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Rubbing my eyes, I climb to my feet from the rough ground. A few blinks—I take in my surroundings. Dark shadows swarm the towering building walls around me, illuminated only by a single lamp standing solely in the far distance, flickering between pitch black and a faint yellow.
I run my hands along the rocky alley walls as I take uncertain steps towards the light. This place feels familiar, and yet I don't recall being here. Every little road that split to the side into shadowy pools of gloom sends slivers of sheer fear slithering down my spine. The earthy taste of dirt and soil chokes me, pushing me into an irrational mental suffocation. Desperate to reach the light, I scrabble down the muddy, slippery path.
Suddenly, my ears perk up at the sound of footsteps. I freeze.
The footsteps don't stop. I hear it slap across dry ground, then louder across wet ground—definitely getting closer.
Without warning, I'm shoved to the ground violently. My knees slam against the ground and split into large cuts of spurting warm scarlet. I cry out in acute pain, crashing to the damp floor on my back. The familiar shadowy hooded figures spill out from the side gaps in the alley, rushing in on me.
Pure fright sweeps through my body. Flailing arms and legs—I grope along the bloody ground beneath me, hopelessly trying to get away. Before I know it, bodies begin to hurl themselves against me, plunging me in a pile of hooded figures. My wide eyes search through the wavering gaps between limbs, my lungs gasping for jerky breaths through the agony of being slammed against the ground repeatedly.
I can't breathe.
The strength slowly slips from my struggles, throwing me into a ceaseless carmine throb of pain. My bloody body is shoved around; my face scrapes on the jagged ground, stinging through the helplessness. Overwhelmed and smothered, mute whimpers escape my throat.
Suddenly, time seems to slow as all movement halts. I still, catching my breath.
I shudder as a figure leans into my face, its dark orbs boring into my eyes, almost as if sucking the life out of me.
'Just...give up already.' It's the same raspy voice again. A wisp of fear filters through my senses.
Feebly trying to push it away, it grabs my chin and yanks me towards it forcefully.
'Life's too difficult for you. Drowning in it seems easier doesn't it?'
My bottom lip trembles, my resolve shattering away into nothingness.
'And so just...perish.'
It seizes my throat in its calloused hands, squeezing tight. A strangled scream splutters from my mouth and I shove wildly in stark terror.
Haeri wake up now.
I can see black spots seething at the corners of my vision, threatening to scour away my consciousness.
Haeri. Wake up.
Tears finally fall from my eyes, streaming down in silent sobs.
I'm giving up.
Wake up!
━
I sit up sharply, my cheeks wet. I don't bother looking at Jeno—I just keep crying.
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