Seungri grabbed me by the throat and pinned me again to the wall. He pointed the demon blade at my face.

“I’m tired of playing games,” he said as he lightly scratched my cheek. I felt a drop of blood go down my skin. “Sooyoung left with Byung Hee, is that right?” I didn’t answer him. That only further angered the reaper. He tightened his hand around my throat. I couldn’t breathe. “Answer me!”

“Yes,” I screamed in my mind and hoped he had heard me. Seungri loosened his grasp a little, but didn’t let me go.

“Good,” he grinned and pressed his thumb over my vein. “Now there’s no stopping us. Whatever Death wants with that girl, she’d come begging to us if we have you.”

Just when I summoned the vines to trap Seungri in place, his nails perforated my skin.

“Don’t worry,” he whispered at my ear while blood rushed out of my body. “I won’t let you die,” he chuckled “but I might make you part of my army.”

I took the holy knife from my waist and plunged it in Seungri’s stomach. He let go and struggled to take it out.

More blood...

Dizz...

...y

...so...

There was so...

Much...

I ---

My neck, too damaged, too much blood --- Sooyoung...

Sooyoung... had to stay away from Byung Hee... traitors...

Betrayers...

True enemies...

Snow painted red...

So cold... freezing cold...

Hyung-soo... please do not fail me a second time.

Sooyoung... I’m sorry.

Jung Min... I’m coming.

Ah... why is the sky so beautiful?

---

I stared behind me and couldn’t shake that something was off with everything.

“Grandma?” Daesung’s voice made me pay attention to the road.

“Jessica’s eyes...” I murmured and didn’t once let go of Daesung and Byung Hee’s hands. “They flashed green.”

“So?” Daesung asked as he watched our surroundings. We were in the forest, but it looked... off. It sometimes twisted or lost its colors, other times it would become a mass of darkness and nothing else.

“Byung Hee!” the Keeper stopped and waited for my question. We could only see his back. “Lower sphere has red eyes and higher sphere has blue eyes... what if the middle sphere has green eyes?”

“Possible.” He answered quick and started walking again.

The silence between us stretched. I couldn’t read anybody’s mind anymore, but Daesung said I  still had a funny blue orb. He also joked I was half-a-Keeper because of that. I couldn’t smack him, ugh!

“Haven’t we passed this bush?” all of them looked the same to me, but Daesung could swear we were going in circles. “Oi, Blue-eyes! Do you even know where you’re going?”

“Ahead,” came another short reply. Byung Hee was acting strange, but I wondered if it wasn’t something to be expected of him. That place spooked the out of me. Daesung felt at peace and sometimes bragged about his time as a ghost and how everything looked so normal to him. It tempted me to let go and just make him shut up already.

“How long do we have to do this anyway?”

We stopped again.

“Blue-eyes?”

Daesung and I watched as his four wings turned into six before they faded into the darkness.

“We need to get out.”

“But we just got in!”

“You don’t understand!” he turned around and we both could see his eyes shining strongly. He looked... afraid? No train-afraid, but seriously scared. “Jessica tricked us! We were placed too close to the intersection!”

“The what?”

“Oh, I know this one!” Daesung cheerfully jumped. “It’s where the main gate sometimes randomly appears between the three worlds. Only reapers can access it when they go hunting for ghosts.”

“Okay, so?” I snorted. “It sounds good to me. We can use it to get out without Jessica’s help.”

“Or for reapers to catch us,” Daesung added and nodded to himself.

“NO!” A wave of energy shook us. The Keeper finally let go of our hands as he stepped backwards. “This wasn’t part of the plan...” he grabbed his head and growled. “It’s too close... too close! We weren't supposed to be discovered this fast!”

“What the heck are you talking about?”

The forest behind us snapped in two.

“IT KNOWS!”

We watched as a portal opened out of nowhere. It us right inside and spit our bodies in the snow. I let go of Daesung in that instant. We were back in the mountains, but from the lack of trees, we were way on the other end.

“, already?” I searched for Jessica, but she was nowhere to be found. Byung Hee’s six wings appeared again. So he really had two more... that bastard. What else was he hiding?

“Sooyoung...” Daesung barely spoke as he came to my side.

“...yeah,” our fingers entwine “I can see it.”

There was something in the far... something sinister. A black shadowy figure electrified the atmosphere. Byung Hee flew out of there... without us.

THAT SON OF A...

The figure went right away after him with no wings. I couldn’t see what was happening. Daesung on the other hand was paying attention before he had given up too and returned his gaze to my face.

“...your eye,” he blinked “it’s back to normal.”

I touched it out of habit and feared the worse... Jessica did say that the connection must be severed.

So what happened to Byung Hee?

My answer came in the form of a Keeper hitting the ground at such a speed that snow melted and formed a crater. On top of Byung Hee was the same shadowy figure whose features were visible.

It had bloody red eyes, long black hair that reached his knees, something similar to a gas mask that covered his face and black materials which formed some kind of cloth tied to its body.

I don’t know who was more scared of that new creature.

5 AM, so tired...  T^T two cases left and still a lot of chaos. Don’t hit me T^T I’m more than willing to share my tissue factory with whoever asks.