The white room…

The manor…

The lost city…

He counted down the ten places he’d visited, who he had warned, in his head before his mind settled on where he had to go next. There was only one destination.
He didn’t want to go… but he was the only one who could.

With a deep breath and clenched fists, he steadied his mind, allowing his body to become entirely one with the darkness, dissolved particles that rushed through being.

When his eyes reopened, he was bathed in a glowing spotlight, identical to the one enveloping the back that faced him from across the room. He was frozen, drinking in the blackness that surrounded the thin beams of light that seemed to fall infinitely from the sky, with his eyes glued to the figure before him.

“You’re disturbing the peace of the place. Please leave.” He heard the voice from all around, resonating inside his head. As far as he was concerned, there was no peace here… The pure darkness set him on edge, blood running cold through his body.

He allowed himself to dissolve once more, reappearing at the side of the man. There was a ball hanging on the air, inches away from the palm of his feminine hand, as if it was flying. Under any other circumstances, a smile would have crossed the intruder’s face, but today he was here for one reason only – to deliver a message.

Leaning into the ear, the four words he had repeated to the ten people he had visited found themselves clinging to his breath as nothing more than a whisper.

“The storm is coming.”

~

“So?”

You rolled your eyes, wasn’t it obvious? “So it means he likes you.” You mused wisely, much to the horror of your friend Namjoo.

“Heeey.” She whined, pouting and shaking her head profusely.

It was the end of the school day and the two of you, accompanied by your other closest friend Aesook, were walking home, teasing the bright eyed Namjoo about her latest admirer. The atmosphere was humid to the point that the three of you were slower than sluggish, dragging your heels as you traipsed home. Still, it was the weekend and it was hard not to be happy about that.

“Awwww, he likes you!” Aesook sang teasingly as she wrapped an arm around the youngest of your trio’s shoulders. She grumpily shrugged herself free before arguing back.

“No he does not, okay? We’re just friends and that it.” There was a sense of finality about her tone that made you curious. Maybe something had already happened between them, but then again maybe not. If it was private, it was private… You didn’t really think you had a place to ask questions.

“You don’t love him back?” The elder asked, pouting cutely as her voice mock cracked. You laughed at her antics before shaking your head.

“Give her a break already.” You noticed the subtle yet thankful smile that Namjoo shone your way before you bid goodbye to the girls and climbed the steps through your front garden and into your house.  

“That’s better.” You breathed the moment you stepped through the door. The aircon had been left on, all day you assumed, and could not have been more heavenly to walk into. The cool air clung to the light sheen on moisture on your skin and refreshed you instantly. You wandered thoughtlessly into the kitchen and dropped your school bag on the counter.

“Mum? I’m ho-“ You called but the sound faded in your throat as your eyes landed on the yellow sticky note stuck to the fridge.

“Gonna be stuck at work tonight, sorry Mihyunnie… I left you food in the fridge, love mum.”

You sighed and grabbed a drink before slumping into the sitting room and onto the couch.

Before you knew it, it was night and the humid weather had coagulated into the fiercest storm you’d ever witnessed. Drawing your curtains to the forks of lightning on the horizon, you climbed into bed and tried to ignore the claps and rolls of static power. Your eyes closed and slowly you fell asleep….

~

“Mihyun?”

You thought you saw a figure in the corner of your eye… A man. You had definitely heard your name called, that much you knew for sure.

You turned and ran, chasing his rapidly disappearing shape but it did no good… You were surrounded by white, no matter where you ran to it was useless – nothing changed… The blinding blank landscape, where the sky and ground melded as one, went on forever.

And then you heard it again, that voice in your head. It was inside you, in your mind, threatening to explode from the inside out.

“The storm is coming”

~

“AAAAAAAAH!” With a scream you swung upwards, sitting bolt upright, chest heaving. A particularly loud clap of thunder just boomed right outside your window, ripping you out of your dream-filled slumber.

That was when you saw it.

Just as the heavenly bolt lit up the sky, something silhouetted against your curtains shot by as fast as a bullet. A cold sweat slipped down your neck, regardless of the sticky, hot temperature.

Against your better will, you tiptoed out of bed and peered round the curtain, holding the material lightly between your finger tips. Outside, running up and down the street in the hammering rain were… monsters. The size of foxes, with blank white eyes and dark scaly skin, they were unlike anything you had ever seen before. They were… terrifying.

One, across the street from you, snapped its head suddenly, staring right at you.

With a gasp, you ducked beneath the window, breathing raggedly with no control and blind fear coursing through your veins. What the hell?!

You had no idea what to do… what kind of situation was this?! The only thing you could think of was looking out of the window again, just a split second peek this time to make sure you hadn’t gone completely insane.

A shaky sigh of relief shuddered through your body when you saw the street was perfectly empty, nothing and no one, not a single creature in sight… you must have dreamt the entire thi-

SMASH!

Everything happened at once, the world was burst into white by the blast of lightning and thunder, shards of glass were flying everywhere and you were screaming, louder than you had ever screamed before. 

One of the creatures had burst through your window and was turning its sharp, unseeing eyes on you. With your heart racing a mile a minute, you did the only thing you could – run.

Out of your bedroom, down the stairs, footsteps and... claws… tearing up the carpet behind you as raced for your life. There was a door to your left that you leapt through without thinking, throwing your body against it to hold it shut before you slammed the lock across.

Your heart was beating in your mouth, you could hear the thick breath of the monster right on the other side of the door and if you made even the slightest sound it would find you. It would tear right through the wood and… The thought made the hair on your neck stand on end.

You backed down the stairs – you had found yourself in your underground basement – eyes glued to the door, just in case. You reached the bottom in silence, safe for now.

With sobs of terror clogging your throat, you turned around in the relative darkness of the poor automatic light, only to find yourself screaming once more, white panic freezing you to the spot.

Stood there, not even two feet away from you was a figure, head to toe in brown robes, face hidden.

“Don’t speak.”

You couldn’t even if you tried… Fear had rendered you frozen.

“Existence births from understanding, and yet in time you will understand nothing. You cannot exist in this world any longer.” The voice was deep but unsettlingly youthful. A moment of silence fell; the only sound in the dank room was your heavy breathing and the far off wave of thunder.

“The storm is coming.”

There was a click of fingers and suddenly everything was slipping away from you, the light fading from behind your eyes as you slumped to the floor. As consciousness drained from your body, the voice rang out once more.

“Be brave, Mihyun.”