Chapter Text
It pulsated. Each wave of energy underneath that shitstorm of green made the skin around it boil angrily. There was not even a second to think as the crippling waves came. Her knees collapsed under her as she gripped her wrist tight, somehow hoping she could will the pain into fading away. Instead it responded by festering into a crackling light forcing screams to cut through the silence, momentarily stunning any lurking denizens.
The woman hunched over, knees and legs drenched and soaked to the bone, as tears welled up and fell from her eyes. She clenched her teeth as the pain subsided to something less than excruciating, the only thing she could focus on was her breathing.
'In, and out. In, and out. Just.' A pause in her thoughts as she screamed. 'Breathe.'
The momentary respite was just that. Momentary. And soon, another cry was ripped from her as the mark flared and scorched her skin once more.
"Stop," A whisper, to no one in particular, voice hoarse and quiet.
"Make it stop."
The mark did not heed her plea nor her soft spoken command and the woman found herself gritting her teeth through the pulses as they subsided.
Because that was all she could do.
Grin and bear it.
There wasn't exactly any grinning at the moment but details did not seem to matter at that time.
When the pain had become tolerable, she curled in on herself, head resting on her knees, eyes closed in pure relief. She hadn't even had time to ponder her whereabouts before this accursed thing on her hand had practically tried to kill her. As she straightened herself out, and lifted herself from the puddle she prayed was just water, she wondered if she could sue glowing marks for attempted murder.
'Probably not.'
Though as she took a closer look at her marked hand, concentrating on closing and opening her fingers to check if they still worked, and wincing at the terrible burn marks that made it all the way to her elbow, several trains of thought seemed to hit her at once.
"Ah. Shibal." Ah. Fuck.
Not only did she notice that her fingers did not respond the way she wanted them to, as it took a considerable amount of effort to even move them, but her skin was in fact, grey. Not the pasty pale colour she had generously slathered liters of sunscreen for. Nope. It was straight up grey and would have been devoid of colour, if not for the angry red burns and the glowing green mark decorating her arm like it was goddamn Christmas.
"Ah, Seung Bae what have you done?" A worried and slightly exasperated tone entered her voice.
Seung Bae was a lot of things. She was outgoing, curious and sometimes too nosy for her own good. She liked going to mixes, was a snarky socialite, and could drink any man she met under a table. She loved her friends, loved her family and had a big heart for anyone willing to open up to her.
Seung Bae was not grey. Seung Bae did not have claws for nails. Seung Bae definitely did not hallucinate about nerd games like Dragon Age of all things.
Okay that was a lie. She did dream about them a little. Not that she would ever admit it to anyone.
And even if she had thought this was fake or a dream. ‘Or a set up.’ After that horrendously painful round of writhing around in random puddles of shit she found it difficult to continue believing that. Maybe it was a coma dream. Seung had probably just gotten a little too much to drink last night, maybe someone snuck something in her drink and as a result, incredibly vivid dreams-no nightmares of pain and floating demon domain.
Her train of thought came to skidding halt as she heard as she heard echoes of something harrowing and vile in the distance. Who cared if this was a dream or not?! She sure as hell wouldn’t be the one to find out by dying! And she would rather drop dead right now than discover whatever horrible thing was making that sound.
So of course Seung tried to run. And wow! What luck! She was tripping over her own legs like a toddler.
‘Insufficient skill level. Insufficient skill level. Insufficient skill level!’
The more the woman scrambled to get up, the more wrong everything felt. Her limbs would not heed her commands, every step she tried to take was greatly miscalculated where she either stomped the ground underneath her or didn’t even manage to lift her leg high enough off the ground. There were a few times she thought she was going to fall over and break something yet her body seemed to choose then and there to tough it out.
Everything also felt heavier than it was supposed to be, and as the noises were getting closer and closer, causing her heart to beat loud and frightened against her rib cage, she found out why. The crooked landscape of stone and water that hummed around her was not only filled with shit and demons. There were random things scattered around the area, like souvenirs from past victims of the fade. At first, when she caught a sight of movement she thought it might have been someone else trapped here too. Someone that was actually supposed to be here unlike her. Seung stumbled her way back but instead of catching sight of her potential saviour she just stared back at a reflection of herself.
Or at least, it should have been her.
But it wasn’t. It wasn’t her and it was wrong. She recognised nothing in the reflection, her small slender frame having been replaced by a fit and lean body. The short 5’3 was now a whopping 5’11 and the flawless skin she prided herself on having was smattered with scars, some faded with time while other seemed new and raw. Seung’s face was no longer an oval shape with fine features and sharp narrows eyes that she had always thought had made her look like a bit mischievous. Gawking back at her were sharp, tired eyes on an angular face with defined cheekbones. The reflection had long, white, worn out hair, small pointy ears with three piercings. Claw marks on her shoulder, and a jagged scar from below her cheekbone to under her jaw. Plump lips, that protruded slightly. Her roman nose was strong and important, the kind of nose Caesar would have envied. Thin brows, not overly plucked, but not thick and brutish either.
This was wrong. It was wrong, wrong, wrong. The need to claw everything off in the hopes it was just some sort of disgusting second skin rose making Seung impulsively scratch her cheek, the side without the scar. It drew blood.
“No, no, no, no, no! What the hell-what the hell is going on?!” Her voice rose in volume, cracking from panic as her nails dug into her arms. The reflection moved with her, mocking her with its appearance and in a moment of blind rage and frustration, she pounded her fists against the cold surface to destroy the glass.