XI

N/B: this chapter has gore. You’ll know when you get there. If it’s too much, just skip it. :)

*

Kimi stooped to pick up the pad and continued his search for his own item. Mr. Marshall moved with him, dragging his trolley along. The boy groaned because he couldn’t find what he was searching for.

“You know, as a senior, Dae-yang never really pays attention in class,” Mr. Marshall voiced, “like you.”

Kimi hummed in response as he kept on searching for the item. He gave up after a long search and decided to go home without it.

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Mr. Marshall questioned as he picked up a packet of bath salt from a shelve way above Kimi’s head.

Kimi shook his head. “No, that’s not...” He frowned as he read the brand of the bath salt. “Actually, that’s it.” He took the packet out of his teacher’s hand. “How...”

“I heard it’s the best there is.” His teacher shrugged. “Just remembered someone I knew who was obsessed with this stuff.”

Kimi exhaled. “Right.” Without sparing another second, he walked briskly out of the aisle and bumped into an approaching Dae-yang. “Can’t you ever freaking look at where you’re going?”

“Sorry. It’s not my fault that I’m the human replica of lighthouses.”

“Did you get it?” Kimi drawled as he handed over the pad to Dae-yang.

“I don’t know.” She exhaled strongly. “I got the salt and the bottle of olive oil.” She exchanged items with Kimi and he walked away without a second glance. She rushed to walk beside him. “I thought you’d ask the ‘but’. That’s what that always happens.”

“Go look for someone else to freaking pester.”

Dae-yang puffed air out of her mouth. “But I forgot my purse at home.” She sighed. “What am I going to do now?”

Kimi shrugged. “You can freaking ask Google. He has all the answers.”

Dae-yang rubbed her chin and narrowly avoided two kids running wildly. “You’re right. He does know all the answers. Oink, oink.”

Kimi stopped and looked up at Dae-yang. “‘Oink, oink’? Seriously?” He face-palmed. “Were you freaking dropped on the head as a baby. You’re...” He heaved a sigh with a shake of his head.

“Actually I rolled off the bed and onto the floor as a baby and dented my skull. That area has scanty hair,” she said while patting her head in a dramatic manner.

Kimi and Dae-yang walked through the river of bustling people in order to pay for their stuffs. When they got in a queue and payed for everything, Kimi tried as much as possible to loose Dae-yang but to little avail.

“Can you stop following me?”

“But I...” She suddenly froze and held onto Kimi’s arm. “Slow down,” she breathed and Kimi tensed.

He tried to wiggle his arm out of her metallic grip. “What—”

A wail quaked the building and people turned their heads in fear. They started muttering in concern, their worried voices trying to climb on top of the other when the wailing continued relentlessly. Kimi looked up at Dae-yang with a confused expression. She gave him a hard look as a response.

“What’s happening?” He grimaced.

“I don’t know.” Dae-yang pulled off her cap and placed it on his head. “Please pull up your hood.”

Kimi pulled it off. “Excuse—”

“Please. Please. Please.” She pulled her hair out of its ponytail and cut the hair tie; Kimi noticed it was like a fishing line, and not an ordinary one. “Whatever you do, please don’t remove the cap.” She stretched the band. “And please don’t leave my sight.”

Kimi glared up at her but obeyed and did what she told him to; he pulled up his hood and stuck close to Dae-yang as she swerved through the pool of hysteria.

As soon as they got outside, they came face to face with a man who had a burrowed hole replacing his chest, and was sprawled on the bonnet of a car. Blood pooled out of the hollow burrow onto the floor like a fountain. The blood and the clean burrow made Kimi freeze on the spot and his vision clouded.

Dae-yang pulled him to move, but he stayed put. “Come on. Kimi move.” She tried pushing him but he only stumbled to the floor, into the pool of blood.

Kimi’s eyes bulged as he stared at his hands gloved in thick, warm blood.

Blood. Blood! BLOOD!

He screamed. “Get it away from me!” He shuffled away from the blood. “Get it away!” Dae-yang tried calming him but he slapped her hand away. “Get the fucking blood away from me! GET IT AWAY FROM ME!”

People ran helter skelter, trying to get themselves, their children or everyone away from the dead body. Dae-yang struggled to get Kimi to stand up but he just crawled away from the corpse. Tears rushed down his face, washing off blood that had splashed onto his face. Everything seemed to zoom out of focus as bile rose up his throat.

His whole body shook as vomit jetted out of his mouth like a geyser. Dae-yang screamed in fear as she tried to pull him away but her voice became faraway as he slumped and darkness clouded his vision.

Please, not the blood. Anything but the blood.

*

“Doctor Vdélla!” screamed a nurse as she and other nurses pushed an unconscious Kimi into the hospital. They struggled to place an oxygen mask on his face. “Doctor Vdélla!”

“Here!” yelled a doctor as she approached them with a frown. “What happened to him?” she asked as she held his hand to check his pulse.

“I don’t know.” She shook her head. “I don’t know. We just heard that he’d fainted when he saw the body. When we tried to revive him he wasn’t responding.”

The doctor placed her head against Kimi’s chest and listened to his heartbeat, but all she got was the beating of a strained muscle.

She stood straight. “I think I know what’s happening.” She held the nurse on her shoulder. “Please help me get him to that room.”

The nurse nodded. “Okay.” She motioned to the other nurses. “Let’s get him to the ITU.”

“Okay,” they all answered in unison as they pushed the stretcher towards the elevator.

*

The dark sky rained soot and the air smelled of blood and pollen. The world itself spun and ran past Kimi like a calvary. His eyes drooped with each speck of soot that rested on his nose.

“It was you,” a voice hissed and everything froze. “You murdered me.”

He recognized it as the cold voice of his father.

Tears rushed down Kimi’s face as he turned and came face to face with his father. Despite the soot which had blemished his tan skin, he still looked the same. The same calm face masking a thunderstorm of anger, his ashen hair, his lean muscles, his firm, ever-ready battle stance.

“You murdered me,” the voice of his father hissed again without his lips moving. “You did it again.” His voice felt like it was coming out of a straw that had been dug into Kimi’s ear.

Kimi tilted his head as everything violently zoomed past him; the dark sky looked like it was about to fall, the soot shrieked as they exploded midair, the image of his father faded away in soot and the ground curled into itself.

“Find it,” whispered an unrecognizable, forgotten voice. “Nobody must know.”

*

The slow beeping of the heart monitor was like a reassurance that her son was going to live as Kara gnawed her fingernails and bounced her legs violently. She tightened her grip around Kimi’s hand as she looked at his frozen face through her tears.

“Why... Why...” She sniffled deeply. “It’s not your fault. So just please... please wake up okay?” She placed her head on the bed and heaved a deep sigh.

Unexpectedly, the beeping of the heart monitor quickened to a reasonable beat and Kara perked up, tears of joy replacing the ones of sadness.

“Oh heavens. Thank—”

“Find it,” Kimi’s voice scratched out as he slowly blinked into consciousness.

Kara froze but regained her composure as he fully regained consciousness. “K-Kimi?” she choked out as Kimi blinked slowly in confusion.

“Am I in heaven?”

She laughed tiredly and rubbed her thumb against the back of his hand. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I returned from hell,” he drawled as he moved to sit up, but his mother stopped him.

“Rest,” Kara ordered as she carefully pushed Kimi’s chest so he could lie back.

“I don’t freaking need rest... I need... I need to have my bath.”

Kara chuckled lightly. “I’ve already handled that.”

He grimaced. “Ew! Mother you don’t just...” He groaned as his head throbbed sharply and he shut his eyes tightly. “Shit.”

“Rest that sharp tongue of yours. I don’t need your healthy tongue, I need a healthy son.” Kara chuckled. “With his sharp tongue.”

Kimi exhaled through his nostrils and relaxed his body, but suddenly he opened his eyes, startling Kara out of her seat as she stared at the colour of his eyes. It was then that everything dawned on her and she watched as Kimi blinked away the lustrous colour that had bled into his grey eyes.

But I don’t know where it is, Kara thought as she sat on the chair. Her face wizened as she looked up at the fluorescent bulb. Nobody knows where it is.

Author’s Note: helloooo! I finally had the right mindset to update. I know the pacing has been slow, but from now on, you’ll be indulged in the real deal. Find any clue? No? I hope this was worth your read. Comment, like and share. Thanks for all your supports. Bye for now. :)