57
Give Me 120 More Years
. . . . .
He’d already fled from his home and had arrived at the hospital a little after 10 at night. Ignoring the nurses’ calls after him that no visitors were allowed he dashed up the stairs with no patience for the elevators at the moment. Flinging open the door to Nana’s room he found Joon standing inside with his back to him.
Onew’s eyes immediately shifted over to the empty bed. Its sheets full of wrinkles as if someone had just left…
Joon turned around, “Where have you been? Where have you been?!!!”
Onew stared back at him.
“Where’s Nana?”
“She’s gone…”
Onew’s heart raced. Turning around he fled down the hallway and ran toward his car.
Nana wouldn’t have just disappeared like that. She’d woken up and left…because surely he would have known if she’d really gone.
Pressing the accelerator down all the way he sped straight down the road and turned crazily around the corner. Without properly parking his car he ran into the apartment building heading for Nana’s apartment. She had to have gone back. The first place she would have gone to was her place because she knew she’d hurt him enough and that he would mindlessly look for her at Joon’s apartment.
When he reached for the doorknob he found that the door was unlocked. He gulped heavily and pushed the door open.
Slowly stepping in he glanced around.
The daggers had been gathered…but there had been one that the henchman hadn’t gotten a hold of. It was the one he’d bought offline and had given Nana. He needed to find it before the henchman got to her.
When he took a step further into the room he found her lying on the ground by the wall. His heart pounded loudly and his eyes grew wide. Panicked stricken he raced over to her unsure if he should shake her awake or not.
“Nana! Nana!” he shouted lightly shaking her arm.
She didn’t respond. His eyes poured over her sleeping face…she looked so peaceful. Had she just come in and out or…
He shook his head.
“Not now…” he muttered before looking around.
The dagger he’d given her a while ago was top priority at the moment. Unwillingly leaving her behind he stood up.
Already feeling sweat pour down his face he looked from left to right and started rummaging around the kitchen shelves. He tossed the plates, the silver utensils, and everything else he found aside never minding the mess that he was creating.
When he’d practically searched the whole kitchen he turned toward the living room. His feet stopped when he saw the packet of stories sitting on the coffee table. Throwing them to the ground he searched the TV stand and the shelves for her DVDs.
Nothing. There was no sign of the dagger.
Where would she have put it?
He glanced back at the sleeping Nana and shut his eyes willing himself to concentrate. To have left her sleeping on that hospital bed for days made him feel guilty. He should have gone to her side sooner.
As he searched his mind for any ideas he turned around and laid his eyes on the sofa. Dashing forward he stuck his hands into the sides before lifting up the pillow seat to discover a black object sitting there.
“Oh my god…” he let out thankful gasp and slowly reached for the dagger.
“Onew?” Nana’s voice entered his mind.
He turned around to find Nana looking up from the floor with eyes half opened, a confused look on her face.
“What are you doing here?” she muttered.
His mouth opened. Did she even know where she was?
Footsteps sounded and he was unsure where it was coming from then he saw it. The ripples on the wall…sprouting in circles like waves. What was happening? Nana let out a helpless cry and a frown overcame Onew’s face before as a man with a hood over his head walked out from the wall. He caught the stranger’s eyes looking over at the mess on the ground then toward the sofa. As he lunged forward Onew reached for the dagger.
Once his hands touched it a white light glowed from it blinding him. The whole room was soon encased into a white world before it became quiet black.
. . . . .
Everything seemed blurry at first and she couldn’t sort out a single thing. All she recalled was heading back into her apartment, her mind in a blank state before being awoken by a voice only to find Onew…
Onew…
The blurry fog before her eyes slowly lifted before she saw the stone walls then the pews then the statue of the Goddess of Time.
“What’s this?” she asked spinning around.
Footsteps appeared behind her and she turned around to see the man she’d been chasing after. The hood…that face…
“Your time is over.”
. . . . .
How do you destroy knives? How do you destroy knives?! Jung Ah searched her mind.
The radio blared loudly from inside her car as she raced down the dark highway.
“Please…” Jung Ah pressed her lips together before looking into her rearview mirror.
The daggers she’d hidden inside a shopping bag were sitting at the back of her seat.
. . . . .
There’d been no where to go. His heart had been restless since Onew had fled the scene. In the middle of the night he’d walked into the empty church hall inside the hospital. Sitting in the second row he stared up at the cross where Jesus had died for his people.
“I usually don’t believe in things like this, but I don’t know where to go now.” Joon spoke aloud. “I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m worried. If you do exist, please protect her and bring her back to us. I beg of you.”
. . . . .
Onew found himself standing in front of a stone chamber. Its triangular roof extending into the sky. The gray ground full of dead logs and sticks were so still.
He raised his hands and discovered that he wasn’t wearing his old fashioned clothes, but his own clothes. The clothes he’d been wearing when he’d ran into Nana’s apartment.
He glanced back up at the stone chamber.
It was so quiet out there.
Taking a step toward the door he slowly reached for the doorknob, but a rush of wind came hurling at him and as if it had human hands wrapped itself around his feet and dragged him back.
Landing on his face he felt the pain split up through his nose at first before it finally stopped. Looking up he found himself standing further away from the stone chamber.
What was happening?
Spinning around he observed his surroundings again then found himself staring hard at the large empty area in between some trees. Slowly bit by bit it began to fall into place.
The pool of his backyard, the one that he and Nana had fallen into.
His home…this area was his home!
He turned back to the chamber. It was where the Goddess of Time resided.
“No!” the words escaped his mouth and he ran toward the door again only to find himself suddenly flying back.
He slid against the ground painfully.
. . . . .
Nana spun around. Whose voice had she just heard?
“Onew?” she took a step toward the door.
“Stop right there,” the man demanded.
Nana froze and turned back to look at him.
The room dimmed, turned bright, and dimmed again. A light feeling filled her and she could feel her mind spinning. All of a sudden her eyes lowered and she glanced at her hands to find that they were becoming transparent.
Her heart pounded in fear.
“No…no…” the words escaped her.
The hospital clothes she’d been wearing were transitioning into the blue dress she’d worn when she’d first entered the chamber. Even her hair was beginning to change.
She didn’t want to go. Not alone. Nana looked around the room desperately and turned toward the door but her body wouldn’t move.
. . . . .
Forcing his body up he started for the chamber again only to find himself being hurled back.
What was going on!?
. . . . .
Pulling over to the side of the road Jung Ah rushed out and grabbed the shopping bag with her. Running through the campsite she rushed pass the rest house and up the hill toward the hiking trail.
Coming to a stop she dropped the bag first and searched around for anything…
Then her eyes landed on it. A rock.
She reached for it and reached for one of the daggers.
“The daggers…if they’re destroyed they can’t be gathered, right?” she asked herself. “Please let me know I’m doing the right thing.”
After taking a breath she tossed off the cover and slammed the rock against it.
. . . . .
Even now her feet were also becoming thin. The energy in her was slowly wearing out.
A loud roar echoed in the air and Nana glanced up to the dark ceiling. What was that? Something glowed at her feet and she looked down to find shattered silver pieces sitting at her feet.
She looked back up to see that the image of the hooded man standing in front of her flicker. The eerie glow in the room began to disappear bit by bit.
. . . . .
Jung Ah reached for another dagger and continue pounding on it again and again with the rock tightly held in her hand.
. . . . .
A loud sound of glass cracking resonated in the air. Onew glanced up and stood to his feet.
Just what was going on?
. . . . .
Another pile of broken silver pieces glowed at her feet and slowly another one appeared.
She looked up to find that the henchman had disappeared. Her hands were slowly coming back as well as her clothes.
Finally turning around to head for the doorway she called, “Onew…”
A transparent figure slowly solidified before her and she found herself staring down at Joon…the armored Lee Chang Sun.
. . . . .
The roar sounded again in the air. Onew found himself staring up into the grey sky before it slowly began to come into shape. The long hair…long yellow-orange hair…
Another roar deafened him before he actually found himself staring up at the humongous Lin.
. . . . .
3 more to go, but her arms were giving out. It was taking too much energy just to shatter the blades. Jung Ah panted and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
The sky was already beginning to resemble the color of a blue-green lake.
. . . . .
Joon closed his eyes and held his hands together.
“Please keep her safe…” he repeated.
. . . . .
Nana cupped with both hands in shock.
“Please allow me to follow her. To keep her safe, to guard her. In exchange give her my human soul,” he prayed on his knees.
What was he saying? Human soul? Nana felt her eyes widen. How long had he been there after she’d left? Nana pressed her lips together before another pile of silver pieces appeared before her feet.
. . . . .
The tiger-look-a-like creature growled superiorly from above him shaking her head about in the air.
Onew’s mouth gaped open.
He was actually really seeing her…
The tiger-look-a-like creature rushed forward against the invisible shield that had been throwing him back every so often and growled when a wave of air bounced off her fur. The creature growled again.
Comments