>_____<;;

It was a standard sized classroom with a podium up front just a few feet away from the whiteboard. The walls were made from plastered concrete painted in the color of a pale yellow. It was with the help of the lights above that made the paler of the yellow look happier in color. Two tables of the same size sat on the right and left of the room with a fair enough aisle in-between for students to walk through. Victoria shared that lecture classroom with about 20 other students.

Hands were at motion, pens and pencils busy scrawling and leave marks in notebooks. The soft noise of lead and ink hitting the paper surfaced through the air continuously as their professor continued explaining their next assignment. Victoria, alongside them, was so buried in her concentration she’d forgotten about Jin Hyuk.

That was all until one of the chairs at the empty back row flew against the wall and crashed to the ground. The professor ceased speaking and everyone turned around to see the four-wheeled chair lying on the ground with its wheels in motion. In that moment Victoria felt her heart begin to race. She was getting a very, very bad feeling. It definitely was not she who had done that.

Unconsciously she felt her eyes skim back and forth across the empty back row while the professor continued with lecture. The other students as well turned back never minding what had just happened resuming to their concentration, but Victoria was suddenly feeling nervous. Biting her bottom lip and assuring herself that it was probably just her paranoia getting to her she spun back around to continue writing in her notebook.

“Help me.” the voice was dim and Victoria almost couldn’t hear it, but she lifted her head up to look around.

Her classmates had their head stuck into their books, so it was definitely not them. Figuring that she was hearing things she slightly shook her head and continued writing.

“Help me! I know you can hear me!”

Victoria’s eyes widened and a split second later her pen flew out of her hand soaring through the air. She watched as it hit the wall and fall to the ground with a clatter before turning to look at the students and professor who were eyeing her.

“Help!” Jin Hyuk leaned across her table, his palms slamming onto the table as he screamed into her face.

Unable to control herself she let out a loud shriek and swung back in her chair only stopping when the back of her chair hit the table behind her.

“Hey, are you ok?” the student beside her asked.

Victoria’s jaws dropped open in fear and she found herself panting. Jin Hyuk was gone, but something was terribly wrong; she could feel it.

“Miss Song? Is something the matter?” the professor asked.

Still unable to get a hold of herself she grabbed her notebook and stuffed it into her backpack before standing up. “I’m sorry, but I have to leave.”

With just that she hurried out of the room and once the door was closed behind her she dropped to lean against the wall. It felt like her heart was high up in beating harshly and loudly there. Every blood cell that thrashed through her drummed sensitively against her veins and she could feel each one moving.

Then that was when she felt it. A soft breath of air hissing against her skin and when she turned she saw a flight of her hair midway in the air before it dropped against her shoulder.

“He’s here,” a voice spoke.

Victoria turned to see a bloody Jin Hyuk standing beside her and threw her hands up against her lips to silence herself. If she screamed anymore and disturbed the classes around her, she’d really get in trouble. The hospital might be the last of her as Chorong had worried.

Her mind clouded up with scenes of death and she almost didn’t know what to do. For a long time she calmed her breathing and did her best to regain control of herself. That’s right, she wasn’t just any normal person. She had powers, she was able to protect herself. She was a Protector, whether she liked it or not. It was just that her fate .

Slipping her hand away she asked, “Who’s here? Why are you still following me?”

“Because I need you,” he answered. “But we need to run away before he attacks again.”

“Who!?” Victoria whispered at the limit of her patience.

She almost didn’t want to do this anymore.

“Him!” Jin Hyuk shouted. “Move!”

Too late. A powerful seismic wind impounded the ground by Victoria’s feet and as if gravity had given up on her she flew halfway into the air before landing on the ground almost a yard away from where she’d been.  It was a good thing her backpack had shielded her fall, but her back hurt nonetheless.

“!” she swore getting up. “What is that!? I can’t see it!”

“I don’t know. It started coming after me this morning,” Jin Hyuk explained. “We need to run.”

“Where!” Victoria asked loudly and suddenly realized she would be seen talking to herself.

It was all the more reason for her to be put in a hospital.

“Damn Chorong,” Victoria swore underneath her breath before turning around. Turning to Jin Hyuk she said, “I need to go somewhere private where I can get rid of that thing.”

“You can get rid of it?!” he asked surprised.

“We’ll have to try and see,” Victoria replied before darting around the corner, but she could already hear the invisible thing growling and roaring in the distance.

>_____<;;

Namjoo was confused about where to turn. The hallways were confusing even though they led to each other, but perhaps that was why she was confused. The dozens of stairs on her right and left also confused her. She’d tried one and it led them straight down the hallway to a classroom, which she was pretty sure didn’t need visiting.

“This school ,” Namjoo muttered pausing in the middle of the hallway by some empty desks and cardboards.

Turning around she spotted graphics printed out on paper and drawn out diagrams with the help of a straight edge. It looked neat, and she realized this person was trying to build a diagram of a house. The visual would look even neater if it had been completed. Then she shook her head realizing she was falling off the course of her mission.

It was at the sound of something roaring strangely in the distance like some grieving monster that she turned around. A heavy silence filled her heart as her eyes rummaged the hallways for which direction it had come from. Then it came again. It was coming from somewhere upstairs.

“You hear that?” she asked Luhan.

“They’re heading upstairs.”

“They’re going up?!” Namjoo asked with disbelief. “Why would they be going up!?”

“Perhaps to get away from everyone else here,” Luhan replied.

“Oh god…” Namjoo muttered underneath her breath before starting toward the stairs.

>_____<;;

“Where are we going?” Jin Hyuk asked pulling himself up the stairs after her.

Victoria pressed her lips together and urged herself to be faster. Whatever it was that was after Jin Hyuk was becoming quicker, or more like pissed off by the second. Victoria could feel its fury when the ground beneath her shook with more violence. When they finally got to the fourth floor Victoria dashed toward the room she always used for study.

There was a love couch in the room along with other furniture and a large circular table. Two vending machines for snacks and drinks were placed against the wall and the doorway to the roof was on the far left in the outside hallway. It was fairly empty when Victoria arrived and she was glad that students hadn’t started arriving to study just yet. Most of them should be at their work offices dealing with their class projects.  

Running into the room she pushed the door shut and turned the lock before backing away from the door. She’d have to wait and see if that invisible thing would be able to make its way through the door. The floor shook and she could feel herself shaking in spot along with it or maybe not.

“So what does that thing want with you?” Victoria asked dropping her backpack onto the ground.

“I don’t know.” Jin Hyuk answered. “Maybe it wants to eat me.”

Victoria turned to look at Jin Hyuk appalled by what he’d just said.

“I can feel it,” he told, “that it wants me.”

“Oh no…” Victoria shook her head. “It can’t be something like a soul eater, can it?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know!?” Victoria raised her voice. “Once you step into the other plane, don’t you hear of these things!? Everyone else I met has…”

Then it hit her that he’d just died yesterday and hadn’t been on the other plane for a long time. Perhaps it was coincidence that it had decided to come after him. Why was he so unfortunate? To have been killed and now haunted down by something she couldn’t see.

“Sorry,” Victoria apologized.

Jin Hyuk kindly smiled dismissing her earlier statement, “I knew there was something about you.”

Victoria turned to look at him curiously wondering what it was exactly that he meant. They were interrupted when another seismic wave hit the room. And from the door Victoria saw blurry ripples disappear through the air before she felt it come in. Again, she couldn’t see it.

With a slight move of her head she watched a chair fly through the air and against the wooden door before clashing to the ground. Either she’d missed or she couldn’t hit it.

“Can you see it?” Victoria asked Jin Hyuk.

“Yea.”

“Where is it? Where!?”

“In front of you!”

Eyeing the chair again she watched it fly back at them and dodged just in time as it came hurling at her. Landing against the couch she shouted, “Did I get it!?”

“You got it.”

“I did!?”

“But it’s not affecting it.”

Victoria rolled off the couch just in time as something clawed into the couch and when she rolled onto the ground she saw the stuffing of the cushion fly into the air. The claw-like marks left on the cushion were huge and she assumed this thing she was dealing with was humongous in size. How the heck was she going to be able to fight it?

Then she turned when she saw Jin Hyuk backing up toward the wall, fear locked into his eyes, and his face with an expression of utmost terror. It was going to get him if she did nothing. Pulling herself up she jumped over the couch and ran toward Jin Hyuk, but found herself flying through the air. Victoria let out a shout of pain when she hit the vending machine and dropped into the tiled floor. The pain it brought her was more horrid than she’d ever thought.

As she tried to pull herself up, the pain soared through her arms and she dropped uselessly against the ground. Jin Hyuk had now backed up against the wall with nowhere to run.

>_____<;;

Namjoo ran like crazy through the fourth floor till she heard strange noise coming from a locked room. And she had to listen very carefully for the noise of that grieving monster before she was sure Victoria was in the room.

“Victoria!?” Namjoo knocked on the door. “Are you in there?!” Then she pressed her ear to the door before screaming, “Victoria!”

Backing up Namjoo grabbed the doorknob and shook it with all her strength, but it was well locked. How was she going to get in now?

“I think she’s in trouble,” Luhan said from behind.

Namjoo bit her bottom lip and shook the doorknob again.

“I have a way in,” Luhan suggested to which she turned to him.

She watched him look around before stretching his hand out to her. Namjoo’s eyes lowered themselves to it.

“Trust me on this one,” his voice sounded coaxing.

With no other choice she extended her hand out and placed it into his. Luhan slightly pulled her over and took a step toward her before placing his other hand at her back. Within a split second the hallway was gone from sight and they passed through a very white dimension before suddenly appearing inside a student lounge with a chair on the ground and a ripped up furniture. Namjoo felt her mind spin at the experience before she heard Victoria crying on the ground.

Suddenly twisting around she spotted Victoria on the ground helpless and in pain. She was curled up in pain with both her hands in fists.

“Victoria!” Namjoo ran over to help pull her up, but Victoria shook her head.

“No…Jin Hyuk, we have to get Jin Hyuk first!” Luhan’s voice entered her ears.

Finally turning, Namjoo spotted someone being held prisoner against the wall. His legs were dangling in the air and he was roaring in pain.

“Oh my god…” was all Namjoo managed. “What do I do, what do I do?”

Namjoo turned around to look at the suffering Victoria then to Jin Hyuk. Could she attack this thing she couldn’t see?!

Unless she wanted to watch Victoria die along with Jin Hyuk, she wouldn’t know unless she tried. Recklessly running forward she thought she could see ripples form through the air and saw a large hand with large pimples fly out at her. Namjoo’s eyes widened, but before she could act she was thrown aside into the couch before something else hurled through the air and slam into the wall.

When Namjoo finally looked back she first spotted blood on the ground before her eyes slowly moved up to her guardian angel’s body. Luhan was just lying there on his side with his back to her, a bloody hole in his back. Namjoo felt her whole world shake in despair and an emotion she’d never felt before in her whole life slapped her across the face.

Was he…dead?

A croak sounded in and she almost started toward him, but paused when her eyes roamed over to Victoria, who was furiously hugging herself on the floor. Tears began welling up in her eyes. Why was it suddenly like this? Why had it turned out like this? Why did she have to choose between saving one or the other?

Namjoo bit her bottom lip and stared at the unconscious Luhan before forcing herself to swerve around. She hated herself for doing it, but there was no other option. She only came here for one thing, and that was to save Victoria.

Momentarily angry she started toward the Soul Eater and saw the same ripples she’d seen before. Namjoo paused in front of it and wondered what would happen if she were to walk right into it. In an instant the same hand she’d seen before slashed out at her and Namjoo shut her eyes for what might happen next. She waited almost 10 seconds before opening her eyes and instead saw the hand repeatedly hitting a glowing gold barrier surrounding her.

“Whoa…” she muttered shocked.  

Carefully reaching her hand out she touched the bubble-like substance and felt her lips fall apart in surprise. Had the despair she’d felt earlier somehow caused her to tap into something stronger? Without further ado, she stepped forward and through the barrier of the Soul Eater’s before she glanced up at the almost dying Jin Hyuk. She would have to hurry if she didn’t want to lose any more time.

“Give me your hand,” Namjoo ordered.

Jin Hyuk’s eyes rolled back when he glanced at her, but he moved his trembling fingers toward hers anyhow. Namjoo stood on her tippy toes before she finally reached him. Gripping his fingers she let out a shout before pulling him toward her. The Soul Eater growled angrily and Namjoo felt the ground shake before she tilted her head to look up at it. She still couldn’t see it.

“How do I get rid of it?” Namjoo asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t think you can,” Jin Hyuk replied before looking at himself. “Wow…this is really something.”

Namjoo turned to look at him and saw that the wounds earlier were gone and he looked perfectly human. That was if he weren’t a ghost to begin with.  

“I think this shield heals,” he glanced at his hands.  

Namjoo listened to the monster cry out once more before it tired and suddenly disappeared. She stood there perplexed and confused before Victoria’s coughing woke her up from her daze. She spun around to look at Victoria and realized that the gold glow around her disappeared. Holding out her hands she stared at them suddenly filled with a loss of hope again.

“No…” Namjoo muttered.

How was she going to heal Luhan without the shield!? Dashing forward she dropped onto her knees beside his body and felt her hands shake as she reached out to turn him over.

“No…” she cried when she realized his eyes were closed shut, he wasn’t moving.

It didn’t even take a second for her to start panicking over this person she barely knew. Why was he always saving her from the worst? When she didn’t know him, why did it feel so exaggeratedly sad, like her heart was being ripped out? 

“Wake up,” she pulled him onto her lap doing her best to keep calm, “don’t die on me.”

Tears were hanging onto the edge of her eyes threatening to fall, but Namjoo wouldn’t let them. If they fell, she believed, it would mean that he did really die on her. It wouldn’t happen. She could heal dammit! So why couldn’t she do anything!?

Her lips trembled and she could hear Victoria groaning from pain beside her. Concentration, she needed concentration. Running her eyes over the injured Luhan in her arms she set them on the wound in the center of his body. She’d never done this before, but there were always firsts.

Let it work, let it work, she pleaded. Hovering a hand over his wound as he’d done for her before, she wished and wished for her powers to work. For about a minute Namjoo almost gave up. A second later, her heart leapt when her hand glowed and the blood started disappearing. In due time Luhan’s eyes shot open and he let out a surprised gasp. Namjoo immediately drew her hand back dumbfounded unable to see anyone else, but him. She’d done it…she’d really done it.

Her heart sank and suddenly very relieved she gripped onto his shoulder before breaking out into a cry. 

***Death is in the title again :O

***Next chapter will be Chorong's. 

***;A; did you guys hear about Yookyung's departure from Apink? My heart got crushed when I saw the news ;A; Although I wish her the best, Apink will never be the same without her. And although I would like for Apink to remain 6, ACube is already going to add another member to the group ;A; My heart hurts thinking of how the members are already dealing with Yookyung's departure ;A; What if ACube only promotes the new girl and the already popular ones? What's gonna happen to the rest? ;A; I'm not ready for this ;A;