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The creatures were violently breaking the windows of the car, terrifying the two girls in it. Sharp teeth and unhealthy skin. They looked weak, visually, but they were absurdly strong and deadly.
Thin, cold fingers pulled the girls out. Under that night with distant stars, all they were able to see were shapes and skinny silhouettes.
There were two of them. One with blonde hair above her shoulders, the other one with a faded tone of blue. The smell that circulated around them was made of sand and pure blood.
“What a gorgeous pink face full of human vitality,” the blonde creature said, almost poetically. A husky voice forming as sharp nails ran down the girl’s face. “I want to taste it, I want to feel your beautiful neck. The vibration of your veins. The tension on your throat.” She paused, those purple and cold lips touching the taller girl’s warm skin. “I wanna have your blood right now.”
The creature looked in detail at every little feature of the girl’s symmetrical face. Desire and cruelty against fear and helplessness.
“Run, Gahyeon!” The taller girl was able to say abruptly to her friend, but her voice failed in the midst of so much dread.
Her last desperate words before fangs ripped her throat.
The blood that ran down her weak eyes was in a dark red. Her scream was being cut off by the pain, that pleasurable pain. She had never felt so helpless in her entire life.
“ Let her go! ”
A new voice, loud and unfamiliar. The taller girl was no longer able to separate what was reality and what was an illusion, a delirium. But she heard that voice a few feet away.
“When you are awakening at your new dawn,” the creature said near the girl’s ear, “remember my name. Remember to say it. Remember me: Lee Siyeon.”
The girl closed her eyes. The cold hands with long fingers that held her tightly before were now being replaced by equally cold hands, but these being small and gentle.
“You’re going to be okay, I promise.”
The final words she heard before seeing a subtle light, and feeling everything that used to represent life leave her body and her soul.
—
“Bora, put her on the bed. Handong, stay at the door and don’t let anyone get in the way. I need absolute concentration now.”
The black haired woman positioned herself next to the body of that girl with grey hair, her hands now checking a skin as cold as her own.
“You can leave now, Bora. There’s a lot of blood, I know it’s hard,” she concluded.
“I want to stay,” Bora replied consciously, her hands checking the marks left on the neck of the girl lying on the bed. “We arrived in time to rescue her, but she was still alive when Siyeon said her name.”
“It means that...”
“Yeah, she should look for her when she wakes up.”
The two woman exchanged glances for a few seconds, both being aware of how dangerous all of that could be.
“At least you managed to bring her here, the premature enchantment can save her.”
“Minji...” Bora’s voice paced the room calmly. “There was another girl,” she said, looking down at her own hands, “but Yubin took her.”
Minji moved her hand gently from the other girl to touch Bora’s. “It’s fine, sweetheart. We can’t save everyone.”
—
“Yooh, I swear, I didn’t do anything!” Bora tried to hold back a smile.
“Oh no? So that weird guy came up to me all of a sudden, saying he could sense I was interested while I didn’t even look at him once ?”
The smaller girl was now laughing out loud, causing the grey haired girl to punch her arm in disapproval.
For a few brief seconds they looked at each other, Yoohyeon’s big smile gradually fading as she looked at the door of the room they were sharing.
Bora got up immediately when she noticed who was approaching them.
“Babe, Yoohyeon is being annoying,” Bora said, getting closer to her girlfriend and hugging her from behind, as if she was trying to protect herself.
“Are you sure she is the annoying one here?” Handong teased, making Bora groan in response and the other girl laugh provocatively.
Life for them - or the afterlife, depending on the point of view - had been like that for some time. Three years to be precise.
Yoohyeon’s awakening was calmer than they had expected. Minji and Siyeon had been putting themselves in that psychic cycle between good and evil for years. The blonde vampire despised the older girl’s powers, who perfectly managed to control the hypnosis over the girl Siyeon had killed and transformed that day.
Since then, Yoohyeon had shared what was left of her life with those girls, in that big, dark house, living of the night and of blood. She hardly remembered how things were before she was transformed, before she lost everything and everyone. Before she got Bora.
“Do you remember the day I came back to life?” Yoohyeon asked, approaching the two girls.
“How could I forget?” Bora replied, “I was struggling in that awful chair next to your bed for weeks, even today I can feel my back yelling at me in despair.”
They all laughed. Handong pinched her girlfriend’s cheeks as if saying she was exaggerating just a little too much.
“I still can’t believe you didn’t leave my side for weeks,” Yoohyeon commented, smiling between what seemed like gratitude and disbelief. “Was it really that important to be there when I was back?”
The smile on Bora’s face gradually faded to a place of pain and confusion. “I already saw what Siyeon is capable of,” she confessed, “I wouldn’t let that happen to you even if it was the last thing I had to do in my boring, immortal life.”
The taller girl’s eyes hovered over Bora’s face, her fingers gently brushing the messy strands of hair from the smaller girl’s bangs.
It was almost out of the ordinary how Bora could take such good care of Yoohyeon. If the latter said she was hungry, Bora would run for miles and miles, she would go to another city if she had to, just so she could get Yoohyeon’s favorite blood type.
And when Yoohyeon felt suddenly unhappy right after she was transformed - because she could no longer see her family and friends - it was always Bora who left everything as a background just to keep her company and watch any strange movie the youngest would like.
It was all of this, perhaps, that made Yoohyeon fall in love with Bora a little more each passing day.
The girl tried to deceive herself for a year or two, for a few more months she tried to walk away. But it was impossible. The more she took a step back, the more her existence there seemed to make less sense.
She had made friends, of course, Minji and Handong were just as special. But none of them were Bora.
Bora could take the pain away, Bora could release any degrading and uncomfortable feeling. Only Bora could bring the most genuine smile at any moment, whether that moment was good or bad. Bora could heal.
“Anyway.” Bora’s voice sounded normal again as if she was out of her trance. “What about that day?” she asked.
“Oh,” Yoohyeon said playfully, “just wanted to remember the day you started being annoying,” she concluded between laughs, leaving the room quickly.
Bora was ready to throw her pillow when she felt Handong’s soft hands gripped her arms tightly.
With her chocolate eyes, Bora stared at Handong. An immediate smile formed as they faced each other.
“Missed me?”
The red haired girl’s voice was low and attractive. Bora used to say that if that was a skill, it would be the one that Handong would be most successful at.
“What do you think?” Bora replied just as softly, her lips touching Handong’s between each one of those words.
Handong slowly guided Bora to her bed, the soft material touching the back of the girl’s thighs as her girlfriend laid her down with care and affection.
Handong’s hand went up with the same care inside Bora’s black dress, her nails drawing every single muscle in the girl’s belly. Bora moaned in approval, making it clear that she didn’t want her girlfriend to stop any time soon.
Handong’s lips traveled from the girl’s neck, up her chin, tracing each part of her soft face. She kissed her gently - her cheeks, the tip of her nose, her closed eyes.
“I love your skin,” Handong stated in a low, addictive voice, her lips touching the smaller girl’s ear lastly. “Always have loved.”
“And I love you,” Bora replied with a smile, pulling her as close as she could.
“Are we forever?” Handong asked, looking directly into her girlfriend’s eyes. They were both shining brightly.
“As long as we remember each other.”
—
“Oh my friend, my love, oh my JyuJyu!” Bora said out loud as she entered the kitchen, making Minji laugh at the smaller girl’s excitement.
“And you’re already drunk,” she replied as Bora back hugged her.
“We need more of these weird orange drinks of yours,” Bora said. “I didn’t mean to tell you like this but your friends are kinda alcoholics.”
Minji laughed again, pushing her to get a new bowl from the cabinet.
“Shut up and go look for Yoohyeon, she doesn’t wanna leave her room today.”
Bora winked at the black haired girl and headed for the stairs, going up the corridor that led to the younger girl’s purple room.
Yoohyeon was looking out the window. She could see from afar, it was a full moon that night.
“If you came to ask, I’m fine. I just don’t feel like interacting with any other person today.”
“Ah, already knew. Just stopped by to disturb you,” Bora said in response. “Not gonna lie though, I’m surprised that you don’t wanna interact with Irene, she’s hot as fuck.”
The two girls laughed together, Yoohyeon rolling her eyes in the process.
“Speaking of which, you should call that other vampire who usually hangs out with her. What’s her name again?” Bora paused, looking up as an attempt to remember. “Whatever! She seemed interested in you the last time she came here.”
“Yeri, yes. But no,” Yoohyeon stated.
“Come on! Call her,” Bora said, pushing her own phone towards the taller girl.
“Bora, I don’t want it,” Yoohyeon said firmly, her patience seemed to be further away than ever.
“Why not?”
The smaller girl was making that same convincing face that Yoohyeon had known for years. Bora was always the most stubborn among them, but she was also the most insistent when she wanted something.
“Why do you want me to do this?” Yoohyeon asked instead.
“Because you never hang out with anyone.” The smaller girl still held her phone in front of Yoohyeon’s face. “And she’s cute, so... why not?”
“Bora, stop...” she asked kindly, her voice that had once sounded annoyed was now sounding tired and unmotivated.
She tried to gently lower Bora’s arm as she continued to move the phone towards her. Gradually, her hand was holding Bora’s wrist carefully beside her own leg.
“Tell me why and I will stop,” Bora said.
Yoohyeon couldn’t say for sure if it was one of Bora’s games or just absolute innocence. She didn’t want to go out with anyone, and the reason was there, right in front of her, insisting that she should do it.
But Bora couldn’t have known. Yoohyeon never let the obvious be, in fact, obvious.
She protected what she felt for Bora, and kept it as if it was a wild animal. Like a wolf on a full moon night. If she let it out, it would hurt many people.
But living with it was not always so easy, especially when Bora was so close like this. She could feel the girl’s weak breath on her neck, making every part of her already cold skin freeze.
“ Please... ” Yoohyeon said as a whisper.
The taller girl’s hand walked to Bora’s chin in an attempt to deviate from what it was making her feel.
But the moment her eyes moved down and they met Bora’s, everything that seemed to be an attempt to escape sin, became sin itself.
Bora’s eyes were like an ocean of questions and answers. Questions that Yoohyeon couldn’t ask, answers that she couldn’t hear.
Every time she thought of telling Bora how she felt, every time the girl was so close as they shared the same bed and she just wanted to touch her, Yoohyeon thought about the damage it would cause.
But now she couldn’t even think properly. Nothing concrete formed in the girl’s mind but passion and desire. It was almost like a large wall of toxic material was pushing her against the other girl.
Yoohyeon then ran her fingers slowly from the lower part of Bora’s back to the back of the girl’s neck, stopping at the most sensitive area of her skin.
She felt Bora stiffened at the sudden, gentle touch. Luckily, they didn’t have a beating heart to share, either way they would both be pushed by that strong friction.
Yoohyeon brought her face even closer, her lips an inch away from the other girl’s lips. Their fangs were beginning to become apparent.
“That’s why, Bora,” she said painfully.
Bora closed her eyes, not knowing necessarily why. She could feel Yoohyeon’s body getting closer and closer, and it didn’t help her to think clearly.
Maybe it was the alcohol talking, it was what she wanted to blame. But she couldn’t remember the exact moment when her feelings started to become left and right, and she tried not to think about it at all.
When she met Yoohyeon, all she felt was an enormous desire to take care of her, to protect. But at a certain point, she knew that the girl no longer needed protection, she would be able to do everything by herself. Even so, Bora couldn’t stop.
She started to think of Yoohyeon as someone she wanted to look after, someone she wanted around all the time, someone she loved.
She started to think of Yoohyeon as she thought of Handong.
Handong.
Bora quickly opened her eyes and turned away from the girl.
She took a deep breath before dropping her phone on the bed next to them.
“You really should call her,” she said, leaving the room.
—
Handong woke up feeling her sensitive back. Every part of her spine, which rarely showed weakness, seemed rigid on the cold ground. Thick steel chains stopped her from moving properly, both her wrists and feet were stuck to a large pillar of unyielding material.
Her body was covered only with her panties and bra. The lingerie she wore under her clothes when she left the party yielding to her lowest impulses, walking out the door of her house aimlessly, towards the thing she knew the most, the ominous night.
Right after she saw Bora and Yoohyeon.
As her eyes slowly opened, she could see the blue sky. A light shade of blue, that one tone of blue about to blend with the orange of the sun.
Sun.
When her eyes opened wide, that was what she thought about. By the color that was forming, it was around four in the morning.
In less than half an hour, everything would begin.
Handong forced her wrists and legs against the chain, knowing that any movement would be effort in vain. She thought about screaming, but she also knew better, she knew it wouldn’t work.
As a last resort, she closed her eyes. Her mind rose to the strongest of her powers.
“Bora, if you can hear me, I need you.”
“How sweet of you, begging to your girlfriend.”
Siyeon laughed. The distant noises that spread around them merged with that guttural sound.
“That’s good, I need something from her anyway, you’re doing my job greatly,” she added.
That cold voice, the opposite of hell. So cold it could freeze an entire city.
“Why do you do these things, Siyeon?” Handong asked dryly. “Why do you hurt your own kind and innocent people for nothing ?”
The blonde girl let out another sharp laugh. It was such an addictive sound, a kind of degrading beauty.
“I had lived so much already, sweet thing. There’s not much fun these days, you know?” she said, contemplative. “I need to make the fun myself.”
As her voice echoed in the open and empty space of that rooftop, Handong could feel the first signs of the sun touching her feet.
It tingled. And it burned. Each solar wire that touched her fingers seemed to come out of herself, as if a countless amount of beetles were ripping her apart from the inside out.
As the sun began to cover her entire foot, it was then Handong released a harsh, agonized cry. It seemed that every particle in her body was unraveling in despair. Her voice was so loud and guttural that the birds flying around moved away quickly as if they asked for mercy.
As loudly as Handong screamed, the massive steel door slammed against the wall the moment Bora entered through it.
Beside her was Yoohyeon, the girl’s eyes opened wide when she saw part of Handong’s legs being burned by the day above them.
Impudent and impulsively, they tried to move quickly.
“Gahyeon, my darling. Don’t let your friend approach her,” Siyeon said, pointing with her head to the girl with grey hair.
“Let her go, Siyeon, please! She’s gonna die there!” Bora screamed. Yubin’s arms held tightly around her waist as she tried wildly to run towards her girlfriend.
Siyeon stood in front of Bora as her friend held her, the tip of her nails ran cautiously over the smaller girl’s face.
“You can save her...” Siyeon had a mischievous smile. “But there’s a price to pay for everything, isn’t that right?”
Another cry of pain, every millisecond passed seemed more fatal to each one of them.
“And what would that price be?” Bora asked, her voice was just as weak as her nonexistent heartbeat. “I will do anything.”
—
Bora walked slowly down that corridor, her steps were so short and uncertain that she felt her feet failed as if they were going to fall into dust.
The mixed emotions that were part of her body now were cruel and exhausting. She couldn’t eat, she couldn’t sleep. Sometimes she came to think she couldn’t even live anymore. It was all or nothing.
There was the door she was looking for, the color of the wood as dark as the night she hoped would end in the blink of an eye.
She thought, and rethought. She even questioned herself. But she couldn’t run. She wouldn’t be able to run anyway. She needed that.
She then knocked once and opened the door. Her hands were trembling, almost preventing her from pushing it properly.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, staring at the girl who sat on the bed.
The blankets under her were still the same. Red fabric in a different shade from the hair of the girl who was accommodated on them.
Handong turned her face from the book she was reading to where the voice she heard was coming from.
They exchanged glances, Handong’s calmness in contrast to Bora’s nervousness.
The red haired girl had confusion in her small eyes.
“Sorry, but... who are you?”
Pain.
If Bora could describe those words in a single one, it would be pain.
Bora was aware that they would arrive the exact moment she approached the other girl. That’s why she avoided it all day. It took hours to prepare, and not even centuries of life could take away the ache she felt in her chest when she saw Handong’s shallow and unrecognizable eyes looking back at her.
Memories were important, Bora thought. But they could also hurt.
Like the ones in her mind now.
All those memories they shared together, all the great feelings they felt. But only she was able to remember now. She did what was necessary, but she would give everything to forget them as well in that sorrowful minute.
“I need... I have to go-”
“No, wait!” Handong said abruptly, getting up from her bed in a split second as she walked awkwardly towards the girl who had withdrawn from her room with what seemed to be tears in her eyes.
She reached the girl’s arm, holding her with care and delicacy, almost as if a little more strength was going to break her into pieces.
Bora’s eyes moved from the hand on her wrist to the dark eyes of that red haired vampire. Everything about her face was so familiar and peaceful. Almost the opposite of the nightmare that Bora wanted more than ever to wake up from.
“You really don’t remember anything?” she asked, her voice broken just as her feelings. “About me, I meant.”
The other girl tried to smile gently. “You don’t look like a complete stranger, I would say.”
—
“What did I tell you the last time you did something without my permission, Bora? You could all be dead by now!”
Minji’s sharp words came out at the same instant she sensed Bora’s perfume. The girl entered the living room as the leader turned slowly to face her.
Bora looked more tired than ever.
“Go ahead, Minji. You can punish me,” she said between tears. “I would do it again. And again. I would do anything to save Handong as many times as I needed to. I literally just gave up on her for her. Living in exile doesn’t seem so much better than this whole shit right now.”
It was years and years with Bora, Minji thought. The leader needed to show that her word was the final word.
But not at that moment, not when she knew Bora just needed a friend and not more disgrace.
“Come here.”
She approached and Minji hugged her.
And the moment she did, she felt Bora falling into pieces in her arms.
“Why did she become that, Minji? Why did she decide to leave while she had everything here just to become an empty, cruel monster?”
The older girl stroke her hair softly, the coldness of her hands almost merging with the coldness that was also coming out of Bora’s body.
“Sometimes, Bora, people don’t need an actual reason. Sometimes it’s not even about the past, you know? Sometimes it’s just about the future. And Siyeon’s future was ambition and power.”
They allowed themselves to stay that way until Bora calmed down, the smell of the two of them when mixed became blood with strawberries and milk.
Bora felt at home, but the house still looked empty and lonely.
“I’ll be out for a while,” Minji finally said, wiping a last tear that ran down Bora’s face. “You stay here and take care of the girls. Siyeon is now a matter for the elders, and I will take care of it with them.”
Bora nodded. The leader separated her body from hers and headed for the door.
“You’re the best, you know that, right?” Bora said, making Minji suddenly stop to stare at her.
“You didn’t say that when you broke up with me,” Minji teased, turning her head slowly to face Bora again.
“You can’t break up with someone you didn’t even start something with, you dumbass.” Bora rolled her eyes, a genuine smile forming on her lips. “If I remember correctly, it was you who didn’t want a relationship.”
“Fair enough,” Minji replied, smiling as she walked out the living room at once.
Bora laughed dryly while watching her friend, and for a brief moment she could forget the human feelings that clutched inside her chest.
She sat in the black chair that occupied the corner of that huge room. A few pictures scattered on the walls, a piano in the opposite corner. Everything that used to make sense there now seemed suffocating and doubtful.
“Are you doing okay?”
Yoohyeon’s voice came as a refreshing and innovative wind.
Bora didn’t answer, but by the small and disinterested smile the girl gave in response, Yoohyeon could notice she wouldn’t get better any time soon.
“I just came back from her room,” Yoohyeon said instead. “It’s so weird that she remembers moments you were in, like, how is it possible to delete just one person in particular?”
Bora’s eyes filled with tears again.
“I’m sorry,” Yoohyeon said with regret in her voice, “too soon.”
“It’s my fault, anyway,” Bora replied.
“No, it’s not!” Yoohyeon stated, kneeling beside Bora as she placed her hands on the girl’s thigh. “And we’re going to bring her back together. She’s just scared now and she can’t remember things with you, but she can remember things with me, you know?” She turned Bora’s face gently so she could look into the smaller girl’s eyes. “You were always there, Bora. And there are no moments with me if you are not part of them.”
Bora let out the tears she was fighting to keep from falling. She then kissed Yoohyeon’s forehead slowly, resting her chin on the girl’s head.
“Thank you, precious. I love you,” she said, and the words made Yoohyeon tear up too.
She closed her eyes, still in the same position, caressing Bora’s thigh with her fingers. “I love you loads.”
—
10 months later
Bora was walking through the big mansion that afternoon. All the red curtains were closed to avoid the sun that seemed even more traumatic now.
She passed through the living room, Gahyeon and Yubin were sitting on either side of Minji’s respectable and fascinating figure. It was such a shame that they weren’t able to save Siyeon too. It still seemed strange, even after years, not to have the blonde girl’s presence there.
She passed a few more dark corridors, a few more empty rooms. Until that particular purple room caught her eye.
She allowed herself to watch the two girls from afar for a few minutes. They were sitting on a rug on the floor, watching to a movie that Bora remembered watching with Yoohyeon once. She remembered even the excitement in the grey haired girl’s eyes.
Handong’s red hair covered Yoohyeon’s long, toned legs as the latter’s hand gently stroked the other girl’s long hair.
She watched the two girls fall in love day after day. And it broke her heart and her pride. But at the same time, she was happy to know the same two girls she still loved were there, taking care of each another in the exact same way she would like to do.
With a sudden startle taking her out of her deep, confused thoughts, she heard the youngest girl’s voice echo through the room.
“Come in, you weirdo.” Yoohyeon joked.
With the other girl’s comment, Handong turned her gaze to the door, following Bora’s steps until she sat down in front of them.
The red haired girl positioned her body in the same way as the other two girls were. “We went to your room looking for you but Minji said you were doing something in the basement and that we shouldn’t bother you.”
“Yeah, I’m working on something to end the curse of the sun,” Bora joked.
“It’s not a curse, to be honest,” Yoohyeon suggested.
“It is to me,” Handong added, giving a smile of personal pity.
They all shared the same playful smile.
“If I can finish my studies and it turns out to be really efficient, I will name it as Han’s poison, what do you think?”
The girls laughed together again, as if nothing about that subject had been so scary and hellish for months.
But that was life, Bora thought. Things would come and go. They would happen and they would pass.
They still had many years to go, there was no point in whining and suffering forever for the inevitable.
With that same thought, she looked at each of the girls’ faces again, smiling, and stood up. “I should let you two watch the movie now,” she said, the most gentle smile covered her lips.
“Hey, no!” Handong held her wrist softly, the subtle touch of her fingers made Bora’s entire body shiver. “Where are you going?”
It took her a few seconds to get back to reality.
“Minji probably needs help with something,” she said, realizing how silly she sounded. She couldn’t lie, not even to herself.
“I’m sure she’s doing just fine,” Handong replied, with a smile full of care. “Stay with us.”
She looked into Handong’s eyes, with each passing day, there seemed to be more familiarity in them. For a few seconds, it even felt like she could see that same love from months ago.
Handong’s hand slowly went down to Bora’s, where she squeezed her fingers with the same gentleness that was in her eyes.
“There’s no us without you, Bora.” Yoohyeon added just as softly.
The smaller girl’s gaze wandered between Yoohyeon and Handong slowly. Everything around her seemed to walk as calmly as her thoughts.
She remembered one night when Yoohyeon lost control and the only thing that could bring her back to her senses was to spend the night in a cave full of bats.
Bora hated that place, but it meant serenity for the younger girl, and Bora promised that she would do whatever was necessary to make sure she always had at least a decent life, even if it wasn’t ideal.
Bora also promised Handong once that they would be forever as long as they remembered each other. And Bora indeed never forgot anything about her. She could remember every single detail the other girl carried.
But even without memories, Handong was doing her best to discover Bora all over again.
“ And I’m loving every new part of you, ” Handong said.
Due to Yoohyeon’s lack of reaction, Bora noticed that those words were meant just for her, deposited in her mind as Handong smiled shyly.
She had loved many before, or at least, she thought she had loved many. Bora’s whole life was about giving up things and people. Everything and everyone would leave eventually.
But she knew that, at that moment, she had two girls to love, and two girls to do the same for her.
She sat down again, this time in the space the other two girls left between them.
Bora felt Handong’s head touching her shoulder, and Yoohyeon’s leg relaxed over hers. They both looked for Bora’s small hands at the same time.
Bora smiled with relief and peace.
And at that moment, she was just grateful for having so much love to give.