chapter 01: I am thou, thou art I / 나는 그대, 그대는 나
reflect on your shadows
Chapter 01: I am thou, thou art I / 나는 그대, 그대는 나
(Friday, 4/13 20xx. Early Morning.)
Myungsoo didn't have the time to recall about his dream of the weird stage called the Velvet Room until later, when he started to settle in his new 'home'.
Two days after he woke up in the hospital, he was cleared to be discharged from the hospital and true to his words, Lee Sungyeol greeted him in the lobby of the hospital. Of course, Moonsoo was there too, but Myungsoo found it surprising to actually see Sungyeol.
"Are you ready?" Sungyeol asked, smile on his lips as if he was the one who'd move in to a new house instead of Myungsoo.
Myungsoo nodded in reply, allowing Sungyeol to guide the brothers to a car that was presumably Sungyeol's. "Oh, wait, I hope you're not traumatized being in the car." Sungyeol suddenly said, worried.
"No, I'm fine." Myungsoo smiled, "I didn't get injured, anyway."
"Oh.. Alright. Don't push yourself, though." Sungyeol said, unlocking his car.
After they settled in the car–Myungsoo in the passenger seat–Sungyeol began driving towards Myungsoo's new home.
"Sunggyu-hyung is busy helping his dad with town stuffs, but he told me to tell you that he's sorry he couldn't come and help." Sungyeol said, breaking the silence in the car some time after he began driving.
"It's okay." Myungsoo answered, watching the people they passed outside quietly.
"So, how old are you?"
Moonsoo, who was sitting in the backseat, laughed. Sungyeol and Myungsoo looked at him, but he turned out to be looking at his phone while wearing an earphone. Myungsoo looked at Sungyeol, "I just turned 26 last March."
"Oh, then I'm older!" Sungyeol replied giddily, "I'll be 27 this year."
"You look younger than that." Myungsoo blurted out before he felt embarrassed over his words.
Sungyeol laughed openly, "Why, thank you! By the way, you already know I work as kindergarten teacher. How about you? Are your bosses okay with your situation?"
Myungsoo stumbled on his words. In a way, it was refreshing to meet people like Sungyeol who didn't know who he was. But he didn't want to brag either–or at least, he didn't want to sound like he was bragging. There were really no other way to explain his job.
"No, it should be fine. It can't be helped anyway. As for my job.. I sing." Was the best he could manage. And that was the worst explanation ever.
"Wow, so, like, a singer! That's cool!" Sungyeol commented.
He felt his face getting warmer. "I act too." He added weakly.
Sungyeol blinked. "So... A singer and an actor? That's really cool!"
Bless his good-natured heart.
Myungsoo left it at that. He didn't want to say anymore, considering he prefer to leave the job using a funeral of someone he wasn't close with as an excuse. Fate was funny that way; he was born with passion to pursue his career, but whatever he did, it wasn't enough.
It felt like chains more than wings.
"We're here!" Sungyeol announced, blissfully ignorant of Myungsoo's self-deprecating inner thoughts. Myungsoo got out off the car and carefully examined the building in front of him.
The house was tiny, save from its huge front yard. It was only one-story house and even from the outside, he could see how simple it was. 'Blank' was the image the house presented itself as. Just like he was, he supposed.
"This is originally a town property. Some kind of public assembly headquarter or something? But more homely. You get it. That's why it's full-furnished but empty." Sungyeol kindly explained while unlocking the front door.
"Is it really okay for me to stay here?" Myungsoo asked, suddenly guilty.
"It's alright. I heard from Sunggyu-hyung that the other guests had already found a place to stay. Some of the locals offered their houses as a place to stay." Sungyeol cheerfully smiled, "You get to make new friends in hard times like this!"
Myungsoo's view of Sungyeol kept getting better. Honestly, was there really a genuinely nice, optimistic person like him?
"Sunggyu-ssi really knows everything, does he!" Moonsoo commented from behind them, trailing eagerly into the house.
"That's because he's the son of the mayor." Sungyeol replied, "Most of us even consider him as a mayor-candidate from time to time and went to him to consult about the town. He even helped out his father's job and takes a part in town council meeting."
"That guy surprisingly has a good hold of his head." Moonsoo whistled.
Myungsoo wasn't interested in making a comment of Sunggyu's apparent leadership skill. He was busy looking inside the living room of the house. From the living room, he could see the kitchen which also merged with the dining room, the bathroom door, and an open, rather big bedroom next to the dining room–between each room there weren't doors to separate them bar the bathroom. There was a small backyard in the back of the house. It was indeed full-furnished, he didn't need to worry about living tools.
His chest felt tight with anticipation and warmth. He liked this. A lot.
"Hey, Sungyeol-ssi?" Moonsoo called from near the kitchen.
Sungyeol approached him, "What's up?"
"What's this door for?" Moonsoo was kneeling on the floor, fingers touching a trap door located in front of the kitchen counter.
Sungyeol tilted his head in confusion. "I wonder? Maybe a cellar or basement?"
"It seems locked, though. Maybe a basement for town stuffs." Moonsoo quickly brushed it off.
Meanwhile, Myungsoo was in cloud nine, imagining a simple, peaceful life in the house.
(Daytime.)
Moonsoo and Sungyeol had excused themselves to leave first to attend to other business. Myungsoo didn't think of it as a problem, since there's hardly any cleaning to do aside from dusting some tables and windows and cleaning the floor. They also helped plenty already, so it was Myungsoo who encouraged them to just leave.
He wiped the sweat on his forehead, clutching the handle of the broom he's holding. The house was even better and suit his tastes more than he thought. And the bed was so, so comfortable too. This started to feel like a vacation more than emergency situation.
He had heard that there's still chances of the storm hitting the town once again in near future, but the weather forecast only said it was going to be sunny for the whole week. So he wasn't too worried. Push comes to shove, he could go to the town shelter near the hospital. As for his necessities, Moonsoo had agreed to accompany him buying food ingredients and other stuffs he needed to live in the house later. Maybe he would invite Moonsoo to live with him some time.
Myungsoo's inner thoughts were interrupted when his broom hit something on the floor. He looked down to see a trap door; the same trap door Moonsoo had examined earlier.
Curiosity got the best of him. He crouched down, touching it. The small door was made of wood, matching the floor of the entire house. He tried to pull it but it didn't budge. Maybe it was locked.
Myungsoo fished out the keys Sungyeol gave him and tried to match it one by one. Only then did he notice the trap door didn't have a keyhole of any sort, so maybe it was only too heavy to be lifted with a simple pull. Myungsoo put the broom away and stood in front of the trap door, stance ready. He lifted the trap door with both hands.
After struggling–boy, the door was quite heavy–he managed to open it to reveal staircase. Again, curious, he grabbed his phone to shed some light with the flashlight feature and walked down. The trap door was small, he could barely stretch out his hands. The staircase wasn't as steep as he thought it would be, but he was still cautious while stepping down.
His first thought was 'What a nice basement'. It's a pretty big room with no much things. He considered it because the people didn't use the house that much. There was a flag pole with the flag leaning on the wall, a broken bookshelf made of wood, and some other stuffs. But aside from those, the room was completely empty of furniture.
The only thing there that caught his attention was a big mirror placed in the middle of the room. It was so big that even the height exceeded Myungsoo's own. The mirror was framed by a very old-looking frame, also made of wood, with lots of beautiful carvings around it.
There was something about the mirror that pulled Myungsoo in. His reflection seemed off, somehow. It watched him stepping closer slowly, hesitantly. Of course it's just him watching himself, but he could felt that his reflection held his breath, anticipating over how close Myungsoo would dare to be.
Finally, he stood right in front of the mirror. He managed to laugh seeing himself on the mirror, how dirty his clothes were from cleaning the house even though the house wasn't that dirty. He wondered why this mirror was placed in the basement. Then again, there was no room in the house big enough to–
–how did they get the mirror in the basement, in the first place?
Something moved in the mirror.
He was startled, looking behind to see what it was, but there wasn't anything moving behind him. Suddenly feeling nervous, he stepped back from the mirror. Eyes searching wildly in the room, with only the flashlight from his phone and the lamp weakly lighting the basement.
There was a noise–probably rats, near the carton boxes, but it was still startling, and he was so on edge about everything that he stumbled in his steps and fell backwards. Expecting to hit the mirror and probably end up with injuries from broken glass, after only just recovering from a car crash, Myungsoo closed his eyes tight.
The crash never came.
What came was his body to hit a solid ground just like that. No sound of mirror being broken, or any broken glass piercing his skin. No, what he heard was his own groan as his body unceremoniously crashed to the floor and a loud thud accompanying it.
Opening his eyes, what he saw confused him more than the fact that he didn't fall bringing the mirror with him.
He was in a different room altogether from the basement. The basement had soft blue color of its walls; whereas the room he was in now was painted light grey, with probably hundreds of mirrors pinned to the ceilings and walls. The mirrors were painted with various paints, but it wasn't colorful–the paints were only of grey variations, faded blue and red, and the room was shaped like triangle upwards.
Then he noticed the mirror. The same exact mirror as the one in the basement stood in front of him. Same frame, same wood carvings, same size. Only that the mirror was now in front of him, and not behind him.
Brushing aside the many questions going through his head, Myungsoo stood up to inspect the place. From the mirror, he could see that there was some kind of door behind him. So he went there and opened it, determined to find out where he was.
He blinked owlishly at what he found upon opening the door. He had left the hospital in the early morning, came to the house around 9 am, and it wasn't even noon when he came down the basement but it was already dark outside.
He stepped into the street, ignoring the alarm going off in his head because how come the room possibly connected to his basement could even lead to the street? But it was indeed the same street he know was outside of the house. Heck, even the other buildings there were the same exact buildings surrounding the house. He could see the shopping district just some distance away, and the tall building sizing up the other small ones was definitely the town hall.
Myungsoo bit his inner cheeks as he watched a figure approaching from the junction near where he stood. Only that the figure wasn't anything humanoid; it was as if–as if it was some glob, shapeless creature dragging itself towards where Myungsoo was. And not to mention the sounds it made–low growl and groan, mixed with gross slick noise.
Myungsoo looked the other way and immediately his stomach dropped. On the other way of the street were more of the creatures, varying in size and shapes. His heart thumped loudly against his rib cage, every fiber of his being screamed at him to run.
He turned around towards the house, immediately entering the room where the mirror was placed. If his suspicion was right, then he could use the mirror to go back to where his basement was. Without turning back, Myungsoo watched as he came closer and closer to his reflection; face pale and legs slightly trembling. He closed his eyes as he ran right into the mirror.
And then, the nauseous feeling in his stomach stopped and the warmth of his basement greeted him. He opened his eyes slowly, adjusting to the dim light of the room. Panting slightly, Myungsoo took a nearby white cloth and draped it over the mirror and made sure there were no part of the mirror uncovered by the cloth. After that, he grabbed his phone which was dropped into the floor earlier and ran towards the staircase, closing the trap door with a slam and ran outside the house.
(Saturday, 4/14 20xx. Morning.)
Someone should give him an award for quietly returning to the house alone even after the incident with the mirror. In fact, someone should congratulate him for falling for the joke–at least, that was what he thought of it. Someone must've had planned that. As a teasing or trick, maybe a good-natured prank.
But when he woke up that morning, alone in his new bed, recalling the events of the previous night, he was stunned in silence, trying to find an answer about the world he saw. It couldn't possibly a prank. How could someone set up a prank so deliberate and complex it literally made Myungsoo shift through different locations without him being aware of it?
Myungsoo put that train of thoughts away, to the 'Things That I Should Probably Look Up Later When I'm Fully Awake' shelf at the back of his mind. He wanted to sleep in, since it was Saturday, but he couldn't help but desperately want to inform someone, anyone, of what he just witnessed the day before. He considered Moonsoo, but decided against it. Moonsoo wasn't probably going to believe him, and he didn't want to be treated as a psychotic person so early in the morning.
Then Sungyeol's face came to his mind and he came to a decision.
Luckily, since it was Saturday, Sungyeol didn't have to attend work and could be found having a meal at the small family restaurant near his flat. That meant no little nightmares that were children going to cling to Myungsoo and bother their talk. Myungsoo mentally prepared himself–he was about to bring up a topic most people wouldn't believe after all.
"Sungyeol-nim." He greeted as he took the seat across Sungyeol who was munching his meal happily in a way that resembled a squirrel.
It took Sungyeol a while to properly chew and swallow his meal before he looked at Myungsoo with amused twinkle in his eyes, "You know you could call me hyung instead." He commented, already chewing another mouthful of his breakfast.
Myungsoo blinked in surprise, watching Sungyeol who only shrugged his shoulders for a while before clearing his throat, "Sungyeol-hyung, then."
Sungyeol nodded, seemingly content with the familiarity. Myungsoo had another few moments to collect himself and to choose his wordings carefully; his next words would determine his fate, whether he would be shunned by the only person willing to deal with him in this town or, well, whether the said person would help him somehow.
"So, the mirror." He started.
Sungyeol raised a brow, just in time to swallow. "What mirror?" He asked, confused.
"You know, the mirror in the basement..?" Myungsoo said, "I thought you knew."
"No... Sunggyu-hyung never mentioned anything about mirror, especially the one in the basement." Sungyeol tilted his head, "What's this about mirror?"
"Uh, well." Myungsoo winced, suddenly feeling the hurdle was higher than he had anticipated, "It's weird."
"How weird?" He only knew Sungyeol not even for a week and already he could feel his replies to be, well, Sungyeol-like. With exasperated expression as if he had given up on delicately presenting his problem, Myungsoo opened his mouth.
"Like, 'suddenly transporting you into a different world' level of weird. I can't be so sure but there were some monsters. And weird atmosphere... Are you laughing?"
Sungyeol cleared his throat in a failed attempt to cover up his snort, "I'm not." He grinned, "I didn't take you for someone who fantasized about a world full of monsters, though."
No good, he definitely didn't believe him. Well, at least he wasn't demeaning him or anything–he could take small teasings like that. Sungyeol watched him with glee in his eyes, seemingly not weirded out. In a way, that made Myungsoo a little glad.
"I'm not... It really happened yesterday." Myungsoo tried weakly, sighing when Sungyeol's grin grew wider. "I'm surprised you don't insult me as a lunatic the moment I told you about it."
Surprise, horror, and hurt flashed in Sungyeol's face, all mixed into one single bewildered expression he maintained as he replied, "No way, I wouldn't go that far... Sure, it might be ridiculous but I'm not completely dissing out the idea. It's just plain rude to treat you cruelly like that."
At first, Myungsoo was (pleasantly) surprised by Sungyeol's kid-like stand of view. But then again, Sungyeol worked with kids, undoubtedly children full of imagination and innocence. He definitely had an instinct not to stomp down an idea, no matter how improbable that idea was.
Myungsoo tapped his fingers on the table, biting his lower lip. Maybe, Sungyeol would believe him if he saw the thing with his own eyes? But there was also a small, lingering doubt on the back of his mind that what he had seen was nothing more than a dream.
He decided to push it.
"Maybe you'll have to see it for yourself, hyung." Myungsoo said quietly, averting his eyes.
Sungyeol stared at him, long and hard, before smiling, "Sure, why not?"
It's not like it sounded real, anyway.
(Evening.)
They arrived at the house rather late, because Moonsoo had asked Sungyeol to take him to various scenic locations in the town for his personal project. Myungsoo didn't protest. He figured the longer he had to stay out of the house, the better it would be for his already high strung inner alarm, always in caution to the point it was hard to sleep. Also, by going out he was able to buy some food ingredients and some other necessities. At the very least, he wanted to live as comfortable as his current situation would allow.
"Careful, the ceiling is a bit low above the stairs." Myungsoo murmured, already steps ahead down the basement.
Sungyeol studied the staircase and its walls, how narrow and small it was. It's certainly difficult for a person to bring a big mirror through the stairs. He pondered about what would happen had him and Moonsoo descend into the basement the day before.
Upon arriving at the basement, his attention was definitely caught by the mirror Myungsoo mentioned, covered from one corner to the other by a big white cloth. He grabbed the cloth himself and pulled it while Myungsoo watched from behind. Nothing special about the mirror. It was only a huge mirror, reflecting his curious expression and Myungsoo's pale face. He held the urge to laugh at the clear nervousness on Myungsoo's face, deciding instead to inspect the mirror closer. He appreciated the carvings and the wooden texture of its frame. Somehow, the grandiose image of the mirror matched Myungsoo, in a way he couldn't explain.
"Well? It's a pretty mirror." Sungyeol commented, smiling amusedly at the desperation on Myungsoo's face. It was so much fun to tease people, albeit he felt guilty about it. But in his defense, what Myungsoo had described sounded pretty much like a bad case of nervousness due having to stay in an unfamiliar place. He could understand that, he dreamt of nightmares sometimes when he felt uncomfortable.
Myungsoo gestured at Sungyeol to wait, and approached the mirror. Carefully, cautiously, as if the mirror would harm him if he wasn't being tactful about it. Sungyeol watched with interest, genuinely curious about what Myungsoo had said, but also skeptic of it being true. Myungsoo reached his hand out towards the mirror, shaking slightly.
Then–
–then, Myungsoo's hand was inside the mirror, as if the mirror was a door, a window to whatever behind it.
And Sungyeol almost fainted.
After a good few minutes of bickering and coaxing Sungyeol into walking in to the mirror (all the while Myungsoo's one hand was still inside the mirror), both of them found themselves into the grey room with lots of mirrors. Now that Myungsoo looked closer, some of the mirrors in the ceilings were actually windows, showing the sky outside. Again, Myungsoo found it weird that the time frame differ from that of the world they came from. It was night time before, but now the sun was shining down the windows in the room, lighting it up in the ways Myungsoo didn't witness the previous time he was there.
Myungsoo felt the familiar clench inside his stomach, nausea and dread filling his head. He breathed slowly to keep his rational mind above that unsettling feeling. At the very least, he didn't want to worry Sungyeol.
Sungyeol himself wasn't any better. Fully aware that Myungsoo's words were true, he wasn't adamant in exploring more. This didn't feel like a dream because, well, it felt real. He glanced at Myungsoo, who looked calm, unaware that Myungsoo also felt nervous.
"Let's go outside." Myungsoo said, and every single fiber of Sungyeol's body practically screamed no, but he couldn't help his (completely shaking) legs to follow behind Myungsoo towards a door behind them. Myungsoo noticeably exhaled before he opened the door and walked outside, a shaken Sungyeol behind.
The first thing went through Myungsoo's mind was, alright, it wasn't as scary as the first time, since he wasn't alone.
The second thing–
"HOT! HOT!" Sungyeol yelled, making a dash towards a shade just below the tree in the garden. He looked at Myungsoo with shock in his face. "You didn't tell me it was hot here!"
Myungsoo, feeling a burning sensation on his skin where the sunlight touched it and even more uncomfortable feeling on the parts his clothes covered, walked rapidly towards the same shade Sungyeol took shelter in. Immediately, he felt better. Like he had walked on the sun surface and then someone poured a cold water on him.
"It was night the first time I came here." Myungsoo described, "It wasn't this hot.."
"But it is now!" Sungyeol whimpered in terrified way.
"I know.." Myungsoo gritted his teeth, "But I want to check the area more."
"Myungsoo, let's not do that." Sungyeol stared at him with pained eyes, heart heavy thinking about walking under that degree of heat. He'd rather enter a sauna for half an hour; at least it was enjoyable.
"But, hyung.."
There were barks. Of dogs.
They went silent, exchanging stares. Myungsoo was definitely weak against dogs, he thought of them as adorable. But he didn't know about Sungyeol. He opened his mouth once again, at the very least he wanted to check the barkings...
And there went Sungyeol, without any hesitation he abandoned his reluctance to walk around the area, already running towards where the barks sounded like they were coming from. Myungsoo stood in stunned silence before his brain stopped buffering and immediately chased after Sungyeol, cursing the heat. How did Sungyeol even manage to throw away his heat-sensitive nerves, Myungsoo didn't know. Maybe he really wanted to rescue those dogs.
Myungsoo stopped when he heard a panicked scream. Dimly, he recognized the voice to be Sungyeol–raw and filled with fear. With newfound determination, mostly due to fear of the situation escalating to the point of where he couldn't do anything, he picked up his speed and looked for where Sungyeol was. He turned around the corner near the town park, and immediately was overwhelmed when he saw Sungyeol, crouching down with his back facing Myungsoo, and three monsters with a beetle-like form which already set their eyes on defenseless Sungyeol.
If there was anytime Myungsoo felt utter desperation and helplessness, it was the time when one of the giant beetle swung its hands, trying to strike Sungyeol. If only he didn't ask Sungyeol to come down with him–
If only he had strength and power to do something, anything–
"Then, sing."
–the world seemed to stop as ringing filled Myungsoo's ears. He shut his eyes in reflex, shielding away from the painful high-pitched noise jamming through his ears, piercing his mind. Numbly, he could hear L's voice, telling him to sing, amidst the ringing.
Without fully realizing what had happened, he reached his hand out towards a microphone that had suddenly materialized in front of him from a blue mist which now completely surrounding him. He took a glance at Sungyeol and the monsters; the monstrous beetle-like creature had stopped mid-attack, watching Myungsoo in wary instead. Sungyeol, in the other hand, stared at him with eyes filled with shock.
The ringing ceased, now his mind was so clear just like a crystal–a brand new mirror. He knew what to do. He was now sure of himself.
A voice echoed from deep within his mind, his heart.
I am thou, thou art I...
I am the reaper of the dead, once a human venturing the Underworld
I have come to answer thy call
Awaken, and take hold of thy stage
For I shalt be what thee desire me be,
Just as thou shalt be what they desire thee be
He gripped his microphone tightly, eyes focused on the beetle monsters. With a clear, firm voice, he summoned the power he had inside him, buried deep in slumber all these time.
"Per–"
The monster charged at him, forgetting Sungyeol.
"–so–"
Sungyeol yelled a warning at his way.
"–na!"
For a split second, so many things happened at once.
First; the microphone in his hand suddenly disappeared. It dissolved into a bright, blue flame which immediately engulfed him before he had any chance to react.
Second; the blue flames surrounding him immediately filled the area, knocking away the beetle charging at him. The beetle in turn dissolved into a black smoke, fading into the air.
Third; along with the blue flames covering his entire body, his clothes began to change. His simple white shirt now turned into a black T-shirt, with an ped black jacket covering it, and his jeans now turned into a black pants with white big pattern on it.
Fourth; he was pretty sure Sungyeol out for a moment due to sheer panic and distress because Sungyeol looked like he honestly didn't know where they were or who he was.
Fifth; he could feel a big energy coming from something behind him. He didn't need to turn around to know what it was.
He held out his hand towards the remaining beetle-monsters, and called out with a loud voice–
"Gangnim!"
His jacket and hair both blew forward just as a rush of wind passed him, and in an instant a cold air filled the bare street as a huge skeletal figure stood in front of him, floating in the air. It held out its scythe, and made a slashing motion towards both the beetles without actually landing a hit on them. Just then, both beetles got frozen as literally ice grew out of their body, encasing them. The skeletal figure then tapped the ground with the wooden end of its giant scythe, and then the monsters exploded as a black mass.
Sungyeol's eyes on Myungsoo grew wider as he realized that the skeletal figure came from Myungsoo. With a cocky smirk, Myungsoo stared at Sungyeol. The skeletal figure already went back to hover behind him.
It's the power he was promised–his True Self.
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