Chapter Twenty Six - You're Not Alone
Project 86Chapter Twenty Six - You're Not Alone
The rain was picking up in intensity and the sky deepened in its gray, strangling out any possible rays of light that might have pierced the veil earlier. On the muddy road between two villages the two groups parted ways; demoralized and tired parents and children walking one way and two young ladies walking the opposite way, towards death and destruction.
Slightly cleaned up with new clothes, hair brushed and with food and water provided, Hyoyeon began making her way towards the village with Jessica. They had said their goodbyes and she had made a promise to both Hyoyeon’s and Minyoung’s parents, that she would bring Hyoyeon back safely and placate the fiend that once was Minyoung one way or another. She couldn’t promise Minyoung’s parents the return of their daughter, unfortunately it was most likely too late for that, but she could at least save what was left of the village and make sure their daughter wouldn’t bring any further harm to anyone.
“What will you do?” Hyoyeon asked after they had been walking for a good twenty minutes in silence.
“I will attempt to seal her soul away by using wards and spells to weaken it and then bind her into this talisman,” Jessica lifted a small stone talisman from her pocket showing it to Hyoyeon. “We will then seal this talisman away with more wards into an isolated location, like a cave or tomb or somewhere inaccessible.”
“There is a small cave just a little ways up the mountain, one you can barely squeeze into if you’re small and slim and crawl in on all fours. The entrance can be easily blocked with stone,” Hyoyeon suggested.
“That sounds perfect.”
“Is the talisman not enough to hold her in? Is that why you need a cave?”
“No it is, but it needs a safe place to be stored and additional wards are just an added safety. You can never be too careful with rampaging evil spirits.”
“What can I do?”
“You can help me with the ritual. Don’t worry, your part will be easy enough to handle but is something that would be hard for me to do alone, requires an extra pair of hands.”
Hyoyeon nodded beginning to prepare herself for the event, to seeing and meeting the terrifying demon that Minyoung had turned into. Even though Minyoung had at first spared her and her families life there was no guarantee that whatever little humanity had remained within her last night was still there today. Maybe the affection Minyoung had felt for them had now turned into hatred because they were unable to stop the mob from doing this to her. Anything was possible at this point.
They continued trudging through along the road for the next few hours, the rain slowly picking up in intensity no longer a mere drizzle. The road was getting more difficult to sludge through as it got muddier and the sky had swallowed almost all light, blanketing it in a uniform gray with no signs of relief even when looking far into the distance. Only dark skies and hints of dark thick gray smoke filled their vision; the smoke of the burnt village.
The only difference to this constant gray was the increasing size of the smoke plume rising up ahead. After a few hours of wading through the muddy road they saw the first signs of the village itself, the gray smoke now almost encompassing the whole of their front view not even allowing for vision of the cloudy sky. Their sandals and hems of skirts were completely muddy and they were partially soaked. Luckily Jessica had provided a thatch shawl over her shoulders and a wide brim satgat to keep most of the water off their persons so they weren’t completely drenched, however it wasn’t completely waterproof and a little rain had managed to seep through over time.
Their pace slowed as they got closer to the village, its faint black outline ever increasing in size and now only a couple hundred meters away they stopped to observe. They wanted to make sure that they were arriving unseen and could make the final stretch to the outskirts of the buildings at the edge of the village proper in safety.
“So you think she’ll either be in the village centre or back at her house?” Jessica asked as the two crouched at the side of the road near a shed out of view, looking out at the village to see any movement.
“Yes. The village centre is just straight ahead and her house is up that way on the mountainside,” Hyoyeon pointed out towards the eastern side of the village where the trees hid some of the buildings as the foot of the mountain rose, the incline growing rapidly. “However if she is completely filled with hate like you said she might be at Madam Hemeul’s residence. It’s close to the centre to the west.”
“Why would she be there?”
“She… Madam Hemeul was the main instigator of the witch hunt and abuse. Before she started the hounding about a year ago the people at most were weirded out by Minyoung, but she made it actual torture for her. She hated Minyoung the most.”
“I see. Well it doesn’t seem like there is any movement on the outskirts from what I can see, so we’ll go to the centre first and then see if she is at Madam Hemeul’s. If neither are a hit we’ll go to her house last.”
Eyes peeled for any movement or sign of life, Hyoyeon and Jessica with silent swift steps whisked their way across the final stretch of road making sure they didn’t make huge audible splashes in the mud or puddles of the road. Both their hearts were pounding in terror, so loud they could hear the blood rush in their ears almost drowning out all external sounds and voices. Muscles clenched in anticipation as the distance slowly closed between them and the building - they prayed to dear life that they weren’t being heard or seen, terrified of what would happen if they were.
Hyoyeon and Jessica let out a sigh of relief as without incident they managed to cross the final stretch over to the buildings in the village and were now hiding behind a burnt frame of what once was a house. Once again they stopped to listen for any sounds and when they heard none they began making their way towards the centre. Sneaking from behind one building to another, they moved this way inching ever closer stopping to listen for sounds every time they had changed cover.
The ever persistent rain hid most of their movement as it pattered onto the burnt husks of houses and sloshed in the now multitude of puddles that had formed throughout the landscape and in the roadside ditches now filled with water. They still hadn’t seen a single person or even a body of anyone, but Hyoyeon was equally unwilling to look into the burnt buildings in case she saw any charred remains of her neighbours. Most must have either perished in the fire or not made it far from the centre before being killed. Any person living in the very outskirt buildings might’ve had a chance to run away at the sound of trouble before the fire reached their building.
The centre of the village was now in sight and as soon as they saw it Hyoyeon was doubling over and had vomited onto the ground. Jessica helped hold her hair back and comforted her, while asking her to try stay quiet. Hyoyeon now having emptied everything and anything in her stomach, burning and nostrils on fire, looked up slowly again at the centre of town. So this is why they hadn’t seen anybody since arriving at the village.
Unidentifiable clumps of both burnt and bloodied bodies were scattered about this centre where the market would have been. Some were missing limbs and were just stumps of a body, others were charred beyond recognition, the black skin cracking in places revealing veins of red underneath. Right at the centre was the largest of these piles which formed a rampart like ring of bodies in a circle with legs and arms sticking out haphazardly, a tangled mess of extrusions like a rat king all stuck together unable to escape. In the middle there was a clear section with no bodies or body parts. There was also no sight of Minyoung.
The wind had been blowing from behind them but for a moment it whirled about and turned to face them. That’s when the smell hit and it had Hyoyeon keeling over once more while Jessica visibly struggled herself to keep everything in. The absolute rot and stench of the hundreds of recently deceased unlike she had ever witnessed wafted over and it felt like the smell burnt the insides of their mouths and nostrils. It was so thick they could taste death itself.
Once again the air stirred and turned pushing the smell away from them, the two thankful for the short moment of ease. Jessica offered a cloth for Hyoyeon to wipe and face with, the surrounding rain providing plenty of water to assist in the washing.
“It looks like this is where she is gathering everyone,” Jessica said with a grim face her tone wholly horrified and sorrowful for the carnage, destruction and loss of life.
“I… I think so. Why is she doing this?” Hyoyeon replied, her voice hoarse and barely audible as she was still reeling from the two bouts of vomit that had now burned and singed the insides of her stomach and throat, the taste still lingering.
“It’s hard to say. A twisted soul is unpredictable.”
“How could she… I don’t understand.”
“Whatever this is we must stop this,” Jessica shuddered, unable to comprehend just how bad this had turned out. She had never seen something this serious and horrific, nothing at this scale at least. This was more than what she had believed Minyoung’s own twisted soul would do. Could it be that there was another lingering spirit waiting for an opening to invade a soul laying around here who had attached to Minyoung, maybe it was from the sacred mountain that the village was built next to.
Hyoyeon was in a daze; this was way too much. Her eyes stared at nothing in particular as they were unfocused and the detail of the world around her disappeared. The rain mixed with her tears as her mind began to comprehend what it was that she was seeing. The falling of the rain and Jessica’s voice grew distant until a hollow and dull emptiness echoed in her mind. Why did this seem familiar?
As abhorrent and devastating as all of this was she felt like this feeling was something she had felt before. This cold, overwhelming emptiness and the accompanied scenes of horror, people burning and charring, ripped apart. It wasn’t just her memory replaying what she had just witnessed last night but it was something else. It had happened to her many years ago. A decade or more even. This memory, she could almost taste it…
“Hyoyeon? Did you hear what I said?”
As if blinking herself back into existence and reality, Hyoyeon felt the warm hand of Jessica on her cheek gently cupping her and squeezing it to grab her attention.
“Stay with me okay? I can’t lose you, not again…”
Again? Why had she said that? It’s not like she had lost Hyoyeon before, she had just met the woman. Hyoyeon with her dark hair sticking to her face, matted and drenched with mud and soot splotches on her cheeks stared at Jessica quizzically and equally confused as she herself was. She had never met her before but where did this nagging feeling come from that they knew each other, that she had once lost her and then found her again?
It was now Hyoyeon’s turn to stare at Jessica with confusion as the latter was lost in thought and she could see how her pupils dilated as she lost focus on the world for a second.
“Hey, Jessica, I’m okay. What do you need me to do?” Hyoyeon asked taking hold of the hand that cupped her cheek and holding it in hers, the physical human touch bringing Jessica back from her thoughts to reality.
“Right, we need to go around the perimeter of the village centre and place these wards on the walls and poles all around it creating an enclosed space between them. This will create a barrier that once Minyoung walks in she will have a hard time getting out.”
“Alright, show me how it’s done and I’ll go this way and-”
“No, we will move together. If we run into her at least together we have a chance. No risks or heroics, we won’t be losing more lives than already have.”
“Oh... okay. I will follow your lead,” Hyoyeon replied, a little surprised by the sudden change in tone and the determination that now burned in Jessica’s eyes. Even though she had witnessed the bodies and horrors that Minyoung had wrought and her mind was conjuring up all the terrifying and gruesome ways that her life could come to a shortstop, she felt reassured with Jessica around. She felt like they could make it out together.
“Ready?” Jessica asked receiving a nod. With utmost care and faintest steps the two peeked around the corner and made their way like a tiger on the prowl rounding the first corner to place a ward on the first wall closest to them. Hyoyeon kept her eyes out and ears open to see and hear anything while Jessica took out a slip of paper with black and red borders and intricate text written in traditional Chinese characters. As a farmer’s daughter Hyoyeon had never learned to read so it was all gibberish to her.
Jessica held the ward with both her hands and pressed it against her forehead before uttering a prayer in a whisper but with extreme speed; like an experienced master.
“Hi fu mi yo i mu na ya ko to mo chi ro…”
In the same instant that the last word of prayer left Jessica’s mouth within the blink of an eye she stuck the ward onto the wall with a pin. Hyoyeon could swear she saw and felt a faint ripple in the air as the ward stuck to the wall and Jessica’s prayer finished. The precision, speed and practice of her actions left Hyoyeon even more impressed and awed and in equal measure raised her confidence. They really might have a chance of pulling through alive.
“First one done,” Jessica looked around the centre, scoping the size of the area they needed to cover. “We need about eight more wards. Let’s go.”
With painfully slow but careful and measured movements they continued slipping between buildings and peeking out corners, placing a ward on the wall of a building or post facing the centre of the village where the stacked bodies of Hyoyeon’s former neighbours lay rotting as the rain soaked the bodies, beginning to bloat them as time went on. The already sickening sight was getting worse by the minute and what had been a more localized smell blowing in one direction was beginning to become whole encompassing and overpowering. There wasn’t an area around the village centre that was safe from the stench and rot.
A few times they stopped as they thought they heard something approach, but the sounds disappeared soon after. There was no way to confirm but they both felt that it must have been Minyoung passing by as they felt an oppressive aura pass over them, cold sweat immediately forming and their hairs rising on their skin. She was on the move and they would have to be careful.
The rain and wind made it difficult to hear over it but they did their best to hear what they could while mainly relying on their sight to spot any movement. This was also hampered by the smoke and mist that had spread over the village, but visibility was still decent enough to at least spot basic shapes in the distance. To their relief not once did they see any movement visually, just the hair raising experience of sounds.
The final ninth ward had been placed and the two were hunched over in a small garden with a few posts part of the front yard of a house, the side of it facing the centre. The rain had eased up and was now once again a light drizzle, like a gentle spray of mist that formed at the bottom of a waterfall.
“What now?” Hyoyeon whispered, the two hunched over close to each other and peeking through the cracks of the fence post out to the centre of the village.
The now clearly bloated bodies were giving off an even worse smell as gases from the dead bodies passed out and leak into the air. The wind no longer blew in one direction having calmed down allowing the stench to spread evenly outwards including where the two were hidden. Jessica and Hyoyeon had to do their best to hold in the contents of their stomachs; both of them wrapping wet cloth in front of their faces to help stop some of the smell.
“We wait for Minyoung. Once she steps into the enclosure created by the wards she can’t escape easily and we will move onto the next stage.”
“What is that?”
“We will attempt to disorient and weaken the souls grip on this world and when it’s weakened enough we can seal her into this talisman.”
Hyoyeon instinctively squeezed Jessica’s shoulder as the edge of her vision spotted movement at the far opposite side of the centre and piled of bodies. Moving and ever growing a dark figure was approaching from one of the streets, slowly growing in size eventually coming close enough for both of them to differentiate.
A pitch black smoke swirled around the form of a young girl, her skin gray like ash and cracked with burning embers in between, her eyes black and crying tears of blood from the corners. She approached smoothly and ominously dragging with little effort in both hands what looked like two more charred adult bodies, the wet ground and mud being of no hindrance to her. She approached closer and closer until they both noticed that she wasn’t walking; she was floating.
Out of instinct Hyoyeon began to scramble up and away only to be held in place by Jessica’s arms wrapped around her waist and covering to stop her from making any noise. “It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here,” she cooed into Hyoyeon’s ear as she held her firm until the worst of her instincts of flight disappeared and she calmed down, her breathing now longer and deeper compared to her momentary rapid shallow breaths.
“I’m going to need you to be brave for me okay?” Jessica said as she moved her hand from covering Hyoyeon’s mouth and the latter turned to look her in the eyes. Hyoyeon nodded carefully and continued to concentrate on long deep breaths to calm herself down, the confidence and calming voice of Jessica assisting in this endeavour.
As calm and collected as Jessica appeared on the outside there was a slight quiver to her voice, the faintest stutter to her lips, and if she would’ve been asked to hold her arms straight out the shaking of her hands would have been visible. This terrifying being was worse than any exorcism or sealing she had ever done or witnessed before. Even with the experience under her belt this situation was utterly terrifying to her. With every breath she was at the verge of panic; but somehow by the miracle or years of practice she was holding onto her last hair thin grip on courage.
The prepared wards and spells that were placed around them and tagged into their surrounding walls and fence posts were set, hopefully it would trap Minyoung into a soul binding which would prevent her from escaping or harming them. Jessica used the embers of a fire in her tiny metal cased ceramic oil lantern which was only half the size of a fist, and which she kept always burning, to light up a smoke light.
The smoke light looked similar to a lantern, but it was more oval shaped and was almost more of a metal cage with patterned worked metal walls through which the smoke filtered through. Almost immediately it produced smoke and incense into its surroundings overpowering the stench of the rotting bodies; a welcome change. The smoke would disorient spirits and weaken their resolve and hold of this world.
“Hold onto this and gently rock it back and forth to spread the smoke,” Jessica said giving the lantern handle to Hyoyeon, the smoke source dangling from the end of the short handle.
“Oh- okay.”
Tucked into a simple rough cotton pouch with more prayer text sewn into it, Jessica pulled out a handbell that looked delicate and intricately embellished in its design; a stark contrast to the pouch that held it. Hyoyeon couldn’t quite tell if the bell was made from crystal or metal, maybe both. It had an otherworldly ethereal nature to it, almost seeming like it wasn’t really a physical or tangible object but a mere mirage of true existence. The handle of it was almost too small for Jessica’s grip and she instead held it delicately at the very end of it.
As they began to take their first steps out from hiding towards the centre of the town, Jessica whispered out a prayer and rang the bell once. The sound was less the sound of a handbell but instead seemed to resonate like a massive bell tower, the sound exploding out from the tiny thing and reverberating through the valley. It was equally a loud low rumble of a brass bell and at the same time high pitched ringing like chimes, piercing the hearing and penetrating to the deepest recesses of your skull the two sounds together echoing within and lingering longer than they naturally should have.
Far on the opposite end of the open centre Minyoung looked up with her attention grabbed, she stopped moving closer but kept holding on to the two bodies as she looked on to see what this sudden sound and ringing was. She couldn’t feel the first waves of sound as they passed almost harmlessly through her, but the second ringing had her drop the bodies she was dragging with her.
Hyoyeon hadn’t at first noticed what was really happening but as they came out of their hiding and were now standing within the centre opening itself with her smoke light puffing up faster and heavier, Jessica rang the bell a second time. The first strike was still ringing in the background and she saw how the sound waves passed through her smoke and the mist of the rain, and then they bounced back. The nine wards the two had placed around the centre’s perimeter earlier were containing the ringing of this bell, bouncing the sound back and amplifying it. This second bell sound was louder than the first as the two sounds were being piled on into an ever louder sound and when Jessica rang her bell a third time it suddenly jumped another notch, as three bells rung the same time.
Minyoung began to shake and hobble in her hovering position and as Jessica and Hyoyeon approached with the ever faster billowing smoke and a fourth ring of the bell, Minyoung stopped hovering and was now standing with her own feet on the ground. The sounds and smoke were weakening her concentration.
“Ma su a se e ho re te,” With every few steps Jessica rang the bell again while uttering a prayer at an incomprehensible speed and Hyoyeon swung the smoke light back and forth. Each ringing had Minyoung wince and further crouched down and the smoke seemed to be somehow gathering around her, almost clinging to her and her surroundings.
“No, no, no, no!” Minyoung screamed managing to find a source of power and strength from within, and almost in an instant stood up and lunged towards the approaching figures. Her arm swung out for a strike at Jessica’s throat when she rung the bell again. Minyoung was immediately thrown to the ground and she now attempted to cover her ears to drown out the ringing of the bells, that by now must have been deafening to her but by some miracle was gentle on Hyoyeon’s and Jessica’s ears. This ritual magic was only affecting Minyoung.
As Minyoung writhed on the ground Jessica approached her and kneeled down, taking out the stone talisman that was to be used to complete her binding while Hyoyeon stood behind her a few metres away still swinging her smoke light almost in a trance. She was completely baffled by everything and her mind was only able to think of one thought; swing the smoke light.
“Lee Minyoung, by the ancestors your soul will be bound to this talisman until it is cleansed of evil and you find final peace,” Jessica reached out and touched the writhing Minyoung’s forehead with the talisman.
There was a sudden explosion of energy off Minyoung as Jessica finished her encantation, sending both Hyoyeon and Jessica flying back several metres. The two landed hard on the muddy ground and quickly strained to stand and look at what was happening.
Where she had been earlier, there was a geyser of black smoke and burning sparks ejecting from Minyoung, while at the same time half of it was being within her into a vortex. Glowing on her forehead was the talisman; the ritual had been interrupted and she was now stuck in a half state of binding. Minyoung raged against it trying to undo it as at the same time her form seemed to constantly change between the damaged bloodthirsty form and the innocent Minyoung who had been burned in the house. Seeing the poor girls face again immediately had Hyoyeon feel guilty; they had been unable to help her.
The writhing angry spirit lashed out in all directions, sending waves of this burning energy around her. Jessica quickly got up and grabbed Hyoyeon as the two dashed behind the nearest stone fence and then the burnt building behind it.
“You’re bleeding!” Hyoyeon exclaimed seeing a large gash on Jessica’s arm as they rounded the house and found cover, something must have slashed her in the explosion of energy. She moved into inspect it when there was a sharp pain in her abdomen. The initial adrenaline from Minyoung’s attack had worn off and Hyoyeon saw the trickle of red by her side. She had been cut too.
“So are you!”
“This… this is nothing. Minyoung, poor innocent Minyoung,” Hyoyeon began to weep, completely losing all coherence of thought and falling into Jessica’s arms. “We couldn’t save her! We failed her!”
“It was not your fault. The people who lynched her, they did this not you or your family,” Jessica attempted to calm Hyoyeon her hair and holding her, all the while in the background streams of dark and white light alternating streaked out and sparks from a fire sprinkled in the air. Their smoke light still let out smoke somewhere in the ground and the scene looked like war zone, with flashing lights, fire, and bodies littering the ground.
“She… she... “ Hyoyeon stuttered in between breaths and crying, “she was just… just so young, so young. Like me, I was young. I didn’t know any better. How could I have known that breaking the seal and inviting her home would release her?!” Hyoyeon shouted.
“What do you mean?” Jessica asked as she continued to Hyoyeon’s hair. Hyoyeon suddenly let go of Jessica to see her face.
“The cave! Your mother, I was a child I didn’t know I’d get possessed. I couldn’t have known it’s not my fault!” Hyoyeon screamed at Jessica who was now beginning to worry for her compatriot who was acting more and more irrational, spouting weird things in a fervour. Had she lost all her senses too?
“Hyoyeon you aren’t making any sense! What cave? What possession?”
Hyoyeon was about to shout once more to reply to Jessica when something within her opened and she was stuck with open. This wasn’t it. This wasn’t right. What was it again? There was something else to all this. She was shouting about a possession and about a cave, but that hadn’t happened, or had it?
She looked at Jessica once more. The now muddy, wet and sweaty exhausted face still seemed to shine through all the muck somehow and there was that faint smile. That one smile that she loved.
“…” Hyoyeon slumped back leaning against the burnt wooden wall the charred surface immediately smearing black onto her clothes, “this is a dream isn’t it? All of this is a dream. We are stuck in some twisted past dream.”
It all began to add up. Minyoung, the way that her family had acted, this whole village and valley, Jessica’s appearance and finally remembering when she had broken the talisman and become possessed. There was a life outside of all of this. There was the real world and life waiting for them. Something had happened to them there and they had been taken to a dream world, or at least she had been. She remembered now.
“So the next question is if I’m in a dream and I’m real, are you the real Jessica or just a figment of my dream world? Is that Minyoung the real one inside of me or also a dream world creation?”
“What on earth are you babbling on about?” Jessica nudged Hyoyeon’s shoulder while whispering to her, “don’t you have a mental breakdown on me now.”
The blood that pulsed from Hyoyeon’s slashed side and the scar on Jessica’s arm certainly looked real. The warm trickle of crimson and the stinging searing pain and burning that radiated from the wounds certainly felt real. But Hyoyeon was now certain she was in a dream. She remembered Sooyoung and Jessica from the shrine; she remembered Sunny and the whole ordeal of her losing her body to Yoona. She remembered the sky falling, the collapse of the dream world.
“Jessica, think!” Hyoyeon grabbed Jessica by her arms and pulled her close so she could whisper into her ear, the tone of her voice intense and almost shouting in whisper, “we know each other. We are trapped in a dream. Remember your mother, Bunhal Shrine, Minyoung trapped inside my body. Remember your adopted sister Sooyoung! Sunny! Yoona! The sky falling!”
“What is this nonsense? Have you gone crazy?”
“Remember our kiss.”
“Wha-”
Soft, warm and comforting. Her small lips on Hyoyeon’s supple ones. Before she had realized she was now face to face with Hyoyeon, breathing her air, feeling the warmth of her skin, feeling the softness of her lips. The pain in her arm disappeared somehow as she was filled with warmth and her tense arms from Hyoyeon’s sudden grabbing fell limply to her side. She was like butter, melting in her hold and she could feel the intensity of her grip also releasing, now a mere touch.
An eternity passed in those few seconds and as their lips parted just a few inches Hyoyeon released her grip and opened her eyes to look into Jessica’s.
“I…” Jessica opened her eyes in turn, few tears having formed at the corners of her eyes. This feeling she felt she had lost completely, that had been buried and would never resurface. The pain and agony it had caused her so recently too. The feeling of abandonment but also all the happy memories and with it the completely different and other life she had lived. The real life that existed.
“I remember,” the confused and then pained expression softened and Jessica smiled with a sense of calm and happiness she hadn’t felt in a while, “I can remember it. Everything.”
“I’m so happy you’re real,” Hyoyeon pulled Jessica in for a hug as a huge relief washed over her. She may be stuck in this world but at least she wasn't going at it alone. She had Jessica, “this would be so scary to have to do alone.”
“I know, I’m happy you’re real and here with me.”
“So what do we do with Minyoung? Can you still do whatever ritual we need?”
“I don’t know, I don’t think so. This is a dream so I doubt whatever ritual it is works here. We have to find the door. We need to resolve this issue some other way,” Jessica said as she let go of Hyoyeon and began to ponder their options.
Hyoyeon sunk into deep thought. They needed to find the door and resolve this issue before they could wake up. The issue was with herself and Minyoung and that was the key to ending this dream. She would need confront Minyoung face to face and deal with whatever the problem was. Obviously a scorned and twisted soul inhabited her and there had very rarely been a moment since she was possessed that her and Minyoung had a regular conversation. It had happened a few times, but far too rarely to be considered a reliable option. But it was all she had.
“I’m going to talk to her.”
Jessica squeezed tighter onto Hyoyeon, the recent revelation and feeling of finally once again having Hyoyeon with her making her extra clingy and fearful of losing her once again. “Will that work? You know how dangerous she is.”
“It will be okay. She won’t kill me and… and I know what she wants,” Hyoyeon replied, caressing Jessica’s cheek gently before standing up. “Trust me. This will work.”
Hyoyeon stepped out from hiding to see the full fury and struggle that Minyoung was going through. The smoke light still emitting its plume, the talisman stuck on her forehead as black smoke and fire streamed from half of her body while the other side seemed to be snuffing it out and pulling the fury in on itself.
“Minyoung!”
The ball of fire and fury looked up at the source of the sound finding Hyoyeon immediately, her attention fully on her.
“I remember who we are, who we were! Minyoung, I know you are still inside of me and this my dream!”
“Well it’s about time you stopped daydreaming and snapped to reality. Finishing you off when you didn’t even know why would have been so unsatisfying,” Minyoung scowled as her face distorted into a wicked slack jaw grin.
Hyoyeon took slow determined steps towards Minyoung unflinching and keeping her eyes focused on the girl.
“I don’t hate you Minyoung.”
“Lies! Don’t you dare lie to me I’m inside you I know everything about you!”
“Then you would know this isn’t a lie,” Hyoyeon kept walking as Minyoung raged against her but she didn’t move either. She wasn’t backing down or attacking Hyoyeon, just standing in her place while the wrath and fury of a firestorm raged from within her and around her.
“It wasn’t your fault Minyoung. I don’t blame you for anything because it wasn’t your fault. None of this was.”
“No… stay away,” Minyoung shouted but the earlier ferocity had dampened down and the flares were getting more erratic and weaker.
“It wasn’t your fault. You didn’t deserve any of it.”
“Shut up! I hate you, I hate everyone, I hate…”
Hyoyeon was now standing in front of Minyoung and she reached down and hugged the little girl’s figure. Almost instantly her black smoke and cracked skin began to disappear and her appearance was returning to the once lively and innocent Minyoung who had been wrongfully burned all those hundreds of years ago.
“It’s been so long, too long,” Minyoung whimpered before her eyes flared up once again with black ichors in them. “I should just end us.”
“You can’t kill me.”
“Yes I can!” For an instant Minyoung flared in rage and half of her was dark black smoke again and sparks from her body were beginning to burn Hyoyeon as she held onto Minyoung.
“No, you can’t. Because if you kill me you die too!” Hyoyeon shouted trying to hold Minyoung just a little at bay as the heat emanating from the cracked burning skin of Minyoung was intensifying and beginning to singe Hyoyeon. She knew this was a dream but the burning still felt real. There was something different about this dream.
“What if I want to die?!”
“You don’t,” Hyoyeon stopped resisting and sunk into Minyoung, “you just want to be loved for who you are. Accepted as you were.”
As Hyoyeon’s hug deepened and she sunk further into the young girl figure of Minyoung, her smoke began to dissipate and the burning of her skin lessened. She was quickly reverting to her young self once more, the innocent little lonely girl who Hyoyeon had met and released in the cave all those years ago.
“I was so alone for so long. I didn’t want to be alone again, I couldn’t risk you leaving me and I would have nobody again.”
“I know. You were just a child, as was I. You still are a child,” Hyoyeon reassured her now holding onto the little girl tighter with Minyoung’s arms wrapping around her too, finally reciprocating the hug. Jessica had moved in closer out of cover very slowly and stopped some metres away holding her hands visibly in front of her. She wanted to make sure she didn’t appear as a threat and that Minyoung could see everything.
“Is this how it all happened? Did they really burn you alive like that?” Hyoyeon asked. The little arms around her wrapped even tighter, like a reaction to a painful memory.
“Yes. Everything that you’ve witnessed here is part of my memory, part of my true past. There was one family that cared for us but there was nothing they could do against the mob. Her ancestors came and sealed me in the cave,” Minyoung looked over and pointed at Jessica, whose face was filled with sorrow and empathy for the little girl. She truly felt sad for Minyoung’s lot in life. “They did the right thing. I’m glad they stopped me from killing more. I killed enough…”
“It wasn’t your fault. They corrupted your soul, they made you like this,” Hyoyeon once again reiterated the statement. She needed to make sure Minyoung understood this, that she herself believed it.
“I know. I think I can finally accept that.”
The raging storm had died down and it seemed that even the rain had stopped as rays of sun were beginning to pierce through the cloud cover, starting to lighten the day. Minyoung’s temperament and outlook had changed and it was affecting the weather of the area with it.
The two held onto each other in a hug for many minutes as Minyoung was taking back the centuries of comfort and love that she had been deprived of as an angry spirit. The clouds kept parting further and soon enough most of the sky was clearing up and the sun was shining. It would have been a beautiful day and scenery were it not for the burned village and the piles of bodies that laid next to them. But in this moment none of that mattered or was relevant. It had all somehow disappeared to the background and the smells and sights were feeling more and more unreal.
Releasing from the hug Hyoyeon kept low crouching in front of the little girl whose form was all but returned to normal, with a few wisps of black from her hair and the faintest cracks in her skin, her cheek still a little ashy.
“Can you try finding my parents grave, or even just the general location where they were laid to rest? Can you take me there. I want to apologise to them. I want to join them.”
“I will. We will find them for you once we’ve fixed the world. I will keep searching for them until I find them and you reunite with your parents.”
The maddening and terrifying creature that Minyoung had been but moments ago had disappeared. No longer was black smoke pouring out of her pores, or her skin cracked or eyes bleeding. She was just the young girl she had once been, the one Hyoyeon had met in the cave all those years ago, the one whose life had been cruelly ripped away from her before her time. Just a young innocent child whose innocence had been unjustly stolen.
Minyoung stepped forward towards the crouched Hyoyeon and as she took her in an all encompassing embrace, Minyoung’s whole body merged with Hyoyeon and the two became one. Hyoyeon began to radiate a blinding pure white light which seemed to pierce every veil that this dream world had created ripping their surroundings and the illusion of this reality apart. The last thing either Jessica or Hyoyeon saw was each other’s smiles as the light overpowered their vision and then everything flashed white.
There was light, there was warmth, something soft underneath and faint whispers in the background. She stirred and could hear somewhere in the far corner of her mind; Hyoyeon, she is awake before low thumping vibrations of footsteps fast approached her, tickling her fingertips.
As she opened her eyes there were two faces hovering above her, each face covered with worry and joy in equal measure. As her brain played catch up, trying to reorient itself and recognize the faces she was seeing as the one on the left greeted her. “Welcome back Hyoyeon, it has been a while.”
Yoona? Was it really her or Saebyuk instead?
“Are you feeling okay?”
The voice on right spoke up and her eyes darted to the her once again focusing to figure out who this person was. “Seohyun?”
“Yes it’s me, I’m glad you can recognize me,” she said with a smile.
“Oh, Jessica’s awake,” the one on the left said and peered over the one on her right to look at something. Hyoyeon was now convinced it had to be Yoona. Seohyun would be able to tell the difference.
With pained effort Hyoyeon turned her head ever so slightly, her muscles burning with pain and a feeling of disuse like they hadn’t been used in forever. Was this the side effect of the coma?
As her eyes managed to get to a low enough angle she could see Jessica lying on her back to her right, just as her eyes were beginning to flutter open. In the next few seconds they opened and relief washed over Hyoyeon, warmth that permeated through her whole body. She wanted to roll over and hug Jessica but right now her body refused to move much at all.
“I’m so glad you were real, I’m so glad you were with me,” Hyoyeon whispered and Jessica’s eyes immediately darted to the side just barely catching the glimpse of the lying figure of Hyoyeon with Seohyun and a beautiful lithe lady hovering over her. The other one she didn’t recognize must be Yoona, she had finally managed to return to her own body.
“Me too, I’m so happy you were there with me,” she soon looked over to see Seohyun and Yoona looking at the two with warm smiles, equally relieved to finally see some of their compatriots conscious. “It’s a relief to see you’ve returned to your own body Yoona. This is the first time we truly meet face to face.”
“Yeah, it is isn’t it. Thank you I’m… I’m really relieved as well. It’s been a journey.”
“It has. Seohyun, could you get some of that tea, remember? It will help with recovery. Top right cupboard, the pots are there too,” Jessica whispered, barely managing to move .
“Oh, of course how could I forget,” Seohyun replied, immediately getting up and moving to the kitchen to boil some water for the tea infusion.
“What happened down here?” Yoona asked having only seen the effects of the dream world’s collapse from a different perspective, not really witnessing the fall itself other than through the ancient memories of Sinuhe. She had heard Seohyun’s perspective of everything, but she had also been strapped to a machine deep underground so had not witnessed the collapse itself in person, just the horrible aftermath of it.
“The last thing I can remember is a dark thick plume of smoke rushing up the mountain and engulfing us. I woke up in my dream having lost all memory of the real world. I finally managed to regain my memory and remembered everything that happened, finding my way back here. I’m fairly certain that having Jessica there helped me remember faster.”
Hyoyeon glanced over at Jessica before painfully shifting her hand to the side grabbing hold of Jessica’s hand.
“Everyone else is still in deep sleep. I… I’m going to try and wake them up,” Yoona said apprehensively, not yet quite confident or believing the things she was saying.
“You will wake them up? Does that mean you’ve regained your powers?” Jessica piped up from her spot catching the uncertain expression on Yoona’s face. The fact that she was here in her own body definitely alluded to the possibility of her having regained them. She had heard Tiffany’s and Sooyoung’s explanations and she had a faint idea on what it was all about, what Yoona was really capable of.
“I have, in a way. I’ve regained my memories of the powers or skills, whatever you want to call them. I still need some practice though. Hopefully it all comes back soon like muscle memory, although they are very old and unused muscles.”
Just as Yoona said this she felt a tingle in the back of her head like an unused, dusty and weathered bell was being gently rung, as another person was beginning to awaken. She turned her head to look over Jessica and saw the sleeping person stir, their eyes beginning to flutter awake.
Following Yoona’s eyes both Jessica and Hyoyeon turned their heads and sights to their right as much as they could.
“She’s awake!”
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