CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

In Abeyance

 Death hung in the air – thick, suffocating and icy. The sour stench of decomposing bodies permeated into the concrete of the basement. Flesh parted from bone as blood reduced to a stickier and sickeningly sweet concoction that ran wild and free in the absence of life. Subjugated to the ironies of the world, death revealed an important life lesson – all freedom came at a price and always carried a predetermined expiry date.

Yet amidst the dead silence of the basement, came the slightest of rustles – just as shadows lurked in the light, life existed amongst the dead. They were a race that fell with sin and rose with scars that ran deep with hatred and jealousy – resilient at their best and cruel at their worst, for unnatural occurrences were always evil and manipulative in their selfish ways.

Amongst the destruction, they were the ones who had plotted for survival – alive amongst the tangle of dismembered bodies. Sprawled across the floor, in a mangled heap of limbs and torsos, a finger twitched. Gradually, its tremors shot through the owner’s arms, climbing through the joints until the body regained mobility.

Placing a hand against the floor, she pushed up from her chest, feeling the dead weight of bodies roll off her back. She gasped loudly as air flooded back into her system but grimaced at the stench of vampire blood – repugnant to her kind. Twisting her nose in disgust, she pushed the bodies of the surrounding girls from her and stretched to ensure better movement. Once she was up on her feet, she flexed like a pussycat and a wry smile crossed her face as she took in the scene laid out before her.

She always took such pleasure in death – the beauty of it never failed to fuel that part which yearned for destruction. She squatted to examine the figures beside her, smiling when there was the faintest trace of pulse. She pushed Minah onto her back and with both hands pried the girl’s eyes open. Focusing her mind she steadied her breathing before she closed her eyes and when she opened them again, the whites of her eyes disappeared into a haze of stormy black.

Instantly, the girl reacted and her body hurled forward as she gasped for air. Her eyes mirrored those of the girl hovering over her and as they blinked together, they both returned to normal.

“Jesus, Gyuri.” Minah managed to squeeze out between breaths, “You’ve got to stop doing that so goddamn suddenly.”

Gyuri rolled her eyes dully, “You’re a drifter, and there’s no other way I can interact with you.”

Drifters were supernatural spirits that were preserved by a special protection spell that created a supernatural limbo between life and death. They were a rare kind amongst the supernatural world as there were strict laws prohibiting such magic from being practiced when the vampires ruled but since the Eligorians took over, any means of keeping their kind from dying was made acceptable.

Minah sat up and cracked her neck, wincing, “God… I’m going to need you to find me a new body… these human bodies . Pain gets amplified like a billion times over.”

Gyuri hummed a gentle reply just to appease Minah but paid no attention to her whining as she repeated the same process on Eunji. With measured breaths, she called forth the spirit of her half sister as Minah dusted herself off. That was the other thing about drifters, they had to be created in the presence of a family member because in order to be in supernatural limbo one needed a form of connection to the living and none could be stronger than the bond of family or blood.

Minah cracked a malicious grin at the scene before her and chuckled, “The best thing about this is being able to watch vampires kill themselves off.” She clapped her hands together in a way that seemed as though she were dusting them off of her dirty deeds. “They’re more stupid than I thought they were… What happened to all the smart, charming and dangerous ones?” She sighed. “Life is so boring now.”

Moments later, Eunji gained consciousness with far less complaint. Instead, she took a quiet moment to recalibrate and adjust to her body again. Yet as she turned, the first thing that came into her line of sight was Luna with her head against the floor and her eyes staring soullessly into hers. She was the only human girl amongst them – the one that added conviction to their act.

It was quite a brilliant plan actually. Who knew the maintenance girls would have such power over what seemed to be an army of vampires? An army ready for their manipulation – never safe, never welcomed, never strengthened but always under the impression that they were.

Groggily, Eunji rose from her sitting position, coldly brushing off whatever feeling Luna’s corpse had aroused within her.

“There is Blueblood among us.” She said lowly – her voice hoarse and sandy. She cleared before she said, “There’s been a fire at the library and with the little resources that are offered to the students here, it has to be something supernatural at work.”

“No vampire would set fire to anything – they’d die. It’s too dangerous.” Minah chirped, “Besides… Bluebloods were all executed when Lucifer took the throne. Don’t be stupid, Eunji.”

“Shut up, Min… you’re giving me a goddamn headache.” Gyuri hissed in annoyance, “At least Eunji was using her period of absence productively. At least, while she was out of her body, she was keeping an eye out for suspicious happenings.”

“I feel uneasy about the new ones.” Eunji muttered, her voice regaining the clarity that it held before, “The two girls… I think it’s one of them. One of them is a Blueblood.”

A rustle from the centre of the room caught their attention and when Gyuri lifted her dark gaze, she remembered the captive in the coffin. She cracked her neck as she rose onto her steady feet, stepping over various corpses before she pulled Taeyang’s body up by the collar. He was heavy but she made no careful effort to carry him. She simply dragged his body across the floor before she hauled him into the coffin, pressing his neck against the lips of her captive.

It was slow at first because the woman had been denied of blood for longer than expected but as vampire blood entered her system, she felt herself regain her strength. Desperate and hungry she simply bit right through his flesh so that blood flooded from his dead body into , spilling onto her cheeks and overwhelming her. Yet deprivation made her greedy and she really did not care for formalities or politeness.

When she had drained him completely and the bleeding from his wound slowed to the tiniest of drizzles, she pushed him away. Through hooded eyes, she watched him slide over the high edges of the coffin and disappear. She her lips in satisfaction, running a weak arm over her moist lips before she fixed her gaze on the young girls that towered over her means of confinement.

“Gyuri…” She croaked, trembling as she tried to reach up to touch her captor but the sight of her wrinkled and saggy skin only made her cringe and pull back. It was torturous and humiliating – this slow and drawn out process of ageing.  

“I never thought a filthy vampire like you could be of use to me,” Gyuri stood unflinching as she examined her nails. “But it appears to me that keeping you as bait is working… Lucky for you that means there is still a cure for you… the unlucky part, however, is that whether or not I’ll let you take it will depend on my mood.”

“If I were you, I’d get cracking on finding a way to please her or else you might just die of old age…” Minah tossed her head back as her cacophonous laugh clapped through the emptiness in the basement. “Isn’t that a little ironic for someone who’s considered to be immortal?” There was twisted pleasure registered in their faces and perhaps such a partnership had worked so well because both captor and captive shared that same evil. Inside the coffin, the woman only chanted one name – Song Jaehwa.

 “Wait… take it back to G-Dragon again…” Tao placed a finger at his lips, thinking hard as he listened to Soojung recount the events of that night. His brows were furrowed in utter concentration.

“G-Dragon said something about doing something on their behalf and it had something to do with his sister.” Soojung could only vaguely remember the events and his words but she was sure about the details she mentioned to them now.

“He has a sister?” Xiumin wondered why he had never heard of her because someone of G-Dragon’s status would make clear those who were untouchable to him and if it were him, family would always be worth protecting.

“I don’t know but that’s not really important. After he said that, he told me that I should feed and it seemed like he was fuelling me up. He let me feed on the maintenance girls to get energy and-“ Her face blanked as the strangest feeling of mismatching memories began to creep up on her – the feeling that someone had been in her thoughts and changed it. She distinctly remembered all four of the maintenance girls but somehow it felt like she had only really fed on one.

“Are you alright?” Lay whispered into Soojung’s ear, worry evident in his voice but bound by a sense of responsibility, she nodded with her brows furrowed. She owed this to them – she owed them a full recount of what had happened.

“It doesn’t make sense though,” Kai muttered, “What good would vampire blood do for anyone?”

“I don’t know.” Soojung shook her head before she groaned and cupped her head in her hands, “I should’ve questioned it but... it didn’t really occur to me at that moment.”

There was a heavy silence that did nothing to ease the pain in their minds because the mystery behind this school only became more evident in the absence of sound. The lack of news from Chanyeol and Jaehwa made things infinitely worse and as they tried to process the crumbs of information that Soojung had conjured for them, they were beyond confused.

Then, as if on cue, the door eased open with a slow, agonising moan. Light from the hallway flooded into the darkness of the room and for a split second, they froze from shock; blinded by the brightness. When they blinked a few times, the two familiar silhouettes in the doorway sent a ripple of relief through the room.

“Chanyeol. Jaehwa.” Baekhyun breathed quietly into his open hands as the brothers shifted towards the other end of the room to welcome them, “Oh my god… You’re both alright.”

Chanyeol cracked a grin as though everything he had endured hadn’t surprised him at all. H