The Cold Curse | MarkHyuck

Chapter 40:

Jisung wakes up to seeing larger thorns wrapped around his surroundings. He walks towards the mirror, seeing himself with thorns wrapped around his arms like they were jewelry. He sees himself, his eyes glowing in a dark shade of red.

Jisung found himself horrifying... just like a monster.

"No, no... No... This can't happen."

Jisung says to himself, reminding himself that he can't be a monster as he wanted to change. At the same time, the dark and hollow figures showed up again as Jisung heard their laughs echo around the room. Jisung covers his ears once again, backing away from the figures as he shuts his eyes.

Then, he noticed that it suddenly went silent.

He opens both of his eyes, seeing his father's figure alive again. Of course Jisung was about to get tricked by his own hallucinations once again. No matter how strong Jisung actually was, he couldn't ever stand up for himself when he's against his own enemies.

His enemies being his own creation.

"Son... How are you doing?"

His "father" asks innocently as he lends Jisung his hand, helping him stand up from the floor. Jisung holds unto his hand, standing up from the floor as he looks at the mirror. The "King" observed him looking at his horrifying appearance.

"... I-I don't want this-"
"I know that, son... and whose fault is this?"
"... This is my fault... All of these things happening to me... are caused by me-"
"No, son. This is completely Haechan's fault."

His father says as it shocked Jisung, causing him to shake his head and disagree with what his father told him.

"This is not Haechan's fault-"
"It is indeed his fault, Jisung. Who caused you to absorb Renjun's golden aura? Who made you feel like an underclass? Who caused you to look... like this?"
"..."

Jisung didn't want to answer but he started thinking about the questions and... they're starting to make sense for him.

"... Haechan?"
"That's right, son. Haechan made you a monster. Now, show him the monster he created."

His father told him as he exits, fading into the darkness of the room. Jisung nodded to himself as he cracked the mirror, his intentions completely changing because of his unpredictable mental state. He walks down the staircase, seeing multiple servants being scared of him. Jisung looked at one of them, giving the servant a sinister smile before he wrapped thorns around his neck as the servant yelled in pain.

"This is why all of you should be afraid of me."

He says before crushing the servant's neck, his blood dripping on the floor. The rest of the servants were horrified with what just happened as they bowed to Jisung, in fear of being killed just like that. Jisung throws the servant's corpse away like it was a piece of garbage.

He made his way outside of the palace, thorns creeping everywhere he put his feet on as they grew larger and it was... terrifying to look at.

~

Sicheng, the painter who painted Haechan's face all over a big canvas that was once hung outside the vacant wall of the palace, was walking down the road as he suddenly noticed that the ground shook. He notices that cracks full of small thorns were forming on the ground as he alarms everyone that there was an earthquake.

"Everyone! There's an earthquake!"

Sicheng yelled as the people around him started to run for their lives. Of course, Sicheng let them run before him as he wanted to see if everyone was doing okay. As he was left all by himself, he sees very large thorns that were built like a road for a certain person to walk on.

Sicheng sees Jisung as he found him looking very horrifying.

Sicheng ran for his life, knowing that this was the man who stabbed him and also the man who would kill him in no time. Meanwhile at Jaemin's home, Jeno was sitting outside as he was alone at the porch once again. Jeno thought about his half-brother being also Haechan's half-brother.

The fact that Jisung will kill Haechan with no hesitation shocked him since he was the literal opposite of him.

He, then, notices the people running as fast as they could like they're doing it to survive. He frowned, thinking that the whole situation was odd and unreasonable. He walked towards the exit of Jaemin's house as he saw cracks forming on the ground, thorns and vines creeping out of it.

"What the hell is happening?

Jeno wondered as he saw Jisung, making a floating path made of thorns for him to walk on. Jeno, however, didn't even flinch from what he saw even though he knew that Jisung was indeed terrifying to even look at. Jisung sees Jeno, who he thought looked familiar because he saw him with Haechan once.

Jisung comes down from the path he created, about to approach Jeno.

"... Aren't you supposed to be afraid of me?"

Jisung asks Jeno with a rude tone, clicking his tongue in annoyance. Jeno scoffed and gave his brother a smile that expressed his anger towards him.

"Do you really want to talk to your older brother like that? Pathetic. You're nothing like me or Haechan at all."
"... Older brother? I don't even know you. You think seeing you one time is enough for me to call you my brother?"
"No but I can see that you never really had respect for anyone but yourself."

Jeno says as Jisung held his neck tightly, choking him.

"Where is Haechan, bastard?"

Jisung asks with anger as Haechan comes out of Jaemin's house, giving Jisung a threatening glare as he lets go of Jeno's neck.

"I'm here."

Haechan says, the five of them following behind him. Jisung smirks, looking at Mark specifically. Jisung thought Mark looked too brave after he just shook in fear the day before. Jisung walked towards Mark, smiling at him as Mark flinched.

"Aww... Too afraid? Were you hurt after all the things I've done to you? Do you want more of it to happen again, my love?-"
"Don't come closer to him, Jisung."

Haechan threatens as Jisung rolled his eyes, scoffing in annoyance. He then looked at Renjun and noticed how Renjun looked weak. He walked towards Renjun and expectedly, Renjun spit on his face.

Jisung was just disgusted with how Renjun acted disrespectfully towards him and also how Renjun's spit was on his face.

"You never changed one bit, Renjun."
"I actually did but seeing your face makes me want to go back to being violent, monster."

Renjun insults Jisung as he was done with the small talk, his red eyes glowing in anger once again. He walked towards Haechan, thorns were wrapping around his arms as it put a hard grip around Haechan's neck. The six of them tried to stop Jisung but he was too strong.

Jisung waves goodbye at them before he brings Haechan into a deserted unknown place, throwing him on the ground.

"So you want it this way, huh?!"
"I've been waiting for this fight for many years, Haechan. This day will mark your death-"
"Enough with the pathetic small talk, Jisung. I've had enough of that, expressive brat."

Haechan says, forming two blades made of ice that were connected to his hands.