“No more spells, just you and me, talking” Seulgi said, still holding the tiny witch in her arms.

“I promise” Irene replied to her beloved’s conditions, looking up to her eyes.

“We should get out of here” Wendy commented.

“Yeah, let’s go” Joy agreed and Yeri nodded. The three girls silently exited the leader’s room.

“Wait, why is everyone getting along again?” The older asked, jerking her body out of the hunter’s grip.

“I don’t want to be rude but I don’t care about them right now… I need the truth” Hunter Kang sighed.

The beauty didn’t know if her head was just trying to distract her from the subject or if something was really off… the past hours have been extreme and her mind wasn’t in the best place.

“I’m sorry… maybe I’m just trying to play dumb” The shorter said, instinctively turning to look at the destroyed mirror.

“It’s beautiful outside” The monolided girl said, ignoring completely the other’s comment, standing in front of the window, admiring the festival.

“Seul?” Irene called her lost lover.

“Yeah?” The hunter answered, eyes still glued to the window.

“Are you okay?... We can talk now, I’m ready”

But the younger still refused to look away from the magical-looking festival.

“Seulgi…?”

The tiny witch walked towards the taller and reached for her hand. “Kang Seulgi… Look at me” She pronounced the younger’s full name.

The hunter turned to look at the beauty as soon as she felt the physical contact and said “You look so beautiful” as she placed her hand on the other’s cheek, using her thumb to caress it. “When I looked through this window and saw the festival… and that big bright moon… it made me realize that I’m so happy to be with you…”

“What…?” The leader gazed at the younger’s half-opened monolid eyes, trying to read her and the situation but it was futile, she was being hypnotized. There was no logical reason for the taller to ignore the whole issue and just go and sweet talk her way to the older and the latter knew something was up. But there were only two answers to this problem: either Irene snaps Seulgi out of it… or she plays along with Seulgi.

“Let’s go outside, I wanna ride the rollercoaster with you!”  The hunter excitedly said, grabbing her lover’s hand and gently pulling her, but the tiny beauty wasn’t moving. “C’mon, it’ll be fun, trust me”

Irene hates rollercoasters and fast rides but that tender look of Seulgi’s was convincing her. Her feet started to move, slowly, but surely. Kang pulled once again their still connected hands and in a blink of an eye, they were already outside. Of all the spells that have been cast onto her, this one was the one she hated the most. Everything about it made her want to run away and never come back, she wanted to free herself from the hunter’s grip and disappear right there and then. She was starting to see the pattern and recognize it. This spell is a very distasteful allegory between mechanical rides and love. The leader hates even the thought of dangerous activity and prefers tranquility and peace, which symbolizes her life before finding Kang Seulgi. Now she’s standing right in front of a rollercoaster, the line behind her starting to get impatient, waiting for her to either jump in or leave. And oh, the witch wished that was it, but no. The thing with extreme rides is that at first, she’s hesitant, but once adrenaline kicks in, she’s riding her high, her pupils are dilated, hands sweaty and heart beating fast. It’s like a drug she’s never gonna want to quit.

And Irene is way too deep into Kang by now, she knows that just the tiniest misstep is going to doom her forever. And it’s a chance she’s not sure she wants to take, not after all she’s gone through. Not again.

Oh, but those eyes…

And that sweet eye-smile of hers…

“Let’s go, everyone!” Joy happily exclaimed, being followed by the other three girls.

“Yeah! I wanna ride the teacups!” Yeri followed.

“Yo, we should totally go together” Wendy cheered.

Before the tiny beauty could overanalyze the situation again, the girls swiftly pushed the two right in front of the ticket booth, where Seungwan was ready to give them their pass.

“Wait how did she-“ The leader asked, clearly confused as she saw the girl was with them just a second ago. “I still don’t like this…” She whispered to herself.

“C’mon, Irene, they’re gonna leave us behind” Seulgi hurried, kindly pushing the witch to a strange elevator kind of thing that just fell from the sky without any explanation. “Pff, when do I become so stupid? This spell makes no sense” She rolled her eyes.

“Welcome, girls, please remain calm and avoid walking around the booth while we make it to our destination” It was Joy who was now dressed as some kind of weird flight attendant. She reached for a lever and pushed, making the elevator go up really fast, almost making it seem like there was no gravity at all when the girl’s feet briefly left the ground.

“This makes no sense, we should be to the ground not the other way around” Wendy complained, reading the leader’s mind.

“I don’t think things make sense here, they never did” The hunter laughed while enjoying the ride.

Yeri looked over at Irene, who seemed very quiet and concentrated in something other than the elevator. “She’s trying to break the spell” She mumbled.

“Then do something about it”

When everyone opened their eyes again, they were now seated on a rollercoaster cart, getting ready for lift-off. “Oh no, no, no, no” Irene panicked, trying to get the security frame off. She frantically waved her hands and tried to grasp the frame but there was no use, the lock was already on. The monolided girl noticed her distress and held her hand tightly.

“It’s okay, I’ve got you” She said with the sweetest eye-smile ever, making Irene melt right in front of her.

Yeri started controlling the ride and made the girls go up and down in loops and drops, making everyone dizzy in the process.

“Agh, my head” Hunter Kang complained while gently rubbing her temple.

“Are you okay?” The tiny beauty asked, worried.

“I… Where are we?”

“Seulgi?”

“Are you casting more spells, Irene?” The younger asked with a hint of disappointment in her voice.

“No, it wasn’t me, I promise” The tiny witch defended herself, but it seemed like the younger wasn’t believing her.

“I’m out of here” The hunter scoffed, lifting the security frame and walking out of the ride without even bothering to help Irene.

“Kang Seulgi, wait!” The witch grunted while trying to lift the frame too.

Upon freeing herself, the leader swiftly tried to catch up with the annoyed hunter but got distracted by Wendy, who was excitedly inviting her to ride the teacups with everybody.

“We have to find Seulgi first” The older reasoned.

“But she’s already with the others, c’mon, we were just waiting for you!” The younger rushed, grabbing the leader’s hand and practically dragging her across the carnival.

This is so weird, Irene thought. Not only does this spell involve the materialization of places but now of people, something that is almost impossible. Unless we were imagining all this stuff, dreaming of it… but why does it feel so real? The tiny witch asked herself.

“If I bleed, this is real” She whispered, intentionally smacking her hand on an item of metallic furniture, giving a little cut to her pinky in the process. “…”

“Are you okay, unnie?” Wendy stopped. “Do you want me to take you to the house? You’re bleeding” She hurried, concerned.

“Wait… you are bleeding”

On the other side of the carnival, Seulgi, Joy and Yeri were patiently waiting for the other 2 to join them, sitting silently on a teacup.

“It’s been almost thirty minutes, where the hell could they be?” Joy asked, annoyed.

“What if something happened to them?” Seulgi worried, trying to leave her seat but Yeri stopped her.

“Nothing could go wrong here, it’s a carnival after all, people come to have fun” The youngest tried to convince the hunter with an empty smile, or was she trying to convince herself? Not that she was doubting Joohyun… but she started to get anxious ever since the powerful leader didn’t even show up with them to the teacup ride, it was only the four of them, since the beginning, as if there was some sort of hidden agenda Joohyun didn’t inform her of.

“There is no way you can be bleeding right now, that means…” Wendy tried to make sense while running to a nearby corndog stand and grabbing a stick to stab her hand, blood slowly coming out of the tiny hole she made. “What the hell is going on?” She exhaled, like a cry for help, mumbled in disbelief.

“I have no idea how Joohyun managed to do this but I’m certain this is her work… my work” The last two words hurt the leader like a knife through her heart. What could possibly have happened for her to turn this cold-blooded?

“If you know what’s going on please make it stop” The younger begged with glassy eyes.

“That’s the problem, I don’t know how to make it stop, I couldn’t even believe this was possible” Irene said. “I don’t even know why I would resort to this, is this how desperate I get?” She continued, defeated.

“We’re going to die” Wendy softly sobbed.

“This isn’t one of those spells where I used to put you in a dream… so yeah, if you die here, you die forever” The older expressed and she couldn’t even get herself to make eye contact with the poor soul in distress. “But I’m going to make sure you guys are okay”

“I’m tired of waiting, I’ll start looking for Irene too” Hunter Kang said annoyed and coolly jumped off the teacup, heading out of the ride.

“Should I stop her?” Yeri whispered.

“No, let her come”

“Did you say something?” Joy asked, raising a brow.

“Uhm… nope”

Seulgi kept roaming the carnival waiting to spot a familiar silhouette but it felt like she was running out of luck. On the furthest edge of the carnival, almost where it was deserted, the funhouse stood tall and big, inviting. “I know we shouldn’t be going near mirrors but… what if she’s in there? Where nobody has even looked” She tried to convince herself, took a deep breath and slowly entered the building.

A shiver ran down her spine when she saw the horrific images of what used to be warm-looking clowns, but now thanks to time and weather conditions, the paint job was almost washed out and dirty making it seem nearly post-apocalyptic. “Just one quick look and I’m out” She tried to convince herself but fear paralyzed her.

“Seulgi?” Irene called her from further inside of the funhouse.

“I was looking for you, did you get lost?” The hunter asked, slowly moving forward to hear the witch better.

“I’m a fool, I wanted to check the funhouse out but I actually got lost in the maze of mirrors… and you know how dangerous it is for us to be near them, would you help me out?” The leader asked coaxingly.

“Yeah but… why did you even come here in the first place? I thought you didn’t want to play more games and cast more spells yet here we are” The younger asked curiously.

“This is not a spell, It’s just a funhouse” The older kept persuading. “Besides, the one we should be worrying about right now is Joohyun, not me”

“And how can I know you’re not Joohyun trying to trick me?” Seulgi immediately stopped walking, her body suddenly turned cold in fear. If this was Irene, she was right, all this time she thought the tiny witch was still playing games with her, but what if Joohyun never went away? What if she somehow survived the shot? All that thinking was making her feel uneasy, in danger.

“I would never trick you, Seul. I promise”

She called me Seul, she IS Irene, the younger thought abandoning her fear and walking hastily further inside the falling structure.

There she found Irene, sitting on the floor, holding her right hand as if it hurt her.

“Are you okay?” Hunter Kang carefully reached for the leader’s bleeding hand. “We need to stop the bleeding, how did you even get hurt?” She continued, ripping a part of her shirt, wrapping the fabric around the other’s hand.

“It was just a little accident”

“C’mon, let’s get you out of here” The monolided girl hurried, taking Irene’s other hand to try and run with her but stopped as she was pulled back. “What the…” She whispered and didn’t even get to finish the sentence as she looked down in disbelief, seeing her hand handcuffed to a pipe near one of the walls. And no surprise either, Irene was nowhere to be found.

She jerked her hand, tried to kick the pipe, struggled and grunted, but there was no use. “Help!” She cried.

“Seungwan!”

“Sooyoung!”

“Yerim-ah!”

“…” Hunter Kang sobbed, sliding her body to the ground, defeated.

She called and called for any of the girls, it didn’t matter at this point to her if they were good or bad, she just wanted to know if they were okay and to understand what kind of spell this was.

“They’re not coming” The tiny witch said nonchalantly, coming from the shadows. “Do you know the magic word Zimzalabim?” She smiled, stopping in front of Seulgi, lowering herself to the helpless little witch hunter’s level.

“Oh, you’re not talking to me, alright” She continued, caressing the younger’s cheek. “I’m not the bad one here though” She looked right into the monolided girl’s eyes with… despair?

For one moment the hunter’s violent and angry gaze turned into a hesitant, understanding gaze. How could she feel so many emotions just by looking into those big, beautiful eyes? How could the witch say so much without even pronouncing a word?

“Zimzalabim is a word just like abracadabra, alakazam or whatever those stupid magicians like to say nowadays to pretend they did magic” The older explained, regaining composure as she stood up and walked to one of the mirrors, looking at her reflection. “In the real witch world, you can use such words to tie spells to them, spells that don’t have a name, that aren’t supposed to even exist” She stopped to look back at Seulgi. “This is my final spell”

“I will not let you hurt the girls” The younger girl returned to her angry state as she threatened the witch. “We’ll settle this once and for all, but just the two of us, let the girls go”

“I think you’re confused… The girls will be freed” Joohyun slowly approached her beloved Kang. “Irene, on the other hand…”

“Joohyun?!”

“Irene has to go, Seulgi” She said, sorrowfully.

“I promised… I promised her I would get her out of here, that she would have a second chance” The younger girl said, standing up, handcuffs still sliding up with her.

Joohyun sighed. “I tried so many times to convince her to let the girls out of this, that in every scenario they had to be sacrificed… but she didn’t listen this time, of all of the times”

“What do you mean with all of the times?”

“The truth is, Seulgi, we are in a constant time loop” The witch returned to face the mirror. “This place doesn’t exist in time nor place. The interactions we have with the ‘outside’ world doesn’t even exist, it’s all a fabrication. Monsieur Jacques never existed, I used a spell to fake a man’s voice and called your boss. The information you got about the girls, pictures, everything was sent by me”

“But I saw him when I had that weird vision of the house when Irene first came here” Hunter Kang said.

“You thought you saw him”

“No, I’m certain it was him”

“Did you ever touch him? Did you even talk to him? You only saw what Irene wanted you to see, to enhance the experience, to make you believe this was real, that time here goes by and we’re not just stuck in a chunk of space that doesn’t even exist anymore!” The older snapped, tears running down her cheeks. “You died, Seulgi…”

“What…?”

“February was just staring… it was cold and we finally were living a peaceful life… but something went wrong and you died…” She sobbed. “I couldn’t believe you were gone right after I got the opportunity to be with you after all we were through… So I found that strange-looking voodoo shop near our street… and I said, it, I’ll do whatever it takes to have you back, I don’t care if I have to sell my soul to the devil”

“No…”

“And I tried everything, bought a god damned book of enchantments and spells but nothing seemed to bring you back just like I wanted. Turns out resurrection didn’t work because your body was cremated, but reincarnation could” Joohyun turned to look at Seulgi, with sorrowful eyes. “Have you ever wondered why your mom doesn’t have pregnancy pictures?”

“What the , I’m not adopted… they… they had me since the beginning… my… my mom…” Seulgi stuttered, her mind going blank as she remembered that it was true, she never paid too much attention to her baby pictures but one thing was sure, there were no pregnancy pictures of her mom. And now that she thinks about it, she isn’t very like her parents.

“I literally sold my soul to the devil. Myself” The older continued. “After I made the reincarnation ritual, I had to deliver you to a safe family, so I did everything in my power to make sure that you were going to grow up with everything you needed: love, stability and money” She returned to her place in front of Kang. “I think you know the rest from here”

“You’re lying” Hunter Kang whispered as she cried.

“I wish I was” Joohyun said, painfully. “I really wish I was lying. I wish all of this was a dream, I wish I never would’ve walked inside that cursed voodoo shop… I wish I could’ve had the strength to even let you go in the first place… yet here we are, Seul”

“Stop calling me that! Where’s Irene?”

“I am Irene” The leader desperately tried to calm the other down. “My name is Bae Joohyun… I made up the name Irene decades ago… and I stuck by it when I tried to make this misery work again”

“Just… how many times have you-“

“Many more than I could remember… but please, put your trust in me Seul… I won’t hurt you” She caressed the monolided girl’s cheek once again, trying to memorize the softness of her skin.

“Then prove it. Answer my questions!” Seulgi demanded and gently pulled away from the other’s touch. “Why are there two of you?! Where is Irene?! Was she really hurt?!”

The older sighed. Nothing that was coming from was enough to calm the young hunter down. “I faked the injury to lure you closer to me, she will be here… but not now” She complied because she was tired, her powers were draining and her strength was quivering. “There’s ‘two of us’ because I needed an insurance policy or something that would guarantee that I wasn’t going crazy as the time went by. So I decided that because I couldn’t trust nobody but myself, I would divide my essence into brain and gut; reason and feelings… but even I couldn’t be trusted”

Seulgi attentively listened and watched the tiny witch as she paced from side to side.

“I had to trick myself, or I should say, the other conscience I just had created into thinking that she was part of a big plan, that she just needed to preserve my physical body and wait for someone. I lied and introduced myself to her as Jennie and instructed her to make sacrifices to keep the body from deteriorating and gave her only a small portion of my powers. Since she was a part of me that also wanted you back, I had to give her minimal information about that ‘big plan’ I just mentioned, I told her that this time -even though she doesn’t know about the time loops- we would have you back”

“But because she is the embodiment of your feelings and emotions, she was unstable and unpredictable…” Hunter Kang chimed in.

“Now you understand” Joohyun chuckled. “Being that she had my physical body, I couldn’t do much to stop her while being stuck in the only mirror inside the house as I wasn’t physically capable of getting out. The first mistake she did was to grow fond of those girls because from the moment she did, they were doomed”

“And what about Yeri?... Did you brainwash her too?” The younger said.

“She came to me and I thought she could help me restore my control over Irene. And she was doing good but… I can sense her loyalty still is with Irene”

“If you give me more time I swear I can-“ Seulgi was cut off.

“There is nothing you can do” The older smiled painfully. “When my body entered that house, when their bodies entered that house… they ceased to exist. We entered this twisted realm of no reality, where any kind of matter is absent. Doors, food, furniture, people… everything you could’ve experienced with your sense of touch is just a materialization that your brain wanted to do”

“I know about all of that being possible… but I know the bodies have to be somewhere around here” Hunter Kang’s resolution sparked again.

“I know you’re smart and I know you know the bodies are here” Joohyun nodded. “And that’s why you need to let me go”

“I know the four bodies have to be here, five if even I abandoned mine”

“Four bodies are here. The spell was never intended to include you”

“You cast the spell… you can undo it and recover your body”

“I can’t”

“Yes you can, you just don’t want to”