Jeon Jungkook never thought he’d be asleep at midnight. Usually sleep found him around two in the morning after a few sessions of Overwatch. But he had been busy training with his volleyball teammates to prepare for the upcoming city championship and against his better judgement had decided to go out for drinks with them after practice. The result of that outing was him laying shirtless in bed, snoring softly under his breath.

He tossed and turned as the television in the living room of his apartment played the local news at a low volume.  

“Now onto further developments in Tokyo, where the Japanese military is maintaining a heavily guarded perimeter around the site of last month’s terrorist attack. The Japanese government has stated that an unidentified radical political group released a biological agent in the Tokyo subway less than one kilometer from Orochi Tower. Although the area has been evacuated, there have been eyewitness reports of activity inside the perimeter, including fighting between Orochi security personnel and armed civilians. Authorities are denying these reports and the military has barred anyone from approaching within 100 meters of the perimeter…”

 Jungkook didn’t know when exactly he transitioned from being partly asleep to actually dreaming. But his vision distorted and he soon found himself lying on the ground in a strange place. He seemed to be lying on a beach, the water lapping gently at his feet. A full moon hung in the sky, and it was so close that Jungkook could see the faint gray outlines of craters dotting the surface. Chunks of rock floated in the air as if held up by a magnetic field. A voice sounded in his head—calm and masculine—though with every few words the tone changed until he heard nothing but a menacing sibilant hiss.

You will see the end of days…you will see the dawning of a new age…to be a monarch, or to be a beggar. To lose everything, or to become a god. To stand with us…or against us.

He stood up shakily, inspecting his hands in front of his face as if to see if they were real. It all seemed so real. Jungkook could even feel the water beginning to seep into his shoes, and he scowled involuntarily. Those shoes were expensive.

The choice is yours. Remember this.

His vision darkened again, and it seemed to close in on him, constricting his ability to breathe. Just as it seemed as though he would pass out from the lack of air, he sat up in his bed with a strangled yelp. He the light by his nightstand with one hand, the other clutching his throat as he tried to will his heart to stop beating so quickly. It took a few minutes for him to calm down, and once he felt like he could breathe again he reluctantly got out of bed. There was no way he was falling back asleep after that.

Jungkook grabbed for his cellphone and checked the time. 12:56. He sighed heavily and shuffled into the living room. The television was still on, this time playing a rerun of last week’s music show. Jungkook figured he should turn it off, or else the neighbors might complain. As he reached for the remote however, a blast of blue power shot from his fingertips and connected with the remote, setting it on fire.

“,” he swore, stepping back in surprise. Flames at the plastic remote, but strangely they didn’t appear to be melting any buttons. Jungkook saw this and faltered. Was this another dream? A dream within a dream? Aigoo, his head hurt too much just thinking about it.

But as quickly as the fire had started, it suddenly stopped.   

“What the hell was that all about?” he wondered aloud. He grabbed the remote, turning it over in his hands to inspect it. But it was like nothing had happened. The plastic wasn’t even warm to the touch. Muttering under his breath, Jungkook flipped the television off and wandered into the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea. Maybe that would allow him to fall asleep again, without the strange dreams.

“The choice is mine? What kind of adventure RPG bull…”

 

The Art of Chaos

By Drachesoul

 

FOUR DAYS LATER

Everything had gone to . The remote was just the tip of whatever magical iceberg had run into Jungkook’s life. He hadn’t left the house in four days, the random magical outbursts just getting worse and worse. He was pretty sure he had been kicked off the volleyball team, the city championships were two days ago and he couldn’t leave his apartment for fear of setting off a magical reaction of some kind.

His entire apartment was in disarray, his dining table lying broken in pieces by the bathroom door. Or what remained of the bathroom door. The majority of that was strewn somewhere on the kitchen floor, surrounded by broken coffee mugs and dishes.

Jungkook himself was curled up in a ball by the front door, shivering as sparks of magic occasionally swirled around him. He could feel the strange power welling up within him again and he knew it was only a matter of time before he had another outburst. And though he tried with all his might, there was no stopping it.

His voice was raw from screaming so much over the past few days, that what came out of his mouth was little more than a hoarse groan. The power crested, and he found himself suddenly levitating a few feet off the ground, his eyes glowing a bright blue. Waves of power cascaded from his body, propelling whatever broken furniture and books were around him towards the opposite wall.

With every outburst, the power seemed to last longer, and come back quicker, as though it was slowly eating away at what remained of Jungkook’s self-control. This time though, fire shot from his hands, followed quickly by small bolts of lightning that zapped at anything that remained within five feet of him. He expected the power to have its moment before retreating back to wherever it came from, but it wouldn’t stop. He felt as though it was burning him from the inside out, and he clawed futilely at his chest as though he could dig out the offending power.

Jungkook lost track of how long he screamed before the power finally waned and he dropped boneless to the floor, completely unconscious.

XXX

Almost immediately, he knew he was stuck in some strange dream world again. For one thing, his apartment had returned to its previous state before the first meltdown. And the door that usually connected his bedroom to the rest of his apartment was now wide open and leading outside to what appeared to be a graveyard.

Wrought iron-spikes surrounded the graveyard, and the entire place smelled slightly of death. Or at least what Jungkook assumed was death, he hadn’t yet experienced the smell for himself. It was stale, with an undertone of rot, like someone had left meat outside in the hot sun for hours.

But the power inside him didn’t feel like it was close to exploding again, if anything it felt sated. Whatever this weird dream place was, it resonated with his magic and tamed it. Jungkook cautiously stepped outside to the graveyard. A locked gate soon blocked his path, and a strange woman stood next to it. She appeared to notice his presence but made no move to approach him or introduce herself.

The woman was dressed in an all-white pantsuit with shoulder length white hair, and she stared impassively at him as Jungkook took initiative and approached her instead, her ice blue eyes searching his. Seemingly satisfied by what she found buried in their dark brown depths, she gave him a shallow bow that he returned instinctively.

“Come closer child. The world trembles… you must learn or be swept away. Make haste.” She disappeared in a flash of golden light before Jungkook could even ask her what her name was. The gate that was previously locked tight suddenly swung open with a rusty squeak, and Jungkook took that as a sign to press forward.

An old statue of an angel that had weathered away and crumbled with age stood sentinel just past the gate, an old chest lying at its marbled feet. Something inside him seemed to tell him that what was inside belonged to him. He knelt down and flipped open the chest.

Inside lay a single tome, the title written in some strange runic language that Jungkook could not understand. Running his fingers over the worn book, he picked it up, his magic reacting to his actions. But unlike previously, he seemed to have full control over it, as though the book provided some sort of focus to channel his magic through.

“The dead are rising to the siren’s song. Destroy them.” Jungkook bit back a yelp of surprise as the strange woman materialized next to him. He was about to tell her off when she pointed to a shape near one of the wrought-iron posts that seemed to be moving erratically, as though it was trying to dig its way under the fence.

He followed her gaze and couldn’t suppress the yelp this time when he realized that the shape was humanoid. A single zombie was trapped under the fence, its lower body had been impaled on the fence as it tried in vain to dig its way free. It turned its withered head to face Jungkook, its eyes rheumy and covered in the white film of death. As it saw Jungkook it began to struggle more, growling and feebly moving its desiccated arms to try and reach him.

“The magic inside you will become as effortless as breathing, and over time you will be able to draw on a reservoir of energy to cast even more powerful abilities,” the dream architect said. “Destroy it.”

Jungkook raised his eyebrows, unsure if he had heard her correctly. “You mean kill it?”

“Or you could wait for it to inevitably free itself and kill you…”

Yeah, no, he’d rather not leave the zombie to murder him. For whatever reason, he felt as though dying here in this dream would prove harmful to him in reality. So he called upon his magic and watched as it answered his summons. A single powerful jet of flame erupted from his hands and engulfed the zombie. The smell of cooking meat assaulted his senses and he gagged as the zombie groaned in what could pass for pain before finally laying still, completely burnt to a crisp.

“Lay the dead to rest. Silence the call.” The dream architect said impassively, ignoring the look of pure disgust on Jungkook’s face as he contemplated what he had done. Another gate further in the distance swung open, and he could barely see more figures shuffling around in the darkness.

“Are you kidding me? You want me to kill more of these things?” She didn’t answer his question, dematerializing in a flash of golden light again. “Crazy ing woman…”

He sighed, gathering up his magic tome and trudging forward. These zombies weren’t trapped and snapped their heads around to face him, as though they could smell the scent of the living. They began running towards him and Jungkook panicked, calling out to his magic to help him. He thought zombies were slow, and could only manage a sort of half jog, but these ers were actually moving fairly quickly for undead.

Bolts of lightning sparked off his body and smacked into the zombies relentlessly, driving them back and preventing them from getting ahold of Jungkook. Within minutes they lay defeated at his feet. As he tried to catch his breath, he suddenly heard a pair of voices coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Be mindful of the voices. They will whisper in your sleep.

Listen to the voices that whisper in your sleep.

The voices mixed together until he couldn’t tell which voice was telling him what, but he could somehow tell that both voices belonged to things not of this world.

Jungkook kept walking forward, though several other gates and gravesites until he caught a glimpse of the white-haired woman again. She looked unpleased by his presence this time. “You must learn focus and control! We Watchers will intervene only in dreams and only once.”

“Watchers? Look lady, I don’t even know what’s happening here, why don’t you give me some useful information besides ‘focus and control’! There are freaking zombies around, and the only thing I can do to stop them is zap bolts of magic at them,” he huffed.

“Every weapon you use will become a focus for your abilities. The elements swirl in the pages of your book, they are incredibly powerful but you must be cautious so as to not overindulge. When you feel as though you are about to overheat because of your fire and electricity, call on the powers of ice to calm down and restore balance.”

The dream architect turned to face a strange monster that was hanging suspended from a tree, heavy silver chains binding it securely. Upon closer inspection, Jungkook realized the beast had no eyes, a spiked chain digging into where its eyes once were, dried trails of black blood giving the appearance of tears on its gray leathery face. It struggled feebly against the silver chains.

“What is that thing?” he asked.

“The Rakshasa have also come to heed the song,” she replied simply. “Have pity, but spare them no mercy. They were once like you.”

Scoffing at the vague answer the architect gave him, he nevertheless began attacking the almost helpless creature, focusing on his magic to begin understanding her words. She was right of course, as he called on his flames or electricity he began slowly feeling as though his entire world was heating up around him. It was an uncomfortable feeling, not painful exactly, but as though he was wearing a full set of winter clothes in summer weather. He somehow knew that if he kept heating up it would eventually cause him pain.

So he reached further inside him, searching for a nugget of cold to help ease his body, and to his surprise he found it quite easily, sending a spike of ice through the Rakshasa’s torso and finally putting the thing out of its misery.

“Good. The world shakes, and the dead rise. You will be tested,” she explained to him, tilting her head in the first sign of emotion Jungkook had seen from her.

The voices came back again as she disappeared once more.

You are cursed with free will.

The next gate revealed a more open section of the graveyard, with multiple rows of headstones and several mausoleums. A single raven sat perched on top of a gravestone. It cawed at him and as he approached it, the ground started to shake.

A hand burst up from the ground below where the raven was perched, and a giant zombie began crawling its way out of the grave. This one looked a lot stronger than the others he had faced. “Aw, …”

And while this zombie was indeed hardier than its undead comrades, Jungkook had enough practice to judge its movements and dodge its half-hearted grabs. While it was bigger, it was also slower, which he was thankful for. The last thing he needed was for it to start running at him.

It took a few minutes for him to wear it down and finally kill it with a well-timed bolt of electricity, but when it fell, a lever tumbled out of its tattered clothes. Picking it up and wiping up a bit of zombie guts that had gotten on it, he searched around for the mausoleum that matched it.

The architect came back just as he was about to slot the lever in its proper place. “Beware, the ravens often herald danger.”

Jungkook looked back to see if the raven was still perched atop the gravestone but it had disappeared. “What happens when I pull this lever?”

“You continue, and gods willing you survive.” She left without another word. Man, Jungkook was really getting tired of her doing that. He pulled lever and the sealed mausoleum door opened just enough to allow him to squeeze through. He wondered briefly how long this dream of his was going to last. Lost in thought, he didn’t notice the pit in front of him and he tumbled down with a yell.

He fell for what seemed like hours but was really probably only a few minutes, and when his senses came back to him, he was no longer in a graveyard but in what appeared to be an Egyptian tomb. And of course, standing by the back wall of the tomb was a familiar sight. “Ugh, not you again. I thought I left you back at the graveyard.”

Ignoring Jungkook’s barbed comment, she simply said. “Fighting eternal darkness is a fool’s errand. Wisdom is the light that drives the darkness away.”

“Enough with the cryptic bull, what is this, a novel by HG Wells?”

She sighed, and pointed to one of the torches lining the wall. “The torch, child. We speak in metaphors because alien minds cannot decipher them. Your path will be equally puzzling—wisdom must be your torch.”

“I can’t decipher them,” he grumbled, taking the torch anyway. The walls had been aged with time and weathered by sand but with the light emanating from the torch he could see several glyphs on the right side of the back wall. He touched the wall tile and the painted mural swung inwards, revealing another passage.

This room was a long hallway, covered in tiles that periodically lit up with various glyphs. To Jungkook’s left, framed by another few torches, was a single hieroglyph. He thought for a few minutes, before cautiously stepping on one of the tiles that flashed with the same hieroglyph that had been framed. He was no stranger to puzzle games, and he figured the way forward was likely related to the glyph on the wall.

It was like he suspected, the tile depressed and the hieroglyph glowed. Jungkook took a deep breath and searched for the next tile until he found himself safely at the end of the hallway. Out of curiosity he threw a pebble on a floor tile that didn’t have the correct glyph and had to dodge back as spikes shot out from it. Good thing he paid attention.

Rounding the corner and heading deeper into the tomb, his mind felt fuzzy again as the two voices came back, whispering their different advices.

You are with the chosen, but you must choose for yourself.

You are with the chosen, but you must make the right choices.

The next room was similarly puzzling. Atop the locked door were three different hieroglyphs: one looked like four tally marks, another like an angel of some sort, and the third like a garden sickle laying on its side. Jungkook thought this one looked almost identical to a puzzle he once solved in Skyrim. He looked around the room until he found the wall tiles with the corresponding glyphs, and pressed them in order. First the tally marks, then the angel and then lastly the sideways sickle. As expected the wall swung open. Man he was getting good at this.

This is merely a dream

Even if this is merely a dream.

To his surprise, the next room seemed to cut off halfway and was stitched almost seamlessly to what appeared to be a bunker tunnel. At the end was the architect.

“They are the cats prowling at the walls of reality. You are the mouse. It is best to remain unseen. A clever mouse creeps carefully, to avoid stepping in a trap.”

Used to her vague metaphorical way of speaking, Jungkook merely nodded and opened the next set of doors as the mysterious voices sounded again, sooner than the previous occasions.

It is not my place to intervene. But then…

We are here to guide you to the light.

He shook his head to rid himself of the offending voices and almost stepped on a landmine. Freezing where he stood, he looked at his surroundings and realized that the entire floor was covered in mines. They appeared to be older ones, probably from the nineteen sixties if his history was correct. Cold War era probably. The architect’s words rang true: he would have to creep very carefully to avoid the traps.

This section of the dream took a lot longer than the puzzle one, as he had to step extremely slowly to avoid being blown to smithereens. But like the last section, he eventually made it through, standing face to face with a sealed bunker door and the architect.

“Well done. Not many make it this far. Where the cat walks, the clever mouse will walk unseen. A mouse cannot defeat a cat face to face.”

“I gathered, thanks.” The door behind the architect opened with a metallic hiss to allow Jungkook through. Two giant patchwork war machines hummed in the next room, patrolling the room with ground-shaking steps and the occasional beep. Instead of arms, the machines had mounted machine guns in their place. “Those must be the cats.”

Jungkook watched their movements for a few minutes, trying to commit their patrol patterns to memory. He was never the best at stealth games but he could usually muddle his way through. Though unlike a videogame, he couldn’t restart the mission if he died. Finally seeing his moment, he dashed across the bunker to the opposite wall.

Thankfully the machines didn’t appear to chase him, simply continuing on their patrols as though an intruder hadn’t just raced across the floor. Jungkook gathered that as long as he didn’t step in their direct line of sight he’d be safe.

But he swore as the exit door was sealed by a four-digit keypad. Next to the keypad were a series of switches, all of which were currently in the ‘on’ position. Taking a chance, Jungkook summoned his electricity. Maybe he could overload the switches and disable the keypad.

The lights flickered briefly as the surge of power turned off the switches, but instead of disabling the keypad, the switches disabled the war machines. “Huh. Interesting.”

Sneaking up on the incapacitated war machines he saw that bolted to the chassis of one were the numbers 3 and 6. A quick check of the other machine showed the numbers 9 and 1. Racing back to the keypad in case the machines started up again, he quickly inputted the code 3-6-9-1, cheering to himself when the light turned green and the door opened.

The scenery changed once more, this time to a more modern-looking sewer tunnel. The architect stood in front of another door and this time Jungkook sensed that this was the last. He was almost done.

“Nothing can save you, you know. But the choice will set you free, one way or another.”

“You know I’m going to miss our little chats,” he said to her, brushing by her to open the last door. “But you know, not really. I am so done with this place.”

Jungkook squinted as he walked through the door to be assaulted by bright sunlight. He was in a city square now, and judging by the writing that on one of the broken billboards he was somewhere in America. It looked sort of like Times Square, if Times Square had been battered by multiple tornadoes and an apocalypse or two. Debris was everywhere, and about two hundred feet in front of him was a giant gaping chasm. Something told him that there was something incredibly dangerous in that chasm.

“Hurry, we don’t have much time.” This voice wasn’t like the architect’s, for one thing it was male. “Kookie, quit daydreaming!”

Jungkook started. It had been ages since anyone called him Kookie. Who was this person? He turned around to be faced by not one but six other boys, all around the same age as him. The one who addressed him had dyed soft pink and blonde hair and was wearing a Gucci sweater stained with blood and other unmentionables. “Ah, sorry.”

The boy waved his hand. “Just help Jin-hyung with setting up the damage wards, our sensors are going off the charts, the beast will be here soon.”

Another boy turned to face him, concern etched on his face. He dragged a hand nervously through his silver hair. “Shouldn’t we consult the Council of Venice on this first? This is a little out of our depth.”

“There’s no time,” snapped a boy with maroon hair. “Namjoon-ah, it’s now or never!”

“Stop arguing, you two,” reprimanded the tallest boy, who Jungkook figured had to be Jin. He had platinum blonde hair and was busy kneeling on the ground, setting up what appeared to be magical runes. “Jungkook, help your hyung with these wards will you?”

Jungkook was still very confused as to how these guys all knew his name, but he knelt down all the same to help the older boy. It was almost as if he had been transported to the future. The ground began to tremble as the blonde finished etching the last rune on the wards. “, it’s here. Hobi, Jimin, get ready!”

“Aye aye hyung!”

The two boys shrugged off their jackets and stood facing the chasm, the darker-haired brunette slightly behind the other brown haired boy. The one in back, Hobi, if Jungkook guessed correctly, easily dragged a knife over his friend Jimin’s palm, clasping hands with the boy as blood started running down the other’s arm. Hobi muttered a few words under his breath then released Jimin, a single tangible blood link connecting the two of them. Jimin’s eyes turned a bright red and he laughed as a rush of power poured through his body.

“This never gets old! Hobi, how long can you keep the blood link up?”

“About thirty minutes if we’re lucky. Let’s hope the damn monster is dead before then.”

As if on cue, a giant tentacle headed monster rose from the chasm, roaring loudly. It must have been fifty feet tall, and that was only what Jungkook could see of its body, who knew how much more of it there was underground. Black tentacles dripped with a viscous black liquid that burned through everything it touched. This was some kind of Lovecraftian monster that only a horror writer could come up with and yet it was standing in front of them.

“Alright boys, lets go kill us a Lurker,” Namjoon said, hefting up a giant hammer and rushing forward past Jungkook. The maroon-haired boy sighed, pulling out a heavy assault rifle and following in his friend’s footsteps.

The other boys, including Jungkook, followed behind shortly after, but as he ran with them, his mind started to get fuzzy again. He tried to reach out and warn his friends, but they began to fade away in front of him as darkness encroached on his vision again. He wasn’t meant to see the outcome of this, not yet. He struggled against the darkness pulling him back under. The last thing he heard before he woke up was the pair of voices.

And be mindful of the voices. They corrupt.

And be mindful of the voices that whisper, for they speak the truth.

XXX

Jungkook woke with a start, laying sprawled out on the floor of his apartment, light shining through what remained of his curtains. He levered himself into an upright position with a groan, his back muscles seizing in protest for they had spent the entire night on the hardwood floors. He moved aside few books that had tumbled to the floor during one of his magical outbursts and stood up, stretching deeply. Despite what could only be called a nightmare, he felt calmer.

His magic was no longer rearing up every few seconds to try and break free, instead it settled in his body, as if it was tired out by the recent events. Taking this as a good sign, he trudged to his room to find his cellphone. 97 missed text messages and 29 missed calls. Ugh, this couldn’t be good. He was just about to check his voicemail to see what the damage to his social life was when someone knocked on the front door.

Jungkook thought about ignoring it but the person on the other side of the door was insistent and wouldn’t stop pounding on the door. He called out in a hoarse voice, “All right, all right I’m coming!”

Wading through the wreckage of his apartment he reached the front door and opened it a crack, so hopefully if the landlord was on the other side he wouldn’t see the destruction. But no, a familiar face was grinning through the crack in the door. His hair wasn’t dyed silver, and he was wearing a casual looking t-shirt and jeans and seemed to be minus a few scars but there was no mistaking him.

“Jeon Jungkook? I’m Kim Namjoon, I was hoping we could have a little chat. My organization would be very interested in speaking with you, maybe you could help us.”