Chapter 46:  11:11– A Countdown to Third Death [12:50pm]

Mir POV

I could feel my world shaking. Or shuddering might have been a more accurate word for it.

Imagine standing in a room of speakers. The room is black but for the large varnished and sleek silver speakers lining all four corners. There are bass beats thudding straight to your soul, making you grit your teeth one second but in the next gasp with wonder as your blood sings in sync with the sound of raw percussion. 

It’s the act of putting your hands to your ears and still feeling your body resonate with the beat; it’s the letting go of it all and reveling in the sensation of being flung out to sea like a tiny dingy and not caring one bit as you are swept away with the waves. It's...

“Wake up Mir,” came an urgent call, cutting through the shaking and the shuddering.

My eyes flew open to a dizzying sprawl of red and white.

“Mir…” the voice let out a sigh of relief.

“W-where…?” Where am I? In death?

The last I remembered was flying upwards on the platform of wind and then a constricting pain overcoming me. We were falling and falling and…

And then?

“We’re at the top Mir,” the voice said. Had I spoken aloud?

“We’re safe Mir. Look.”

I tried to sit up and a wandering hand helped me. The world spun and I had to grip tightly to that hand in order to not be washed away. The hand behind me tightened, supporting me further and I realized that whoever was holding me cared.

“Hyung?” I mumbled. Who else could it be?

“I’m here Mir,” Seungho rubbed soothing circles on my back. “How are you feeling?”

“Terrible,” I coughed. “My throat is…dry…and the world…won’t stay still…”

“Shh Mir,” Seungho whispered. “Can’t you do something?”

“Something-“

And then I realized that Seungho wasn’t speaking to me. Then to who?

[AND WHY SHOULD I?]

My stomach plummeted.

“We reached the top haven’t we? And none of us have died, so can’t you do this at least for us?” Seungho implored.

“Don’t beg hyung,” a softer voice spoke. I recognized it immediately. “Mir will recover. Just give him a moment.”

“T-thunder?”

I sensed movement and a soft hand graze my cheek. “Mir? I’m here.”

I could see his blurry outline, a static shadow more than anything.

“Listen to me Mir. I want you to concentrate on my voice and on me. I want you to focus on me and nothing else. We’re safe. You got us up here. Nothing else matters, understand?”

I tried to digest his words. Safe. Alive. At the top. So we hadn’t fallen? 

I could hear an amused snicker in the background. [THAT’S CORRECT. YOU FELL, BUT IT SEEMS LUCK IS ON YOUR SIDE. YOU COULD HAVE FALLEN ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM. INSTEAD YOU FELL HERE. I'M IMPRESSED]

I blinked and my surroundings felt clearer. A little less pixilated and more high definition. I could make out Thunder and Seungho’s positions now. Seungho had an arm wrapped around me and Thunder was knelt in front of me, his eyes glaring daggers at the fuzzy red shape I assumed was the Ringmaster.

“You’re not helping,” he snapped.

[OH? CAN I NOT BE SURPRISED? I SHOULD BE APPLAUDING THE THREE OF YOU FOR SURVIVING THIS ROUND INTACT. HAVING SEEN YOUR TRACK RECORD AND ALL, I WAS EXPECTING ANOTHER DEATH]

Smug bastard.

“Surprised are you?” Thunder said challengingly. “Tell me something. What are these powers that we can use?”

My sight focused for a second, just enough to see the Ringmaster throw his head back with glee. [WHAT ARE THEY INDEED?]

“No riddles Ringmaster.” It was Seungho who spoke.

[BUT WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT?] The Ringmaster lowered his head. [YOU QUESTION WHAT THESE ABILITIES ARE, BUT ISN’T THE REAL QUESTION WHY DON’T YOU SEEM TO HAVE THESE POWERS SEUNGHO?]

I could feel Seungho flinch, the movement sending his hands skittering across my shoulder.

“Hyung?” Was this what he was worried about? That Thunder and I could use these strange abilities, but he couldn’t? Then again, thinking about it, that was a fair thing to be worried about. For your comrades one by one to start developing abilities beyond their comprehension – abilities that your greatest enemy possessed –and for you not to.

“Hyung don’t worry,” I tried to say but it came out scratchy.

“I-“ Seungho spoke but then swallowed whatever words he was about to say. “I’m not worried about that.”

[DON’T LIE] The Ringmaster said, his voice ringing and echoing around the platform. I shivered and tried to reach for Seungho, but he was edging away from me. [DON’T LIE. CONTROL AND KNOWLEDGE ARE THE TWO THINGS YOU COVET THE MOST IN THIS WORLD YANG SEUNGHO]

Yang...Seungho...?

Why did that name sound so familiar?

My vision flickered and as I felt Seungho’s fingers peel away from me, suddenly I could see clearly. All too clearly. The Ringmaster loomed in front of us, vividly red and imposing. Thunder was flickering as well, not in the holographic was the Ringmaster did, but as if encased in a halo of energy, his anger wild and emenant. His eyes were sharp and narrow and he looked ready to commit murder. Seungho was the opposite. As I turned to look at him, all I could glimpse was the fear painted on his face, stark primary colors and sharp lines, the kind of canvas you kept hidden under tarp and in the back rooms. Control and knowledge indeed. 

“Hyung?” I reached out for him and he flinched, jumping backwards.

Hurt immediately sparked through me and I snatched back my hand.

“Hyung?” I whispered. “Are you…scared of me? Of me and Thunder?”

And Seungho was shaking his head furiously. “No Mir, no!” He flexed his hands, rubbing them up and down his grey slacks as if they were sweaty and he was losing grip on reality. “I…I just…”

“You don’t have to lie hyung,” Thunder said softly, gently almost. But it was laced with a firmness that only recently I had begun to see flashes of. It was like he was hiding something, a beast, a hidden secret, I don’t know what but it unsettled me.

“Thunder…I’m…not…” Seungho stammered. “Please believe me. Those powers I’m not scared…it’s just…”

[HACKING] The Ringmaster spoke and we all turned to stare at him.

“What?” I said and the other two echoed me.

[THEY ARE NOT SUPERHERO ‘POWERS’] The Ringmaster said with a tinge of scorn. [IT IS AN ABILITY CALLED HACKING. THE ABILITY TO HACK INTO THE VERY CORE OF LIFE, TO MANIPULATE THE AIR, THE GROUND, THE VERY SURROUNDING YOU STAND ON]

“H-hacking?” I said, just as Thunder said “So you know what these abilities are!”

[OF COURSE I DO] The Ringmaster said derisively. [YOU’VE SEEN ME WIELD THEM. YOU CAN TOO. WE ALL HAVE THE POTENTIAL. SOME MORE THAN OTHERS]His last words were a direct jab to Seungho. 

My mind flickered back to Changsun and to Byunghee-hyung. To Seungho who was staring at his hands in the corner.

“So I have the potential as well?” Seungho said hollowly.

[PERHAPS] was the Ringmaster’s simple answer.

He floated forwards.

This was possibly the closest I had ever seen of the Ringmaster before. Up close the static flickers of his hologram stood out ly. They were entrancing to watch, like the last embers of a beach fire. I felt like I wanted to reach out and touch it, knowing full well that my hand would simply go through fractured light, but needing to see the reality of it.

His dark gaze stopped me.

His face was carved from the darkest, smoothest granite possible. Smooth and sleek and chipped at the edges. More identifiable features were blurred out by the shadow that his top hat casted.

Yet why did it feel like I knew him?

[TO BE A HACKER, YOU NEED TWO THINGS] The Ringmaster said solemnly. [TALENT. AND RESOLVE.]

He looked at Seungho meaningfully. [TALENT IS ONE THING. BUT DO YOU HAVE RESOLVE?]

[THESE TWO],he gestured at Thunder and I with flourish, [FOUND THEIR RESOLVE A LONG TIME AGO. PERHAPS YOU ARE STILL SEARCHING.] His eyes flashed all of a sudden with subtle amusement. [OR MAYBE YOU NEVER WILL FIND ONE]

Before any of us could say a word, the Ringmaster flickered and he was suddenly meters away from us. 

[I DIGRESS.] he said with an air of casualness, and that was that. [YOU HAVE ALL COMPLETE LEVEL FOUR SATISFACTORILY. LET US PROCEED TO LEVEL FIVE]

“Hey!” Seungho rose to his feet heatedly. “You can’t just end it there. Explain everything properly!”

[I TIRE OF THESE BOTHERSOME EXPLANATIONS. IF YOU WANT TO KNOW THE ANSWER, DICOVER IT FOR YOURSELF]

The Ringmaster flung out one hand and like before the ground rose up, the red and white fabric of the tent being swallowed up as a box encaged me. Hacking... An ability that Thunder, the Ringmaster and I could use, simply because we had the talent and the resolve. The Ringmaster had said talent was secondary, so what? Resolve was the key to it all?

I clenched my hands as the darkness swallowed me and I felt my stomach plummet as we rose rapidly.

Oh Changsun...just how much longer do I have to struggle for? Suffer for? Endure for? I'm scared, and Thunder and Seungho are scared. More and more unknown things are appearing, and it's all getting too much. Hacking? Powers? My past. Sometimes I just want you to hug me and to forget about all of this. 

But I can't, can I? 

Because you are no longer here. 

And you never will be. 

And that's possibility the hardest thing to accept out of everything. 

…

…

…

[AND SO THE COUNTDOWN TO THIRD DEATH CONTINUES TICKING]

[DEAD: 2, LIVING: 3]

[LET LEVEL FIVE BEGIN]