Red Obsession

3. Drone light

Something crackled, a moment later all books began to tear itself into pieces when Hyejeong was standing there frozen not believing her eyes.

There came a voice, so soft, like a whisper of wind, but so terrifying she took the gun, she has always been carrying just in case, from behind her belt. That gun has been used by an assassin, who has broken into the palace, to kill the last empress when the so painful occupation had started and has been one of the things her, a born historian has found on a black market after chasing for it through all possible, and impossible sources for three years after study.

“Dongwoo! Wake up!” She shouted when a creature as inhuman like as pure death flew off a shelf storming at her with widely opened sharp fangs.

Hyejeong fired, her second hand closed on the Forbidden Roll. 

The bullet went through the creature like through air when Hyejeong run Dongwoo’s way holding the roll tightly, firing madly as more horrifying forms came floating along the long bookshelves. 

“Dongwoo wake up!” She was shouting reaching the man, tearing on his shoulder, shooting until all bullets run out.

Where were general Min and his people? Why hasn’t any of them come to help, they must have been aware of what’s going on by now, yet there wasn’t anyone coming. 

“Help! Anybody help!” Yelled Hyejeong covering Dongwoo’s body with her own, raising the Forbidden Roll to defend himself. 

Sharp like knives, claws reached for her when a red laser light cut through them.

“Red Obsession.” Whispered Hyejeong looking up on the small drone with flames drawn on it’s smooth surface. The shadows were surrounding her and Dongwoo, yet the laser blaster was keeping them away like a shield.

“Help me! Come on, stop being useless!” Hyejeong sighed hiding the revolver, lifting Dongwoo from the floor. Man, was he heavy.

Armed with glittering swords, handling them like some master knight or a freaking Jedi, a yellow drone appeared in the room.

“Elouise, so all of you are here?” Hyejeong felt new hope filling her, even if the yellow fury carried the name of the red haired French girl who had her Dongwoo instead of her. 

In the mad fire of red laser light, escorted by the two drones she began to drag Dongwoo out into the long library halls to see soldiers lying there like a cut out forest, the marble floor slowly becoming a river of blood.

In the dim darkness she was making her way with effort, panting heavily as Dongwoo’s numb legs were just dangling in the air hitting her back painfully. Hyejeong was trying her best to not to look at the bodies, to pretend the horror wasn’t just all around them. Like a faint moon raising in the night sky, a light appeared in the end of the corridor, by the blue gloom it cast and the mechanical buzzing of the small propellers she recognized Brenda, Dongwoo’s Californian flame’s memory, now closed in just high technology and the ability to fly from space to space.

What was left, was to follow that tiny blue light and forget the man who was so freaking heavy on her back, who has never cared a tiniest bit about her. 

Echoing through the silence, a cry almost made her heart leave her chest, one of Elouise’s swords cracked, the metal pieces hit the marble floor. Hyejeong quickened her steps reaching the elevator, pressing ground floor, Brenda’s light like a tiny freckle of hope above her head.

“I wish your master wouldn’t be so useless, but I guess he had gotten to high again.” Whispered Hyejeong although a woman in a deadly trap speaking to drones seemed more than hopeless.

With a small crackle the elevator opened, the ground floor was filled with dead bodies, none of the 300 armed men had survived or stood a single chance against the shadows.

The Forbidden Roll was trembling in Hyejeong’s hand when she dragged Dongwoo out of the building towards her car, that was still parked between burning military vans, parked as if nothing has happened.

With a loud groan she laid Dongwoo on the backseat, the man gave out a quiet moan nuzzling his head to the leather jacket. Like a small, cute kitten, he seemed so innocent, a peaceful smile raising up the corners of his lips as if he had sweet dreams.

“You know what, once you wake up...” Hyejeong couldn’t finish the sentence as a cloud of darkness with claws and fangs left the library like a thunder flying her way, chasing six colorful light of the drones, so Hyejeong slammed the backdoor shut jumping behind the steering wheel, starting the engine, pressing the gas, driving out on the road quickly. 

It was a race against time, a race from forces who knew no laws of three dimensional physics. How could a human escape ghosts, demons and legends becoming alive? Even though she has spent endless hours reading, from ‘Samgug Yusa’ and all ancient legends to web blogs of currently living shamans, she has never trusted anything invisible. As a historian he has always lived in a reasonable understanding that the repetitive circle of life, war, economic, growth and destruction was building countries and crushing them. No unpredictable forces included. Therefore she believed it was just human nature to create stories about magical eggs brought from heaven by dragons to establish their land and the first dynasty, just their thirst to see something deeper than the usual pattern of life - birth, reproduction, death, rebirth...

Soft like music Dongwoo’s little purr on the backseat made cold tingles appear on her body. Maybe that beautiful young man with messed up night black hair was the reason why she has never wished to accept that there were forces in a human no logic could explain. 

Through endless roads Hyejeong was driving, never stopping the car until the first dawn lights filled the horizon.

The fresh morning air seemed moist when Hyejeong finally parked in front of a small motel in a village between highways and green hills. 

A sound of mechanical wings made her take a deeper breath, as there were still six small shapes moving on the brightening sky. 

Rubbing her sweaty hands dry against her jeans, Hyejeong left the car and entered the motel. With a deeply wrinkled face and almost closed eyes, an ancient lady was sitting on a wooden chair behind a counter.

“I need a room.” Hyejeong placed some bank notes on the dusted surface between them.

“So early in the morning? Hotel hour starts at noon.” She opened her eyes a bit wider.

“I don’t care, I can pay an extra night, I need a room now.” Hyejeong’s voice sounded sharper then intended.

“If that’s so... Most guests aren’t that impatient.” The woman opened a big notebook writing down the date in a snail tempo. “How many nights do you wish to stay?”

“One.” Hyejeong glanced outside towards the car.

“How many guests?”