Author’s Note:

I’m back! These past few months I’ve been working on my thesis and internship so I didn’t have much time to update, especially when this chapter has so much to work on. But here it is! There’s not much Seulgi and Sehun here as our focus today will be more on Sooyoung, Sungjae and Yerim ;) This chapter is a bit longer than what I originally intended so sorry ladajdnad but I hope you enjoy this one!

Ps. can anyone guess who's the guy in Yerim's vision? ;)

Eight.

Corpse.

“If you wanted to talk to Haseul, better go check on Taeyong first, gather the clues. That way, when you meet Haseul, you can just compile what clues you have from Taeyong and the clues Haseul has now.” Eunkwang advises.

“It’s three hours before sunrise,” Sungjae says, glancing at the clock. “Two hours travel to Western Realm and from there, three hours to the North. You’re going to waste a lot of energy tonight.”

Sooyoung sits down, as if standing up too long wastes her energy. “I can use The Tunnels. No problem with sunlight.”

Sungjae scowls. The Tunnels are a complex and twisted underground roads connecting all the realms in South Korea. Mortals who lived underground built their cities, homes and civilization deep underground, undetected and unexplored by the mortals. Not many mortals who lived above the ground uses it, though, the streets are complex, even the smartest explorer can get lost in the turns and twists if they’re not careful enough. Vampires used the tunnels often when they need to travel in daylight, but even then, there’s still risk of getting lost in the maze of tunnels. It’s also very crowded and it’s not easy for Vampires to just glide past them all. It doesn't help that the tunnels keep on growing and expanding.

“You’re underestimating me,” Sooyoung mumbles.

Sungjae only arches an eyebrow before continuing to speak, “And we don't know whether Haseul's house is connected to the tunnels or not. You also have to ask her permission to enter her lair,”

“Not that I remember, I guess there was a door but it’s outside," She says before standing up and heads to a nearby coffee table with an antique telephone on top.

“What are you doing?" Eunkwang asks.

“Calling for back-up. Hope you don't mind." She says, smiling when both Eunkwang and Sungjae shrugs.

She lifts the phone to her ear, dial a number and wait. “Yes, Taeyong? It's me, Sooyoung, yes it's been long, I know. Listen. I heard you're studying this mysterious corpse? Yeah, Joohyun found corpse too yesterday. Yeah, in our realm. So can I come around and take a look? Yes! Thank you, Joohyun really need to learn how to chill like you do. Okay, see you in a few hours, bye!”

Flipping her hair, Sooyoung dials another number. “Yes, Haseul, it's me. I'm asking permission to enter the Witches' Lair around dawn. Why? There has been another corpse found in Western Realm and it has strange wounds all over and I've decided to be a dear and helped you with it so please allow me to drop by your lair later? The sun? Don't worry, I've got it covered.”

When Sooyoung dial another number Sungjae finally speaks up. “Hurry up, woman, we've got no time for chit chat.”

But the vampire merely gives him a glare before breaking into a smile and talks sweetly on the phone. “Hello, Yixing! What do you mean sudden? We talk all the time! Ugh, alright. I want to make a request. Would you be a dear and make it rain real hard today? Yes, the hardest, biggest and darkest rain you could muster, like real dark that sunlight can't even get past the clouds! Yeah, like bringing the night to day. Ugh, fine, you can use our hot spring, but you’ll be talking to Joohyun, not me.”

“You done?”

“Calm down, man, what’s up with you anyway?” Sooyoung protests.

Sungjae stares at her in disbelief. “I’m waiting for you!”

“He wants to go with you to Taeyong and Haesul’s.” Eunkwang explains generously.

Sooyoung merely arches her eyebrow. “Why?”

“Why? Because it could be dangerous. You’re going to a crime scene where the victim was brutally murdered beyond even our logic. I’m going with you.”

“You think I can’t protect myself?” Sooyoung muses, even though one couldn’t exactly miss the loving gaze in her eyes.

Sungjae rolls his eyes. “I’ll stop protecting you when you’re finally able to beat Seungwan.”

“Hey!”

****

Yerim has just woken up from the strangest dream ever. Not that her dreams have ever been normal. Her dreams, even though not all of them spoke cryptic message from the future or past, are always, always strange, always so vivid and always so realistic. There are those rare days where she had a calm, dreamless sleep, like being swallowed into a strange, black nothingness, body deprived of sensory abilities.

Today, though, she’s seeing various things in her sleep, different events combined into one.

The first was a boy with dark hair, like crow's feather, and fair skin. He was kneeling, pain surged through him, blending with desperation, anguish and anxiousness into one mixture of horrid feeling that was so vivid and real that Yerim winced.

“Please…” He begged, pleaded, fingers gripping cold soil underneath him. “Please.” his tears dropped to the ground, testament of his agony.

Kang Seulgi stood in front of him, only the frown on her eyebrows that showed her emotions.

“I won’t do it.” she shook her head. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”

The boy, the mortal, let out another sob. He knelt deeper, forehead pressed against the earth, dirt caught in his hair and body curled so much that his back looked like it’s going to snap, crooked and bent. “It’s the only way I could be free, please…”

Seulgi must’ve sensed the horrid pain, because she closed her eyes, gritting through her teeth, hands hugging herself to brace herself from the pain. “I can’t.” she breathed. “Not from me.”

And the dream ended with the boy’s plea still fresh on Yerim’s memory. “Please…”

Yerim frowns, unable to decipher the scene, unable to process and understand it. Was that boy her prey? It seems unlikely. He was begging and Seulgi was holding herself back. Seulgi never hold herself back from a prey. Not Seulgi. But what business does her sister had with a mortal?

Is Seulgi, sometime in the future, going to break The Law?

Sighing, Yerim decides to store this information in the back of her head. What is set in the future will definitely happen, out of the small number of vampires that are blessed with the gift of clairvoyance, Yerim’s visions are often most accurate, most definitely will happen. She can confront Seulgi later on, but from her years of living, trying to prevent something from happening in the future isn’t easy. One can change their roads whenever they want, but nobody could guarantee that those new roads won’t lead to the same ending.

The second vision was shorter, clearer. A dark, stone room with a corpse lying in the middle, on top of a wooden table, it’s body covered with white cloth. Candles were lit on the four corners of the table. Thirteen witches were circling the body and somewhere outside the circle, she spotted Taeyong and two very familiar faces.

Yerim smirks. “Oh, Sooyoung," the girl muses before heading out.

****

The entrance to the Western Realm is on the border of Asan in South Chungcheong province. Where the Northern Realm is filled with dense forest, jagged mountains and harsh terrain, Western Realm is more populated, with buildings like the mortals’ have and more crowded.

Strong scent of herbs and potions infiltrate her nostrils. Sooyoung loves the West. It's lively, it's modern, it's upbeat, unlike calm, forgotten North. They're currently standing on the main street- wide and crowded with all sorts of creatures out and about on the street. Few meters in front of her is a shop owned by one of the Western witches. From the window, she can see assortments of potions, herbs, crystals and charms on the display. Some of the potions emanate colorful smokes- purple, red, green, mixing abstractly with the colors and glow of the crystals. From the gap of the door, a black cat slips out, disappearing into the crowd.

Not too far on her left is a bar, bright and loud with the sound of music and laughter. A Fawn is walking inside, followed by a Centaur. Outside the bar, a group of dwarves are talking to themselves, moving a little when a beautiful woman- a gumiho, Sooyoung notes after seeing her nine, long, fluffy tails, walk past them.

“The West is everything that the North is not." Sooyoung muses.

“The North has its own charm," Sungjae replies. “Let's go. We don't have much time.”

They speed through the crowds, the outline of their bodies blurring into lines of unidentified mixture of colors, passing through shadows of creatures like a strong gust of wind. They take a turn to the left, then to the right, past a grand clock that shows 3.45 A.M. in the morning. Finally, they stop at the end of a road. Before them is a grand gate made of silver with a sigil of a bat biting an emerald. A figure appears on the other side of the gate, hooded and cloaked.

“Kang Sooyoung of the Northern Realm and Yook Sungjae of the Eastern Realm,” he notes, “What business do you have here, and at this late hour?”

“I already talked to Taeyong about my visit,” Sooyoung replies coolly. “Come on, Jaehwan, you don’t want to fry us out here, right?”

The vampire reveals his face, Sooyoung studies his strong eyebrows and silver hair that shines under the moonlight. Jaehwan’s red eyes studies her in turn, before he sighs and steps back, the gate swings open as he does so.

“Welcome to the Lee Manor,” Jaehwan mumbles monotonically. “Follow me, Taeyong is at the dungeons right now.”

“The corpse,” Sungjae speaks up and Jaehwan turns to look at him. “Did you manage to see how it looked like?”

“Only a glimpse,” the guard of the manor says as they walk through the garden, passing a massive vampire statue in its true form- bony wings sprouts from its back, fangs protruding menacingly and eyes a shade of blood. “It smelled… peculiar.”

“Are there any creatures in this realm that’s familiar with the scent?” Sooyoung asks.

“No.” Jaehwan answers, climbing the stairs that leads to the front door. “It’s a putrid stench, but mortals doesn’t seem to be able to pick it up.”

The Lee manor is bright, crystal chandeliers hanging in the middle of the room, two halls stretched to the left and right and a grand stairs blanketed with gold-colored carpet on the right. “This way,” Jaehwan calls them, leading them to the left hall, to the end, then turning to the right, to a door on the left end of the room.

Sooyoung frowns when her nose picks up a foreign, rotten stench in the air. “Is this… the stench?”

“I’ve never smelled anything like this,” Sungjae grimaces.

“Told you, it’s weird,” Jaehwan gives them a knowing look before opening the door. A stair greets them and he climbs down, Sooyoung and Sungjae followed suit. There’s perhaps thirty-five steps, they walk further and Sooyoung notices the empty cells around them. Nobody used cells anymore, now. The cells in Hollow Manor has been transformed into Yerim’s own sanctuary, with books and potions and musical instruments. Taeyong, though, doesn’t seem to put too much thought. It’s very dusty and doesn’t look like it had any living touch since hundreds of years ago.

Jaehwan leads them to the right, where the stench is getting stronger and stronger. It’s an open and empty space. Sooyoung spots thirteen cloaked figures forming a circle, Taeyong standing on the far corner, studying them, looking like he’s deep in thought. At the sound of their footsteps, he turns, eyes meeting Sooyoung’s. The witches paid them no mind, still huddled in the circle.

“They’re praying for the spirits to guide them,” Taeyong mumbles as he approaches them.

“I'll leave you here." Jaehwan says before turning around and leaves.

A few seconds later, the High Priestess turns her head. “Sooyoung, Sungjae,” Sojung murmurs, nodding at them. “We’ve been doing this for the past hours but to no avail.”

“Can I see the corpse?” Sooyoung asks.

“Later. Bona is drawing the circles,” she turns to a black haired witch who’s currently drawing figures on the floor around the corpse, “When it’s done, walk carefully, don’t step on the drawing.”

There’s always something chilling in the way these witches work, but every being has their own chilling aspects. Sooyoung waits, watching as Bona continues her work.

“How did the corpse end up here?” she asks, looking at Taeyong.

The vampire leader sighs. “Seola was the one working with the mortals,” he starts, “The corpse was found in the middle of the night. Face completely bashed in, hands severely maimed so even the pathologists had a hard time identifying the boy- he’s a male. For now, we’ll call him John Doe. The investigation stretched on. Seola noticed the peculiar stench but other mortals don’t, that’s how she knew this was no regular homicide.”

“She notified the Witches and they notified me and I told them to bring the corpse to the realm. Seola conjured some magic and brought the corpse in. She brought it to the witches’ lair at first, but turned out, and as we all suspected, the black magic in the corpse was strong and powerful that the lair resisted it,”

“Wait, the lair resisted the corpse?” Sungjae repeats in disbelief.

“Crystal balls turned black and broke when the corpse was brought inside the house. Mirrors crackedl and the crows screeched. That's why I asked them to bring the body here.”

Sooyoung stays mum, thinking hard. What did Joohyun and Junmyeon see that day? Seungwan said something about them smelling weird after checking the corpse, but what else? How was the wound? What clues have they gathered?

“You're quiet," Sungjae murmurs, shifting closer to her.

“People said strange corpse appeared in The North not long ago. The body of a young boy,” Taeyong speaks, staring at her. “What was the corpse like?”

Sooyoung was about to speak when the sound of footsteps from behind steals her attention. Taeyong arches an eyebrow.

“I told Taemin I'm coming." Sooyoung turns to find her sister Yerim sashaying towards them, Jaehwan on her right.

The corner of her lips curl into a smirk. “Fancy seeing you here,”

“Yeah, saw you in my dreams and I took it as a sign I should go here.” Yerim smiles coyly before looking at Taeyong. “The dead body in the North belonged to a college boy named Kim Doyoung. Time of death is determined to be on Tuesday or Wednesday. There’s this big, gaping wound that stretches from his chest to his waist, rotting so much that even the veins turned black. His neck and hand were broken. What’s peculiar is that the marking of the wounds matches no animals and Immortals.”

“The corpse is ready, if you want to look,” Sojung calls them.

Sooyoung glances at the group before nodding and walks to the table, careful not to step on the drawings. Taeyoung looks at her before Sooyoung nods and he lifts the white cloth, revealing the corpse.

The sight was horrifying, but the rotten smell is so strong that Sooyoung has to hold back the urge to throw up. Even Sungjae looked visibly disturbed, one hand covering his nose as if it’s enough to block the putrid scent. Yerim sighs, trying to make some sense even though the scent makes it hard for her brain to work.

“It gets worse and worse, the smell,” Taeyong bristles.

Like Taeyong had said, the head is completely bashed in, jaws broken so bad it’s barely hanging on the skull. The Immortals once preyed on humans, but never once Sooyoung saw something as cruel and heartless as this. Taking her eyes off the remains of the head, she spots large, black wound stretching from the middle of the chest to the man’s pelvic bone.

“Lungs ruined, heart is missing, parts of the intestines are gone, remains of the liver are still intact, though.” Taeyong explains.

Upon further inspection, Sooyoung notices the blackened veins. It’s not just around the wound, though, the color has stretched to almost all of the veins in the body.

“The blackness spreads as the body decays.”

“What is that blackness? Is it just as simple as red blood turned black or was it something else?” Sungjae asks.

“It was venom. It’s what sped up the rot. Judging by the condition of other parts of the body, the estimated time of death is around Friday evening. The body was found on Friday midnight but the wound was already rotting. The venom turned the blood black.” Seola explains, staring at the corpse in worry. “It’s peculiar… mortals have all sorts of dangerous chemicals and poisons and toxic substances but… this one’s unidentifiable. We couldn’t even found any trace of iron on the blackened blood. It doesn’t just change the color, but the entire chemicals and elements of blood were ruined.”

Sooyoung purses her lips. “Sounds like something a vampire or werefolks’ bite would do,” she states, eyes still fixated on the blackened veins. “Coincidence?”

“The clues are still lacking for us to make assumptions,” Taeyong mutters.

“The dokkaebis in our realm, Jiwon, said he caught a glimpse of Doyoung when he was still alive.” Yerim says, “Two days before his corpse was found, Doyoung was seen walking inside the realm with an unidentified figure. Jiwon couldn’t get a good look, but he said the strange figure smelled somewhat like wolves.”

The frown on Taeyong’s forehead deepens, he stays quiet, deep in thought.

“Anyway, if you guys are done, we’d like to examine the corpse,” Sojung calls them.

“All yours,” Sooyoung speaks up before moving away from the corpse, Taeyong, Yerim and Sungjae followed her.

The witches circled around the corpse again and Sojung stands on the middle, right near the ruined head of the corpse. She extends her hand, hovering above the head, eyes closed and lips moving slightly, muttering prayers. The twelve other witches extend their staffs, the orbs on the tips shining mysteriously in the dark.

Sooyoung leans against the wall, eyes never leaving the circle as her brain works hard to analyze and connect all the pieces she has acquired so far.

“Have you went to Haseul’s?” she asks, glancing at Yerim.

Her sister shakes her head. “There’s not much time. I rushed here as soon as I saw you were here. Managed to fish out information from the werewolves’ though.” she answers. “How are you planning to return back to Ijeon?”

“Tunnels,” Sungjae answers.

Yerim groans. She hates the tunnels most, but there’s no way they could return without the tunnels.

“Have the werewolves done something?” Taeyong asks, “More clues?”

Again, Yerim shakes her head. “I asked Chanyeol, but even he had no idea. Jongdae and Minseok have been keeping most information as a secret, never giving out what people don’t need to know. I don’t understand what puts them so much on edge,” she explains, shifting a little before letting out a tired sigh. “I also haven’t been dreaming much lately. Premonitions don’t come often, but this month it’s just been… very scarce.”

Sooyoung doesn’t quite know what to do with this information. If Yerim sees it as something worth fussing over, then it’s got to be a problem, but figuring what the cause is beyond her. Yerim’s power has always been hard to understand- the future is something that’s very fragile and fickle, no matter how much Yerim insists it’s not.

“Have you checked the crime scene?" Yerim asks again.

Sungjae shakes his head. “Not yet, time's running out.”

“There's got to be important clues left there." Yerim sighs. “Maybe we should ask Seungwan and Kyungsoo to check.”

“Do you think Kyungsoo would want to?" Sooyoung ask skeptically. “I mean, with Jongdae and Minseok being cryptically secretive and all.”

Yerim shrugs. “If Seungwan asked him, he'd say yes.”

“I don't know about Ijeon, but ours didn't give any helpful clues.” Taeyong says. “Not even a trail we could follow.”

They fall into silence, trying to gather out pieces of puzzle that seems to be hanging just out of their reach and piecing them together. Sooyoung watches as Sojung raises her staff up, the ruby stone on the tip glowing brightly in the dark. The witches chant their mantras, voices blending into one, the fire from the candles dancing ominously in the dark.

The chant grows louder and louder and for a while, the ruby in Sojung's staff glows brighter and brighter until suddenly, a strong gust of wind blows out of nowhere, the sheer power makes the hair on their head dance and scratches on their skin. The fire from the candles are blown away, engulfing them in pitch black and the temperature drops drastically, as if they’re standing inside a vault of ice.

“The dark power is very strong in this one,” is what Sojung says.

The orbs on the witches’ staffs starts to glow again. Sighing, Sojung places her staff above the spot where the corpse’s heart should be. “By the power granted by the Spirit Guides,” she starts, grabbing a burnt sage and moves it along the corpse’s head. “I ask you to reveal your secrets.”

Almost as soon as she finishes speaking, the sage catches on fire so big that Sojung has to drop it to the ground. The stench was sickening, like a flesh that has been rotten for days. It doesn’t take long before all the sages that are lit in the room also catches fire and singed, reduced to ashes.

“What is the meaning of this, Sojung?” Bona asks with a trembling voice.

Sojung’s silence has never been more unnerving.

****

The tunnels are made of stones with torches and floating magical light orbs lighting the way in an eerie glow. It’s big, bigger than any highways the mortals built on the upperground, but it’s hard to see it because on the edges stands wooden houses, stone houses, stalls and shops that what’s left for them to walk on is no bigger than the size of a usual road. The smell is somewhat suffocating- the scent of Immortals blending into the scent of herbs, potions, smoke and food.

It’s always more crowded during daytime, so they can’t easily dash through the swarm of Immortals without crashing. They walk past a potions stall owned by an ogre, the colorful smoke and sparks emanating a strong scent. Then a dark house where a beautiful succubus leans against the door, her luscious lips part into a flirty smile when Sungjae’s eyes locked with hers. He quickly looks away when he feels Sooyoung’s judging glance on him.

“Hurry up,” Yerim urges them and they pick up their pace. “How are we going to enter Haseul’s lair when it isn’t even connected to the tunnels?”

“Yixing is taking care of it.”

“Oh, really?” her sister sounds interested.

“In exchange for a dip in Joohyun’s hot tub.”

Yerim rolls her eyes. “I’m surprised he agreed.”

They finally arrive in Ijeon an hour long after the sun has risen. Sooyoung listens closely as her hand holds the tunnel door’s handle. It’s noisy outside. Taking a deep breath, she opens the wooden door, revealing a heavy downpour, water leaking from the wet soil onto the stair they are standing on. The sky is dark, not even one bit of light manages to pierce through the dark clouds. It’s like the night choose to stretch on longer.

“Come on,” she turns to Yerim and Sungjae, “We have to be fast.”

They dash through the rain, sending wild splashes of water. In a matter of seconds, they have reached the gate to the High Priestess’ domain. It’s unguarded, but as if sensing Sooyoung’s presence, the gate swings open, letting them in.

Haseul is waiting at the door, relieved when the vampires finally reach her doorstep and ushered them in. “Yixing has been circling the skies since sunrise.” she informs them, pointing at the sky.

Sooyoung looks up to see a silhouette of a white dragon flying on the dark horizon. “Let him be, he enjoys it.”

Inside is warm and smelled like herbs, but even then, Sooyoung can still pick up the familiar scent of the abnormal corpse. Doyoung’s corpse.

Swingin her staff, Haseul’s magic dries them in an instant. She frowns. “You smelled awful. You smelled like Doyoung.”

“You keep the corpse here?” Sungjae asks.

“Yes. Where else could we keep a corpse with such smell? If we keep him in the open, others are going to bang on my door.”

Sungjae and Sooyoung exchanges glance. “In the West, the witches could barely kept the corpse in their lair.”

This piques Haseul’s interest. “Really? What happened?”

“The dark power in the corpse was too big, Taeyong said it made the crystal balls turn black and broke, cracked the mirrors and the crows were screeching.” Sooyoung explains with a slight frown. “But it’s perfectly fine here?”

“Well,” Haseul trails off. “My crystal balls have been gray ever since I brought him here, but nothing else happened.”

A figure appears from one of the curtains at the end of the room. A witch with light blonde hair. “Hello, Sungjae, Sooyoung, Yerim,” Jungeun greets them with a small smile. “Come to see the corpse?”

“You really had a different atmosphere than the ones in the West,” Yerim mutters. “Let’s go see him then.”

“What happened in the West?”

Yerim glances at Sooyoung and Sungjae but Sooyoung shakes her head. “You tell them, I sort of want to forget that ever happened.”

Sighing, Yerim tells the two witches what happened previously in the Western Realm, including what the corpse looked like, Seola’s suspicions, the venom inside the corpse’s body and the bizarre events where the candlelights were blown away and sage burnt to ashes.

“The venom,” Haseul nods as she leads them to the basement where she has been keeping Doyoung’s corpse. “It worked like the venoms in vampire’s and werefolks’ bite, there might be correlations.”

“Vampires and werefolks and the corpse?” Yerim arches an eyebrow. “But the venom killed for good. Our venom were made to turn mortals into one of us. Well, they did sort of physically died in the process, but…”

“Perhaps whoever did this thing have been modifying it.” Jungeun says, shrugging.

The basement is filled with candles, crystals and burning sages. Doyoung’s corpse lies on top of a table in the middle of the room, he looked so much cleaner than the one they just saw. Around Doyoung are ten other witches, each of them holding their staffs, some are holding protective talismans, other are holding cedars.

“I cleaned his wounds but honestly it didn’t stop the rot from spreading.” Haseul points at the rot that has spread onto his shoulders. “Not even my magic could stop it. Slowed it down, yes, but not stopping it.”

“Now I’m really concerned.” Sungjae sighs.

“There’s something else,” Haseul says, shivering and closing her eyes, clearly disturbed by her own knowledge. “After intensive investigation and using lots of energies and research… we found out that Doyoung’s estimated time of death was wrong. He didn’t die on Friday.”

“What?”

The High Priestess frowns,