When Righteous Turns Foul [12/??]
Title: When Righteous Turns Foul
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Main!KyuSung, Main!RyeoMin, Main!EunHae, Friendship!KyuSungRyeoMinEunHae, BestFriends!KyuMin, BestFriends!YeWook
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Fantasy!AU
Summary: Infiltrating an antagonistic city is one thing. But living there for 5 years, forming friendships and even finding love, and eventually being expected to betray every single one of them, is another.
Beta'er:
ohmygeng
Former Chapters: Map | Prologue + Char Intro | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11
A/N - Okay, since there has been A LOT of KyuSung moments the last three days, I just felt like updating this because I am SOOOO happy! So, enjoy 8) And for my KyuSung-shipping readers, look forward to chapter 13, you'll love it, lol!
★«´¯`•.¸¸.°.¸¸.•´¯`»★
Chapter 12
I’m going to die. That was all Sungmin could think of as he walked through the forest, the darkness closing in on him with every heavy step. The sounds they had all heard when sleeping outside of the forest were nothing in comparison with the sounds they could hear inside of the forest.
Sounds of branches being swung back and forth by the wind; cold wind that felt as if it was an extremely cold winter day, while in fact it was midsummer. Sounds of animals they had never seen or heard before; shadow creatures that everyone of Viretir feared. Sounds of buzzing that indicated there were insects around, but it came from far away and it sounded a lot heavier than the regular small-sized mosquito or wasp buzz.
The cold wind and fear combined made Sungmin shiver violently, and Ryeowook, who was still holding his hand in some sort of support, probably noticed it as he squeezed Sungmin’s hand a little tighter than he had done so far. Sungmin looked up from staring onto the ground, because that was pretty much the only thing that didn’t seem to hide any gruesome thing, and looked at Ryeowook.
“You are doing fine, a few more hours and we are out of here,” Ryeowook said in an attempt to cheer Sungmin up. It had a complete counter-effect though, as a few more hours seemed incredibly long and torturous in Sungmin’s eyes. This far, they had only walked about 15 minutes into this forest, even though it already felt as if he had walked here his entire 21 years of existence; memories of his life back at Ordova and Osis had been long forgotten.
“I still think walking around this forest would have been better,” Sungmin mocked with a trembling voice, and Ryeowook smiled at him in what seemed to be compassion, but said nothing as if he didn’t want to tell Sungmin that that wasn’t going to happen anyway. As if he didn’t want to crush that final little bit of hope Sungmin had still left. Because Ryeowook knew, when Jongwoon makes up his mind, he will not change it. No matter what crosses their path.
They continued striding through the forest, Sungmin focused on everything he possibly could focus on. The ground, to make sure it really was safe to walk where he was walking; the darkness in front of him, in which he could recognize a few trunk-shapes which made him realize he was still in a forest and not some scary dark black hole that was eating him alive; the sounds, making sure nothing unidentified would come near him; the cold winter-like breeze, as long as the wind still blew in their faces, they were still heading the right way; where wind came from, an exit existed.
A sudden loud sound from nearby startled not only Sungmin, but everyone. Jongwoon, Kyuhyun, Donghae and Hyukjae, who had been walking in front of Sungmin and Ryeowook, but not too far in front so they couldn’t be seen anymore, turned around and looked at Sungmin and Ryeowook questioningly, as if they hoped that they had made those sounds and would just laugh at their confused and shocked faces as some sort of joke. But Sungmin and Ryeowook looked back at them just as confused as that they were, and that ruled out that the sound was made by any human being. Or; at least it was not made by them.
They had been under constant realization that they were inside a legendary forest; home to shadow creatures that only live in the dark and do not show themselves to anyone. However, they’d completely forgotten that this forest is not their habitat, but that of those shadow creatures. That those creatures didn’t show themselves outside of their habitats, unless sometimes deep in the night when they came out to eat and got spotted by the wall guards, didn’t mean they wouldn’t come near when in their own habitat. And they had no idea how dangerous these things might be. They had been feared ever since Osis was established, and that couldn’t be for no legit reason.
Maybe going around the forest had been indeed a better option, Jongwoon thought to himself as he eyed the darkness where the loud sound had came from. His theory had been that, because there are 6 of them of which three are riders and well trained in handling weaponry, they would be just fine inside of this forest. Little had he known that the place would be this dark and that they would have such a big disadvantage. He had thought their eyes would get accustomed to the darkness and soon it will be just like walking inside any other forest. Boy, was he wrong.
They hurriedly continued walking on a much faster pace, but rustling sounds followed them. As well as whispers of the trees did; as if they tried telling them something.
“Okay, I really don’t like this anymore,” Sungmin exclaimed loudly, feeling how fear tried to shut down his body and tears welling up in his eyes. He had never been this terrified before.
He had been afraid of the dark ever since he was young. He doesn’t know really why, but maybe the reason was that a man -a man from Osis that had come to Ordova to kill important people from Ordova much like Sungmin’s family who were friends from the Lord or Ordova and whose father was Lord Cho’s right hand man- had one day stood in Sungmin’s room while he was peacefully sleeping. He was handling a knife as big as Sungmin’s leg and was about to stab Sungmin with it when he woke up. The darkness made everything even scarier, and Sungmin had screamed as loud as he could, being the 5 year old that he was. He had rolled over just in time for the man to miss him and stabbed the bed instead. The knife easily sunk through the mattress and the wood, and he pulled it back out without any effort, only to try stabbing Sungmin again.
The man had failed again though, and soon guards from Ordova had grabbed the man, locked him up and eventually had sentenced him to death. It was ever since then that Sungmin could no longer sleep in the dark, nor could he enter dark places without feeling fear and complete helplessness.
Much like he felt now, as they were followed by something they could not see, in the dark.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Jongwoon said in order to soothe not only Sungmin or his friends, but also himself. He had failed in being a good hyung already, seeing that Sungmin was clearly terrified, and now they might be in immediate danger too. “Maybe it’s just the-“
The wind, Jongwoon had wanted to say. But before he could finish his sentence, he walked into someone or something, and he bounced back before tripping over his own feet and falling onto the ground. He rubbed his back with a painful expression, as he had fallen in quite an unfortunate fashion, and glanced up to see if anyone would come and help him back up on his feet already.
But there was no one there.
He looked around a little surprised, forgetting his pain temporarily, and found his friends a little further away from him. As far as they possibly could, as the darkness almost engulfed them, but not completely so that Jongwoon could still see them.
“Is something wrong?” he asked confused, as he noticed the horrified look on their faces, looking at something behind Jongwoon. “There-There is something behind me, isn’t there?”
Donghae, Hyukjae and Ryeowook nodded slowly in reply, while Sungmin was too terrified to even respond, and Kyuhyun was too busy worrying about both Sungmin and Jongwoon to react.
Jongwoon slowly turned his head around, trembling visually, even more than Sungmin had done earlier. Something large and black-colored stood behind him, and the moment he saw it he sprung up rapidly and ran towards his friends. Initially he stood behind all of his friends, caring about his safety and his safety only. But as soon as he was recovered from the shock, he stepped forward and stood in front of all his friends to protect them instead of the other way around.
“We mean no harm!” he yelled at the dark creature, which had been re-engulfed by the darkness the moment Jongwoon had stood up and had ran away; it used the darkness to its advantage, much like everyone had expected the creatures to do.
“I think we should be more worried about them harming us than the other way around,” Hyukjae mumbled sarcastically, after walking forward to stand next to Jongwoon, already pulling his sword out just in case the shadow creature would make an unexpected move. Jongwoon also took out his sword, realizing that that was indeed a very clever idea of Hyukjae, and didn’t reply on the latter’s sarcastic remark.
The whole group shuffled forward slowly, everyone holding some sort of weapon for protection, walking in a circle that looked at every way possible; standing back to back. Out of the corners of his eyes, Kyuhyun noticed Sungmin’s bow and arrow shaking that violently, that he doubted Sungmin could do any creature any harm with an aim that bad, but he said nothing. Sungmin probably only managed to stay upright because he was holding a weapon to protect himself with.
More shuffling sounds surrounded them, and they knew they were completely surrounded by whatever was observing them from afar.
“Whatever you do, do not lower your weapon,” Jongwoon instructed, as he noticed Ryeowook lowering his weapon just a tad because it was tiring to keep a sword up pointing forward all the time. Ryeowook instantly recovered himself and held the weapon forward.
The creatures slowly came closer. Black shadows could be seen, but they were still too far away to see them completely. Their eyes, however, glinted bright yellow in the darkness and were pretty much the only thing the group could focus on. They were eyes that could see through someone’s soul. Eyes that stared at every single one of them, making sure they didn’t make any wrong move.
Suddenly, Jongwoon fell down on his knees, dropped his sword and Ryeowook instantly turned to him in utter worry, completely forgetting he should protect himself and the others. Donghae instantly reacted by moving in front of Ryeowook and aside of Jongwoon, so that side of the circle was still protected as well as before.
“Jong-Jongwoon?” Ryeowook asked, shaking Jongwoon’s shoulder lightly. He noticed tears rolling down Jongwoon’s cheeks and he instantly knew there was something horribly wrong. Jongwoon would never cry in front of anyone but Ryeowook for no really big reason.
“M-make it sto-stop,” Jongwoon silently sobbed, Donghae and Kyuhyun, who stood near enough, looked at him shocked and worried, and Ryeowook was about to ask Jongwoon what should stop when a voice boomed inside his head.
‘Kim Ryeowook, farmer of Osis. Boy who nearly killed his 2-year-old nephew 12 years ago, he who still suffers from brain damage today because of you.’
Ryeowook’s eyes enlarged as these words echoed through his head. He dropped his weapon to the ground as his hand seemed to give up on him, and he released Jongwoon’s shoulder only to drop down onto his knees next to him.
‘Kim Hyun-Ki who will never have a normal life because of you,’ the voice continued, traveling straight from his mind to his body which started trembling uncontrollably. No one knew about what happened 12 years ago, not even Jongwoon did. ‘You live your life guided by guilt, guilt that will never make up for what you did.’
Ryeowook felt a tear roll down his cheek, which was whipped away instantly by someone Ryeowook couldn’t identify. Someone he didn’t want to identify. He would give anything to just get swallowed up by the earth and to forget everything that had happened in his past that still haunts him today.
“Ryeowook, stay with me,” Kyuhyun mumbled, as he shook Ryeowook violently, nearly dislocating the boy’s shoulder in the process. Just like Ryeowook and Jongwoon, Sungmin, Donghae and Hyukjae had fallen down onto their knees, eyes turning empty as if they were in some sort of trance. Just like Jongwoon, tears had fallen down their cheeks, and one by one there eyes had rolled into their sockets and they had collapsed; ending up on the muddy ground completely motionless. Only Ryeowook had been the one still sitting up on his knees, and so Kyuhyun had focused on him.
‘Cho Kyuhyun,’ A voice suddenly echoed, and for a brief moment Kyuhyun thought it was his father contacting him, but the way he was contacted sounded much different from their usual mental conversations, and the voice was different than the one from his father.
“What-“ he tried to ask what was going on, but before he could even finish his spontaneous sentence, the voice continued.
‘Smith from Osis, spy from Ordova. Sent to Osis on a mission to betray everyone, but doubting and therefore betraying his own family and friend. Yet, you are still partly betraying Osis as well, by cursing their King, and therefore you are betraying everyone you know and have ever met in your entire life. There is no bigger liar or betrayer walking this planet other than you.’
Kyuhyun gulped and just like everyone else he sunk onto his knees. Everything he had done this far had only been to help both Ordova and Osis. He cursed the King so his father and Sungmin would be happy and Ordova would be helped, but he also saved Jongwoon and therefore helped Osis and his not-so-fake Osis-friends. He did all of this only to get to the best outcome possible, not to betray every single person he has ever met. That was not his intention and the only thing he really didn’t want to happen. His biggest fear.
‘You deserved to drown 9 years ago, when Lee Sungmin, your best friend, pushed you in the water as a joke, forgetting that you couldn’t swim. He tried to do you a favor that day, you should have taken it.’
The words came harsh for Kyuhyun. He still remembers how the water filled up his lungs, how he had fought to try to stay above the water but couldn’t no matter how hard he tried. No matter what kind of motions he made with his hands and feet. He had blacked out seeing the water surface high above him as he sunk down to the river bottom, and it wasn’t until a while later that he had woken up on the river bedding, his mother clenching onto him as he coughed up the water; Sungmin standing next to him with tears in his eyes and apologizing to him every other second, saying that he was not worthy of being his friend.
A tear also fell from Kyuhyun’s eyes, and as things turned black in front of him, he wanted nothing more than to just drop down to the ground like everyone else had, but he knew he couldn’t. He tried to look around and noticed Ryeowook motionless on the ground, and he knew he was the only one still there to save them if needed. If he blacked out as well, who knew what would happen. Kyuhyun wanted to protect his friends, and if he had to wait for a while to black out and forget his pain and fears, he would do that.
His vision slowly recovered, and he noticed a black form coming forward towards him. It had 4 legs, Kyuhyun could tell. But other than that, he couldn’t see clearly.
Suddenly, the black creature lowered his head -or, Kyuhyun figured it had to be its head- and something seemingly resembled antlers were thrust forward and stabbed Kyuhyun in his chest.
He automatically reached out to the place the antlers pierced through his skin, and only then realized that… it didn’t hurt.
Some sort of warm feeling slowly filled him, and a bright light emerged from whatever was stabbing him. His vision instantly fixed itself, his tears dried up, and the depressed hurtful feeling he had felt seconds earlier disappeared just like that. As soon as the creature stepped back, the light disappeared yet the forest seemed to be a lot brighter than before. In front of him stood a black-colored large deer, and the antler-like thing that had stabbed Kyuhyun in his chest seconds earlier seemed to be real antlers after all.
‘When your friends all collapsed you stayed strong for them even though it hurt you,’ the same voice boomed in Kyuhyun’s head, and the black deer with the bright yellow eyes looked at him intensively. The voice sounded friendlier than it was before. ‘You are strong and worthy of our forest.’
“Who are you?” Kyuhyun asked, glancing back at his friends briefly, who still were knocked out.
More black-colored large deer, yet smaller than the one in front of Kyuhyun, stepped forwards and Kyuhyun eyed them all warily. Sure, the deer in front of him had just somehow healed him, but it had probably also been the cause of his friends blacking out, and him nearly blacking out due to misery. He could not trust them, not yet.
‘We are the shadow creatures of Blackbush,’ the answer came, Kyuhyun nodded pensively.
“How about my friends?” Kyuhyun asked worriedly, staring at the deer in front of him directly. He still feared for his friends. Kyuhyun might be ‘worthy’ of this forest, but the others might not be. And without his friends, Kyuhyun wished he would have just blacked out and let it all happen. He could not go on without his friends; he would have no reason left to live.
A sudden groan behind him made Kyuhyun turn around rapidly.
“What happened?” Hyukjae growled, as he slowly sat up. The others slowly sat up one by one as well, and Kyuhyun sighed in relief before walking towards them to help if needed. They all trembled and were seemingly weakened by the whole happening, but they were alive and awake, much to Kyuhyun’s relief.
‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Cho Kyuhyun of Ordova and Osis,’ the voice said, and with that, the shadow creatures walked backwards and one by one slowly became one with the darkness, only to not be seen by humans again until needed.
“I feel horrible,” Jongwoon said, making Kyuhyun avert his gaze from the place the probably head-deer had disappeared into the dark onto Jongwoon, who was obviously a lot whiter than before; that much whiter, that it could even be noticed in the dark.
“Let’s just take a break here and eat a little,” Kyuhyun reasoned, and 5 pair of eyes turned to stare at him in utter horror. Like; how could he even suggest such an outrageous thing?
“Are you insane?! We could have been dead by now! Why are we not dead yet anyway? Or are we? I want to get out of here, stupid dark place. Stupid forest. Stupid creatures. I said we should walk around this forest, but nooooo, someone had to be stubborn and ignore the smart dongsaeng who happens to have good ideas every once in a while. Do you really think walking in a dark haunted forest will cure me from my fear of the dark? Are you stupid? No really, are you? I can never trust anyone again,” Sungmin ranted, going from scolding Kyuhyun to scolding Jongwoon for no particular reason, who trembled a little too much for it to be healthy because of Sungmin’s words; Kyuhyun instantly realized that whatever the deer had said to Jongwoon had to have to do something with this.
“Sungmin, don’t worry, they won’t come back,” Kyuhyun silenced him, eying Jongwoon from the corner of his eyes who still sat on the ground a little prostrate.
“How do you know?” Sungmin retorted, quirking one eyebrow out of disbelief.
“I just do. Trust me on this one,” he said, and Sungmin said nothing as even though he didn’t trust Kyuhyun’s words one bit, he did trust his best friend enough to not question him. “Let’s eat!”
Kyuhyun grabbed some of the leftover food from his backpack and threw a piece to everyone. In silence they ate, engulfed by the darkness which was remarkably still less dark than before. Even Sungmin noticed it, as he remarked that the place seemed lighter but equally as scary as before, and slowly the atmosphere between the group of friends returned to its old self. No longer fed up with worries and fears, with feeling horrible and weak; but with feeling supported by friends, and being happy that despite every single thing they had done wrong in life, they always had friends they could count on.
At least for now.
¸¸.° ( ← Chapter 11) • ( Chapter 13 →) °.¸¸
★«´¯`•.¸¸.°.¸¸.•´¯`»★
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Main!KyuSung, Main!RyeoMin, Main!EunHae, Friendship!KyuSungRyeoMinEunHae, BestFriends!KyuMin, BestFriends!YeWook
Genre: Adventure, Angst, Fantasy!AU
Summary: Infiltrating an antagonistic city is one thing. But living there for 5 years, forming friendships and even finding love, and eventually being expected to betray every single one of them, is another.
Beta'er:
ohmygeng
Former Chapters: Map | Prologue + Char Intro | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11
A/N - Okay, since there has been A LOT of KyuSung moments the last three days, I just felt like updating this because I am SOOOO happy! So, enjoy 8) And for my KyuSung-shipping readers, look forward to chapter 13, you'll love it, lol!
★«´¯`•.¸¸.°.¸¸.•´¯`»★
Chapter 12
I’m going to die. That was all Sungmin could think of as he walked through the forest, the darkness closing in on him with every heavy step. The sounds they had all heard when sleeping outside of the forest were nothing in comparison with the sounds they could hear inside of the forest.
Sounds of branches being swung back and forth by the wind; cold wind that felt as if it was an extremely cold winter day, while in fact it was midsummer. Sounds of animals they had never seen or heard before; shadow creatures that everyone of Viretir feared. Sounds of buzzing that indicated there were insects around, but it came from far away and it sounded a lot heavier than the regular small-sized mosquito or wasp buzz.
The cold wind and fear combined made Sungmin shiver violently, and Ryeowook, who was still holding his hand in some sort of support, probably noticed it as he squeezed Sungmin’s hand a little tighter than he had done so far. Sungmin looked up from staring onto the ground, because that was pretty much the only thing that didn’t seem to hide any gruesome thing, and looked at Ryeowook.
“You are doing fine, a few more hours and we are out of here,” Ryeowook said in an attempt to cheer Sungmin up. It had a complete counter-effect though, as a few more hours seemed incredibly long and torturous in Sungmin’s eyes. This far, they had only walked about 15 minutes into this forest, even though it already felt as if he had walked here his entire 21 years of existence; memories of his life back at Ordova and Osis had been long forgotten.
“I still think walking around this forest would have been better,” Sungmin mocked with a trembling voice, and Ryeowook smiled at him in what seemed to be compassion, but said nothing as if he didn’t want to tell Sungmin that that wasn’t going to happen anyway. As if he didn’t want to crush that final little bit of hope Sungmin had still left. Because Ryeowook knew, when Jongwoon makes up his mind, he will not change it. No matter what crosses their path.
They continued striding through the forest, Sungmin focused on everything he possibly could focus on. The ground, to make sure it really was safe to walk where he was walking; the darkness in front of him, in which he could recognize a few trunk-shapes which made him realize he was still in a forest and not some scary dark black hole that was eating him alive; the sounds, making sure nothing unidentified would come near him; the cold winter-like breeze, as long as the wind still blew in their faces, they were still heading the right way; where wind came from, an exit existed.
A sudden loud sound from nearby startled not only Sungmin, but everyone. Jongwoon, Kyuhyun, Donghae and Hyukjae, who had been walking in front of Sungmin and Ryeowook, but not too far in front so they couldn’t be seen anymore, turned around and looked at Sungmin and Ryeowook questioningly, as if they hoped that they had made those sounds and would just laugh at their confused and shocked faces as some sort of joke. But Sungmin and Ryeowook looked back at them just as confused as that they were, and that ruled out that the sound was made by any human being. Or; at least it was not made by them.
They had been under constant realization that they were inside a legendary forest; home to shadow creatures that only live in the dark and do not show themselves to anyone. However, they’d completely forgotten that this forest is not their habitat, but that of those shadow creatures. That those creatures didn’t show themselves outside of their habitats, unless sometimes deep in the night when they came out to eat and got spotted by the wall guards, didn’t mean they wouldn’t come near when in their own habitat. And they had no idea how dangerous these things might be. They had been feared ever since Osis was established, and that couldn’t be for no legit reason.
Maybe going around the forest had been indeed a better option, Jongwoon thought to himself as he eyed the darkness where the loud sound had came from. His theory had been that, because there are 6 of them of which three are riders and well trained in handling weaponry, they would be just fine inside of this forest. Little had he known that the place would be this dark and that they would have such a big disadvantage. He had thought their eyes would get accustomed to the darkness and soon it will be just like walking inside any other forest. Boy, was he wrong.
They hurriedly continued walking on a much faster pace, but rustling sounds followed them. As well as whispers of the trees did; as if they tried telling them something.
“Okay, I really don’t like this anymore,” Sungmin exclaimed loudly, feeling how fear tried to shut down his body and tears welling up in his eyes. He had never been this terrified before.
He had been afraid of the dark ever since he was young. He doesn’t know really why, but maybe the reason was that a man -a man from Osis that had come to Ordova to kill important people from Ordova much like Sungmin’s family who were friends from the Lord or Ordova and whose father was Lord Cho’s right hand man- had one day stood in Sungmin’s room while he was peacefully sleeping. He was handling a knife as big as Sungmin’s leg and was about to stab Sungmin with it when he woke up. The darkness made everything even scarier, and Sungmin had screamed as loud as he could, being the 5 year old that he was. He had rolled over just in time for the man to miss him and stabbed the bed instead. The knife easily sunk through the mattress and the wood, and he pulled it back out without any effort, only to try stabbing Sungmin again.
The man had failed again though, and soon guards from Ordova had grabbed the man, locked him up and eventually had sentenced him to death. It was ever since then that Sungmin could no longer sleep in the dark, nor could he enter dark places without feeling fear and complete helplessness.
Much like he felt now, as they were followed by something they could not see, in the dark.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Jongwoon said in order to soothe not only Sungmin or his friends, but also himself. He had failed in being a good hyung already, seeing that Sungmin was clearly terrified, and now they might be in immediate danger too. “Maybe it’s just the-“
The wind, Jongwoon had wanted to say. But before he could finish his sentence, he walked into someone or something, and he bounced back before tripping over his own feet and falling onto the ground. He rubbed his back with a painful expression, as he had fallen in quite an unfortunate fashion, and glanced up to see if anyone would come and help him back up on his feet already.
But there was no one there.
He looked around a little surprised, forgetting his pain temporarily, and found his friends a little further away from him. As far as they possibly could, as the darkness almost engulfed them, but not completely so that Jongwoon could still see them.
“Is something wrong?” he asked confused, as he noticed the horrified look on their faces, looking at something behind Jongwoon. “There-There is something behind me, isn’t there?”
Donghae, Hyukjae and Ryeowook nodded slowly in reply, while Sungmin was too terrified to even respond, and Kyuhyun was too busy worrying about both Sungmin and Jongwoon to react.
Jongwoon slowly turned his head around, trembling visually, even more than Sungmin had done earlier. Something large and black-colored stood behind him, and the moment he saw it he sprung up rapidly and ran towards his friends. Initially he stood behind all of his friends, caring about his safety and his safety only. But as soon as he was recovered from the shock, he stepped forward and stood in front of all his friends to protect them instead of the other way around.
“We mean no harm!” he yelled at the dark creature, which had been re-engulfed by the darkness the moment Jongwoon had stood up and had ran away; it used the darkness to its advantage, much like everyone had expected the creatures to do.
“I think we should be more worried about them harming us than the other way around,” Hyukjae mumbled sarcastically, after walking forward to stand next to Jongwoon, already pulling his sword out just in case the shadow creature would make an unexpected move. Jongwoon also took out his sword, realizing that that was indeed a very clever idea of Hyukjae, and didn’t reply on the latter’s sarcastic remark.
The whole group shuffled forward slowly, everyone holding some sort of weapon for protection, walking in a circle that looked at every way possible; standing back to back. Out of the corners of his eyes, Kyuhyun noticed Sungmin’s bow and arrow shaking that violently, that he doubted Sungmin could do any creature any harm with an aim that bad, but he said nothing. Sungmin probably only managed to stay upright because he was holding a weapon to protect himself with.
More shuffling sounds surrounded them, and they knew they were completely surrounded by whatever was observing them from afar.
“Whatever you do, do not lower your weapon,” Jongwoon instructed, as he noticed Ryeowook lowering his weapon just a tad because it was tiring to keep a sword up pointing forward all the time. Ryeowook instantly recovered himself and held the weapon forward.
The creatures slowly came closer. Black shadows could be seen, but they were still too far away to see them completely. Their eyes, however, glinted bright yellow in the darkness and were pretty much the only thing the group could focus on. They were eyes that could see through someone’s soul. Eyes that stared at every single one of them, making sure they didn’t make any wrong move.
Suddenly, Jongwoon fell down on his knees, dropped his sword and Ryeowook instantly turned to him in utter worry, completely forgetting he should protect himself and the others. Donghae instantly reacted by moving in front of Ryeowook and aside of Jongwoon, so that side of the circle was still protected as well as before.
“Jong-Jongwoon?” Ryeowook asked, shaking Jongwoon’s shoulder lightly. He noticed tears rolling down Jongwoon’s cheeks and he instantly knew there was something horribly wrong. Jongwoon would never cry in front of anyone but Ryeowook for no really big reason.
“M-make it sto-stop,” Jongwoon silently sobbed, Donghae and Kyuhyun, who stood near enough, looked at him shocked and worried, and Ryeowook was about to ask Jongwoon what should stop when a voice boomed inside his head.
‘Kim Ryeowook, farmer of Osis. Boy who nearly killed his 2-year-old nephew 12 years ago, he who still suffers from brain damage today because of you.’
Ryeowook’s eyes enlarged as these words echoed through his head. He dropped his weapon to the ground as his hand seemed to give up on him, and he released Jongwoon’s shoulder only to drop down onto his knees next to him.
‘Kim Hyun-Ki who will never have a normal life because of you,’ the voice continued, traveling straight from his mind to his body which started trembling uncontrollably. No one knew about what happened 12 years ago, not even Jongwoon did. ‘You live your life guided by guilt, guilt that will never make up for what you did.’
Ryeowook felt a tear roll down his cheek, which was whipped away instantly by someone Ryeowook couldn’t identify. Someone he didn’t want to identify. He would give anything to just get swallowed up by the earth and to forget everything that had happened in his past that still haunts him today.
“Ryeowook, stay with me,” Kyuhyun mumbled, as he shook Ryeowook violently, nearly dislocating the boy’s shoulder in the process. Just like Ryeowook and Jongwoon, Sungmin, Donghae and Hyukjae had fallen down onto their knees, eyes turning empty as if they were in some sort of trance. Just like Jongwoon, tears had fallen down their cheeks, and one by one there eyes had rolled into their sockets and they had collapsed; ending up on the muddy ground completely motionless. Only Ryeowook had been the one still sitting up on his knees, and so Kyuhyun had focused on him.
‘Cho Kyuhyun,’ A voice suddenly echoed, and for a brief moment Kyuhyun thought it was his father contacting him, but the way he was contacted sounded much different from their usual mental conversations, and the voice was different than the one from his father.
“What-“ he tried to ask what was going on, but before he could even finish his spontaneous sentence, the voice continued.
‘Smith from Osis, spy from Ordova. Sent to Osis on a mission to betray everyone, but doubting and therefore betraying his own family and friend. Yet, you are still partly betraying Osis as well, by cursing their King, and therefore you are betraying everyone you know and have ever met in your entire life. There is no bigger liar or betrayer walking this planet other than you.’
Kyuhyun gulped and just like everyone else he sunk onto his knees. Everything he had done this far had only been to help both Ordova and Osis. He cursed the King so his father and Sungmin would be happy and Ordova would be helped, but he also saved Jongwoon and therefore helped Osis and his not-so-fake Osis-friends. He did all of this only to get to the best outcome possible, not to betray every single person he has ever met. That was not his intention and the only thing he really didn’t want to happen. His biggest fear.
‘You deserved to drown 9 years ago, when Lee Sungmin, your best friend, pushed you in the water as a joke, forgetting that you couldn’t swim. He tried to do you a favor that day, you should have taken it.’
The words came harsh for Kyuhyun. He still remembers how the water filled up his lungs, how he had fought to try to stay above the water but couldn’t no matter how hard he tried. No matter what kind of motions he made with his hands and feet. He had blacked out seeing the water surface high above him as he sunk down to the river bottom, and it wasn’t until a while later that he had woken up on the river bedding, his mother clenching onto him as he coughed up the water; Sungmin standing next to him with tears in his eyes and apologizing to him every other second, saying that he was not worthy of being his friend.
A tear also fell from Kyuhyun’s eyes, and as things turned black in front of him, he wanted nothing more than to just drop down to the ground like everyone else had, but he knew he couldn’t. He tried to look around and noticed Ryeowook motionless on the ground, and he knew he was the only one still there to save them if needed. If he blacked out as well, who knew what would happen. Kyuhyun wanted to protect his friends, and if he had to wait for a while to black out and forget his pain and fears, he would do that.
His vision slowly recovered, and he noticed a black form coming forward towards him. It had 4 legs, Kyuhyun could tell. But other than that, he couldn’t see clearly.
Suddenly, the black creature lowered his head -or, Kyuhyun figured it had to be its head- and something seemingly resembled antlers were thrust forward and stabbed Kyuhyun in his chest.
He automatically reached out to the place the antlers pierced through his skin, and only then realized that… it didn’t hurt.
Some sort of warm feeling slowly filled him, and a bright light emerged from whatever was stabbing him. His vision instantly fixed itself, his tears dried up, and the depressed hurtful feeling he had felt seconds earlier disappeared just like that. As soon as the creature stepped back, the light disappeared yet the forest seemed to be a lot brighter than before. In front of him stood a black-colored large deer, and the antler-like thing that had stabbed Kyuhyun in his chest seconds earlier seemed to be real antlers after all.
‘When your friends all collapsed you stayed strong for them even though it hurt you,’ the same voice boomed in Kyuhyun’s head, and the black deer with the bright yellow eyes looked at him intensively. The voice sounded friendlier than it was before. ‘You are strong and worthy of our forest.’
“Who are you?” Kyuhyun asked, glancing back at his friends briefly, who still were knocked out.
More black-colored large deer, yet smaller than the one in front of Kyuhyun, stepped forwards and Kyuhyun eyed them all warily. Sure, the deer in front of him had just somehow healed him, but it had probably also been the cause of his friends blacking out, and him nearly blacking out due to misery. He could not trust them, not yet.
‘We are the shadow creatures of Blackbush,’ the answer came, Kyuhyun nodded pensively.
“How about my friends?” Kyuhyun asked worriedly, staring at the deer in front of him directly. He still feared for his friends. Kyuhyun might be ‘worthy’ of this forest, but the others might not be. And without his friends, Kyuhyun wished he would have just blacked out and let it all happen. He could not go on without his friends; he would have no reason left to live.
A sudden groan behind him made Kyuhyun turn around rapidly.
“What happened?” Hyukjae growled, as he slowly sat up. The others slowly sat up one by one as well, and Kyuhyun sighed in relief before walking towards them to help if needed. They all trembled and were seemingly weakened by the whole happening, but they were alive and awake, much to Kyuhyun’s relief.
‘It was a pleasure to meet you, Cho Kyuhyun of Ordova and Osis,’ the voice said, and with that, the shadow creatures walked backwards and one by one slowly became one with the darkness, only to not be seen by humans again until needed.
“I feel horrible,” Jongwoon said, making Kyuhyun avert his gaze from the place the probably head-deer had disappeared into the dark onto Jongwoon, who was obviously a lot whiter than before; that much whiter, that it could even be noticed in the dark.
“Let’s just take a break here and eat a little,” Kyuhyun reasoned, and 5 pair of eyes turned to stare at him in utter horror. Like; how could he even suggest such an outrageous thing?
“Are you insane?! We could have been dead by now! Why are we not dead yet anyway? Or are we? I want to get out of here, stupid dark place. Stupid forest. Stupid creatures. I said we should walk around this forest, but nooooo, someone had to be stubborn and ignore the smart dongsaeng who happens to have good ideas every once in a while. Do you really think walking in a dark haunted forest will cure me from my fear of the dark? Are you stupid? No really, are you? I can never trust anyone again,” Sungmin ranted, going from scolding Kyuhyun to scolding Jongwoon for no particular reason, who trembled a little too much for it to be healthy because of Sungmin’s words; Kyuhyun instantly realized that whatever the deer had said to Jongwoon had to have to do something with this.
“Sungmin, don’t worry, they won’t come back,” Kyuhyun silenced him, eying Jongwoon from the corner of his eyes who still sat on the ground a little prostrate.
“How do you know?” Sungmin retorted, quirking one eyebrow out of disbelief.
“I just do. Trust me on this one,” he said, and Sungmin said nothing as even though he didn’t trust Kyuhyun’s words one bit, he did trust his best friend enough to not question him. “Let’s eat!”
Kyuhyun grabbed some of the leftover food from his backpack and threw a piece to everyone. In silence they ate, engulfed by the darkness which was remarkably still less dark than before. Even Sungmin noticed it, as he remarked that the place seemed lighter but equally as scary as before, and slowly the atmosphere between the group of friends returned to its old self. No longer fed up with worries and fears, with feeling horrible and weak; but with feeling supported by friends, and being happy that despite every single thing they had done wrong in life, they always had friends they could count on.
At least for now.
¸¸.° ( ← Chapter 11) • ( Chapter 13 →) °.¸¸
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