20; {Daehyun} 

Author's note: 

Whenever a chapter title has a name in the curly brackets, it means that the chapter will be written in their POV! 

So that means that this chapter will be in Daehyun's POV! :) 

Pain. 

The first thing that I felt was pain. The moment that I managed to break through the darkness that was blinding me and in a huge breath of air, I felt pain. 

It was slow at first. Creeping up on me, wrapping its tendrils around my legs. And slowly, it went up to my waist. My arms. My neck. 

And it pulled me down under again. It pulled me back into the darkness. 

I thrashed around, trying to shake it off. But I realized I couldn't. It wasn't a living thing, I couldn't shake it off as though it was seaweed that was wrapping itself around me. 

I couldn't see it. And Hell, it's freaking me out even more. 

Just then, Angeline's voice entered my mind. It sounded crystal clear amongst the other screaming voices in my head, screaming at me to run, to struggle. 

"Kid, the more you fight it, the more painful it will be."

So I stopped struggling instantly. Stopped thrashing around. My arms were lying limply beside me. 

That was when I finally took a good look at my surroundings. Everything was black, but it was no longer the kind of darkness that blinds me. I could see that I was floating up now, as though gravity didn't exist here. 

Here? Was this even a place to begin with? Was I trapped in some kind of third dimensional world? 

I was pretty sure that Witches didn't have the power to pull scientific tricks like this. 

Suddenly, things were whirling around me, going around in circles. 

I squinted my eyes and realized that they weren't just things. They were pictures and scenes of a certain memory. 

The whirling stopped and a scene flashed up in front of me. 

"Dad?" My voice sounded hoarse and dry to my ears. 

"Mum." A sad smile graced my lips. I watched as the scene played on before my eyes, hot tears blurring my vision. 

I was 6 at that time and we were at the playground near our house in Korea. My parents had decided to bring the whole family out for a picnic. 

We were playing hide and seek and hearty laughter were escaping from me and my sister as our parents chased after us, ducking behind bushes to look for us. 

I chuckled softly as I watched the younger me run around cheekily with those short and stumpy legs. My hair looked as though it was a helmet framing my tiny face. 

Dahyun. 

With a smile on my face, I stretched out my hand, my fingertips grazing the side of her face. 

The memory wasn't real, it was virtual. It was conjured up and it simply floated up in mid air, in front of me. 

So my fingertips just went through the image but I swear, I swear, it felt as though I really felt her soft baby skin beneath my fingertips. 

Your mind is deceiving you, fool. 

The memory whirled away suddenly, replaced by a new one. 

The corners of my lips tugged down instantly. A smile was no longer on my face, a frown took over its place instead. 

It was the day when the sanction against the Vampires was drafted. The hunting of Vampires was made legal on that tragic day. 

All of us were huddled close on the carpet in the living room. Mom was hugging tightly a sobbing Dahyun and I had my arms wrapped tightly around her waist. I was quiet, I appeared to be calm and I didn't shed any tears. But when I took a closer look at the memory, I could see the fear in my eyes. 

Anger started to bubble inside me but as fast it came, it went away quickly too when the memory blurred and was away. I knew what came next. 

OtherWorlders with wooden stakes and fire torches in their hands barged into our home, screaming and pointing at us. 

I heard my sister shrieking but I couldn't find her. I was looking around frantically, trying to look for my sister but I failed. It was too chaotic at that moment. 

I watched the memory with sad eyes, mentally preparing myself for what was going to happen next. 

My eyes traced their movements as they approached my parents with wooden stakes in their hands, anguish cries burst out of my mother's blood stained lips. And then she went limp. 

My eyes flickered to her side, my dad's body was already in a crumpled mess beside her. 

I clamped my eyes shut, refusing to recall another moment of the past. 

Please, please stop. Please just get what you want and need. I begged them. 

I couldn't be bothered about how pathetic I sounded, a Vampire King begging for mercy. I just wanted the pain to stop. 

I wasn't sure if they got what they wanted because a familiar darkness pulled me down once again. It whispered in my ears, as though it was my long lost lover. 

Soah. 

That was what I heard before I lost all consciousness.