Chapter Text
A tear rolled down her cheek as Sae-byeok clutched her stomach. There was blood, so much blood… and the blade… she felt the darkness creep closer, and she knew it was over. Her best would never be enough to change anything. She couldn’t save Ji-yeong, let alone save her brother from the orphanage and her mother from North Korea’s clutches. As Sae-byeok felt the warmth of the darkness, the welcoming nothingness take her, she heard a guttural scream. “Goodbye Gi-hun,” she whispered.
…
And then she was gone, her body limp, and her breathing ceased. Yet why was her mind still racing? Why could she feel something, not quite life, but an shadow of something similar.
Sae-byeok looked down into a void. Its depths beckoned her, welcoming tendrils of darkness reaching for her. It was so warm, so calming. Maybe this was where she was meant to be… she let the darkness take her.
Down
Down
Down
Down
It was so comforting, the void. The faint whistling in her not-quite ears. The feel of nothingness enveloping her, keeping her safe until she reached where she was meant to be.
The whistling got louder, deafening.
Stop
Stop
Stop
Stop
And Sae-Byeok heard the screams of many before her. It hurt, so, so much.
Make it stop
Make it stop
Make it stop
She reached her hands for the darkness to take her once more but it was no longer there. She sat on the cold marble floors in a heap, hands over her ears. And as quickly as it had started, the screaming eased. And Sae-Byeok knew where she was. The afterlife.