Chapter Text
Jungeun waited. And waited. And waited some more.
Staking out for a job wasn’t difficult, but her patience ran thin after weeks of observation. So when there were just minutes left to execute her assignment, she could only feel the rhythmic beat of her heart pumping blood through her body.
The cool air made what little skin she had exposed prickle behind her neck. The weight of the rifle in her hands, heavy and solid, regardless of the bipods and stack of wooden planks it was positioned on. The coldness of the metal seeping through the leather gloves she wore. The smell of freshly-cemented concrete framework, soldered wires, and chalky dust from the newly-placed drywall swelled in her lungs as she took deep breaths.
While darkness surrounded the peripherals of her vision, she could see her partner’s hunched figure. Jungeun would catch a few words from her muttering descriptions of her visual through the hunting monocular she held, and something about how boring the board meeting looked.
Jungeun looked at her watch. 17:53. Seven minutes. She had to be exact. Needed to pace her escape with her partner properly.
Jungeun adjusted the rifle’s recoil pad against her shoulder, index finger inching toward the trigger.
She shut her eyes and controlled her breathing. Relaxed her shoulders. Slowly but surely she sensed the beat of her heart dull, the blood no longer rushing in her ears.
Opening her right eye, she quickly assessed her view through the rifle’s scope. Men and women in suits seated in a large room that expanded through a third of the building’s width, making it an easy task to peer through the high-rise tempered windows. Her target was approximately ten feet from an exit; possibility of an escape, if Jungeun were to miss. But that would never happen.
“Peach?” Jungeun called out to her partner.
“Three minutes. Northeast winds will slightly affect your shot. Adjust accordingly, Red.”
Clicks sounded as Jungeun tuned the windage turret of the scope. Her partner took the silence afterward as confirmation to continue.
“Two minutes.”
Jungeun saw a flash above her optic, maybe a few floors above her target—she couldn’t tell with how quickly everything occurred after that. She was careless.
“Jiwoo!” escaped from her mouth. It was instinctual. They only ever stuck to code names during their assignments.
She attempted to pull back, but it was too late. The bullet missed her forehead by an inch, piercing and shattering the scope of her rifle—and then all she knew was excruciating pain as the lens exploded directly into her right eye, glass and metal impaling her flesh. Jungeun screamed, unconsciously struggling to shut her eyelid, which only made the shrapnel move deeper within her eye.
“Fuck! Jungeun!” Jiwoo’s voice filtered in through her ringing ears, struck with panic.
Jiwoo dove behind the wooden planks Jungeun had fallen behind. They couldn’t freeze now. They needed to leave now.
Jungeun heard the frantic movements of Jiwoo packing their equipment into a duffle bag, along with the rifle after disassembling it in what must be record-time, and then the whoosh of her swinging it over her shoulder.
Hands tentatively touched Jungeun’s face as Jiwoo assessed her eye, blood oozing down her cheek. Jiwoo winced as she wiped the blood off with her sleeve, but the flow didn't stop. Jungeun cursed, clenching her jaw so tight that the ache in her gums could almost serve as a distraction.
Jiwoo took off her beanie, placing it in Jungeun’s hand to press over her eye. “Jungeun, please. Hold on for just a-a bit. We need to get out of here before they decide to shoot again and cage us in.”
Jungeun’s ears were still ringing from the adrenaline, yet she could only comply with the pull on her hands. It took everything in her to not tear into her injury right then with the hope of ending her suffering.
But she did have enough strength to focus on leaving, to remember the options of escape. The entrance was obviously a no-go. If the shooter had a view on them through the front of the building, then their only routes lie to the back.
But if they’ve been compromised, who’s to say the culprits weren’t waiting for them at the bottom of the stairs?
A grim sensation gripped onto Jungeun.
“We’re heading to the roof,” Jiwoo decided.
The climb to the roof would be no easy task; Jiwoo carrying a weighted bag while being a crutch to Jungeun was time-consuming, with it being another eight stories above them.
Jungeun’s voice sounded grating even to her own ears. “No, we’re not. There’s no escape from the top. We can handle whatever is down there.”
“We don’t know what’s down there! And I’m not trying to find out. We’re going to the roof.” Jiwoo attempted to pull her towards the nearest emergency staircase—
But it was too late. They could hear the echoes of orders being barked through the metal door across from them.
Jungeun adjusted her grip on Jiwoo’s forearm, squeezing harder than she normally would. “We can lose them on this floor. Any opportunity to get to the stairs, you take it. For now we have to split. Move,” she commanded.
Jiwoo whimpered, gripping onto Jungeun with just as much force. But after another beat, she nodded and let go, expression set into a serious, determined ferocity that their line of work had long since imbedded into them.
Jungeun sucked in a deep breath and held it as Jiwoo’s back turned, footsteps hardly audible as she slunk into the darkness. Jungeun pivoted to the opposite direction, allowing that same ferocity to light in her veins and dull her pain.
The visibility within the building was pretty much nonexistent. Jungeun was hopeful that the shadows would be enough of a cover for her to get rid of anyone in her way, but more than anything, she had to keep Jiwoo alive. If they’ve truly been compromised, then the probability of them both making it out of here was slim.
Jungeun’s injury was a huge hindrance to her awareness within the dark; she had to focus on her auditory senses and pray that she wouldn’t need to use her handheld gun.
She hid in the corners of a room filled with a variety of materials and machinary. She could catch the sound of harsh whispers and footsteps through the hallway as they passed. Gradually, she inched her way closer to the entrance of the room, readying to make a run for it if they were to double back.
Doing her best to scope the area with one good eye, she made her way to the exit—and then a shot rang out, followed by a burning sensation coursing through her right side. Cursing, she collapsed against the nearest wall, just barely biting back a scream as the beanie fell from her grip and both hands went to press at her side.
This was it. This was how she was going to die.
While she’d imagined she would eventually die on the job, she had hoped it would end differently. Not within reach of her partner. Not when Jiwoo was still in danger.
Straining to sit up, she could feel the warm blood seeping from the wound onto her clammy hands as she tried to press down harder, but her strength faltered.
Heavy footfalls sounded near Jungeun, along with the flash of lights scanning her body.
“Leave her,” a voice instructed. “Find the other one.”
No. She hoped Jiwoo had enough time to escape. Jungeun’s death could maybe be worth something in that case.
The loss of blood quickly affected her cognitive ability to speak out. Her body was shutting down, getting heavier and heavier. The voices became muffled. A numbness drew her in.
A bright light emerged from the other end of the hall.
From where, Jungeun wasn’t sure. But it was an unnatural light, one she was drawn to. She instinctively squinted her good eye to shield from its brightness.
Is this the end for her?
An unsettled feeling creeped over her.
The light coming from the staircase dulled, flickering, before it was consumed by a darkness that didn’t hinder Jungeun’s sight, yet engulfed everything around her. A chill coursed through her body, down to her very soul.
Suddenly a black mass of tar formed on what should’ve been the floor. It bubbled and spit out smoke, growing in size, overtaking the ground.
All Jungeun could do was stare in a dazed state. What the fuck was happening?
A pale, clawed hand emerged through the molten tar, gripping onto the edges of it as an anchor. Languidly, they pulled more of themselves out, the black substance almost being ripped off from its flesh as it escaped. An elbow appeared, a shoulder, and it wasn’t until Jungeun saw horns atop a head did she notice how biting the temperature was. Yet she felt no pain from her injuries. No exhaustion. Almost a numbing sensation overcame her with how cold it was.
The figure opened their eyes as they completely surfaced, and what should’ve been the white of their eyes was black. Their irises were a burning red, glowing yellow in the center.
Breaking into a cynical grin, their eyes dilated as they observed Jungeun. “Why hello there,” a sultry purr of a greeting leaves their upturned lips.
“Wh-What are you?” Jungeun unintentionally stammered.
The figure brought a hand to their temple with an almost comical expression on their face, as if they were in immense thought. “Perhaps your second chance at life.”
Jungeun stayed mute.
The figure pouted. “Come on now. I was hoping for a more dramatic response.”
A pause.
“What if I said I’m a contracting demon?”
Jungeun’s jaw fell open. A demon?
The creature’s smile overtook their face, sharp teeth glinting in the darkness. “Now that's better.”