"Where are we going?"

"The underworld."

Taemin stared at Jessica with his mouth wide open.  “The… th… the underworld?” he managed to whisper.

Jessica nodded her head and smiled as she remembered the first time she had heard about the underworld and her own terrified reaction. Almost instantly she also remembered that the one who had taught her what the underworld was and how to get there was the demon Yuri.

“Don’t worry it’s not as bad as it sounds. At least not the part we are going to,” she said crossing her arms over her chest.

Taemin hid his face in his palm trying to breathe normally. “You are telling me we are going to the land of dead but that I shouldn’t worry?” he asked in a trembling voice.

Jessica half smiled. “You are getting the underworld mixed up with the spirit world.”

Taemin raised his head a little bit to stare at her with a pale face and his mouth slightly open.

Jessica closed her eyes, crossed her legs and rubbed her temples with her fingers. “The underworld is the world of monsters and my people. Not the world of the dead,” she explained patiently. “Generally the underworld covers the underground space of… well of pretty much the whole earth. It’s where monsters usually hide. You see, only a handful of them dare to walk among humans anymore, that’s why hunting has become so difficult.”

The two hunters across from her started joking with each other as one of them grabbed a couple of beers from his bag.

“You can think of the underworld as a gigantic mine under the earth with millions of tunnels and caves. Some of the caves have been occupied by the most civilized creatures and in some humans have moved to establish small towns. Those towns and the few travelling paths, including this train, are the only safe places for humans in the underworld. Step out into the darkness and you’ll die instantly.”

Taemin narrowed his eyes and shaking his head turned to face in front of him. “What the ?” was the only thing he could think of saying.

“Welcome to the club boy,” Jessica said raising her hand mimicking a toast.

Taemin jumped up from his sit, his whole body shaking. “What club? I am not part of this world. I’m… I’m just a student not a ing hunter!”

Jessica patted the sit next to her urging him to sit down again. “You are not a hunter. But apparently you are part of this world. The banshee wouldn’t have bothered with you if you weren’t important in some way. Now we just have to figure out why.”

A nervous laughter escaped Taemin’s lips. “And exactly how are we going to figure that out?”

“We are going to see a friend of mine. He lives in a town about 3 stations from here. He is a warlock. He should be able to help us.”

She hadn’t finished with her words and the ground started shaking, announcing the arrival of the train in the station. It slowed until it stopped in front of them. It was small and old. It had always reminded Jessica of WWII trains except with only three or four wagons. Honestly with the amount of people using these trains, even four wagons were too many.

The two of them got in and sat in two seats across from each other silently as the train took off again and sped through the darkness. They were the only people inside it.

Jessica took this opportunity to examine Taemin a little better. He definitely didn’t look like he had the body or the mind of a hunter. He didn’t seem more special than any other college student out there but the Banshee was following him. Why?

Taemin on the other hand was still convinced that he was dreaming. It was an awful, scary and long as hell dream but still a dream. Soon he would wake up and find himself in his small apartment with his alarm clock going crazy. He pressed his eyes closed urging himself to wake up. Yes, he was going to wake up and get some breakfast and then he was going to run to his classes and forget all about this stupid dream.

And suddenly he heard it. A small faint ringing noise. He rejoiced. Yes, it was a dream. He raised his head expecting to see his nightstand with a couple of books and his cellphone dropped on top of it but instead he found Jessica staring at him.

She pointed with her finger towards the ceiling. “This,” she said meaning the ringing noise “means we are reaching a station. After this we still have two to go.”

Taemin sighed defeated. It seemed like he was stuck in this situation for good.

About 20 minutes later Jessica rose from her seat and Taemin quickly followed her. This train station was pretty similar to the one they had boarded the train, except it was decorated with gargoyles and the exits where at the same level as the platforms instead of higher. It was obvious that this station only lead underground, not back to the outside world.

“This is one of the biggest towns you can find in the underworld,” Jessica explained quickly as she rushed him towards a tunnel in front of them light by candles hanging from the walls.

“Well I say town but it’s more like a small village, or… errr.. have you read Harry Potter?” she asked trying to make some connection to the boy’s world.

Taemin nodded his head with his eyes staring ahead of him, in the bright light at the end of the tunnel.

“Good, then you can say that this is the Diagon Alley of the underworld,” Jessica said as they stepped into the light.

Taemin felt his jaw drop. This was definitely not what he had expected. It was like he had just been dropped into some scene from a movie. Ahead of him lay a long stone road with tall wooden buildings on either side of it. Paper lanterns were hanging from the ceiling – which Taemin couldn’t see as it was higher than the light could reach – and candles were placed everywhere, on stairs, on windows, on the side of the road, everywhere. In some places, buildings on the opposite side of the road were connected with strings and from there more paper lanterns were hanging. Taemin even saw a couple of trees growing on the sides of the roads.

“Are those… sakura?” Taemin asked.

“It’s called cherry blossom tree nerd, you are not in a manga,” Jessica laughed and led the way through the surprisingly crowded street.

“Wait let me take a picture,” Taemin said searching his pockets for his cellphone.

“What for?” Jessica asked confused.

Taemin shrugged his shoulders. “Instagram.”

Jessica slapped him on the back of his head but only lightly. “Come on, we have to go.”

Taemin felt overwhelmed by the sights and sounds and smells. All around him people were talking and yelling and laughing, in some entrances men were sitting with cans of beers on their hands, tall men and women with pointy ears – elfs as Jessica later explained to him – were cautiously making their way among the crowd, not exactly walking but gliding on the floor. He could smell cookies being baked somewhere but mostly his nose was filled with the smell of something burning and something else that resembled the chemicals in the chemistry laboratory of his school.

Taemin quickly realized that most of the buildings were shops. All kinds of shops, from bakeries to bookstores, to butchers, to bars, to gun shops, to shops that he couldn’t understand what they were selling from the things he saw on their windows.

Jessica led him towards a circular plaza that looked like the center of this ‘town’. She stopped in front of a building made out of yellow bricks with a sign informing people that this was “Onew’s Magic Shop”

“This is it,” the brunette announced and dragged him through the door into the building. A small bell rang announcing their arrival.

Taemin looked at the room he was in. It was, surprisingly spacious, with shelves on every wall, decorated with jars of various shapes, sizes and content. It was very tidy and clean. The smell reminded Taemin of a small shop selling spices he had visited once with his mother.

“Onew?” Jessica yelled walking towards the center of the room.

“Jessica you are back!” an excited muffled voice was heard as a figure with brown hair came through the door, stumbled on one of the tables and crushed on the floor face first along with the table and all of its contents.

“Onew, are you okey,” Jessica cried trying to suppress her laughter.

Taemin watched as the woman rushed to the man’s side to help him up.

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” the man named Onew reassured her getting up and dusting his clothes. He was wearing a pair of dark skinny jeans, a black t-shirt underneath an open checked shirt and what looked like a doctor’s white coat.

“Jessica, it’s been so long,” the man said shaking Jessica’s hand and Taemin watched with amazement the warm smile Onew received from the beautiful woman as a greeting.

“I’m sorry, I know that I haven’t been around in a while but it’s not like I had much luck with hunting lately. I had nothing for you these past few months.”

Onew looked at her surprised. “Jessica, I always thought that we were more than just business partners,” he exclaimed. “I mean yes you had that small obsession with that vampire and yes you had sold your soul to a demon but I still cared for you.”

Jessica felt blood rush to her face, a feeling she hadn’t had in years. She  stole a glance at Taemin whose wide eyes told her that maybe she should have told him a little bit more about her past instead of him finding out like this.

“You are right Onew, I’m sorry. You are actually the only one that I could consider a friend all this years.”

Onew smiled brightly. “Well come in, come in. Should I get you a beer? No, wait. You like wine better right? Just wait, I recently bought a bottle of merlot. I haven’t opened it yet but I think it will taste quite good.”

“Onew, I’m actually here because I need a favor,” Jessica said cautiously.

“A favor? What do you need this time?” Onew asked as his eyes finally found Taemin. “And who is this?”

Jessica urged Taemin to come closer. “Onew this is Taemin, he was recently ‘attacked’ by a Banshee. Taemin this is Onew, one of the most powerful warlocks alive.”

Taemin looked at Onew with wonder. He didn’t look that much older than him, maybe around Jessica’s age. But then again Jessica was young too and apparently she was a huntress and she had sold herself to a demon.

“A Banshee?” Onew wondered. “It’s been quite a while since a Banshee was last seen. 150 years if I am not wrong.”

“150 years? You consider this just a while?” Taemin asked suddenly finding the strength to speak again.

Onew flashed a bright smile at the young boy. “I’m a lot older than what you think boy.” He patted Jessica on the head, a gesture that made the woman blink in surprise and smile awkwardly. “I actually saw this little one grow up from a snotty brat to the best hunter you can find in our time.”

Taemin nodded his head. He had given up trying to understand anything about five minutes after they entered Onew’s store.

Onew made a gesture with his hand and the sign on the door turned from open to closed and then he urged them to a room in the back that had a door leading to a small backyard.

“How do all this plants even grow down here?” Taemin questioned reaching for a small strawberry bush near him.

“Hello, warlock here,” Onew said pointing at himself with both hands. “Now, you two get comfortable and I’ll get the wine, maybe something to eat too? I have some meat pie I bought this morning.”

Jessica nodded her head and mouthed a thank you towards the wizard as she sat on a chair. Taemin looked stunned at the three chairs and the table that had appeared out of thin air among the plants in the garden trying to make some sense. He couldn’t. The wizard smiled brightly at her and left to get everything they would need.

“How did you meet him?” Taemin asked joining her on the table.

“He is a merchant and one of the few who were kind enough to help a foolish child that had made a deal with a demon,” she answered with her eyes fixed on her fingers .

Taemin looked at her expectantly. “Yeah about that deal with the demon-“

“Look” Jessica cut him off. “I’m not going to lie to you. I made the mistake of making a deal with a demon. I was young and she tricked me into believing that I had to hunt down a certain vampire and in exchange for the strength I would need she could have my soul. She taught me the basics of hunting and told me about this place so that I could sell the monsters I caught.”

Jessica paused for a second. “The first time I came here I met Onew. He… he knew instantly what I had done but he couldn’t help me and I didn’t want his help. Back then what I had done seemed like the right thing. Anyway Onew made sure that I was trained by real hunters until I turned sixteen, when I was old enough to leave the foster family I was staying with and start hunting on my own.”

“So… when you sell your soul. What happens?” Taemin asked.

“It’s like you are bound to that demon. They can kill you whenever they want and you are obliged to serve them until your contract ends.”

“Serve them?”

“I don’t know what other demons ask for. Yuri, the demon that held my contract was mostly interested in food; you know monsters I caught for her to eat. They made her stronger.”

“And when does the contract end?”

Jessica sighed. They could hear Onew singing with his warm voice a cheery tune. “It’s different for everyone. Mine was supposed to end when I turned 30.”

“And then what?”

“And then you die. So that the demon can devour your soul.”

Taemin stared at her speechless. “How old are you now?” he whispered.

“I’m 25.”

“So… in five years you are going to…” Taemin tried to say but just couldn’t find the right words.

“No I killed the demon that I made the contract with. I’m free now.”

“Yes,” Onew exclaimed appearing through the door with a bottle of wine under his armpit and a tray with glasses, plates and a meatpie in his hands. “It caused quite the uproar down here. Smart girl, smart girl. She is the first one to kill a demon in thousands of years.”

“How did you do it?” Taemin asked leaning forward curiously.

Jessica opened but then closed it again. Onew eyed her as he served the wine in the glasses. “I was lucky… I guess. But never mind that. Onew can you help us figure out why a Banshee is following him.”

Taemin smelled the wine served to him and brought it to his lips.

“Well obviously because he is going to die,” Onew said casually and Taemin had to spit the wine from his mouth because he almost choked. “The real question is… why are you so important that an angel of death would follow you and what is more, bring you to a huntress strong enough to perhaps protect you.”

A.N.

Is there anyone here? Hello? Have any of my subscribers survived?

Well here is chapter three only a few months late.

Did you guys know? I passed my physiology exam a couple of weeks ago! I had been studying for this exam since october T-T They say it's one of the most difficult courses in pharmacy and each year only a handfull of students pass it. I'm so happy I passed. 

Anyway I totally understand if you guys don't remember what was going on, thankfully I had a plan of what the chapter was going to be about and knew what I was writing. 

Anyway I hope you enjoy reading this. No Jonghyun point of view this time, but you get cutie pie Onew instead. :)