i'm the light blinking at the end of the road, blink back to let me know.
i'm the light blinking at the end of the road, blink back to let me know.
Sehun was nineteen when he first stumbled to the forest and left behind their little village.
He was running.
Loud inhales and exhales and the tap, tap, tap of his feet against concrete road were the only sound permeating the air, amplified by the silence of his surroundings. The moon hung over the sky, the dead of the night, but he was running from unseen terror somewhere behind him. He can't see it, probably his imagination running wild he thinks, but he doesn't want to take his chance.
Loud inhales and exhales and the tap, tap, tap of his feet against concrete road were the only sound permeating the air, amplified by the silence of his surroundings. The moon hung over the sky, the dead of the night, but he was running from unseen terror somewhere behind him. He can't see it, probably his imagination running wild he thinks, but he doesn't want to take his chance.
Especially when his parents' room were empty, the floors were wet, and a strange foul odor was slowly filling the place. The moving shadows drains the sleepiness away from him and he whispers mom, dad, and only the silence greets him back.
He takes one look back at the stillness of his house before he sprints towards the place of Kim Jongin, his best friend and probably something more. The living room light was on and he sighs with relief before he smells the same unpleasant scent after a step inside the lot.
Sehun gags and he could feel his eyes tear up.
He can feel the suffocating air of fear enter his veins as he identifies the odor that he keeps inhaling through every house he passed by, the same scent now emanating strongly from Jongin's house.
He swipes at his dry cheeks and takes a step back, and another, and he was running away from his house, from Jongin, and from the stillness of everything around him.
Sehun finally drops at the end of road, roughly scratching the palm of his hands on the ground and skinning his knees despite the pajamas he’s wearing. His breathing was labored because his body and his respiratory system were never made to take much of any physical strain.
Jongin. Jongin was the one who was always up for these types of games.
But this is not a game, not anymore, and he tries not to think about his losses.
He looks up and the metal fence separating his village to the forest of dry trees beyond was just a few steps ahead.
Sehun pulls himself up, his adrenaline still compensating for the crippling feeling of uncertaintylossdread filling up his chest cavity.
He trudges toward those few meters and he crashes against the huge fence, the rattling of metal echoing out loud, making him cringe and stopping his heart for a millisecond. He falls to his knees and the coolness of the metal presses against his flushed face.
The wind blows through the dead forest, giving it more life than the picturesque little village that looks like it belongs to a painting rather than a bustling little town he actually lives in.
He presses his hands down to the soil, takes a moment to appreciate its softness, and starts earnestly digging using his bare hands.
He’d done this before with Jongin, always with Jongin. Memories of digging through the dirt, cutting open the crisscrossing fence with stolen metal shears, shouting stop, come back, you can’t go, flashing through his head.
Sehun looks back and thinks he sees Jongin. He digs and tugs until a loose end of the fence is visible. He pulls it up, crouches to slip in the small opening and a sharp cold chills his neck, spreading ice throughout his body.
He comes out the other side and he feels oddly numb and free.
Hey Sehun.
He looks up to a grinning boy. Tall, wearing white clothes with visible specks of ashes and barefooted. This is how the person in front of him looks.
Who are you, he asks because even though he doesn’t remember, he feels an overwhelming warmth for this boy.
I’m Chanyeol, nice to meet you.
He blinks and he realizes that he is in the middle of the woods, tall gray trees towering over him at all sides. He opens his mouth, where am I, pauses and, with hands gripping the edges of his red shirt, asks why are we here?
The other boy smiles sadly, and it was definitely sad because it was a big contrast to the happy grin present in that expressive face before.
I’m your best friend, Oh Sehun.
He shakes his head because he doesn’t remember him, doesn’t remember having a best friend.
Because he, Oh Sehun, doesn’t remember anything at all.
He opens his mouth again to ask, ask, and ask for anything because he doesn’t like the blankness he draws from his own mind but the boy who claims to be his best friend beats him to it.
We’ve met before. Many, many times before. But we first met on your nineteenth birthday, do you remember?
He shakes his head but Chanyeol continues on, seemingly knowing his answer beforehand and asking just out of habit.
We met by chance, you know. I was preparing to die and you stumble out of there, dying.
Here, he freezes as the taller boy laughs in amusement.
And then he notices the burning feet.
Chanyeol notices too but it was ignored and instead stepped closer to him and he blurts out, what are you?
Chanyeol trills, trills as if he is a bird, and plainly says I’m a phoenix.
Sehun takes a step back because clearly this boy was out of his mind and suicidal and was burning.
It’s funny how it gets you every time. But long story short, you died on me but I healed your soul as I died and here we are.
What, he croaks because he didn’t understand a thing.
Do you know what happens to a phoenix when it dies? It gets reborn as a baby. Chanyeol grins happily again, the fire slowly burning away his clothes leaving him and still on fire.
I’m not supposed to remember anything at all when I get reborn but this is where you come in. You don’t remember anything right?
Chanyeol’s grin was present but his eyes are starting to light up, leaving him clueless on the boy’s real emotions. But he still doesn’t understand because how can he be reborn when...
You’re dead, Sehun. You died 81 years ago.
Sehun gaspschokes and notices the red on his shirt.
It was fresh blood pouring from his neck, soaking his shirt and the ground on his feet.
You’ve been reliving your last moments before you were killed.
He feels the heat, also consuming him, starting at the blood spilled and up his legs, filling his insides with liquid fire.
We’re stuck on this sad loop for eternity. Or I guess until the world ends. You’ll never remember anything and I’ll always remember everything. But we’ll always have each other even for a short period of time.
Chanyeol wraps him in a hug and the fire consumes them both. Always.
Until we meet again. Happy Birthday Sehun.
Sehun feels the soft warmth of lips against his own and the last thing he sees is a bright light shining through the bleak trees and thinks,
Until I meet you again.
Sehun was nineteen when he first stumbled to the forest and left behind their little village, dying and meeting Chanyeol for the first time.
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