Act 14 “Horror”

He ran as fast as he could but his legs wouldn’t obey him. He kicked the air as strong as he could and made bumping sound with the cold ground as his heart beat raced up. He knew he couldn’t get caught or else he would be drowning in hell flame.

Gasping, panting hard, he didn’t realize actually he was shedding tears. His heart hurt the most; it felt like being broken by huge hammer into pieces. How could she do that to him? His own mother sold him to animals so they could molest him till he lost his sanity. Yes, the mother that gave birth to him and abandoned him the day he was born. He thought his mother wanted to apologize by asking to meet him for hundred times but he was wrong, she just wanted to get money over his body.

Suddenly he pulled down and kicked on the stomach. He pushed back but he was outnumbered. Crying, screaming, and falling apart, he could feel those dirty hands began to touch him; tearing his clothes. He kicked one of them on the face, only to get punch three times on his stomach. He felt terribly weak and exhausted as his struggle didn’t seem to make any difference.

They tied his arms and legs, began to touch him in most vulnerable way. Disgusting kisses travelled along his body as he closed his eyes, hoping everything would just be a nightmare. Yet, those sharp nails marked his body, tore his flesh and pride till nothing left, killed his sanity with the pain of being torn apart inside out, and hurt by deepest meaning of pain that would make someone committed suicide by the shame.

It didn’t happen just once; the group of animals that surrounded him laughed like hell and had turn to devour his weak and helpless body. His mind shut itself from his surrounding as his soul burnt into ashes. They in; making tears flooded from his eyes and his screams filled the air.

As the killing pain collapsed all his barrier of sanity; he eventually lost his sight, lost his consciousness. He thought he would finally free from all the pain but he was wrong. When he opened his eyes once again, he was tied, bounded to a metal big table.

He looked around and realized how hot and smelly the dark small room was. He hated the place; it scared the hell out of him. Suddenly, the iron door in front of him opened and a figure in masked got inside. The cold air sent chills to his body as he prayed nothing worst happened to him.

To his horror, the figure walked to a small oven and began to warm up an iron stick. He knew what would happen and it scared the out of him. He wanted to scream for help, he wanted to break free but the gag on his mouth and the chain on his wrist and feet prevented him.  The masked figure walked toward him and smiled, examining his face.

“You’re so beautiful; don’t you know that, Jaejoong ah? But it’s a pity your flawless figure won’t ever exist anymore…” the voice was so creepy and hoarse; making Jaejoong screamed behind the gag.

Then the figure went back to the oven and after made sure the iron was ready, he took it and stood next to Jaejoong. Slowly but sure he pushed the stick till it made contact with Jaejoong’s skin. It burnt the skin till they’re so red like boiled meat and Jaejoong screamed and cried; tears flooded from his eyes.

The masked figure laughed like hell as he pulled the stick off Jaejoong’s skin. The wound turned blue and then black as blood soaked out from the skin. Jaejoong was still crying; the pain was too much for him to bear. And it repeated, the figure heated up the iron, made it touched Jaejoong’s skin and Jaejoong cried out helplessly behind the gag.

It kept repeating till Jaejoong lost his consciousness, yet, the pain was still there; tearing him apart. Time passed, didn’t know how much minute or maybe hour passed but Jaejoong opened his eyes. He was so tired and weak but relief when he saw no one in the room.

Jaejoong looked down and saw his legs turned reddish, bluish, and then black. It looked so ugly and it made Jaejoong wanted to throw up. He laid back on his back as he took deep breath. He couldn’t remember how he ended up in this room. He tried to think but all he knew he was by bunch of animalistic men before he was awakened in this room.

With futile effort, Jaejoong tried to move his legs but he couldn’t. He even couldn’t feel them at all. Jaejoong cried once again as he was so scared. Why things became like this? He was supposed to be a normal orphan that studied and later on became oncologist. Yes, Jaejoong was a normal university student and he got in with a lot of hardship.

Then Jaejoong’s mind went blank; it was like he forgot something so important but what was it? Jaejoong tried to think but he found none. He twitched when he felt pain on his legs again; it was so painful till he let few tears came out from his eyes corner. The red flesh reminded him of something but he couldn’t remember. Jaejoong didn’t give up, he kept thinking till pain attacked him again; but this time on his head.

STOP! Jaejoong screamed inside his head as he felt many images stormed his head. It felt like it would explode any seconds. Then everything turned black once again.

---

The shaman laughed like mad old man as he kicked the prince’s corpse. He had won; he tricked the king and now everyone would turn into his beautiful creation, the undead. He spoke some ancient spell as he ordered the undead to get out of the palace and started attacking the folk. He succeeded.

The folk screamed when they’re attacked but they couldn’t do anything as they’re bitten and turned into those monsters. Not even a child was on the shaman’s mercy; everyone turned into those inhuman beings.

“Stop this madness!” suddenly a well-known voice disturbed the shaman’s delightful feelings. He turned around and saw the kingdom priest or they called it the bishop. He hated the bishop; he was the one always disagreed with him as the bishop seemed to be able to sense his evil dread.

“I won’t and you can’t stop me! Hahahahahahaha! I even killed the king, his generals, and prince! No one can stop me now!!!” the shaman went mad as he pointed to the bishop,” Not even you!”

With that, the zombies attacked the bishop, just to get thrown few meters away. The bishop could do magic too; in his way, it’s white magic. He attacked the shaman with his magic and it bounced; they kept attacking each other as the zombies kept growing. The bishop knew he needed to stop it before the zombies infected the other town or country, even the whole word.

So without any choice, he concentrated all his power and mind to perform the deadly spell. He spoke the spell as horror showed in the shaman’s face.

“No! You’ll die! Stop it! You can’t do this to me when I just reached my victory!!!” was the shaman’s words before everything turned pitch white and the entire folk of the city vanished into the thin air. The bishop sacrificed himself to seal the undead along with every soul that was touched by the curse. The world balance returned, at least, before the seal weakened by time and the shaman started to rise up once again, bringing apocalypse to the whole world

---

Changmin couldn’t believe what he heard from the empress. He looked at her on the eyes and he knew she wasn’t lying. His pain wasn’t that bad anymore; it had much decreased so he could listen to the empress’s story.

“Yes, it’s all true. I was actually sealed when Jaejoong sealed the shaman; in fact, the bishop’s spell sealed all the soul inside the kingdom till the spell ran out of energy and five of you finally were born again. I’ve waited for you to return and end this curse,” she spoke.

Changmin nodded, showing approval he had believed her. He was still exhausted and in pain, but he felt rather fine. He tried to get up but fell once; the empress told him to take few minutes but he refused.

“My friends are in danger and I can’t just sit here doing nothing,” Changmin explained,” Especially after hearing those bad things the shaman did; I can’t imagine what he will do to Jaejoong hyung and Yunho hyung…I need to save them.”

“…Very well then,” the queen spoke,” I’ll guide you but only half way because the shaman put spell in his chamber so I can’t enter.”

“Thank you,” Changmin uttered as he walked out from his prison and started to run slowly. His feet were still sore but he forced himself to run; he needed to run. He hoped he got there on time. It was few minutes later he parted with the empress’s spirit as he walked deeper to the cave. Then, suddenly the ground shook violently beneath him as he leaned on the wall.

“What was that?” Changmin asked to no one. He had a very bad feeling as he rushed faster and faster. Suddenly, another shook occurred but this time it was way bigger than the first time. Changmin rolled forward as he avoided the ceiling rock that almost fell on him. Then everything covered in dusk and Changmin could only thanked he wasn’t crushed by the chunks. It took him few seconds to see clear as he realized how the landscape had changed post-earthquake.

He hated it but he lost his direction, even after the empress gave the map inside his head. Didn’t waste any second, Changmin rushed based only by his feelings. He swore he would chop the shaman’s head if anything happen to his friends. He swore twice.

---

Yoochun and Junsu were really almost there when the earthquake happened. They eventually lost their direction too and that’s why they took more time to detour. It was depressing task but they knew they needed to find the right path soon.

They suddenly heard the monster voice, yes; the zombie’s hoarse soft screaming from far away. They immediately rushed to the source without making any sound. They succeeded and found a large group of zombies were rushing inside a certain room of a huge hall. There’re many doors and that made them curious how could the zombies just went to that certain door.

Then suddenly a huge bright light struck their sight. They lost it for a few second. When they could see blurry, they realized the zombies were all lying on the ground dead, not moving at all. Then large bum sound caught their attention as it was followed by the voice they knew well.

“STOP IT! DON’T HURT HIM ANYMORE!!!”

It was Yunho’s voice. Yoochun and Junsu rushed to the room and discovered the scene that broke their heart. There’re three people inside; the shaman, Yunho, and Jaejoong. The shaman was mad, showed by his red face and furious eyes; he was ready to crush Yunho and Jaejoong at any moment. Yunho was hurt, blood splashed on his face and cloth; didn’t know whose it belonged to but nonetheless, he was fine. The worst one was Jaejoong, he fell unconscious on Yunho’s arm and bleeding so much from everywhere. He was so pale like corpse with blood streaming out from his nose, shoulder, and arms; the pants soaked with some blood, wasn’t clear whose it was.

“Damn you!!!” Yoochun was the first one to attack the shaman as he kicked him and pulled his sword. The shaman was fast too as he blocked Yoochun’s attack with his spell and threw Yoochun few feet away. Meanwhile, Junsu rushed to Yunho’s side and he could see Yunho was dead scared; trembling as the dying Jaejoong rest on his arm.

“Help me, hyung,” Junsu got out a bottle of infected blood he still saved as he poured it to Jaejoong’s mouth. The man didn’t respond at all for almost a minute and Yoochun’s sword noises were still visible to their ears. Then, slowly, Jaejoong opened his eyes.

“God, Jae, I thought I lost you,” Yunho embraced Jaejoong. Just when they thought things couldn’t be worst, Junsu screamed his lungs when the shaman pierced Yoochun on the chest with his own sword. Like deadly spell, the sword had betrayed its owner; like a dog bit his master.