22; {Soah}

Where am I?

That was the first thought that entered my mind as I tried to take in my surroundings. I pushed myself up from the bed that I was lying on and sat upright.

The walls were white, which weren’t surprising because well, white walls were common. What really struck me was that, it was complete darkness beyond the windows.

You know how you could see the outline of buildings, the faint skyline and a few stars up in the sky even though it was nighttime? But I couldn’t make out a single thing beyond the windows.

It was just black, pure black out there. I was beginning to panic at this point of time; a normal being knew that such a scene screamed trouble.

I visibly jumped when the door creaked open and in came a male. I took in his appearance, from his lightly tousled brown hair to his cheekbones, well-defined jaw line and his full lip.

“Done checking me out?” The guy was looking at me intently with a smirk plastered on his face.

I tore my eyes away from him and glanced around the room. “Where am I?”

“You’re in The UnderWorld, Soah.”

My eyes whipped back to him at such a fast speed as though they were a piece of metal and his words were a magnet.

I chose to ignore the fact that he knew my name but I didn’t had a single clue of who exactly was he. Instead, I chose to focus on what he just said.

“I’m in Under?” I tried to force the tremors out of my voice but I wasn’t so sure if it worked or not.

He nodded nonchalantly, as though the fact that the both of us were in The UnderWorld didn’t seem to unsettle him. And that could only mean one thing.

“Are you-“

He gave me a nod, interrupting me mid sentence and bringing my whole world to a halt. I felt that with the passing of each second, I was being condemned deeper and deeper into Hell.

“Nice to meet you, Soah. My name is Daniel but you can also call me the Devil.”

The ends of his lips tugged upwards, he was smiling at me.

. . !

My eyes darted around the room nervously, at first I thought that I was trying to look for an escape route but it was when I started to gasp for air that I realize I was having a panic attack.

Daniel was by my side instantly; he grabbed my shoulders, shaking me lightly. He was saying something, his lips were moving but I couldn’t hear a single thing, because ‘You’re in the UnderWorld, Soah.’ was on repeat mode in my head.

“What the hell did you do to her?” A female voice broke through the mess in my head. Her voice was loud and clear.

She growled, shoving Daniel away from me and she cupped my face, angling it towards her.

“Hey, hey, you need to breathe, Soah. Breathe.”

I stared into her eyes and I could feel myself calming down, taking in smaller breaths of air instead of sharp and rushed ones.

“There, all better.” She removed her hands and settled down beside me on the bed, sitting cross-legged.

“So,” She began, lifting a hand to gesture at Daniel, “That’s my brother, Daniel and I’m Dahyun. Just Dahyun, not otherwise known as the Devil’s sister or the other half of the wicked twins or whatsoever.”

She scrunched her nose at all the other nicknames she spewed up and as absurd as this sounded, I really doubted that I was currently in The UnderWorld.

I mean, wasn’t this place supposed to be engulfed in burning red flames? Weren’t this place supposed to be inhabited with faceless and hideous looking creatures?

“Oh babe, I hate to break it to you but the Under is actually not much of a difference as compared to The OtherWorld.” Daniel winked at me; he looked amused as he took in my cheeks that were flaming.

Cami shook in silent laughter beside me. “Yeah, you might want to be careful with your thoughts when that guy is around you.”

She threw a sour face at Daniel and the latter simply rolled his eyes at her. “You better stop coming up with ways to kill me in your head, my dear sister. I hate to break it to you because we are already down Under so there’s no more Under-Under we can go to.”

“So that means I’m dead?” I broke the little squabble between the siblings with the question that had been tucked at the back of my mind ever since I woke up.

Daniel folded his arms behind his back as he shook his head. “No, Soah, you’re not dead.”

“Then why am I here?” I lifted my arms up, gesturing to my surroundings.

A tight smile took over his face as he exhaled. “There’s so much more to you than you know, Soah. You’ll understand when the time is right.”

×××

It was a few days later when I caught sight of Daniel again. According to Dahyun, who was always around me for the past three days, time functions the same here as the OtherWorld.

So if that was the case, today marked the fourth day that I was gone. I had spent four days here and I knew that I would sound like a nutcase when I said that it wasn’t that bad here.

Dahyun was nice and by nice, I meant normal nice. She took great care of me, showing me around The UnderWorld, which was another surprise itself.

The UnderWorld, when Daniel said that it was no different as compared to The OtherWorld, he really meant it. Like literally. The Under was just like the OtherWorld, in terms of facilities and the level of development.

They had shopping centers, cinemas, parks, beaches and heck, they even had clubs and bars here. I just couldn’t believe that they were the ones who were responsible for the hell they unleashed on The OtherWorld in the 1900s.

I couldn’t help from feeling that there’s a larger picture that I wasn’t getting and maybe that explained why Daniel was here now, in my room, calmly answering the 101 questions that I threw at his way.

“If I’m not dead, then why am I here?”

“I already told you that you’ll figure that out when the time is right, Soah.”

“Are you going to let me go?”

“As of now, no.”

“You do know that they will come for me, right?”

I didn’t specifically state whom but I was sure that Daniel was aware of what I was driving at.

Daniel merely shook his head gently as he gazed into my eyes. “No one from the OtherWorld can cross the force field at the border and enter the Under unless they are dead. So unless your friends are dead, there’s no way they will be coming to get you, Soah.”

“But I can?” One of my brows was arched in confusion.

Daniel shrugged one of his shoulders. “I told you that you’re different, Soah.”

But I could. Me, Soah Anne Lee. I stopped my thoughts from going further before Daniel realized that I’ve just figured out that it was possible for me to escape.