Feathers | Seokjin

Chapter 25 - Devil's Tower

"Isa, I think we should go back now.." A five years old Taehyung whispered in his friend's ear.

"Oh come on Tae! Don't be a scaredy cat!"

"Hey! I'm not a scaredy cat!" Taehyung grunted in protest.

Isabella raised an eyebrow. "Then prove it! Come with me to the devil's tower!"

Her friend's little shoulders slumped. "But what if the ghosts catch us and kill us..? The rumours say that ghosts in that tower will absorb all our magic and we will become humans!"

Isabella smacked the back of his head. "There are no such thing called ghosts!"

"How can you be so sure about that?"

"That's what Joonie told me." She said proudly.

"Ugh! Whatever."

It was enough permission for Isabella to drag her friend through deserted hallways to the devil's tower. It was situated in an abandoned wing of the castle and gave away an eerie feeling which settled uncomfortably in their stomachs. Even if Isabella teased Taehyung for being a coward, she was also feeling the fear of losing her magic.

By the time they reached the wooden door which led to the tower, both of them were shivering like they were walking in snow.

"Okay. We open the door. Go in. Run to the top of the tower. See what's there. And run back. Clear?" She asked trying her best to control her  quivering voice.

"B-But we d-don't have the keys.."

"We don't need keys. We can open it with magic." She said putting her hand on the closed door.

Seconds passed.

The door didn't budge.

"T-Tae..."

"Isa.. I-I think you don't have m-magic to open it!"

A scream of terror echoed through the hallway and two kids ran back to wherever their legs would bring them.

A twenty five years old Isabella gently smiled at the memory. She was always curious about what was happening inside the tower. When she was a kid, she simply believed that the ghosts will suck out magic from the people who set foot in the devil's tower. But when she grew up she understood that it's the dark magic casted into the walls which sucked out magic from any living thing in the tower.

It was always considered as a hell of a punishment to be locked in the devil's tower but she had never heard of anyone who were locked there in her lifetime. Who wants to loose their magic even if it will return to them when they were out of the tower.

She was locked in there for god knows how long without any company, without her magic when she had a lot of work to be done. She had to make a plan to stop her marriage. But she was no better than a sitting duck without her magic.

Isabella sighed and looked around the room. There was one window without bars. It didn't need bars because the people inside the room couldn't fly their way out. She guessed the window will be able to give a good view of the forest below during the day. The room itself was plain, only consisting a bed and a writing table with a chair.

She chuckled.

"A writing table? They may have put it because there's nothing else to do here without getting mad of boredom." She told herself before standing from her comfortable position on the bed and walking to the table to investigate more. There was a bunch of parchment, ink and a pen, an old journal from whoever unlucky person who stayed there before her. She tried to read the journal but the ink was already worn out.

She sighed and slumped onto the chair. "What am I going to do now.."

She buried her head in her hands. She was too preoccupied with the sudden punishment to think of what happened earlier with Seokjin.

Did he just shooed her away? But why? Did all the torture Namjoon put him through make him a coward? No. It can't happen. Then it means he genuinely wanted her to focus on more important issues on her hand. She wanted to hate him with all the fibers in her body for letting her go, but she couldn't. She loved him. Now that she had gone away from him she understood how much his presence mattered to keep her sanity.

Isabella remembered how Seokjin talked about his lonely days when she was with him as Sera. He used to tell her how dull his days were without anyone beside him, without anyone to love. She wanted nothing but to give him what he yearned most; the knowledge that he wasn't alone anymore. She wanted to rescue him from the elegy of loneliness.

But he let her go.

It must have been harder for him to make up his mind to do that. He was suffering again. Now that he got to spend a short time with her and experience her love, he was going to suffer more than he did in the past.

Her heart clenched painfully when she remembered Taehyung's words.

I'm afraid both of you will suffer more because of this.

He was right all along. But she was too stubborn to listen.

Her trail of thoughts broke with the soft sound of folding papers. She quickly looked at the window to find out a little bird.

But any living thing couldn't enter into the tower if it isn't from the door below.

She walked to the window and when she finally saw what invaded her privacy, her eyes widened with surprise.

It was a paper bird.

She gently took the bird in her hands. The paper was enchanted to fly high like a bird, but the dark magic didn't affect it because it wasn't alive. So it meant that she could also send a message back with it. It was a brilliant idea of whoever person who sent it.

With a smile she began to unfold the paper.