Mingi and Elise tore through the traffic of the city and hurried to the first place they thought of for clues about Serafia's whereabouts: Yunho's house.

Mingi was expecting a fight, with the number of unpredictable situations they'd been in, he reckoned he'd be unfazed even if Serafia was out for blood. But when they showed up at the house, with its dead quiet and door half opened, Mingi felt like something was already off. 

"What the hell happened here?" he heard Elise mutter and unconsciously he held her back with his arm. When they entered the living room, nothing seemed out of place, but the dead silence was what kept them on their toes. This was surely a trap. 

"What do you mean? Everything's in place," Mingi frowned. 

Elise beckoned at her necklace, where the pendant was glowing again. "This thing is saying otherwise," and they ventured further into the house. He allowed Elise to walk in front of him, them being careful to not make much noise. They turned into a familiar hallway, and Mingi immediately knew where they were heading.

Elise was the one to frown, "It's still glowing, b-but this is a dead end..." she whirled around at the room, with its instruments in place, paying no attention to the fireplace at all. Instead, Mingi went towards it without saying much, his hand reaching for the firelogs, tossing them aside.

"No it's not," he answered, and soon enough there was the ominous opening at the fireplace, right where Mingi last seen it. 

Elise stared at him, "That's exactly where it's pointing to," she murmured before glancing back at him. "So, do we move?"

He had to think for another second, knowing where they were headed, so at least that was what he knew. Still, the unsettling silence of the house didn't sit right with him, he was expecting a fight, or at least a chase. 

Mingi grabbed the crowbar dangling near the fireplace. "I don't think we have much of a choice,"

Elise raised an eyebrow, "Lead the way then,"

Swiftly, he descended through the entrance and dropped as soon as his feet reached the floor of the acre, and when Elise followed closely behind him, they started walking. "Should I ask why you didn't seem all that surprised about there being a hidden trap door under a fireplace in this big house?" she asked him.

"It's a long story, but I know where we're going...I think,"

"Well, your guesses better be correct because I don't like how the pendant isn't getting any dimmer-"

There was a sudden heaving sound coming from the right direction, and Elise responded with a yelp as a distorted shape emerged from the shadows. It came in a blur, and it took Mingi a moment to recover as he lifted the crowbar and pulled Elise behind him, unsure where this bout of courage came from. The figure looked human, or previously had been anyway, particles of black dissipated in the air with every step the figure took, skin peeling off its body like a decaying corpse left too long. What was left of its face was scarce but enough for Mingi to recognise. 

Abel, one of Serafia's servants. 

"She's gone rogue!" Abel writhed. "Please, save me, please!" 

Mingi was unsure of how to respond, the crowbar was still in his hands. "W-who? Is it Serafia?" 

"The end is coming!" he started screaming, so much so Elise had to cover her ears. 

Still Mingi was certain he had to gauge as much info as he could, other wise there'd be no other way to stop this, whatever this was. "Where did she go? Where did Serafia go? Please, tell me now!"

"Back to the where it started, where the curse was first casted..." Abel was losing control and writhed. "THE PAINNNNN, OH THE PAINNN!"

Abel, and his absolving state violently lurched forward and Mingi didn't think twice. 

He swung the crowbar.

The burning black corpse crumpled onto the ground upon impact, and the screaming halted. He breathed hard and didn't realize until Elise walked forward, "I think he's permanently dead," she gulped as they both stared down Abel's corpse, its remnants quickly dissolving into a soot-like puddle. "Your face, you have that s-stuff all over you, " she murmured and tried to wipe his eyelid with her sleeve. 

He hadn't even realize part of the black corpse stained his face when he struck Abel, he refused to think what the particles were exactly made of, because they were certain Abel wasn't exactly a living human. Rather, his mind was fixated on more important things. 

"The school," he said and looked at Elise. "Serafia, she's going to the school me and Yunho went to. That's where this all started."

Elise's brows scrunched together, "But what could be there? It's abandoned isn't it?"

He wasn't sure about that detail either, but he knew that was the only place she could've gone. 

How he was going to stop whatever she was planning to do, he was at a crossroads. He only knew that he wasn't going to lose Yunho to this mess again, it was time to set things right if that meant putting an end to Serafia. 

"We'll have to go and find out then," and it dawned on him that he'd been dragging her around for his quests and even if she persisted to come, he was unsure if she signed up for something like this. "Hey look, I understand you wanna back out because this is dangerous and I don't know what this witch is capable of at this point and she literally set off a bomb at a building-"

Elise rolled her eyes, "Are you going to stay here yapping about this or do you want to save the world?"

Mingi blinked, "Well that's a bit of an overstatement, I wouldn't call this saving the world-"

"Same difference, now let's get going."

And just like that the two sprinted down the dark underground tunnels towards the unknown.

Despite being the most crucial part of this entire thing, they still chose to have Ara tied up. 

Even worse she was blindfolded, hands bound behind her with rope as if she was being sent to the gallows. Surrounding her were the rest of the coven, and she had a fleeting thought she was certain that the entire coven had followed - for reasons she still did not know. She could only depend on her other sense, the rustling under her feet meant she was outside now, the chill of the air gave her goosebumps on her skin - the cold of the night. 

Where they taking her?

There was also Yunho to worry about, where he was and how was he doing; Was he still unconscious? Was he chained too? Ara had no clue and all that swirled in her head were a unintellgible murmurs of the dead at bay, as if they too, were anticipating something to happen. The longer they walked, the coldness in the air was coupled with an eerie stillness that did not seem natural, a pindrop silence put Ara on edge. She thought her ears were playing tricks on her, for she could swear she heard water rippling, echoes bouncing off the walls in whatever place they were.

"We've arrived."

The Witch Mother's voice startled her as her voice seemed to be every at once. "You must not fight free from your bonds, my Corpse Witch, for it will cost you a great deal if you do."

Ara wanted to sound brave, "We'll see about that only when you take this ing blindfold off me!" 

Mother Edith only responded with a light chuckle. 

And the blindfold came off. 

Her vision was blurry for the first few seconds and when it came to focus, her heart dropped to her stomach. She had no idea how she ended up back in Yunho and Mingi's old school swimming gymnasium, where the once abandoned and empty pool was now filled with water, an odd dark hue of blue which glistened under the moonlight peeking through the window of the building. Yunho stood in the very middle of the pool, standing on a black platform engraved with runes allowing him inexplicably stay afloat on the water, hands bound against a pillar of the platform like he was ready to be burned at the stake and surrounding the pool was the coven, all cloaked and heads bent down ready for prayer. The blend between magic and the real world were oddly out of place. 

Next to her were Edith and Serafia. 

"Why did you take me here?" Ara asked, genuinely confused. "I was prepared to be thrown into a graveyard or mausoleum to summon the dead, not this."

Serafia broke into a sinister smile, "Now that would be too on the noose, don't you think? All places are haunted, my girl, what do you think these school grounds were built on?"

Horror crept into Ara when she realized that, as if things came to focus more. The uneasiness she had been harbouring the moment she arrived here, and when she blinked fast enough, she swore she saw glimpses of the shadows moving, the solemn atmosphere, flashes of red and tragedy. In the back of her mind she vaguely remembered the paragraphs of the books Edith forced to read: "Places of tragedy and death have the most centralized energy, for that makes these places the most unstable."

Ara swallowed hard. "Fine, I'm here now, what do you want me to do?"

Mother Edith stepped forward, "We are at one of the cracks between world called the folds, this one, between the realm of the living and the dead."

Yunho started to stir and their eyes met, and for a fleeting moment Ara felt like this wasn't a ruse, he remembered her. "And what role do I play in this?" she tried keeping her voice steady. 

From her pocket, Serafia produced something shiny and Ara realized it was flower pin, gold with red gemstones. "A possession of someone is a tether to this world, and can be reached long as the person who can walk between these worlds brings them back," she said, as if remembering a line a book and handed the pin to Ara. 

Ara was skeptical, "And how to I open this so-called fold?"

There was a manic glint in Serafia's eyes, "As how all folds are opened, blood. But this requires more than just a cut," she laughed under her breath. "Kill him softly, making it quick and do the job,"

Ara knew it'd come to this, but still she couldn't help ask, "Why am I the one who has to kill him? Couldn't you do it? Why wait?"

"The one to walk through the fold to retrieve what is lost - is the one who must be holding the hilt. I'd like to think it's a merciful end, witchling, if it were me, there would've been worser ways to die," she said, as if this was nothing alarming, as if she basked in this grotesque charade. "You can ask his father that,"

It felt so long ago since she saw Chairman Jeong, weak and helpless from years of abuse at the hands of Serafia, his final moments most likely not at peace, the last thought in his eyes when she went for the kill - it made her sick. "You're a monster." she spat. 

"Or so I've been told," Serafia said. 

They forced her onto another platform, floating towards where Yunho stood, his eyes not wavering from her. Ara had to think of something, she scanned the perimeter, desperate for an escape route, the pin in her right hand and the dagger in the other, but she was getting closer to Yunho. The chanting of the witches got louder, until it felt like a chorus of unnerving nuns focused in prayer, the sound so damning Ara wanted to crawl underground and block out the sound. 

Immediately she saw Edith raise her hands up towards the air as she uttered something feverishly, then the edges of the pool was ablaze, the fire surrounding the two in the middle of the pool.

Her head felt like splitting apart from the migraine, but she had to keep moving, her body responding before she could think of it clearly. Now she was standing in front of Yunho, her hands trembling and under her breath she whispered, "I'll think of something," she gulped. "W-we can run for it, there's ghosts here, if I try hard enough I can summon them."

"I'm sorry, Ara, forgive me." 

She hadn't expected that quick whisper from him, so familiar - and had not realized what was happening until it was too late.

His hands came free from the ropes, he snatched the pin from her hands, it had been so easy, so instant. Yunho raised his arm and drove the sharp point through his chest.

Red blooomed on the fabric of his shirt, and he fell to his knees, Ara was frozen in shock.

She hadn't been holding the hilt. 

Her eyes darted towards Serafia and Edith, them just as startled before turning back to look at Yunho, gasping for air slowly, she could feel him slipping away. "Nononononononono..." she kept on rambling. Anything Serafia said after that could no longer be heard, whatever she screamed. 

And soon Ara was weeping uncontrollably, an overwhelming tidal wave of emotions taking over her, the voices whirling. "Please, no, NOOOO!!!"

The pain swallowed her full, a piercing shriek escaped . 

A crack formed on the earth they stood. 

And all of hell's fire broke loose.