6 – The Flood

Hyoyeon looked up to the gloomy sky through the window, watching the water fell from the cloud. She was still alive,

Hyoyeon thought, the girl who caused all this weather anomaly was still out there. Sunny said that the girl was not a bad

person, hardly a villain. Something had triggered a great amount of pain and anger inside of her that turned her so

violent. Though she couldn’t tell what the trigger was.

The Girl in the Wedding Dress was a powerful Helminthia, powerful enough to control the weather of a whole city. Plus,

she had been living without her Host for more than a week. The only Helminthia Hyoyeon knew that could survive without

the energy supply from the Host longer than that was Taeyeon.

Hyoyeon considered herself as a mediocre Helminthia. Even though she could manipulate wind at her own will, the biggest

thing she could do with it was to carry people fly across the sky. She could not even imagine the amount of energy

required to create a storm or to make the sky cry over Seoul for a week. Thinking of that, Hyoyeon felt that they were

facing a very troublesome opponent.

The sound of a door creaking open made her head turn. Byunghyun and Secretary Gaeil emerged from a bright white

room. Hyoyeon quickly walked towards them. “How was it?”

“It’s definitely the work of a Helminthia,” said Byunghyun. “The girl’s corpse was flawless. No wound, not even a scratch.”

Gaeil sat on a bench and looked out the window. “So…,” he said, “the Helminthia that causing all this rain is not the same

one that’s been killing these girls?”

Byunghyun shook her head. “No.”

**

Sunny went down to the kitchen and found two plates of fried rice on the dining table with Taeyeon on the sink, washing

the cooking utensils.

“Taeyeon…,” Sunny called out to her friend.

Taeyeon turned around and smiled. Her face was white, awfully white, like blood didn’t go through her skin. “Morning,” she

chirped.

“How are you feeling?” Sunny sat on a chair.

Taeyeon gave Sunny a shrug and a smile as an answer. “Hyoyeon and Byunghyun-oppa went to the police station.

Something happened last night.”

“I see,” Sunny nodded. “Maybe you should rest a bit more, Tae.”

Taeyeon took a freshly squeezed orange juice pitcher and put it on the table. “It’s okay,” she said, “better yet, can you tell

me what happened yesterday after I fainted?”

**

“Sunny saw a glimpse of the girl’s mind when they bumped each other and said that she hasn’t killed anyone,” said

Byunghyun as he took a seat next to Gaeil. “At least not yet.”

“Not yet?”

Hyoyeon crossed her arms and joined in the explanation. “The will to kill is there. Something really bad happened to her,

we don’t know what it is yet, but she holds a grudge towards Seoul. A grudge so massively huge she wanted to drown

everyone living in the city.”

Gaeil scratched his head in frustration. “A serial killer and a girl who wants to unleash the apocalypse…. What the hell is

going on with this world lately?”

“Something really bad is going on,” said Hyoyeon.

**

“So she’s not the serial killer, huh?” Taeyeon sat on the dining table together with Sunny. They were fried rice while

talking about the case.

“No,” Sunny shook her head. “Listen, Tae. I would really like it if you keep yourself away from this case. Please, you

dropped down lifeless yesterday. I don’t want to see you like that again. Unless….”

“Unless?”

“Unless…,” Sunny paused for a few seconds before continuing, “unless you take Jessica as your Host.”

Taeyeon spewed out rice out of her nostrils and coughed like crazy.

“Yes,” Sunny looked deeply into Taeyeon’s eyes. “We knew about Jessica.”

**

Jessica popped her head out of the bath tub. She was drowning herself in a warm bubble bath to clear her head. When

she resurfaced from her little dive, she saw Krystal sitting on the sink.

“Remember it now?” she asked.

Jessica shook her head. “I remember nothing.”

“Yuri clearly remembers everything,” said the ghost. “I mean her memory is fine. Yours, on the other hand, is missing a

lot.”

“Tell me more about last night.”

“When you two came back here with those mysterious girls, the one they messed with was you. Yuri was fine. Weird thing,

though,” Krystal looked up to the ceiling as if she was thinking, “she claimed herself to be you.”

Jessica was getting even more confused than she already was. “Why didn’t she say anything to me?”

Krystal didn’t answer that. She knew the reason but her sister was so dumb she couldn’t tell that Yuri was doing that to

protect her.

“What do you think?”

Krystal shrugged.

Jessica bit her lower lip and decided to drown herself in the tub again, hoping that the water would clear her conscience

and help her remember. But after a few seconds, she got nothing. Instead, a flash of an image struck the back of her

mind. It was a girl with pale skin and round face.

Jessica came up again, spewing water from her parted lips. “Taeyeon….”

“The unconscious girl?”

“Yes,” Jessica said.

**

“Kim Taeyeon. I know her….”

Yuri could hear Jessica’s voice from outside the bathroom and then she sighed in disappointment when she heard it. She

thought the girl named Sunny had took Jessica’s memory away but she still remembers the name Taeyeon.

She put her hand on the bathroom door and whispered, “Please, forget.”

**

Gaeil froze in fear when he opened the lobby door of the police station for Hyoyeon and Byunghyun. The parking lot was

submerged by water. The city’s drainage system had failed by the endless rain and the city was flooding everywhere.

“It has gotten to this level?” said Byunghyun. “We have to find the girl and stop her, Hyo, or the city will….”

Hyoyeon bit her lower lip. She was worried and Gaeil caught that expression.

“Can you fly in this weather?” asked Gaeil.

“I’m not sure,” Hyoyeon shook her head, “with this much wind, I don’t know if I can control it. If only Taeyeon was here then

she could keep me stable with her telekinesis but….”

Gaeil turned to Byunghyun. “Can’t she go?”

“No. She is so weak she passed out yesterday. We’re not sure what will happen if she uses her power again,” Byunghyun

shrugged.

Gaeil sighed. “Listen, I can make every camera in the city to look for her but the one who can stop her is you guys. Help

me out, Byunghyun-ssi.”

Byunghyun looked at Hyoyeon and the girl quickly shook her head. “I can’t ask Taeyeon to lay her life down for this.”

“It’s for the city, Hyoyeon,” said Gaeil.

“But she’ll die!”

**

“You will die, Taeyeon!” Sunny slammed her hands against the table.

Taeyeon calmly put her plates in the sink and sighed. “Then so be it.”

“It’s not fine! I will lose you! We will lose you! Why are you so eager to die, Kim Taeyeon?!” Sunny’s chest was rising up

and down in sync with her rushing breath. Her eyes were moist and teary. “Are we not enough for you?!”

“Don’t say such stupid things.”

“Then, please, please,” Sunny said, “I beg of you. Take Jessica in. Make her your Host. Keep on living, Taeyeon.”

The girl cried then, broke down into tears in front of her best friend.

**

Byunghyun, Gaeil and Hyoyeon were walking to the sixth floor where the traffic management control room was located. All

the way to the place, Hyoyeon was explaining how they found a possible Host for Taeyeon.

“It’s Jessica, her name is Jessica and I know where she lives,” said Hyoyeon. “If Taeyeon would just take her as a Host,

and if she could regain her lost energy, I am sure we could take that Helminthia down.”

“Fine. But this better work, Hyoyeon-ssi, because I am about to pull this city’s whole asset to catch this Helminthia,” Gaeil

led them into the traffic management control room and the place was bustling with people.

It looked like the storm had put a lot of chaos in the city’s traffic. Gaeil clapped his hands and gathered attentions. “Listen

up! Stop what you’re doing right now! New assignment! You are to look for a flying object in the city! A female in a

wedding dress!”

Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and looked at Gaeil in confusion. Among the confused people, one chubby

man raised a hand. “Sir?”

“Yes?”

“I don’t know if this is what you mean but…,” the man tapped a few keys in his keyboard and an image of a blurry figure

on top of a television tower came up on the huge main screen on the wall, “I’ve been wondering what the hell this blurry

dot in my screen is.”

“Get Jessica over there and we will get Taeyeon,” Hyoyeon ran out of the room and Byunghyun followed her.

“Stay with that image and get five units of ground patrol to this address! Quick!”

**

Jessica came out all warm and mushy from the bathroom. She quickly found Yuri in front of the TV in the living room. She

sat next to Yuri and looked in her eyes.

“Whoa, what?” Yuri said.

“You are my best friend, Yuri, you know that right?”

“Yes.”

“And as a best friend I would never lie to you, you know that too right?”

“Su-sure,” Yuri was intimidated by Jessica’s cold stares.

“I will ask you one question and please answer it honestly.”

Yuri swallowed her saliva, nervous of the question. Her brain spun hard in her skull, thinking of the answer if Jessica

should ask her to explain what happened last night. What kind of lie she had to make?

But before Jessica could ask her anything, the front door slammed open and three police officers broke in.

“Jessica!” one of them yelled out.

Yuri and Jessica jumped up of the sofa, both hands raised in the air.

“Jessica?! Which one of you is Jessica?” asked the officer again.

“M-,” Jessica was about to answer when Yuri suddenly shouted.

“Me!” Yuri moved forward. “Me!”

“Come with us now!”

“No! It’s me!”

“She’s lying!” Yuri glared at Jessica, “I’m Jessica!”

“No…, no!” Jessica tried to grab Yuri’s hand but the police was faster. They pulled Yuri out of the apartment so quickly

Jessica couldn’t do anything except to watch. She followed the police down to the first floor and realized that the place was

flooded. Three police cars were waiting in front of the lobby with half of the tires submerged in water.

“Go back to your room miss!” said one police officer.

“No! Where are you taking her?!” Jessica yelled out.

“Just go back!” the police said that and went into one of the car, taking Yuri with him.

“No, Yuri!” Jessica couldn’t even see Yuri anymore through the rain. A second later, the cars had already gone, leaving

Jessica alone in the lobby.

Jessica gritted her teeth and turned around to go back to her apartment and take an umbrella when suddenly the thing

flew into her hand. Krystal was bringing the umbrella to her. “Go after them! They’re taking Yuri as you!”

“Thanks, Baby Sis,” Jessica ran out the lobby into the rain and the flood. She ran as hard as she could to find the police

cars. Running in the rain, she hoped that the police cars got stuck in a traffic jam somewhere because of the flood. The

storm became much harder when Jessica reached the main road. The wind blew her right and left so she had to hold on

to anything she could find.

Thunder began to clap in the sky and Jessica couldn’t go on anymore. Her umbrella had gone to waste by the wind and

she had to let it go. Feeling like a helpless piece of paper in the wind, Jessica couldn’t even tell which was she was going

anymore. She lost her balance and fell on the curb, getting pushed by the wind in the flood.

Like getting swept away in a deep river, she was helpless against the flood. Then a pair of hands took a grab of her

shoulders, pulled her up from the water and took her inside a warm and bright place. The hands moved Jessica gently

into a soft chair and let her rest.

Coughing from her little drowning experience, Jessica tried to brush the water away from her face. When she got a clearer

look at the place, she found herself inside a local book store. There were a few other people in there, wet and weak.

“You okay?” a voice asked her.

Jessica turned to the side and a girl with long black hair was bringing her a blanket. “Ye – yes.”

“Here,” she put the blanket over Jessica’s shoulders and rubbed her a few times. “Rub the side of your chest and your

hand will take care of the rest.”

Jessica’s teeth were trembling like crazy to say anything so she nodded instead.

“Let’s stay here until the storm pass,” say the girl again and then she took a seat next to Jessica. “The owner of the place

is kind enough to let us in.”

Jessica took a better look at the girl’s face. Her skin was white with a glimpse of pink shade on her cheeks. She was no

older than Jessica judging by the posture and the face. The thing that caught her attention the most was her eyes.

“Thanks,” said Jessica.

“You’re welcome,” the girl turned to her and smiled. Her smile was so beautiful. Her small eyes went away and two

crescents appeared instead.

Jessica felt like she knew the girl though she couldn’t remember where she had seen the face.

“I’m-,” Jessica stuttered, “I’m Jessica.”

“I’m Tiffany,” the girl smiled again, “Hwang Tiffany.”

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