Kim Yerim had never been so terrified in her life. She could feel every muscle in her body tensing so hard that she trembled, her fingers digging into the crossbow as she kept the weapon pressed fast against her shoulder. She moved forward slowly, her pulse pounding against her eardrums as her pupils darted into different angles, swift and attentive with adrenaline.

The hallway that lay before her was much the same as the confined, box-like room that she’d descended into directly from the ladder. Very plain, made only of a dull, cracked, ancient-looking cement. After the initial stretch of darkness she’d forced herself to wade through (a darkness that was thankfully penetrated by the flashlight she’d been provided) there was the reprieve of a seemingly ever-present row of dim ceiling lights that ran directly through the center of the hall. In the distance, roughly two-hundred feet ahead, Yerim could see that the hall branched off to left and right.

. How do I even know which way to go?

The blonde didn’t allow any errant thoughts to enter her mind. It wasn’t the time. This was, hands down, the most stressful and hazardous situation she’d ever been in. She had to be at one-hundred percent. She hadn’t even allowed herself to look back yet, and probably wouldn’t; if she did, there would likely be no stopping her body from sprinting back and resigning herself to a safe, magical prison for the rest of her life.

The stillness of the air compounded the tension that Yerim felt as she approached the crossroads. There were only three sounds she was aware of: her own footsteps, her own heartbeat, and her own breathing. It was dead silent besides that, a deep, resonating silence that almost felt alive.

It is alive, Yerim reminded herself, I’m inside of an actual monster.

Yerim reached the crossroads and immediately hugged the nearest wall, which happened to be the right one. This gave her a good view of the left hand path while simultaneously providing her with cover from anything that might try and surprise her from the right.

To the left was a hallway identical to the one she was currently in, though rather than continuing into the distance, it ended abruptly. It was as if the remainder of the hall had been broken off by some great force. The floor, ceiling, and sides were ragged and broken, with bits of rubble gathered near their edges. In the distance was a blank, immense expanse of darkness as far as Yerim could see.

Alright. Not that way.

The blonde peeked her head around the right hand corner, half-expecting to see the same on this side. However, this wasn’t the case. What she saw sent her already excited heart into insane rhythms, and she quickly darted her head back out of view, gripping the crossbow to her heaving chest in terror.

She had no clue what exactly she had been looking at on the other side. She’d registered another hallway, ending in a staircase that descended further into the house. But these features were not her main concern. Instead, she focused on the tall, gaunt, humanoid creature that had been standing before the staircase. She hadn’t been able to make out its features from this distance, but she was able to see that it was entirely , and that its proportions were horrendously skewed. Its arms were much too short, though its legs were much too long. Its torso was misshapen and bulbous, and its head was comparatively tiny. In any other circumstance, it appearance would be mildly comical. In this circumstance, it was terrifying.

Of course, this seemed like the only available route that she could take. There was no way she could simply jump into the abyss of the other side of the path, and that staircase just felt like the right way to go. Not that it made what she was about to face any easier. Perhaps the thing that lurked in the hallway beyond was one of the creatures Seungwan had been talking about when she mentioned non-aggressive monsters. Something told Yerim that it wasn’t the case, however. Still, if she could get through this without killing anything, it would be preferable.

She sighed, took two deep breaths, and rounded the corner, not allowing herself any more time to think or wait around. Time was of the essence here, and if she waited until she was completely ready to face this beast, she was be standing around for an eternity.

“Hi, uh-”

Yerim called out to the thing, causing its head to perk up, revealing an eyeless, mouthless blob of flesh. Her voice seemed to energize it, and it bounded forward clumsily on its long legs, its feet smacking loudly against the floor as it charged. The blonde felt a burst of hot adrenaline spike through her, and instinctively dropped to one knee, bracing the crossbow against her shoulder and firing the first bolt. Her shaky hands betrayed her, and the projectile merely skimmed the monster’s left knee. Luckily, the monster’s balance was off enough that the bolt’s momentum was able to knock it sideways, sending it crashing against the side of the hall, giving Yerim enough time to load another bolt into her weapon. She (reluctantly) moved forward in order to get a better shot, training the barrel of her crossbow onto the thing’s head as it struggled to regain its footing. Small, mottled arms clawed at the ground in Yerim’s direction as two limp feet flailed uselessly into the air. She aimed as well as she could, taking her time to draw a full bead on the beast’s head before pulling the trigger. The bolt hit the monster directly in the center of its face, producing a sickening squelch as it drew a fountain of greenish-purple blood and fleshy matter. The thing collapsed completely, its movements ceasing as it slumped down the wall.

Yerim gulped and tried to collect herself, inhaling deeply through her nose and out through , attention still trained directly on the fallen beast, expecting it to rise and try to attack her again at any moment. When a full minute had passed and the monster remained on the floor, the blonde slowly approached, inching forward half-step by half-step, newly racked bolt aimed at the thing’s head. She recalled Seungwan mentioning that she’d need every bolt she had, and secretly cursed herself for wasting two of the projectiles on a single monster.

Upon closer the inspection, she found that the first bolt, the one that had merely skimmed the beast’s leg, was lying near the end of the hallway, directly adjacent to the staircase opening. The second bolt was jammed at an awkward angle into the monster’s brain, and to Yerim’s relief, it was bent out of shape enough that it clearly wasn’t worth digging around in the thing’s skull to obtain.

As Yerim grew close to the beast, she gave herself a running start and leapt over it, her heart pounding once again as she expected it to spring back to life and yank her down. Fortunately, this wasn’t the case, and she was able to jog away from it without further incident, though she kept its body in her sight until she was a good distance away. She retrieved her bolt from the floor, wiped it off on her pants, and continued her descent.

As Yerim walked, she noted that the walls to either side of her were starting to open up more, as if she were moving into the wider end of a funnel. The railings became wider as well, fanning out to the point where she was unable to grip them any longer, forcing her to walk in the center of crumbled cement staircase. She glanced back every once in awhile to assure that nothing was following her, though she had a feeling that the most of her worries lay in the darkness beyond.

After descending for some time, Yerim came to a landing. It was a simple, square-shaped stop in the flow of the stairs, the walls creating a blind corner that gave the blonde immediate anxiety. She hugged the wall again as she reached the landing, using what little leeway she had to brace herself against the concrete before peeking around, weapon first.

At first, she couldn’t entirely believe what she saw. Her brain wouldn’t allow her to comprehend it, as if there was any logic about what had been going on, and that her environment should appear a certain way simply because she expected it to.

The layout of the land before her appeared like less of a dungeon and more of an entire world. There was another set of steps, about five of them, that dropped off into a dull brown, rocky terrain. It seemed as though the entire area was made up of jagged stone slabs of varying shapes and sizes, sticking out of the ground like grotesque splinters of bone. Between the slabs were thin spaces that almost looked like paths, branching out in several different directions. In the distance, partially obscured by the larger pieces of rock, was a domed structure with a single opening in its front, marked by a bright yellow light that blinked intermittently. Yerim assumed this was her end goal, as she could see several of the thin paths ending at the dome’s entrance. The ceiling wasn’t visible from where she stood, instead obscured by heavy, dark clouds that flowed across the sky at alarming speeds, despite the lack of wind. The sole provider of illumination was an alien, menacing moon that winked in and out of view as the clouds skimmed over its surface.

Yerim turned back to look at the structure she had just exited, but was met with a large, impossibly high wall made of the same material as everything else in the area. It was such a sudden change that it caused her to jump back slightly. She ignored it and turned back to the matter at hand.

And so, she trudged on.

The blonde chose the centermost path, as it was the widest and most visible from where she stood. Still, she needed to sling her crossbow over her shoulder in order to fit between the rocks, leaving her much less at ease without the weapon in her grasp. As a surrogate, she kept her hand on the hilt of Seungwan’s knife any time she was able to. Navigating through the dense forest of rock gave her an overwhelming sense of claustrophobia; she was unable to see more than a few feet ahead of her at a time, and escape routes were limited. A nagging dread built up within her as she awaited an encounter with some other type of monster, as she knew was inevitable.

The journey itself wasn’t a long ordeal. The environment’s plethora of twists and turns merely gave the illusion that its expanse was great, when in reality the stretch from where she’d began and where she was headed couldn’t have been more than two kilometers. However, the roughness of the terrain and the constant need to reorient herself to her surroundings - which remained very similar regardless of how far she managed to go - led to the blonde quickly becoming drenched in sweat, dry and her muscles aching from overuse. She moved as swiftly as she could, praying with each passing second that she was alone in this odd dimension, and she’d be able to exit without encountering any of its native “wildlife”.

Yerim was halfway to the end when she finally heard something. Up until then, the only sounds were those of her own panting and the gentle tap tap of pebbles skirting across rock as she climbed through. This new noise came directly to her left, from behind a pyramid-shaped boulder that was about twice her size. It was a short, high-pitched tittering sound that caused Yerim to freeze, unsheathing her dagger and holding it close to her as she backed up as much as she could.

That almost sounded like a bug.

The noise came twice more in rapid succession, the first originating from the path she’d finished clearing and the second originating from the same location as the original noise.

, there’s multiple.

Yerim stood absolutely still, fighting the urge to scream as more and more of the noises popped up, coming from varying angles and distances, bouncing off the rocks and making each one untraceable.

There’s nowhere to go.

She clutched the knife with white knuckles, hand shaking as she awaited the hidden monsters’ approach.

I can’t just sit here.

Yerim crept forward, almost on her tiptoes now as she moved along, the sound of what seemed to be a thousand giant bugs providing a haunting backdrop to the shadowed, foreboding environment surrounding her. Every few feet she paused, teeth grinding against one another as she listened for any signs that they were closing in on her. She wished she knew what they were; the unknown nature of her potential enemies added a layer atop the already suffocating blanket of fear that covered her. Despite her slow pace, her breaths came quick and harsh, newly formed beads of sweat breaking out across her forehead, each sound causing her to jump slightly.

The sounds had reached a complete cacophony by the time Yerim came upon the next section of the path, a particularly narrow space between two dangerously sharp boulders. The blonde knew she would have to put her weapon away at least as long as she was between the rocks. She tried everything she could to avoid this path, standing relatively still once again but scanning the area with razor-sharp scrutiny, looking for any possible alternative. Alas, there appeared to be none; she was located in the center of several very flat, very tall structures that were far too smooth for her to climb. The only way forward was the tiny gap ahead.

Meanwhile, the sound of the mysterious creatures around her grew ever louder, now higher, faster and in unison. Yerim’s body wanted to whimper, to cry and curl up in a ball and scream and wait for the inevitability of her death, but she didn’t allow it to. She crouched down on the dusty floor and tried to steady herself, stabbing the tip of her knife into the rock and carving a long gash in it in order to provide some sort of mental distraction. She kept her eyes and ears alert for the sounds of anything making a move to strike her, but she took her deeper thoughts - the anxiety, the fear, the desperation - and shoved them down further in an attempt to clear her mind for more rational reasonings.

There has to be a lot of them around me, and they’re close. The further I go, the more there’ve been, and the more excited they get. They have to know I’m here, and they’re happy that I’m walking farther this way…

Yerim glanced at the small crevice she was meant to slip through, and finally understood what was going on.

They’re trying to trap me.

She sighed and turned around, staring at the path she’d taken to get here with weariness. There were many branching paths in this maze, so much so that backtracking would certainly get her lost. It wasn’t difficult to keep moving in the correct direction, but judging by the massive convergence of the paths at this point (roughly seven of them seemed to snake out from beneath the rocks to meet at the place she was standing), she assumed that most of them would simply be large circles. All leading back to this spot.

Regardless, it was worth a try. Anything to avoid the death trap ahead.

Yerim hiked her way backwards, slogging along with heavy feet and a semi-slumped posture. She was exhausted and thirsty, silently cursing herself for not thinking ahead and bringing water or food with her. The insects continued their chirping, though it had changed drastically: each individual noise was more disorganized, bursting out at different speeds and volumes.

I’m confusing them.

Such a notion was the only positive to backtracking here, and a wicked smile set itself upon Yerim’s lips at the thought.

By the time the blonde had reached the section of the maze where she first encountered the sounds, the chirping had shifted from disorganized to angry. It was louder than ever now, shrill and demanding, ringing in her ears like some sort of high-pitched whine. Still, Yerim gained a sort of satisfaction from the sound, pleased that she was frustrated the vile, torturous creatures around her.

Yerim slumped against the same rock wall as before, breathing heavily, still clutching Seungwan’s dagger in her left hand. In truth, she was ready to give up. She simply didn’t have the energy to continue, and without a way to rest and recharge, she was a sitting duck. She wondered how long it would take the monsters around her to notice that she was no longer capable of defending herself. If they were smart enough to try and attack her while she was in a confined space, they had to be smart enough to eventually understand that she was too tired to fight. She was running out of time, but she had no options.

As the blonde predicted, they quickly realized that the blonde wasn’t going to be moving again any time soon, and for the first time since they’d made their presence known, one of the creatures came into view.

It slithered across the rock in front of her, a fat, black, shell-clad, centipede-like insect roughly the size of Yerim’s foot. Two large, wicked-looking pincers clicked together at its front, and a short yet sharp barb protruded from its behind. It moved cautiously, sliding back and forth on numerous multi-jointed legs. The blonde placed her knife on the ground and unslung her crossbow, aiming at the slow-moving creature and following it with the barrel of her weapon.

If they’re all this size, I’m ed.

As the insect’s head met the junction of ground and rock, Yerim fired. The bolt penetrated it with ease, pinning the insect up against the rock and ceasing its movements immediately.

At least I know they can be killed.

The other insects increased their volume as soon as their companion was felled, this time to a tumultuous, all-consuming level, more akin to thunder than anything else.

They’re pissed.

Yerim stood up, sheathing her knife and reloading her crossbow just as the other centipedes began their approach. They came from over the rocks, crawling forward in a similar manner to their comrade, though slightly faster and with more purpose. Without hesitation, Yerim opened fire, unleashing the bolts as quickly as her tired muscles would allow her to reload, pinning the insects against the rocks, taking just enough time to make each shot count, focusing on the closest ones. The centipedes came at the same speed, an endless number of them melting into view, swarming out from crevices and cracks, slowly but surely advancing on her location. Yerim wondered why they didn’t just attack her from behind, but it didn’t matter, not now. Nothing did, besides re-racking her crossbow, shooting true and accurately, and keeping track of her targets' proximity. The sound of manic chirping, heavy breaths, a pounding pulse, and the clicking reload of a crossbow dominated her auditory field, so much so that she didn’t hear what was happening behind her. It was faint yet distinct, two muted voices yelling out as muffled, laser-like sounds cracked through the air.

If I’m going down, I’m going down fighting.

The first centipede that drew near enough to her to attack - about five feet away - leapt into the air, springing off its many legs and aiming directly for her head. Yerim ducked, allowing the insect to smack itself into the rock and slide down, its legs frantically searching for purchase on the flat surface. She took less than two seconds to recover, retaliating with the of her crossbow, crushing its body up against the rock before spinning around to face her next threat.

There were several of the creatures that were within jumping distance. Yerim fired her crossbow with one hand, a clumsy shot that knocked the first one out of the sky by sheer luck. She unsheathed the knife with her other, slicing it through the air and bisecting the second one, just in time for her to dodge the third’s attack, promptly subjecting it to the same fate as its unfortunate kin below it.

But the swarm didn’t cease. They were moving relentlessly towards her, closing in at a rate that was much too fast for her to keep up with, forcing her to sling the crossbow over her shoulder and use solely her knife for defence. The creatures that were able to make contact immediately latched on, causing her to scream in disgust as she frantically slammed herself up against the rock in order to kill them. The wall of adversaries covered almost every inch of the ground now, and it would be mere seconds before she was swarmed, completely and utterly overtaken by them. But it was no matter. Yerim decided that she’d fight to the very end.

“COME ON!” she screamed, somehow drawing upon movie and novel cliches, even as she fought for her life, her voice hoarse and raspy from dryness, “IS THAT THE BEST YOU’VE GOT?!”

And then, an explosion. It was brilliant, a hot crimson that came from everywhere and nowhere at once, sending pinpricks of hotness across the blonde’s skin and body. She was thrown backwards, slumping against the rock behind her, feeling the sickening crunch of exoskeleton as she fell atop the centipedes she’d killed.

It was as if Yerim’s voice had triggered the phenomenon, though she knew this wasn’t the case. Her vision flashed with blobs of deformed color, and she blinked rapidly in an attempt to clear it. From what little she could see, the remaining centipedes were retreating, fleeing en masse back to the direction they’d come from, disappearing into the crevices and over the rocks, leaving the blonde with a confused elation that was welcome and warm. She’d survived. For now.

Once her vision had cleared and her hearing had returned to more than just a buzzing drone, she shakily brought herself into a standing position, using the wall behind her for support as she reassessed her surroundings. The dust and debris from the explosion was still settling, a large cloud of part-ash that indicated that the blast had come from somewhere to her right.

“, that was close. How’d you do that?” the voice that came from that direction was extremely familiar, a light, almost sing-songy voice that filled Yerim with energy, causing her to stumble forward urgently.

“I don’t know… It kind of just happened. Like the telekinesis, except that was somehow easier. I don’t even feel tired after that,” the voice that answered was higher and fresher, much more relaxed than its normal tone but definitely originating from the an individual that Yerim knew far too well.

“Guys!” Yerim called, pulling herself along on the rock edges, “Guys! I’m here!”

Two shadows came forward, one short and one tall, moving smoothly, dark blurry shapes that Yerim was just able to make out as human. The shorter one had a large protrusion resting on its back, a shape that took Yerim a few moments to register as a backpack.

    “Hey, that sounds like…” the first voice muttered, much closer now, though still obscured by dust.

    “No way,” the other voice answered in disbelief.

    And then the pair appeared, finally moving so that they were no longer mere shadows in the distance but two actual people.

    “Sooyoung! Seungwan! You came to save me!”

    The first of the two, the tall, baby-faced one adorned in a set of tattered jeans and a grey hoodie, frowned but accepted Yerim’s hug, one that nearly sent them both crashing to the ground.

    “Whoa, Yeri, settle down. Who’s-”

    Yerim pressed her lips to the taller girl’s, expecting a welcoming kiss in response, but instead she was met with a harsh shove that sent her a few steps back, leaving her physically unscathed but emotionally distraught. It took her a second to realize that the woman who she’d kissed hadn’t shoved her at all; instead, it was as if some invisible force had come between them, a wall that pushed Yerim back away from her.

    “What’s your problem?!” the tall girl demanded, a furious look on her face. The shorter girl looked furious as well, though she appeared be too angry to even speak, her chubby cheeks crimson and her eyes ablaze, “You come back from the dead and all of a sudden you’re in love with me? What would Irene say? And Wendy’s right here, did you think she’d just sit back and watch you kiss me?!”

    “Wendy?” Yerim questioned, looking back and forth between the two girls, “What are you talking about? That’s Seungwan.”

    “No… her name’s Wendy. And I’m Joy. I don’t know who Sooyoung and Seungwan are, but they’re not us. Are you Yeri?”

    “Yeah, I am,” the blonde said, “I… did you guys forget your names or something? How did you get into the basement? I thought magical beings couldn’t come here.”

    Wendy and Joy glanced at each other, both now thoroughly perplexed rather than angry.

    “Basement? Magical beings? Alright, something’s seriously wrong here,” Joy said, and Wendy nodded in agreement.

    Yerim looked over the second girl, scrutinized her appearance and mannerisms as closely as she could within a few seconds. As she did, it became apparent that this person - this “Wendy” - couldn’t possibly be her Seungwan. She was too shy, too reserved, her posture very withdrawn and tense rather than aloof and relaxed like Seungwan’s. And there was no way this “Joy” could be her Sooyoung, either. Sooyoung was never this bold or consistently well-articulated, not to mention the roughness in Joy’s tone that Yerim knew Sooyoung would never use with her.

    As if a switch was flipped, Yerim’s mind became acutely alert, paranoid, and mistrusting.

    They could be monsters created by the house to get to me.

    The blonde backed up, holding her knife tighter and keeping her eyes razor-focused on the two girls before her.

    “Whoa, relax,” Wendy said, holding her hands up, “We’re not gonna hurt you.”

    “How do I know that?” Yerim demanded, using the last of her strength to hold her knife up, her arm shaking from tiredness as he did so, “How do I know you weren’t apparitions created by the house, pretending to be Seungwan and Sooyoung?”

    “What house?” Joy asked, crossing her arms over her chest, “And how do we know you’re not just an apparition? Especially since you look and sound very similar to a certain dead friend of ours.”

    Yerim blinked in confusion.

    “Didn’t you enter this place through the basement, like me?” she asked, the knife still raised before her.

    Yerim’s thoughts had become animalistic and rudimentary in her current state, narrowed down into a tunnel-like focus that saw everyone as an enemy prior to seeing them as friends.

    “No,” Wendy cut in, “It’s a long story, actually. But the gist of it is that we teleported here while looking to stop our friends, Irene and Jennie, from fighting one another. Or something. We’re not exactly sure on the details, but that’s where we’re headed. We’ve stopped at like twenty of the wrong locations so far, but none of them have been this…”

    “ty,” Joy finished exasperatedly, “What even is this place? It reminds me of the world before we made the sun rise again-”

    “Wait, what?” Yerim shook her head, now thoroughly confused.

    The two girls glanced at each other, exchanging tired, almost mirrored glances that suggested a deep connection between them, as if they could borderline read one another’s minds.

    “Again, it’s a long story,” Joy said wearily, “And we don’t have much time. We came here by accident. Why are you here?”

    Oddly enough, the innate flawed humanity of the two other girls’ actions - the way they spoke to one another, the implication that there was much more to them than they were presenting - relaxed Yerim.

    “Well, mine’s a long story as well,” Yerim said with a sigh, feeling enough at ease to sheath her weapon now, much to Joy and Wendy’s visible relief, “And I’m sure it’ll make as much sense as yours does to me. But in case you weren’t aware, we’re in some ‘trash’ dimension that’s contained within the basement of a magical house. The house has four witches sealed inside, but they’re not evil witches, they’re actually all really nice and misunderstood. They can’t come down here to ‘kill’ the house and free themselves, but people without magical powers can. So that’s why I’m here.”

    Wendy furrowed her brow intensely as Joy’s eyes widened, twin masks of disbelief that elicited a grin from Yerim.

    “That sounds like bad Twilight fanfiction,” Joy mumbled, earning her a light elbow in the ribs from Wendy.

    “Regardless,” the shorter girl said, “It seemed like you were in a bit of trouble back there. If we hadn’t showed, you might have been seriously injured. How long do you have to go still?”

Yerim sighed and looked around at the dreary, dark landscape, running her hands through her hair and fighting the internal turmoil within her core. She had no idea. Not even a inkling. She almost found herself hating the four witches that she was trying to save. How could they throw her into such a situation with so little information? It was true that the enigmatic nature of the basement likely contributed to its ever-changing layout, but that didn’t make it any better for her. The anger and negative sensations she was experiencing needed some kind of target, and Joohyun, Seulgi, and Seungwan were prime for it. She couldn’t blame Sooyoung; there was no way her innocent little baby could have known it would be this unpredictable of a landscape.

“I-I don’t know,” Yerim said, suppressing the tears that threatened to spill over onto her cheeks, “I’m just kind of going forward until I can’t anymore. I don’t know where this ends, or what the heart of this thing even looks like. At this point, I just wanna help my friends, and get out of here.”

The two newcomers exchanged similar expressions again, this time masks of sympathy and consternation that indicated deep thought. Yerim didn’t notice, as she stared longly into the distance, eyes trained on the rocky dome that was allegedly her destination, unsure if that was even the correct direction any longer.

The moisture rolled down her cheeks, and a sob threatened to burst from her lips.

“Here,” Wendy’s words came from much closer behind her than Yerim realized, and the blonde jumped slightly as she turned around, hand instinctively reaching for her knife. The shorter girl didn’t flinch, instead offering a kind smile as she held out a large leather flask, “Have some water, and sit down for a bit.”

“I don’t have time…” Yerim said, although she took the flask, unscrewing it and holding it to her lips, swallowing the lukewarm liquid down in large gulps that made sore. She drained the entire thing within seconds, Wendy waiting in patient silence while Joy climbed atop one of the larger rocks in their vicinity, scanning the horizon for the most optimal route.

“Maybe not, but all your efforts will be nothing if you die before you can even get to where you need to go.”

Yerim nodded obediently, far too physically exhausted to argue any further. She plopped herself down right on the ground, finding a spot that was mostly free of centipede carcasses and leaning up against it. Wendy knelt and dug through her backpack, pulling out a piece of bread wrapped in wax paper and holding it out to Yerim.

“Eat this. It’s cinnamon raisin bread.”

The blonde felt herself welling up again as she looked at the woman who looked so much like Seungwan, a woman who, despite being a complete stranger to her, was willing to offer food and water in such a harrowing situation.

“I can’t,” Yerim shook her head, even as her stomach willed her to take the food.

“Take the food, Not Yeri,” Joy said as she climbed back down the rock, “You need it more than we do, apparently. Though, that bread is absolutely delicious and I’ll kind of hate you, since we’ll probably never be able to have it again.”

“Joy’s right… about the first part,” Wendy pushed the bread into the blonde’s hands, compelling her to take it, “We can teleport out of here whenever we want to… you, on the other hand…”

Wendy trailed off, her eyebrows crinkling as she muttered to herself. Yerim was too busy scarfing down the wonderfully sweet, melt-in-your mouth texture of the bread to notice the shorter girl’s deep thought. The blonde was fully occupied by how the food had retained its freshness and flavor. She half-inhaled it with wild fervor, unaware of anything going on around her at the time.

“Joy,” Wendy said, turning around to face her partner, “What if we teleported Yeri to the heart of the monster?”

The taller girl tapped the bottom of her lip with her finger as she pondered this. Yerim, midway through her meal, perked up at the mention of her name, her heart skipping a beat at the implication of Wendy’s words.

“Can you really do that?” the blonde asked desperately, “Can you teleport us there?”

“Wendy, I don’t know if you should be using your energy like that,” Joy warned with a frown.

“I’ve been getting better and better at it every time. Most of the teleports we’ve done so far have been across dimensions, and I barely even feel winded from those anymore. I think I can do this easily.”

“How would you know where it is?”

Yerim couldn’t believe it. A spark of hope began to form within her, a flickering flame that she refused to acknowledge, lest it be put out by a torrent of disappointment.

“I wouldn’t. I’d kind of… ‘search’ around with my mind, and look for whatever I think looks, or feels, the closest to the ‘heart’ of a house. Whatever that means.”

“Wen,” Joy stepped forward and took the shorter girl by her shoulders, turning her so that they were face to face, “Are you sure you should do this? You just did that explosion thing without knowing it, and some of the teleports still tire you out, even though I know you won’t admit it. We still have to get to Irene and Jennie. And even without that looming over our heads… I’m worried for you.”

Joy’s final sentence carried a lead-like weight, a palpable sentiment that Yerim had trouble understanding. Was her outwardly brash nature just an act, or was her soft spot strictly for Wendy? Either way, Yerim found it extremely endearing, and was able to somewhat forgive her lover’s doppelganger's attitude.

Wendy reached up and held Joy’s face in her hands, running her thumbs against the smooth paleness of her cheeks.

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine. I promise. We can’t just sit by and leave her here.”

“I know,” Joy replied, looking away, “I just wish she was the real Yeri.”

“Can I just say that that’s kind of offensive?” Yerim butted in, causing the two lovers to turn to her swiftly, as if just remembering that they weren't alone.

“Hurry up and finish eating,” Joy said, ignoring Yerim’s last comment, “When you’re done we can go. Once we get you to the heart of the monster, though, we have to keep looking for our friends.”

“Okay,” Yerim said with a nod, happily turning back to her bread, now filled with elation, that spark of hope having transformed into an intense wildfire, “I just have a question though… this Yeri that you knew before me, how’d she die? What happened to her?”

The shift in mood was immediate and obvious. Joy swallowed, a pained expression on her face as she looked down at the ground, leaving Wendy to answer the question. The shorter girl sighed, running her hands through her hair.

“You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to,” Yerim quickly backtracked, cursing herself for allowing her curiosity to get the better of her.

“No, no, it’s fine,” Wendy said, visibly steeling herself, “She was impaled in the stomach by some kind of demon while we were trying to save the world from a massive volcanic eruption.”

Yerim disregarded the extra details, as they likely wouldn’t have made sense to her regardless of context. Like many things that she’d experienced since walking down into this hellhole, it just wasn’t worth dwelling on.

What she wasn’t able to ignore was the conjured image of herself being impaled by a creature similar to the one she’d encountered before, blood dripping from the sealed hole in her gut as she screamed in agony.

Why do I relate so much to this other Yeri? Why do I feel some sort of deep connection to her, even though I’m not even sure she exists?

“It was a quick death,” Wendy added, as if reading Yerim’s mind, “She couldn’t have suffered at all. And we did end up saving the world. I just wish she could’ve been around to see it.”

“Well, who knows,” Joy spoke in a surprisingly optimistic tone, turning back to the two other girls, “If Jennie survived, maybe she did, too.”

“Jennie?”

“A friend of ours who, along with three others, sacrificed themselves so that we could stop that volcano from erupting,” Wendy said.

“Wait, who else-”

“Never mind,” Joy said, shaking her head vigorously, “Come on. We gotta go. There’s no time to explain our entire life stories.”

“Calm down, baby,” Wendy said, striding over and the taller girl’s hand, “I’m sure we both have a bunch of interesting things to say about our lives before this meeting, and maybe they’d help make sense of why you look exactly like our Yeri and we apparently look like your Seungwan and Sooyoung, but we really should be going.”

Yerim nodded and stood, swallowing the last piece of bread and shaking out a few drops of leftover water from the flask into . Wendy noticed this gesture and handed her another flask, one that she hastily accepted this time.

“Feeling a little better?” Wendy asked.

Yerim smiled before handing the two empty containers back to her new friend, tossing the wax paper on the floor and stretching her still somewhat sore muscles out.

“Make sure you’ve got everything,” Joy said, scooping Yerim’s crossbow from the ground and handing it over, “We won’t be back here.”

“We all need to be making physical contact in order to teleport together,” Wendy said, holding her tiny hands out.

Yerim took the petite girl’s fist in her own, extending her other hand for Joy to take.

“Don’t get any ideas,” Joy warned, taking the blonde’s thumb in a tentative grip, “I remember what you did before.”

“That… that wasn’t… I thought you were someone else,” Yerim said, her face growing hot from a newly blooming blush, “Just like you guys have your Yeri, I have my Joy. Except her name is Sooyoung. And I’m in love with her.”

“Ah, okay,” Wendy said, nodding, “So that ‘Seungwan’ is your Wendy?”

“Yep.”

“You must really care about these girls, to do this for them.”

Yerim thought back to all the moments she’d shared with the two witches, the good and the bad: playing dress-up with Sooyoung, shooting crossbows with Seungwan…

“I do. I love them both, so much,” Yerim spoke without thinking, her eyes still glazed over with the milky cast of reminiscence.

“Both?” Joy said with a snort, “Sounds like a love triangle. Even more Twilight fanfic-esque, huh?”

“N-no, it’s not like that, it’s-”

“Yeri, it’s okay. Joy’s just messing with you,” Wendy said, frowning in disapproval at her partner.

“Y-yeah, I knew that,” Yerim lied, “Anyways, shouldn’t we get going instead of just sitting here holding hands?”

“Good point,” Joy quipped, earning a half-hearted, playful kick in the shin from Wendy.

“Alright. So when we teleport, it’s probably best if you close your eyes,” the petite girl solemnly addressed Yerim, “The sensation is very jarring, and if you’re looking at what’s around us, you may be disoriented even more. It’s going to a take a little… it’s not an instantaneous thing, especially since I have to find where we’re going first.”

“You’ll probably puke,” Joy added wisely, “I know I did the first time we did this.”

Yerim gripped both of the other girls’ hands tighter and swallowed nervously.

“Are you sure this is safe?”

“Safe?” Joy said with a laugh, “Probably not. But I trust my Wendy.”

Wendy’s face bloomed with a wide grin, her cheeks bunching up and her teeth showing as she looked at the taller girl with an absolute reverence that reminded made Yerim feel simultaneously out of place and endeared.

“Let’s do this,” Wendy said, closing her eyes, “We’ll be okay.”

Yerim did the same, blocking out the deadened, dreary landscape around them, praying that when she opened her eyes, she would be anywhere but here.

***

    Yerim knew that she was moving, but she had no idea what direction she was going in. It was as if her body was separated into every cell, every atom, each component dancing across space and time at light speed. She could, somehow, still sense the presence of Joy and Wendy’s hands intertwined with hers, now locked in a desperate grip as they traveled through the cosmos. She fought the urge to open her eyes, as she could already feel her stomach contents churning and sloshing around. It took all of her willpower to keep the vomit down, even as filled with saliva and her esophagus threatened to erupt.

    In a way, she was grateful for the intense nausea that came with teleporting, as it kept her grounded, gave her something to focus on besides the fact that her physical body was both nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It assured her that, in some capacity, she was still whole, still a living human being, and that she had the opportunity to continue existing even after this nightmarish ordeal.

    They continued to move at varying velocities, occasionally speeding up, occasionally slowing down, but never ceasing. It made sense, in some way. Wendy was searching for the heart of the monster, and searching for something while in this state must have been very difficult.

    She has to be good at this if she can somehow direct us here. There’s no way I could-

    Yerim’s thoughts were cut off as they jerked to a stop. There was nothing smooth about their transition; it was a sudden freezing of all motion, as if they’d collided with something along the way. She heard Wendy let out a shriek, followed by Joy cursing loudly before she found herself slamming into the ground.

    The impact knocked the wind out of her at the same moment that her nausea got the best of her. She rolled to her side and vomited, a forceful expulsion that was punctuated by her body attempting to take a breath in order to replace the air it had lost on her landing. Unfortunately, this led to her aspiration of a sizable mouthful of vomit, sending her into a wild coughing fit as she attempted to clear her now searing airway.

“Oh !”

A voice called from above her before she was graced with two hardy thumps on the back, the second of which dislodged the spittle from her trachea and allowed her to spit it up.

“Look alive, Not Yeri,” Joy said, plucking Yerim’s knife from her belt, “I’m borrowing this. We’re gonna have to fight.”

Yerim braced her core and launched into a standing position, yanking herself out of her stupor in an attempt to adjust to her new surroundings. She blinked as she looked around, mouth agape at the magnificence of their new environment.

All around them was a sky made of inky cosmos, interspersed with celestial bodies of all shapes, sizes, and colors. These massive bodies ranged from dense, swirling pink planets with an array of moons orbiting them to shifting clouds of space-dust with streaks of azure lightning dancing between their pulsating frills. The ground they stood on - if one could use the term ‘ground’ to describe it - was an iridescent pathway of rippling color that shifted from red to yellow to blue to white to green. It was almost possible to see completely through its wispy flatness, though it provided a complete solidity that easily support the weight of all three girls. The pathway ran straight across the horizon, shrinking into the beyond in front of them, and ending at a single point behind them, a shut, wooden doorway that stood impossibly alone, anomalously planted in the very center of this insane dimension.

“Pay attention!” Joy screamed, snapping Yerim out of her trance, “You need to cover us!”

She turned away from the doorway to see Joy holding up a barely standing Wendy, knife clutched in her free hand as she scrambled backwards. Before them were a wave of short bipedal creatures that resembled miniature stars. They were about three feet tall each, their torsos made of what appeared to be pure light, though staring at them caused no ill effect on Yerim’s vision. Their hands and feet were more solid, colored in the same shifting hue of yellow-white that their bodies took on. They seemed to be apparating from thin air, and growing in number by the second; they were birthed with short bursts of luminescence.

The star-creatures moved slowly, creeping towards the three girls with twitchy, alien movements.

Yerim unslung her crossbow and shot at the nearest one, an attack performed without hesitation or thought, entirely born from instinct. As soon as she fired, she cursed herself for assuming that conventional weapons would have any effect on such ethereal creatures. To her surprise, however, the bolt stuck itself into the monster’s left arm, causing the entity to list backwards, its body dissipating into tiny specks of light that drifted away into the space beyond. The blonde was finished reloading before the next monster had drawn as close as the previous one; she fired again, just barely grazing the nearly out-of-range creature but still doing enough damage to kill it.

Meanwhile, Joy was afforded enough time to retreat with Wendy behind Yerim, where she shook and attempted to bring the older girl to attention:

“Come on Wendy, snap out of it!” she cried worriedly, her voice filled with restrained panic.

The petite girl groaned weakly, still hanging from Joy’s arms and rubbing her temples.

“What happened?” Yerim demanded as she reloaded a third time.

“Something must of disrupted us while we were teleporting,” Joy reasoned, still shaking Wendy back and forth in what appeared to be a panic.

“I think it was whatever entity controls this place…” Wendy spoke for the first time since they’d gotten here, causing Joy to gasp with relief and shock.

“Wendy! Wendy are you okay?!” Joy cried, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine…” the shorter girl muttered, trying to get to her feet.

Yerim turned away from the wall of enemies for a second in order to check on Wendy. Unfortunately, this afforded one of the creatures the opportunity to leap, displaying an uncanny level of agility that she hadn’t anticipated, soaring through the air and attaching itself to her body. She shrieked in horror as it lock its limbs around her torso, its blinding light dominating her vision and sending her crashing to the floor.

“!”

Joy’s yell came from far away as the creature worked some sort of magic on Yerim, transforming her vision into a series of blurry flashes, depicting horrific, gut-wrenching scenes that made her want to scream in terror:

The image of Sae-ron, hanging from the rafters of her home by a noose, her face blue and puffy as lolled open loosely,

The image of Sooyoung being stabbed by a shadowy figure with long hair, screaming and begging for her attacker to stop,

The image of her father’s broken body, drifting down into the water, sinking into its depths like a rock, disappearing forever into the murk,

The image of her youngest sister-

And then, the images were gone, replaced by the hauntingly gorgeous backdrop of inter-dimensional space.

Yerim looked up in time to see the monster, and several of its companions, fading out of existence, a now-standing Wendy blocking their path.

“How did you do that?” Yerim asked, shakily getting to her feet and picking up her crossbow again.

Wendy turned slightly, and it was then that the blonde noticed the petite girl’s sweat-covered brow and heaving inhales; she was exhausted.

“Magic, I guess,” Wendy panted with a weak grin.

“We have to move,” Joy lunged forward and knifed the closest monster, her blade running it through and killing it as efficiently as the bolts and magic had, “They’re just gonna keep coming.”

Yerim scrambled to her feet, trying to clear her head of what she’d just seen.

“Don’t let them touch you,” she said through gritted teeth, firing another bolt.

“Why? What happened?” Joy asked as the three girls fell in line, simultaneously retreating while holding off the approaching tide of mini-stars.

“They make you see things… terrible things,” Yerim said, mentally pleading with her sore arms to work with her, “Just don’t let it happen.”

“Got it,” Wendy said solemnly, unleashing another burst of energy with a wave of her hand, taking out seven of the creatures at once.

She must be recovering. That second attack didn’t tire her nearly as much.

The three girls continued backing away until they’d gained a sufficient distance from the brunt of their enemy forces. Yerim noted her rapidly dwindling supply of crossbow bolts as she took down the creatures one by one, and was grateful when Wendy and Joy turned around in unison, breaking into dead sprints. The blonde was, for a moment, astonished by how in sync the pair was, along with their uncanny display of athleticism. Even given fair warning, Yerim doubted she’d have been able to keep up with them for more than a few seconds.

“Thanks for letting me know the plan, guys!” Yerim yelled bitterly as she joined them, running as fast as her legs would allow her to.

“Sorry!” the couple called back, their combined voices bleeding into one another.

Despite Yerim’s complaints, they were gaining a lot of ground. The monsters behind them moved at the same pace, unable or unwilling to sprint, creating a large gap between the girls and their pursuers. The doorway grew closer, its features revealing themselves to be rather plain, almost akin to the average bedroom door.

Yerim turned to check on the progress the monsters were making, and almost stumbled over her feet when she saw what was going on. The creatures had stopped moving altogether, instead standing perfectly still as their bodies grew brighter and brighter, their glows overlapping and coming together as they intensified.

Can’t think about it. Gotta keep going.

The blonde doubled her pace then, silently praying that they’d arrive at the door before the creatures could complete whatever plan they were formulating.

“Something’s happening behind us, guys! But keep going!” Yerim called, deciding that it was best to at least let her comrades know what was going on.

Both Joy and Wendy turned, their expressions shifting from exhausted to horrified as their stares turned upwards. Joy was unable to keep her footing, and slipped forward, her momentum sending her rolling to the side.

“Joy, no!” Wendy screamed, spinning around as her lover slipped across the ground, set on a course directly for the edge of the pathway.

Yerim dove, outstretching her arms. She dropped down onto the floor, sliding slightly to reach Joy just as the taller girl’s feet bounced over the edge of the path. Their hands connected, and Yerim braced with all her might as Joy’s weight pulled at her. Thankfully, Yerim had had just enough time to slow down, allowing her to halt both of them, albeit in an awkward diagonal position, with Joy’s ankles dangling into the starry abyss below.

Yerim yanked hard, dragging Joy forward and bringing her entire body onto the path. Both girls sprawled out, their skin coated in sweat and their chests heaving from exertion. Wendy ran over and knelt by Joy, showering her face with unabashed kisses as she cried:

“Oh my God, I can’t believe you almost died, holy , holy , please be careful Joy, I can’t lose you, holy , thank you so much Yeri, I don’t even wanna think about what would happen if you didn’t-”

“No time,” Yerim said, spitting out a large glob of phlegm from her dry, burning throat, “Look.”

In the time that their entire ordeal had taken, the monsters had finished their ritual. Rather than hundreds of three-foot tall starbursts, they were now one massive conglomerate, a monolith-like, vaguely human-shaped blob of light, standing over one-hundred feet tall, its body spilling over the sides of the pathway, its legs lost in the cosmos below.

“Motherer,” Joy hissed, bringing herself to a standing position just as the monster’s hand descended to crush all three of them.

Yerim screamed, a primal scream that could only come from a person facing their imminent death, unslinging her crossbow as the hand began to block out all other objects in her visual field. She knew there was no time to fire a bolt, and even if there was, it would be futile. But her instincts were too strong, too stubborn. She refused to go down without a fight, no matter how hopeless it was.

There was a loud, almost deafening cracking noise, following by a brilliant flash of white. An immense pressure dropped onto the blonde like a blanket, pinning her to the floor and sending curtains of her hair dancing around her head. She shut her eyes, awaiting the final crushing blow, that burst of pain that would signal the end of her time in this reality.

But it never came.

Instead, the air grew absolutely still, a pounding silence surrounding her as she realized she was free to move again. Her head perked up, eyes opening to see Wendy, back turned to Yerim and Joy, standing boldly before them, arms outstretched, hands glowing the exact same pale yellow as the monster that had previously been attacking them. The monster itself was nowhere to be seen, instead replaced by a thousand tiny pinpricks of fading light that danced across the sky, drifting up and out of sight, obscured by the celestial bodies’ radiance.

Wendy collapsed backwards, right into the awaiting Joy’s arms, the taller girl lowering her partner to the ground.

Yerim stood and jogged over, crouching down with her allies and inspecting Wendy.

The petite blonde was pale and clammy, eyes closed and jaw clenched. Joy held Wendy’s head in her lap.

“Wendy… how’d you do that? What even was that?” she asked, running her fingers over a few of Wendy’s stray hairs, pushing them away.

“No clue… but we didn’t die, so, I guess it worked,” Wendy answered with a chuckle.

“Yeah… honestly, you took care of those monsters pretty well,” Yerim said, looking around to ensure that they wouldn’t be preyed on by anything else.

“Good…” Wendy then rolled herself off of Joy’s lap, sitting in a kneeling position and inhaling deeply through her nose, as if acutely focusing on her movements.

“Wendy, slow down,” Yerim said before Joy could speak up, “Take a sec to rest. You must be exhausted.”

“She is,” Joy said, standing in front of Wendy and squatting down, “So she’s gonna ride on my back.”

“Joy, don’t-”

“It’s just like the old days, remember?” Joy cut off her lover with kind words and an encouraging smile, “It’s no big deal.”

Wendy grumbled to herself but complied, climbing onto Joy’s back and hanging on as tightly as her current level of strength would allow her to.

“You sure you're okay to carry her solo?” Yerim asked.

“I’m fine. She’s a tiny baby, she barely weighs anything,” Joy said endearingly.

Wendy giggled and nuzzled into the back of Joy’s head.

“Alright, let’s get going before I throw up again.”

The three girls walked at a much slower pace, frequently looking back to check if there was anything else located behind them. To their surprised glee, the monsters seemed to have completely stopped appearing since Wendy had vanquished the large one. It was an unexpected, yet welcome occurence, and allowed them to quietly recover from the rapid-fire ordeals they’d just been through. The adrenaline pumping through their veins cooled, their breathing patterns leveling off as they almost-leisurely approached the door.

Now that they had some downtime, Yerim found herself enthralled with their surroundings; it felt as though they were walking across the center of the universe, a spot orbited by every star, planet, and galaxy in space. She admired the sheer vastness of it all, how small and insignificant it made her feel. It was akin to staring up at the sky on a clear night, though the view here seemed to have been magnified by a million proportions. She had a feeling that this sky wasn’t her sky, and that she was in some world that existed totally separate from her own, across billions of miles of matter.

They reached the door rather quickly. It was a hard stop, the path narrowing to accommodate the door’s exact shape and size. Here, the many colors of the pathway merged, flowing like a river into a dam, pooling with indigos and oranges and violets that faded into blackness as they reached the base of the wooden structure.

“Well, we’re here,” Joy said, scrutinizing the door with a sour glare, “I think this is where we split paths.”

“This is for sure the heart of the monster?” Yerim asked, staring at the wooden rectangle, unsure of the emotion she should be feeling.

“Nothing’s for sure,” Wendy said, her words muffled due to her right cheek resting lazily on Joy’s neck, “But I’m almost certain this is it. I sensed a very strong presence here… I still do. It’s overbearing, in a brutal way, and it doesn’t want us around. I would’ve gotten us closer, but it tried to stop us. If that isn’t the heart of this beast, I don’t know what is.”

Yerim sighed in preparation, reaching out a careful hand to run her fingers along the unremarkable surface of the door. It was ice cold.

“Don’t be afraid,” Wendy reassured, “Your journey’s almost over. If you can make this far, you can finish it. We believe in you.”

“We do,” Joy said with a nod, “Even though you may not be the real Yeri, I’d say you’re just as brave. Thanks for saving my back there. I owe you one.”

“Not really,” Yerim said with a grin, looking away from the door, caught off guard by the tightness in her chest and tears that threatened to escape down her cheeks, “You guys saved me like seven times today. I wouldn’t have made it this far if you hadn’t showed up. If anything, I owe you.”

“Whatever. We can just call it even. Probably not gonna see each other again.”

“Nope, she owes us,” Wendy said mischievously, “I have a feeling this isn’t the last time we’ll see each other.”

“Maybe…” Yerim said thoughtfully, just barely stopping herself from sniffling.

Wendy dropped from Joy’s back, walking over and wrapping both arms around Yerim’s shoulders in a tight hug.

“Good luck in there,” she whispered, and Yerim suddenly felt a rush of energy coursing through her veins, as if all exhaustion, hunger, and thirst had been eliminated from her body. She felt refreshed and reinvigorated, a sort of hyper-enhanced state that was more than her natural one-hundred percent.

“How did you-”

“I don’t know,” Wendy admitted, standing back and shrugging, “I don’t have much control over my powers, or how they act. But that didn’t really take anything out of me, so I guess it’s nice.”

“It is…” Yerim said, looking down at her palms, as if the power within her would be visible beneath her skin, “This is amazing… thank you.”

Joy stepped forward, holding out Yerim’s dagger.

“Almost forgot about this. You probably need it more than I do.”

Yerim accepted the weapon, sheathing it on her belt before offering Joy an embrace. This time, she steered clear of the taller girl’s lips, resting her chin on Joy’s shoulder instead.

“Where are you guys gonna go? Just teleport out of here?” Yerim asked as they parted from their awkward hug.

“That’s the plan,” Wendy said, “We still have to find our friends.”

“Good luck. You guys have got this. Irene and Jennie are lucky to have awesome friends like you.”

“Thanks, Not Yeri,” Joy said, offering one last teasing grin and a punch on the shoulder, “See you in another dimension.”

And so, Kim Yerim stepped away from her newfound friends, placing her hand on the doorknob before her. She ran her thumb along its smooth, brassy side before turning it, finding that the bolt was unlocked, and that it opened with ease. She looked back at Joy and Wendy, who gave her a nod and a grin of encouragement, respectively.

With that, she stepped inside.

-------------------

If the Wenjoy appearance doesn't make sense to you, read my other two stories "Demon Days" and "Plastic Beach" (shameless self-promotion, I guess). That's where they're from. If you don't want to read those stories, just know that they're alternate-reality versions of Seungwan and Sooyoung. Nothing too complex (;

Jesus, that took so long to write... 1 chapter left, and then the epilogue!

I wonder what waits for Yeri behind that door?

(Sorry for the cliffhanger)

Thanks for reading<3