Youngjae opened his eyes to find himself in a small abandoned room. His hands were bound together, as were his feet, and duct tape tightly pressed against his mouth. He was tied to a chair, ropes binding him around his torso. Instantly, he panicked. This room, this set up, unleashed something within him, a memory he tried so hard to forget. The reason he was where he was, the reason he now danced a little dance with death. The week he was caught by the shapeshifter. The week he was Seoul's Most Wanted. He was known as a killer. A thief. All while he was stuck in a dark, damp room, tied by rope to a chair, duct tape over his mouth and limbs bound. Youngjae started to scream, not wanting to touch the pit in his mind. But nothing could distract him, not when there was too much around to remind him. Tears streamed down his face, and he saw It. The man with his clothes, his hair, his face. He smiled at Youngjae, emotion abandoned in the eyes. He started to hyperventilate.

"Did you really think you'd become a hero one day?" He asked.

Youngjae screamed in response, unable to form another reaction. His twin laughed. Youngjae couldn't breathe. "Yah. Answer properly when spoken to." Black creeped through the edges of his vision. He got up and paced slowly toward Youngjae, stopping short just in front of him. "Do you really think," he lifted a knife, "that you would ever escape," he sliced Youngjae's cheek, "from me?" The shapeshifter smiled, as Youngjae screamed, blood oozing from the cut. He cocked his head to the side, eyes suddenly concerned.

"Youngjae-ssi... Neo gwaenchanhni?"

Youngjae's eyes gave way, and his head lolled to the side. Distantly, in his dreams, he could hear a girl screaming. Asking him if he was alright. To wake up. But he couldn't see anyone in the room with him.

The duct tape was peeled off. Someone was behind him, grabbing his hands and cutting the rope. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. A million possibilities ran through his head. The man who kidnapped him was here. He had someone else. I should play dead, he decided.

He was just about to put that plan into motion until a man stepped into his vision, face a few centimetres away. The man cupped Youngjae's face in his hands.

"Yugyeom, get Jackson on the phone," the man said, eyes never leaving Youngjae's face.

Youngjae croaked. "Mm...Mwohago...iss..."

The man's eyes widened and held Youngjae's held still. "Don’t worry, we're going to get you out of here. I promise. Yugyeom, call Jackson or Bam Bam. Jinyoung, hurry, cut him free."

The person behind him moved faster, moving Youngjae's own hands along.

"JB-hyung. They're not picking up..."

The man who held Youngjae jerked his head toward the man who just spoke. "Then call them again. Call anyone. Keep trying."

Rope snapped and Youngjae's hands were free. A hand waved in front of him, sharpened lines blurring together to make a mess in his vision. He knew he was dying. He lost track of how long he had been there, but he knew in his heart he was close to dead. He hadn't eaten. Hadn't drank water. Hadn't had a bowel movement. Youngjae could almost feel his heart weaken, his breath slowing. What he was unaware of was when he started to accept it. I'm going to die soon, he thought without heartache. I'll die, but that's okay.

"Jackson! Listen, we found him. Yes, the real Youngjae. I don't know. No, we didn't. But... He's alive. We know that," someone was talking. Youngjae didn't recognise the voice. Youngjae, he repeated the name, visualising it, imagining the feel of it. Is that me? he wondered. It sure sounded familiar, and he did feel his heart respond to the name.

A hand lifted his face up and he groggily opened his eyes to see another man’s face. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll be okay. Please… just hang on a little longer. Please.”

Why is he begging me? Youngjae thought. Surely we don’t know each other. I would know. Then again, he wasn’t even too sure what his own name was.

A growl and a crash from behind, that sounded far too loud in Youngjae’s ears than what it should have, stole the newcomers’ attention. They got into what looked like a practiced formation, but something told Youngjae that it was habitual rather than routine. The elongated shadow on the wall stretched out inhumanly, its arms hanging heavily and a hand reached out, fingers extending to resemble the iconic shadow from Nosferatu. Youngjae wasn’t sure why he wasn’t waking from his nightmare yet. Maybe he needed to die first in the dream before returning to normal, waking land. Youngjae kept his eyes on the shadow and the three boys in front of him.

Then the shadow shortened, the shapeless being forming into a human and in waltzed…

“Well, well, well. I was wondering when you’d be stopping by,” Youngjae smirked.

Youngjae was unable to speak. Though he was free to run and speak, he froze, staring at his doppelgänger. He didn’t know how to feel; was he supposed to be horrified? Was he supposed to be confused? Both emotions were very true but he couldn’t help but return to the same one – is that really what he looked like?

The man who spoke to him went forth, raising a gun he didn’t have before, followed by the other two that accompanied him. Youngjae didn’t see any guns, but he saw a flash of silver coming from both. At that sight, the other Youngjae curled his lips back, and glared at them, his eyes glinting yellow-gold.

 “A wondrous thing, silver,” one of the boys said as he tossed a knife and caught it as it spun. “Shifters, werewolves, djinns, and so much more. Amazing what one metal can do.” With that final word, he dove forward, the blade in the air and he stabbed down. He was fast, faster than a human should be, but Not-Youngjae was faster. He may have anticipated it, or he was just that good, but he stepped out of the way just in time, allowing the other boy to fall.

“Jinyoung!” The one with the gun screamed, as he shot forward. The sound was deafening, Youngjae quickly covered his ears and dropped to the floor – a mistake considering his state at the time. He looked up to see the aftermath, but instead of seeing a dead Youngjae, he saw himself standing unharmed, grinning a Cheshire grin.

Not-Youngjae lunged forward, swatting the guy with the gun away like he was a fly. “Nice shot. Thought you were the best Seoul had to offer,” he laughed.

As he turned around, he was met with the tall guy who was on the phone earlier, blade in the air, slicing down on Not-Youngjae, aiming for the top of his head. Instead of panicking, he caught his hand, and twisted, landing punches into his stomach and kicking his feet underneath him. When he was on the ground, Not-Youngjae went in, loomed over him menacingly, grabbing his neck, choking him. He forced his hand down, his grip tightened until the man grew purple and his eyes rolled. Confident that he had managed to make him pass out, Not-Youngjae stood and looked directly at his copy. Snarling, he chanced a step forward but staggered. Youngjae looked to his stomach. Though it took a while, darkness spread on his shirt as a sickening crunch sounded. When the tip of a silver blade peaked through, Not-Youngjae’s mouth spilled blood, eyes dimmed to the colour of the room around them. The blade pulled itself free and Not-Youngjae fell. In his absence stood the original guy with the gun, the one that saved him.

Youngjae tried to get up, but was too weak to. As he stumbled down, the man rushed forward and caught him. He helped him sit back down and made sure he was as comfortable as he could be while he turned back to help the others.

It was on the way to the hospital that they filled him in on everything, and he realised they weren’t men or regular guys. They were boys, around his age. The tallest, Yugyeom, actually younger than him. Apparently, Youngjae had been kidnapped for only two weeks, which he was highly concerned about, considering how much he endured during that time. The thing that did it was killing strangers while wearing his skin and he was now a wanted criminal. A shapeshifter, they said, as in an actual shapeshifter, a humanoid creature that could change its appearance to match literally anyone. Because monsters actually exist. The boys did this, hunting things like this with the help of two others who helped tracked him, instead of going to school or spending time with family. Youngjae wanted to say how cool that was but something in the air made him hold his tongue.

“I asked you a question!” someone shouted. “How did you find me?!”

A girl screamed in pain. “SinB! SinB told us about you!”

Silence.

“What? How do you know SinB? Who are you?”

The screams unearthed another memory. In his state of mind, Youngjae let it overtake him as the screams of the one girl evolved into the screams of his mother.

When Youngjae first heard the screams outside his house, he didn’t imagine this was happening inside. He heard his youngest cousin, four-year-old Mimi, screaming at someone to stop. As he barged in, Youngjae saw the knife leave her body as she slumped down joining six other bodies, both adult and child, and his mother shouting at her saying she was a demon. When Youngjae made eye contact with her, her anger multiplied tenfold.

“You! You doomed us all the second you left. You’re the reason they’re all dead!” She growled at him.

Youngjae looked around him, from his cousins lying in a pool of their own blood to the knife in her hands, both bloody. He shook his head and tried going closer to his mother, but she held the knife up and screamed at him.

She slashed at her son, claiming him as a demon she had to kill. Youngjae did his best to block her, shielding himself and even catching her hand that held the knife. She struggled in his grip, but he held her down as tears ran down his cheeks wondering what happened to his mother. How could she suddenly behave like this?

In an instant, the answer presented himself in the form of a floating gold ring just above her shoulder, before the form of a man in an expensive suit appeared fluidly as if he were smoke, the ring shining on his right hand. He looked like how he did before when they first met, calm, cool and collected. Anger bubbled in Youngjae’s stomach looking at him, until the Red Horseman took his hand off of Youngjae’s mother and twisted his ring. All the ugly rage that stained his mother’s face faded away, and she looked around at the scene, horrified. When she saw Youngjae, she startled, wondering what her son was doing after he left.

“I could make her think you’re a demon too, you know. But I’m just getting started,” War told Youngjae before he vanished leaving behind a traumatised mother and her son.

“You… Youngjae, why are you here? Why now?”

He couldn’t answer. He didn’t want to. What was he supposed to say? Sorry, mom, I’ve been killing monsters instead of staying safe here? No, that wouldn’t work.

“This… This is your fault,” she stated. Youngjae didn’t know how long War was there, how long he was twisting his mother’s head, but he decided then and there he would do everything to kill him. “It is. You left, this is your fault.”

War reappeared just next to him and spoke in his ear, making Youngjae’s hair stand. “It’s not my fault. She already thought it. I just helped push it along.”

He twisted his ring and Youngjae felt anger rise within him, hatred, rage and the need to kill something. Why couldn’t he just tell his mother?

“Why can’t you just realise I was trying to help you? You killed them, not me!”

“Why should I believe you?” Her voice melded with someone else’s. A male’s. He seemed to come from somewhere else, far away. He sounded young but Youngjae couldn’t recognise the voice.

“Just help him and I’ll explain. I promise.”

“Their blood isn’t on my hands.”

Youngjae’s mother lunged forward, meaning to stab him. If he hadn’t been training, it would’ve killed him. He could feel War watch patiently nearby, and he wanted a show. And damn, Youngjae was going to give him a bloody good one. He grabbed the blade from his boot and slashed at his mother, as she ducked and went for his leg. She grazed him, but he was a better fighter. Youngjae kicked her down and went in for the kill shot before someone grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back. He could barely register Yugyeom’s face before he was knocked out by a single punch.

Two fingers came away from the middle of Youngjae’s forehead almost as soon as Yugyeom’s fist collided with his face in his memory. He’d been thinking about when he met his JB and the others, and the Apocalypse about three months after he them. When he went back to warn his mother to get to safety before he saw…

“Okay, he’s healed or whatever. Now talk. How do you know SinB?” Jungkook asked.

Youngjae’s sudden physical wellbeing concerned him. His body no longer in pain and there wasn’t a throb in his head anymore. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t still in danger. He looked to Geo, and saw her tied to a chair by ropes. Her eyes were bloodshot and puffy as if she’d been crying. Her grey hair took on a greasy look as if she hadn’t washed it in several weeks. Other than that, she seemed to look alright.

“It was her idea,” she croaked. Now that Youngjae wasn’t fluttering in and out of the present, he heard how strained her voice was, how raw was. “Look, you guys know more than anyone that Herodias is free now. When we spoke to her… She said you guys would have an idea on how to lock her back up again.”

Jungkook laughed bitterly. “Yeah, and risk my own freedom? You know, she wasn’t the only one locked up all this time.” He paced around them, shaking his head. “Hunters,” he made a tsk sound. “You all think that if it isn’t human, it deserves to die.”

He could tell Geo wanted to tell him the truth – that they actually did plan on locking them up again. But she needed to do what she had to, and unfortunately that was to lie to him.

"I'm not a hunter," she said quietly.

"Bull."

"No. Not BS. I'm not. My name is Park Soojung... And I'm a witch."

Jungkook scoffed, not believing her truth. At least not at first. He looked between Youngjae, who had his head bowed from subconscious shame, and Geo, looking to see if one would betray her statement. When they didn’t, Jungkook sighed and snapped his fingers, letting the binding ropes loosen slightly.

"I still don't trust you."

"Yeah the ropes speak for themselves," Youngjae muttered uner his breath. 

In an instant, Jungkook was at his throat, cutting off the air as he looked into Youngjae’s eyes. The longer he looked, the more reality shifted. Jungkook’s eyes were no longer human, replaced by flames that brought the screams of tortured souls and Lucifer’s cold laugh. Jungkook blinked and unwrapped his hands from the other boy’s throat, the small room settling in.

“SinB made you a deal she doesn’t even know will work. She doesn’t even know if everyone’s willing to join,” he muttered bitterly under his breath. “She doesn’t know what she’s talking about.”

He looked away from his intruders and sighed. He just wanted to be free. Two thousand years acting as a device to lock up some entity he barely knew or understood the existence of. And how many times was he allowed to go out into the world? Once a year.

Jungkook found the universe too cruel. His newfound infinite freedom became finite in one afternoon. Maybe balance just had to be restored. He was, after all, half demon. A spiritual terror that plagued the minds of innocent people, who introduced the world to sin and all its horrors. Demons created the darkness in humans. And he was the son of one.

But he was also half human.

Maybe this was the Empty’s way of punishing him for being the abominable creation of a demon and a human. Or God’s way of reminding him that he is an Antichrist. Jungkook wasn’t even the son of a higher demon. His demonic parent was just a regular low ranking servant of one of the Prince’s servants—not even the servant but the servant’s assistant. He didn’t choose to be born. He didn’t choose to be half demon.

“Tell SinB I’m out. If she has any sense, she should end her deal with you, too.”

Youngjae’s heart sank. He didn’t come all this way and have his worst memories resurface for no reason. No. He was getting out of this dingy basement with a deal and the Cambion in hand. Even if it meant having Jungkook unconscious and dragged back unwillingly.

“You guys are the key to saving the world.”

In an instant, a hand was around Youngjae’s neck.

“The world let me rot down there. The world punishes me for being half demon. I’m not just a dem–”

Jungkook felt his voice disappear from his body. He tried to cry out, scream, but his voice box suddenly vanished. He looked around, confused, before realising who else was in the room with him. Eyes widened with rage, he started to move his hand toward the witch, though it was halted mid-air.

Youngjae looked to Geo. While her face was still calm, her eyes were strained with concentration, eyes never breaking contact with Jungkook’s body. Youngjae looked to the back of her chair, where he saw her hands contorted in a way that confirmed she was using magic (not that she actually needed the confirmation.)

“What else is stopping you from coming with us, Jungkook?” Geo asked quietly and caringly. The invisible force holding him back let him go and he dropped to the floor knees first. His shoulders started shaking. Youngjae winced. That has to hurt… Oh Lord, do we gotta take him to the hospital?

When Jungkook looked up, he had tears in his eyes. Youngjae noted that this show of emotion somehow changed his entire appearance. He wasn’t sure how, but he suddenly realised that this boy standing in front of him had human blood in him. It wasn’t just that he was crying—something about his entire aura became human, as if the demonic side had been purged entirely.

“I… I’m safe here. I have a home that will keep me hidden. I can’t…”

There was nothing the two captives wanted to do more than comfort their captor. But they were bound with some sort of different force that Geo couldn’t manoeuvre her way out of.

“Everyone will find me… They’re looking for me; I can feel it. They’ll find me,” he whispered to himself, frightful at the prospect of being found.

“Who is?”

“Are you stupid? The demons. They’re looking for me. I was the first boy. They’ll come after me and drag me back to Hell if I come with you.”

“To do what, you have nothing to guard.”

“Shut UP!” Jungkook exploded, sending a spark of dark energy throughout the room. No longer did Youngjae see a young boy. He was truly half demon.

“You have no idea! I’m still their property. I’m their son. I haven’t even properly camouflaged this place—what do you WANT?!” He screamed, radiating dark power.

Geo tried to keep the energy of the room calm. “The Hunters’ bunker is safe. It’s shielded from Angels and demons. We can help you, if you help us.”

“LIES.”

“It’s true. We have Enochian charms that hides us from everyone. We’re safe there. It’s Angel and Demon bomb-proof,” said Youngjae, kindly.

Jungkook continued to shake his head and ignore them. He seemed nothing more than a kid.

“Please. SinB is there. SinB can help you settle in. All we’re asking for is just your help to find an alternative way to beat Herodias. Please,” Geo pleaded.

The Antichrist looked up, eyes black and bottomless. “You will never find an alternative way to defeat her. Leave that to the Nephaelem. Leave that to God. I’m done.” He stood up and walking toward the exit. “Have fun trying to survive here, hunter.”

“Jungkook, we’re your allies.”

“I have no allies. I have no one. I don’t even have freedom. Give me that, at least.”

“But the demons–”

“Can find me and I’ll fight back. They know who my dad is. He might not have a high rank in Hell, but he’s still important. And I’m better than all of them.” He waved his hand and the ropes around Youngjae and Geo’s wrists grew tighter. “Try not to die too quickly.”

“Jeon Jungkook, you get back here right now!” Geo decided to change route. Two thousand years for an immortal being technically is a two month old. If he was going to chuck a tanty, then she would act parent.

“Make me!” He retorted as the restraints began to cut off circulation.

“Listen young man, I did not risk my life with the hunters just for you to turn me down. Whether or not you like it, you’re coming with us because that’s where you’re safest and that’s where you’re going to find freedom.”

Jungkook paused, head tilted. “What the is wrong with you?”

“Language, Jungkook.” “I’m not going.”

“Listen to your witch mentor, Jungkook,” Youngjae chimed in.

“What the hell–”

“Youngjae, count to three!”

“You can’t make me go!”

Youngjae began his countdown.

Jungkook threw his hands in the air. “You guys are the ones being children,” he grumbled.

“I heard that,” Geo replied.

“Well I said it out loud.” Moments passed as Youngjae and Geo looked at Jungkook debating with himself. They knew he didn’t want to go with them. But, they were out of options. Though he wasn’t told, they needed him. They needed him to resume his role. He was a hero, captive and forced, but a hero nonetheless.

“That was fun. Never had a parent fight before. Oh well. Toodles.”

He vanished, leaving the hunter and the witch to go back to the drawing board.