Pray for the Wicked | ATEEZ

09.

We had been talking for what seemed like hours after returning to the palace, whispering stories about our lives, our worlds, and telling lies and secrets as breathy laughs broke through the otherwise silent air in Hongjoong's bedroom.

But after a while, he had fallen silent, steady breaths convincing me that he had, at last, fallen asleep, leaving me alone with my thoughts and doubts as I once again reminded myself of everything I had been told, had heard, had seen in Hell.

I was slowly beginning to drift off as well, finally giving in to the exhaustion that had been trying to drag me from the world of consciousness into the darkness since the early evening, when the bed suddenly dipped behind me and I felt the warmth from the body that had been lying next to me disappear.

I frowned a little, watching Hongjoong's dark silhouette silently make its way around the room, about to say something as I watched him pull a shirt over his head, slowly sitting up, before suddenly hurrying for the door which he, still as a mouse, slipped through and carefully closed after him.

My heartbeat picked up at the realization that I was completely alone in the darkness all of a sudden. Alone at night for the first time since coming here.

Hongjoong had, not even once, trusted me to be alone when the rest of the palace was asleep. I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, rubbing my eyes in an attempt to adjust to the dark, and followed his example as I slowly opened the door and poked my head into the hallway beyond; empty.

Something was happening. Something he didn't want me to know about, to see. And so, I checked both sides of the empty corridor one last time before I followed him.

〄

I felt it before I realized what it was that I was searching for, a tugging-sensation at the bottom of my stomach leading me through the palace, my heart swelling with a sense of familiarity and the comfort of home as its steady thrumming kept getting faster and faster.

I let my feet carry me on their own, not thinking, only feeling, until I, at last, came to a halt in front of a set of double doors that stood slightly ajar and pressed my face against the surface of the sturdy wood, aged with centuries of use and history, and peeked through the small opening.

My eyes widened at the sight of the portal, a stark contrast to the one in the palace of Illenium, so different and yet, so alike. I felt a sudden urge to break down the doors, to throw myself into the veil and leave behind all eight of the demons who were guarding it, talking and arguing in hushed voices, but I held back.

The archway was shaped from polished white marble as opposed to dark stone which had been activated by my blood. This one was, like the one in Heaven, also covered in a layer of dust and had silver ornaments and details snaking their way up the sides of the supporting pillars, reaching toward the opening in the middle where the veil between the worlds was dancing lightly in the flickering torchlight.

It looked like a piece of home, the home I had grown up in and had been all that I had ever known until Hongjoong had stumbled into my life. It was my ticket out of Hell, and now I knew where to find it.

My eyes narrowed as they locked onto the son of Lilith who was pacing back and forth in front of the others.

I only caught fragments of whatever he was saying, daringly pushing the door further open.

".. to shut it. We have to."

That had been my plan as well; to, once and for all, cut the bridge between the two worlds, but I had planned on doing it after I had gotten home, after I had gotten away. If they did it before I got the chance to, I would be stuck here forever, I realized.