||Koi No Yokan|| Park Seonghwa

||Chapter 21||

CHAPTER 21

"Eris has stabbed me with a poisoned arrow.

It hurts.

I don't want to hurt anyone.

I drank the potion of dreamless sleep.

Please help me.

I'm sorry.

It hurts."

Seonghwa felt like his entire world came crashing down. His best friend was lying there, unconscious, with an arrow poisoning him from the inside seated deep in his chest, and he didn't know what to do. He had told Yeosang to report to him as soon as possible on Carys' condition, but there was no sight of him yet.

He started examining the wound up close, not touching the arrow in fear that the rest of it was poisoned too: it looked like the skin around it had started to scar already since it was tense and rough at the touch. In the meanwhile, Hongjoong's face started contorting and showing signs of distress: his hair was sticking to his forehead due to the sweat as he mumbled some incoherent words Seonghwa couldn't decipher.

However, when he heard Carys' name fall from his lips, he froze in place.

"She's mine" he whined, grabbing the sheets with his fists, then releasing them only to flail them around and hit Seonghwa straight in the guts.

"Stay away...mine..." he kept on mumbling, as a single tear started to form in his left eye.

He whished to himself he wasn't talking about Carys, but deep down he knew he was. Mania was dangerous for this precise reason: extreme possessiveness, fear of abandonment, uncertainty of yourself and the person you claim to love...that ruined people and went so far to become even fatal.

Seonghwa heard some steps approaching the cave and a few seconds later, Jongho was standing in front of him, his eyes glued to the arrow in Hongjoong's chest.

"Yeosang told me everything...I came here as soon as I could"

"What about Carys? Did he say anything about her?"

Jongho hesitated to answer his question: he stood there with a defeated look, only angering Seonghwa even more.

"What happened to her?!" he shouted.

"Go to her and see for yourself. I'll stay with Hongjoong and see what I can do"

"Looks like it's not going to be much" he murmured, pointing to the god laying on his bed, defenseless and covered in sweat "The poison spreads quickly. At this rate, he's not gonna come back the way we know him"

Jongho patted his shoulder in an attempt to calm him down as his won eyes were trembling with anxiety.

"I'll handle it from here, you just go to Carys. Yeosang is still with her so she should be fine"

"I hope that's true..."

He spared one last glance to Hongjoong, who was having another crisis and giving Jongho a hard time in keeping him still so he could examine the wound. His heart ached for his friend, but he feared for Carys more. She was human, after all...if anything had happened to her, he would've never forgiven himself. He went on Earth as fast as he could, finding Carys' house and entering through the window, confident of the fact that no one could see him. He was now in her room, but there was no trace of her: the bed was still unmade and what he assumed was her bathrobe was thrown on it like it had been forgotten there. He went downstairs while turning into his human form, only to find her laying on the couch with Yeosang sitting on the floor beside her.