The door swings open and the sound of it opening echoed throughout the empty hall. Once the door is wide open, a figure walks in with elegance, chest puff out and head held high. Behind the figure follows a grotesque looking skeleton cloak with black cloth. The unknown makes its way towards an empty seat that surrounds the round table.

“You’re late, Sloth.” barks a shadowy figure on the left of the empty chair. Sloth scoffs as it takes its seat. It glances around and finds that it is not the only one that is late or missing. “Where is he?” Sloth quirks. The figures present around the table shakes their or simply did not respond to the question. “You know how he is. He never comes to such a meeting and he has a mission to complete.” The same figure who barked earlier said.

“So why did you assemble us here for? We do not have time for this – we have to revive The Master.” One of the shadows exclaims with an annoyed tone. Sloth smirks as it leans forward and rests its head on its palms. “I believe The Master is willing to forgive our prudence in reviving him late as we have a much important matter to do. One of the Chosen has appeared.” The other shadows gasps in fear and horror as they gossips among their neighbors.

“That is not possible. The gates have no reaction or whatsoever!” One of them bellows as it slams the table with its fist. “That’s right! If it is one of them, the gates will respond to their powers.” Another shadow adds on. Sloth smirks as it starts to laugh at its companion’s stupidity. “The gates will only respond if one of them awakes at your designated area. The gate in which I guard, the gate of the Crone is responding. The Chosen is here.” After Sloth proclaims the arrival and the evidence, silence fills the hall.

“You understands what this means right? The gates must open. Only then will The Master return to our side once more.” One of the shadows exclaims as it slumps in its chair. All other shadows nod with agreement of that statement. Sloth stands up and takes a respectful bow. “For The Master.” It says. The others mimic Sloth’s actions and chant the same words.

“For The Master.”

-

Sunggyu wakes up sweating all over. He dreamt the same thing as he did at the sickbay. He finds himself drowning once again as he exits the dream. But it seems a little bit different from the last dream he had. The only difference is the seven stars in the greyish sky. Before, it is simply just one blue star with six red stars but now one of the red stars is turning purplish.

He pulls away his comforter and walks towards the bathroom to wash up and take a quick shower. He removes his clothes and did not wait any longer to clean himself up, not wanting to stay sweaty. He twists the faucet and let the water fall on him, not caring that the water is cold. He sighs with pleasure and comfort as the water slowly turns warm. Satisfied, he lathers his body with soap and his hair with shampoo, ensuring to scrub with proper strength.

After washing every soap off him, he turns the shower off and walks to the sink. He leans on the counter top and stares at himself in the mirror in front of him. The man in the mirror looks exactly the same as the person by the sink – normal and ordinary, nothing much special about Kim Sunggyu. But if there is a part that Sunggyu wishes to flaunt, it would be the birthmark that forms on his chest.

It isn’t like any other birthmark that does not have a define shape. Sunggyu’s birthmark is shaped like a face of a skull wearing a hood over it. He used to be quite afraid of it when he was young, seeing how ghostly about it. Now that he is older and mature, the birthmark seems to be cool and all. However, recently he seems to find his birthmark glowing in a faint purplish color, but he debunks the idea as it is logically impossible for a mark to glow. Yet again, what could explain the creature that Sunggyu saw? Sunggyu shivers at the thought of the grotesque creature and finds it pointless to ponder over it. He still is unable to decide that if what he has seen is based on stress or reality. Quickly, he dries himself and puts on a new set of clothes for the day. Putting on whatever stuffs he does every day – putting on eyeliner, spraying a few tads here and there of his cologne and styling his hair. Sunggyu isn’t much of a person who is very interested in looking good, but he has to at least look presentable.

He swings his backpack over his shoulder and makes his way to his morning lectures. After that incident, Sunggyu hopes to find solace in his own studies, wanting to just simply drown in his books.

Suddenly, his chest starts to ache in pain. It feels like a burning sensation at first but it soon becomes a full blown pain that feels as if his chest is being ripped apart. Sunggyu quickly scans his surroundings and to his relief that the hallway is empty. He leans on the wall for support as he clutches his chest. He removes his shirt as to his horror, his birthmark glows in a deep purple color. Just as when Sunggyu thought that the skeleton is merely a part of his own imagination, another strange thing happen to him.

He clutches his mark as his face distorts into pain. He gasps and pants for air as beads of sweat starts to form and streaking down. His breath became more frantic as his mark glows even brighter. The pain continues to increase in its intensity when suddenly the agonized feeling es and Sunggyu scream out in pain. His grip on his chest tightens immediately, causing his fingernails to dig into his skin and causing the wound to bleed.

The pain subsides as Sunggyu slumps against the wall and gasping for air. This is the first time this has ever happen to him. But what makes it even bizarre for Sunggyu is that this is not the first weird incident that happens to him – The desolated world in his dreams, the grotesque skeleton and now a glowing birthmark. It certainly isn’t appealing to Sunggyu at all. Yet Sunggyu has no chance to rest at all.

Just as Sunggyu thought that it is over, his surroundings starts to distort and change. The hallway’s wall starts to crumble and the ground starts to disappear one tile at a time. Classroom doors start to disappear as well, leaving the hallway completely unable to escape from. But not all hope is lost as at the end of the hall, one door remains untouched but Sunggyu don’t have the time in the world to think if he should go for the door as the door is disappear as well, and fast.

Letting his instincts take over, he dashes straight for the door, evading falling ceiling tiles and bricks that crumbles from the wall. The floor tiles begin to disappear in a random fashion as Sunggyu trips over a hole in the ground. Not wasting time to cradle his own injury, he forces himself to stand up and start running once more, not thinking twice.

As the door comes into arm length of Sunggyu, he reaches out for the knob and turns it but it did not budge at all. He tries to turn it a few more times with a little bit more strength but the knob will simply not open for Sunggyu. The door is locked. Sunggyu begins to panic as the path behind him starts to get devoured at a faster rate and it is reaching Sunggyu soon.

“Come on… Open! Damn it!” He curses as he continues to waste his efforts opening the locked door. Seeing how the opening the proper isn’t going to help, he bangs hard on the door with his hands and with occasionally rough but strong kicks on the door. He screams for the door to open, while still hitting it with hard hits. Sunggyu’s strength wanes as he pauses momentarily to recover those tiny bits of stamina. Suddenly his chest begins to ache in pain once again, putting more pressure on Sunggyu.

“Argh… not now…” He groans in pain, clutching his chest with one of his hands. With his lone hand, he continues to hit on the door but with lesser strength as his attention now splits between the door and his aching chest. “Please… Open…” He begs. He moves slightly backwards and charges straight on the door. He hoped and wished with all his might for the door to open.

A force engulfs him as his entire body begins to glow in faint blue. Just as his body comes in contact with the door, a forceful impact collides on the door, causing it to tear apart and allowing Sunggyu to tumble through the hole. He falls forward and within minutes, the hole behind him closes up immediately. His chest pain begins to calm as well. Sunggyu looks around and notice the unfamiliarity of his current location.

Before him lies a gigantic door in which it doesn’t seems to be able to budge with a push. The door is presumably locked to Sunggyu with the presence of many silver chains on it. He walks closer to the door and he seems to notice something on the door. He moves closer and squint his eyes to concentrate his focus on the image. “It looks familiar… I think I’ve seen it before.” He deduces as he stood just inches away from the giant door. Not knowing why he did it, he places his hand on the stone door and in the next instance a tremor fills the place.

The door begins to glow brightly, or rather it is the image that glows and it shocks Sunggyu like all the other incidents he encountered. The glowing image that is once blurred and unable to see, now shines brightly and the outline is as clear as day. On the door, the image depicts a skull of a female, with a hood over it.

Just as exactly the same as Sunggyu’s birthmark.

To be continuted in Chapter 4: Gatekeeper

A/N

I hope this is not too late! I did not proof read this >_< But it should be okay... I guess :O