Chapter Fourteen
OuroborosChapter Fourteen
The sea was calm and glistened in the sun as the clock struck midday. The sun was out with full force but a pleasant breeze kept the air cool and the occasional white clouds drifted in to block the otherwise harsh rays of the sun. It felt like autumn had yet to properly arrive here in the Mediterranean and the green rolling hills far out on the horizon and the occasional white of a coastal city contrasted beautifully in the background as boats carelessly floated through the calm sea.
Out on the bow of the deck sitting alone and basking in the sun was Yeri, taking it all in as much as she could after last night’s endeavours and horror. She still had no clue why it all happened and how this Dahyun person and Chaeyoung had managed to rescue her and Sana from gunmen. Neither of them had been carrying any weapons of their own other than big wrenches, and still had taken them out without a problem. To knowingly go against guns and come after them on their own, there was something strange going on.
Further behind on the deck Dahyun and Nayeon were leaning against the cabin wall equally enjoying the warmth of the sun, Nayeon pestering Dahyun to share the truth.
“You know she needs to know eventually,” Nayeon said as she was trying her best to convince Dahyun, the latter having been avoiding the topic since the rescue.
“Sure, eventually. But right now? Without Chaeyoung here? How would she believe any of it? Do you believe it all?”
“How could I not? Seeing Chaeyoung’s diaries she received back in Salzburg and what happened yesterday is pretty convincing. I trust Chaeyoung wouldn’t lie to me like that either. Can’t we use the diaries for proof?”
“I guess… but… I don’t know if something as crazy as what we truly are is the right thing for her to hear right now,” Dahyun insisted. She hadn’t told Sana the truth at the time and now she was hoping she could push back that eventuality further out. She knew that Chaeyoung would have wanted to keep this information away from her friends like she had with Sana, but since Nayeon knew the truth there was no way they could keep it to themselves for long.
“Well she definitely needs an explanation!” Nayeon said, her whisper almost a shout. Quickly shutting both of them looked to the front where Yeri was. It didn’t seem like she had heard. “She’s just going to keep asking you know, and I don’t want to lie, nay, I won’t lie to my friend.”
“Then you tell her,” Dahyun said. It was a cheap shot forcing the task onto Nayeon but she was the friend of Yeri and maybe would believe her better. Truthfully though Dahyun was just frustrated and annoyed with the situation and was projecting it outwards.
“Fine I will.”
“No, wait, wait, we’ll do it together… but let’s ask Chaeyoung first. She might want to be the one who reveals it to Yeri,” Dahyun said grabbing hold of Nayeon’s shoulder before she could head out. She gave an apologetic look for pushing the reveal onto Nayeon and knew it was something Dahyun should tell, with Nayeon’s help if Chaeyoung didn’t want her to keep it a secret until they met up.
“That’s a promise,” Nayeon said with a stern look. Dahyun nodded sincerely and seeing this Nayeon cracked into a tiny smile before stomping off to lie next to Yeri.
Heaving a heavy sigh Dahyun leaned back against the wall further and slid down to sit and watch the scenery as their boat drifted further through the calm sea. She hated revealing the truth to people; it was one of her least favourite things to do. In all honesty out of all the Eternal Ladies she had probably revealed the truth to the least amount of people. However, with Nayeon knowing the truth and all that had happened yesterday night and this morning it probably was wise to give an explanation to Yeri.
Dahyun had hoped she could reveal it at the same time to Yeri and Sana, as revealing it to Yeri now would leave her best friend as the only one out of them who didn’t know the truth, and Dahyun wasn’t looking forward to that revealing moment. Unless of course Chaeyoung revealed it to Sana. She kind of hoped that her younger Sister would do her work for her but the more she thought of it the more she resented that scenario. It really should be herself who revealed it to Sana.
Fishing out her phone she sent a message to Chaeyoung in her mother tongue asking whether she wanted to reveal the truth to both Sana and Yeri at the same time, or if they would do it individually now. The last message she had sent to her was a few hours earlier as an update on their situation. Hopefully Sana wasn’t the one to read the text first as she would be confused with the gibberish looking text and that would require a whole other lie, or immediately require the truth.
With the gentle bobbing of the boat Dahyun’s eyes felt heavy and she let them close for a short while. Last night she had barely slept, having very sporadic and light sleep as her mind had been heightened to watch out for any trouble. As she kept guard Nayeon and Yeri had slept soundly and safely tucked in an outdoor pavilion with enclosed sides and benches for some cover from the wind and surfaces to sleep on. Before dawn fully broke Dahyun had scouted the ferry terminals closest to them to see what the situation looked like.
Closest to them the Lido San Nicolo ferry terminals consisted of just piers sticking out to the sides. Observing it from afar she had noticed a character who fidgeted with his hands in his pocket, looking all around him constantly actively observing. The secondary set of piers further out had a similar figure. They could have been locals waiting in a hurry, but it was so early in the morning and enough of a red flag for Dahyun to not wish to take that risk.
Looping around a back road instead of walking along the waterfront, she had arrived within visual distance of Lido Santa Maria Elisabetta ferry terminal, an unimpressive low single story steel and glass box building, existing mainly to work as a ticket booth and place for people to escape the sun and rain. Walking around to have a good view of it from a few angles she eventually spotted similar suspicious characters lounging about. If they weren’t early bird locals waiting for the terminal then it meant the public routes out of here were under surveillance. Dahyun wasn’t confident they could use the ferry safely.
She got back to the two other women just as they were waking up to wonder where Dahyun had disappeared. Slinking along the back alleys to the non-commercial docks she had found a jolly uncle with a boat who was off to Trieste that morning. It would be a twelve hour sailing trip there but it would get them out of Venice and immediate threat in silence. With her Italian skills she impressed the gentle old man and was able to convince him to give these young Korean ladies a full Italian sailing experience, Dahyun happily forking a couple hundred Euros for his troubles even though he had not requested for any real payment.
Luggage in tow they managed to sneak out of Lido and Venice early in the morning without any trouble or fanfare, leaving their pursues behind for now as they had sailed off to Trieste in the dawn light.
What worried her was how adamant the Cultists would be about pursuing them. Neither Sana nor Yeri were Eternal Ladies, but Dahyun didn’t know if they had managed to confirm their identities either. Considering that the two had still been alive the Cult probably had not managed to find this information out which posed a risk for the future; they might still try and search for them thinking that they were one of her Sisters.
Hiding their true identities was one thing in which the Eternal Ladies had an advantage over the Cult; they had eight reincarnating souls that could recognize Adhabu’s true identity while the Cult only had Adhabu who could instinctively recognize them.
However, the Cult had developed an unholy ritual that produced Divination Blood; blood that once created would be attracted towards eternal souls like her Sisters and The Lock. It was the primary way for the rest of the Cult to recognize them and Dahyun was fairly certain they had gathered a lot of Divination Blood to use to track them down. Luckily for them, the blood needed to be fairly close to the Eternal Ladies to react to their presence, so it couldn’t be used as a long range tracking device.
Her eyes still closed she could feel the warmth of the sun on her face, and as she smiled and relaxed in this heavenly pause sailing in the open sea, Dahyun’s exhausted mind closed its doors for the afternoon and pulled her to sleep.
----
A Fiat 500 sped along the A13 highway as the sun had passed its zenith and was making its way to set. The traffic was light this time of the day before the afternoon rush hour and they were just about to pass Padua on their way further north.
Chaeyoung rubbed her eyes under the sunglasses and let out a small yawn as she had been driving for a couple hours non-stop now. Next to her on the front passenger seat Sana was curled up and sleeping soundly, finally getting some rest after a night of a bumpy boat ride in the middle of the night, a trip that had required their constant attention until the first rays of the sun in the morning had graced them.
The two had set off from Chioggia with the speedboat they had stolen from the kidnappers after the phone call with Dahyun telling them to keep moving. Throughout the night every hour or so they sent a message to keep in touch to see how things were going. For Chaeyoung and Sana it was a sleepless night. For most of their trip they had to be extremely slow and careful with their driving as it was pitch dark outside.
Eyes constantly peeled into the darkness Sana sat at the bow of the boat to watch out as far ahead as she could as Chaeyoung piloted the boat. When the sky finally began to slowly lighten up on the horizon and their surroundings were getting more outlines of blue and purple, the two could relax a little more and slowly increase their travel speed to a reasonable pace, allowing them to make some real headway in their over hundred kilometre journey to Ravenna.
It was around this time as the sky was beginning to lighten before sunrise, that she had received the message from Dahyun that stated they had found a boat ride from a kind local gentleman who was sailing to Trieste that day. It would take the better part of the day for them and they should arrive later in the afternoon to the city. The two agreed that Trieste would be their meeting place, Chaeyoung and Sana would rent a car in Ravenna and drive over there.
The boat ride took almost nine hours and the bulk of this time had been spent driving very slowly in the dark. After the sun made itself known they more than doubled their speed, arriving to Ravenna some time after nine in the morning and found a public pier to dock their boat. They needed to reach the Hertz Car Rental service across the city, but that would take time so before that they had some much needed brunch by the waterfront in Marina di Ravenna with the beautiful view of the sea and sailboats drifting by.
It was a much needed break that gave them the energy to cross the town of Ravenna and then wait around for a while at the car rental service before they issued them their tiny Fiat 500, the only one that wasn’t reserved for the foreseeable future or currently in use.
“Where are we at right now?”
Pulled back from reverie of the morning Chaeyoung glanced to see Sana stir awake, her eyes barely open from her fuzzy sleepy haze. Slowly like a lazy cat she unfurled herself from her curled position, straightening her limbs as much as the tiny cramped insides of the car allowed.
“Just driving past Padua. Still have about three hours to go till Trieste. Hungry?” Chaeyoung asked as Sana finally fully uncurled herself and sat up straight in her seat to look at the endless road ahead of them.
“Yeah, quite a bit actually,” she felt her stomach rumble.
“Alright let’s pull over for a little while.”
Heading off the highway Chaeyoung didn’t drive into Padua city but instead skirted the edges of the city to find a quick stop to eat. At a neighbourhood close to the highway, she noticed a nice little lunch café, a red and white striped sunshade at the front with comfortable lounging arm chairs both outside and inside the shop. Stopping close they found seats by the window inside the shop to feel the cool air-con, not far from the view of their car.
“So how do you know Dahyun exactly? I never really got a good answer to that,” Sana asked as they finished ordering their food.
“Ah right, I guess there hasn’t been a chance to really chat yet,” Chaeyoung replied. She had been spending a lot of time to figure out what was the best thing to tell Sana, not wanting to reveal too much or overstep her boundaries with what Dahyun wished to reveal. “I know her from a while back but hadn’t seen her in a very long time. We’re essentially family.”
“Were you also trying to keep your family safe like Dahyun was? Is that why you were in Venice?”
“Something like that yeah, pretty much. I don’t know what Dahyun has told you and what she wants to reveal right now since it’s a pretty sensitive topic, so I’ll let her do the honours, but suffice to say the people who took you and Yeri were definitely after me and Dahyun, not you guys. They either confused you two for us or were trying to get to us through you. I’m sorry about that,” Chaeyoung said apologetically, Sana waving the apology off immediately.
“It’s okay, we survived. Besides, it’s the bad guys who kidnapped us so they’re the ones who did something wrong.”
The food arrived in short order; Sana ordering some pasta with fish while Chaeyoung opting for a hearty lasagne. Both of them were starving and were quick to dive in to their plates with little words. For a few minutes they munched in silence as the worst of their hunger got satiated and the rumbling of their stomachs ceased for a moment.
“So how about you, how do you know Dahyun?” Chaeyoung asked Sana in between bites.
“I’ve been pretty much best friends with her since first grade,” Sana replied with a smile and Chaeyoung could tell how just the mention of Dahyun was enough to bring joy to her and how talking about her sent the corners of Sana’s mouth to their furthest reaches.
“Well I’m glad she’s had such a trusted and precious friend in you. It’s not a given to find one such as yourself.”
Sana’s cheeks turned rosy and she looked away out the window with a smile, the compliments making her happy as well as the thought of seeing Dahyun soon.
The conversation died down and Chaeyoung chugged a few cups of coffee as she had yet to sleep and was running on fumes alone, hoping that the caffeine would keep her awake. They enjoyed their post lunch beverages in silence and as they sat at the table in quiet thought Sana saw Chaeyoung’s head slump sideways falling asleep for just a second before her big eyes shot wide open to see Sana’s smiling face looking at her.
“Sorry, I just dozed off.”
“No, it’s alright; you should take a short nap. It is dangerous to drive in that condition anyway.”
“I… true. We’ll drive off to the next highway gas station and I’ll take a power nap there if that’s okay?”
“Of course it is. Thank you for driving this whole time, I’m sorry I’m so useless with all this, not knowing how to or having a license.”
“No need to apologize, you’re in this situation because of us.”
“Because of the people after you, it’s not your fault they are doing the wrong thing!”
“Oh… yeah true, true,” Chaeyoung said a little surprised at Sana’s vehement and forward defence of her and Dahyun’s innocence. Smiling back and with a little nod she finished off the last drops of her coffee.
Drinks finished and the bill paid they hopped back into the car. Quickly speeding off towards Trieste, the next gas station along the highway wasn’t too far off and they pulled in so Chaeyoung could nap. Their tank was still pretty much full as they had barely driven a few hundred kilometres.
Sana popped into the gas station to buy some sweets and goodies while Chaeyoung leaned back in the driver's seat almost horizontal, immediately drifting off to sleep. Sana arrived back by the car to find a peacefully sleeping Chaeyoung. To not disturb the precious little sleep she was getting Sana sat down in front of the car on a bench in the shade and munched on her snacks.
The air smelled of gasoline and exhaust smoke and the noisy highway dominated the soundscape, as massive trucks passed by often with the loud low mumble of its diesel engine reverberating across the landscape. Even with all this unappealing noise and smell Sana felt surprisingly jovial. She was free and she was on her way to see Dahyun. Certainly never having to experience any of this would have been the best, but one couldn’t change the past so she was going to take the relief and the good when it came to her.
It was almost an hour of sitting and daydreaming when Sana found herself out of snacks and drinks; she hadn’t noticed the time fly as her mind wandered off possibly even dozing off for a few short moments. She popped by into the store to get some more beverages before entering the car as carefully as she could. The sounds of the car door opening and movement of the vehicle caused Chaeyoung immediately to stir awake, her senses heightened to detect sudden changes during strenuous and dangerous times such as the situation they were in now.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to wake you up,” Sana said as she was about to step in and noticed that her movement had caused Chaeyoung to wake up, the latter’s eyes small slits that scanned the environment. A sigh of relief escaped as she noticed it was just Sana and she allowed her eyes to fully open to show she was properly awake.
“It’s alright. How long was I…? Almost an hour! Sana why didn’t you wake me up, I was only supposed to take a power nap?” Chaeyoung said as she quickly straightened her seat to get ready to depart.
“You were sleeping so soundly and softly I didn’t want to disturb you. Also you really needed a little more sleep. Here, something to nibble on and drinks,” Sana said sitting in the car as she handed a drink to Chaeyoung.
“Oh… thank you. For letting me sleep and these,” Chaeyoung said a little sheepishly before taking a huge gulp of the drink. She was thirsty and the car that had been turned off was hot inside even if it had been parked in the shade. Turning the engine on to cool the air Chaeyoung finished the whole drink with her second gulp.
“I’ll go get another one for you,” Sana giggled seeing just how thirsty Chaeyoung had been. She got out of the cooling vehicle to pop back into the gas station.
Once Sana was out of visual and auditory range Chaeyoung fished her phone out of her pocket to see if there were any missed calls or messages. There were none, Dahyun still hadn’t replied to her reply about telling Sana and Yeri. Maybe she should give her a call.
----
Her phone began to ring and vibrate in her pocket and Dahyun’s eyes shot open. The sky was noticeably less blue and hues of red were making their way across the horizon. She noticed that behind her neck there was someone’s clumped up sweater and a blanket had been placed on top of her. She must have fallen asleep. Fishing the still ringing phone out of her pocket she saw Chaeyoung’s name flashing on her screen.
“Hey.”
“Did I wake you up?”
The familiar voice of Chaeyoung roused her further from her slumber as she spoke to her in their mother tongue.
“You can tell?” Dahyun laughed before yawning loudly, “yeah it seems my sleepless night finally caught up with me and I fell asleep on the deck.”
“Well it’s good to rest when you can. How’s the sailing?”
“It’s smooth. I’m not quite sure where we are but looking around,” Dahyun got up to see her surroundings. Not too far ahead of them she could see city lights getting closer and twinkling, the coastline now a lot closer than it had been when she fell asleep during the day.
“I think we are in Trieste soon. Wait let me see… Signor, siamo quasi a Trieste? Si? Grazi. Yeah almost there, thirty minutes to an hour or so he says. Where have you managed to get to?”
“Just stopped at Padua. We’ll continue in just a moment to Trieste, we should meet you soon.”
“Okay, drop a message once you arrive, we’ll do the same once we find lodging so you can come there.”
“Will do. Also about your message about telling the truth…”
“Oh right, sorry I didn’t see if you replied.”
“Can we wait on it till we are together? I want to be the one to tell Yeri.”
“And I want to tell Sana, I agree. I suspect it might be impossible to keep it a secret for much longer so it is good we’ll see each other soon.”
“Yeah, we’ll tell them then.”
“Can you tell Nayeon that? She is having a hard time not spilling the proverbial beans and I’m not sure she will believe me if I say you also wish to hold out on the telling until we are together.”
“Alright, hand her the phone.”
“Just a sec.”
Dahyun looked around the deck but couldn’t see Yeri or Nayeon up top. She ducked into the cabin below to find Yeri passed out on the couch while Nayeon seemed to be browsing her phone aimlessly. She noticed Dahyun enter the cabin who then handed her phone over to Nayeon.
“It’s Chaeyoung.”
After handing the phone over Dahyun stepped back out of the cabin letting Nayeon have some privacy for the phone call and also for her to enjoy the view of her surroundings as the boat slowly drifted closer and closer to the harbour of Trieste. The sea was calm and there were other boats converging towards the city, as their day of sailing was also coming to an end.
She walked up to the bow of the boat and sat down. Not long after she heard footsteps approaching behind her and Nayeon appeared sitting down beside her.
“We’ll wait,” Nayeon said as she handed the phone back to Dahyun, “I know it’s probably for the best but I just hate keeping a secret like that from Yeri.”
She pulled her knees up to rest her head on it as they stared out into the Gulf of Trieste and the city beyond, turning to smile at Dahyun. “I guess since we will see each other soon it isn’t much longer that I have to keep this secret.”
“Believe me, lifetime after lifetime of having to keep it a secret I wish I could just blurt it out to everyone,” Dahyun said as she returned a knowing smile to Nayeon. “Did she say anything else?”
“Not much else other than she is thoroughly exhausted and just wants to eat and sleep, so we should try to find a place to stay and get food ready.”
“Oh yeah, I think we should have good enough reception already, let’s try book us a room,” Dahyun said opening her phone to start browsing for hotels.
The two made a point to find one close to the harbour with a big enough room, giving up on hotels as none that were big enough had any room left. They turned their attention to finding an AirBnB that would accept them at such short notice. This also meant they would most likely get a whole apartment with enough space for all five of them.
“You know, a split like this one back in the day used to be a week or month long endeavour to reconnect, not just a one day inconvenience,” Dahyun said while browsing. “No mobile phones or cars to take us directly or with speed to our destinations. Even trains didn’t go from everywhere. And times before the invention of trains…” Dahyun shook her head with a smile.
“How did you know where to go? Even we didn’t know we’d end up going to Trieste until this morning so you couldn’t have told anyone where you were going back then right?”
“Correct, so we always had set backup locations where to convene if we were separated, multiple ones actually. Even now we spoke of three places to meet at certain intervals, in case technology failed us and we lost contact.”
“Oh you did?”
“Yeah, essentially we waited at three different locations. First for a week, at the next place two weeks, and beyond a month at the final location. This time those three locations were Milan, Lindau then finally Munich. Oh this one looks good,” Dahyun said as she opened a link to a place to stay.
Nayeon leaned over to look at the place she had found. A twenty minute walk from the harbour there was an apartment with two bedrooms and six beds, one of them being a sofa bed that doubled up as a double bed. There were dates available for it for the next three nights so Dahyun sent a message to the owner to ask if they could get it at such a short notice.
“Is this the fastest you’ve ever reconnected with one of your Sister’s at the beginning of a new Cycle?” Nayeon asked. With all that had happened she had thrown herself head long into what Chaeyoung and Dahyun had told her. Nayeon was aloving and trusting kind, befriending everyone and thinking the best of them, opting to trust them first over distrusting.
“Funnily enough, no. There was one time about…” Dahyun paused to think, “over one thousand years ago when I met my Sister literally within the hour after being reawakened for the new Cycle.”
“How did that happen?” Nayeon asked, rather surprised to hear this. Even though she was still completely new to this whole other reality that existed, she hadn’t expected to find out that they could have connected so fast in the distant past.
“My eldest Sister Sofija and I had been sent to the same noble court for education as courtiers and lady-in-waiting by our separate families completely by chance. She had been there before me for a few years of course, and both of us were brought to the same room to rest after we suffered the seizure that is caused by our souls reawakening. It was pretty funny actually. We had to act as if we didn’t know each other that well and wait for everyone to leave us to rest before we could jump upon each other to hug,” Dahyun laughed thinking back to that time.
The moment she had been brought into the room and locked eyes with the laying Seulgi their souls had recognized each other as Sisters. Almost as if on cue both had begun coughing from the shock, breathing in the saliva in their mouth from the seizure from moments earlier. For the next couple of minutes Dahyun had been fidgeting, anxious to jump up and hug her Sister while trying to reassure the ones that brought her in that she was okay after her coughing fit and they could leave her alone to rest.
As if the fates had overcompensated for their expedient meet up, during that reawakening Seulgi and Dahyun didn’t meet any other Sister for over eight months after that. Having met Seulgi so fast was a blessing and at least they had each other during those long months of no contact, during the long, cold and lonely treks across the plains.
“Looks like the owner is okay with the short notice booking. I’ll tell her we will be there in an hour or so,” Dahyun said as she noticed a message had come through from the owner of the AirBnB they were looking to stay at.
“That is amazing news for a change.”
“What is amazing news?”
Dahyun and Nayeon turned around to see Yeri walking up to them rubbing her tired eyes from her nap, her hair a dishevelled mess. She walked up and sat behind Nayeon wrapping her legs and arms around her and letting her head rest on Nayeon’s back, who in return clasped Yeri’s hands that reached around her.
“We have a room booked for us, and Chaeyoung and Sana will meet us there,” Dahyun said as she forwarded the address of the apartment to Chaeyoung so she knew where to drive.
A smile spread on Yeri’s lips as she kept resting on Nayeon’s back, the latter able to feel the smile on her back. “That is amazing news indeed.”
It had taken some time for Yeri to really come to grips with what had really happened the day and night before, and to allow herself time to process it. Ever since it had been almost non-stop action and tension throughout the night from the moment she was kidnapped to their escape. Sana had been able to calm her down at the beginning of their capture, but when they got separated her anxiety had shot through the roof and her mind had fallen into despair, only recovering when she had been rescued.
After the rescue she was still separated from Chaeyoung but immensely relieved to have seen Nayeon who now was her support through the rest of the night. It wasn’t until close to midday today after they had been sailing for hours in the middle of the sea that Yeri finally began to let go of the fear and constant pressure she had been feeling until then; the release of it causing her to at first break down in tears and after help from Nayeon to ride those emotions through, letting herself finally to really show how scared and terrified she had been. The release of all this had made her tired and she had been asleep for a few hours in the cabin since then.
The boat drifted into the harbour as the sun set behind them, the city of Trieste with its red tiled roofs rising into the hills, painted in a beautiful waterfall of red, orange and yellow, the city the canvas. As the evening deepened the lights of the city began to show more prominently against the night, sparkling and reflecting off the water's surface.
The three of them thanked their unwitting rescuer and captain for the wonderful trip and Dahyun tipped him with some extra cash as a thank you, the man at first refusing such money but with the insistence of the three women he was hard pressed not to accept it.
With their luggage dragging the pavement they headed out of the Marina San Giusto, the sun had already set and the city streets filled with tourists and locals alike enjoying dinner and a night out. Dahyun lead the way across the road into the city towards the hotel they had rented out. It was a twenty minute walk which at first was pretty easy going until the slope began to slowly rise higher and the streets narrowed into little corridors, making it difficult to pass other pedestrians. Their speed slowed down substantially and the walking took an added ten minutes longer with the slow pace of the three.
“You had to choose a place on top of a hill?” Nayeon whined as the luggage clunked against the cobblestone road; an added layer of difficulty and frustration to their climb.
“Trust me, it’s pretty nice. Also, not many options with such a short notice,” Dahyun replied, reapplying her grip onto her luggage and beginning to drag it faster. They were almost at the top, just needed to crest this last hilly bit.
The rented apartment was right by the Parco Della Rimembranza. It was at the top of a hill and the views from there were magnificent as the higher they went the better their views were to the north into the lower lying city. They met the owner as promised who gave them the key to their apartment just off the south-west corner of the park, a standard unimpressive cream coloured three story building. It had all the amenities they needed and its location was wonderful. Showing to their apartment on the top floor of the building, the owner left them to be for the night after explaining how everything worked and where the closest stores and amenities were.
As Chaeyoung had requested them to get food and the three themselves were feeling the empty pits of their stomachs growl, they dropped by the store that had been pointed out by the owner to them and got a good stock of food; sausages, cheeses, breads and spreads, some grapes and fruits to accompany and a few bottles of water and wine. They would be having a late evening picnic at the park tonight.
Groceries gathered they were perched at the corner of the park just across their apartment, sitting in the shadow of the trees in the night munching on food and waiting. Dahyun perked up as her phone buzzed.
“24 Via della Rimenbranza?” It was Chaeyoung’s voice.
“Yeah.”
“Alright, we are there in a minute.”
The call ended and Dahyun stood up looking in the only direction the car could come from. Yeri who had been listening in on the side was already up and out by the road eagerly waiting for the cars arrival. Nayeon saw the look in Dahyun’s face who nodded and they slowly walked over to where Yeri was standing.
Soon in the faintly lit distance Yeri spotted car’s headlights come into view from the left as it turned over to the road. The lights lit the trees and houses on the side as it neared, eventually casting the thick Castle stone wall on the right into dancing patterns of shadows on its jagged surface. As the car neared Yeri could see in the faint light of the streetlamps the familiar face of Chaeyoung, a huge smile of relief on her face seeing all three of them safe. The car slowed down in front of the park as Dahyun, Yeri and Nayeon inched closer and closer waiting for it to stop.
As soon as the car stopped and the engine was off Chaeyoung was out the driver’s seat to hug Yeri, pulling and engulfing her in a tight hug, tears on both of their faces. “I’m so sorry you got dragged into this Yeri, I’m so sorry.”
“Chaeyoung….” Yeri mumbled into Chaeyoung’s shoulder unable to really voice out any real thought or opinion beyond the relief of seeing her friend safe after the harrowing rescue. Nayeon was right out the shadows of the park on the street and joined in the hug, the three holding each other for a moment as Dahyun slowly inched towards the car where out of the front passenger seat Sana had stepped out.
Waiting patiently by the car door, Sana held her hands tightly together and pinched herself. Dahyun drifted over in a careful manner before her arms flung open and around the shivering figure, Sana equally embracing her.
She had been so scared, absolutely terrified of what was going to happen to her. A wonderful holiday that was supposed to be this wonderful get away and time for just the two of them had turned into a nightmare of mafia chases and kidnapping, and after her and Yeri had been separated at the island she had thought the worst would happen. In all of it her only hope was that Dahyun would come for her in the way she had rescued her in the house.
Being rescued by Chaeyoung, a stranger to her but who after plenty of inquiries clearly knew Dahyun had reassured her a little, but she couldn’t feel safe and secure until she could see Dahyun with her own eyes, until she could touch and feel her under her arms. Finally in the hold of Dahyun she could feel safe and she could release the tension in her body and heart that had been holding her in its grip.
“You were never supposed to be dragged into any of this. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe,” Dahyun whispered into Sana’s ear.
“It’s okay. You rescued me so it’s okay,” she whispered back as the first tears escaped her and her body sank deeper into Dahyun, letting herself fall whole in her arms. Her shoulder and back was in return getting wet as Dahyun cried along with her, both of relief at seeing Sana safe as well as feeling guilty for every dragging her into this, and for what was to come next.
The five ladies stood out in the middle of the quiet street, the only sound their gentle sniffling and crying as they rode the wave of emotion for a few minutes before finally pulling back enough to see each other’s faces to talk. Everyone in the group, Sana, Yeri and Nayeon especially, had very admirably held on and pushed through the difficulties of the past day. Now they could let their worries and hurt out as they had time for a little breather tonight.
“Let me move the car,” Chaeyoung whispered as she let go of Yeri and Nayeon who apprehensively let go, as if afraid that once she was away from their grasp she might disappear again. Chaeyoung parked the car and they all gathered the few things that Chaeyoung and Sana had with them before walking deeper into the park to sit down and have dinner together for the first time.
Earlier Dahyun had taken a blanket from the house to lay on the ground outside, as they placed it on the grass further in the park where the night lights of Trieste’s coast and valley opened up to them towards the north. Chaeyoung and Sana brought what little road snacks they had bought on the way as well as a few drinks and some water, most of the dinner consisting of what the three to arrive first had bought earlier.
As they sat down and spread the food everyone dug in happily without much chatter. There was a serene sense of relief and calm now that they were all together. Even Dahyun and Chaeyoung who knew that this was merely the beginning of an even more arduous journey could feel the tense shoulder muscles relax and smiles spread on their lips.
“I’ve been wondering,” Yeri opened up after a long pause of conversation and most of the food gone. They were sipping on the final remnants of their wine and the dinner spread was all but ravaged. “What was this all? Why was this all? Who were they all? Who are you exactly?”
The final question had been directed at Dahyun as Yeri looked at her with questioning eyes, non-confrontational and not accusatory, but thoroughly confused. She felt she deserved answers after all that she had gone through and after a day of Dahyun dodging questions and avoiding answering, it was about time she got to know. Dahyun had told her Chaeyoung needed to be there to answer with her and now they were all together again.
“I… would like to know too,” Sana chimed in. “I mean I know a little bit about the whole mafia thing.”
“Mafia?” Yeri perked up a little frightened, fearing they were now involved in some dispute between organized crime.
“Yeah, Dahyun said that-”
“Sana, wait,” Dahyun cut her off before she continued. She felt absolutely horrible that she had lied to her originally, but at the time it had seemed like the correct course of action. There was no way in the world had she thought that Sana would get kidnapped before Dahyun was able to send her off to Korea to safety and be none the wiser of the truth.
Chaeyoung straightened herself and prepared for the reveal. She had been avoiding telling much at all to Sana during their trip, asking for her patience and that they would reveal all of it to them once they had gathered together and that Dahyun was present.
“Dahyun and I have something to share with you. It will sound insane but… Nayeon knows already what it is,” Chaeyoung said as calmly as her beating heart allowed her to. They all hated revealing the truth equally; having to tell their loved ones and precious friends something so unbelievable as to be considered lunacy was never a great feeling.
Both Yeri and Sana turned to look at Nayeon who gave a careful nod as her face was awash with an apologetic look, her usually large round eyes squinted in the corners as if avoiding the glare of the sun. At the moment she was trying to avoid the glare of the two clueless ones, somehow feeling guilty that she was the only one who knew the truth out of the three unrelated to the truth. She felt as if she had somehow betrayed them by knowing ahead of time what this really was, and especially because she actually believed Chaeyoung and Dahyun.
“Sana, what I told you back then wasn’t completely honest. Remember that woman from the painting in the Dona Merchant Museum, the one you said resembled me if I was a European lady?” Sana nodded, remembering the painting of the Venetian family in the rundown house where they had been attacked for the first time. “Well, she isn’t my great great grandmother. She is actually me in a previous life.”
“...what?” Sana blinked a couple times and shook her head as if trying to check if she was hearing correctly, if it was Dahyun who was saying these things.
Dahyun walked closer towards Sana but saw her recoil at her approach and proximity, backing into her own corner of the picnic blanket. Dahyun stopped moving and stood still not wanting to freak out Sana anymore and realizing she needed her own space, even if her urge right now was to engulf her in a hug and wrap her up with all the comfort she could give her.
“We, Dahyun and I, are people whose souls reincarnate every couple hundred years into new bodies. We were cursed thousands of years ago to reincarnate like this,” Chaeyoung interjected to support what Dahyun was saying. It didn’t sound any more convincing coming from than Dahyun’s, but there wasn’t much else to say or do.
“I was told after you two were kidnapped,” Nayeon said as she walked over to Yeri to take her in a gentle hold so she wasn’t shivering alone in her confusion. “Chaeyoung showed her diaries, and the things the two knew. The skills and prowess they have. How much they know of each other’s personalities. You saw how they fight right? How do they know all of that?”
“You believe this?” Yeri recoiled herself slithering out of Nayeon’s loose hug. She took a few steps back her mind bewildered at what was being said, finding herself standing behind Sana at one corner of their little picnic setup.
“I… I do,” Nayeon stammered. “The diary at the very least is a record of the things they have been telling and… well have you heard how well Chaeyoung speaks German?”
“Dahyun speaks fluent Italian…” Sana whispered on the side, still shaken and confused sitting at the edge of the blanket having distanced herself away from everyone after the revelation. Yeri gave a glance towards Sana before focusing over at Chaeyoung who hadn’t moved one inch since they began this talk.
“You… you do?” Yeri looked over at Chaeyoung who gave a weak smile back to Yeri, who was still on her feet standing a little behind Sana.
“Tut mir leid, dass ich es dir nicht früher gesagt habe. Ich wünscht ich könnte, aber…” Chaeyoung replied softly in fluent German, her tone full of apology and regret.
“Wow… I…” Yeri plonked on the ground right behind Sana in a daze. What was this sudden nonsense that they were trying to force on them? Why now, how was it even possible? And on top of it all Nayeon was on board with it and believed it? Hundreds of questions flooded her mind and there wasn’t a single one she could grasp or hold on to, she couldn’t decide what to say or ask. “This is insane you all know this right?”
“We know,” Dahyun said seeing how silent and apprehensive Chaeyoung had become after speaking German. She seemed to be physically unable to say anything more.
“So what about those people that kidnapped us? That doesn’t explain that!” Yeri said her voice shrill almost to the point of screaming.
“They are part of a Cult, the same ones that cursed us all those years ago. They want to... “ Dahyun paused for a moment. She couldn’t say they wanted to end the world as they knew it, no matter how truthful it was. It was just too cliché. “Want to… bring back an ancient… being, a monstrosity, and our reincarnating souls are the only ones in the way of that.”
The confused incredulous expression on Yeri’s face turned to one of unbelieving crooked smiles, as if she had just heard a bad pun or joke and was being fooled. Did they really expect her to believe that, as if she was part of some bad youth fantasy novel? “That is just stupid.”
Dahyun’s mouth opened to reply but stopped as her eyes met with Sana, the latter confused and hurt from the lie that Dahyun had told her before, from the horrible experiences of the last day she had endured. She had been dragged into something she wasn’t supposed to be a part of and now probably could never live a normal life. There was a moment where Dahyun felt from the deep look in her eyes, that Sana wished Dahyun hadn’t told this wild story at all and kept to her earlier lie. At least then she could still believe Dahyun, the dearest person to her, wasn’t an insane lunatic. At least then she could still...
“This is bull!” Yeri exclaimed and got up from the ground and took her first steps away. Sana quickly stood up and latched onto Yeri who took hold of her to walk away together, at least she knew she could trust Sana. Chaeyoung attempted to say something and open but Yeri just flung her hand up in front of her as a sign to not even try.
Chaeyoung, Dahyun and Nayeon were left watching as Yeri and Sana arms linked disappeared into the apartment just across the street. A duo that had been at first upon each other through the twists of unfortunate fate had only each other now to believe and trust in.
Once they were out of view Nayeon walked over to the clearly and understandably distraught Chaeyoung engulfing her in a hug, hoping to comfort her a little while seeking some solace and comfort of her own.
“She’ll come around. They both will come around just give them time,” Nayeon said as she hugged Chaeyoung from the back and looked over to Dahyun with a weak smile of encouragement.
“I’m honestly amazed you believe us. It’s not a given at all, it’s rare to be quite honest,” Chaeyoung said clasping the arms that had been wrapped around her and giving them a squeeze for comfort. “Can you… help them understand? Although they might look at you with equal amounts of suspicion since you were ‘in on it’ so to speak.”
“I don’t know why, but there was some feeling and intuition that made me believe you. Or maybe I’m just gullible and want to believe you, because I want to be your friend and never lose that. Either way,” Nayeon squeezed her one more time before releasing Chaeyoung from her grasp and beginning to clean up the leftovers of their dinner. “I’ll do my best to be there for them. Let’s just give them time.”
As the clock was closing in on midnight the final three finished cleaning up the leftover food and drink before turning in for the night. Yeri and Sana had taken up residence in one of the rooms so Dahyun offered to sleep on the couch so that Chaeyoung and Nayeon could share the other room and bed. Worry and anxiousness in their hearts, the three lingered in bed awake each in their individual thoughts before the night finally took them and they received the rest they deserved after a hard fought night and day.
It was an awkward couple days that followed; Yeri and Sana avoided all other three of the group at first, but by noon of the same day had accepted Nayeon to at least follow them around and be with them. They didn’t talk about what had happened with her, they didn’t ask her why she believed, how she was the one who knew and why she hadn’t said anything until now. They ignored the topic altogether, although internally all three of them were struggling and coming to terms with the news they had heard, trying to decide what they were going to do.
There were plenty of sights to see in Trieste and the three of them, Sana, Yeri and Nayeon toured the various locations to see the city. They started with the San Giusto Castle that was literally across the street from their apartment, followed by Cattedrale de San Giusto Martire, Vittoria Lighthouse, Piazza Unita d’Italia and many more. All the major sights to see were visited in the city of less than half a million in the few days that passed, all three of them over the course of the time becoming more jovial and conversational. Getting to actually relax and spend a holiday helped them process and overcome the worst of their horrors and fears.
Each morning and evening Sana and Yeri ignored Chaeyoung and Dahyun and ate separately. Nayeon ate with the two former but gave updates to Chaeyoung and Dahyun about their whereabouts around the city for their safety. Sana and Yeri knew this was happening, that Chaeyoung and Dahyun were keeping tabs on them via Nayeon, but their initial annoyance turned into acceptance that they just wanted to make sure they were staying safe, as friends do.
Sana still believed she was friends with Dahyun and wanted to stay friends, but the lies were still eating at her and it was taking some time to come to accept it, to accept Dahyun for who she was and to really believe her. With the lies before this, how could she believe this outlandish reincarnation claim? It was just insane.
By the end of the second day Yeri had come to a conclusion of her own. She hadn’t discussed the topic with Nayeon, but if she believed Chaeyoung so clearly and willingly then there had to be something to it. With how knowledgeable and skilful Chaeyoung was beyond a regular Korean university student there was something unexplainable going on. She had also been reading the diaries that Chaeyoung had received in Salzburg. Although she couldn’t read German she had been using online translators to read it slowly, and the stuff they talked about was really outlandish but in line with what Chaeyoung claimed she was. Chaeyoung’s uncanny knowledge of everything related to Salzburg during their visit had confused her at the time and gave more credence to her current claim.
She remembered that during their last day in Salzburg they had met with an old white Austrian lady who had been extremely kind to them and particularly endeared to Chaeyoung. It had felt really weird at the time as well as the fact that they had received all these random German books, but Chaeyoung had sidestepped the question and Yeri hadn’t given it much thought since. Of course now she knew that the old woman Agnes was Chaeyoung’s great niece; that is if one believed in this whole reincarnation story. All of this being true would explain away all that weirdness in Salzburg and the inconsistencies in Chaeyoung’s explanations.
However, she kept all of these thoughts and conclusions to herself. She wasn’t about to affect Sana’s own decision and thoughts, let alone readily forgive Chaeyoung and Nayeon so quickly just like that. She had been kidnapped and her life had been threatened because of Chaeyoung and Dahyun, if all of this were true. That itself was bad enough.
During these few days of separation Chaeyoung and Dahyun scoured the internet for news of their Sister’s and any happenings that sounded suspiciously like Cult activity. It was of course hard to distinguish regular disappearances and kidnappings from the ones that the Cult performed, but they found a few recent news articles about horrible ritualistic sacrifice looking murders in basements around Europe. They had some of the hallmarks of Cult’s blood sacrifice rituals.
While the rest were out, Chaeyoung and Dahyun performed the meditation ritual to find out the locations of their Sister’s and the Lock. Diving deep into the soul ether, Chaeyoung had spotted two people far away in the east, two a short distance away to their east and two more were even closer to the north west of them. The one’s north west of them were within relative close proximity, so Dahyun and Chaeyoung decided to make that their next destination once they started to move again, the approximate distance and direction cluing them in on either Innsbruck in Austria or Bavaria in Germany.
On their third morning in Trieste, Dahyun and Chaeyoung were going to bring up the topic of what they were going to do next. They had stayed in one location for pretty long now and would need to move, especially since their booking had only been for three nights.
Nerves almost completely shot, Dahyun was afraid that Sana thoroughly hated her and that their ties would be severed. Of course if Sana returned to Korea it would be a partial relief for Dahyun. However Sana’s face had been discovered by the Cult so she was still at risk of being taken again. Dahyun’s wishes for her were contradictory and she couldn’t decide which was best; for her to stay with them or to go back to Korea, although the final choice of course was Sana’s to make.
Chaeyoung had in her mind accepted that Yeri might not want to be her friend anymore and was ready to do her best to get her home safely. Much like Sana, Yeri was also at risk of being taken in again by the Cult if she returned to Korea, but there was a chance that them flying and returning so openly to Korea would clue the Cult in that these were not the women they were looking for. That was the only real hope she had if they decided to return. In all honesty though she knew that no place was safe and at the moment staying with them was probably the safest choice in the long run.
As Dahyun psyched herself up in the living room preparing to knock on Sana’s and Yeri’s door to ask them to come in for a conversation, she felt a soft touch on her shoulder. Her nerves completely wound up she jumped up in her seat from the little touch, turning around in an instant her eyes wide with surprise.
It was Sana still in her pyjamas, eyes both apologetic but still a little hurt. They hadn’t talked in three days and both of them stood in silence for a few seconds, Dahyun staring at Sana with an open mouth and surprise plastered on her face, Sana attempting to utter something from her partially opened mouth while absentmindedly fixing her dishevelled bed hair.
“Sana… I was going… what is it?” Dahyun finally managed to utter a coherent sentence from her wide open mouth.
“I think you need to take a look at this. It’s probably for you,” Sana said shyly and carefully handed her phone over to Dahyun.
Accepting the phone Dahyun kept staring at Sana for a moment longer, her eyes lingering on her friend she hadn’t been allowed to talk with for days and whose face she had barely caught passing glimpses of in the morning and evening. She wanted to say something, she wanted to break down and apologize profusely to her, but her mind snapped her out of the daze she was in when Sana glanced away, and she looked at what Sana was trying to show her.
“What, but this is… Chaeyoung! We have a message!” Dahyun shouted as she dashed into the room Chaeyoung and Nayeon were sleeping in, all indecision and doubt purged from her as she was spurred into action. Sana had showed Dahyun a picture of a message with odd symbols that had appeared on the front pages of news websites all over the world, a worldwide news website hack that was confusing everybody around the world.
A small smile crept on Sana’s lips as she saw Dahyun once again her confident self, her eyes steeled with purpose and drive. She looked behind her and saw Yeri standing by their bedroom door, nodding at her with a tiny smile. They had both finally reached a conclusion on what they were going to do next.
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