Her steps resounded in the long corridor. The scene hadn't changed : Yujin was desperatly trying to flee the darkness. Her breathing was panting and her legs were heavy. Her eyes were on the distant door, which seems out of reach. She was exhausted but she forced herself not to stop. Because if she did, she was sure she wouldn't set off again. Then, she started running, drawing on her last resorts the necessary strengh to move her legs faster and faster. It was only a question of will and Yujin didn't want to be submerged by the obscurity. She reached the end of the corridor after what seemed to be an eternity and turned the handle. There was a slight click before the door opened. 

Two red eyes shone in the dark. A mouth stood out and a line of white teeth appeared in the darkness. « You have no choice», it told her.

A small voice whispered in her ear "You have no choice", sending a wave of shivers on her skin. Yujin slowly opened her eyelids and moaned. Her body was in an odd position, leaning against the concrete pillar of a bridge. Some garbage bags were piled up on her right. The noise of the motorway, just above her, seemed to be farrer. Her vision took a few seconds to adapt while a pain on the back of her neck was stabbing at her. Yujin looked at her surroundings and noticed that it was still night-time but just above the line of the horizon, the sky was clearer. The sun was going to rise soon. The memory of the voice was playing on her mind, like a record one would listen over and over again. "You have no choice." Did she even have it once? She never asked to be attacked by a beast, to spit blood and to be unable to eat human food. The words were repeated once again, and Yujin tried to find its source, looking around. Yet, the young girl was well and truly alone.

From the smokestack that stood out in the sky on her right, Yujin was on the East side of Yulyeong, a few meters away from the industrial zone. She massaged her nape and sat cross-legged. An odd feeling spread through her body : fulfilment. Despite the cold wind that shook her hair and ran through her legs - she was still wearing her summer pyjama -, despite the putrid smell of the trash sent in her direction and despite the obvious loneliness she felt, she was so far from home, Yujin was content, fully content. Above all, she was full. The hunger had disappeared.

And that made her worry. Yujin lowered her eyes on her hands, covered in dried blood, before she stared at her clothes, also stained. Gasping, she stood up instantly, and even banged her elbow against the wall behind her. An electric shock spreah in her whole arm. Panic overcame her, replacing the previous feeling of calming : her trembling hands clutched the edge of her pyjama top and pulled it down in order to have a better view on the stains. « What did I do ? ». The ache in her stomach and the sudden burning sensation in warned her about what was going to happen : she barely had the time to turn the head before a dark substance gushed from and spilled over the bitumen, soon joined by a spurt of blood. A reddish dribble of saliva hung from her chin and Yujin wiped it up with the back of her hand. The brunette stood up, looking for any help around her. She tried to remember the day before, what she could have done but her mind was empty. Blank. As after an anaesthetic. She held her forehead, walking round and round, her breathing halting.

The sound of an engine got closer and a sudden light from the right lit the asphalt. Yujin ducked straight away behind the rubbish heap. A few seconds later, a car went past her hiding-place. The brunette followed it with her eyes until it finally turned to the right and disappeared from her field of vision. She slowly stood up straight, looked around to not be surprised a second time and started running in the same direction as the vehicle. Seeing someone wasn't a good idea, thought Yujin, because she then would have to explain the blood stains on her hands, her clothes and probably her face.

The young girl stumbled a few times and only regained her balance at the last moment. She turned in the first street on the left and went deepper in a housing estate. The houses of red bricks were aligned over six hundred feet. The lights were off and when there were shutters to the windows, they were closed. The brunette felt the first raindrop fall on her right shoulder. A second and a third fell on top of her head and on the bridge of her nose. Soon joined by tens of thousands of drops. Yujin stopped in front of the number 87 and lifted her head towards the sky, closing her eyes. She cupped her hands, collected a little water and started to clean her face in order to remove the blood that dried her lips and formed a scab around her nose. The raindrops ran down her ams, making a puddle at her feet, yet Yujin didn't care, surprising as this may seem, she wasn't cold. She rubbed her eyes and stared at her hands. Dozens of lashes were stuck on her fingers. She also had a nosebleed. The young girl did the same thing with the rain and started to walk again, accustomed to the epistaxis and thinking that her eyelashes fell because she rubbed her eyes too hard. She walked under the rain, her clothes were glued on her body and her hair was plastered flat. She passed a hand through it and when she moved away, some locks were wrapped around her fingers. She stopped once again, next to a big puddle formed in a pothole and dit it again, soon ripping out handfuls of her hair. She frowned, bit her lower lips as she watched hundred of her locks in her hands falling at her feet : "that can't be right... It's a nightmare.. What's happening to me?"

Yujin wanted to cry but was unable to, the tears wouldn't come out. Intead, she felt the raindrops running down her cheeks. She was going to walk away when a red gleam drew her attention towards the puddle. Only a flash, half of a second where a little red dot had appeared on the surface yet it was enough to arouse the Yujin's curiosity, who leant forward. Alas, the reflection was not hers but the one of a young man she knew only too well. The girl saw his lips moving but didn't hear a thing so she knelt down and leant her face closer to the water. And then, she heard it : “you have no choice”. She glared at his beautiful features drawn by perfection and threw her fist in the water, splashing her own face. “Shut up !” she shouted in the middle of the street before standing up and running away.

The girl stopped after a while, in a little street lined with closed or abandoned shops, when she understood that it would be hard to continue. The rain had stopped. Her legs were aching, she was feeling all of her muscles stiffening gradually, her mandible tensing up and the stiffness spreading through her arms and legs. She leant against the wall and slowly let herself slide to the floor. The brunette then closed her eyelids and forced herself to move her jaw. She grimaced and opened her eyes, feeling a sudden pain in her abdomen. She hardly lifted her tank top, her fingers being contracted, yet carefully detached the fabric and looked for the source of her pain. A patch, discreet yet distinct enough to be seen, spread on her pale skin. Yujin pressend on her stomach but felt nothing, as paradoxical as it seemed. Her eyes then wandered on her inner arms where her skin was becoming purple. The young girl became restless, overcame by panic for the nth time : she shook her members and hit the colored areas, gripping it tightly from time to time. She then caught her right knee, pulled it towards her, bending her leg and did the same for the left one, breaking the stiffness. Her chest heaved rapidly but her breathes wasn't panting. A sob escaped her lips and in order to prevent other sobs, Yujin bit her fist. When would this stop ? All those changes weren't natural. The patches on her skin, the black blood, the fall of her hair. Unfortunatly, Yujin didn't have her computer next to her and wouldn't be able to type her symptoms on the google search bar.

The only person who could have answers to her questions was actually in front of her. In the reflection of the window front of an abandoned hairdressing salon, Yujin could see herself, a shapeless mass slumped against the wall, and next to her, a tall figure elegantly dressed in black. If Byun Baekhyun was really there, there wouldn't have been a reflection in the window, like their first meeting in the Quarter of Mirrors. An impact on the pane placed at the level of his head broke the harmony of his face and deformed his delicate features. The expression he wore looked like pity. But Yujin wasn't sure, was he simply able to experience the slightest feeling?

Yujin thought she saw his lips moving but didn't hear a thing. She furrowed her brows when Baekhyun mde a sign for her to come closer. The young girl did as said and walked nearer to the shop window, staring at the inside of the shop which was in a bad state : pieces of mirrors were hanging on the wall, some were on the ground ; two sink situated on the back, on the left, were filled with toilet paper ; an armchair whose leather was ripped was at the center of the room. Yujin focused on the reflection given by the window and glance at the young man who bent down  to reach her level.

"Kim Yujin"

The voice was muffled, as if the man was on the other side. Yujin felt apprehensive about what he was going to tell her because this time, whe was ready to listen to him.

"You have no choice-"

"No choice for what?" the girl interrupted him, impatient to get answers. "What's happening to me?" She put her hands on the glass.

"You're changing."

Her lower lips began to shake, under the realisation. "C-changing? But...But I don't want to change" she whispered "I want to stay human..." Baekhyun's gaze hardened. "You are no longer human. You are nothing." He cut her short, his voice as sharp as a razor blade. "You died that night, Kim Yujin."

Time seemed to stop. Yujin's palms slided slowly, leaving the print of her fingers on the glass, and fell, weary, on her knees. Her lips parted, she stared at the reflection with horror. The words were printed in her head "You died that night." "You died". "Died". And the night he was speaking about played again in her mind. Her head bowed slowly, suddenly too heavy to stay high. Her eyes fell on her long and slender fingers she moved to prevent them from contracting. "Please... Tell me that's just a dream and that I'm going to wake up soon" she pleaded, her shoulders shaking because of her sobs, even if the tears didn't flow. They hadn't flown for a long time.

"You ceased to live during, what, half a second? And then, you came back. You have no choice no choice, Yujin. Don't withstand. Accept the change or be ready to see the situation get worse."

"Because death is spoiling your body."

Knowing what was wrong with her didn't help with the situation. It even crushed all of her hopes to heal. Her body was simply rotting and the vampire explained it clearly : she died in his arms the first time he had bitten her. She returned to life thanks to her determination but also thanks to the vampire who had started the changing process, without meaning to. So, if she refused to turn into a supernatural creature, her body was going to decompose, in a natural way, because the young girl wasn't supposed to live. That was the issue : Yujin was alive and well aware. And dying wasn't part of her plan.

Neither was turning into a vampire.

The young girl slowly stood up, head down and eyes fixed on her dirty and scratched bare-feet. She turned away, with an almost worrying slowness, and put one foot in front of the other, ignoring the calls of the vampire. Her mind was blank and the void she felt increased, as if all the strengh, all her vitality, was gradually leaving her body.

She turned into random streets, her steps guiding her althought she knew she had to go back home one day. The blood stains on her clothes told a story she didn't remember. Heavy footsteps resounded behind her, whispers raised in her back. The city was waking up and the inhabitants of Yulyeong bustled about. With a sidelong glance, Yujin noticed that a few people had stopped what they were doing in order to watch her walk. In other circumstances, Yujin would have become self-conscious about her appearance or blushed, her heart rate off of the charts.

Yujin would have sold her soul to feel her cheeks flush and to hear the uneven “thump thump” in her chest.

Alas, the Devil had already stolen it.

Every time Yujin turned her head, he was here. He was following her, walking at the same rhythm. He called her name. He told her to make a choice. "Your body is dying". "Only vampires are immortal, Yujin". He was everywhere and nowhere. Just an illusion, a product of her mind. If the brunette stared long enough at this face, he disappeared. Then why could she still feel his presence, his eyes digging holes on the back of her neck? 

The pathway to go back home never seemed that long. The girl stepped in streets that nobody used, scared to meet an acquaintance or a friend of her parents, and lenthened the distance between herself and her home. There, she knew she would be safe and she wouldn't encounter the vampire. She would cover every single mirror or glass in the house with sheets if she needed to.

"Yujin. Kim Yujin" He called with a somber tone while she was following the wall who separated the Quarter of Mirrors and the rest of the city. The young girl quickened her pace, her fist clenched in fear. 

"Leave me alone!" she burst out as she started running.

Her movements weren't coordinated. Her body zigzagged. It was difficult for her legs to follow. A figure materialized about one hundred and sixty feet just in front of the stairs that lead to a main road. Yujin had no doubt about the man's identity. But she didn't slow down. He was only a trick of her mind, after all. Instead, she accelerated. The pounding of her feet against the stone resounded in the silent street. She was dangerously coming closer to the vampire, who stayed impassive. She only noticed a glint of amusement in his dark eyes when she was close enough, which alerted her senses. Yet, it was too late.

Her body ran in full collision with the boy and the impact hurled her to the ground. Her back met the floor and her head hit the stones with a sinister crack. The severity of the impact paralyzed her. The pain should had spread through her body the moment the last collided with the pavement. Yet, Yujin only felt a little tickle. She slightly turned her head, that way she could see the vampire who hadn't move a bit.

"Get up" he suddenly ordered.

Yujin didn't answer. Baekhyun tilted his head, brows furrowed. "Get. Up" he repeated with more firmness. She ignored his words once again and rose up on her elbows, slowly getting back the sensation in her members. She avoided his stare.

"Go to hel-"

A strong hand closed on and pinned her to the floor, not letting her finish. Yujin hiccuped, surprised. The young man bend over her, threateningly reducing the distance between their faces. "Oh sweetheart, you're coming with me then"

His honey-like voice and the small smile hanging on his lips that punctuated his words contrasted with the fire burning in his eyes.

I hope you enjoy this chapter as well ! 

Sorry for the mistakes, if you saw any please tell me I will correct it :) 

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