Chapter Text
On a cold fall day, Jennie Kim would love nothing else but to snuggle under her warm covers and watch Netflix. Unfortunately for her, her college roommate, Lisa Manoban, dragged her out of their apartment to visit a museum very much far away from the comfort of her bed.
Jennie’s face twisted in annoyance when Lisa pulled her by the arm and jumped from exhibit to exhibit. “Isn’t that painting so cool?” Lisa asked, pointing at a disturbing image of two men welded together by the torso.
Jennie’s brows furrowed at the image, quickly losing interest, and looked around. There were couples and a few families around. It was a Saturday evening, a typical day to have a family vacation to a museum full of weird art.
“It’s disturbing.” Jennie replied to not leave her friend hanging.
“Over here!” Lisa exclaimed like an excited child and pulled Jennie across the gallery. “It’s way cooler.”
Lisa was an art major, so Jennie understood her fascination for such concepts. The least she could do as a friend was go with her to visit these places. Jennie reluctantly allowed Lisa to lead her.
This part of the museum was a lot less crowded. There were no kids, only a man and woman inspecting a sculpture at the corner.
“Look.” Lisa said under her breath, like she didn’t want to disturb a baby.
Jennie trailed Lisa’s finger to where it was pointed to: A large statue at the far end of the gallery. It was kneeling, resting its hands on the floor. Large chains wrapped around its wrists. The hyper realisticness of it made Jennie uneasy, but she was intrigued by it. She didn’t realize her feet were moving until she was in front of the statue, the rope barrier preventing her from going further. The wings looked like real feathers, absorbing all light. Jennie felt an urge to run her fingers through them.
“It’s Death.” Lisa read from the gold plaque displayed next to Jennie.
Another painting caught her eye and she quickly walked over to it. “The Battle of Heaven and Hell” it said.
“I didn’t think that this part of the whole museum would interest you this much.” Lisa commented from behind her. “It’s almost lunch time. You can stay here if you want, but I’m going to buy us some sandwiches.”
Jennie heard Lisa’s footsteps grow fainter until it was just her, the statue, and the painting. Even the man and woman were gone.
Jennie could hear noises coming from the painting. She leaned across the rope barrier and pressed her ear as far as she could to listen.
It was cries of pain. Heartbreaking cries of pain, torture, loss. There was a sound of cackling fire, consuming everything in its wake like a monster. The ringing sounds of steel clashing against steel.
Jennie shuddered and withdrew from the painting. She made her way out the gallery to meet up with Lisa, until a low, ominous voice whispered into her ear.
“Help me.”
Jennie’s head whipped around and scanned the area, blood turning cold. The temperature of the room dropped suddenly. She shook it off and took another step when she recoiled from walking into an invisible wall.
What is this? Jennie pressed her hand on the invisible force in front of her. She couldn’t push through.
“Come closer.”
Jennie’s eyes wandered to the statue. It was either her mind playing tricks on her, or it got closer. Shaking, she slowly walked to the statue. It didn’t look like the initial marble statue she saw with Lisa. This time, it was more realistic, with veins and creases in the face. The ebony feathers seemed to be moving and alive.
“I’m chained.”
Jennie considered the chains around the wrists, but then she scoffed. Someone must be pranking me. Her mind thought of those mischievous kids at the front of the museum. She turned and walked away.
The place suddenly began shaking. It shook so violently Jennie was thrown off her feet. Paintings fell from their walls and sculptures crumbled into pieces. Everything fell, except the statue and the Battle of Heaven and Hell painting.
The marble floor under Jennie cracked with a loud boom. The walls cracked. However, dust and debris didn’t come out of it. Out came blood.
The walls were bleeding.
Jennie stared in horror and shock as the walls gave away, revealing flesh. Living, pulsating, flesh. Throbbing like a heartbeat, purple veins flowing throughout.
“You know who you are and what you’ve done.”
The statue stood up. The once white marble eyes turned crimson red. Its eyes trained on Jennie and stepped forward. The chains limited the distance it could go. It pulled at the chains.
“You’ve done this to me.”
Jennie was not the type to break her composure of a confident person, but this definitely freaked her out. She squeaked and scrambled away. The blood seeping from the walls already made a one inch pool around her.
“A setback of heart won’t be enough to save you from my wrath.”
The blood was getting higher, forcing Alayna to stand up to get air. The ceiling disappeared, revealing a sky with dark crimson clouds raining dark crimson blood.
“You’ve met with a cursed fate.”
Jennie gasped when the blood reached her chin.
“Remember that.”
Deep laughter echoed from the abyss and Jennie was pulled underneath the blood pool.
~
“Jennie!” A familiar voice rang through her ears.
Jennie’s cat eyes opened and found a worried Lisa hovering over her. There were nurses and a doctor on the sides of the bed.
“What happened?” Jennie asked drowsily.
“I came back and you were on the ground. You weren’t moving and your nose was bleeding!” Lisa exclaimed. “It was bleeding a lot!”
The mention of blood shot pain and dizziness in Jennie’s head. She turned and vomited over the other side of the bed into a conveniently placed bucket.
“Ms. Manoban, I think Ms. Kim needs some rest.” The doctor said.
Lisa nodded reluctantly and hugged Jennie before leaving. The doctor sat on the chair that Lisa occupied earlier with a clipboard and pen in hand. “My name is Dr. Lee.”
Jennie just stared blankly at him.
“What were you doing at the time you blacked out?”
“I was looking at some paintings.”
“Did any of those paintings trigger something? Like blinding lights would do to a seizure?”
Jennie shook her head. The doctor scribbled something down.
“How about before? Did you get enough sleep? Food?”
“I’ve been sleep deprived a bit, but it’s normal for a college student.” Jennie clicked her tongue. She just wanted to go home.
The doctor was in deep thought and scratched something out. “Do you do drugs?”
Jennie frowned in disbelief and shook her head.
He grunted and stood up. “I’ll be back in a bit. Rest for now.”
~
Jennie was let out of the hospital after a day. It was odd that it took that long to get out. She didn’t think her condition was that severe. Lisa picked her up.
“You’re okay with going to school?” Lisa asked, worried like a mother to her child.
“Yes mom.” Jennie said sarcastically.
Jennie felt more exhausted than she had been on Saturday when she trudged along campus. Walking down the hallway, she heard rapid whispering that tickled her ears. Listening intently, she followed it to a billboard plastered with papers and flyers promoting various clubs and events. The whispering sounded like gibberish. She reached her hand out to the wall and pressed it. A squishy sound emitted, followed by blood seeping through the wall and onto her fingers.
“Jennie!”
Jennie twirled around and saw Lisa walking toward her. She looked back at the wall and saw nothing. Her hand was clean. Not one drop of blood.
“There’s a last minute meeting for my dance team.” Lisa said apologetically. “Can you go home alone?”
Alone, Jennie dragged herself and her heavy books to the front door and jumbled with the keys. The door opened, revealing not the living room, but an alleyway. A damp, chilly, dark alleyway. There was a dim light at the end, like a flickering lightbulb.
Jennie set her backpack and books down and stepped into the alleyway. The door immediately shut behind her with a loud bang. The darkness shrouded around her like a coat.
I guess the only way is forward.
Jennie staggered along the alleyway, her fingertips trailing the damp, coarse brick wall. It was narrow and she felt claustrophobic. It seemed that the light didn’t get any closer. Jennie was tired and leaned against the wall to rest. The light suddenly blinked off.
Now she was in total darkness.
“Over here.” Came a high pitched voice, like a small child.
A little flame flickered at the distance. Jennie pushed herself off the wall. Looking back, it was gone. Just the endless darkness.
Jennie headed toward the flame. The flame grew until it was a raging fire. Screams bursted out of nowhere, forcing Jennie to cover her ears. She felt the flame licking her skin and visions of war. The Battle of Heaven and Hell. Jennie screamed until her lungs were on fire. Literally.
“She’s next.” The same ominous voice from the museum drawled.
~
An ice cold towel was placed on Jennie’s forehead. She opened one eye and found Lisa looking over her.
“Lisa…”
“Hush.” Lisa placed a finger on Jennie’s lips and grabbed a bowl of porridge. “You’re burning with fever.”
Burning. That was what Jennie was. She was burning in a fire.
Jennie suddenly spazzed and smacked the spoon out of Lisa’s hand. It flew to the wall, leaving a glob of porridge sliding down it.
“Jennie..?” Lisa faltered.
Jennie covered her face with her hands and sighed heavily. “Lisa…”
“I think I’m going crazy.”
Lisa’s brows furrowed with worry and she set the bowl aside. “What do you mean?”
Jennie shuddered and fiddled with her clammy hands. “I keep on having these strange visions and dreams. It’s like a nightmare. In the museum, I saw the walls bleeding, and the statue came to life. There was whispering. The statue was telling me to help it. Then blood started raining and coming out the walls and I drowned in a pool of it. Right now, I just dreamt of an alleyway. I opened the front door and instead of our living room, it was a dark alleyway. It was scary.”
Jennie didn’t realize she was crying until the tears dropped on the sheets. Lisa hugged her shaking shoulders.
“It’s alright.” Lisa comforted. “I’m sorry I left you when you needed me most.”
Lisa handed Jennie a glass of water. She drank it quickly.
“Get some rest.” Lisa said. “I’ll phone Dr. Lee.”
Jennie kept quiet as Lisa stepped out of the room. She was cold, but the sheets were too stuffy underneath. She looked out the window where the sunny day suddenly became dark and cloudy. She was reminded of the blood rain and shuddered. She grabbed her duck plush and hid underneath the blanket, like a child hiding from the thunderstorm.
~
“I think it’s going to rain.” Lisa observed from the couch.
Jennie listened and played with her noodles with mild interest.
“It might be a heavy storm.” Lisa noted. “Campus might close.”
Lisa poked her head over the couch and grinned. “That means we have the whole afternoon to ourselves!”
Jennie gave a small smile and returned to her noodles. Lisa pouted.
“Let’s watch a movie!” Lisa enthusiastically suggested. “How about Up?”
“I’m not really feeling Up today.” Jennie mumbled.
“Jaws?”
Jennie’s mind immediately thought of the blood rain and bleeding walls and shouted, “No!”
Lisa jumped from her sudden outburst and sighed. “I guess we can settle with Back to the Future.”
Lisa got the movie ready while Jennie made popcorn. She watched the popcorn pop through the microwave glass mindlessly. The popcorn suddenly started popping blood spurts. It splattered on the walls of the microwave and a shape formed from the kernels. A hand, scratching and clawing to climb out.
Jennie screamed and fell from her chair. Lisa ran to Jennie’s aid when she heard the racket. “Are you alright?” Lisa asked.
Jennie blinked and looked back at the microwave. The popcorn was normal popcorn, popping normally as popcorn could pop.
“Yeah.” Jennie answered curtly. “I just fell.”
Lisa narrowed her eyes at the lie but didn’t press further. The popcorn finished and Jennie decided to let Lisa eat it all. She didn’t feel like eating popcorn after that.
The storm outside howled loudly. Lisa pumped up the volume of the movie to overcome the disruption, but the television suddenly turned off.
“Damn it.” Lisa muttered. “A blackout.”
Jennie froze. The dark was too dark for dark.
“I’ll call the lobby.” Lisa said.
Jennie grabbed Lisa’s wrist and whispered desperately, “Don’t leave me.”
Lisa was confused at her change of behavior, from a confident girl to a nervous wreck. She smiled reassuringly. “Follow me then.”
Jennie stood up to follow as Lisa rounded the corner and into the hallway. Jennie made heed.
“Hold up. I’ll get flashlights from my room.” Lisa called out and entered her room.
Jennie waited outside the room, tapping her teeth anxiously. Nothing is going to happen. She repeated to herself.
The apartment phone started ringing, scaring Jennie out of her wits. She picked it up but only met static. Maybe the phone line is dead. She thought and turned around to tell Lisa, but found that the door was shut.
The door wasn’t shut before…
Jennie stared confusingly at the door. “Lisa?” She called out. No response.
With shaking hands, she gripped the knob, which was strangely warm in their cold apartment. She turned it.
“Lisa, the phone line is down.” Jennie said when she peeked her head through the door.
No response.
She opened the door a bit wider, but stopped when she stepped on something wet. The dim lighting from the window helped Jennie speculate it. It was red, squishy, and thick.
“Lisa…?”
~
“I understand that you are emotionally traumatized right now,” the police officer stated, “but we need all the details we can get.”
Jennie had a blanket over her and stared into space. She was sitting on the edge of an ambulance. Police and paramedics were in front of her apartment.
The police officer sighed and left. Jennie eyed the boxes that were being carried into the ambulances, each one containing a part of Lisa.
Jennie squeezed her eyes shut and felt her noodles rising up from within.
She died because of me. Jennie thought. It’s because of me she died a horrible death.
She couldn’t take the image out of her mind. Lisa was a bloody heap of sawed limbs and organs spewed all over the floor. The stench was horrific.
Another police officer came over. This time a woman. Jennie looked away, hoping that she would take the hint that she didn’t want to talk.
The woman stopped in front of Jennie and crossed her arms. “You can’t just ignore me.” The woman said with a soft, but deep, nasally voice.
Jennie didn’t look at her.
She heard a sigh and a hand cupped Jennie’s face and turned her. Jennie was surprised, both at the sudden action and the angel that faced her.
Not a literal angel, just that she had ethereal beauty. Her slim face, her big eyes, her heart shaped pink lips. Her scarlet hair flowed gracefully. Something that captured Jennie’s attention was her eyes. They seemed to glow golden and blue. There was something familiar about her.
“Are you wearing eye contacts?” Jennie unknowingly blurted out.
The police woman raised her eyebrows in surprise and smirked.
“These are my real eyes, believe it or not.” She replied.
“There’s a lot of things I don’t believe, but they happen.” Jennie huffed.
The woman took a seat next to Jennie. “I know you’re still in shock, but time is running out and you have to get out of here.”
Jennie cast a confused look. The woman was staring ahead.
“The visions you are having are history repeating. The Battle of Heaven and Hell. The Blood Moon eclipse. Seok Jin is seeking revenge. He is playing with your head, inputting these horrid visions. He is the Wolf, after all.” She sounded like she was talking about an old friend. “Obviously, he demands you to free him because he is chained. As much as I hate it…”
The woman turned to meet Jennie’s eyes with fierceness.
“Do. Not. Free. Him.”
Jennie just stared, the words still processing in her head.
“Darkness has consumed every inch of his mind. He caused the Battle of Heaven and Hell. He will bring destruction upon the universe. Not only this universe. Multiple universes, alternate universes.”
She stopped to watch Jennie’s reaction.
“What killed Lisa?” Jennie asked with a small voice.
The woman’s eyes tinged with sadness. “She didn’t die.”
“What?”
Jennie looked to the stack of boxes that were surrounded by police and medics.
“She’s been taken. As a hostage, I’d assume.”
“They’re going to file a death report for her!” Jennie exclaimed. “We need to tell them that she’s been kidnapped.”
The woman gently placed a hand on Jennie’s thigh to stop her from getting up.
“It’s safer this way.”
“Why? What was the body?”
“Just a random woman across the world. Cut to pieces to prevent identification.”
Jennie’s stomach turned. “So a random stranger died because of me.”
“If you want to put it that way.” The woman looked at her watch. It looked irregular. It was golden with strange carvings and shapes around the rim. Instead of numbers, there were planets that seemed to rotate.
“Come on.” The woman said urgently and grabbed Jennie’s wrist.
“Hey!” Jennie protested and yanked her wrist free of her grip. “I don’t even know you and it sounds like you’re kidnapping me. How did you even know about my visions?”
The woman looked impatient, annoyance etched in her face. “Okay. My name is Ji Soo. Kim Ji Soo. Will that make you trust me?”
Jennie hesitated when she heard the name. “No-”
She was shocked into silence when Ji Soo grabbed her hand with an iron grip. The feeling of her soft skin sent a wave of familiarity over Jennie. They weaved past the police officers who didn’t give them a single glance, as if they couldn’t see them at all.
When they left the crime scene, Ji Soo led them toward an alleyway. Jennie froze and Ji Soo looked back.
“What’s the matter?”
Jennie shuddered. “I don’t like alleyways.”
Ji Soo huffed and veered them away from the alleyway. They stopped behind a closed store.
“We don’t have time.” Ji Soo mumbled under her breath. Jennie watched perplexed as Ji Soo reached inside a small pouch that hung from her neck like a necklace. She pulled out a rod that should not have fit inside the tiny pouch. The rod had carvings of a language Jennie didn’t know and a purple, glowing crystal at the tip.
Ji Soo began drawing on the store’s wall. Jennie stared in amazement and disbelief as the rod protruded gold, glowing light like ink. Ji Soo stepped back, observing her illustration: A triangle with a circle in the middle. It began to glow and casted a bright white light. Jennie shielded her eyes with her arms.
“Go.” Ji Soo urged. “It’s coming. I’ll find you when I can.”
A boom was heard in the distance, followed by a roar. “Wait-” Jennie said, but she felt Ji Soo push her by the shoulder blades.
Jennie fell into the unknown abyss.