could see the burned remnants of a city, the flames still high and flying untamed. Maybe it was the remains of New York? But if there were redwoods... was this somehow California?

Just at the edge of the beach, where the water came to lap gently at the sand, crouched a tall man in a dark black cloak. He seemed familiar somehow, like I should know him. Yet, I couldn't see much of him while his back was turned. Almost as if sensing my presence, he started to stand up, brushing the water off his hands.