Fly High | Dreamcatcher

Chapter 14

Handong finished the letter, signing off with her name in block capitals.

Unable to find the right-sized white paper, she had to settle for black paper, where she could barely see the strokes made by her ink pen.

She sat just outside the window against the wall on the first floor and cradled the black paper plane in her hands, unsure if she could release it. She went between preparing to throw it to just cradling it again.

It would help, Handong told herself and decisively threw it out, the plane shooting out across the garden and over the woods. It didn't take long before it started to drop down and disappeared into the foliage.

"Right, my problems are gone. Everything will be fine."

Handong stayed sitting there for a few more minutes and enjoyed the solitude and the peacefulness she could pretend was eternal. The wind blew on her face in passing and she kept her face passive as she looked out over the treetops.

What had gone wrong?

Only a few days had passed since that wonderful night when they had had their cushion fight and already the dream of the isolated manor in the luscious countryside had been ruined. But, she asked herself, had it been ruined by the suspicions that JiU had confided in her with or her own feelings.

"It was JiU." She told herself in realisation with a sad twist of her eyebrows. She then checked her watch and found that she should get going to lesson soon as lunch break was almost over.

Her head turned to look around, coincidentally, alighting on one of the downstairs windows where she saw two of the girls.

SuA and Gahyeon. Holding hands. Looking at her. With unblinking stares.

It creeped her out greatly and her body trembled as she met their eyes. 

Once they knew that she had seen then, neither offered a greeting, both just continued to gaze at her with emotionless expressions.

"Don't do that." She moaned in a murmur and turned away quickly to look back at the window frame.

A peek back told her they were still there.

"I need to leave."

Handong tumbled from the window frame into the room in her haste to flee and ran back to her room.

And locked the door.

***

That evening, Handong needed to relax and destress. Seriously.

She stepped into the white tiled bathroom and drew across the translucent curtain before she turned the bathtub taps on and water hissed out into the bath.

Before long, the water was at the perfect height and temperature.

She undressed with smooth movements and stepped into the bathtub. Sighing in pleasure, Handong lowered herself into the water and closed her eyes to let the scalding feeling run through her body.

It felt good to lie there in the hot liquid as she took deep, lasting breaths of relaxation.

Taking her time with each motion, she washed herself with the lavender soap and rinsed off the suds with equally slow cups of the water.

Handong leaned back in the bath and rested against the back, keeping her eyes closed.

The door squeaked open.

Hadn't she locked it?

She opened her eyes in a flick, spying a female covered in a head-to-toe white veil.

"Yoohyeon?" She recognised her close friend well and sat up, holding the sides of the bath. "What are you doing?" Handong's voice rose in alarm. "I'm...bathing right now!"

Yoohyeon continued to stand there.

"Are you the one who's been walking the corridors at night?" Handong changed tack, self-consciously covering her upper body.

She spied Yoohyeon's mouth pull back into a smile. Ordinarily, that smile would have been cute, but now, it was unsettling.

"Yoohyeon. What are you doing?"

"Get ready." She whispered with a hint of amusement. 

"Get--"

The lights flicked off and the room was plunged into boundless darkness.

Handong screamed, the sound almost instantly cut off with grating silence and the splashing of water.

When the lights returned within the minute in a yellow flicker, things looked drastically different.

Yoohyeon was gone from the room and the door was locked shut. That wasn't the only thing different.

Handong was draped over the edge of the bath, her neck resting on the edge as a hand dangled limply down, dripping the pink-tinted bath water. She gave no sign of movement as the water continued to drop from her extended index finger onto the growing pool on the white tiled floor.

A/N:

The final chapter is next.