Sanghyuk’s POV

    At 4:30pm I received a call from Hakyeon. “Hey, what’s up?”    

    “I’m good,” He answered, “So about this girl. Are you sure we can trust her?”

    I exhaled loudly into the phone. “Yes, I trust her.”

    “Ok, buy how do you know you can trust her?”

    “She is the granddaughter of the witch who foresaw the prophecy. From what she saw the other night, it sounds like the six mentioned may not be us at all, but the women.” I saw Minji wave at me from down the school’s hallway. “Hyung, It will all be explained when we get there. We are leaving now, we will be there soon.”

Minji’s POV

    The drive was very quiet. Neither Sanghyuk nor I wanted to speak first. I had quite a few things I wanted to ask him, but didn’t know where to start.

    It was nerve wracking to be going over to his house. I was about to meet the family, or close friends, of a boy I spent the last six months crushing on.

    When we arrived Sanghyuk immediately led me into the attic. He stopped me at the top of the stairs, “Now, don’t freak out or anything.” Was all he said before opening the hidden door.

    I walked in open mouthed. The room was just as my grandmother had described. The only difference was instead of there being six boys, the room held eight strangers, Sanghyuk, and myself. I recognized all of the women from my vision, and two of the men.

    I lifted my hand to wave and gave a weak and awkward smile. They were spread throughout the room talking in small groups or couples. They smiled warmly in return. Sanghyuk placed his hands on my shoulder and gently pushed me to stand in front of the koi pond with a log behind me. Changing the direction of his gentle pressure, he lowered me to sit.

    “Stay here.” He walked to the rear wall covered in vine, and knocked loudly. “Hyung?” After about a minute the wall opened and another man and woman entered the room.

Everyone gathered around the small pond. There was not enough room for everyone to sit. The few men standing made me a little uncomfortable. Sanghyuk stood behind me. I wanted to stand too, but when I tried he placed his hands on my shoulders and massaged them gently. I looked over my shoulder back at him, and he smiled reassuringly.

One of the men standing bowed a little and introduced himself, “Hello, I’m Hakyeon.” He stood straight. He smiled so brightly that I couldn’t help but smile back. “Why doesn’t everyone introduce themselves and then you can tell us about this dream or vision you’ve had.”

I nodded and introduced myself first. Once the introductions were completed, I told them what I had seen. “There were five large stones placed in a circle. The were buried under the snow and engraved.” As I listed what was engraved I met the eyes of the woman who had let their blood stain the stone.     

    “Wait? Damned?” Hakyeon asked, the annoyance clear in his voice. “Why is Haewon damned while, Soyoung and Miyoung are eternal?”

    I was a little surprised. I thought about that many times, but I wasn’t able to come to a conclusion. I shrugged and shook my head.

    Haewon smiled sadly and put her hand on his arm, “I can tell you.” She paused, “I’ve taken a human life. They haven’t. As long as they go without ending a human life they will continue to be seen as eternal and not damned.”

    Hakyeon looked confused, “I thought you said you have never killed a human.” his sentence trailed off, “Oh.” He looked over at the twins, “you didn’t kill them, but their lives as humans have ended.”

    “I wouldn’t have done anything differently. I’m glad they are with me now. It’s very possible that if I hadn’t the we would not be here now.” Haewon smiled sadly.

    “I’m sorry.” I apologized for interrupting, “What do you mean they are no longer human? What are you?” I began to ramble, “I mean, I know what a Sage is, and of course a Seer. Those are from many of the stories that my grandmother told me, but eternal means that you won't have a natural, right? That’s a very wide category. So is Damned.”

    I felt Sanghyuk’s hand come over my mouth. I looked up at him startled. He grinned back at me. He removed his hand, and I remained silent. He chuckled nervously as three pairs of eyes glared at him.

    “You didn’t tell her.” Taekwoon stated softly. Sanghyuk shook his head no, in reply.

    “Why did you bring her here before informing her?” Haewon questioned, she tried to keep her voice level but I was able to hear the anger in her tone.

    “Calm down.” Hakyeon’s tone was sharp. “It’s not he was the first one to bring someone here without telling them.” Hakyeon turned back to me, and his warm, welcoming tone returned. “Why don’t you finish telling us about your vision, and the Hyuk can take you for a walk and explain better?”

    I nodded, “We each placed a cut on our palms, and let the blood fall onto the stone. Once that was done, a stone altar rose from the snow in the center of the clearing. Shortly after that happened you, you,” I pointed at Hakyeon and Wonsik, “and Sanghyuk came out of the woods.”

    My cheeks burned remembering the embrace. “Hakyeon said that Taekwoon and Hongbin were acting as a distraction. There was no mention of Jaehwan.” I glanced at him confused. “That’s when I woke up. I’m not sure what happened next.”

    “Was there a bird or something nearby? Like a hawk or something?” Chohee asked sounding a little worried.

    Jaehwan elbowed her gently, “Kite, not a hawk.” Chohee chuckled and his face showed mock anger.

    “Uh, yeah, but how did you know?”

    Chohee chuckled again, she seemed to laugh quite a bit. “Ken, I mean Jaehwan is the Kite. It’s likely he was keeping an eye on the full situation from above.”

    Everyone else seemed to accept this explanation. “What do you mean he is a Kite?”

    “How much did your grandmother tell you about mythical creatures?” It was Haewon asking.

    I thought for a moment. “Quite a few of my bedtime stories had creatures that went bump in the night. Vampires, Werewolves, Fairies things like that. I thought they were all nonsense, but I guess since I’ve had visions too, those things may be real as well?”

    That is when things started to click. “Wait, Damned and Eternal,” I paused, “are you vampires?” Haewon nodded, and I jumped up in excitement, “and the if Jaehwan is a Kite, that must mean that he is Werekite?”

    Chohee and Jaehwan started laughing, the rest of the group looked shocked. I turned a little nervous to look at Sanghyuk. He had an amused smile on his face, but didn’t say anything.

    “Shifter, is a better term. If you just add Were to the animal technically it’s correct, but it’s exhausting.” This answer came from Hakyeon.

    “Are you all shifters?” I looked around the group and they nodded. Sanghyuk chuckled sheepishly.

    I thought for a moment, then shrugged and nodded before sitting back down. “I guess that makes sense.”

    “Wait, that’s it?” Wonsik sounded confused. “No screaming, or passing out? No I’ve got to be dreaming or you’re all full of it?”

    “I’m sorry.” I stood and turned to Sanghyuk, “Catch me” I whispered. I turned around to face the group. “Vampires!” I exclaimed. I let my eyes roll back and fell backwards into Sanghyuk, who was surprised, but still caught me.

    Sanghyuk started laughing. I stood up and shot Wonsik a confident smirk. “It’s that better?”

    “Yes, I’m happy now.” He chuckled.