A pure white blanket of snow was a canvas over the ground, brightening up the dreary atmosphere.
Jisoo caught sight of the two girls who were waiting for her by the river, demanding to see her as soon as possible.
"Hey." Jisoo greeted, slightly worried about why they had been so desperate to see her and why this specific place.
Aria cut her conversation with Chaerin and turned to see Jisoo standing with her nose a slight hue of red that spread over her cheeks from the brittle cold.
"Hey, sorry for making you come this way but, this-" Chaerin pointed to the abandoned house Jisoo had found the first day she came here. "Matches the drawing."
Aria held up the drawing of the house and the portal, Jisoo grasped the piece of paper between her fingers and glanced up at the house.
"...what's in there?"
"We have no idea." Aria admitted, gnawing on her bottom lip before their silence was broken by the sound of the air changing from the intensity of three new figures.
Jisoo turned around, eyes falling onto Jisung, Donghyuck and Renjun who had joined them.
The fallen smiled at Renjun as their eyes met but Chaerin tugged on her arm.
"You have your bracelet right- in case anything happens?"
Jisoo nodded, holding up her wrist but became clouded with confusion.
Donghyuck ruffled her hair after seeing worry flash by her expression.
"Don't worry too much, just precautions. Anyway, I'll be with Aria searching around the place but you four can search the house."
"Do you really think something is in there?" Jisoo spoke up, hand close into a fist to stop her trembling fingers and even though she had a thick coat on- Renjun's she forgot to give back- the cold swarmed over her and her blood turned icy.
Renjun's eyes flickered over to her, raking over the length of the attire she was wearing but mostly his coat and he fought back the urge to say anything due to seeing the fear plastered across her face.
Chaerin and Jisung walked towards the house, hand in hand and Renjun nudged the girl with his hand to bring her back into reality.
"You scared?" He teased and she shook her head profusely.
"Scared? I'm not...I'm not scared." She looked over at the dreary, abandoned house and gulped.
Renjun laughed at her expression, reaching out to clasp his warm soft hand around her wrist to pull her along with him.
"I didn't think it would snow this year." Renjun commented and Jisoo hummed in agreement- looking over at the blanket of white adorning the ground- her steps leaving prints into the untouched canvas.
Renjun and Jisoo stood in the middle of the hallway, watching as Jisung and Chaerin began walking up the grand staircase.
In awe of the opulent well designed interior, Jisoo's eyes gleamed with the reflection of the large golden chandelier that hung high on the ceiling.
"It's so pretty." She murmured, lips parted in astonishment; eyes drifting over to the paintings on the wall.
"Now's not the time to be distracted sweetheart." Renjun mused, tugging on her wrist gently to redirect her attention over to the cellar door.
"Maybe there's some ghosts down there."
"Gho-ghosts?" Jisoo stammered in absolute terror and Renjun looked back at her- sniggering at her expression.
"Why, are you scared?" He said lowly, leaning over towards her. "Of ghosts?"
Suddenly, he reached his hand out to harshly grab her shoulder and she yelped- screwing her eyes shut and cowered into the collar of his coat.
"That's not funny." She said, opening her eyes only to see him with a hint of a smile on his lips- his black eyes staring into hers.
"It was pretty funny." He shrugged and she rolled her eyes.
"I'm not scared of ghosts, they aren't real."
"Sure, sure." An unconvinced tone dripping from his words.
He walked closer to the door, hand gripping onto the handles before he stopped.
Jisoo who was very close behind him, fearsomely peering over his shoulder glancing at the side of his face.
"What?" She whispered, scared.
"I can't turn into my demon form with you so close next to me- unless you want my wings to knock you out."
"Oh, right." Jisoo quipped slightly embarrassed, taking a step back from him but now feeling severely vulnerable. She glanced over at the open front door and all she could see was the snowy ground and hear the wind tantalisingly whistling.
It was unsettling, the way she couldn't tear her eyes away from the view of the open door. As if she was expecting something or someone to come sprinting towards her.
"Jisoo?"
His voice made her flinch but she looked over at him.
Renjun's black hair matched his intricate wings that were newly outlined in a deathly crimson red- sharper fangs peeking out from his soft lips and eyes a piercing red.
"Yes?" She answered.
"Are you okay? I think you're going to have a heart attack in a second if you don't calm down. If you're too scared I'll go by myself-"
"No, it's fine! Let's go." She said, nodding and pushing him towards the door as he hesitated but turned the handle which was locked.
"Oh, it's locked...maybe let's just try another room-" her words were cut off by Renjun effortlessly using his strength to force the door open and she stared dumbfounded by it.
"Or you could do that." She finished as he took a step into the room with the girl close behind him.
It was dark, pitch black in fact and Jisoo could feel her pulse thumping in her ears- swallowing the dryness in her throat.
There was a flight of steep concrete steps in front of him with no railing to lean on- his arm reached behind him to put a hand on her side to stop her.
"It's dangerous, wait." He spoke, closing his eyes to try and see if he could sense a candle of some sorts in the room he could light up.
Shooting his hand out to the opposite side of the room fully of inky darkness, a ball of fire launched over and settled onto the candlelit lamp hung on the wall which created enough light for them to see where they were going.
Despite the light, most of the room remained in darkness and Jisoo didn't dare to even look away from Renjun's back.
His warmth escaped her as he took a step down, foot coming in contact with the dusty hard concrete step, then another.
Jisoo inched forward, reaching out to grip the material of his jacket in her small fist and relying on him for stability as they slowly began to descend down the steps.
Silence, absolutely silence encasing them aside from the contact of their shoes with the ground but the atmosphere seemed brittle and unsettling.
When they made it to the bottom of the steep concrete staircase, Renjun glanced over at the girl who was partially hiding behind his sleek black wing.
Renjun managed to light up two other sides of the room until most of the room was dimly lit by the raging flames.
Squinting his eyes, he raked it over the bleak grey walls.
Everything was bare, except the coffin in the middle of the room.
"Oh my God." Jisoo uttered out, eyes widened as she stared at the brown large coffin. "Oh my God." She closed her eyes and gripped into his arm.
"Well shit." He muttered, unsure of what to do but then again it was more confusing as to why there was a coffin in the middle of a cellar.
"Renjun, we should go." She said, convincing herself that the person probably wanted to be resting in peace in the house.
"...something about this is weird."
"There's a coffin in the middle of the room Renjun, it's very weird." She replied, tugging on his arm to redirect him up the stairs but he stood still.
His eyes were staring at the closed coffin, tilting his head.
"They aren't dead."
"W-what?" Jisoo managed out, almost choking on her words from the immense shock surging through her and stared at Renjun- wondering how he could be so nonchalant.
"They aren't dead, they're still breathing."
"Oh my God, Renjun- what should we do?" Jisoo panicked- not earning a reply as the boy began to walk towards it and her grip fell from his arm.
She watched him absolutely bewildered.
"Renjun- what are you doing!" She exclaimed in a whisper, unable to bring herself to join him.
He was now stood in front of the coffin, his hands on the deathly cold wood and he lifted it up- a deafening screech as it did.
There laying in the coffin was a man, an unconscious male and from where Jisoo was standing she could see a purple and green hue coming from him which indicated he was under a spell.
Renjun's face paled as he looked down at the male he knew too well- turning his head to face the fear stricken girl.
"It's Satan."
✘
The six of them were outside, overlooking the iced over river in silence that hung over them.
Jisung was wordlessly sat on the bench with Chaerin next to him in grave concern- Donghyuck also sat besides him.
Aria kept glancing over at the house, wondering how his body ended up there and who had put him there. Renjun was stood not too far behind Jisoo, glancing from her to the distraught Jisung.
Jisoo was crouched on the ground, her fingers dragging through the cold snow on the ground as she forced herself not to think about what she had just seen.
Sighing heavily, she stood up and faced the group.
"He's under a spell, it's most likely the one your Mum made him be put under...I don't know why he's here though." She spoke.
Jisung ran his fingers through his hair in frustration.
"Why did someone want us to come here? What about him? What are we missing?" He spat out, tugging at his roots.
Chaerin stopped him, frowning as she embraced him.
"We'll come back to it another day, come on let's go back home." Donghyuck spoke and grabbed onto Jisung's hand to haul him up.
"Why have you been so busy?" Jisoo asked Mark who's face fell, earning her attention and concern.
"Ji...things aren't going so well. There's too much evil in the world right now and I'm scared that you're in the middle of it."
"What are you talking about?"
Mark turned to look at her with a sympathetic gaze.
"Jisoo...we need help from someone who we never thought we'd need help from. It's not something I want to happen but without their help..." he trailed off.
Jisoo flickered her eyes over to the house where Satan's unconscious body layed.
"Why do you need help from him?" She whispered to herself. "What's the link between him and-" as soon as her eyes settled on Aria she halted.
It was as if the air was knocked out of her lungs and everything dawned on her- eyes inching wider.
"No..." she muttered to herself, it didn't make sense to her.
The group had already began to walk towards the gate before realising the fallen wasn't following behind them.
"Hey, come on- what's wrong?" Chaerin called out and they all turned to look at the girl who's face paled in shock.
"What?" Donghyuck asked confused of why she was looking over Aria's body in such shock.
The purple and green hue that was coming from Aria was the same as the one she saw in the cellar.
"The spell...it's connected to Satan."
Well then 😬