Are You There - Chapter 47: Chapter 47

Three full days go by easily for the group of seven, pairs creating and changing together beneath the mid-April sun. Hoseok, with a hand in his hair and a crooked grin on his lips finds most of his time is spent with the telepath he has somehow come to realize he loves. Minhyuk, with a purse to his lips and a skip to his step spends each waking moment pushing his powers out further and harder than the moment before. Hyunwoo and Kihyun, both with nerves pinched up by even the rustling of dust, work themselves around one another until the moment Kihyun leaves the comic store behind him.
Changkyun and Jooheon fight against Hyungwon's drive to kill again, the idea that Changkyun's powers will not develop further without another death to his lover too strong to be ignored. But the elder is trumped day after day, Changkyun's fight against his Master domineering to say the least. Though Hyungwon wants desperately to continue their training, he knows he will have nothing for his youngest if he does not have Changkyun's trust.
So Hyungwon instead spends the three days in solitude, or as best he can under the scrutiny of his antique shop's customers. His final hearing is in just two days, and though he cannot see into his future, his fear has grown higher on his shoulders with each moment that grows closer to Sunday. He can feel that something is wrong. He will not make it past Sunday morning, and he can sense it through every nerve in his body.
He can feel it in the way his heart stutters after each shallow breath. Each time his toes curl as a hot spring breeze rumbles in from the street outside his shop. Even when one of his Claims wanders in for a visit, gifts or empty hands always urging him closer to that mental cliff. He is going to die, and he can feel it.
Minhyuk can feel it as well, each time he finds himself beside his Master for more than a moment. Hyungwon has always been one to block his thoughts better than any other, but never one to defend well against his telepath. He has simply left his wall down since Tuesday, the revelation of Changkyun's abilities too astounding to keep a proper block up. Minhyuk hates what he sees drowning the vampire's mind, but he does not know how to stop it.
He knows not how to force the vampire into a state of ignorance, or perhaps another mindset completely. Minhyuk's abilities, though growing with each day that he tests them, are not strong enough to wipe a vampire's mind to the fullest. So instead he suffers beside his Master in silence, his heart aching for the man he loves as a brother.
Hoseok, though happy, can sense the unease in the air whenever beside Minhyuk. The telepath had taken part of the fae's soul the day he was healed, leaving them connected in a completely new sense. Hoseok, a fae who had never specialized before then, finds now that his abilities are of a different range. Physically, he cannot create incredible incantations like his parents or develop delectable teas for every need. But mentally, he can do so much more.
Spirit, a specialization of the fae that has almost disappeared on this plane of the earth, is left almost unknown to the living bloodline. The fae have work after work in writing and speech about the elemental specializations, and just what each can do. But spirit has almost nothing dedicated to it. All Hoseok knows of his abilities from prior studies is that his soul can split for the purpose of healing just once, and he has already achieved that.
That split, a fragmentation if you will, can revive a soul in the frailest of moments. In some cases, like Minhyuk's, a fragmentation can also donate some of the fae's powers during the transfer of life. Hoseok had understood what he had done as soon as he had awoken in his parent's tea shop sprawled across the floor, Minhyuk hovering above him with a fresh aura glowing round him. It was striking, and held the fae's eyes for too long.
Hoseok knows the telepath had understood as well, but they had refrained from discussing it until these last few days. Today, possibly the final Friday of what they have come to know as their everyday lives, they decide to test Minhyuk's abilities to their fullest. The feeling that something is wrong does not leave Minhyuk's mind as he and Hoseok wander through the Seoul streets towards Hangang Bridge. He writes it off as Hyungwon's own distress, believing nothing will come of it. Unfortunately, Minhyuk cannot see the future.
[ x ]
The Counsel have called forth Yoo Kihyun once again. He knows what this is about, and he knows he should not have believed his life would carry on as easily as it has in these last few days. Tuesday was swell; he and Hyunwoo had come to an understanding. Wednesday was a dream; Hyunwoo had finally believed him. Yesterday was like he was invincible; true love was the only thing on his mind as he relished in the raw life of Hyunwoo's warmth.
But Friday comes with a dark cloud and a messenger. His happiness has been short-lived, and will not continue during this lifetime. The messenger, dressed in their usual black, does not speak as she leads Kihyun along through the streets. He has never heard a messenger speak, and though he knows of the lore that they have each had their tongues removed as punishment, he wonders if this is genuine.
He does not ask.
The Counsel's domain, the same white stone building Kihyun had seen only a few months ago, is just as looming now as it had been then. In fact, it seems more threatening this time around, knowing that he will surely not be walking out after this hearing. The scars on his back from his last visit itch as he lets his messenger lead him into the first stretch of the underground tunnels. They are dark just like last time, and even with his heightened vision, he finds himself stumbling over his own feet as he follows the messenger with his ears.
And then the pair is upon those same sturdy doors, awaiting entry. Kihyun knows that once he passes them, he will not be turning round again. He had not even been given the chance to say goodbye to Hyunwoo this morning. He had simply cleared his cubby at The Fourth Wall and handed in his employee badge a few hours ago. He knows there will not be any service if he checks his phone down here, but he pulls the device from his pocket anyway.
Sure enough, the screen blinks up at him dark and angry when he attempts to make an outgoing call. No Service! flashes in the dark, Kihyun's glower instant as he comes to terms with this sudden turn of events. He will die here without even one last goodbye. He had not even kissed Hyunwoo in parting when he left the store this morn. He had only promised to see him tonight.
Now he will not fulfill that final bidding.
Glancing towards the messenger with his last shreds of hope, Kihyun approaches with light feet. "Am I going to die in there?" He asks feverishly, his voice a hiss for only the woman to hear.
She does not know the answer to that, her job only to retrieve the incubus and do so in silence. She gives no reply, only glancing towards the door in a gesture meant to urge him into the Counsel room. Kihyun shakes his head, denying the request vehemently.
"I want you to take my phone," he instructs quietly, shaking the device in the woman's pale face. Opening up his messages, Kihyun sifts through his contacts before finding the name he did not think would be the holder of his last goodbye. Typing out a fervent message of farewell and instructions, Kihyun passes it to the woman. "After I go inside, can you take my phone out into the street again and send this message for me?"
The woman, gripping the device in both hands as if scared it will drop and shatter, shakes her head furiously. She is not permitted to follow instructions from those she leads here. Yet this is an incubus, and she can feel her defiance wane almost instantly. Kihyun's abilities are not dulled any underground, and he can easily find the subtle urge to help buried in the woman's mind.
He grips it tight and blows it up, begging it to become reality. He cannot read her mind, but he can read her expression the moment she decides to help him in his plight. Her nod is firm, as is the fist that raises to indicate the door once more. The door that will seal his fate and end his ninth life. Who he will become in his tenth, what he will be raised from, he has not a single clue. But with this woman's final nod of strength, he knows he will make it beyond this stage easily enough.
This is not a hurdle. This is not even a wall to round. This is a final step forward. Not the end, yet a finale. Blinking just once, and motioning for his messenger to return the way they had come, Kihyun approaches the door with a tightly held breath. He is terrified. He has been killed before, never by the hands of the Counsel, but killed nonetheless. Though he has witnessed deaths, taken death, and dealt it, the fear does not leave him.
Not until he lets the doors open before him and steps into the almost familiar court-like room does he release what he assumes will be his final breath. The faces of his bloodline are grim, while the other six remain stoic, eager to move along with today's proceedings.
"Yoo Kihyun." His name is murmured in a wave, and the doors slam shut behind him with a stark finality. "You have been called forward today under the charges of going against your bloodline's direct nature. You have already been warned of what would come of a second visit under these charges."
He was warned, and he remembers well. Kihyun does not cry as he steps up to his podium for judgement. Not as he did when he had last visited. He does not beg, nor does not scream, and he is given no chance to even think.
Had Kihyun been aware of his final fleeting instant, he would have taken the chance to mutter Hyunwoo's name one last time. Yet he is so caught up in the breath he holds tight in his throat that he cannot even hear the approach of the Rogues behind him.
He does not feel the hands that grip his arms in place, or the second pair that twist his head round at such an angle that could never be considered sightly. He is dead before the snap of his spine's vertebrae can settle in the air, his form lifeless and crumpled into the cold cement beneath it. His soul escapes unscathed, unable to be harmed by such a menial death, and wanders for a few instances before finding its next birth to infest.
Yoo Kihyun is dead, and no twist of fate nor time will bring him back.
[ x ]
Jooheon is surprised to see Kihyun's name glare up from his phone screen. He and Changkyun sit beside one another not far from Hoseok and Minhyuk, the pairs meeting for a picnic of sorts under the high-noon sun. Hoseok and Minhyuk had both come along sweaty and winded, claiming they had spent the morn rushing about Seoul in an effort to train. What they were training for is lost to Jooheon, his knowledge of other worlds limited still to vampires, but he writes it off as physical training.
Nudging Changkyun beside him, Jooheon gestures to his phone a foot or so before them. He has not looked at it much, laying it out in the grass to let music filter out of the tinny speakers, but now he feels the need to ignore it completely. "What d'you think he wants?"
Changkyun glances at the notification before the screen can go dark, the name worrying. Kihyun is not a man Changkyun can claim to enjoy, but he must admit that the incubus has grown on him in recent weeks. The obvious connection the incubus shares with Hyunwoo is reason enough to let the leech slide past his radar. But something about the incubus reaching out to Jooheon out of the blue like this leaves the vampire unsettled.
Feeling weak beneath the sun, Changkyun only shrugs in hopes that Jooheon will just open the message himself and leave the vampire out of it. Changkyun's mind feels a bit fuzzy, the UV-rays from above drowning out most coherent thoughts as he watches the youth of today dash past on the footpaths near the river not far from them. Bodies, all running hard, with their blood pumping and vitality clear on their skin-
Changkyun is not sure if he will be able to restrain himself much longer. Not with this kind of sun beating down against his dark skin.
Jooheon reaches for his phone with a sigh, swiping open past the lockscreen and pulling up the new message. What he assumes will just be a quaint request to stop at the market before returning home is anything but. The turkey and ham sandwich still gripped in one hand hits the grass just as quickly as his bottom leaves it. He stands too quick, his head rushing with dead air and terrifying words.
"Kyun-" Jooheon coughs, smacking a hand out for Changkyun and accidentally landing his knuckles against the vampire's head. "Kyun get up-"
Minhyuk, only a few feet away, is up as well in just the length of a breath. He has already read Jooheon's mind, but does not quite believe it. He knows little of Kihyun, but he knows that the petite man should not be sending things like this to a man he presumably cares for as deeply as he does Jooheon. Snatching the phone away from the blonde, Minhyuk reads the message himself with a hand in his hair and a foot tapping away incessantly. Sure enough, the words are darker beneath his own eyes. Connecting his gaze with Changkyun's over the phone, Minhyuk does not know what to say. This does not seem right. In fact, it seems absolutely wrong in every sense of the word.
Jooheon is close to hysterics when Changkyun finally stands himself up to take the phone into his own hands. The vampire is close to fainting under the sun, exhausted and drained of most life, but he takes the few seconds to read the new message with wide eyes.
From Kihyun: I won't be returning home after today, so take care of yourself and your precious vampire. Please tell Hyunwoo that I love him, and that I will find him again in the next life. Stay healthy, and live a long life.
Short. Concise. Yet everything is wrong.
Forcing his gaze up against the sun, Changkyun wonders just what he is to do with this information.
Hoseok steps forward with an idea of his own, spurred the instant Minhyuk had grabbed for his hand and shared his thoughts with the fae. Though he has almost no clue what he can do as a specialized spirit, Hoseok is suddenly sure of what he can do in this instance. "I think I can find his soul," he blurts, knowing somehow that Kihyun's message is meant to announce that the incubus has passed to his next life. "Even if he's dead, his soul won't be. He's a full-blood."
Jooheon is already running away, his phone forgotten and the message on his mind. He is terrified of whatever void Kihyun has stumbled into. He understands nothing of this other world, but the three he has left behind thankfully have some semblance of a plan when they finally leave their patch of grass.
"Do you really think you can contact his soul?" Minhyuk wonders as he and Hoseok depart together, leaving Changkyun alone to hunt as the afternoon sun begins to sink.
Hoseok is not sure. He does not nod. He merely folds his hand into Minhyuk's and allows his mind to clear for now. If Kihyun has been killed, or has run off out of fear, Hoseok believes he can at least try to make contact. He feels the ability tingling in his gut. Instead of voicing any of this, Hoseok only says, "Just walk with me a little longer."
And Minhyuk does.