Tainted Salvation

10: Old Sins Have Long Shadows

Author's Note:

NSFW. Violent. Messy. You've been warned.

The song is inspired by a very amazing Mineun FMV.

Thank you for reading. Hope you'll enjoy this.

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Tae Eul lied dead on a pool of her own blood. Beside her, their baby lied lifeless and broken. Did someone throw him to the wall?

Beside Tae Eul lied In Yeong and Jang Mi, a proof that they defended her until the end.

Where was he? Why was he standing alone, when his queen and baby lied so still, their empty eyes staring at the ceiling?

He passed a mirror but he couldn't see his own reflection. He ran to the top of the stairs and saw his own body. Stabbed and shot, with Jo Yeong's body and the bodies of his guards.

That was........

Lee Gon woke up with a start. His nightmare was horrible. He was so disturbed that he directly sat up.

The movements woke Tae Eul.

She sat up beside him.

"Lee Gon, wae? Did you have a nightmare?"

One look at her sleepy but worried face, and he pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly.

Only then did Tae Eul realize that he was shaking.

His dream felt too real. He could envision it clearly in his mind even then, when he's hugging his living and breathing wife.

Kim Ji Won got shot two days ago. Tae Eul nearly got shot as well. In panic, he had tried to bring her back to her world. Maybe there she would be safe and unharmed, unlike in Goryo, where people would like to destroy him by murdering her.

It was Tae Eul who made him understood that she loved him and chose to stay by his side. He had decided they would go through this together.

Then the nightmare happened.

"I'm here, Lee Gon. Whatever you saw in your dream was not real. What's real is we are together and safe."

"If I lose you--"

"You won't lose me. I'll die an old grandmother a long time from now."

Her voice, more than what she was saying, soothed him, and he stopped shaking.

"Saranghae. I'll protect you" he vowed.

"And I will protect you as well."

They held each other for a long time, until he calmed down.

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Unable to go back to sleep, Lee Gon decided to bring her into his vault. It was a thick metal vault built into his dressing room. He had changed the pass code to the date of the first time he saw her at Jongno Police Station.

It was as wide as a small room. First, he showed her the manpasijeok.

"This flute is called the manpasijeok. This is a legendary item that we pass down through generations. It's the key to open the gates of parallel worlds."

Tae Eul stared at the old broken flute.

"It looks like just an old flute to me."

"If you hold this, and go to that bamboo forest, you will see a gate from ancient obelisks. There will be bright green lights, then if you pass it, you will enter an empty dimension. A world between parallel worlds."