Chapter 22; Cruelty

Running. That’s all Sumin can do. They keep on running and running and running. Xiumin’s hand clasped in her own, she runs with all her might. Baekhyun tags along behind them, where he urges his mother along. Sumin’s lip has been torn open by the assault of her own teeth biting down upon her lips. Kai, Kyungsoo, and Tao had veered off at some point, demanding that there was another exit. The group of four halt suddenly, a fork in the path. “Damn it,” Sumin curses.

“Choose,” Xiumin urges, “I hear people coming.”

Aggravated, she turns on Baekhyun and his mother. “This is your hideout, witch. Where the hell do we go?” Sumin demands, her voice unsteady but harsh. An enraged Baekhyun steps ahead of his mother, a ball of light growing within in the palm of his hand as a course growls spills from his mouth. Bladeless, Sumin steps back, her heart leaping. The feel of being petrified and vulnerable had never occurred to her before, but now it was as present as ever. Xiumin shields Sumin, rivulets of ice crawling up his arms as he stares Baekhyun down, his voice somewhat of a hiss.

“Just tell us how to get the hell out of here.”

Baekhyun’s mother steps forward, eyes shining from a fresh covering of tears. “You need your blades, right? That one blade—” she begins, her eyes meeting Sumin’s. Sumin nods begrudgingly and allows the lady to lead her down the left fork. The boys trail somewhat behind, and Baekhyun’s mother proceeds to whisper in a voice no louder than a breath of air. “I’m not going to live through this. I need you to save my son, please. He’s of great use to you — he knows how to harness the powers. I’ll try to fight off as many as possible, but you must escape through the right atrium ceiling. Your friends have already escaped, I can feel it.”

Sumin looks to her side, where the woman stares up at her with stern eyes, and she nods. “He won’t leave you without a fight,” she sighs, well aware of the bond that exists between a mother and her son.

“Drag him out if you have to.”

Several minutes of walking leads them to the mouth of a sizable armory and apothecary storage. An officer stands with his back facing the group, and the scent of rotting fruit drifts over the group. It’s a scent that all military officer’s wear to ward off foul beings — but it’s more effective at warding off woman. Sumin nearly glides over to him, her feet seem to not touch the floor. A quick flick of the wrist and the man is lying on the floor, his neck broken. Xiumin shuts his eyes and takes a deep breath before grabbing several weapons and stuffing them within his robes.

Mirae’s intricate sheath and hilt catch Sumin’s eyes immediately, and she scrambles to collect all of her things before following the others out. She pauses, however, and glances back at an armoire filled with vibrantly colored potions. Entranced, she stuffs several into her robe, making sure to grab the angel’s brew.

A short passageway leads to yet another cavern, this one is filled with officers, however. Another passageway, hopefully leading to the right atrium, sits on the opposite side of the room. Baekhyun’s mother turns to him, kissing the top of his head and fixing his hair before looking into his eyes. “My dearest baby boy,” she whimpers, “I love you so much.”

“Mother—”

Her eyes shut for a second before she re-opens them, glances over at Sumin, and then strides out into the middle of the room. From her hanbok she pulls a black bottle, and after a startling crash, the room is filled with black smoke. Gripping onto Baekhyun and Xiumin, Sumin pulls them through the smog and into the next passageway. Xiumin pulls Baekhyun along, despite the boys shouts of grief and desperate, pleading sobs.

The room now cleared of smoke, Sumin watches the massacre. Flashes of red light fly from the thin fingertips of Baekhyun’s mother. Several officers fall to the ground with a fatal thud. An arrow screams through the air, burying itself into her chest and causing blood to pour from . Eyes alight with tears, her eyes lock onto Sumin’s for a mere second — and then she falls. Shouts fill the air as the men catch sight of Sumin, and once again, she breaks into a sprint towards the right atrium.

Wiping at her cheeks, she’s surprised to see tears on her hands. What’s wrong with me? A wide hole in the ceiling allows moonlight to seep in, painting the room a milky white. Baekhyun and Xiumin stand on a ledge just below the opening. Baekhyun, tears still rushing from his eyes, looks down at Sumin. In that moment, she sees weakness and fear and pain. She sees herself as a child — herself, the child who just lost a mother. “Is she still alive?” he whimpers as Sumin scales the wall.

Pausing, her fingers barely hanging onto the jagged rocks, she stares back up at him — and nods. “She’s still fighting...most of the soldiers are dead...she...she still has a chance!” Sumin lies, unable to stop herself. The grief that comes from losing a parent — no one deserves that. Baekhyun gulps and then reaches up, gripping the opening and pulling himself out. A second later and Xiumin disappears above ground too. A hand shoots down to help Sumin up as she reaches the ledge. Looking down, she watches as several guards pour into the atrium.

Gripping onto the hand, she’s pulled up, and she finds herself standing face-to-face with Baekhyun. The others stand several feet away beside a large carriage of sorts, pulled by two of the horses — one of which is her own horse. She orders everyone to board the carriage, and they all watch as she glances back into the opening. Fire. Orange flames dance across her vision, causing her face to flush. They emerge from the passageway below and soon fill up the entire room, bathing the soldiers in fire that seems to cackle at them.

Baekhyun leaps out of the carriage. “My mother!” he screeches, but before he can dive into the heart of the fire, Sumin catches him and pushes him backwards. He fights with all of his might, and eventually overpowers Sumin. She watches him with a pity-filled heart as he kneels before the opening, enveloped in sobs once again. “No, no, no! She—She can’t die! No…” he cries desperately, banging his fists on the ground. Sumin grabs him by the shoulder and drags him upwards.

“Stop crying and get it together, damn it. People die. Get used to it.” she growls before pushing him towards the carriage. He glares up at her, but says nothing as she climbs into the front of the carriage. Sumin, too, follows after him, slouching down in a corner of the carriage. Her eyes burn, and she shrugs it off as a side effect of the smoke, though she knows otherwise. Losing a mother, losing family, it’s all part of life. But, it shouldn’t be. People shouldn’t have to suffer. Innocent people shouldn’t have to succumb to the grip of death, and their loved ones shouldn’t be forced to fall at the hand of death’s grief-inducing blade. The world is not perfect, true, but if the world remains as cruel as it is—what’s the point of living?

A/N;

Yes, after like forever, I finally have a new chapter up! So, I owe it to all of you to give you a good long explanation and apology and whatnot. To start, I left because I lost interest. It's not that I lost interest in this story, because in all honesty, I love this story. My issue is that I lost interest in writing, and I don't like writing if I have to force myself to do it. Hence, I decided it would be best for me to just abandon this story all together. I don't know what the logic in that was, but I think I'm justified. But, in the time I've been gone, I've actually improved quite a bit due to some college literature classes I've been /forced/ to take. Now, what inspired me to start writing this story again is that I've recently been reminiscing about the amount of ideas I used to have when I wrote fanfiction, especially this story. Fanfiction, for me, works as an outlet where I can express myself, create, and jog my creative mind. So, basically, I've been looking into writing a novel for a very long time now, and I was hoping that writing out some fanfiction would get my creative juices flowing. Naturally, this story came to mind. And, I feel like I have to tell you that this chapter has been done for a very long time now, I just never got around to editing it and posting it. Yes, yes, scream and yell at me. I'm sorry! The thing is, I don't like this chapter that much, and I kind of wish it was more meaningful. I'm too lazy to re-write it at the moment, but in the future, I very well might! Because this chapter is so short, I realize, I'll probably have a second update coming out today. That is, if I can keep my train of thought going. I know a bunch of people unsubscribed, which is understandable, but I hope that they'll all find me again and realize that I've re-started this story. Oh, by the way, if you happened to see another story with a very similar title to this one, which also happens to be supernaturally based, please note that this is in fact my idea and I did not take it from anywhere. That is, in fact, proven by the fact that this story was created February 2nd of 2014 and the other person's was created sometime thereafter. So, I'm just putting that out there. Well...Bye, darlings!

- HeartsU-Kiss, Peyton