“ing ...” if Seungri was human, he would have spit me, but since that wasn’t the case, he merely gave me his best glare. Or he really didn’t know how to spit in the first place.

“Shut up!” Byung Hee groaned and hit Seungri’s head with his. “Sooyoung, what are you doing? Aren’t you on my side?” They were tied back to back, perfect for any comedic relief in a movie. Unfortunately for them, real life had nothing to do with that. Also, the gang was back and I felt like I could take on the mountains if I had to.

“See these boots?” I pointed at my feet. “They’ll go down your throat if you don’t tell me everything you know.” Their eyebrows shot up. “...what? You don’t believe me? Really now, do I have to punch each one of you until you tell me what the heck is going on?”

“Sooyoung, I---”

“Shhh!”

“But---”

“SHHH!” I waved my hand in front of Byung Hee. No way was I going to accept his lame excuses anymore. He’d been in the same Seungri brought from the beginning. Also, I was getting pretty tired of their petty lies and everything that came along like some kind of avalanche made of problems.

Well, that was a bad example.  

“BUT!”

I grabbed Byung Hee’s neck and strangled him.

“STOP MAKING EXCUUUUSEEEEES!”

“Erm, Sooyoung...” Jung Min tapped my shoulder. I stopped, let go of Byung Hee and inhaled deeply.

“Talk.” He stared at me. I looked at Seungri. “What about you?” they eyed each other, then the trees and whatever else they found interesting.

“They’re traitors,” Yuri came closer and I bet she was still feeling numb after that outer body experience. I was glad that her spirit didn’t go too far in the pits of the Other World for her to be lost forever.

“We are not!” Seungri flared and I had officially lost it. I grabbed their heads and smacked them together, then plunged my feet in their ugly mugs. Daesung and Jung Min had to pull me away from the reapers before I’d tear them a new hole between their eyes and mouth.

“Then what are you?” Yuri questioned. I guess she figured that her daughter couldn’t possible induct an investigation without violence and that wasn’t exactly what we were after.

The reapers found the sky beautiful.

I could almost hear them whistle and faking innocence. Yuri slapped them, smacked them and as she too was about to bash their brains with her feet, Jung Min and Daesung abandoned me and pulled the brunette away from her victims. It was actually funny because their faces distorted a little before they’d regain their normal human shape.

I took my chance and poked Byung Hee’s cheeks together.

Okay, that was seriously fun. Why haven’t I tried it before with Jung Min? He wanted to bite me. I pulled back.

Yah, that dog...!

His eyes turned blue as he struggled to get out. I snapped my fingers and saw the white chains tightened around them. Oh, I really should abuse these new powers more often because whatever I thought about became real... I wondered if I could magically get a table full of goodies because I was so hungry... ugh. Anything but snake stew would do.

“Fine, I’ll tell you!” Seungri suddenly said and thus infuriated Byung Hee.

“What are you doing?!”

“So you guys are in something...” my mouth stretched from one end to the other in the biggest victorious grin I could give “...together.”

Jung Min rolled his eyes.

“I can’t take it anymore,” Seungri paid attention around before he finally decided to look at me while he spoke. “We work for Death, always had. Our main goal was to trick you into joining our false cause and to bring you back to the Other World.”

“So, what am I?” I squatted before him and ignored Byung Hee. Yuri slapped the restless Keeper back to its place and showed him the index with a menacing glare which promised lots of pain. I snickered and waited for Seungri’s reply.

“I don’t know,” he admitted as he swallowed his words one by one before he determined which went well with the situation “but I know we were warned about you, about your powers... I didn’t believe it at first, but when we met... heck,” he smirked and shook his head “your energy is sometimes as pure as the one Death was born out of.”

“So what, I’m the Queen of the Underworld or something?” I joked. It sounded more and more like something out of a bad plotted novel.

“Yes,” Seungri blunted stated. We stared at him.

“Huh?”

“We fear Death, but even It has its incapacities.” Seungri snorted and elbowed Byung Hee back. Something told me that you weren’t supposed to badmouth your boss in public. “There are more and more rogue reapers because his powers aren’t what they were used to be, so they aren't as afraid. I was in charge of discovering the leader of the rebellion. I thought you might have a connection with it and that is why I had been given new instructions to follow you around. Byung Hee just happened to be in the neighborhood. He’s been working for Death too and posed as a rogue reaper for the sake of the mission... you know,” I waited for him to tell me because I really didn’t know. “If you want to learn more about your enemies, you have to infiltrate between them... what’s the best source if not from the inside?” Well, that I understood. He then turned to Yuri, as much as he could, and bowed his head. “Sorry about that, I really couldn’t risk my mission because of you.”

“So, your boss is responsible for all of this?”

“You were there,” Byung Hee muttered.

“There where?”

“In the Other World,” he clarified. Seungri’s surprised face told me those two didn’t really share information to their fullness. “In those three human years, you were there. That demon somehow opened a portal and you accidently entered it. Humans cannot survive that environment...” he frowned “What are you?”

“Well buddy,” I patted his knee “I want to know that too.”

“Buu---but... there’s one more thing...” Seungri stuttered before he cleared his throat “After the rebellion started, some kind of virus had been infecting everybody. The rebels believe it is Death’s doing...”

“You guys are energy, how can you have viruses?!” Daesung argued, again, and I had to agree with him. It was a little farfetched to believe a genocide was going around through beings that were immune to... well... pretty much everything.

“Not a virus in the usual sense,” he snapped and I showed him my fist if he dared insult us. Seungri calmed down. “It’s something that drains out energy and doesn’t let us go back to the Other World to regenerate... it consumes our energy like maggots eating on dead skin.”

“Curse,” Yuri concluded after Seungri’s explication. “It’s not a virus, it’s a curse.”

“But how can they get cursed?!” Daesung was getting more and more annoyed with the whole situation, I could hear it in his tone. Somehow, I was too.

“They can,” Yuri looked at him straight in the eyes. “They are spirits and as long as they wander in this world, they can be cursed.”

“We saw it in action,” that girl’s image hadn’t left me since then.

“I did too,” Yuri added. I was curious when that happened. “What are the symptoms?”

“They look like they're melting... and they burn... and,” Seungri shuddered in his tone “...they look like they’re about to become demons.”

Three pair of eyes laid on Jung Min.

“What?” he asked confused. “That was different,” he scoffed and pointed at me. “She touched me so many times, this new energy or whatever she has made me go crazy for a second. But after I woke up, my wings were fully healed and my abilities restored...” he gave us a sheepish smile and patted his new hairstyle “And my hair’s still longer, it’s actually kind of nice.”

“You,” I knocked at Byung Hee’s head “What was it again? About getting rid of reapers to make place for a new breed?”

“I invented that,” he grumbled and once again avoided us altogether.

I smacked him.

“No you didn’t,” he didn’t look impressed “you’re a Keeper, you guys are the closest to Death, aren’t you?” his eyes shifted in my direction, then back on the forest. “So you didn’t have to invent a thing because the facts are already too good to be true, right?”

“What?!” Seungri exploded. “ARE YOU ING KIDDING ME!? THAT ING HORSE WANTS TO DO WHAT?!”

“And let me guess,” I pinched Byung Hee’s nose “I’m part of this experiment, part of this new generation. Since, as you’ve said, humans can’t survive in that environment, Death seized the opportunity It had been given and twisted my spirit into this new form, right? I’m the first of what’s about to come. But three years here isn’t much there, right?” He kept quiet while Seungri threw some more insults. Yuri smacked him. “So guess I’m a failed lab rat that needs to be taken back...” I cupped Byung Hee’s chin and forced him to face me “Isn’t that right, dear?”

“ you,” his eyes were as blue as the ocean. I surely stirred some waves in them.

“What, Death wants to take over this world too or something? Will that prove you guys that It is the rightful ruler of your pathetic spheres?”

“Shut up, you ing !”

“Okay, listen to me, both of you. I have a message for Death and you’re going to relay it for me.” I got up, dusted my clothes and watched them squirm under my gaze. Alas, that was only in my imagination as Seungri was still sending the stink eye to Byung Hee and the Keeper was probably comparing me with every on the planet in his head. Life’s good. “As long as I’m here...” I motioned to Yuri and Daesung “...as long as there are brave humans that protect this world without expecting something in return...” I smiled at Jung Min as he nodded “...and reapers that do not blindly follow orders without questioning where their heart stands,” I glared back at the two “Death doesn’t have the right to take a single thing. If he tries, I swear I’ll break into the Other World and destroy everything.” I smirked. “Yuri, would you do the honors?”

Right after that, I stepped behind and followed Daesung and Jung Min as all three of us wanted to go as far as possible from the psycho that my mother could sometimes become.

“Grandma, that’s cruel.” Daesung gulped.

“It’s either them or us...” Jung Min mumbled under his breath.

“I really missed your voice of reason,” I smugly declared as Jung Min simply snorted and ruffled my hair.

“Missed you guys too.”

We watched Yuri create a glamorous ball of fire and shoot it into the two reapers. They cried out as they burnt away. I clapped and released them. Their spirits vanished in the following moment as they headed back to the Other World.

Yuri proudly brushed her palms together and if Jung Min hadn’t rushed to her side, she would have fallen in an instant. I carefully examined her aura and body as they slowly made their way back to us.

“Hey...” I fiddled with the hem of my blouse “...where’s Jessica?”

Yuri’s expression grew heavy as she shook her head. I didn’t push it. I just stared at the clouds and smiled. Wherever she had gone, I’m sure it was better than the she’d been through... the every reaper was currently going to. There's a certain pity one feels for even the most despicable of creatures when they are endangered. 

They only had one job and Death is keen on screwing that too.

“ing indeed...”

“It’s okay,” Daesung pecked my cheek and grabbed my hand. He watched the fluffy whites with me “you still have us, don’t you?”

I lowered my gaze and smiled in his direction.

“Yeah,” then leaned in for another kiss.

“HEY,” Jung Min put his hand between our lips “Don’t you ing dare. We still have a lot to do, now move it.”

Daesung pouted.

“Oh c’mon,” Yuri glued herself to Jung Min. “Let them have some fun.”

When the heck did those two switch personalities?

THANK YOU FOR READING UP UNTIL THIS POINT .-. please don't kill me yet, there's still one case to go~