INFERNO ༄ PARK JISUNG

sixty two

"Seorin, what brings you here? Mark's shift doesn't start until three." Uncle Jin grinned, greeted by an unexpected visitor for the day.

"Hey, I'm just stopping by to ask a question. You know a lot about just.. uh, shifting, right?" she asked, realizing how stupid the question must've sound.

"Everything you could ever know!" he let out a hearty chuckle, sipping on his tea again.

"So yesterday, I accidentally sorta coughed up some blood- nothing serious." she began, making his eyes widen.

"Oh dear, let me make you some tea!" he frowned, opening the door to a back room. Seorin crinkled her forehead, walking inside nevertheless.

She was greeted by earthy incense aromas, along with walls of bookshelves and different photos. "What is this place?" she looked around in wonder, taking a seat in the comfy sofa.

"Just a lounge workspace, nothing serious." he shrugged, pouring boiling water from the kettle into a mug. "Continue your story, Seorin."

"Um, where was I? Oh yeah, blood. Yikes that sounds a bit morbid at first- anyways, I coughed some of that up, right? And for some reason I like shifted it? I don't even know why, but I could shift if with my hands, control it the same way I can with water."

Jin overfilled the mug as he froze in shock wincing at the sudden pain. "Shit." he cursed, grabbing a towel to wipe it up.

Nevertheless, he sat across her in concern, staring into her eyes.

"They're still black, have you not gotten any better?" he frowned.

After letting out a deep sigh, she shook her head no, feeling worse than she ever had.

"It's not common for people to be able to shift blood, you have to be extremely skilled or extremely emotional, I'm guessing you're both at the moment." he bit his lip, setting the teabag into her cup.

"Seorin, you have to be careful with this skill. If it's not used correctly, it can channel bad spirituality, you can really harm someone." he warned her, making her tense up in the sofa.

"What do you mean?" was all she could question, oblivious to the affects of blood shifting.

Hesitantly, pulled out a book from the shelf, reading over the faded words.

"I'm sure you've heard over and over that shifting is based on spirituality; if you have good spirituality your shifting is stronger, vice versa. Blood is what carries spiritual energy from the heart, vital to us shifter's existence." Uncle Jin began.

"If you shift someone else's blood, you can completely affect their spirituality, there's unpredictable effects. That is, only if you do the blood inside their body."

Seorin furrowed her eyebrows, still kind of confused with the whole subject. "What do you mean, I thought I could only do it with the blood I see." she pursed her lips.