“He killed me. He ripped out my heart and killed me. He murdered his own brother.”

She felt like she was going to die herself.

Her heart was cracking so fast, the pieces were falling and falling, tumbling down into emptiness as the fragments echoed.

She was staring back at Cheondung with shock written across her eyes.

A mixture of emotions took over her, creating extreme devastation.

Until she became angry.

Pissed off beyond control.

Small steps left her to slowly approach Cheondung, leaving Joon behind her.

She was numb as the words were getting louder and louder in her head, the voice resonating through out her entire body, from head to toe.

“Y-you killed- You murdered S-Seungho?”

“Sora-”

“Answer me!”

“I-I did. I’m sorry…”

Her reaction wasn’t what he was expecting.

She was laughing.

She was laughing the pain away, killing it before it could crush her.

Tears appeared in the corners of her eyes, slowly blurring her sight. Her hands covered while laughter still poured out of her.

She was too frozen up to back away with Cheondung gently and carefully approaching her. The moment his hand landed faintly on her shoulder, she snapped. She locked eyes with him, letting him see the unbearable aching that crept inside her heart despite the contrast of her laughter.

He tried to speak up but nothing came out.

He was speechless.

She lazily pushed his hand away from her shoulder and started shoving him from his chest, pushing him further and further away from her.

But he kept coming back.

Like a boomerang.

Hit after hit after hit, her laughter turned into sobs.

Her dam cracked; the pain and the anger overflowed from its confine.

She was getting stronger and more violent.

From simply shoving him out, she started hitting him harder, almost punching him against his chest.

She cried and screamed, and hit and shoved.

She felt like the remains of her fallen empire were burning down, leaving merely ashes that blew away with the wind.

When the voice in the back of her mind whispered softly that things will get better, that she might have another chance at happiness, her second chance was ruined by the violent truth.

By his lie.

She pounded against his chest, somehow hoping to create the deepest of hole mirroring her own hollowness.

She wanted to make him suffer like she has been suffering.

She wanted to hurt him like she has been hurting.

She wanted to make him understand the raw agony that was eating her alive, leaving bits and pieces all around.

She wanted to kill him.

They said ‘an eye for an eye’.

She said ‘a life for a life’.

She hit him hard enough to make him stumble backwards until he fell on his back, his body meshing with the dirty leaves and the grass from the forest.

She didn’t give up her fight.

She straddled him and started hitting him across the face, screaming the same pleading question: ‘why?’

Why did you do it?

Why did you kill him?

What was it to you?

Why are you so evil?

Why did you take him away from me?

He never did anything but let her vent out the endless throbbing that came out of her. He was drowning under the waves but he couldn’t care less.

‘I deserve it.’

A hundred days ago, he would’ve thought differently.

A hundred days later, he felt remorse.

And still, there was a point where he couldn’t take it anymore.

He suddenly grabbed onto her arms, pressing them hardly by the sides of her body. She froze and completely stopped crying as she looked at him with her eyes wide and her breathing coming to a halt.

Her hands were merely covered in his blood. They were pressed against the man’s collarbone until she shook herself out of her daze and quickly wriggled herself away from him. She sat on the ground with her lungs heaving breaths out of .

They said nothing to each other.

She was mute and he was breathless.

She quickly got up on her feet and ran away without giving one last glance behind her shoulder.

Just as she left, Cheondung took notice of Joon’s disappearance. He looked all around him but couldn’t see him anywhere. “.”

He got up on his feet and called Sora, trying to make her stop but she just kept going.

He started chasing after her but she was already far away reaching the end of the forest to cross over the public park before she had to reach the streets.

She ignored him as she kept her pace up.

She wasn’t even paying attention to her surroundings; she just wanted to get out of whatever hellhole she had fallen into.

Time stopped for a split of a moment when she had finally reached the crowded street.

Still with her mind elsewhere, she didn’t see the driving car coming right at her.

The next second, she was abruptly hit by the hood of the vehicle with her body sliding along the metal to the window before rolling back down and back on the ground.

Surprised gasps were heard everywhere. The screeching’s of tires were heard as cars stopped, taken aback by the accident they had just witnessed.

They were more astonished when they saw the girl slowly getting back up on her feet.

Scratches covered her body from her legs to her cheek. Her arm was in deep pain as well as her ribcage. She felt weak but it didn’t stop her; she took a moment when the driver was insistent on getting help. She quietly brushed him off, telling him she was okay.

Hearing Cheondung’s voice just a few feet away, she quickly glanced behind her before running out once again, leaving the public where they were.

With the hit, she was at a disadvantage.

She was able to reach the other side of the street just when Cheondung finally caught up to her.

He reached out to her only causing her to violently turn around and pushing him out. “Don’t touch me!” The sudden movement created cramps all over her body making it difficult to properly stand up.

He tried to help her out but she only backed away, her anger finally rising up to the surface. “I said don’t ing touch me! Just leave me alone!”

“You just got hit by a car! You need a hospital-”

“I don’t need anything! Especially not from you! Just off!”

“Sora-” He took one step and she burst. “STOP IT!”

She walked away from him and stepped towards the entrance of an alley; she leaned her back against the wall, breathing in and out to calm herself down.

Not giving up, he marched towards her while trying to muster the courage to talk to her.

“I’m sorry, I really am.”

“You’re sorry? Are you ing kidding me?! You murdered somebody! You killed Seungho! You ing monster!”

She shoved him away with every last power she had inside her.

She could feel the tears coming back.

‘A life for a life. Kill him. He deserves it.’

A constant voice played inside her mind, pushing her to act, to fulfill the darkest will.

Even though he wasn’t physically there, he was still linked to her mind, giving him the chance to control her, to kill his brother for him.

Hatred grew its roots inside her, growing and growing as branches and thorns wrapped themselves around her beating heart through her veins.

She stared at the boy in front of her, her bloodstream pumping in fury.

‘Kill him.’

‘Kill him!’

‘KILL HIM!’

The urge grew at an unstoppable pace.

‘A life for a life.’

She softly mumbled the same words under her breath as she kept her stare on Cheondung.

He grew scared from the way her eyes darkened the more she was looking at him.

Something wasn’t right.

The more the voice echoed inside her head, the stronger she became.

“S-Sora?”

“A life for a life.”

“Wh-what?”

“You took his life... Now, I’m going to take yours.”

It clicked. His mind connected the dots.

“He’s controlling you, isn’t he?”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Joon. He’s talking to you right now. In your head!”

“Stop talking.”

Venom in her voice; he could feel it through the goose bumps traveling all over his body.

He was terrified.

She let the hate take over her body and her soul, thriving through every one of her steps towards him.

She grabbed onto his shirt, turned around, and pushed him violently against the wall.

He felt a sudden tightness around his throat.

Right there, his nightmare was becoming true.

The dark blue eyes glaring through his, the black painted nails smudged with traces of blood, the pain of feeling his throat open with burning scratches; it was all coming back into this reality.

He couldn’t breathe.

She was finally doing it.

She was strangling him, slowing his heart until it beat no more.

She was killing him.

He tried to defend himself but the lack of air to his brain left him dizzy and on the verge of unconsciousness.

“Why did you even do it?! How did you even do it? Huh?! How the did you rip out his heart?!”

Hit.

“I trusted you! I was finally starting to trust you! You ing monster!”

Punch.

“I don’t love you and I will never love you! No women will! How could they? Huh? How could I love someone like you?!”

Hit.

“You are nothing to me! Do you hear me?! NOTHING!”

Crack.

“I hate you. I despise you. I loathe you. I ing hate you!”

She was finally erupting all her emotions at once. “YOU LIED TO ME!”

Hit. Punch. Crack.

“For all this time you pretended you didn’t even know anything? I trusted you, I ing trusted you! I was starting to open up to you but you just screw me over like this?!”

And again, and again.

“You are pathetic. I hate you. I ing hate you! Why did you even kill him? Why did you pretend like you didn’t even know him?! W-why, damn it?!!”

She gave him one last powerful shove against the wall and leaned closer until he could feel her breath along his lips. “I’d rather be dead than love you.”

His heart broke.

The last pieces cracked and fell.

It was over.

She finally let him go. His body fell right down on the ground.

He coughed loudly while she was slowly backing away, wiping the tears in her eyes and the sudden nosebleed, with the back of her hand.

He was getting up on his feet when she had run away again.

But just when he thought that she was gone, he felt the sharpest of pain travel throughout his body.

It came straight from his heart.

His chest was ripped open as she grabbed onto his heart and ripped it out.

“A life for a life. Yours for his.”

He tried to breathe but all he could see was the darkest blue in her eyes until she suddenly vanished and his chest was intact.

He still felt the beating of his heart inside him.

He slid back down on the floor. He brought up his knees close to his chest and lazily placed his arms above his knees. He leaned his head back and simply let the heartbreak take its course.

Tears coated the corners of his eyes.

Humanity was getting to him; it was getting the best of him, finally destroying him to his weakest.

It was over.

“You can’t do it?”

“Noona, I’m sorry, but I can’t exactly arrest him…”

“He admitted about killing Seungho! He committed a ing felony and you can’t arrest him?! What kind of cop are you?!!”

“I’m sorry, but I just can’t-”

“ you Yongguk. I thought I could trust you, my own ing brother!”

“You can trust me!”

“NO! No, I can’t! The killer is still out there and you don’t even want to do anything about it!”

“It’s complicated, okay!”

“No, it’s not! You arrest the ing , okay?! You don’t question it, you do it, damn it!”

She was agitated as she paced around with her fingers constantly running through her hair. Her brother only looked at her, trying to make her understand and change her mind about what she wanted.

“Sora, he’s not who you think he is. I can’t arrest him.”

“Yes, you can. You just don’t want to because it’s Seungho we are talking about. If it was someone else, you would’ve run and done it already.”

“You’re right. It’s because of Seungho, but not for this reason.”

“Then why? Why the can’t you just make the man rot in jail?!”

Her yelling caused him to breathe out, revealing the hidden truth. “Because he’s a demon.”

One hour turned into two, turning into three.

Three hours later and the whole truth was spread out wide for Sora; she was drowning, sinking through every bits and pieces of words that came out of her brother’s mouth as he unveiled her past and her heritage, her connection to Seungho and his connection to the rest of the supernatural.

They were sitting on the couch, at her place, next to each other while Yongguk was slowly explaining everything to her.

“The reason why you don’t remember any of this is because Seungho erased that part of your memory. Anything that had to do with him being half-demon and us being hunters, everything that lead to the supernatural, he erased it all.”

“W-why?”

“To give you a normal life. So you two can… live normally and happily.”

“Happily? I’ve wasted the last three months mourning him! I am miserable Yongguk! I am so ing miserable!”

“I-I know, and I’m sorry-”

“You don’t know. You don’t know what I’ve been through these past few days, okay? You can’t understand about what’s happening to me!”

The frustration and hatred piled up, causing the biggest headache yet to pound its way inside her. She hissed from the ache while her brother quickly approached her. She pushed him away and got up on her feet.

She clutched onto the sides of her head where flashes of her exposed past coming to light.

The memories were painful, not only for her mind but also for her body.

She was growing weaker and could barely stand straight anymore.

He took notice of her struggle and tended to her as he brought her back to the couch, forcing her to sit down.

She could see him. She had the past ten years playing inside her brain; it snapped everything back to her as she started to remember what was hidden.

She finally remembered the truth about her beloved’s identity.

She remembered not caring about it.

She remembered loving him just as much, the fun they had and the pain they shared.

She remembered everything.

Even his role to the throne.

She was his princess.

“Noona, are you okay?”

“Leave. Just go. Leave me alone.”

“I can’t just leave you like that.”

“Yes, you can. Now, piss off.”

He did as she told him to and left.

The moment he closed the door, she was left in peace.

From thinking about her past, the thoughts slowly lead her to think about Cheondung and about everything they’ve been through since they met.

She felt betrayed and despised herself for even trusting him, for even glimpsing at a chance of actually falling in love with him.

She was in tears and was so terrified; she didn’t even know what to do or even where to turn too.

She was definitely alone.

She didn’t even realize the body that stood behind her until she heard his voice.

She gasped and quickly jumped out of her seat as she turned around but saw nobody. She gulped down and carefully shifted her head to the other side only to have caught within Joon’s hand as he appeared from behind her.

“Hello again~”

And then they vanished.

D a y  N i n e t y - N i n e ^(#99)

11:30 PM

An old warehouse just a little bit outside of town was where they were supposed to meet.

He was patiently waiting for his brother to come, knowing that he would be desperate to save the girl.

The space was wide and created echoes whenever someone would scream.

Which she did.

She yelled louder and louder every time, crying out for help.

Nobody could hear her but him.

He eventually found it sickening and knocked her out, leaving her body to lie down across the dirt. He waited and waited until he finally sensed his younger brother coming, rushing to save her; with the youngest prince came the hunter.

Both Cheondung and Yongguk had just arrived at the warehouse; both got a message from the witch, letting them know of Joon’s plan to end things now.

To end everything now.

Once and for all.

11:45 PM

“It was about time you came! I was starting to lose my patience~”

No smile crossed the men’s lips; they were both ready to attack the demon as they stood their ground while closing in the distance. “Where is she?”

“Over there.” He nodded with his head Sora’s location behind him and turned back towards the new arrivals. “Don’t worry, she’s just, hmm, how to say this… She’s resting.”

She could hear the constant voices running around as the three males kept arguing, front and back. A soft groan escaped from her dry lips. She slowly and painful tried to lift her upper body up as she used her arms, she barely made it. She turned her head around and spotted her brother with Cheondung standing next to each other as they faced her kidnapper.

11:50 PM

Joon was gripping tightly onto Yongguk’s throat, his feet lifted from the ground while Cheondung was a few feet away from them, lying on the ground with fresh scars.

Panic struck her as she watched her brother getting strangled right in front of her eyes.

“NO! St-stop it!”

Her screaming voice caught their attention.

She was trying to get up on her feet but felt her body numbing; she was freezing as her temperature kept dropping lower and lower.

Painful groans came out of her as she lied back down on the ground, enclosing her arms around her chest to warm herself the best she could.

11:55 PM

It felt like forever when the cold vanished.

Joon wasn’t focused on her anymore.

She stood back up and watched as her brother was thrown away.

She ran to him but barely got halfway through when she felt a sudden push against her chest, shoving her back on the ground.

11:57 PM

Cheondung joined Yongguk as Joon jolted him feet away from where he was standing.

With just an arm stretched, Sora slid towards him rapidly; in just a blink of an eye she was standing up, her body shaking in fear while Joon stood behind her with his hand around her neck.

11:58 PM

She cried out while struggling to get away from him but he held her stronger, his hand squeezing .

Her eyes glanced from Cheondung to Yongguk and back to Cheondung before looking once again at her brother.

She could hear the satisfied snicker from behind her, sending goose bumps all over her body.

“You really care about her, it’s very fascinating, brother. Who knew you would grow so weak in such a short time span.”

11:59:30 PM

He cupped her cheeks forcefully as he leaned towards her cheek and let his nose nestle across the skin. He breathed in her scent as his hands traveled all around her body, scaring her more.

11:59:57 PM

He chuckled at her quiet whimper; he enjoyed it too much.

He tilted his head back towards the other two. They were still on the ground, with the ache never stopping.

11:59:58 PM

She saw it coming.

The moment his hands were placed around her neck and subtly at the back of her head, she knew what would happen next.

She looked at Yongguk and gave him a small smile while gently winking at him.

11:59:59 PM

She shifted her gaze towards Cheondung and at that moment, she couldn’t hate him.

How could she when she was going to be reunited with the love of her life?

She felt sorry for never giving him what he wanted; now it was too late.

She softly mouthed to him. “I love you.”

Both men were soaked in fear; it was coming too fast and they wished it wasn’t.

Joon looked at his brother, nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders.

“It’s so unfortunate she has to die though~”

12:00 AM

Within the span of that last second, the moment the clock ticked midnight, three things happened.

Sora’s fall.

Seungho’s rise.

Joon’s death.

Cheondung had his powers back.

But.

Sora was dead.

Joon was dead.

Seungho was back.

It was the end.

Joon snapped her neck.

Sora fell down the ground, as the demon’s heart was ripped out from behind him by his older brother, who just came back from the dead.

Just as Joon’s body hit the ground, Seungho stood tall with his right hand holding onto the dead heart as blood dripped down onto the floor.

Nothing was said.

The fire in his eyes was immense. He stared at Cheondung, clear hatred within his pupils. He turned his gaze towards Yongguk, showing barely any emotion.

He dropped the heart on the floor and burnt the dead body.

As the flame grew heavy, he gently picked up Sora’s body in his arms and gazed at her ever so tenderly. “I’m so sorry, my Love. But don’t worry, it’s not over.”

And they vanished.

The heart disappeared just as they did.

Only Cheondung and Yongguk remained. “He’s back… It’s over.”

“It’s not. You heard him… It’s not over.”