Are You There - Chapter 52: Chapter 52

The Counsel room is exactly as Changkyun remembers it from Hoseok's memories. Nine members of the Counsel, all ranging in ages, scents, and expressions-
All completely intimidating. Daunting even. Changkyun knows that his life hangs in the balance of their connected thoughts. He knows that one wrong movement, one wrong word, one wrong thought and he will cast himself and his Master to their deaths. Hyungwon steps forward first, the Counsel chanting his name in rushed whispers that make Changkyun stride back in terror. He has never heard anything like it before. It is a wave of words, rushing out at him as if in attack. An onslaught of hisses, breath and breath again from nine mouths seemingly motionless.
Hyungwon notices his panic-stricken disciple lagging behind, but makes no move to drag the younger forward. Not until the chant shifts towards Changkyun himself, beckoning him forward in that wave of rustles and syllables. Changkyun's left foot stumbles over his right, knocking him forward into his Master and Hyungwon into the podium that awaits them both. The elder's hand accidentally grasps the wood too tightly, drawing from it the many centuries of pain and torment that has been felt through this room. He surprisingly earns a glimpse of Kihyun from just a few days ago, the death that plays across his mind a shock to the brain. The vampire shrinks back from the podium, gasping for the dank air of the underground boardroom.
The whispers have silenced.
"Chae Hyungwon," calls out a rather old man of face, though Changkyun is unsure of his physical age. Changkyun's master stands a bit straighter, stepping forward again with a sigh beneath his breath. "You have reported here after your week of request. What have you to show for it?"
Hyungwon glances behind him at Changkyun, who blinks hard. He does not know if he should speak. He has not been spoken to first, and this does not seem like the place to vocalize out of turn in. So he remains silent and waits for his Master's sign.
"My youngest, Changkyun, has in fact come to possess an ability unlike any of those found among the Counsel." Hyungwon gestures to his disciple, who takes a wavering step towards his elder. Hyungwon's hand falls onto Changkyun's shoulder, meant to calm down his Claim but only tensing his muscles further. "The fae here can prod through his memories and find it there. It's something quite difficult to demonstrate for you-"
"Your Claim will either reveal his ability here for us now, or your execution will be brought along immediately."
Changkyun watches his Master's profile as the older man gulps. He is sweating, though the room is cold and his body does not possess any need to. It is obvious to Changkyun, and surely everyone else in the room, that Hyungwon is beyond petrified. Changkyun is acutely aware of a door parting to his left and allowing the entrance of a hulking man. He watches from his peripheral, stalking the man that wanders the outskirts of the room. Changkyun figures this is a Rogue, set to carry out his and his Master's executions. Hyungwon had warned the younger that this would happen. A scare-tactic, Hyungwon had said calmly, despite his shaking eyes. It is working- Changkyun is scared.
His hand grasps out for his Master, tugging on the hem of the older man's shirt for stability. It provides little, but the contact somehow relaxes Changkyun to a degree. He can at least focus on what the elderly man sat at the table is saying again.
"...he does not reveal to us out of spite, then he will not be offered a second chance to reveal it after your death."
Changkyun's eyes widen, though Hyungwon only sighs. Glancing at his youngest, Hyungwon offers up a small smile paired with an even smaller nod. "My young one," he murmurs around a final sigh. "Forgive me for the sight you'll surely find, but I promise that you shall be alright." The elder vampire takes a long step away from his youngest, taking a knee beside the podium.
Changkyun's eyes widen further, his feet aching to move forward and drag his Master up from the floor. That is until Hyungwon screams, a thundering caw that the younger had never thought would blossom from the vampire's chest. Hyungwon screams, and he screams again, words and vile sounds that all surmount to one final plea. Hyungwon is begging for Changkyun's life. There is sweat coating the older man's face, dripping down like rain, tracing tracks through his pale skin. Changkyun follows each bead as Hyungwon's face contorts. Shout after shout, demand after demand, the color floods the man's cheeks in a foul flush of anger and maybe agony.
Changkyun glances up for one breath, scanning the nine faces before him as they all but one transform into masks of joy. The man that sits in the very center, a vampire by his scent, grimaces as he regards the show before he and his peers. In that one moment, Changkyun's entire existence comes crashing down. His ability unable to present itself soon enough to save his master. For after just one glance, the Rogue that had stalked himself round the room has made his descent.
The blessed blade, soaked surely in foul holy water just for Hyungwon, has come thrashing across the older man's throat.
There is silence. Changkyun can hear his blood thundering in his ears as Hyungwon's breaths stutter over one another. Changkyun can hear his Master's own pulse slow just a few feet before him. Changkyun can hear himself, and his Master, and nothing else.
Nothing else matters as Hyungwon's body tilts to the side. Not a single thing could draw the tears from Changkyun's eyes so easily. No moment in his life has ever been so terrifyingly real before this one. And he is watching it in real time. He does not know if he can fix this.
Hyungwon's last breath comes with a ragged sob, his eyes squeezed shut in pain. Blood has already seeped too far to be safe. It is a pool of black. Though Changkyun watches unblinking, the scene feels like a dream. The young vampire cannot look away. This is the end. He can feel it in his fingertips that this moment is the end. Hyungwon's breathing stops. Changkyun feels the tear through his chest the moment his Master leaves the world. The Mark across his chest burns and fizzles against his skin, dying with the man.
He knows Minhyuk and Hoseok can too. It must be agony. He wonders if they will live better not having seen it like this. Not having witnessed it. He wonders if he will be next.
He ponders over this really being his Master's end. As he looks up from Hyungwon's cold body, the few breaths of time too long to be distracted, Changkyun knows that he has only got a few moments. The Rogue has already lowered the blade to his side, swiping Hyungwon's blood from it across his heavy coveralls.
There should be an order coming along any moment now.
He takes a long... Long deep breath. He holds it.
He awaits the start.
[ x ]
Time has stopped. No, not so much stopped, it has become frozen. Nine faces stare at Changkyun from the long table, paused as if on a television. Their mouths have all dropped in time, ready for the show that they have already begun to miss. The show that not a single one will recall.
Hyungwon's body, flayed across the cavernous floor, is pale in this moment. His skin, near translucent from the loss of blood, is a patchwork of veins and drying perspiration. A singular bead of sweat, frozen just above Hyungwon's left brow, glistens in the flicker of light that seemingly seeps from nowhere specific. In this instance, Changkyun is the only one able to take a breath. He does so gently, a deep inhale that fills his lungs almost to the brim; it almost hurts his chest with how heavy the air becomes. Just like with the sunrise of only a few hours ago, Changkyun needs nothing but focus right now.
He does not know exactly where to look, or if he should be looking anywhere at all. He does not only want to reverse Hyungwon's death, but everything. He wants to take it all back-
All the way back.
Sealing his eyes shut, ignoring the jeers of the Counsel and the glower fixed on Changkyun by the very man that had struck Hyungwon down, the vampire takes another slow breath. He can feel each of his molecules tighten and constrict, all preparing for the tremendous feat they are about to conduct. Unlike when he fades out, he does not feel them split apart and dissolve into the blank air around him.
Instead, he can feel his entire existence shrink and become more compact, as if the pressure of the incoming reversal is under its own gravity. It is painful, a weight that drags Changkyun down, but he knows it will not kill him. He knows it will only give him back the life he lost six months ago. Peeling his eyes apart, he presses rewind on that hidden remote, holding his breath tight within his chest as the world begins to shift around him.
The pool of deep crimson, in this light a near black; the puddle that could almost be paint if Changkyun did not know any better, slowly recedes. Hyungwon's pallor, pale still as his blood returns to the gaping wound torn across his throat, brightens moment after moment. Changkyun only wants to watch this single moment before he picks up the pace.
Before the real show begins.
Hyungwon's final breaths, the ones that had brought tears to Changkyun's eyes only a minute ago, bring a fresh round all over again. Because now, in reverse, they are Hyungwon's first breaths. The old vampire, still with that disgusting wound, is gasping on the cold ground with life breathing through him as if for the first time. And Changkyun has never seen something so beautiful.
He thought the things he had done before- saving the life of the man he loves for start- would be the most incredible moments of his life. But this, bringing the ultimate reset to the man that had given him this ability. This is what Changkyun was made for. This is why Changkyun is here. In this moment, he understands his Master's intentions more than ever before. Hyungwon did not choose Changkyun out of sheer chance. And Changkyun will not do anything from now onward out of chance either. Everything he does after today must be done with a purpose. Everything beautiful and ugly, everything right and wrong, everything on purpose. Until the end.
Changkyun lets his breath go as Hyungwon's body rights itself, stood still as the Rogue who had been brought in to execute him throws his blade through the air again. It is a professional swing, Changkyun realizes. He had not seen it coming when it had struck Hyungwon the first time, but Changkyun does not miss an instance as the blade that once struck Hyungwon down now traces over the slash through his throat and tears it away.
Erases it out of existence. Keep erasing until Hyungwon is back onto his knees, screaming and begging for Changkyun's survival. Not even his own. Erasing still until Hyungwon is telling Changkyun that it will be alright.
Back and back again. To moments unseen. Moments Changkyun wishes he had paid more attention to when they had happened. Moments beyond this boardroom. He has never drawn back this far before, but he has only just begun. He is not entirely sure just how long he can rewind, but he knows he will not be stopping until his body gives out. He can feel the electric charge bursting from every cell in his body; he knows he will not give out anytime soon.
Changkyun watches as the day becomes night around him, and the steps he has taken retrace themselves. He walks himself from the Counsel's headquarters, memories flashing across his mind one after the other in rapid succession. They are moving too fast to piece together how far he has backtracked, but snippets of Jooheon, Minhyuk, and Kihyun all strike him full in the face as he moves along.
Colors, like streaks trailing across the sky, catch his attention and he recognizes Hyungwon's antique shop. His first night spent with Jooheon after their months apart- It is a rush through his entire body as he feels every sensation all over again. He keeps rewinding, tearing at every memory until it's dust in the wind. Until it never happened.
Every singular minute is turned back, and Changkyun can feel the throbbing ache start in his chest when he begins nearing his end point. He does not know how close he can get to his destination, but he wants to try as best he can to make it. He has to make it. He has to fulfill his plan.
His connection moment with Hoseok flashes next, and the wave of emotions that had hit him that day all flood back and out in one foul wave. It hurts to lose it, and Changkyun wonders if Hoseok can feel it in this moment. In this fleeting instant of existence, wherever Hoseok's soul currently lies- can he feel this pain? Some part of Changkyun, the part that is not desperately gasping for breath through all this, hopes that nobody will ever have to feel any of the hurt that has been brought to them in the last six months. The vampire begs anybody that may be listening. Never let any of them feel this hurt ever again.
Though as Changkyun reaches the first day of his new life, he knows that not much will be able to change. Minhyuk's mother, the kind woman Changkyun had barely known, will certainly still die. Changkyun, if a vampire at the end of this all, will surely still connect with Hoseok. Jooheon will probably still leave.
"Fuck-" Changkyun gasps out as the hospital rises in front of him. The hospital.
He remembers coming here just yesterday, but that was not yesterday now. That is six months into the future. That is a reality that does not exist anymore.
The white walls. Jooheon. Fear. Pain. Blood. So much blood- on his face, and on his hands, and on his tongue. Blood leaving his body. Blood being torn and drawn from him. Being dragged through blood. The comic store. Hyungwon. Jooheon.
Jooheon.
Jooheon and that stupid party.