Wings

Blood, Sweat & Tears - I

***

"He too was a tempter. He too was a link to the second. The evil world with which I no longer wanted to have anything to do."

***

His reddish lips formed into a playful smirk, "The Evil."

The mysterious guy took a step forward, and Sohye felt the sudden urge to move back. He seemed dangerous, yet Sohye could somehow feel he wasn't purely evil.

First and foremost, he didn't look like one. In fact, his face looked angelic. But he was different. He wasn't human that Sohye was sure of.

She stared at him. He wore a pair of bloody red pants and a dark blue sleeping robe that was loosely tied on his torso, lightly showing the bare skin on his chest.

What kind of devil wears a sleepwear? Sohye thought. His looks doesn't really live up to his introduction. Yet Sohye couldn't be at ease.

Sohye swallowed the lump forming on her throat and straightened herself up. She need to know what was happening. And to do this, she needed to appear strong.

"I ask again, who are you?"

"The Evil," he said the second time. "Why? You don't believe me?"

Sohye didn't answer.

The guy smirked and slowly raised his right hand. "Then I guess I have to show you."

He flicked his fingers, and everything around Sohye twisted and turned to black. When her vision returned, she wasn't in the room anymore. The blue sky was above her, the open surrounding too familiar to her. She had been here once when her mother calmed her after she learned that death of her father. It was the hospital rooftop.

"Focus, Park Sohye," the guy said, and Sohye couldn't help but cringed at the sound of her name.

How did he knew her name? 

"Watch," he commanded and Sohye complied.

The guy slowly untied his robe, letting it fall to the ground. At first, she couldn't notice anything, distracted at the half-naked guy before him. But then it caught her eyes, something was growing behind his back. Wings.

Sohye couldn't look away.

The wings unfurled from his back. They moved awkwardly at first, stretching as far as they could. And when they stopped, she saw long black feathers unfolding into place over the pinions. The grotesque wings slowly turning into something different, something dark and beautiful.

The dark wings flapped when it was done, and Sohye could only marvel at them.

"Now, do you believe me?" the guy smiled at Sohye as she stare in shock.

"W-what do you want from me?"

"I am here to make a bargain with you."

"A bargain?"

"As you witnessed a while ago, your body is down there, clinging to dear life. And if you haven't figured it out yet, you're now a spirit."

"Are you saying I'm already a ghost?"

"Well, not literally, because your body is still alive. But you'll be if you don't do anything about it."

Sohye wanted to speak, but she couldn't find her voice. Memories of her mother's pained face as she cries over the loss of her husband flashed back to her. That just happened five years ago, how will her mother survive if she also dies? How will her mother cope up if her only child was also taken away from her? Sohye could only shudder to think.

"What do I have to do then?" she asked, walking towards the mysterious guy, forgetting her fears.

"What shall I do to live?"

Yes. She has to live. For her mother, she must fight for her life.

"Well, all you have to do is play a game with me," he answered back.

"A game?"