(enjoy this double update since aff was down last night when I was supposed to post the last chapter)

also, there will be explicit descriptions of blood and violence for the next few chapters. please read mindfully as this can be triggering.

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Seungwan opens her eyes to nothing but darkness. She's standing, but she doesn't feel anything beneath her feet. There's a light behind her and she turns, gasping a the sight of Momo with wings. 

"You're an angel," Wendy says taking an instinctive step backwards.

The other is still wearing her hospital receptionist clothes, so it looks a bit strange to pair it with angelic wings.

"Yes," Momo replies curtly. "And you're a human without a soul."

Wendy blinks, taking a gander at the limitless nothing around her. "What is this place?"

Momo doesn't take her eyes off Wendy as she slowly walks around. "Your soul. Or the place it would usually reside."

"I thought I had a fragment of it back though," Wendy mutters under her breath, mostly to herself.

"You did," Momo says, pulling Wendy's gaze back to her. "But it's back where it belongs," she sees Wendy scrunch up her face in confusion and chuckles. "In hell--purgatory technically--with the rest of your soul."

Wendy's jaw drops in anger. "Hey! I worked really hard to get that back!" She whines indignantly.

"Did you? You didn't even know that you could get even a bit of it back until...I'm guessing Joy told you?"

Wendy falters then, and asks, "You know Sooyoung?"

The angel rolls her eyes and her feathers ruffle subconsciously. "Of course I know the Devil, Wendy."

"Oh, yeah," she mutters, feeling a little stupid at the question. "You guys kicked her out of heaven."

Momo doesn't say anything about that, moving past the accusation and she changes the direction of the conversation. "You must be wondering why I brought you here."

It's as if she completely forgot and Wendy blinks. "Right! Yes. Why am I here? Wherever here is... Am I dead?"

"No," Momo chuckles and waves her off.

"'Kay... Well can you bring me back? I have things to do, people to see, Joohyun to kiss," Seungwan says nonchalantly.

Momo creases her brow at that in amusement and doesn't reply. She does a little gesture with her hand as if to pick something out of the air and pulls against the darkness like slime. A black goop. It stretches and she tugs out a black sword. 

"What the--"

"You're gonna need this," Momo says and chucks the sword at her feet. She watches as Wendy refuses to pick it up, staring at the angel at a loss for words. 

"Why?" Wendy asks suspiciously.

Momo a brow and with her eyes, signals for her to pick up the weapon. When she hesitantly does, Momo watches as Wendy regards the sword with a curious gaze. "When Joy took your soul, she failed to seal off your soul space. Which is understandable, she's never taken someone's soul without also taking their life before."

Wendy is surprised. She thought the devil had at least a little bit of experience. Though it explains why Sooyoung and Yeri's both been so jittery about her state of soullessness and why they've been very adamant about her regaining her soul. Seungwan wonders why the devil chose to spare her life. 

"Because of this, your soul in Purgatory still feels like it belongs here in your soul space, which is why it's making a very bothersome attempt to return." Wendy looks at her as if she grew another head and Momo has to check to see if she accidentally did. "Think of it like Bluetooth, you have a connection with your soul despite being in a different realm, and it's trying to get a better signal."

"Oh," Wendy says shortly, seemingly getting it now. 

"Anyway, this is causing huge problems in all the realms so until your soul can be properly contained and delivered to a circle in hell, you're to stay here and fend for yourself in your soul space," Momo says and starts flapping her wings.

"Wait-Wait what?" Wendy gazed up as the angel lifts off the ground, the light going upwards with her.

"Good luck, you'll need it. Joy left quite a mess!" Momo calls out above her.

"Wait hold on a sec--"

"You should really see someone about all those nightmares," Momo shouts out and vaguely, Wendy hears a sinister growl. "That is, if you manage to survive," is all Momo says before she disappears, taking her light with her.

There's a second or two as Wendy blinks, trying to process what just happened before she feels the ground thumping and a set of heavy footfalls approach her. Instinctively, Wendy scrambles into a run when she sees a set of red eyes glowing, paired with flaring white teeth that bare fangs and a deafening animalistic roar. 

"WHAT THE !" Wendy yells, running as fast as she can that she doesn't even realise the feel of wet grass beneath her shoes until she trips and falls flat into the ground. She looks down to see her foot stuck in a tree root and glances around her to find herself in some kind of forest. The beast is still behind her if the rhythmic thuds in the ground mean anything. 

Wendy pulls and tugs on her leg, but the roots on the floor move on their own, snaking around her feet with a mind of their own. It grows claws and spikes, piercing her skin and she cries out, reaching for the sword beside her. It cuts easily and she shuffles back on her hands and feet before she sees the beast--

It's truly a monster from her nightmares. Literally. She remembers seeing it in a dream when she was just a little child. It's a ing stegosaurus. 

" me, why did I ever watch Jurassic Park as a ten-year-old?!" Wendy groans to herself and gets to her feet, running again and being mindful of the roots on the ground. 

But it seems like her soul space knows of her awareness and surprises her again by moving the trees. They tower over her, vines grazing past her face as she sprints forward. It dances around her, like green tentacles drawn to fear. One manages to cut her eyebrow and she winces as the blood flows over her eye. She waves the sword around, slashing the vines around her as she conti