e·phem·e·ral

   [ih-fem-er-uhl]

adjective

lasting a very short time; short-lived; transitory: the ephemeral joys of childhood.

• The God of Rivalry

58:58

The moment I opened my eyes, pain was something undefined. It started as a sting and spread out, infected my core, mind and devoured everything on its way. First I thought it was the drugs, but then I realized that my entire being was decaying.

I couldn’t explain, not even to myself, what I felt when I realized I was still locked inside this place. Really. The cold, metal table underneath my almost upper body was slicing into my skin.

“…” everything started spinning again. I remembered how I got here in the first place. Tao, that insane creep! I couldn’t believe the house had been hiding this kind of secret. It was mindboggling. I felt…

This betrayal couldn’t even be described with mere words. It was ironic in some kind of way.

Even so, I had to get out of here, but I was strapped to this table and as it was looking right now, I wasn’t going anywhere.

56:23

The drugs started kicking in again. Everything went dark at first and then the colors came. Colors I couldn’t define. I wasn’t even sure they existed.

Shadows followed, I wanted to barf, they kept dancing around me. My fingers started trembling, shaking, ears buzzing. Oh God… What was this?

Why was this happening to me?

Why was I living the greatest story ever instead of writing it down?

52:23

I calmed down. It started to wear off. I was glad.

48:23

When I saw his face, I was convinced of the fact that the drugs started steering the wheel again, but I never saw a hallucination lasting this long. It seemed too real.

I didn’t even care if it was real or not.

I just wanted to…

“Talk to me. Stop staring. Just talk.”

He had been standing there for nearly two minutes now. It bugged me. I wasn’t weak nor fragile. I realized that we both ed each other over. I wanted a story, he gave me one. A story I would never write.

“It’s quite ironic, isn’t it? You must’ve felt guilty, playing me.”

“You were playing me too.” I grinned and realized I had been crying. What was this? Were these really feelings coming to the surface, or just the intoxicating effects of illegal chemicals?

Yong Guk, the insane Yong Guk, nodded firmly and crossed his arms. “You knew it was dangerous coming here. You should’ve known there was no escape.”

I really couldn’t tell if this guy really was a hallucination or not. This was too real. My body didn’t know how to respond. It couldn’t process what was happening.

A huge tsunami of nausea blew me away and I could feel myself slipping into a dark shadow.

35:12

My eyes shot open. I was still here. The metal table, the cold, dark room and the moonlight creeping through the tiny window. This was an indication. I wasn’t in the basement. So where was I? Somewhere I hadn’t looked before. I’d thought I knew every corner of the mansion, but I guessed I was wrong.

I tried to inhale deeply, a way to check whether I was still alive. “Okay…” How could I still be here? Why was it so quiet? Where was everyone?

Then I realized something even greater.

While I tried movie, the straps came loose. I couldn’t understand why this happened. I could clearly remember the straps almost cutting into my skin and now this slipped off as if…

As if someone did this on purpose.

33:22

It took me some time to get back on my legs. It was strange. The fact that I could walk, stand beside this table was a clear indication of Yong Guk being real. He had been here. I couldn’t really be sure of the fact that he had been the reason of me being partly free, but I couldn’t care less. I needed to get out of this place. Right now.

I didn’t even care about my story anymore, or my stuff.

I just wanted to leave.

24:00

I could do this.

With five orbitoclasts in each hand I walked through the long hallway. There was no sound to be heard. I couldn’t guess where the lunatics were.  Maybe they were just across the hallway and it was a chance I had to take.. I was going to get out of here or die trying.

20:01

I found a body.

It was inside a small room.

There was clotted blood and a gun.

A bullet shot right through the brain.

I grabbed the bloody bullet and noticed that the gun had another one of them inside.

My shaking hands tried to hold it, but it was heavier than I had ever imagined.

Quickly I put the gun away, between my pants and underwear.

The body caught my attention once more.

I didn’t know what to think of this.

I just wanted to find out who this person was.

What spirit did this body belong to?

I figured a lot of ghosts were to haunt this mansion.

If I would die here, I would never leave this place alone.

18:32

The last room at the end of the hall.

When I entered it, I had to resist the huge urge of barfing everything out. I had seen a lot of dead bodies, but this time it was different.

Some of them were lined up next to an ugly sofa, others were just lying across the room. They were decaying, bloated and polluting the air with the most horrible scent one can ever imagine.

In the middle of the room stood an empty box. I walked past it and ran towards the big windows. We were at the top floor. I would call this the attic of the house. I had never heard of this place. I guessed this was their actual lair.

When I opened the window and tried to inhale the cold