I didn't feel pain.
I didn't feel anything.
Just weightless. Drifting in the dark—like I was floating underwater, but the water was made of memory.
Then I saw her.
Eve.
She was on her knees in the grass, eyes locked on the house—no, what used to be the house.
The portal was gone. The howling, the light, the impossible pull—it had all vanished. And for one long moment, the world held its breath.
No wind.
No sound.
Just stillness.
Then—boom.
The explosion.
A flash of white—like the sky had cracked wide open. The shockwave slammed into everything at once. I watched Eve get thrown backward. Trees bent like they were bowing to some angry god. Smoke rose in thick, dark columns.
Where the house once stood, there was only a crater.
I couldn't move. Couldn't speak.
But I saw everything.
She sat up slowly, eyes wide, searching the smoke for someone—for me.
But I wasn't there.
I wasn't anywhere.
"No…" she whispered.
Barely a sound.
She wrapped her arms around herself, folding in like the words were crushing her.
"No, no, no…"
She rocked forward, forehead pressed to the dirt, fists clenched so tight they shook.
"You said you'd come back…"
Her voice cracked.
"You promised me…"
That's what shattered me.
Not the fire.
Not the explosion.
That voice.
The way she said it—like it was the last thing she had left, and I'd ripped it away.
I tried to move. Tried to scream.
But I had no body.
No voice.
Just helplessness.
Just the sound of her sobs—harsh, uneven, the kind that tear something out of you and never give it back.
Detective Yeomin stood behind her, silent. Still. Just a flicker of sorrow in her eyes.
I watched them both.
Watched everything.
And I hated that I couldn't change it.
I hated that I left.
I hated that I broke my promise.
And then—
The smoke faded.
The voices vanished.
And the world scattered.
First came nothing.
Not silence.
Something worse.
A kind of emptiness that pressed against my skin and whispered behind my eyes. A darkness so deep it felt like it was breathing.
Then—it appeared.
I didn't see it arrive. It was just there.
Floating in the void.
No—anchored. Like the universe had grown around it.
A clock.
Massive.
So tall it split the skyless black above and below me. Its face was cracked gold, scorched obsidian, and something else—something that moved when I wasn't looking at it. Gears the size of cities turned slower than thought, grinding time to dust.
I couldn't breathe.
Its hands twitched, stuttered—no rhythm. No logic.
And somehow, it was watching me.
No eyes. No face.
But I knew it saw me.
Knew me.
Something ancient stirred behind that fractured gold face, buried in every second I had ever lived—and every one I hadn't yet.
Then—
Click.
The minute hand moved.
And the void collapsed.
A violent pull dragged me down.
Like falling through a scream.
Air slammed into my lungs.
My eyes snapped open—
And I was somewhere else.
The sky above me was red.
The ground cracked beneath me, scorched and blackened, still steaming in places. The air reeked of iron and something foul. Everything shimmered, like the world itself was holding back a scream.
I coughed, rolled onto my side.
Alive.
But not okay.
I sat up slowly, wincing as my body remembered it had limits. I didn't know where I was. Nothing looked familiar. No buildings, no people—just this broken wasteland.
"What the hell… happened…?"
Bits and pieces came back.
The ritual.
The cult.
Running toward the portal.
Flames twisting the wrong way.
Eve calling my name.
Then… nothing.
Now this.
Was I dead?
If this was the afterlife, someone needed to fire their interior designer.
I stood, legs shaky, brushing ash off my clothes. The red sky boiled overhead. The air pressed down like it hated me.
"This… isn't home."
A flicker of light caught my eye.
Nine small stones poked out of the ground in a half-circle, glowing faint green like dying embers. They pulsed gently, like they were breathing.
I knelt beside them, hesitant. One looked familiar. Too familiar.
The healing stone.
The one that fixed me before.
I didn't understand any of it—but my hand reached out on instinct. I picked one up. Cold. Smooth. Quietly humming with something I didn't have a name for.
I gathered the rest and tucked them into my pocket.
No explanations.
No answers.
Just… stones.
And questions.
I took a slow step forward.
Then another.
The world around me was wrong. Off. The silence wasn't peaceful—it was watching. Waiting.
Then I heard it.
Slithering.
Wet. Slow. Heavy.
I froze.
Something was crawling through the dead forest—dragging itself toward me with a sickening squelch.
It stepped into view.
My stomach dropped.
It looked… wrong. As if someone had tried to sculpt a human from melted wax and rage. Tentacles slithered where arms should've been. Its skin was stretched too tight, too slick. Its face—if it had one—was a vertical gash full of jagged teeth.
All my instincts tell me to run.
And I did.
But it was faster.
It slammed me to the ground.
Pain exploded in my chest. My ribs bent—or broke. I couldn't tell.
I rolled, kicked, punched, screamed.
Nothing worked.
Its skin was like rubber and steel.
A tentacle whipped around my arm and yanked.
White-hot pain tore through me.
And my arm—my arm—was gone.
I screamed until my throat gave out.
Blood soaked the dirt.
I was dying.
Then—her voice.
(Then promise me.)
(I will.)
(No. Out loud.)
(I promise I'll come back.)
The memory hit like lightning.
I promised her.
I wasn't allowed to die.
Not yet.
My remaining hand fumbled in my pocket. I found the stone—cold, familiar.
I put it my mouth.
Then I fond a nearby sharp rock.
The creature shrieked and lunged.
I didn't move.
With everything I had left, I drove a sharp rock into its mouth.
Its jaws slammed shut.
Pain again. Unbearable. My vision blurred.
But I crushed the healing shard between my teeth.
Crack.
Light bloomed inside me.
I felt it—muscle stitching together, bones reknitting, nerves reawakening.
My arm was coming back.
Inside the monster's mouth.
It hesitated.
Just for a second.
And that was all I needed.
I shoved the sharp stone straight through the soft tissue at the roof of its mouth—into its skull.
The thing spasmed.
Collapsed.
Dead.
I dropped to my knees, shaking.
Bleeding.
Barely breathing.
"I said I'd come back…" I muttered. "So stay dead, freak."
Darkness pressed in again.
My fingers found another shard. I crushed it as my vision narrowed.
But my eyes closed before I could see if i worked.