Demonic Possession
Title: Demonic Possession
Author: juuten
Pairing: Jongkey
Genre: Horror, Drama, Romance (?)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Set in the Joseon Dynasty, humans have been playing a deadly game with demons for centuries. Is one worldly wish really worth selling your soul for?
A/N: I'm back. O_O and I was supposed to post this two years ago.
He ran a hand through his golden blonde hair, watching a little boy playing with his father. Lips forming into a smirk, his eyes followed the child as it ran toward the tree, whose branches he was resting in.
“Kibummie, stay away from that thing!” The man grabbed his son from behind and glared up at the tree’s resident.
He glared back at the mortal, but slowly, his mouth curled into a sadistic grin. “Stupid human…” he whispered cruelly.
The tiny child was then carried away, his innocent eyes wondering why his appa took him away from the beautiful, big tree.
“It’s a demon tree, Kibummie,” he explained, as he rubbed the boy’s back. “Never go near it again, understand?”
“Okay, appa,” the toddler answered obediently with a yawn, before falling asleep against his father’s warm chest.
He groaned as the child was taken away from his sight. His fingernails raked against the tree’s tough bark. The foolish human was yet to pay his due, but then again, humans were such mindless beings, not caring about the consequences of their actions. Their selfishness was without limit. They were never satisfied with what they had been blessed with, always wanting more and more. They would even go as far as making deadly deals with a demon, just for the sake of worldly pleasure.
Another human, this time a girl, approached his tree. Dressed in rags - a peasant, most probably, fell to her knees, forehead squarely pressed against the ground and begged him to grant her wish.
He swung down from a branch and landed gracefully on the ground. His smirk continued to play around his lips. “What is it you desire?”
She looked up, in tears, and was shocked by his sudden presence. The girl bowed her head down immediately in fear. “Please, p-please…help m-me! My…my family i-is in dept, and I’m g-going to b-be sold because o-of it!”
“What are you willing to sacrifice in exchange for you wish?”
“Anything! I’ll give you anything! Just please don’t let me be sold!” she cried out.
The rain started pouring down gently, the sky darkening with thick, angry clouds.
The demon placed his palm on the girl’s head, pushing down on it lightly. His eyes smoldered bright green like an emerald. “It’s done.”
She got up, only to wince and clench her abdomen in pain. There was a burning sensation in her throat, and her heart pounded harder and harder against her chest. She dropped back down to where she had been kneeling and coughed up blood as soon as she opened her mouth to speak.
“Congratulations,” he mocked her with a snarl. “You got your wish. No one would ever buy a sick, dying girl. Too bad, you could have greatly helped your family, especially in their time of need.”
The mere enjoyment of seeing a person suffer always made his skin tingle in excitement, that was enough of a payment for the wishes he grants. It just added more thrill to his already burning obsession with human agony. Once the girl dies, he’d have a new slave in hell - one that can keep his other slaves company. Not that they really needed any. There were thousands of them.
That was the ultimate price of having your wish granted by a demon. Even in death, you can never escape.
-xxx-
The small village had always been a peaceful one. Though it was deep within the mountains, the villagers were happy to live in isolation. It brought them a different sense of tranquility, far from unfriendly neighboring villages. However, the return of a certain chain of ill events has been terrorizing their joyous settlement.
The five village leaders spoke among themselves in secret, trying to find a solution to these grotesque happenings.
“Have you heard? The fisherman’s daughter, Sulli, died this morning. She kept coughing up blood everywhere,” Yunho stated, eyes darting at each of them. “The doctor couldn’t figure out why.”
Light from the lamp flickered against the dark, shadows dancing in silence.
“Just last week, an old man died from an animal attack,” Jinki said, cringing from how he remembered the body’s discovery. “But the thing is, there aren’t any dangerous animals in this part of the land.”
“My brother lost his eyes,” Taeyeon spoke in an angered tone. “We found him unconscious beside the temple. His eyes were taken away! He didn’t deserve it!”
“Taeyeon, calm yourself,” Victoria, another female leader, held onto Taeyeon’s shoulder. “What do all these deaths have in common?”
The highest-ranking leader held up a hand to silence everyone. Leeteuk kept a straight face - one that meant he knew far more than any of them did. “They all had an encounter with a demon. They got too close to the tree.”
The situation was worse than they had anticipated. The outraged leaders held back their shock and kept themselves composed.
“Why can’t we get rid of this demon tree once and for all?” Yunho suggested. “Too many of the villagers are being tempted by its demon’s deceit.”
“Because the demon residing in it will plague us with unimaginable horrors and won’t stop until every single person in this village is dead, if we do so,” Leeteuk reasoned, sighing. “Our priority is the safety of our people, but if they choose to ignore our warnings…”
“It’s the people’s mistake. That’s true, but we still need to do something about this demon,” Jinki continued.
“We have to get rid of it,” Victoria added firmly, arms crossed over her chest.
“But even our forefathers couldn’t vanquish it…” Taeyeon pressed a hand on the table, brows furrowed in frustration.
“But that doesn’t mean it can’t be done, right?” the other female retaliated. “Leeteuk-ssi, how can we go about this crisis?”
“There isn’t much we can do. My great grand father died fighting that demon,” the leader spoke cautiously. “He had the spiritual energy of a thousand bolts of lightning. It wasn’t enough to get rid of that demon. No one else in the village has that much power, and if there was one, we can’t risk the person’s life for that purpose.”
“Then what about a sacrifice? Something that can keep the demon away or appease him for a while…. like a trade”
Leeteuk fell aghast to Yunho’s statement. “Have you been listening to what I’ve been saying? I won’t allow an innocent person to die for the lives of others!”
“Yunho-ssi is right,” Jinki said, another surprise for Leeteuk.
“Not you too…” he whispered in disbelief.
“But, Leeteuk-ssi, if we can’t kill the demon, we might as well sacrifice one person for the sake of other innocent people. One life can save a hundred more.”
“No! I forbid it! This discussion is over! I will inform all of you once I have found a way to solve this problem,” the leader stood up and bowed before the others.
They glanced at one another, quietly affirming their thoughts. Finally, Yunho broke the silence.
“On the night of the full moon, we will sacrifice a new born baby. What better to appease a demon but the blood of an untainted being.”
None of them disagreed.
-xxx-
The demon watched the child, Kibum, as he chased a blue butterfly around the luscious field, neither of his parents in sight.
He licked his lips, grinning maliciously, as he leaned against his tree.
Kibum staggered to reach for the butterfly but stopped, when he spotted the beautiful tree his appa didn’t like. He innocently took a few steps closer, until he was looking up at its wonderfully blue flowers. His tiny hands rubbed against the tree’s thick trunk.
The blonde raised a brow in question, as the child hugged the tree with a giggle. It was…strange. Not a single mortal ever dared to touch his tree. He pushed the boy away, making him fall back down. Again, the little human unexpectedly started giggling harder, even when he fell. So the demon decided to reveal himself to the boy and grabbed the little Kibum.
He examined the boy in his arms. His hair was a plain black, his eyes were light brown, and his skin was fair. Nothing unusual. He had the appearance of a typical village boy.
“What’s so funny?” he asked the child, shaking him a bit.
Kibum’s eyes remained fixed on the top of the demon’s head. His hands then patted the intriguing hair color, curling his fingers around the strands before pulling at them harshly.
“Let go, damn it!” he growled at the giggling child. After successfully prying ‘it’ away from his hair, the demon placed him back unto the ground and turned to leave.
However, the boy caught hold of his black robe and proceeded to tug on it playfully. “Play…play!!!”
The demon growled in annoyance, but then a sudden idea came to him, one that would undoubtedly add to the suffering of Kibum’s father. He picked up the boy once more. “You want to play with me, Kibummie?”
The child mistook his sinister offer as a fun game and nodded excitedly.
He smirked. Humans were just too gullible. “Alright then. Why don’t we play…the wishing game?”
“Wishing…game?” Kibum asked, trying to fathom those new words. “Kibummie can play…wishing game?”
He looked into the child’s curious eyes. “Of course you can. All you have to do is tell what you really, really want, and I’ll give it to you. Won’t that be fun?”
“What…I want?”
“Yes, something that both your appa and umma won’t give you, even if you really want it. I’ll give it to you. I promise.”
“KIBUM!!!”
A desperate cry interrupted them. The demon could only laugh as a familiar-looking human ran toward them.
He returned his attention to the confused child and placed a soft kiss on his forehead, before gently placing him on the ground. “I’ll give you anything you could ever want, Kibummie. All you have to do is come to me, and I’ll grant your wish.”
By the time the human had reached them, the demon had vanished.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” Leeteuk, Kibum’s uncle, had cried out loud as he protectively wrapped his arms around the boy. “Why hasn’t my brother been watching out for you properly? You could have gotten hurt!”
The little boy refused to go back to the village, wailing when he was being carried away. It scared Leeteuk - how much longing was reflected in the child’s eyes, but he wasn’t sure whether it was for the tree…or for the demon.
-xxx-
The full moon arrived, after an idle sunset between the mountain peaks, and with it, came a mysterious, starless night.
Since the early afternoon, Kibum had been instructed to wait outside of their family’s hut and not to come inside unless told so. His umma, appa, and strange woman had stayed inside all afternoon, while he was thirsty from the blazing hot sun and hungry from not having a single meal all day. Still, he obeyed his parents and patiently waited outside the hut.
It wasn’t until the bright moon was glowing high in the sky, that his father had come out of the hut with tears in his eyes. He enveloped his son in his arms, hugging him so tightly, as Kibum watched the woman leave the hut with a large bundle in her arms.
“Baby…?” the boy wondered. His appa faced him once more and shook his head.
“I’m sorry, Kibummie… You’re baby brother…he’s…”
“Baby Taeminnie…bye bye?”
Even as a five-year-old, he could perfectly understand what his father was upset about. His baby brother didn’t want to see them and went straight to heaven. It made his appa said, and he was crying because of it.
After his father returned inside the hut once more, the wind had howled eerily, almost beckoning him to follow it. Kibum, though scared, was too curious for his own good. The wind led him through the trees and until he found the woman who took his brother, together with three more people. His eyes didn’t miss how one of them ushered the woman away quickly, checking to see if anyone was watching.
Unfortunately, they hadn’t caught sight of the small child silently following them.
-xxx-
The demon, perched on his beloved tree, fixated his bored gaze on the arriving villagers. Interesting. Not that many humans came to him all at one time. But still, his stupid, little human had not come to him in a very long time. It just made his life far less entertaining.
So he didn’t give the four villagers a second glance and went back to sleep.
It wasn’t until he caught the smell of blood, that his eyes snapped open. The aroma of exquisite, pure human blood…slowly filled his senses. He licked his lips, hungrily searching for the human body that was releasing the intoxicating smell. It had been decades, since he last drank from a human...or at least…since one was sacrificed for him.
Contrary to what many thought, he was not the type of demon who killed humans for their blood. He only appeared to mortals, if they were in dire need for their wish to be granted. He did not need their blood to survive, but when the opportunity was present, he would never turn down a drink.
He jumped down from the branches and found that the humans had left a tiny creature with a knife wound directly above its tiny heart. Perfect.
Though it was tragic, his sadistic nature found it gleeful that humans would dispose of their precious offspring to keep him away for a while. The ‘gift’ would have been rather touching (in a sarcastic way), if the sound of small stifled sobs hadn’t reached his ears.
“Taeminnie?” Kibum whimpered helplessly, peering over the dead body of his baby brother. He carefully touched the newborn’s cheek, cold against his warm fingers. “Umma…appa…cry…no Taeminnie baby…wake up now…”
The demon, as much as he wanted to turn away in disinterested, could not do so. Instead, he smiled at the heartbreaking scene before him. It felt really good, seeing this child’s misery. He was tempted to find ways to make the boy suffer even more, and all he had to do was grant a wish. Thoughts of possessing the small boy, giving him excruciating pain physically, mentally, and emotionally, thrilled him.
He knelt beside the crying child, wiping a tear away. Whispering into his ear, the demon promised, “I can bring your brother back. All you have to do is wish.”
Kibum wrapped his arms around his neck tightly, finding him as a source of comfort. “Kibummie…wants Taeminnie…wake up…”
He took a fistful of the child’s hair, forcing him to look into his demonic red eyes, and for the first time, induced fear in the crying boy. “Remember me, Kibum. I’ll be coming back for you, and when I do, you’ll be mine. Forever. Even in death…you can never escape…”
-xxx-
13 years later…
The ambiance of the village was nothing short of quiet and peaceful. After the demon tree had mysteriously burned down overnight, its resident was never seen or mentioned again.
It was Kibum’s wedding night. Against his father’s wishes, he’d married a foreigner - a man that was very different from the people of his village. He was supposed to marry a woman and start a family in their humble land, but Kibum didn’t want to. He eloped with a man and married him without the blessings of a village leader.
He didn’t want to stay in the village. He had always feared something so sinister - its presence following him whenever he set foot near the blue field…where the demon tree used to stand so tall.
“It was worth it,” Kibum kept telling himself. It was worth it…what he had done years ago.
Remembering how beautiful his brother grew up to be, seeing his wonderful smile, Kibum had no regrets…
“What’s wrong, my love? Are you not feeling well?”
He looked away from the window, the ocean no longer in his view. Instead, his husband stood before him, softly smiling at him.
“Jonghyun,” he winced, looking down at his feet. “I need to tell you something.”
The man - Kim Jonghyun - lifted his chin and placed a loving, gentle kiss on his lips. “What is it, Kibummie?”
He turned to his right, staring at their reflections in the mirror. “I know you hate secrets, and there is one I’ve been hiding from you for a very long time.”
His husband’s frown faded slowly, replaced by a concerned expression. “Tell me…”
With strong arms carefully wrapped around his lithe frame, Kibum had never felt so secure. Sighing, he decided he’d finally gained enough courage and started. “When I was a child…my brother, Taemin, died…and…I…wished. I wished that his soul would return to our world…and he lived again…”
“How was that possible?”
He closed his eyes, shaking. “I sold myself to a demon….I…hadn’t known any better…”
“Of course, you didn’t. You were merely a child,” Jonghyun whispered in his ear. “A stupid…human…child…”
Kibum opened his eyes, taken aback by the ruthless tone in his husband’s voice, and met red eyes in the mirror.
“Even in death…you can never escape…”
A/N: If I make a part 2 of this, would you guys still read it?