I highly recommend listening to the actual song "Demon Days" either before, during, or after reading this. It fits the Seulgi scene the best, but you can read it whenever. I just think that it's one of the actual times that the song helps convey the feeling of the chapter.

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The Living Mountain erupted. Its final quake could be felt across the entire planet. The shockwave alone was enough to blast a hole through the clouds above, dispersing them with a thick, white beam of energy. The beam spread out from the crater, covering the land with its divine glow as it went.

***

Irene was falling. Not through the sky, because there was no longer a sky. No, she was falling through something else, something she wasn’t ever meant to come in contact with, something vast and empty. A void that only existed in the absence of existence. She had no idea how she knew these things, but they just felt true.

So she’d failed. The world had ended, and it had all been for nothing. She felt tears forming under her closed eyelids. It wasn’t fair. All her friends… everyone who had sacrificed so much to get her here… for nothing. It wasn’t fair. She weeped openly. She wept for Rosé, for Jennie, for Lisa, for Jisoo, for Dalgom and his pack, for BP… but most of all, she wept for Yerim. The poor, sweet, innocent girl who had used her dying breaths to proclaim her love for a selfish failure such as Irene. Not that it mattered, anyway. They hadn’t succeeded. And now Irene was doomed to fall through this void of nothingness until the end of time. It’s what she deserved, anyway.

After an unknown amount of time, Irene felt a hand running along the bottom of her cheek, wiping the tears away. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a young boy. He couldn’t have been older than ten. His facial features were indescribable in an abstract way, as if he wasn’t even human. He was completely .

She sat up and looked around. She was in the middle of a vast open space of white, and as far as she could see, they were the only two inhabitants. They were the only two anything. Besides them, it was a completely empty space.

“Hi.” the boy said, smiling.

“Hi.” Irene answered, “Where are we?”

“We’re in the space between worlds. You and I were the only two people touching the crystal when you used it. So we got transported here.”

“What do you mean? I was the only one in contact with it.” Irene said incredulously.

The boy chuckled in a way that was much too wise for someone of his age.

“Ok well, I guess technically you were the only human touching it. I honestly don’t know what I am. But humans usually call me the Living Mountain.”

Irene’s mouth hung open in shock. There was no way. It simply couldn’t be true. This little boy couldn’t be the Living Mountain; the mountain that had murdered her friends and destroyed an entire world. She could feel a dark, deep fury boiling within her. This wasn’t a child. It was a monster.

“I know. I did some things that were… horrible. But, it wasn’t really me. All the dark energy from the world infected me with this disease. And all I could think was that I wanted to end it all, end myself and finally be pain-free. I didn’t understand what the crystal would do, the disease just told me that the crystal would stop me from taking the pain away. When I was sick, I brought you here because I thought you would be the kind of person to use the crystal to go home. And that then I could end my life in peace. I’m happy that I was wrong.”

“None of this makes any sense. Who gave you this disease?” Irene asked, her head swimming. The mountain had brought her here? What about the other girls?

“Her name isn’t important right now,” the boy said, looking away, “All that matters is that you cured me, and that I’m forever in your debt because of it. Thank you.”

“So… I did it? I saved the world?”

The boy smiled and nodded.

Irene enjoyed a brief moment of victory before sighing and running her hands through her hair.

“That doesn’t change the fact that you killed my friends.” she said darkly.

To this, the boy was silent.

“You have to tell me who put this disease on you,” Irene continued, “I have to find her, whoever she is.”

“I can’t do that, Irene.” the boy said sadly.

“Why not?!” she demanded, standing up now. The boy looked up at her without fear in his eyes; just pity.

“There’s a lot of things I can’t explain. But for now, just try to relax, okay?”

“What do you mean? How do you expect me to relax? You said you owed me, right?” Irene stepped closer to the boy, becoming frantic, “Then bring my friends back! I don’t care what happens to me anymore, just bring them back to where they belong​ and make them happy again! PLEASE!”

The black-haired girl then broke down, dropping to her knees and sobbing into her hands.

“I think I know a way to repay you,” the boy said softly, bending down close to the broken girl, “But I’m not too good at these things. So you might have to go out and find it.”

The last thing she remembered was the soft touch of a hand patting her back. And then, darkness.

***

Seulgi stirred, her senses returning to her slowly. She could hear a vaguely familiar sound, one that she had remembered hearing at the start and end of the day during the summer months. She could smell something in the air, something that was also familiar, something sweet and fragrant that carried across the entire land. She could feel the smooth ground she lay on, and the cool blades of grass that pressed against her bare skin. She opened her eyes and found herself staring at a dark sky; but something about this darkness was different. It was soft and reassuring, its colors ranging from black to purple to navy blue, its surface embroidered with twinkling beads of light.

Seulgi sat up and rubbed her eyes. She was atop a hill in the center of a meadow. Grass and flowers stretched as far as she could see, dotted here and there by the occasional tree. There was a pure stillness to everything; the underlying hostility and lifelessness that seemed to emanate from the ground itself was gone, replaced by a complacently warm hum, as if the earth was breathing again.

Directly next to her lay Irene. A few feet from her were Wendy and Joy, still unconscious. She stood up and looked around desperately, but there was no one else in view. Seulgi began to sob. As she did, she felt the caress of two hands on her shoulders, and looked over to see Irene holding her. The older girl was in tears as well.

“Where are we, Irene?”

“I don’t know,” Irene said, looking around, “The last thing I remember is that flash of light at the mountain…”

“I-”

Seulgi’s words were cut off as she noticed something on the horizon. It came gradually at first, beginning with a slight, almost imperceptible discoloration of the navy blue line that indicated the ground meeting the sky. Then, it evolved, morphing from a deep, brooding purple to a luscious pink and finally settling on a halo of bright, clean orange. A ball of light began to appear, its radiating rays covering the land and softly padding its way over the grass, illuminating the land with its delicate touch. Eventually, it reached the spot where Seulgi and Irene stood. As the rays hit Seulgi’s face and warmed her skin for the first time in years, she began to cry harder. She hoped that her fallen friends could somehow see this now.

Wendy and Joy watched the sunrise as well, holding each other and focusing only on the beautiful phenomenon before them.

Seulgi looked over at Irene. The older girl had a determined look on her face. There was something different in her eyes, something that comforted Seulgi to her core. Something had changed about Irene. For the better.

The four girls watched the sunrise together, mourning and rejoicing all at once.

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Well, that's it for this story... or not. Just keep an eye on it (; Let me know what you think.

Thanks for sticking with me through it all<3