‘Fine,’ you growl, finding a comfortable place to sit. Daehyun’s pitiful face lights up in joy as he settles down to begin his story. ‘I’m going to make it as short as I possibly can so you don’t sleep halfway,’ he smiles. ‘So, you know how I gave you those ashes? It would grow into a phoenix when put into fire. I thought that if I could get you to burn the ashes, the phoenix would be born and I could just kidnap you and use the phoenix’s power to get out of here.’

‘And why would you want to take me out of here?’ you ask, putting on an expression of arrogance. ‘I came here to look for Seung Hoon; who you have killed.’ Daehyun nods solemnly. ‘After the phoenix healed me, I was its new owner. When I told it to get Seung Hoon and you here so we could teleport, it told me: ‘Not under your orders. I’m taking lead from now on.’ So it followed all of us. When you left to look for Jongup, it told me: ‘Now tell me to kill the others. Make it look like you’re the bad one. If not, I’ll kill the girl.’ So, I had to kill them. I had to. I didn’t want you to die.’

Anger continually courses through your veins. ‘Lee Seung Hoon,’ you hiss. ‘Lee Seung Hoon was my friend. I would gladly lay down my life for him to stay alive. Yet now, he’s dead. He’s dead and it’s your fault!’

The roots of your anger burst, sending madness throughout your whole body. You just feel like throwing yourself at Daehyun and killing him. Your anger seems to show as Daehyun begins slowly taking steps back, eyes wide open and shaking uncontrollably.

‘What’s wrong?’ you snicker, advancing on him. ‘Cat got your tongue?’ Daehyun shakes his head wildly, pointing at you with a trembling finger. ‘Y-y-your eyes…’ he cries, quickly taking steps back. You stop walking, and stare at him confusedly. ‘My eyes?’ you wonder. But what if it’s a trap? ‘Are my eyes burning passionately with my anger?’ you laugh.

But as soon as you finish your sentence, the world suddenly turns black. You blink rapidly; making sure it isn’t just your eyes messing up. Slowly, the floating figure of a phoenix appears in your blind world. ‘Welcome,’ it chuckles. ‘Welcome to your doom.’

You back away from it, but it simply gets closer; it is as if you aren’t moving at all. ‘Let me explain, human,’ the phoenix tells you in a mere whisper. ‘The black phoenix… is my friend. Himchan is the black phoenix as well. The black phoenix has the power to clone itself. So the black phoenix that controlled Jongup was Himchan. You see…? When you got injured, I healed you. But as I healed you, I injected my essence into you. And when I do that… I am free to control you as I please. Luckily, I’ve let you on free reign until now… But now, I think I’ll just take over. My poor old body is getting crippled as I follow you around, you pesky human. Don’t worry; when I take over completely, the only thing that will happen is that you’ll turn into a phoenix; nothing too big, right?’

You scream in confusion and anger as the information doesn’t get to you; everything is simply happening too quickly. ‘That’s right,’ whispers the phoenix eerily. ‘Scream while you can human. After you’re done, I’ll kill the ones you love before your very eyes; and you can do nothing about it.’

You feel your whole body tighten with something invisible. Your sight comes back; but you can’t turn around to see anything behind you. You flap your wings, turning left and locating Daehyun. Your wings. The phoenix is taking control of your body. Daehyun is leaning flat against the tree, too horrified to utter a single word.

As you stand in horror, you see a deep cut made by the rough bark of the tree. Blood oozes out, soaking into his shirt. ‘Oh, would you like me to heal that?’ the phoenix laughs. ‘No!’ you think, as you can’t open your mouth. ‘Don’t! Don’t touch him!’ But you can’t do anything as the phoenix keeps moving. ‘A drop of my tears would do… don’t you say?’ it chuckles.

You feel tears form in your eyes. You can’t blink them away; no matter how hard you try. The phoenix goes towards Daehyun. You can see his eyes twitching side to side in fear. ‘I forgot to tell you,’ the phoenix gasps sarcastically, as a drop of your tear hits Daehyun’s cut. ‘The tear can either heal or destruct, depends on what I want.’

You are already frozen in from the phoenix’s power. But you feel as if your heart has stopped beating as you see Daehyun’s fear filled eyes turn blank.

From then on, the phoenix travelled across the world with your body which has mutated into the body of a phoenix. It has killed countless people before your very eyes in the cruellest ways; torturing you with the screams and yells of people begging for mercy. You can’t do anything about it; except suffer.

As you are bound in the body of a phoenix, you think about what you have done. Jongup was innocent after all. Yong Guk… he was probably innocent too. What about Zelo? Himchan was definitely evil; being that stupid Black Phoenix. Youngjae… he saved you. And last but not least… Daehyun. Being the scaredy cat he was in the last moments of his life, when you think about it, you appreciate him trying to protect you.  

Sorrow fills your heart as you know you can never thank him for it.

‘Thank you,’ you think to yourself as the phoenix flies over the city. ‘Thank you, Daehyun.’ 

The End. 

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