As the sun rose, light bled into the shed through cracks in the rotten wooden planks that made up its four walls. The same walls that had held the mutilated, faceless body of a student just half an hour before. All that remained now was the stench, Hajun, and the red note he clutched in his bloodied palm.
The body had vanished, leaving a witness to a crime that had no proof.
Where had it gone? Hajun hadn't seen it happen, but he knew. He knew that whatever was in that wooden crate had consumed the blood, the flesh, the bones.
[ What do you think you're doing? Put. That. Down.]
He ignored the demon, wincing as his claws dug into the wood and the jagged edges of the crate dug back at his wounded palm. He grit his teeth, the maw of something inhuman creating a low snarl from the back of his throat as he pried the crate open.
At first, it didn't give, the old wood creaking and leaving splinters in his skin. But he continued, straining as the wood and nails gave way little by little until the top of it ripped open and he was sent stumbling back by the force of something he couldn't see, of an outburst of energy that wanted to choke and consume him.
[ YOU BRAINLESS FOOL…!! DIDN'T I WARN YOU—d- don't touch that—] The demon's voice crackled, then faded away, the static blaring in his ears as he crawled forward through the haze of smoke that billowed from the open crate, reaching for what lay inside.
When his clawed fingers brushed against the small silver box, the thin layer of metal wasn't enough to insulate him from the searing pain of the thing inside of it trying to claw its way into his skin.
"HRK—"
His claws wrapped around the box and his vision clouded in smoke, blood dripping from his maw as he coughed. Red turned to black as that blood trickled down his arm and onto the silver engraved box, then just as quickly vanished.
It had drunk his blood.
Then it stopped, because it didn't like his blood.
Hajun chuckled in a sort of disbelief, then fell forward, unconscious.
══════════════════════════════════
Hajun woke up to the sound of drums and voices, the haunting melody of a folk song vibrating through the wooden floor and into his skull.
For a moment, he entertained the thought of a theatre troop putting on a show in some murder shed. The space around him was cramped and dark enough to warrant the idea; only it wasn't a shed at all.
"Is this backstage to something?" Hajun rubbed at his throat as he stood and glanced around at the costumes and traditional wooden masks littered about. He found it odd that the pain of smoke inhalation had all but vanished. In fact, he didn't feel any pain at all, not even the slightest of ache or discomfort was present.
He couldn't remember a time where he'd felt this healthy, breathed this easy.
"…Huh?" He paused, his hand resting over his heart, then clenching. It was silent. Too silent in comparison to the song that picked up pace on the other side of the curtain.
His heart wasn't beating.
"What? Hey. Hey…! Bastard, did you do something?? Is this one of your tantrums? Cuz I didn't listen to you? Oi, ■■■, you know if I die you die too right??" He swore at the parasitic demon that he'd felt the presence of for every waking moment of these last five years, but no one responded.
There was no voice in his head but his own.
It was quiet. So quiet. Too quiet.
Where did that fucker go?? What happened?? Why is my heart not beating…? It stalls sometimes, this has happened before, but for this long?
I-
Am I dead?
Hey, you bloody demon…! Say something…!!
A- Ahhhh!!
You hear that??
I'm going to keep screaming until you tell me what you did-
No. Why would I do that? Shouldn't I be happy it's gone?
Ha. Hahahahaha!
I don't like this.
I don't like this I don't like this I don't—
There was only his thoughts and the beat of a drum that mimicked a heartbeat he lacked.
Soon, even his thoughts faded like writing on sand as the tides of another's presence swept through him.
We bring hope, when hearts grow dim.
We fill hearts, when stomachs are empty.
We tell tales, when voices are punished.
We will make you smile.
Your smile is our only reward.
Hajun pushed the curtain aside to watch the performance as if in a trance, watching a singular creature take on the roles of many. It darted about, dancing, singing, its bird-like body and elongated neck swaying as its face changed masks at the beat of the drums.
It performed for no one, sang to an empty field of flowers; but it was happy, so very happy.
With a flourish, it jumped into the air and landed, sending tremors through the flimsy traveling theatre stage. As the earthquake extended outwards, the flowers turned to people who clapped and cheered, people who were starving, exhausted; people from different lands, different centuries, all smiling because of the theater troupe who took a bow.
That image of the six members crumbled to one, then deformed back into a monster, a demon that resembled the faces, the creatures that Hajun had seen in the woods.
He stumbled, the curtain ripping as he fell on his arse. He froze in place as that creature turned its head ever so slowly to meet his eyes.
He couldn't comprehend what he was looking at. It wasn't one face, mask, or anything at all. Hollow, bleeding eyes were all he could see, close, so very close to his face as its neck stretched through the red curtains.
"DId yOU SMilE?" That incomprehensible face stretched into a grin, one of its strange, wing-like arms reaching forward to grasp his face. The talons of its fingers ripped through his skin, carving a smile onto his frown.
It didn't hurt. He felt no pain.
In fact, wasn't he smiling? Wasn't he happy?
To stay here, happy forever; wasn't that a delightful idea?
"...No." He said, feeling blood pour from his face as he grasped the creature's wrist and tore it from the bone of the arm.
"I didn't smile." He spat out as he started down at the Talon claw hand he held, staggering as the creature screeched in agony.
Black like ink, blood oozed from the creature and the appendage it had lost. And as he watched the blood seep into the wood, his own blood splattered as the creature bit into his arm; seemingly trying to return the favor.
He only frowned as his arm was ripped from his shoulder, landing amongst an ever increasing pool of blackness. It had reached his ankles, staining them in ink.
He left black footprints as he ran through the flower field, the creature writhing after him as it razed the flowers in its wake. He could hear lost souls scream as they were trampled, then burst into flame. Whatever illusion the creature had been deluding itself with began to burn away; leaving razed towns, bombed cities, and a ground littered with charred corpses.
All that he could smell was fire and ash and flesh. He felt no pain, even as an empty place was left where his arm used to be; but he needed rest.
He needed to hide, so he hid, darting into the structure of a collapsed building; crawling through the rubble and ash to find a place to squeeze himself into. He curled up there, sitting rigid and still for a little while more.
"Ha…what is this? Where am I? Am I stuck here?"
"...I did something stupid, I know. You know I'm like this, broken. You told me so! Yeah, you're right, so help me. It's not fair to just abandon me…"
When nothing answered, he slowly looked down at his hand, and the severed hand that he still clutched tightly.
It really was a bird's claw.
Why was it a bird?
…
He bit into the claw, wincing then eating it bite by bite.
What drove him to do such a thing?
Well, hah…
There's no one to listen, I shouldn't have to explain.
I swallowed the flesh, drank the blood, and waited for the revulsion to come, for me to throw it all back up again. But I didn't.
I took a breath, my head leaning back against the charred wood as my arm healed slowly but surely, the bones, tendons, muscles, nerves, then skin twisting and arranging itself as it grew outwards from the stump of my arm like a parasite.
Soon, I had two arms, then two hands. I flexed my fingers in front of my face as the fires surged outside.
But I wasn't alone here.
I could hear it, someone was crying.
I dragged myself out of my own grave to find that someone, pushing through rubble and scraping my hands to reach the little kid who sobbed and cried alone.
I hugged the kid as they cried, taking the brunt of the weight as the makeshift roof above me collapsed, and a bleeding pair of eyes met mine through the smoke and fire.
The smoke had filled every inch of space within this pocket space. I couldn't tell what it was exactly, but this creature owned it to some degree.
But it was collapsing now. Everything was burning. It was burning. I was burning.
"You're okay…you'll be okay…" I told the kid as I patted their head. The kid had no discerning features, no face, no skin tone, nothing but the fact that it was a kid.
The kid sniffled, then smiled.
Then the world burnt to ash.
══════════════════════════════════
[ Hello..? Are you…there? I don't like this, it's dark, I can hear anything, nothing–]
"Ghk– bloody moons…!" Hajun coughed and retched, his lungs ejecting smoke that wasn't there as it struggled to breathe, his heart sputtering back to life like a rusted motor.
[ Oh! You're back! You left our body here, did you think you could take it with you into that realm, you damn fool?? ]
[ You moronic, brainless, dung for brains..!! What possessed you huh?? Wasn't the saying that curiosity killed the cat? Not, curiosity rewarded the cat with fish!]
[ Hoi, if you feel guilty, then apologize…! You nearly killed us both! It was far worse than any other attempt you've made–]
"Shut it. I'm tired." Hajun hissed, then stood, staggering for only a moment before stepping out of the shed. Wincing against the new light of morning, he took a deep breath, letting the cool air sweep through him and his lungs.
It felt refreshing,but it hurt. He could feel pain again. Everywhere, nowhere, somewhere, at all times there was pain.
Pain meant that he was alive.
He couldn't decide if that was a good thing or not.
He stared down at his hands, then flexed the one that he had momentarily lost. Clenched in that fist was a silver box, the same silver box that had dragged him into its own slice of hell.
He pushed that box into his pant pocket, a tight fit next to the red note.
"Haa…I could use a good cup of coffee right now…"
"Ahem. Are ya blind or what?" A sleepy voice announced itself as a stationary figure moved from where he had been leaning by the cliff face. It was blurry, that face. He couldn't see anything more than shaggy black hair, and the shape of a frown.
Then that face vanished under a mask, a wooden mask of an old man's face.
A theater mask from traditional folk dance and storytelling. Just seeing it made an uncomfortable pit open in Hajun's stomach, but the owner of this particular mask was not that creature, no, it was a human psychopath.
He didn't know what was worse.
"Ha…would you believe me if I said I need glasses?" He sighed, rubbing at his irritated eyes then letting his hand drag down. He paused, feeling the unnatural shape of his jaw. Then dropped his hand.
Within that creature's realm, he had been fully and uselessly human. This was no longer the case.
"I think you need new eyes. The Doctor might replace them for you if you beg enough times." Yusan chuckled somewhat humorlessly before grabbing Hajun's arm and dragging him back up onto the path through the woods.
"I'm not going to ask what the bloody moons you did in there, because honestly, I'm too tired to care; but thanks for getting rid of the body! Maybe you are useful after all!"
"I didn't—"
"Sure looked empty in there. I was waiting around for so long out here…couldn't go in to grab ya so had to wait for you to wake up on yer own."
"Could have just left…"
"And lose the new lab rat this fast? The Doctor would have my head! Or, well, he might test a new poison on me, something non lethal but enough to send a message, you know?" He scratched at his neck then shook his head, muttering something to himself as Hajun yanked his hand out of Yusan's grip.
"I mean, I owe him a lot, he's saved me more times than I want ta admit. He's not trying to hurt me. Whatever, I don't gotta say all this to you. Let's just get you to the Doc before you turn into something he can't save, yeah?"