1
Huntress
She gripped his hand tightly, the sharpness of her nails digging into the palm of his unintentionally as the pair struggled to see through the intensity of the rain. Close relatives had gathered close by, directing their sympathetic gaze towards them occasionally as the ceremony progressed and he watched over her frozen cadaver in what appeared as false sorrow, a façade for those who attended with emotions of grief at her mother’s sudden death. Yuri fidgeted in restlessness as an artic cool breeze washed over them from the west, whistling as it rustled the leaves of nearby trees, singing in a line of falsetto notes.
Tightening the belt of her raincoat which barely sheltered her from the never ending rain, she shuddered, snuggling closer to Jiyong who held an umbrella over their heads. She squinted her eyes at the sight of a tear, a tear travelling down the length of his face as the priest paused in his own word, wiping his own eyes of the warm liquid which had built at the rims of them. She held them back by force for her mother would never have wished to see them whimpering in remembrance of her. She believed that death was no end and as our exteriors grew older, they would move onto the next life as if nothing had ever changed. She lived with optimistic beliefs, enlightening the world with her philosophical, logical words. Perhaps that was why she was loved by so many.
Her last words lingered continually in Yuri’s mind: “I want you to live the rest of your life in happiness. No matter what occurs or the hard times you will suffer, I want to see a smile on your face as I watch you from heaven.” Her breaths hushed with each word, freezing as a smile played at her lips and her heart beat stopped completely. She chose them carefully, leaving Earth on a good note. In a state of eternal happiness.
Jiyong struggled out of her forceful grasp, planting a soft kiss on her cheek as his hand brushed over Yuri’s, passing the umbrella into her grip. His weight shifted from side to side as he stepped forward, towards the coffin clear in her line of sight. He was suffering more than she was as the older child who had known their mother for longer than Yuri had and although times had been rough over the years prior, their mother had stuck by him.
“Preoccupied, my dear?” the smooth voice of the priest sang, tearing her from her thoughts as I returned to reality. Kim Jaejoong, the priest of our church of the previous 5 years, was the least expected of all children of the town to obtain the occupation he had. Known for his demonic childhood, causing trouble to citizens and a great deal of pain to his parents, he was shunned by the elders who insisted he was possessed by the devil and encouraged an exorcism to remove said demon from him. Yet the dark times had changed him and he transformed from the devil to a saint. Yuri pondered over the idea that the death of his parents had caused this - she had no evidence.
“I was thinking about mother,” she answered, watching the coffin be lifted from the ground and carried towards the grave where her mother would spend the rest of the earth’s days in somewhat peaceful serenity.
“She was a great woman, your mother. It is a shame that the Lord has chosen to take her from us,” his hand rested on the curve of her shoulder, unnaturally pale in tone, the tips of his fingers red as they numbed from the coldness of the air. She twisted her head to see his face, framed by tufts of raven black hair which curled in waves at the ends. The priest was a shockingly handsome man with distinct features, beautiful orbs which glistened in the sunlight, sparkling with hope of change and faith in the Lord. His beauty had captured the hearts of the females of the town. Yuri was one of them, drawn towards him with tender curiosity to know more.
“Ah yes, she was a wonderful women and I’m sure Yuri will miss her, won’t you Yuri?” the conversion was interrupted by the unwanted attention of Mun Jung-hyuk, her stepfather.
“Of course I will,” she replied nonchalantly, portraying the image of the vulnerable little girl who had just lost her mother. And as Jaejoong left to attend to the other visitors, she shot the man at her side a look of distaste. It was evident from his actions that he had never loved her mother to the extent that her mother had loved him, treating her as inferior, as the servant in her own household, trapping her in this lifestyle by the bonds of the marriage and the worry of becoming a single parent in the awful world that they lived in once more. He was never a father to her and he never would be.
She walked towards Jiyong in sorrow, linking their hands together as her mother was lowered into her grave, the glistening raindrops cascading from the sky peacefully as she inhaled the bitter coldness of the fresh air. She reached into my jacket pocket, fingers fumbling through the fabric as she pulled out a handkerchief, placing it in Jiyong’s hand with a reassuring smile playing the muscles of her face. They would get through our sorrow together. He was the only family she considered was left.
*****
The time read 11:12 as the clock on the wall solemnly ticked on and on as the day drew nearer to a close. He sat behind the polished oak desk in power, watching as the lawyer read the contents of the Will, the faint stench of alcohol lingering in the air. The tie around his neck had loosened as the guests had left the home in sorrow, wishing him the best for the future as they disappeared to their rooms, exhausted by the day’s event.
“And I, Kwon Se Ah, leave my home and my life fortune to my children, Jiyong and Yuri, to be divided equally between them,” the lawyer spoke in a hushed whisper, his eyes scanning over the contents of the sheet of paper in his grip. Jung-hyuk’s eyes furrowed in anger, snatching the paper from his hands in disbelief. They were married for 5 years, deserving of a share in her wealth as he believed he was more important than her children who never showed any affection or love towards her.
“This can’t be right. There must be a mistake. There must be more to this than what there is here. Is there any more?” he shook his head, spitting out words as he became internally infuriated by what was written, urging to tear the Will into shreds. It was the only reason he had done what he did. He married her for her wealth, ensuring her untimely death. His hands were inked with the remains of her blood.
“There’s nothing else to this Will. The only way you would obtain any belongings are if the children are declared dead,” the lawyer answered almost immediately as his chair creaked backwards.
The lawyer leapt from his seat, brushing strands of hair from his face as he proceeded to leave with no more words being said. Jung-hyuk followed him out of the study, his hand brushing over the covers of the books shelved along the wall of the spacious room, and out to the eerie hallway decorated by images of the Kwon family, hung in frames along the wall. He wished for them to drop and smash to the ground, destroying each memoir of the family which sickened him disgustingly.
The rain battered against the windows of the house as the sky became studded with pulsing diamonds. The lawyer strolled towards the front door, his hand reaching for the handle. He pitied Se Ah’s children as he froze in his steps, briefly turning to Jung-hyuk.
“Please inform Yuri and Jiyong to visit me in my office as soon as possible to claim their mother’s belongings. Have a good evening, Mr Mun,” he addressed the urgency of a meeting. The keys jingled as the door handle twisted in his hand, exiting the house with great speed, lifting his briefcase over his head to shelter him from the oncoming rain.
“Drive home safely Mr Lee,” Jung-hyuk held a false smile on his face, waving his hand as Mr Lee unlocked the door of his car. Creaking, he pulled the door towards him, slamming it shut as he shielded himself from the rain. The raindrops gathered on his shoulder, running down the length of his jacket as he swiftly turned from the door and paced himself towards the study. “Bastard!”
Thunder roared in the backdrop as he shifted his line of vision to the top of the stairs, thinking he heard the sound of footsteps shuffling across the floor, the creaking of floorboards. Yuri immediately concealed herself behind the adjacent wall, her breathing growing heavier in fear of being caught in the act of eavesdropping. Gripping the wall with my fingertips in an attempt to hide within the dark shadows surrounding me; she cautiously poked my head out as Jung-hyuk stormed away. It was evident from the look on his face that he was planning something, something sinister. He could not be trusted to care for them any longer. They had to escape.
She awaited the sound of the study door slamming shut before she dared to move from my initial position. The house was visibly large in its size, vast walls encasing us within the designated area of land, designed and built by our grandfather for the future generations of the family. The two floors of the home were decorated with family heirlooms and antiques beautiful in their time, passed down generation to generation until they were in hers and Jiyong’s possession. Large trees, buried many years before, surrounded the house on all sides. Their leaves year by year cascaded from the branches and blanketed the grass below in the fall, arriving once again in the freshness of spring. She’d lived there from birth yet it no longer felt like a home. It was a trap.
Her foot immediately stepped forward as the sound of the door slamming became audible, echoing through the lukewarm air until it reached my ears. The silk of her pyjamas rustled with my movements, the floorboard below creaking from contact. She was curious as to whether pack some belongings or call on Jiyong before Jung-hyuk realised her ulterior motives. However Jiyong’s room was much closer therefore a better choice to attend to him first, though she’d barely heard a sound from him since we had arrived home, overwhelming worry washing over her.
She tip-toed across the floor as the rain had calmed, the gentle pitter-patter of raindrops hitting the rooftop gently. The moon bestowed dim light upon the floor from the far window, saving her from the blinding darkness of the house. The door handle creaked as her fingers wrapped around it, slowly pushing it open with strength, peeking her head through before stepping inside. She fell to the ground with a thud, scraping my knee in the process. Cursing under her breath, she wished she hadn’t been heard.
“Yuri?” she was startled by the faint voice of her brother as he awoke, hands supporting him on both sides as he pulled himself up and watched her through his dark orbs. Rushing towards him before he said any more, her hand clasped over his mouth, a shiver running the length of her spine as her thoughts lingered back to Jung-hyuk who sat absent-mindedly without a clue of what was occurring above his head.
“We have to get out of here. My heart is telling me that something awful is going to happen,” she whispered soundlessly into his ear. He raised an eyebrow in confusion as he pulled her hand inches away from his mouth.
“What are you talking about? Nothing bad is going to happen. Go back to sleep,” he murmured, his breath warm on her palm. She had an understanding that he wouldn’t believe a single word which escaped her lips. But he couldn’t be left behind.
“Mother’s lawyer read the Will. Jung-hyuk didn’t get anything, it’s all ours. And the only way he is going to get it is if we can’t,” she explained as her face hovered above his awkwardly. She descended and sat upon his bed. His eyelids closed for a prolonged period of time, drowsily blinking them open as words froze in his breath, unsure of what to say next.
“What do you mean? Like he’ll kill us?” his eyes opened wide in shock as he jolted up from his pillow, smacking his head off the headboard of his bed. He winced in pain, rubbing his head soothingly as his lips pursed.
“Yes. I’ve been trying to tell you that the whole time. We need to get out of here.”
“Go get your things and meet me back here as soon as you can. I’ll figure out an escape route in the meantime,” He swung his legs over, bundling the duvet cover in a pile as he brushed his fingers through his tousled, unruly brown locks.
******
She grasped the bag in her hands tightly, filled to the brim with much needed belongings and a small fortune which would aid them until mother’s wealth was fully in her possession. The lack of sound from the lower level of the home indicated that Jung-hyuk had fallen into deep slumber, their great-grandfather’s decanter of whisky emptied glass by glass. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of the alcoholic stench lingering in the air as he lounged across the leather armchair as though it was his very own. It was and never would be his, reminiscing the moments when she had sat upon her father’s knee as he read to her from his favourite novel. the fact he was sitting upon it disgusted me.
If their mother was still there, nothing would happen to them. If their mother hadn’t married Jung-hyuk, nothing would happen to them. If their father didn’t die, nothing would happen to them. No worry or fear of death. No Jung-hyuk within their lives. And this was all at the fault of the driver that night who had a little too much to drink. He shouldn’t have driven the car, yet he had. If only he knew how it would affect them in the future.
As she reached the door, she froze in her steps, unable to breathe a single breath. There he was. Ascending the stairs as he concealed an object behind his back. A smirk played at his lips, head raised, deep in thought. The bag slipped from her hands, crashing to the ground as the content’s spilled across the creamy carpet of her bedroom. She immediately reached for them, slowly lifting them one by one as she placed them back inside, her body shaking vigorously in fear of being killed.
Yuri raised her head, directing her eyes towards the hallway yet Jung-hyuk had disappeared from her line of vision. She pondered over the thought that there were no demonic, vicious ideas in his mind and he had merely settled in the room he shared with her mother before she had died. Perhaps she thought badly of him when he was merely just angered at the fact that he didn’t have any share of her mother’s wealth. He didn’t want to kill her. She had nothing to be scared about.
“Aahhhhhh! Let me go!” Shouting was audible in close proximity. Rushing towards the door, she could see nothing but utter darkness, the moon which had lit the hallway hidden behind the dark storm clouds which decorated the skyline. She fumbled through her bag in search of a torch, it in her hands as she flipped the switch. Directing the light along the length of the hallway, no figures were apparent, yet the sounds were audible as the seconds ticked by.
Her feet unconsciously strode towards Jiyong’s room as though she was drawn towards it by an unknown force. She heaved a sigh as she pushed the door open. She was late in her arrival.
The knife plunged into Jiyong’s body as he gripped onto his life, the memories flickering through his eyes as death grew apparent. His choked breathing grew quicker as a sinister laugh escaped from Jung-hyuk’s lips, twisting the knife deeper as blood pooled on his clothes. Jiyong’s jaws shook vigorously in an attempt to say any last words, the sound of a muffled scream travelling to her ears.
“Am I hurting you Jiyong? Well, why don’t I make you better, huh?” Jung-hyuk asked nonchalantly as he yanked the knife out from his abdomen, his body crumpling to the floor like a stack of cards being hit. She didn’t dare rush towards him as the knife waved in Jung-hyuk’s hands, the tears coursing down her ashen pale cheeks. She lost her brother. The only family she had left.
Yuri dropped to her knees, burying her face in her hands as the downpour of rain grew drastically outside. If only she hadn’t dropped her bag. If only she hadn’t taken too long. Perhaps they would have escaped if she hadn’t taken her time. Morally, she felt she was to blame
“I can’t kill you too. Can I? Because then it will be too obvious that I killed your family,” her head rose, a flash of lightening flickered in his eyes as they awaited the crack of thunder. He loosened his grip as the knife dropped to the ground, coated in layers of Jiyong’s blood. Drops of blood were scattered across his plastic gloves as he pulled them off, throwing them at her in hatred as a pool surrounded Jiyong’s lifeless body.
He stole her mother’s life. He stole her brother’s life. He would be forever hated in her eyes. He was a monster.
Sorry, no update. Just editing it.
Comments