Chapter Fifteen - Welcome To The End
Project 86
Chapter Fifteen - Welcome to the End
As Tiffany recounted her history with Yoona and Project 86, so did the day follow the melancholic tunes of Tiffany’s tale leading the sun to its daily death to await its rebirth the next morning. The living room dimmed in concert with her story and it affected the mood in the living room, painting serious faces on both listeners. There was a natural pause in the story during which Yuri made coffee for all of them before sitting back down next to Taeyeon so that Tiffany could continue.
“So in a way your father made you keep an eye on her while also finding you a friend?”
“Yeah, I really needed one and I didn’t think of it as keeping an eye on her so much as taking care of her,” Tiffany took a sip of her coffee and revelled in its warmth. “But it definitely must have been the intention of my father.”
“So what happened after she had been rehabilitated in the labs? Did you know what was going on back then?”
“No I didn’t, not really at least. She wasn’t allowed to talk about it with anybody except my father and she was also drugged so heavily that most of the time she simply forgot or didn’t know what was going on. And as for myself, well I of course thought the best of my dad so how would I have known what he was really doing to her?
“I think I helped with the whole process. She really took to it, eventually. I mean, considering where she had come from the labs were a huge improvement. Even if her room was pretty sterile and the stimuli she was allowed to be exposed to were very limited it was a lot better than starving in a crummy rundown apartment and getting beaten by an old hag. And what she lacked in terms of external outside world stimuli I covered for it.
“She would ask me about what was going on outside and I would tell her stories which we would then act and play together. Visiting a café, going to the beach and playing volleyball, swimming, going to the carnival. All the mundane things we take for granted I played them in our own make belief world with her. I allowed her to live the experiences she was missing in the lab through our games. I believed it was for the better and Yoona believed it too. Getting ‘adopted’ by my dad was the best thing that had happened to her, even if she did lose a sister for it.”
“A sister? I thought she was an orphan?” Yuri spoke up. She had been focusing hard to keep track of the story and was a lot more engaged in their conversation than she had been before.
“Well not a blood-relative but as much as an orphan could have a sister. Sooyoung was in the same orphanage as her and the two bonded deeply due to their innate abilities and their circumstances. I didn’t meet her back then but I heard about her through Yoona since the two would often play together in the dream world. I obviously thought she was just her imaginary friend back then but I know better now.”
“So when you met Sooyoung in the dream world you knew who she was? Did she know who you were?”
“I had a hunch. A strong hunch but Sooyoung didn’t seem to know me or maybe she has just forgotten. It has after all been over eleven years since then. I’m sure a lot has happened to her since.”
Taeyeon finished writing up her notes and leaned back on the couch. This was a lot to take in one go, but it was also too interesting to not keep pushing on. She needed to know. This was big. Bigger than anything she had ever handled before. Possibly even too big for her to handle but she would worry about that when the time came.
While all the history and back-story was interesting and very important and relevant information, what she really wanted to know was about Project 86. What was it and what exactly happened eleven years ago that saw the project shut down and go underground?
Tiffany seemed to be opening up a lot more about her past to the two. Her coffee cup was still half full and she was cupping it for the warmth that her woeful tale failed to provide. The sun had all but fully set by now and the room felt a bit colder. Or was it just due to the nature of the topic? Either way even if Taeyeon felt a little bit of regret at having to prod her so much she needed to know more. This had to be the key to everything.
“So, what exactly happened eleven years ago?” Tiffany took the question in and sat quietly for a moment. She was staring at her cup of coffee holding it just a bit tighter, summoning the memories of her past. Summoning the courage to remember.
“Well… free will happened.”
“Free will?”
“One day Yoona realized that she wanted to go outside herself. She wanted to live a life outside the confined spaces of the laboratory. She decided she wanted out. The funny twist of fate is of course that the interactions with me and her freedom to meet Sooyoung were the primary catalysts to this change of desire. Sooyoung goaded her to try to escape, promising to help her and I… well I fed her imagination and appetite for the outside by telling her those stories and acting them out with her.
“I don’t know the exact details of what happened that night but the big day for the experiment arrived and suddenly a previously docile and willing Yoona didn’t want to cooperate. And when she was hooked up to the machine, the dream machine that would essentially bring dream powers to our real world, she fought back. I don’t know how much Sooyoung had to do with it but Yoona by some force of will just vanished. Vanished from where she was sitting along with everything around her in a five hundred metre distance. Only the people were left alive and unharmed.”
“Vanished? Like abracadabra you’re gone vanished?” Both Taeyeon and Yuri sat at the edge of their seat astonished at what they had just heard. It sounded unbelievable to any sane person. How could something just vanish? Then again all of this dream world nonsense was unbelievable in the first place.
“Yup, just like that. Poof!” Tiffany raised her hands up in the air demonstrating the act of vanishing. “I wasn’t even supposed to be in the labs that day but I was too curious for my own good. I wanted to know what the big secret operation was. Well, I found out. In an instant, everything disappeared and it was all dark.”
As Tiffany finished telling her story the last rays of the sun plummeted behind the horizon and the trio found themselves sitting in a dark room each of them holding cups of coffee which they had barely taken a sip out of.
“So what happened to Yoona? Did you just lose contact with her?”
“Well she vanished right, somewhere where nobody knew. We never saw her since and because of the catastrophic failure and loss of equipment and data the project was shutdown. Well, the government shut it down officially. But as we found out it was never really truly shutdown, just moved ‘underground.’”
“Do you remember how to get to the location of the old labs? Or, whatever is left of it?”
“Yes I do. Would you like to go there?”
“Some time in the near future I would like that.”
No more questions needed to be asked and none of them said a word, they just sat together quietly for a moment. Taeyeon and Yuri taking the new found information in and trying to understand it, Tiffany reliving her memories in anxious silence.
Eventually Taeyeon stood up and closed her notebook. “I think that’s enough for today. We have an eventful day ahead of us tomorrow. We should get some sleep. Goodnight.”
Taeyeon took her leave Yuri quickly following suit. In her haste she gave a tiny nod towards Tiffany as a goodnight before following Taeyeon off to bed.
Tiffany kept sitting in the chair, gently massaging the now cold coffee cup and wondering who had that girl she knew back then really been? Who in the world was Yoona really?
---
The surroundings echoed with the sound of a lone crow loudly cawing every few seconds before letting everything fall silent. The sound repeated itself for what felt like an eternity. The ground felt wet and the air was thick with mist, she could smell it. With this mist there was a faint smell of burning as well.
Yoona opened her eyes. She was laying on what appeared to be forest ground on top of wet moss and grass. She could barely see anything. The ringing in her ears was fading and she could now hear the faint crackling of fire burning somewhere and the smell of smoke finally hit her nostrils even stronger. She sat up on the ground and the headache she had been feeling somehow disappeared in an instant. She looked over to her right where she could see a short distance away a tiny fire burning in silence. Everywhere else around her was pitch black. No moon or stars, no light anywhere just the lonely fire in the middle of what she thought was a forest.
With uneasy steps she got up and made her way towards the fire. She couldn’t see where she was stepping and as such almost tripped over what felt like roots and rocks. The sound of the crow grew louder as she made her way to the fire until finally she was standing in front of it. In that moment the crow stopped its incessant cawing. Yoona looked up to her right and could faintly see a branch on top of which the crow was perched. Its eyes gleamed in bright lime green as if they were made from emerald. Unmoving.
The crow suddenly took flight right towards Yoona who ducked protecting her head with her arms as the crow swooped over her head and then disappeared into the darkness leaving Yoona all alone to sit next to this fire, the only source of light in a pitch black forest.
She sat down on the ground, the moss next to the fire having dried up from the heat of the fire.
“You should not be here.”
Yoona’s eyes quickly focused from the fire she had been staring at into the direction of the sound. The change from light to darkness prevented her from immediately seeing what was going on.
“Who… who is it?”
She heard a couple steps taken in front of her and from the abyssal darkness of her surroundings a figure appeared at the edge of the light that the camp fire provided. The figure was clad in armour just as black as her surroundings, form fitting and tightly wrapped around the figures body. It had a tattered black robe, something like a black scarf wrapped around its head so you could not see its face. On the head was a very large identically black satgat, a wide conical hat. It was a bit flatter and larger than she was used to seeing and even though it was black still seemed to be made from dry reeds, tattered and ripped at a portion of the edge.
“Hi?” Yoona gave a slight unsure smile to the dark figure. The arms that had been hidden in the dark now pulled in front and in its right hand she saw it holding a similarly pitch black glaive on a seven foot pole. Yoona’s heart sank and her eyes widened in shock as she carefully uttered, “Please don’t kill me.”
“I am Url the Sentinel and I am not here to hurt you.”
“What is this place and what are you?”
“You do not know?”
“I… don’t know. I was dreaming and then I was almost killed and I just screamed and the next thing I know I’m here.”
The flapping of wings disturbed the silence that followed and soon Yoona saw a crow land next to Url on the ground. The same crow that she had seen earlier.
“The crow! The emerald eyes, it was here before!”
“Its name is Zun, it is my messenger. It tells me when someone has crossed the border and shows me the way to them.”
“The border? The border to what, and what exactly is this place?”
“You truly do not know? You do not remember?”
“Remember? I’ve been here before?”
Yoona thought she could hear Url sigh, although as she could not see a mouth or a face it was hard to know if this was the case. Url then took a step forward which caused Yoona to instinctively double back a few steps. It then let go of the glaive which disappeared instantaneously before sitting down on a rock on the opposite side of the fire to Yoona. Zun the crow took flight and made a few rounds above them before sitting on a branch behind Url. Or at least Yoona thought it was a branch although she couldn’t see it in the darkness. She could only see the two emerald eyes of Zun shine in the never ending night.
“It… it… disappeared!” Yoona stared at Url’s hand where the glaive had just been seconds ago. In awe and wide open she soon realized how childish and clueless she appeared. She closed and straightened her back.
“So, Url right?” A slight nod form the dark robed figure. “Could you tell me who you are exactly? And what is this place? And, and, and… have I been here before? Also how in the hell did I get here?”
Url seemed to ease itself into position as if loosening the muscles in its body, if it had one, to ready itself for a long explanation.
“As I said before my name is Url. I am the Sentinel. My job is to guard the border and seek out any and all discrepancies and new comers to this plane. I, along with my messenger Zun, know all who reside here.
“Welcome to the End. This realm is where everything that once was no longer is, and everything that never was is to be. You have crossed the border between what you would call the mortal plane, or places where you humans can survive and interact in, into the End. You will find nothing here, and what few souls you can find still lingering they will cease to be.”
Yoona’s face screamed confusion as she tried to form a question to further understand what she was being presented with. “So, is this like the afterlife? Where you come once you die and you guide them, or something?”
“No. I am no guide. I am the guard. Mortals should not be here, whether as souls or not. I root them out and if they can’t be rooted out…”
For a second the glaive that had been in Url’s hand earlier reappeared to which Yoona’s eyes widened in shock. She got the message. The glaive disappeared once more.
“You’re not going to use that on me are you?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“You are different.”
“Different? Why different?”
Yoona’s confused face seemed to contort even more as she tried to piece together a puzzle that had disproportionate pieces, none of them naturally fitting together. Her bewilderment made Url move in its seat, shift ever so slightly, as if anticipating and waiting for Yoona to pipe down so it could continue. Did this Sentinel have an ego?
“Since you do not remember I will tell you. You asked if you had been here before. Yes you have, twice before.”
Now Yoona’s mouth opened in shock even more than it had previously. These last few days had given her a serious case of slackjaw.
“Twice?! Are you sure cause I don’t remember any of it!” She guffawed at the thought showing the incredulity of what she was hearing. She looked over at Url and even though she couldn’t see its face somehow she felt that it was judging her, waiting for her to listen. She closed and sat up straight once more.
“The first time you were here was when you were born. The second time was, in your human terms, eleven years ago. For me time works differently and I remember each moment as if it just happened.”
“When… I was born?”
“Yes. Your birth is an anomaly, a huge mystery to me. I do not know if you were born here or came here in conjunction with your birth. I suspect the latter myself as this is the End. There is nothing to be born here, only to end. However whatever the case may be you were here when you were born. Whether it was as a result of you being here or by powers unseen and unknown, you were given the power to create.”
“The power to create? Create what?”
“Everything.”
“Like God?”
“Possibly.”
“You don’t know?”
“No.”
Yoona stared at her feet for a while. “Am I God?”
“No.”
“THANK GOD!” Yoona exclaimed loudly, kicking back and heaving a sigh of relief. “That would have been way too much responsibility. For a second there with the way you were spinning this story I thought I had created the world! And it would have been a damn stupid creation story. Just throwing me down there to earth as a baby to see what I would conjure up.”
“I do not know your purpose or reason to exist. I only know that you do exist and that you have this power. When you were born I was compelled to leave you alone. Your visit was brief.”
Yoona looked at Url once more. “I still have this power?”
“Yes.”
She now turned her gaze towards the fire. She focused on its flames that danced from side to side, swaying gently across. Focusing on this fire, much like she had been focusing on the candle back at the shrine, helped Yoona concentrate. To gather her thoughts for a moment.
“So why was I here for the second time then?”
“There was an incident that occurred to which you were the catalyst to eleven years ago. This incident brought you back here to the End and it created a split. What I can surmise is that the split created by this incident was some other being that came into existence with you. That being did not come here to the End as you did however. Once again, I was compelled to leave you alone although this was in part to this new being having been created. You had created an imbalance in the world.”
“I created an imbalance?”
“Yes.”
“This was eleven years ago.”
“As the human counts, yes.”
“I can’t remember anything from before eleven years ago. Do you know why?”
“I suspect it has something to do with the split, with the new being you created.”
“Do you know who or what this extra being is? Could it be Saebyuk?”
“It could be, I do not know. I cannot see this being in the mortal world like I see all else. I never have. I only know it came into existence and have not seen it since.”
Yoona raised her gaze from the flickering fire and her eyebrow furrowed in question at Url’s last statement. “As you see all else? You can see everything in the mortal realm?”
“Yes. No. I can’t see the new being so I cannot see everything. This logically means there could be more beings as the new one that I do not see. So no, I do not see everything. Nor do I see the daily toil of humans. I only witness that which links my realm to the mortal plane. Connections between the spirit and dreams, threads that pass through all levels of existence, only those I can see.”
“Ahh… good you aren’t all seeing. You’re not God after all.”
“No.”
“And as for my final question, how did I get here?”
“Your powers have been dormant since the incident eleven years ago. Only recently have they been re-awakening with unforeseen consequences.”
Yoona flung her arms into the air with frustration and at the same time, somehow sarcastically. “Yeah tell me about it… I’ve been body swapping and adventuring through dreams this whole past week.”
“Yes. Those were baby steps to what you could really do, and for an instant you were able to release your full power which sent you here to the End once again.”
“So I have awoken or something…?”
“No. You were able to use your powers for a brief moment of self preservation. You seem to not have regained control of your powers however. You also seem to have once again created a tear by coming here. This is why you should not come here.”
“I did a split again?!”
“Yes.”
“Wha… I didn’t know! I wasn’t in control!” Frustration surfaced and she was about to go on a tirade before catching herself, regaining her composure and focusing once more. She needed to stay cool and calm to figure this out. To get out of here she needed to be in control.
“How do I regain control of my powers?”
“Is that your final question?”
Yoona was taken aback by this and scrambled hastily to get more answers. “Wait I have a limit of questions I can ask? No, damn it that was a question too! Aaargghh!”
“There are no limits do not worry. There is no time in here so you have all the time you need.”
Yoona stared at Url with slight annoyance and she could swear that this Sentinel was grinning at her under the face scarf on its face, chuckling away at this girl who was oblivious of her own existence. “Got somewhere to be?”
“Nowhere. I can be at all places at once, but since we are in the End where nothing is we are nowhere and so I have nowhere to be.”
“Now you’re just messing with me.”
“If a mess could even exist, it can’t in the End.”
Yoona rolled her eyes and pulled her head back to stare at the darkness above her. Seems that Url had some sense of humor after all, probably rehearsed its bits with Zun. Crows are known as clever birds after all.
“To answer your question I do not know how you can activate your powers. As I mentioned you are an anomaly to me that should not exist. Your powers, your very being should not exist, especially here. But it does. And similarly to the two times you have been here before I am still compelled to leave you be and not touch you.”
Yoona returned to look at Url. “And I greatly appreciate that. I like this thing called living.”
“As most mortals do.”
“How do I get out of here then?”
“I cannot send you away. You need to get yourself out the way you came, using your powers. That is how it happened the first two times and that it is how it will have to happen now.”
Yoona looked around her once more. The scene was still the same, darkness spreading everywhere in this forest that did not exist and with a single fire as the only light source. “So I have to just try and figure it out myself? Is there any other interesting place I could go hang out in or is this campfire it?”
“Yes.”
“To which question?”
“Both.”
“Why is there no other place I can visit?”
“This is the End. Everything that once was…”
“Is no more, yes I get it now.” Yoona cut Url off finishing its sentence.
“Would you prefer to meditate here alone?”
“How will I find you if I have more questions?”
“Just ask your question to the fire and Zun will hear it. Then I will return here to answer it for you.”
“Okay… I guess I’ll need some time to process this all on my own.”
“Very well.”
With that said Url stood up and ruffled his robe. Zun took off from its perch on the branch and began cawing into the wind, disappearing into the void with its shout quickly distancing itself from the fire.
“I will see you soon, Yoona.”
Url vanished in front of Yoona’s eyes, faster than she could blink. She stood up looking around her as if trying to see where it had run off to but she couldn’t see anything beyond the glow of the fire. She sat back down alone on her rock.
She needed to figure out how to turn this power on. She had to get back in control.
---
It felt like she was opening her eyes for the first time. Like being reborn and learning to see again. Her body was well rested, her mind was well rested, but for the first time for a while now she was truly seeing things with real eyes.
The first thing she saw was the timber ceiling above her. Turning her head to her left she could see herself lying on a massive bed. Her body was covered with blankets and the room was very dimly lit, a tiny night light shining in the corner for those nightly bathroom incursions. She could see a slide door close to the night light and soon beyond it heard quiet voices. Strangers.
“She’s awake.”
Soon enough the door slid open and two figures waltzed in, one tall slender woman and another shorter woman in robes.
“Hey Sunny, it’s alright. You’re safe.”
They knew her name? She attempted to get up but her earlier assessment of a well rested body turned out to be false. She felt really tired.
“Take your time don’t rush it. You’ve been out of your body, or any body for that matter for some time now. Let yourself get use to it slowly. Here have a drink.”
The shorter woman in robes sat down next to her on the bed and offered her a drink. She had beautiful porcelain skin that somehow made her glow. “An angel?” she muttered as she took a sip of the drink offered to her. It was herbal tea.
“That’s the second time you’re hearing that today! Somebody should get into this angel business,” the taller woman cackled from the doorway as the robed woman offered another drink, her white porcelain cheeks acquiring a healthy rosy tint.
“Where am I?” Sunny asked, her voice still a whisper, barely audible.
“You’re at the Bunhal Shrine just outside the city. My name is Jessica, this is Sooyoung, and we are both close friends of Hyoyeon.”
“Hyoyeon? Where is she?” Sunny tried to sit up again to search for her friend but her body gave out once more.
“Just keep resting. Hyoyeon has gone home for tonight but she will be back here tomorrow. For now gather your strength and rest. There will be lots to talk about tomorrow.”
Sunny stared at Jessica for a moment, then peered past her at Sooyoung as her mind tried to piece everything together. Slowly her conscious mind was waking up and she realized that she knew these people. Yes they were Hyoyeon’s good friends she had mentioned them many times before. And that tall one she had met in her dreams.
“I remember now. Hyoyeon talked about you two a lot. She really treasures you both. And you, Sooyoung, I saw you in my dream. Such a horrible dream…”
As the dreams she had been having these past days flooded back into her memory she shuddered, reflexively a tear formed at the corner of her eye running down her left cheek. Her so far relaxed and tired body tensed in all muscles and she felt like convulsing. Her big round eyes kept welling up with more water and before long she was sobbing. Quietly. Defeated. “Why… am I crying?”
Jessica took a napkin from the side table and wiped the tears away, brushed Sunny’s bangs that were covering her forehead and eyes partially.
“You have been through a lot. For now just rest and drink some more,” she offered the tea which Sunny gladly took, the warmth and the herbs working its way down and body, helping her calm down and relax. “Just sleep. You’re safe here.”
Jessica kept brushing Sunny’s head calmly and gently humming a tune that she was unfamiliar with, and before long she felt sleep come to her with the visage of Jessica’s smile and soft tunes lulling her to sleep.
---
Taeyeon was fast asleep as her phone rang. Yuri woke up to the call first and shoved Taeyeon until she woke up, followed by a groggy and sleepy scramble to find her phone.
“Hul….hello?” Taeyeon’s answer was half yawn.
“It’s me, Kangin.”
“Kangin? It’s like…” Taeyeon moved the phone from her ear to look at the time, “three in the morning. Why are you calling at this hour?”
“I’m calling to tell you that someone found out about my sneaking. Someone knows I pulled those files on Project-86. I need to disappear.”
“What? Are you okay? Where are you now?”
There was a lull in the conversation as Kangin thought about what he could safely say.
“I’m okay but I don’t know how long. I can’t tell you where I am as I don’t know if they are already listening in. Just calling to tell you to be careful. I…”
Another pause.
“Kangin? Hello?”
“I think this might be goodbye. Take care of yourself. Stay safe.”
With those words the call ended and Taeyeon was left hanging on the other end.
“Kangin? Hey!”
She tried redialing his number but there was no answer, repeating this three more times with the same result.
Yuri had almost been dragged back to sleep but Taeyeon’s frantic shouts had ripped her right back awake and she was now seated in bed, her hair a mess in front of her face. “Taeyeon?”
Taeyeon turned around with her arms falling limp to her side and phone slipping from her grip. “Kangin. He… he’s in trouble. He had to disappear and hide.”
Yuri moved over and embraced the little figure in her arms, holding her.
“I think we might be in danger too…” Taeyeon whispered and had Yuri not been so close to her she would have missed her words.
“It’s okay, we’ll be okay,” she cooed caressing Taeyeon’s hair as she enticed her back to sleep. They would need all the sleep they could get.
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