Chapter Text
It was supposed to be a good day; a hike, one last trip to her favorite bar, one final walk-through her deserted and empty apartment, and a bright, sunny goodbye to a city she had no real connection to. She was supposed to spend tomorrow in a hotel room with her favorite junk food, no plans, and no people to throw expectations at her. She had planned on doing nothing but lay in bed, playing Mystic Messenger, and just enjoying the silence—except when she receives in game phone calls, of course.
But things, as Ember readily reminded herself now, rarely go as planned.
NO! Leave me alone!
She’s screaming but no one can hear her. Her legs ache and burn as her feet thud against stone and soil, shaking beneath the afternoon sun as it sinks behind ominous dark clouds.
How many times has she run away from him? How often has he come so close to getting his hands on her and just barely missed?
She can hear his laugh echo off the trees that didn’t seem to move fast enough by her. Her lungs hurt, her hands were bleeding from open cuts, and she was covered in forest debris. She’d been running so long; she just wanted to stop.
“Come on Ember, I’m not gonna kill you!” She heard the male’s voice call to her, laughing, taunting her from just beyond her eyesight.
Keep running, don’t look back, keep going, someone will find you.
Tears start to fall as the clouds weep for the victim of this horrible game of chase. Ember scrambles up a pile of rocks, only noticing the sound of roaring water as she crests the mound. There’s nowhere to go. The flooded banks of the river below offer no comfort, aside from hiding the heavy panting as she attempts to catch her breath. She ducks behind a stone, and takes out her phone.
One last person to call. Of all days, why is it not a single person answers their phone when she needs help!?
“C’mon…MC…Answer…” She whispers, begging the phone to connect. She can hear it sputter and disconnect before anyone answers. She tries again, and again…
“Ember, I know you’re here…It’s only a matter of time.” The voice mocks her and she can clearly hear heavy boots on the stones behind her.
For the first time, she prays.
Tears saturate her face more than the rain drops that are drenching her clothes. She looks down at her phone, seeing the last bit of battery flash its warning. It’s going to die soon.
How appropriate.
The wallpaper on her phone dims as the battery begins to fail. The smiling faces of her favorite characters; Zen, Jaehee, Yoosung, Jumin, and Luciel in their common outfits, smiling as if nothing on this side of the screen could ever go wrong. Ember’s thumb opens the old picture of her and MC, still dressed in high school uniforms, smiling at the camera. She wished she could have at least said goodbye to the only person she felt connected to. MC was the one person she could call a friend, even after years of separation after university. MC was the one that showed her Mystic Messenger, and didn’t give Ember a hard time about being an adult playing such a game.
Who knew she would be facing a stalker just like they were in that story. Who knew that in this world, nobody is coming to her rescue? The police didn’t believe her, the few associates she had didn’t either, all except MC; she had wanted Ember to move away to get away from the creep. But no, Ember insisted she was fine, that she’d take care of it, that this guy was just as harmless as any other. After all, he was just a normal guy, not terrible looking, average intelligence, even had admitted to having a family of his own; what harm could he really do? MC stopped calling shortly after that, at one point, MC even told her she was having health problems, and wanted her to come live with her for a little bit.
“It will be fun, just like when we were kids. Think of it as an extended sleep over.” MC had begged, and finally, Ember relented. After all, what harm could be done by starting in a new city again? She’d finally be reunited with her friend after years apart, and be able to help MC in the process. She was supposed to move in two days.
Two. Days.
But he had to come back. Somehow, he found her while taking a day hike in the local state park. She had thought that she was safe from him here; he had always found her in the city, where he could hide among the thousands of other faces she didn’t dare look at. But no, this stalker, the nameless man that followed her everywhere, haunted her relentlessly, and now…
“Ember,” He called in a sing song tone.
She clasps her hands over her mouth to stifle the threatening whimpers from coming out.
“Found you,” he growls just as a pair of large hands yanks her up by the collar of her parka. The collar was digging into her throat, and she coughed and writhed to try and ease the pressure on her throat.
“Let me go!” she thrashes, kicking, and clawing at his arms, trying to reach is face. He just laughs at her. Laughs! “Leave me alone; what do you want from me?”
He laughs and something sinister flashes across his dark eyes. “I’m taking you to Paradise,” he smiles, cocking his head to the side. “Don’t you want to be saved? I promise I’ll be by your side, Mr. Ray promised me I could keep you.”
Who?
“Keep me? Who the hell do you think you are?!” Ember demands; gripping at his hands still digging into the collar of her jacket. The idea of “fight or flight” didn’t even occur to her, she just struggled. His smile is anything but friendly; a sinister, bone chilling, and utterly crazed light flickers in his eyes. He just smiles, watching her face turn pink, then red, and her breathing become ever more strained.
She’s going to be taken, she knows it. She doesn’t know where this Paradise is, and frankly she doesn’t care. The rumble of the rushing waters below her catch her attention.
And it clicks.
She has two choices; go with this crazy man, or…
The water sounds louder in her ears as she focuses on the face of her attacker. Her heartbeat is thumping in her head, and the collar of her clothes and jacket is cutting off air from her head.
“No.” she chokes, and with one hand, unzips the jacket. She couldn’t grab onto the rock face, it was too far, maybe…maybe if she survives she could swim…
At first she hears nothing, everything is going in slow motion; her phone flips in the air in front of her, along with tendrils of her saturated blonde hair. To say that Ember’s life flashed before her eyes is a far from the truth; she saw nothing but the phone in front of her. A small miracle happens, and even with tears falling down her face, she smiles when the screen lights up, showing MC’s contact picture. Finally her friend picked up. Ember hadn’t realized the phone was still dialing; everything had happened quickly, despite the feeling that it felt like hours caught in his grasp.
“Hello? Ember...is…you?...Ar….kay?”
The sound of MC’s tired voice, breaks out over the sound of the river. The pounding in her head is replaced with a high pitched mechanical squeal, like the sound of computer hardware that is about to give out.
“I’m sorry, MC!” She screams as the freezing water snaps her into darkness, and the phone bounces off the rocks and into the foaming waters below.
~
It isn’t cold.
In fact, it is almost warm.
She lands with a thud; the sharp impact elicits a grunt and groan as she rolls over to her stomach. Her entire body feels like she’d been electrocuted and the only thing cooling her down is the fact that she can feel water still clinging to her pale skin.
Her head is pulsing with the fury of a thousand jackhammers; everything is too loud. Her hand fumbles across the wet grass and fallen leaves, where the fragments of her phone lay half buried in the mud. The mechanical squealing reverberates in her eyes, and the rain feels like she’s being pelted with bullets.
The only thing that broke the constant sound was the unmistakable scream of a frightened woman. Her voice carried over the rat-tat-tat of rain on the already saturated ground, and echoed off of the trees that surrounded her. The scream was still quite a ways away, but it still was close enough to warrant being concerned.
Instinctively Ember looked toward the voice. She was surrounded in established trees and underbrush, and the sky was growing very dark with the oncoming nightfall. The air was frigid, and Ember could already feel the chill on her soaking skin, making her quake involuntarily. She can’t see where the woman’s voice came from, just trees, and the creeping of shadows that seemed like a strangely comforting sight. At least she’ll be as hidden from that stalker in these conditions, as he would be; the difference being that she was an avid outdoorsy type, and he likely wasn’t.
Again the woman in the distance yelled, she could make out the clear ‘help’ in the cries, before the sounds become muffled.
“It would be my luck, escaping one stalker to run into a kidnapping,” She thinks darkly as she hoists herself to her shaky feet, leaning heavily on a narrow tree.
Then the residual sounds stopped; just the rain pattering on her shoulders continued. In that moment, the proverbial light-bulb turned on. She was running through a forested state park, and fell off a cliff to escape the stalker; how did she land in the middle of a very different forest? The sun had already set, and she knew she hadn’t been knocked out between falling…and landing. It was midafternoon before, so…
Where was her coat?
Where was the stalker?
And what the hell happened to her phone?
She picks up the fragments, and wraps them in the saturated headband to keep the glass from stabbing her; she’d have to inspect the parts later, to see if she could possibly repair it. She knew, by the size of the parts, that the likelihood of ever recovering anything from it was near impossible. So, with shaking determination, she resolves to finding some sort of civilization, and borrowing a phone to call for help.
Carefully, she picks her way through the ever darkening forest heading roughly north, away from the sound of the distressed woman. It doesn’t take more than five minutes at Ember’s slow pace, before the rain finally begins to clear, opening up a window to the bright moon above the her.
The break in the storm lit up the distinct white stucco of a large building in the distance; the color almost glowed beneath the moon, despite being in the middle of a forest. Who would build such a building in the middle of a forest? Much less, one of this style?
As she grew closer to the building, she could see a clearing that was paved and lined in gravel, which butted up against the front of a white fronted mansion with bright emerald roofs. The style looked like some sort of castle, and triggered a sickening sense of recognition.
“It…can’t be…” she whispers before clapping her hands over her mouth to prevent any more sound. Two robed figures circle the outside of the building, keeping an even, slow pace; they were guards. They passed by a light on the far end of the driveway, which flickered on with their passing, illuminating a several vehicles parked nearby, mostly newer cars, and a single, high capacity white van, not unlike the windowless Econo-Van one could see used as work vehicles. Few lights were on in the building, and the few that were visible at this distance were curtained, but still lit enough to silhouette more people inside.
“Hey, do you hear something?”
The sound of an unknown male’s voice shakes her attention, making her drop to her knees on the forest floor, searching for the source of the voice. Mentally she curses her choice of bright athletic clothing, when she’s trying to hide in a dark wooded area. Along the clearing closest to her forested hiding spot, two men stopped on their patrol; they were close enough that—despite wearing hoods—the moon illuminated their faces clearly. They were larger than Ember, both in height and girth, although she couldn’t confirm the latter due to the black robes that covered them.
“There isn’t another patrol out here, right?” the second voice asks, shining a flashlight across the forest. Ember ducks further behind a fallen tree, just in time for the beam of light to pass over her head. The sound of tires on gravel, and the rumble of a high powered engine interrupt their conversation, and making Ember’s breathing stop altogether.
“Mr. Ray! Sir, you’re already back—“
A car door opens and steady footsteps crunch the gravel on the pavement. “What are you looking at? Help me, you fool. Take the one in the trunk to the cells.”
Ember’s eyes widen as the third voice commands the guards. All at once the concerns of Ember’s own safety become blatantly clear. She knows that voice; suddenly the recognition becomes very real, and she peeks to the driveway one last time.
“No, this is a coincidence…there is just no way…” she thinks to herself, as she clings to whatever sense of security she had.
Parked haphazardly in front of the building is a bright red Porsche-like sports car, and the distinct figure of a young man in a dark sweatshirt and bright red hair steps out. He circles the car in a quickened pace, and opens the passenger door, showing a woman slumped in the seat. She’s dressed nicely, as if she had just gone to a nice date, although she was too far away to see clearly, by the looks of her posture, she had too much to drink, or perhaps worse…
The other two guards open the trunk, and yank out the limp body of yet another person; another redheaded young man that looks remarkably like the first. It is clear to Ember what is happening, and yet she felt powerless.
She must have been more stressed than she thought, as the glass hidden within the soggy headband pokes through, stabbing her palm and bringing her rushing back to the present. A sudden flash of every memory that had lodged itself in her mind came rushing back at her like a hurricane.
Mr. Ray, Paradise, Mystic Messenger, the white and green mansion in the woods, dark cloaked figures…
“Hey, who are you?”
Her voice is lost in her throat as the thoughts and images coalesced into one very vivid, very real conclusion. A guard circles around the tree she is hiding behind, holding a flashlight and a stun-gun, scowling at her.
“Answer, who are you?” the voice came closer, and stares down at her. “Oh…”
Ember’s body tenses under the gaze of this cloaked figure. She must have looked like a cornered animal, as the guard slowly lowered his weapon, and almost looked kindly down at her. Her body shook and the crumbled phone dropped to the forest floor. She still looked like a wreck; her hair is matted, wet, tangled with leaves and debris, her makeup is smeared, scratches and bruises litter what skin is showing, leaving trails of watered down blood on her flesh and clothes, and she is covered in splotches of various types of mud.
“You must be new, huh?” the voice softened, and he bent down to her level, the light lingering on the floor by her legs. “Don’t worry, you’ll be safe.” A patch of unusual teal hair falls in front of his forehead, beneath the hood. “I won’t let them hurt you; but you are hurt and going to get sick out here. Come on, I’ll help you inside.”
“N-no,” Ember whispers, slapping away the man’s hand, and staring into his beautiful green eyes. From up close, this guard is not harsh, rough, or gruff; quite the opposite in fact. He looks kind, brotherly even, despite wearing the ominous cloak.
“It is okay, I’m trying to stop it.” He whispers, reaching out to help her up, he looks around, making sure no one sees him, or hears him speak. “I am under cover here, and I may need help. You’re different, I can tell; but now isn’t the time to talk. You need dry clothes, medicine, and food. Trust me.”
Her eyes widen again.
“No…I…no…” she mutters, taking his hand and standing on her feet. “You…you’re…”
“Jihyun Kim, but most people call me V,” he smiles and puts a finger to his mouth to hush me. “But don’t tell anyone, they don’t know I’m still here.”
“Jihyun…” she looks at the building, and he almost chuckles at her expression of shock mixed with realization. The whole world suddenly became very, very clear. “That is…”
“Mint Eye. Welcome to their so-called Paradise in the mountains,” V sighs and starts walking her toward the front door. “You aren’t the first to be brought over, so just play up the stunned look you have now, and you’ll be safe for a time. Try not to talk to anyone, even the others you’ll be living with, and I’ll try to be assigned as your…”
“My…what?” she dares to ask.
“Keeper, I suppose.” V answers slowly, as if trying to find a more kind way of saying his thoughts. “Don’t fret; I’ll keep you safe. I feel like you’ll be able to help save my friends.”
She sees his eyes stop on the red car. “That…was Saeyoung in the trunk…” He nods. “The woman?”
“A friend of his; Zen’s girlfriend. I haven’t yet met her face to face.” He whispers as they come to the door. How did Jihyun know she’d know the name Zen? Her feet were moving without her thinking, and her knees now shook both from the chill and the draining of adrenaline from her system. “Now, let’s find you a bed and clean clothes.”
The doors open and Ember is temporarily blinded by the comparatively bright lights inside the Mint Eye building.