TRACK 123 | BURY A FRIEND by Billie Eilish

To the Park Family,

It is our deepest regret to be the one to inform you that Park Jaehyun was killed last night in the streets of Italy. To spare you the grisly details of his death, Mr. Park was disembodied in a violent manner by a feral vampire. The crime happened around 7 pm in the evening, just when Mr. Park departed from the castle of Aima. According to eyewitnesses, the culprit is a female vampire who seemed to be a newborn, whose vampire abilities were at its peak. She was especially fast and sharp, which indicated she might have been a gifted vampire or an Araio. One of the witnesses had enough courage to open her mind to one of the council members, our resident telepath Luhan, and allow him to see a brief sight of this malicious vampire. A sketch is attached in this letter so you may be able to see the face responsible for this tragedy.

This unlawful act will not go unnoticed and will definitely not be swept under the rug; a remarkable Idia such as Mr. Park himself will get the justice that he deserves—that we promise to you, too.

We offer our sincerest condolences to you and hope that you may achieve the highest levels of peace in your hearts and minds as soon as possible.

AL

Rara savored the breeze that came by once in a while. It was nice to be outside after being cooped up inside the house. Right now, the porch was the best place to breathe. “There’s something wrong about this.” She looked at the letter intensely. Her stare might as well be burning holes into the paper.

“What do you mean there’s something wrong?” Baekhyun scanned the paper up and down. It seemed normal enough, just like any other special paper.

“I forgot to tell you but right after you left the other night, Grandpa came by. He gave me a book on how to control my fire.” Rara explained. “You left at around 10 pm. Grandpa came by quarter to 11 pm. But it says here he died at 7 pm. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“If you saw him right after I left, I could have seen him on the way to your house, right? But I didn’t see anyone.” Baekhyun pondered for a while, then he nodded to himself. “Yeah, I definitely did not see anyone.”

“Maybe you didn’t look harder.”

“I would’ve heard his heartbeat or noticed any sign of life.”

“I don’t know, maybe you weren’t just paying attention.”

“Hey, I have superhuman senses, too.”

“I’m not saying you don’t have those abilities, what I’m saying is maybe you were busy focusing on different things like—”

“Whoa, take it down a notch, lovebirds.” A female voice said. “Are you always on each other’s throats?”

Both Rara and Baekhyun looked in the direction where the voice came from. There was a girl that looked no older than Rara, standing on the front steps of the porch. She could be the same age as Rara but her pigtails and her milky skin and youthful facial features made her look younger and gullible.

Moreover, they didn’t know who this girl was. “Uh, yeah, we’re pretty much arguing most of the time we’re together.” Baekhyun answered. “So, who are you supposed to be?”

There was a mischievous glint in the girl’s eyes.

Ahyoung was in the reading room, drowning herself inside the world of the novel she was basking in, when suddenly Baekhyun and Rara stormed inside, their heavy footsteps announcing their grand entrance. She whipped her head in their direction and raised an eyebrow. “Is there something wrong?”

“Gran, there’s a girl outside and she’s looking for you.” Ahyoung stared warily at Baekhyun because the sentence that came out of his mouth was somehow said in Rara’s tone; on top of that, Baekhyun never addressed her as ‘Gran’. In fact, he looked grumpier, unlike his usual relaxed self. Rara, on the other hand, resembled Baekhyun’s playful get-up. appeared to be suppressing a laugh and she stood with her arms crossed and two feet apart, while Baekhyun stood with one hand on his waist, standing on one leg—which seemed so feminine.

It suddenly hit Ahyoung what was happening. Before she could confirm her theory, Rara spoke. “She swapped our souls.” She said. She sounded eerily like Baekhyun. “I only asked her what she was supposed to be; I didn’t think we’d get a demo instead of an answer.”

“Ask her to come in.” Ahyoung said. “She’s quite fond of games but I promise she’s harmless.”

Byul, the name of the girl who had the powerful gift of swapping souls, asked for privacy and wanted to talk to Ahyoung alone. So they went to the kitchen and left Rara and Baekhyun in the living room, whose souls still reside on the wrong bodies.

Baekhyun, who was inside Rara’s body, was huddled close to Rara, who was inside his body. Rara was trying to r