Chapter Warning: Mention of Suicide
The Shinoshen had been sealed and the rest had moved away leaving only Dal-ae and Yuta in the artificial ring that the seal had created around the two of them.
Gazes fixed, eyes unblinking, they were not more than a few metres apart but when Dal-ae looked at the steps between them, she realized how boundless the distance really was – it took her 20 years to get here when Yuta was right in front of her all this time.
With the winds of the oncoming storm that gushed through the forest howling and announcing its arrival, Dal-ae took her first step, the dagger gripped tightly in her hand. For a moment she thought she saw doubt flash across Yuta's face and if it was true, she was pleased to see it.
Yuta stayed still as Dal-ae advanced forward. Aiming directly for his heart, she dashed at him. There was no hesitation in her attack. She was relentless and unforgiving but Yuta dodged every strike. There was no doubt that she was skilled but it was not easy going against the one who had taught her everything she knew. Yuta could anticipate her attack before she had even thought about it herself and blocked every move with an ease of a dancer on stage.
When he got bored, he caught her by her hair and bashed her in the gut hard enough to knock the air out of her in one punch. She stumbled backwards, holding a hand over her stomach as she breathed the pain out.
'Is that all you have?' he said, disappointed. 'Shameful. Is this what I have taught you? Straighten up. You can do better than this.'
'Why don't you fight back then?' she spat.
Yuta scoffed. 'Don't worry, you will receive when it's your turn,' he said and gestured her forward with his fingers.
As the wind turned harsher, swirling up a storm of white around them, Dal-ae rose to her feet and charged at him. She tossed the dagger up in the air and caught it in a reverse grip. And this time she aimed for his face, the jade hilt of the dagger bashing his nose. For a second, Yuta stunned at the intensity, and she took this chance to leap into the air and kick him across his face drawing blood out his mouth.
Powerful as it was, Yuta faltered only for a second.
'This is what we are talking about,' he said, spitting the blood out. His eyes gleamed with malice. 'Now, my turn.'
Dal-ae received the first swing of his elbow directly to her chest which met her chin in the same recoil, cracking her neck. But she had taken worse, much worse from him, to let this shake her. She whirled around, her cloak flying in the wind behind her as she came down heavily on him, slashing his chest with the dagger. The smell of burnt flesh permeated through the air as the silver met his skin but it missed his heart by a few inches. She had still managed to slice him, which meant there was an open gash. Before he could even react, she dug her nails into his chest and pulled the skin open, scratching him all the way down to his torso.
Yuta winced in pain, kicking her in the knee but she was persistent. She pulled and pulled till his skin was in shreds, hanging lose against his body.
'You bitch,' he hissed and grabbed a fistful of her hair, staining her silver with red. He slapped her hard across the face, the sound reverberating like the thunder around them. It was nothing more than a sign of dominance. He could have done much worse but he settled for a slap to remind her of her place.
'You have forgotten all your manners,' he snarled. The skin on his chest was ripped to pieces and he was bleeding onto the snow below them. He punched her hard in the face when he received no reply but just then, Dal-ae bent down and rammed the hilt of the dagger into his knee, breaking it at the bone before falling to the side herself.
'Ugh,' Yuta groaned with the crack, clutching his broken knee with both of his hands as he limped backwards. And just when he was about to kick her in the stomach, Dal-ae launched the dagger at him. He blocked. But the hurl was powerful enough and the blade pierced him in the forearm. He cried out as pain shot up through him.
Yuta was angry, Dal-ae could see it in his eyes. He did not like losing specially not to someone he considered his inferior.
As the wind settled giving way to the first bolt of lightning that crawled across the sky, lighting up the gloom for a second, Dal-ae pulled herself up. She did not even wait for the pain to subside. In one swift motion, she gripped the dagger and pulled it out of his arm, a spray of blood gushing out with it, and aimed the blade straight for his heart.
But Yuta was no novice. He caught hold of her arm and twisted it. He twisted it till the dagger fell out of her grip, he twisted it till her heard her bones crack inside, he twisted it till she screamed and writhed with pain that coursed through her very veins.
Dal-ae felt her heart throb through her body as her vision blurred. Tears flowed out of her tightly shut eyes as she cried out, choking on air.
'Don't forget who taught you everything,' he hissed near her. 'Don't forget that I can end this fight right now if I want to and bury you right here in the snow.'
She wasn't listening anymore, all she knew was shooting sting that engulfed her whole as Yuta tightened his grip, crushing her bones. From his own cloak, he took out a knife and slashed her across the thigh making her kneel in front of him.
'Pathetic,' he spat. 'You deserve at least a hundred lashes for this.'
She retched her breath out with blood. And despite the pain, she reached out for the dagger in the bloodied snow and whipped round, slashing him just above the ankle before kicking him in the gut. As he fell backwards, crying out in pain, she took this time to catch her own breath. One hand thumping her chest, the other keeping her up as she coughed up more blood.
She glanced at Taeyong, who was standing completely still. He had gone white in the face with his tears at the precipice of his reddened eyes, ready to fall. She smiled at him and shook her head slowly, telling him to be as brave as she was.
With a groan she turned to Yuta and looked up at him. He was watching her. And though his body could bear much more than hers, he seemed as wounded as her in that moment.
Lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating the blood on their faces as the two rose to their feet in the pool on their own blood. For a long while, they simply stared at each other barely able to hold themselves up.
'How did you call upon his heart?' Yuta asked, quietly in the thunder that followed.
Dal-ae scoffed at his pitiful state. She spat a mouthful of blood onto the snow before she spoke, 'Why ask when you already know?'
He nodded his head wildly, his tongue poking the inside of his cheek. And without warning, he rose to the sky and plunged onto her with a kick to her face. Dal-ae tried to defend herself but Yuta wasn't fighting to kill anymore; he wanted to hurt her. He bashed her head against the ground, pressing her into the snow as she thrashed, out of breath.
She managed to get hold of the dagger and stabbed him hard in the neck but Yuta simply pulled it out before turning her over and slapping her across the face. He held her down and straddled her only to punch her repeatedly.
'Do you love him?' he asked, holding her by the chin forcing her to look up at him.
And despite the injuries, she laughed through the blood that had drenched her face whole, seeping through the snow beneath her like the lightning in the sky.
'I do,' she said, emphasizing each word as though pressing an invisible dagger through Yuta's chest. She had recognized the hurt her words caused him; it was apparent in his eyes and she wanted to press that dagger further into his heart.
'I do,' she repeated, louder and laughed, her eyes gleaming as she did. 'I do and even if you kill me today, Yuta, you will lose. You have already lost. You will be free of my murder but you cannot run away from your crimes. Taeyong is still alive and I will love him and only him till my last breath. Do you understand? You have already lost, Yuta. You have already lost.'
In the silence that followed, Yuta stilled, only for a second, before laughing. It was mocking, derisive and he held his stomach, throwing his head back as he laughed, the sound echoing in the hollowness that had become of the storm that seemed to have held its breath too in that moment.
When he stopped, he looked down at her, his eyes shining and his lips curled up in a smile. His bloodied fingers caught her jaw as he shook his head. 'What did I teach you? Huh?' he grunted, bringing his face closer to her, his voice low and dangerous. 'What did I teach you, babygirl? Never let anyone know your weakness.'
Her face turned pale at the realization. 'You can't kill him,' she said, her lip quivering. 'Only I can call upon his heart.'
'You're right,' he agreed. 'I can't kill him. He cannot die till you call upon his heart. But the thing is, darling, that I don't have to kill him to win this fight.'
His fangs bared themselves as he grinned. 'You are still so naïve. Still so young, little one. You have no idea what this world is capable of doing, what I am capable of doing.'
Dal-ae struggled beneath him, trying to free herself. She was not sure what Yuta was intending to do but the gleam in his eyes was enough of a warning for her. Her fingers tried reaching for the dagger that was knocked out of her hand but Yuta pressed down hard onto the arm that he had broken earlier, laughing as she cried out in pain.
'I'm so glad that you came after me, princess,' he said, soothing the side of her face as he twisted her arm again. 'But do you know why I was here, hm?' He bent over her and whispered in her ear, 'Let me show you one of the most beautiful wonders of this world.'
With one hand still pressing over her arm, Yuta unfastened his cloak and whirled it above his head. From the outline of its creases, a tiny butterfly fluttered out, flapping its snowflake-shaped wings as it flew upwards.
'What is that?' It was Jaehyun who asked but the other three had been stunned in place. What had just risen to the sky was one of the deadliest creatures in the world.
'Mizunabi,' Taeil gasped, his blood running cold at the sight.
'Dal-ae,' Taeyong screamed, recognizing the lethal creature at once. But before anybody could even react, Yuta had given his pet the command. The butterfly twitched in the air, stretching its wings to their full length and a blinding blue light burst out of its body shrouding the entire wilderness in its glow.
Yuta turned to Dal-ae, who he still had caged under himself. 'Do you know what this butterfly can do?'
'Taeyong,' Dal-ae cried out but the lustre of the Mizunabi was so bright that nothing could penetrate the light.
'Cry all you want,' he said. 'The Mizunabi never fails.'
And as the first drop of the rain fell onto Dal-ae's head, the tiny body of the butterfly called onto the water in every form that it could find. The snow, the stream, the rain, the very foundation of the Water City responded with all its ferocity. The Mizunabi absorbed everything within itself, its glimmer expanding itself to the sky and when it had had enough, the water inside its body shot like a blade towards Taeyong.
It did not need to pierce his skin to enter, the water wasn't liquid anymore; it had turned into a blue force of energy which blasted through him like a bolt of current, housing itself inside his body into the very void of his bones, the light entering with it.
The first touch of water paralysed him and the moment it entered him, it froze itself, numbing him from the inside out. As the frost crawled through his chest like tiny prickles of icicles, his skin turned blue, going rigid like the snow around them.
Dal-ae choked on her own tears, her breath knocked out of her as the last of the light entered his body, and in the rain that fell on the Water City that day, Taeyong collapsed to the ground with a thud, his eyes shut dead.
The Mizunabi flew towards the sky but its flight faltered as it wings melted themselves in the warm water of the rain and not long before, the tiny creature fell from the sky to its death in the thawing snow.
But Yuta did not care, no, he was laughing, rejoicing, celebrating his victory. He had let go of Dal-ae's arm and had pulled himself away.
She watched him, but only for a second, before she swallowed hard. Wiping the tears away from her face, she rose to her feet and staggered towards him. She punched him across the face and he crashed to the ground.
'What have you done to him?' she shouted in his face, grabbing the dagger and aiming its blade at his heart.
But Yuta simple laughed. 'Oh, what a beautiful sight to behold. I have never seen anything quite like it. How quick, how easy. The water has frozen inside him and has put his body into a slumber for eternity. He is not dead, but, well, as good as that.'
'Bring him back,' she screamed, hoarse, shaking him by the collar.
'Nobody can, sweetheart,' he said and grinned, his eyes gleaming with triumph. 'See? I won without even killing him. I won,' he boomed. 'I won.'
'No, bring him back,' she screamed. 'Bring him back bring him back bring him back,' and stabbed Yuta through his heart. The blade pierced through and through, burning the remainder of his life away but Dal-ae pulled the dagger out and stabbed him again. 'Bring him back,' she screamed and cried, and with every word she pushed the dagger into him again, then again and again, all while crying, and thrashing. 'Bring him back, bring him back, bring him back,' she cried till she couldn't anymore and she stabbed till she tired herself out and with the last pull, she fell forward onto Yuta's body which was nothing more than a piece of meat bleeding out in the rain now.
She wrapped her arms around Yuta's neck as she cried into his shoulder. 'Bring him back,' she whimpered and crumpled away from him into the pool of his blood.
It was the first rain of spring and the first fragrance of change. The snow melted under its warm patter and as Dal-ae lay with her eyes up towards the clouds, she felt it wash her face. A hand clutched onto her stomach, another over her chest, she heaved and cried but no sound came out of her mouth. Her chest refused to let go of the breath as she sobbed, unmoving and lifeless and alone. She was alone again.
It was too painful, the ache too unbearable. She had seen death before; she had seen it her whole life, the first when she was too little to even understand what it had meant. She had killed, she had hurt, she had maimed but she knew what she was doing. She knew what it did to those she hurt but she had not let anything affect her. How could she? She had a purpose – Taeyong. In a way it always was Taeyong who had kept her alive all these years. She had grown up hearing stories about him from Yuta but on the night of the full moon when she had met him for the first time, she saw not an arrogant Vampire Lord but a man who seemed as lonely as her. When he had carried her to his Mansion, he had waited for the maids to wash her, he had waited for the doctors to check her, he had waited outside, he had slept in the same room should she need anything and he had stirred at her slightest movement. She saw it all, witnessed all the warmth he gave to a mere stranger and refused to believe in his truth over Yuta's lies.
She punched herself in the chest, letting out the breath with a choke and cried out, the echoes of her pain tearing through the wilderness, shaking the forest behind her and shuddering the very ground she lay upon.
She thrashed and writhed; it was becoming too hard to breathe, she couldn't take it anymore. It's my fault she said to herself between sobs. My fault, she repeated, her hands reaching for the dagger, her fingers stretching out at the knuckles. The first touch of the cold jade soothed her, it felt like she was going to a home that had ceased to exist long ago.
She pulled the dagger close, closer still, the tears drying up in her eyes. What was the use of living if he was not there. There is no life without him, there never was, and this realization washed her with the calm of letting go.
There was a smile on her face when her hand grabbed the hilt of the dagger in her palm. It felt peaceful, she had never felt such bliss before. She never knew it was this easy to end her suffering. She turned the hilt in her hand, the other one wrapping itself over her fist as she raised the dagger above her chest, the blood dripping onto her with the rain. She watched, waited for the rain to clean the last of Yuta's blood off the blade and when she saw her reflection in the engraved silver, she saw a woman ready to die.
It'll all be over, she told herself. You have suffered enough. You have fought enough. There will be no more tears, no more pain. It'll all be over, she repeated and looked towards the grey sky for a final wish – meet me again in the next life; meet me when spring blooms, meet me when the sky is full with the light of the moon, meet me under the stars, in the rain and the sun, in the winter that follows and then in the spring again. Meet me in my next life again... please...
There was no fear in her eyes, only freedom that soared through her. She watched the clouds swim across the sky, taking in the world one last time, letting the rain wash over her in her final breath. She never realized how beautiful the world really was.
'I love you, Taeyong,' she whispered and with it, she raised the dagger above her chest but before it met her, a scarlet light shot through the rain and she heard a cry not too far away.
'Dal-ae,' she heard his voice whimper and the dagger fell from her grip.
She turned her head to the side, slow and hesitant and afraid. 'Taeyong...' she whispered to herself but when she opened her eyes, she saw him stir, a weak smile on his face.
'Taeyong,' she cried and rose to her feet. Removing the cloak that was weighing down on her, she limped forward. But just then, from the other edge of the forest boomed the voices of the Neutral Force that had just emerged from behind the thick cover with Johnny leading them, who had tracked Taeyong's location as instructed.
There were at least a hundred of them with healers at their side. And as they dashed forward, the sight in front of them became quite easy to discern – Yuta lying dead in a pool of blood and Dal-ae standing above his body drenched in the same red. Even thoughYuta was a criminal, for a human to murder a vampire was still a grave sin inthe realm. Before she could take another step, the Neutrals seized her.
'NO!' Taeyong cried out, helplessly but his voice was not more than a loud whisper. He was awake, but his body was barely holding on at the last of its energy already.
'No,' he screeched, desperately. 'Don't let them take her.' He tried crawling through the melting snow but realized it was in vain; his legs didn't work no matter how much he tried and his heart weighed heavy inside his frozen body. The healers had rushed to his side but he thrashed his arms wildly against them.
'No,' Taeyong cried out. 'No, let me go!'
'Move away from him.' Doyoung stepped in, pulling the healers away. 'Don't forget he is the Vampire Lord,' he snarled at them. 'Touch him and I will kill you all in a single blow.'
The healers bowed and backed off, terrified.
'Stop them, Doyoung,' Taeyong wailed, tears streaming down his eyes. 'Don't let them take her. Tell them it's my order. Why aren't you doing anything?!'
But the Neutrals were already cuffing her hands behind her back. She wasn't even fighting nor resisting, no, she was smiling through her wet hair that stuck to her face. He was alive and that's all that mattered; he could still call out her name and that's all that really mattered. She looked at him, and shook her head. She wanted to tell him that it'll be alright; she wanted to tell him to rest and that she'll be back before he wakes up.
'Taeyong...' Doyoung helped him up, his own eyes tearing up. He glanced up at Jaehyun, who nodded before saying, 'I will go with her,' and took his leave.
'They will kill her.' Taeyong cried out, hoarsely, his body shaking uncontrollably. In the distance he heard Jaehyun's faint yelling, Johnny's failed protests but his eyes watched only her. She was smiling still, crying in the rain and he watched them take her away.
'Please... Doyoung... stop them... they will kill her...' he trailed off, exhausting all his strength and fell to the ground slipping into a deep sleep.
_
Guys, my lovely people, if you or anyone you know are struggling with suicidal thoughts, please know or let them know that help is ready, available and accessible.
Below is a link to a country-wise list of helpline numbers. Please use them and feel free to reach out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines