Hope

20:45

Stopping her disposal rampage when she came to a wad of receipts which appeared to have been pulled out in a hurry, the blonde scoured the names and area codes for a pattern. Seeing nothing, she scrunched them in her grip. Bass from every which way causing the foundations to tremble, and her pulse growing to the point where she was thinking about seeking out the dope she had smelt as soon as she had opened the door, HaeWon tried to keep why she was there at the forefront of her thoughts. Forgetting the rest of the kitchen, she hobbled over the clutter towards the living room.

Cramped and compact with clothes hung up on any frame possible, and cosmetics splayed out on the low coffee table, the woman caught sight of what the average inspector may not. Beauty card left out with a vanity mirror, the blonde dropped down onto the beat up couch. Slinging dresses and hangers aside, the woman closed her eyes in order to ignore her thoughts.

Knowing that there wasn’t much more point in investigating what had happened, the bleach blonde’s head dropped back onto the old velvet rest. It was quite clear already what had happened. She, HaeWon, had been there and done all of that already.

Heart muscles constricting within her rib cage, the blonde hunched forwards and held her head in her hands which were literally giving off steam in the morbidly cold apartment. Growing sick, the intruder felt the need for repentance with each pulse. She should have never her sister. “I should have never left her. I should have never left her alone with them.” Tears welling and burning her eyes, the blonde ran her hands over her face and screeched into her palms.

Tantrum cut short by a key turning in the lock of the front door, the woman shot to her feet and snapped to attention. Dashing around the clutter on her tiptoes, the blonde leapt into the kitchen. Snatching up a bent carving knife, she waited on the other side of the fridge with baited breath.

“HyeMi?” An expectant voice cooed.

It was the same mental voice which she had almost died to call out.

But as soon as the name had been spoke, HaeWon reached out to the left and grabbed the speaker’s shirt. Not knowing who it was, or their agenda, she yanked them around in a semicircle towards her, and into the kitchen packed with black bags filled with rubbish. Ragging them and then forcing them with mere strength and rage, the intruder’s back was slammed into the fridge. -eyed blade snatched from the side held up in threat, the tall woman snarled as if she was a beast with rabies.

Teeth bared, she brandished her weapon towards the pretty-boy’s face. “How did you get in? Who are you? What do you want?”

Eyes wide and back bent backwards over the cluttered miniscule island, the ‘pretty-boy’ flung his hands up in immediate defence as his eyes shot wide and his voice hit several pitches higher. “With the master-key; Jackson; and to find my friend.”

More annoyed than regretful, the blonde smacked the man across the head, but partially missed and instead, connected with his neck and collarbone with a thwack. “I could have killed you.”

Lurching in pain, the offended bit at the sudden rush of pain. “No ; it felt like sneaking in at home. What are you, a ing robo-cop marine?”

“Do you have a ing problem with that?” She shot out of habit only to regain her grip with more force. “So you faked being her family?” The topic of only family getting to take advantage of the master-key shot into her mind.

Scowling from behind the protection of his shoulder, ‘Jackson’ flinched every time the woman so much as took a deep breath. “How did ‘you’ get in? Who are you?”

Kohl lined eyes locked on the intruder. Brows creasing, she bared her teeth again with a vicious point towards his face whilst the hand that gripped him brought him closer. “As her actual family, I have no need to tell you.”

“You broke in, didn’t you?” Despite his predicament, the man cooed with a mocking raised eyebrow.

“Did you see any broken glass?” She sneered with slits for eyes.

“No,” He perked up, as if he’d just been prompted. “which is why I’m betting you picked the lock.” He raised his hand in exclamation only to be brought back down to earth with choke-hold provided by his t-shirt and the woman’s vice-grip.

“Don’t try to read me, you little .”

Despite choking, he read the venomous fumes that saturated the air around the stranger. He retained his grin amongst the torture. “You just told me that I was right.” Glancing away for a split second and then nodding in agreement with himself, the slightly shorter male mentally recalled with an ‘ahhh’. “You must be HaeWon.”

“What do you wa-How do you know that?”

“I’m HyeMi’s friend.”

“HyeMi is my younger sister.” Snarl stretching her features, the female stepped in with conviction. “And HyeMi never had any friends.”

Smiling eyes met heavily made up ones, and regardless of the dangerous situation he seemed to be in, Jackson relaxed. “You would look like twins, if not for your height and body.”

“Did you pay much attention to my sister’s body?” She ragged him again.

The brief shock was gone as quickly as it had arrived. Holding up his right hand, the shorter man huffed. “If you saw your sister’s body recently, you would know that everybody paid attention to it.”

“I didn’t.” Letting go slowly, HaeWon receded. Back resting against the cool, battered fridge door, the woman’s line of sight drifted. “See it, that is.”

“There was a big change over vacation.” Rubbing where he’d been hurt, the younger male shifted into a much more comfortable position.

Back up and brow raised, she glanced to the man lounging around on his elbows. “Is vacation code for my stint in rehab, and her time in a recuperation home?”

“She hated the pussyfooting around it: she just used to call it a nuthouse.”

Straight back on the offensive, the blonde pointed a little too close to his face for comfort. “That doesn’t mean you get to call it that.”

Quirking his brow, he shot his company a peek while he thought she wasn’t looking. “She never said anything about you in re-” Shaking his head and looking away, he gave off the impression that he didn’t want to get involved with that kind of thing. “You haven’t seen her since, have you?” He couldn’t help but to peer up, just to check.

Scoffing, HaeWon rolled her eyes and wobbled her head. “Nah, I was too busy being dried out to be an upstanding citizen.”

“You won’t find any of them around here. You know, if you’re trying to keep clean…” He made some weird jittering gestures, which only left the pair feeling caught somewhere between feeling awkward and confused. “here isn’t the best place to be.”

Rolling the fingers of her right hand inwards continuously, the blonde grit her teeth. “What did I tell you about minding your own business?”

“That’s exactly what Hye said the last time I told her to lay off that crap.” Shrugging his shoulders and jerking his head to the right, the stocky man coughed bitterly. “I didn’t see her again after that.” Pretty eyes shot to the blonde, and he prodded the air between them seriously. “I won’t let that happen again.”

“It’s not my first rodeo, Romeo.” Pulling a cigarette from the packet in her pocket, the woman rooted through the rest of the confinement for a lighter. “Being around certain people changes you, for better or for worse; and the last friend I had…” She trailed off and her grip loosened in thought.

Opening the tiny drawer of the display unit to the left of the door, Jackson fished out an engraved silver petrol lighter. Flipping the lid and extending the flame to the blonde’s vice, he averted his line of sight. “It’s always been like this here.” His voice softened as his frame tensed.

Clocking the lighter within a split second, HaeWon croaked when she saw the trinket, completely forgetting about the prior remark. “That was our Grandfather’s.”

“HyeMi saw it last Christmas when we were shopping. It was in a pawn store window, but she couldn’t afford it right then.” Carefully flipping the lid shut, he held out the antique. “She told me the story of your Grandfather, and his habit of smoking cherry tobacco on special occasions – just like at Christmas. And how your uncle did the same thing.” A small smile tugged at his lips as if he was remembering a completely different time - As if he had actually been there; HyeMi was always good at storytelling.

“After I brought her back here, I went back. I borrowed money and bought if for her.” Huffing out a stale breath, the mousy blonde rested his back against the fridge. “It was the first time we ever went out together – we had never spoke to each other before that day at college.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Go out with her? Are you kidding?” He scoffed and held his hands up in disbelief.

Unfazed by the mushy retelling, HaeWon tutted. “Why would you borrow money for a stranger, idiot.”

“I loved her.” He told curtly, his whole demeanour showing he couldn’t quite grasp why it was even a question. “From that very first moment I saw HyeMi, I knew there was nobody else.” He looked HaeWon in the eye, as if he was confessing those words to HyeMi for the first time. “I still love her, and I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”

“If that’s the case, do I have to ask if you will help me find her?”

“Noona, before we get into this, I have to ask you something?”

“What?”

Seriousness warping his features, he fiddled with the hem of his t-shirt. “Do you- I know it sounds crazy-” He threw his hands up and grumbled, as if he’d been through this conversation before. Examining her stoic expression as she watched him in awaiting, he decided to continue. “Do you believe in the supernatural?”

“Ghosts?” She tilted her head, smoke flying from her nose. “Are you saying my sister was abducted by ghosts?”

“No!” He shook his head. “No, I’m not crazy.” His expression twisted as he coughed a bitter laugh when it looked like she wasn’t buying it.

She was quickly losing faith in that remark. “Uh huh…” Pushing herself up off the counter, she meandered around the fixtures and dropped down on the tattered sofa beneath the main window.

“I never believed in anything I couldn’t see. Even when I was a kid, I never believed in monsters.” his lips and turning away briefly, Jackson tried to think of a decent wy to reword his thought. “But HyeMi did. And as soon as she started writing stuff down, she flew off the rails like a freight train.”

Elbows back behind her and propped up on the sofa-back, the older woman hummed to herself as she kept her eyes down. “Our mother had the same problem.”

“Really? She never talked about her-”

“That’s because she was out of her mind.” She spat just as she glanced up to meet her company’s line of sight.

“Noona-”

Snapping, her rage got the better of her. “Spirits aren’t the problem.” Knocking the coffee table over with a kick, the blonde snarled. “I won’t go through this again.” She warned with a snarl and a vicious point. “What the do you think drove me to find an outlet in the I got caught up in? I can tell you right now that it wasn’t not being bought a Mercedes, or parental extramarital affairs.”

Choked by the outburst, the younger man stuttered. “HyeMi thought there was something not-human going on in this apartment block.”

ping her hold-all by her feet, she realized that she had brushed off the liquor store due to her mantra. “The only thing here that is inhuman here is my in’ willpower.” Bones still shaking with a needing ache for release, she her lips and threw herself back into the cushioned chair. Slapping her hands onto bottoms of her thighs, she constricted her grip around her knees.

“Your sister believed it, so can’t you eve-” Cut off by up-held hand from the woman, Jackson halted his argument.

“Then HyeMi was just as crazy as that who tried to drown her before she could even walk.”

Remark as cutting as the tone, Jackson held his hands up in defence. Straightening up, he knew now that there was something deeper going on than a party girl who didn’t check in for over a week. Despite wanting to find HyeMi, he got the feeling that pushing her sister would be the worst decision he would make. “My number’s etched into the display cabinet.” He told coldly before throwing the lighter onto the sofa cushion beside the angry woman.

 

Staring off to the side, the slam of the apartment door caused her to jolt in shock. Swallowing down the bad past which ruined her mood whenever she thought about her family, the new tenant remained stiff in the itchy couch. Flickering kitchen bulb buzzing as the only light, HaeWon forced in a deep breath.

That man – Jackson – had seen HyeMi a week ago, and the neighbour across the way had seen her not long before; she was still alive.

Before she had got out, when she was still stuck in ‘there’, she was plagued by how many bad things could have happened to her baby sister: she could have been beaten by local hoodlums, pulled into a gang that knew nothing about her ties, murdered, or .

Whatever had happened, it wasn’t good. HyeMi had been running around, taking about monsters and other bull – there was no wonder she was hauled off to the crazy-bin. That much was true, but there had still been three weeks between the letter she received from HyeMi’s doctor telling her that her sister was admitted, and now.

Pulling over her hold-all, she plucked the address book off the top of the rolled up clothes.

 

 

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Updated: 1st November 2015 - 02:22