>_____<;;

Chorong’s eyes widened when the ghost ran through Victoria right at her.

“Help me!” he screamed in her face before turning around.

She listened to Victoria shriek and sent the monster flying into the wall before running into the room petrified.

“Stand back, my love!” Suho called running out in front of her.

His arms were held out defensively when the monster neared the door, drool dripping from its lips. Victoria screamed again and forced it into the wall holding it there for a few seconds before it slipped to the ground only to start crawling toward them. This time it was hissing angrily and Chorong recognized rage in its face.

“My love!” Suho exclaimed again.

“Move!” Chorong screamed when she pushed him to the ground upon the monster lunging at them.

Victoria cowered and ducked to protect herself. When Chorong heard nothing she glanced up to see the monster frozen in mid-air. Its underbelly was not round, but full of little dents and marks similar to a crab’s. Its front arms moved and Chorong screamed again before closing her eyes. A second later they heard the spirit crying and struggling; his body thumping against the ground as the monster ate at it.

There was a satisfied growl after devouring the spirit before the monster ran toward the closed window and jumped out. Their window shattered to pieces noisily as silence infiltrated the room.

“What….just happened…” Chorong’s voice shook.

Victoria looked around before removing her hands from her head, “I think…we just let him get killed.”

“Oh no…” Chorong muttered realizing they’d let the spirit get killed, when they weren’t supposed to.

“My love!” Suho pushed her arms off him. “Are you all right!? Did the beast hurt you!?”

Chorong glanced at Suho’s wide eyes before heaving a sigh. What were they going to do like this?

“We need to stop doing this,” Chorong said following Victoria down the stairs a minute later. “If we let someone else get killed the Grim Reaper might just come after us.”

Victoria groaned, “Those things are so hideous and scary! They’re like monsters right out of your dreams!”

“We can’t keep cowering like this,” Chorong told, “we need to find the king before the world really falls out of balance, because I will definitely not leave Suho like this.”

Victoria out a half laugh-half snort, “He’s your boyfriend, Chorong!”

“Exactly!” Chorong pointed out. “Which is why I – we will fix this! We need to get out there.”

“Are you kidding me?” Victoria turned around at the absurd suggestion. Then gave up with a sigh realizing there was no other choice. “I can’t stand the thought of those monsters running toward us in dozens! Where is Namjoo!? Why can’t she just throw her fire power at them!?”

“Why are you being so whiny?” Chorong asked. “Your powers don’t require you to touch them directly for a hit.”

“But I can’t kill them like that,” Victoria spun around and muttered the words through pursed lips.

Chorong heaved a sigh, “Namjoo’s at work, right? Lets go find her then.”

“My love! How can you say that!?” Suho darted down the rest of the stairs to stare back up at them. “Then let me lead! If they attack I will fight them first!”

“Oh great,” Victoria gestured her arm out to Suho before letting it fall against her leg. “I can’t tell if he’s a Romeo wannabe or a mentally ill running toward suicide.”

“He’s just Suho,” Chorong hissed walking by.

“My love!” Suho held his hand out for her. “Shall we?”

Chorong heaved a sigh before clasping a hand over her forehead. Never would she have foreseen Suho to be such an idiot. She really hoped the right reality would return…fast.

>_____<;;

Namjoo wasn’t sure what to do. Approach him like a friend or approach him as a girlfriend?

She could see his shoulders shaking and his heart being ripped apart, but he wasn’t asking for her to comfort him. Chanyeol was showing her how much he hurt.

Instead of standing there like a fool took a step forward with her arms reaching for him, but stopped when she saw him move back. A heavy guilt flooded through her and she felt herself become weary and helpless. What was she supposed to do?

Namjoo was about to speak when the slurred screaming of two individuals caught her ears. Her eyes widened upon two transparent figures running through the door and paused to look around before they spotted her. When their eyes met their figures became solid before darting toward her desperately.

“Help me!” they both cried.

Namjoo’s face contorted up into confusion, “Wha…who are you?”

“It’s coming!”

“There’s three of them!”

“You have to save us!” the woman cried grabbing her arm.

Namjoo’s eyes widened upon realizing that they were the spirits she and her sisters were supposed to be out to save.

“Who’s out there?” Namjoo asked wishing and praying it wasn’t what she thought it was, but part of her already knew the truth.

Chanyeol turned to look at her and frowned, “Who are you talking to?”

Namjoo opened to reply, but nothing came out and she ran toward the door instead. Her eyes broadened when she saw a monster larger than the one she’d seen that morning pop out of nowhere and start running straight at her.

She let out a cry of horror and stepped back before looking at her workplace. She wasn’t about to fight off the monster there.

“What are you waiting for?” the spirit of a man who was her height screamed.

“Come on!” Namjoo screamed turning around and running down the sidewalk pass a few passersby who seemed all too calm for her liking.

“Namjoo!” she heard Chanyeol shout after her and when she glanced back saw him running after her.

“Crap…” Namjoo mumbled before halting and turned down an alleyway.

“What are we doing here!?” the female spirit demanded when she saw the dead end behind them.

“Oh…no…” Namjoo shook her head when Chanyeol stopped in front of her.

Her heart jumped when the monster turned toward them hissing. She watched it open up its jaws and flare its tongue at them before slowly crawling toward them. The hair growing in the middle of its head streamed down its back and slipped over its shoulder as it neared. It seemed to tower over her head upon its approach and she gulped.

Chanyeol grabbed her arm and pushed her back, “What is that?”

“Your worst nightmare,” the male spirit commented.

Namjoo turned to glance it before turning back to look at the monster slowly closing in. She let out a scream and pulled Chanyeol back when the monster reached its hand out toward them. Both the spirits cowered against the wall at her back screaming defiantly and Namjoo felt a sudden rush of emotions to protect them arise; especially because Chanyeol, who probably wasn’t supposed to be there, was there.

A heated flame swept up half the alley in flames and as expected, was larger than she’d tended it to be. The monster wriggled and reached its hand out at them, but dropped to the ground as it died away.

“What did you do!?” the male spirit screamed.

Namjoo let out a cough as the smoke swirled toward them and watched the flame slowly climb over the walls of the buildings. This wasn’t supposed to happen…

“Stand back here,” she felt Chanyeol pull her a few steps away from the overheating fire and coughed as well.

Oh no…they were going to die…

>_____<;;

Chorong and Victoria crossed the street quickly with Suho spinning around in every which direction looking out for any monster that could be lurking around. Ignoring him, Victoria pushed open the door to her sister’s workplace to find folders, papers, and pens and pencils all over the floor.

“What happened here?” Victoria asked.

“You don’t think one of them attacked her here, do you?” Chorong wondered.

“They break things like windows,” Victoria reminded, “they don’t shove things off desks. Looks like there was another kind of fight here.”

“Fire!” they heard Suho shout from the open doorway.

Victoria and Chorong turned to look at each other at once before darting back out the door and surely there was a fire escalating not too far down the street.

“Come on!” Chorong pulled Suho after her when she noticed he wasn’t moving a muscle.

“But fires are dangerous, my love!” Suho exclaimed allowing her to drag him along.

This was bad. The fire was huge and was almost burning down the building next door. If there were people inside, they were probably still going at their work with sick smiles on their face oblivious to the danger of the building crumbling. Victoria rolled her eyes at this ridiculous reality before halting.

“Oh…oh…” Victoria cried stepping back closer to the curb. “Chorong, you need to do something.”

“Do what!?” Chorong questioned.

“Make it rain and windy or something!” Victoria raised her voice. “No, wait! Not the wind! It’s only going to make the fire grow.”

“I know that,” Chorong rolled her eyes before staring into the fire.

>_____<:;

“Namjoo! Namjoo!”

Namjoo was hysterically coughing by now and almost barely heard her sister. She turned around from the corner she and Chanyeol had backed up into. The two ghosts were still there with them unable to go anywhere else for fear they’d get killed without her protection.

“Namjoo!”

Staring into the fire she tried to see who was calling out for her only to start coughing crazily again. This time Chanyeol put his hand around her to turn her away from the fire, gently burying her head into his shoulder. The coughing slowly died down and Namjoo felt his hand sit on the back of her head as if consoling her. She could smell the scent that defined him and closed her eyes.

She could hear the flames churning, biting and chewing away at every solid it got at as it got hotter, thicker, and closer to them. It was a hot angry menace created from her unstable emotions. And they were going to die from it.

With her eyes closed and Chanyeol’s hand on the back of her head she worked to ease her breathing and will her shield to protect them. A cold raindrop landed on the back of her neck and slid down her skin before she opened her eyes. When she turned around she saw a gold shimmer, which was her shield and glanced up to see that it was raining.

>_____<;;

“Come on, come on,” Victoria muttered as she watched the fire fight the rain. Then turning around to Chorong asked, “Is this the most you’ve got?”

“What?” Chorong replied almost irritated. “You want a storm? The rain’s going to last hours and we’ve still got a King to catch!”

Victoria heaved a sigh and crossed her arms as she got drenched.

“My love, are you cold?” Suho put his arms around Chorong. “I’m cold, so let us be cold together.”

“I’m going to go insane,” Victoria mumbled rubbing her face with her hand. 

They watched a smoke whirl away into the air as the fire died down. A sense of relief filled the sisters when they saw Namjoo standing behind the now small fire with a glow around her.

Another 10 minutes passed by before the fire completely died and Victoria suddenly noticed the two strangers with Namjoo and Chanyeol.

“Spirits?” Chorong questioned as if having read her mind.

“Probably.” Victoria answered.

>_____<;;

“I have to go,” Namjoo turned to look at Chanyeol before taking a step forward, but Chanyeol grabbed her hand stopping her.

“Where?”

“My sisters need me. We have…a job to finish,” Namjoo explained. “Go back home, Chanyeol.”

She caught a glint of desperation in his eyes for them not to part and squeezed his hand before running toward her sisters.

“Who are they?” Victoria asked gesturing her head toward the two spirits following her.

“Spirits that thing was after,” Namjoo replied. “I need to get out of the rain. I hope you brought your car.”

“Right,” Victoria replied.

Namjoo glanced to the side to see Suho draping his jacket over Chorong, “He’s still here?”

“To our luck, yes,” Victoria half mumbled, “can’t seem to get him off Chorong’s tail. The guy must be head over heels for her if he’s like that in this world.”

Namjoo let out a snort before pulling open the door to Victoria’s car, “Interesting.”

>_____<;;

“Great, we don’t know where to look for the King at all,” Victoria grumbled pacing back and forth in the living room. “Half the day is wasted and the sun is going to set in a few hours. I don’t want to go hunting for those creeps when it’s night time.”

“Well you’ve always wondered what living a horror reality is like,” Chorong slightly tilted her head toward Victoria. “You can experience it with these things.”

Namjoo chuckled from the side.

“My love! It’s dangerous! Night time is not our time,” Suho went on. “It is not a joke!”

Ignoring him Victoria turned to the two ghosts, “You know anything about this King?”

“The King!?” the two of them repeated together.

“I don’t even know what these things are!” the male spirit stated.

“They just started coming after us in numbers!” the female added.

Victoria raised a brow, “From what direction?”

“Excuse me!?”

“I mean, from where? East, north, west, south,” Victoria listed out the options.

“My right?” the male spirit slightly frowned and Victoria ran a hand over her face again to restrain herself from lashing out at them.

“How about this,” Chorong tried, “where were you when you were first attacked?”

“The highway by Incheon,” the male spirit answered. “And it came from my right.”

Namjoo opened and slightly nodded, “There’s a small campground nearby. There’s a forest nearby too.”

Victoria nodded, “Ok, that makes things easier.”

“My love! It’s dangerous!” Suho shot up from where he was sitting as if to block Chorong from leaving.

“And you,” Victoria turned to Chorong, “get rid of him and meet us at crest hill.”

“Why crest hill?” Namjoo asked.

“To turn these two in,” Victoria gestured her head toward the two spirits, “they’re going to be a distraction and the monsters we’re already attracting with our gems are already enough.” 

***The King next!

***And I actually cried writing the most recent chapter I have ;A; Namjoo finally says goodbye to Luhan ;A;