Chapter 2: This is Now Reality
1098 Words
“The thing is… I’ve been having nightmares,” I said, lowering my head.
“N-nightmares?”
Ji-hoon asked, confusion clear on his face, he tried to smile it off to make me feel better.
“Maybe you just need lots or rest. You've been overworking_” before he could finish, I cut him off mid sentence.
“No, it's not because of that,” I said, my voice shaking as the trembling in my hands worsened.
Ji-hoon noticed. His grip on my hand tightened.
“These nightmares, they've been repeating for eleven years.”
My eyes blurred as they began to sting. Tears welled up in my eyes.
I knew I was about to cry.
“W-what do you mean?” Ji-hoon asked, his eyes widened in disbelief.
“I've been having the same dream, for eleven years Ji-hoon,” I said as tears spilled down my cheeks.
“Even if the same event doesn't repeat itself, I'll still end up in the same place and I'll see the same… creatures. D-demons, over and over again,”
My voice broke, my legs were too weak to stand, my hands too.
Ji-hoon was speechless, I would've been too if I was in his shoes listening to this.
It's normal for people to have nightmares… but to be trapped in an unchanging cycle for eleven years sounds absurd.
Before a word could leave his mouth, an explosion rang out.
We both turned our heads towards the direction the sound came from.
The violent gust of wind rushed towards us, carrying dust and debris from a shattered concrete highway.
Luckily we were far away so the damage was minimal, but the shock wave was difficult to ignore.
We lost our balance.
Ji-hoon pulled me into a hug, breaking my fall as we hit the ground.
He groaned, so did I.
I forced myself up first.
“Oh my gosh, are you okay Ji-hoon?” I asked, reaching down to pull him up.
“Y-yeah, I am,” he replied, rubbing the back of his head.
“We need to get back home,” Ji-hoon said.
“Yeah, and we should run too,” I replied.
I slipped off my hills, clutching them in my left hand, and we took off.
Behind us, not too far away, another explosion.
We didn't stop. We pushed ourselves harder, trying to outrun the shock wave.
It was the dumbest thing we could have done.
The shock wave caught us anyway.
It swept us off our feet.
Even now, I regret not lying flat on the ground… Maybe I wouldn't have been selected.
We didn't land safely.
I sprained my ankle, I couldn't stand up. The pain shot up to my leg.
Ji-hoon, who collapsed beside me, was bleeding. A huge amount of blood escaped from a big gash on his forehead.
Despite his injury, he still crawled towards me. He reached out and grabbed my hand.
He stood up, he staggered but was able to pull me up.
He put me on his back.
“Don't push yourself Ji-hoon, I can try to run beside you,” I said while panting.
He didn't respond, instead, he just ran, though the rubbles, through the dust.
While running, a plan flew over our heads
Its right wing was burning.
It got lower, leaving a huge trail of black smoke in the air.
We saw it, its huge shadow swallowed us whole.
Ji-hoon didn't hesitate.
He stopped abruptly and turned back the way we came.
I screamed, burying my face against his back, as I clutched his shoulders.
Cars drove past us at high speed, people ran in every direction which felt safe to them.
Not long after the plane hit the ground.
It exploded, releasing a massive shock wave which tore through everything.
Knowing Ji-hoon, he would've gotten to a far distance before the plane exploded.
If I hadn't been on his back, he would've made it fast enough.
But he didn't.
The shockwave swept everyone who was within its reach.
I fell, my vision went dark.
I lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes, the atmosphere felt wrong.
The sky was painted red, blended with deep orange.
My vision blurred, I blinked twice till they cleared.
Ji-hoon lay flat on his back.
I crawled toward him.
“J-Ji-hoon,” I stuttered as I reached out to him.
As I held his hand, my index finger reached for his pulse.
Nothing.
I paused, blood trickled from my forehead as panic set in.
I pressed my left hand to his chest to feel his heart beat.
Nothing.
My thoughts spiraled. I was scared that I convinced myself that my fingers weren't working and my senses had failed me.
I rested my ear on his chest.
I heard nothing.
My eyes burned as tears welled up.
When I lifted my head, his skin complexion was already changing.
“No,” I whispered.
I slid one hand beneath his head, resting it on my lap and I placed the other on his chest.
“Ji-hoon, look at me,” my voice broke.
“Ji-hoon,” tears spilled from my eyes.
“Answer me,” I begged, waiting for a response as I bit my lower lips in anticipation.
“Answer me, damn it!” I screamed.
He didn't say a word.
I quickly took hold of his hand, they were cold.
I slowly let go.
Ji-hoon was dead.
I couldn't accept it. I screamed again.
I clenched my fist, I buried my face against his chest.
Amid the chaos, I cried, my tears soaked his white shirt.
My body trembled uncontrollably. I was so consumed by grief, that I forgot to question why these strange phenomena around me occurred.
As I cried, the ground beneath us rumbled, as though something was about to rise from the ground.
The buildings shook, people stopped panicking, cars came to a halt.
Gradually, a massive circle formed in the ground, luckily it wasn't beneath me.
Slowly the earth split open.
Rising from it was a massive tall towering structure.
People within tried to flee, but only a small amount escaped.
Some were crushed beneath the rubbles, others were flung into the air by the force of the rising tower fell and shattered on impact.
The tower stood tall radiating an unfamiliar energy.
It's pressure forced everyone down to their knees.
My phone vibrated.
A notification came in from one the news channel I followed on social media.
This wasn't present in Busan or South Korea alone.
It was present in the whole world.
- Writer
