>_____<;;

“Wait, Chorong,” Suho walked after her as she rushed out of the school building. “Wait,” he grabbed her hand to stop her, “did I do something? If I did, I’m really…”

Chorong shook her head flustered, “No, you didn’t do anything. Just…I have to go.”

“Chorong,” he tried to grab her hand again.

Chorong glanced at his hand before pulling hers out, “I had a good time. Thanks for today.”

She blinked a few times and with nothing more to say turned around to walk toward the street. After the cab she got in drove off she turned back to glance at the busy school festival feeling somewhat guilty, but she didn’t want to have to explain what happened back there. One thing she worried most was how to explain it so that it would make sense, because Suho obviously had more smarts than to believe she was just a scaredy cat.

Deciding to worry about it the next time she knew she had to tell her sisters about the Grim Reaper. Before midnight, he’d said midnight.

Pressing her lips together and swallowing she swallowed.

“Can you drive a little bit faster please?” Chorong asked.

Within an extra fifteen minutes because of thick traffic the cab finally stopped in front of her home.

Perfect timing. Victoria had just driven into their driveway as she walked out.

“Back from your date already?” Victoria asked.

“Class end early?” Chorong questioned in reply.

Victoria turned her head to glance at Lee Dongsun’s car, “He’s not giving up, is he?”

“There’s nothing to see outside our home anyway,” Chorong grabbed Victoria’s elbow and hurried her toward the stairs, “we have more important matters on our hand.”

“Something happen?” Victoria asked surprised. “Something weird happened to me too.”

Chorong slightly paused and glanced at her before they turned toward the house, “Namjoo.”  

“Namjoo!” Victoria called when they walked through the door. “Namjoo!”

A few seconds later Namjoo walked out of the kitchen with a cup of tea in hand, “Aren’t you two…back a little early?”

She frowned at them.

“Forget that, meeting, now,” Victoria waved her hand toward the sitting room.

“What? Did the spy say something to you?” Namjoo asked following them in.

“What!?” Chorong spun around to look at her younger sister. “You talked to him?”

“Gee, I didn’t do anything offensive, what’s with the tone of your voice?”

Chorong pressed her lips together before sitting down beside Victoria.

“And yea, I talked to him,” Namjoo answered, “he said he’s staking us out and he’s going to catch us in action. I’m taking it you two must’ve done something to him to make him that angry.”

Chorong raised her brows and only shrugged as if there was nothing to say about it.

“Ok,” Victoria heaved a breath, “forgetting that, I think something’s onto us.”

Her sisters quietly waited for her to go on.

“Something, I don’t know, something creepy attacked me at school,” Victoria explained with a confused expression, “and I accidentally hurt another student.”

“You what!?” Namjoo asked loudly.

“And Changmin saw,” Victoria’s face flooded with concern.

“Did he say anything?” Chorong wondered.

“No, I didn’t ask either,” Victoria replied. “It would make us look more suspicious. He did say before that what Kim Daesung said about you started his whole interest in us, that’s why he sent the spy, and that spy is going nowhere.”

“Breathe,” Chorong directed, “forgetting the spy for the next minute, we should talk about the Grim Reaper.”

“All of a sudden? Why now?” Namjoo asked.

“Well it looks like something creepy attacked me at the school festival today,” Chorong took a deep breath, “and the Grim Reaper showed up.”

“Why the hell would he show up at the school?” Victoria asked.

“Let me finish,” Chorong said, “he says, Lee Shin Il’s death caused a leakage in the balance of life.”

“What is the balance of life?” Namjoo frowned.

“I don’t know, but let me finish,” Chorong repeated herself, “he wants us to go to him, before midnight because if we don’t by then, well, our gems are going to attract more monsters.”

“What!?” Victoria looked conflicted between confusion and loss. “That is absurd!”

“Well yea?” Chorong cocked her head to question her sister. “If you don’t want to see that thing again, we better get our asses started on looking for the Grim Reaper and fix this.”

Namjoo calmly took a sip of her tea before asking, “Scythe?”

“What!?” Chorong shook her head confused.

“No, I mean, doesn’t the Grim Reaper carry a scythe?”

“Why a scythe?”

“I don’t know, when you think of a Grim Reaper, don’t you think of him holding a scythe?” Namjoo shrugged.

Her sisters frowned at her confused.

“I mean, we may have met him already,” Namjoo went on. And when her sisters shot her dumbfounded looks she shook her head with a roll of her eyes, “Hello! Crest hill! Remember that night? Before we were supposedly arrested for violating an investigation?”

“Ah…” Victoria nodded and turned to Chorong. “That could be the Grim Reaper.”

“I cannot believe this,” Chorong muttered as they stepped out from the car. “It’s 10 and I am outside. Whoa…whoa…did you hear that?”

Chorong spun around in the dark after five steps away from the car and flashed her flashlight to the street behind them.

“Oh, Chorong, calm down,” Victoria called.

“You’re hearing things,” Namjoo commented. “If you don’t hurry, we’re leaving you behind.”

Twisting around Chorong ran after her sisters and grabbed onto Namjoo’s sleeve.

“I’m creeped, aren’t you? Tell me you are too, I want to go back in the car,” Chorong whined after repeatedly talking.

“Nothing’s here,” Victoria said without turning back to look at them. “Look, you want to trade places and come to the front?”

“Let me go in the middle,” Chorong sped up and squeezed herself between her sisters and clutched onto Victoria’s shirt as they made their way up.

She didn’t like this. Chorong didn’t like any of this. She didn’t want to be out in the middle of the night lurking on territory that no one really bothered to visit. Daylight was over; no one was around simply because they didn’t like the woods. They were practically walking right through the trees as if they owned the territory. How unsafe was this?

Pressing her lips together and slightly leaning against Victoria she turned around to look at the trees behind Namjoo. 

“Stop it, you’re the one being creepy,” Namjoo shot at her.

Chorong flashed her light out to the dark area at the top of the hill. No one was there and no one better be there.

Victoria stopped when the trees cleared and an area of green grass spanned in front of them. The full moon was beaming down on them pridefully as if it were the sun and Chorong’s eyes swept back and forth. She didn’t want to be surprised.

No one spoke for a moment and Chorong felt Victoria slightly move back out of surprise when something popped out of thin air in front of them. Namjoo and Chorong immediately screamed before Victoria raised her voice at them.

“Shut up! Shut up! It’s nothing, it’s just…him…” Victoria’s voice started loud before transitioning into silence.

Chorong clutched onto Victoria’s arm and hid behind her sister before leaning to the side.

“The heck…” Chorong stepped out from behind her sister then hovered her hand over her face and her body, “he wasn’t wearing that earlier…he’s not a skull…”

Victoria turned to frown at her before turning back to the man and made sure he was carrying a scythe before asking, “Who are you?”

“Me?” he asked, his pale skin looking grayer underneath the moon. “I am the Grim Reaper.” When Chorong looked confused he added, “I appeared as an illusion. This is my embodiement.”

“Illusion…” Victoria repeated monotonously.

“I thought you would look fiercer,” Namjoo commented.

“Fierce?” he repeated then waved his scythe out at them. “This is not fierce?”

“Watch it,” Victoria warned.

He laughed at them, “It’s only for show. Anyway, lets get to business.”

“Business,” Victoria repeated, “what business? I don’t remember us having anything to do with each other.”

“If you want those monsters back where they belong, we have a pact,” the Grim Reaper spoke, “if not, no pact. So what’s your deal?”

Chorong nudged Victoria before she groaned and said, “What’s this balance of life thing you talked about?”

“Yin and Yang, evil and good, spirits and non-spirits,” the Grim Reaper paced a little, “balance. There must be an equal number in both the spiritual plane and this one, but Lee Shin Il’s death caused a leakage…”

“Yaddy yadda,” Victoria waved her hand, “we heard that part. So what?”

“I heard you want to hear something about your mother, am I wrong?”

Chorong glanced at Victoria and noticed she suddenly gritted her teeth.

“Very well,” the Grim Reaper nodded and turned to face them, “here’s my proposal.”

“I didn’t say anything.” Victoria stated through pursed lips.    

“Oh no,” the Grim Reaper shook his head, “but you will, cause you see, no one else, but me can give you this answer. And you know you will trust me.”

Chorong glanced at Victoria again and turned to the Grim Reaper, “And what do you say?”

“I need to collect my souls before they get devoured by the monsters you’re attracting, you see,” he explained, “but you need to find the King and extinguish him before he produces any more monsters.”

“Why him? Why can’t we just kill one of those monsters?”

“The energy from those spirits are brought to the parent, in other words, the King. Thus exterminating the King will create a domino effect and his children will die along with him. And I will be able to collect my spirits, so they can be punished and move on.”

“And if we do this, I get the answer to who killed my mom?”

“I will tell you,” the Grim Reaper promised, “but there is one condition.”

Victoria groaned, “Are you serious…”

“Reality will be thwarted for 24 hours,” the Grim Reaper announced, “I will cut open the leak when the sun rises allowing more spirits to flow through.”

“Are you crazy?” Namjoo asked. “How will that help us?”

“Look for where the monsters appear from and when you extinguish one, where its energy flows to. It will go in the direction of the King; follow it and it will lead you to him. Good luck.”

Without waiting for them to ask any more questions he vanished leaving behind a swirl of smoke.

“Oh, come on,” Victoria held her hands out helplessly before they dropped to her sides.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Chorong heaved a sigh and threw her head back. “This….”

>_____<;;

They slept peacefully for one thing that night and thank goodness nothing attacked in the middle of the night for Victoria would have destroyed the whole house…not really, but she would have done something. The real problem started the next morning.

Victoria was yawning as she started down the stairs only to pause when she heard a cheery voice call out, “My dear Chorong, I am here for you!”

Her hand dropped to her side and she looked down to see Suho in a black tux with his hair gelled back, a red rose in his hand.

“My love!” Suho shouted.

“Oh god…” Victoria muttered before turning her head back to scream, “Chorong!!”

The bathroom door opened a second later and Namjoo walked out, “Why are you screaming?”

“That!” Victoria pointed her finger down to Suho.  “Is why.”

“My love, I am here for us to be together forever on,” Suho theatrically waved his arm out.  

“That’s so…pathetic…” Namjoo muttered.

“What?” Chorong asked walking out of her bedroom.

“Your boyfriend is here,” Victoria turned to stare at her wide eyed.

“What the…” Chorong peeked over her sisters’ shoulders.

“Ah! My love! I have found you at last!” Suho spun around to look at her. “Look,” he raised the rose up, “a promise of our love!”

Chorong’s eyes widened before she stopped at the top of the stairs, “What…how did you get in?”

“I waltzed in,” he spun around in a circle before turning back to her and bowed. “And we shall go out the way I came in, my love.”

The way his voice became soft and gentle sent chills up Victoria’s spine, “He is sick.”

Namjoo shrieked and bumped into Victoria, “What is that!?”

Victoria quickly turned around to see the monster she’d seen yesterday crawling down their hallway toward them and when it suddenly sped up they screamed, rushing for the stairs.

“Wh…wait!” Chorong screamed, but it was too late. They all ended up tumbling down the stairs a second later.

“Ow!” Victoria moaned.

“My love!” Suho looked down at her before looking up to see the creature at the top of the stairs. “I will protect you!”

Stepping around them he raised his arm to point at the monster, “How dare you attack my love!? I will avenge her! Now come at me!”

“Oh my god, get your stupid boyfriend out of the way,” Victoria mumbled.

“He’s not stupid!” Chorong grumbled before getting up to drag Suho back.

“My love! Step back,” he turned to look at her.

“For god’s sake, I have a name,” Chorong muttered. “Get back.” Then she sent out a scream when the thing started traveling down the stairs at full speed. “Victoria!!!”

Victoria dropped back down to her feet in utter fear and threw her hands out to freeze it.

“Oh ! I hate it! It’s soo…ugly!” Victoria turned away and got up to her feet.

“Victoria!” Chorong screamed again when the monster slowly started moving. “We’re going to die, we’re going to die!”

“Namjoo!” Victoria screamed. “Do something!”

“But my powers…”

“I don’t care!” Victoria screamed. “Burn it! Burn it or something! Kill it!”

“You said it,” Namjoo said underneath her breath before staring at the horrid monster.

It shot up in flames a second later, but the flame quickly expanded. They heard a shriek of agony when the flames devoured the monster before half of their stairs caught on fire.

***LOLOL I definitely love Suho here! Reality is thwarted meaning, people are doing the opposite of what they usually do. But! This isn't so bad. Namjoo and Chanyeol will have some things to really talk about during this time while Chorong tries to keep Suho from saving the day while Victoria tries to keep everyone else focused before spirits are devoured and before the King gets too strong for them. 

***Fun, fun, fun!