The soul sweeper, Bigbang Fanfic

          The electronic watch on the desk pointed out 3:25 a.m.

       “Aish*… it’s so late!” the girl said stretching her hands above her head. She shut down the computer and slowly walked towards the bed. On the way she glimpsed a little out on the window… it was so quiet.

          “…awfully quiet for Seoul…” she thought and pulled the drapes back on when a strange noise stopped her.  It sounded like something pointed shuffled on the ground. She looked for it and found a little man on the other sidewalk, brushing it with a big besom. She smiled and got ready to leave the window when this little man turned around to watch her. She quickly hid her face behind the curtain when those big yellow eyes looked back at her.  She laid weight on the really long and pointed nose and the yellowish smile… the same smile that now stared at her face to face. She opened her mouth to scream, but the sounds won’t come out.  The little man’s hand stretched its long, wrinkled fingers grabbing her neck. His clench became more powerful by the second until blood started pouring out from her nose and mouth.

           The girl felt huge warmth all over her body… it was strange but it didn’t felt like someone was choking her; she felt like she was melting from toes to head, everything becoming more and more painful. A final spurt of blood burst out of her mouth and she fell lifeless on the ground. The little man smiled and begun humming a soft lullaby.  The besom’s sound stuck in the girl’s mind and she felt like someone was dragging her away from her body that laid there, under the window in a great puddle of blood. She wouldn’t turn around to see who was pulling her; she was too afraid of that yellow grin and the never stopping lullaby.
...

          “Is this even possible?” a fat lady asked when a policeman passed by her with a black plastic bag.

            “It looks like that, yes” he answered without stopping.

            “God forbid! Dying like that…” another old woman said making the sign of the cross, looking after the policeman with teary eyes.
...

           “Oh, God, I think we’ve over reacted with the booze tonight” a young girl whined gripping her boyfriend’s arm, swinging as much as he did.

          “Ssst!” he said all of a sudden.

          “What is it?” she grabbed his arm tighter.

          “Boo!” he yelled having a laugh of a lifetime.

        “Asshole!” she angrily replied after she screamed so loud that she made the young boy from across the street to stare at them.

          JiYong, a young boy of about 25 years old, fair-haired, somehow reedy, but with a very keen brown eyes, walked his way up to his house, taking advantage of this really quiet end-of-October night.  He smiled blushing at them when he realized he was staring and kept on walking when a scratch on the ground stopped him. He looked around to find it, but he couldn’t. He threw another glimpse at the couple across the street and so he could also see the reason of that noise – a small man, with its besom was brushing the sidewalk.  He stuck his hands deeper in his pockets and wasted a couple more seconds on the man’s broom, then he kept on walking. After several steps, the woman’s terrified scream froze him. He turned around to look for her, but they weren’t in the same place where he left them; he  found them only when the man flew a couple of meters hitting on a building’s wall. JiYong quickly stepped behind the big tree in front of him, and driven by his characteristic pry, he kept on watching them.

           The little man grabbed the woman’s neck and dragged her as she was some useless piece of cloth. She wasn’t moving anymore and a thick trail of blood marked the places behind her. The man stretched out his long fingers towards the crying man.

          From where JiYong was watching, the little man’s hands looked way too big for his height and he had to cover his mouth with both hands and squat quietly. He firmly clenched his eyes when the man tried to scream again, but instead he only made weird choking sounds. Blood dashed away when the scary man clenched his throat making it to click, freezing JiYong’s heart for good. He once again stretched out his long fingers and suddenly made a movement as if he clenched something in his fist, then he started humming a soft song.  He smiled widely and stuck his pointy nose in the air, sniffing around calmly – he was looking for the still beating heart that made his song to stop. He stared at JiYong’s tree and whispered a soul-ripping “See you tomorrow…”, making poor Ji shake in terror.

It was so quiet… Even if it passed more than two hours, Ji was still crouched behind that tree. Something vibrating inside his coat shook him violently, sending sweat drops all over his face. He blushed again whipping his forehead with the back of his hands when he realized it was only the cellphone ringing. Like something big hit him over his head, he desperately searched his pockets until he took out the phone – its ringtone was the same soft song that the scary man was humming. He smashed it on the ground probably waiting for it to keep on ringing, just like in every horror movie, but it didn’t. He took a redeeming exhale and when his feet god ready, he whipped out like a quaky hare in the big city.

         The cellphone lain around on the ground, broken in dozen of pieces, when a fagget brushed it away.

...

          “I can’t believe it’s past three already!” a young dark-haired girl said smiling seductively.

       “Times flies when you’re having fun! It’s almost not fair!” Taeyand, the very well-built and fauxhawk proud wearer said laughing slightly.

         “Yeah, well, you and your movies!” she sneered sticking her tongue out like a cute little kid. He laughed out loud knocking her on the couch, trying to get a hold on that naughty, defiant tongue  of hers.

        “What was that?” she suddenly stopped him.

        “What?” he said stealing her one more kiss.

     “I don’t know… I thought I heard a humming or something` …” she sat up looking around towards the big TV set.

       “I think you’re just sleepy, baby” he smiled. “C’mon, I’ll sing something nice for you” he said lifting her in his arms, kissing all the way `till the bedroom.
...

        JiYong covered half of Seoul in less than 15 minutes; he climbed all the four floors in a flash and desperately hit the wooden door using his fists and feet.

       SeungHyun easily got his head up, trying to understand what was the noise he was hearing. When he heard JiYong’s voice, he rolled over and fell on the ground.

        “J…Just a minute!” he tried to yell more asleep than awake, gathering himself up from the floor. On the way to the door he threw a half-asleep eye on the nightstand watch that was showing 4 a.m.              “Oh, God, JiYong…” he started mumbling and he spun the key.

       When he heard the key, JiYong wouldn’t wait for the door to get open, instead he pushed its handle and he swooped inside.

      “What’s wrong? What happened?...” SeungHyung tried to calm down his friend who couldn’t even breath anymore from the late jogging. He guided him to a large armchair. “Stay here! I’ll bing you some water…” he said doing his best to keep a cool voice. When he stepped once, Ji caught his hand.

       “N..no… S… stay” Ji barely whispered. “T…Turn on the lights, please…” he asked in a very silent voice.

      “JiYong-gi, what’s wrong? You’re scaring me…” SeungHyun hewed and pushed the small switch. He startled a little seeing his friend’s illegally white face. “Maybe water’s not what you need know… Do you want a drink?”

          JiYong shook his head.

          “N…N… No… I can’t…” he muttered something.

          “JiYong-gi, you look like you’ve seen a ghost…” SeungHyun said trying to joke a little.

          “A murder!” Ji answered with the eyes of a mad man.

          “What?” SeungHyung shuttered. “Are you sure? You ought to call the police…”

          “I’m next…” he whispered really slowly.

       SeungHyun froze. He stared at JiYong who just nodded staring back at him the the most brightest eyes ever.
...

          Even though sun was not up yet, number 59 turned into a double zero and the electronic watch on the nightstand started beeping.

          “Chris…, it’s 5 o’clock…” Taeyang mumbled from somewhere underneath a pillow.

         “I can hear that…” she answered in the same way but after a couple of seconds stretched out her hand to push the ‘’silent button”. “ `Morning!” she said turning to face him.

          “Good morning!” he answered with a sleepy, yet bright smile.

        “Your turn to make coffee” she said luring him with a soft giggle. “Thanks!” she said after he nodded. 
         She watched over him until he left the room, then she yawned noisily, but suddenly perked up. She tried to listen more carefully, almost stopping her breathing. It sounded like a nice lullaby. Where did she heard that song before? It sounded so familiar… She silently crept out of the bed and stopped in front of the window. With a single finger she pushed the drapes a little to look outside. The only living been was the small man from across the street, but she couldn’t hear him… not from all the way here. She found it somehow funny; he remembered her of home, of herself when she was just a little kid helping grandma cleaning the yard… All of a sudden the little man stopped his activity and started to turn around. She smiled fondly waiting to see a familiar Caucasian face, with round eyes, but her smile faded away when the man turned only his head to 180 degrees angle.

           A short scream made her close her eyes and quickly cover back the window.

          “What’s wrong, baby?” Taeyang walked in carrying two big cups of coffee.

         “Nothing… I think I haven’t slept enough…” she was quick in claiming her white mug then she cuddled to his chest.

         “Are you shaking?” he worried.

         “No I’m not… yes… I think I frightened myself…” she blushed.

         “You’re not that type. What’s wrong?” he kissed her forehead.

      “I think… I gotta call my mom… I think my conscience’s trying to speak to me” she smiled havind  a hard time to let him go. She easily pushed the drapes with one finger and peeked outside – the street was empty. She took a deep sigh and a big sip from her mug.

         “It’s everything ok?” he joined her in scouting the streets.

         “Oh, yes!” she blushed hard when two people crossing the street made her smile in clemency.

       “Wow, such morning people they are” he laughed and waved at SeungRi and Daesung when they raised their eyes up to the window.

        After a short while their steaming mugs were having a rest in their hands.

       “Yes” SeungRi answered as he blew the steam away “they said they’ll be a little late, but they’ll come for sure”.

      “No problem” Taeyang smiled brightly “it will be a while `till we’ll get there, change, goof around… plenty of time  for them to get there”.

      “I don’t know…” Daesug said without lifting his eyes up from the black liquid “…but they seemed a little strange on the phone… I have a bad feeling…”

         “About what?” she asked.

         “Don’t know… I can’t explain it…”

     “Maybe you’re just jealous `cos they spent the night together?”  SeungRi smirked, making everyone to hit him in joke until the doorbell rang.

        “I’m on it!” Cris went to open it. “ ‘Morning you two!” she waved eagerly at them as she invited JiYong inside, followed by an extremely quiet SeungHyun. “We were just talking about you” she said again checking out their reactions.

         “I hope you were saying good stuff about us…” SeungHyun tried a fade smile, while JiYong remained numb.

          “Oppa, are you ok?” she asked slightly touching Ji’s shoulder.

        His reaction made everyone startle when he hit her hand, jumping a step back and turning whiter than he already was.

         “You want a cup of coffee?” she asked again lowering her voice almost near to a whisper. She got her positive answer and in a short while she entered the room with another two big steamy mugs.           The guys couldn’t find out the reason why they were so wired; neither Ji nor SeungHyun told them the truth, but they made up a story to explain just a little of their mood.
...

          Darkness had already swollen the entire city. A fade fog raised from the ground making it to look as if it boiled.

          “Half past eight…” Cris said throwing an eye on the big wall-watch.  She had already forgotten the scary episode from this morning. She opened the balcony door without a noise and stepped outside. She smiled thinking how wonderful would’ve been if this weather stuck with them until tomorrow, the Halloween night, when they planned “the biggest party ever’’.  A cold blow made her squeeze her blazer better next to her body. She quietly listened to the wind piping until the cellphone’s vibration roughly brought her back to earth. She laughed out loud thinking how childish of her to get scared by a cellphone.

          “Yeobuseyo?” she answered without haste.

       “Baby…” she could hear Taeyang’s voice “… we’re gonna be a little late. I’m starving, but we’re not done yet and Ji won’t let us go home” he laughed while she could hear Ji scolding him.  

          “It’s ok, you eat-it-all” she laughed. “I’ll cook something extra special for you tonight!” she left the balcony entering in the big room. After some other sweet-talk she left the phone on the edge of the bed, she shut the windows, pulled the drapes and turned on all the lights in every room. She looked for favorite music on youtube and rolled the volume up to the max. She opened the fridge and started taking out all sort of frozen bags and vegetables.

            “22…” she  read out loud. 
         She listened to the same songs three times already, the cooked dish steamed away in its flowered pot so she finally turned off the music scratching her head, looking for the cellphone. Suddenly she remembered where she left it and ran into the dormitory. It was so quiet without the boys. The drapes seemed to watch her. With one quick move she uncovered the windows. The fog was almost gone leaving the darkness to take over, more than usual; even the streetlights were experiencing some technical difficulties since they turned on and off all at once. Cold shivers ran up her spine and she slowly shook her head. Pressing the two cellphone’s keys she unlocked it getting ready to push key number 1, when a silent hum froze her. she listened to it very carefully. It sounded like something a young kid would sing, but the voice singing it was old…  really old. She ran inside the house, pulled the drapes on but the song kept on hearing louder and louder. She turned to face the door to exit the room when she dropped the cellphone she held tight in her hands and a short terrified scream came out from her mouth.
...
          “JiYong-hyung, you coming with us?” Taeyang asked stuffing his hands deeper in the jacket’s pockets.

“Of course I am!” he hasted in giving an answer as if he feared someone might say something else.

“We’re all coming” SeungHyun said “I just hope Cris won’t mind”.

“No, she won’t! she actually said she’s waiting for us with some good treats!” Taeyang said smiling. “I tried to call her, but I think she’s out of battery again and she didn’t even noticed…” he tried to encourage himself even though an ugly feeling started feeding its way up to his heart.

JiYong suddenly stopped.

“What’s wrong?” SeungRi asked after he stumbled upon Ji. He wouldn’t answer so the guys looked around – there was nothing suspicious around.

“Hyung?” Daesung caught Ji’s arm.

“Can you hear it?...” Ji finally whispered.

“Hear what?” Daesung asked.

“Sssh!” SeungHyun also said.

They all strained, keeping as quiet as they could. It was indeed an awkward silence for this Seoul main street, but they wouldn’t freak out about this.

A soft song begun hearing making the boys to exchange looks. JiYong took a step back; Daesung and Taeyang took a step forward.    

“I’m not going that way!” Ji whispered and they all turned around. After only two steps they froze in place. A besom’s birches were sweeping the sidewalk. Ji couldn’t hold back a scream and a back jump that his friends found a little embarrassing. Daesung was already trying to find some excuses for his senior’s behavior when the little man stopped his actions. He smiled softly and after saluting with a short nod, he continued his sweeping. The boys answered with short bows and hurried to catch up with JiYong who already started walking in the opposite direction. After several steps Taeyang froze. The little man started singing a soft song that he recognized as being Cris` ringtone. He turned to face the little sweeping man and his eyes doubled their size. The little man had a large smile on his face, which was literally from one ear to the other, exposing some really sharp, yellow teeth. He sniffed twice with his long, pointed nose and suddenly his long fingers grabbed JiYong’s throat. They all yelled in fear and Ji’s hands clenched on the man’s arms.

SeungRi couldn’t stand around and just watch so he rushed to save his friend, but the man caught his throat too. He fought to reach him mostly in vain, because the little man’s arms were so long that he couldn’t even hit him with his legs.

SeungHyun and Daesung both jumped to hit the little man. When they almost reached his face, the man opened up his mouth so large that it covered his entire face, letting it show the enormous, spiky teeth and the boys both fell trying to fight back.

Taeyang looked around searching for a weapon… the only thing he could come up with was the man’s besom. He ploughed into it but as soon as he touched it, he threw it away, screaming in pain. The broom was so hot that it almost burnt his palms. SeungHyun’s attack roar made him to forget about his aching hands and stare at his friend as he tried to punch the little man. But it a couple of seconds he stretched out his hands to catch (or to stop) the flying SeungHyun that came stumbling upon him.

At first, JiYong couldn’t understand why in the name of God he couldn’t move at all that little man’s hand even though he was hitting it and scratching it as hard as he could.  A burning wave covered his feet up to his knees, depleting him slowly but surely.  He was about to give all up when something else caught his eye: SeungRi’s body already have done that and he lost the fight – he was now only hanging into the little man’s big hand making him to smile widely again.

“Maknae…” were Ji’s last words before losing his own battle.

SeungHyun wasn’t just ready to stop, so he emerged into another strong attack. He clenched his fists hard and yelled as he ran towards the sweeper. The man let SeungRi go and caught him instead. He stared into his eyes and SeungHyun could feel fear… he couldn’t stare back at that hideous face; he couldn’t breathe that burnt smell… his eyes suddenly enlarged when the little man opened up his mouth and everything turned black. All that there was, was an indefinite gulp and a strange feeling as he fell from a great distance.

“If that’s what ya’ll want, that’s what ya’ll gonna get!!” the man roared in anger and opened wide his mouth once again to cover Daesung who came running to save the disappearing SeungHyun. The same darkness covered him as well and an infinite quietness although he could feel his mouth screaming.

JiYong witnessed this scene with his last powers before his eyes shut down forced by the painful heat that swallowed his entire body.  No later than two seconds he opened them back, but the pain wouldn’t go away. He glimpsed at a kneeled SeungRi and shouted out his name but suddenly closed his mouth when is voice scattered around much more than it should.

SeungRi looked at him with teary eyes. With one reserved gesture he pointed at something behind Ji’s back. He turned around to see it and he froze – his body laid in a big puddle of blood, and so was SeungRi’s.

“What’s this? What’s happening?” he shouted again.

This time the sweeper also heard him and smiled widely while clenching his fist. Ji took his hands to his own throat trying to get free from the invisible noose that clustered around it. He quickly threw his eyes towards SeungRi who was also trying to find that “something” that choked them. A sudden powerful jerk made both of them to stop and look for Taeyang who was now screaming. The sweeper thrust his long claws into Taeyang’s neck and he was just struggling around, without being able to do anything alse.

“NOO!!” Ji yelled so hard that his voice caught an echo and Taeyang could hear it, so his eyes turned to look for his friend, but seeing him in that puddle of blood just gave him more power to fight back.
...

Meanwhile, back at their place, Chris was still covering her mouth with her both hands. The voice of the sweeper made her to finally react. All she could hear were his threatening words and the steps she had to walk to reach the window felt like miles for her terrified heart. Her tears started pouring down and her shaking hands slowly removed the thick drapes so she could watch outside just in time for JiYong’s voice to pierce through her soul. Without any other words, she grabbed the biggest knife she could lay her eyes on and burst out the door. In less than any athletics’ record crasher, she ran all the hundred meters to reach the struggling Taeyang and his executioner.

“You…. Shall… get…” wondered around through her mind. She raised her hands above her head, tightened the knife’s handle and she hit the sweeper’s hand with all the power she could possess. His hand split off knocking Taeyng on the ground.

“Noona…” she could hear a whisper in the air. It sounded like Ji’s voice… but where was JiYong?

A high flame rose up in the sky, and its blast pushed her to the ground too. She threw her eyes over her shoulder just to try and understand what did just happen. In the sweeper’s place there was a huge flame that, the minute she looked at it changed its shape. It turned into Ji’s and SeungRi’s hands that kept trying to reach her, like begging for help. She curled on the ground, covering her head with her arms, when all the noises stopped, the heat disappeared being taken over by the cold, windy October night. Quickly she uncovered her eyes looking for the scary man – he was nowhere. It was so quiet… too quiet. Suddenly she remembered about Taeyang and rushed to him. She kneeled next to him, preparing to help him up when a gooey, warm liquid touched her hand. She began trembling, thinking the worst for her loved one, but quickly recovered when Taeyang got up with a soft groan.

“Oh, thanks God! You’re OK!...” she began crying, hugging him, checking him to make sure that that blood wasn’t his. Suddenly she froze. Her eyes stuck on JiYong’s dead body. She blinked twice to chase away the tears burdening her eyes. She began trembling out of control when she spotted SeungRi’s body as well.        

“Chris, listen to me…” Taeyang said grabbing her face in his hands. “Chris!” he helped her up while hugging her. “Chirs, listen to me… I…” he set up a speech that he never had the chance to give.

     ...

“Hyung?” SeungRi whispered. “Are you here?...” he stretched out his hands trying to find out where he was. It was so dark and that smell… it made it painful to breathe. He waved his hands searching for something to lean on, a landmark, anything useful to help him understand his location.

“Maknae!” JiYong also whispered. “where are you?” he asked stretching out his hands as well. 

“I’m right here, hyung…” SeungRi replied trying to reach his friend through the absolute darkness.

“I can’t…” JiYong wined. “I don’t know… Can you see anything?”

“No…” SeungRi answered in disappointment and listened as his voice faded away in a soft echo.

“Hyung…” he once again said after a long moment of tormenting silence.

“Mm?” Ji answered.

“Are you afraid?...”

“No…” the echo flew away. “It hurts…” Ji answered happy that the youngster  could not see the falling tears from his eyes. The same burning pain that ate him alive back there on the alley tortured his shaking body. He had no idea where they could be; he crouched next to something made of hard but somehow warm rock. He was trying to persuade himself it was time to react in any way when SeungRi’s voice locked up his thoughts:

“Hyung, do you think this is Hell?”
...

A thin thread of blood came out of SeungHyun’s mouth.

“Ah…” he moaned in pain when his eyes started moving underneath his eyelids. A strong brimstone stink made him frown and postpone the moment he’ll be opening his eyes; he checked the surroundings using only his left hand. Strange kind of soil… hard and yet frail, almost velvet like. He grabbed a hand of this unknown dirt that changed into dust when he clenched his fist. Without having the guts to open up his eyes, he stretched a little more and hit something that felt like a human hand. Suddenly a warm, slippery liquid bathe his hand. He all at once opened wide his eyes fearing that it could be the blood of the fallen person next to him, but his sight just goggled and his breath stopped.   He was panting heavily but he was making a superhuman effort not to show it, particularly when the three-headed behemoth bent over to sniff him. He gripped tight his eyes when the split nose of that… creature… almost touched him, burning his cheeks with its hot breath. His body felt uncontrolled shudders when “this head’s” saliva touched his chest. However, his curiosity helped him to overcome this fear and managed to take a glimpse at its fiery dark eyes. It looked like a dog, only twenty times bigger, had three heads and its body instead of having fur, it had scratches and open wounds from head to toes.

The other two heads draw their attention on the other laying body.

Daesung growled softly and frown on the heavy smell that brought his hands up to his nose. He twisted around with his eyes half opened and stood on his buttocks. A growl and a hot breath froze him in place.

“Don’t move!” SeungHyun quickly whispered. He knew his friend a little to well to anticipate his moves, so he jumped up and grabbed Dae’s hands just in time. As he saw the behemoth, Daesung delivered a loud scream that would’ve end with his head getting chopped off his body if SeungHyung wouldn’t have dragged him away.

“Go! Go! Go!”he yelled pulling Dae into a desperate run.

“What is THAT??” Dae kept on screaming while they covered in great speed that murky valley.  “Where are we?...” he asked again seeing nothing else but grey ground anywhere they turned. But was that truly important now, when the creature almost reached them and there was not a single place they could hide at least? Every step they took hoisted a fine greyish dust. The soil looked burned – everything was in dark shades of grey, only the sky had an intense reddish tint.

The creature opened wide its mouth, ready to nab Deasung’s arm when SeungHyung knocked him on the ground with one push. The creature banged its teeth just two centimeters away from SeungHyun’s horrified eyes. He fell on the ground, waiting for his imminent death.

Daesung rolled over a few times until he stopped face-to-face with a skull. The thin ashen smoke surrounded him making the creature’s noses to raise up sniffing the air.

SeungHyun quickly waved his hand in an attempt to calm down his friend and make him understand they had to remain silent.

Daesung turned facedown covering up with his arms, just to make sure he won’t scream again. Every step the creature made rose the grey dust and scattered a death scent. With a terrified sneak-peek Daesung watched as it passed by him and almost screamed when the big furless paw stopped its big claws right next to him. He closed his eyes biting his lips, trying to control his breath. He turned his away his sight just to meet again another skull – a half burnt skull that seemed it stared at him. Just now he understood the nature of the ground they were laying on: it was ashes… ashes of what used to me human beings.  He looked alarmed for his friend who was silently signaling for him to calm down, he was pointing towards the creature’s eyes and covered his own, then he pointed to his ears.

“So it can only hear us?” Daesung thought but wouldn’t dare to talk it out loud. He waited for the behemoth to walk further. When it was several steps away from him, he slowly got up under the fearful watch of his friend. They both gestured to keep it quiet and started walking really slow. The scenery was indeed  horrible – the remains of the human bodies that haven’t yet turned into ash, they cracked under their feet, freezing them and raising the creatures heads in the air.
...

“Hyung!” SeungRi’s voice vibrated all of a sudden.

“Yes?” JiYong answered in a haste.

“Please tell me you’re pulling my hand…” he whispered in a cry.

“I’m sorry, kid… It’s not me…” Ji jumped up, hands forward trying to reach the youngster.

“Hyung!!” SeungRi yelled.

“Kido!!...” Ji stepped twice before something slimy got his hand and the noose around began to squeezed around his neck again. In a self-acting gesture his other hand grabbed his neck in search of the chain he felt, but as before, it was nothing there.

A small, round light appeared somewhere in the distance, but it looked as it came nearer and nearer. Soon the light turned into a little silhouette until a hideous pygmy, with his dried-up skin and huge blisters all over his body, hunchbacked and half naked, turned on all the torches on the what looked to be cave walls. Behind him, the sweeper walked lightly, without haste, but his usual yellow smile. In the end the light of the torches reached their room making them to scream in horror when they saw the abominations holding their hands – a mingle of limbs attached to some dissected torsos and a tiny bold head.

The sweeper frowned in disgust and with a single gesture he clamed them. In response to this, they instantaneously took their hands to their throats trying to breath.

“Quiet!” he yelled and unclenched his fist, setting the boys free from the strangling invisible noose. They fell on their knees, too scared to even try and move, being too scared by the many apparitions that flooded the room.

Ji’s brows glued to each other making him to throw a short glimpse to SeungRi.  He had no idea if the youngster felt like this too, be he was clearly feeling his arms and legs moving, but it was obvious he wasn’t moving at all.

...

“Honey…” Taeyang whispered hugging her closer. “Honey, let’s go. We gotta find T.O.P.  hyung and Daesung hyung… and… we have to call an ambulance…” he couldn’t spell it.

“No! No, wait! Look!” she whispered, smiling between her tears, pointing to JiYong’s fingers.

“Hyung!” Taeyang rushed to him. “Hyung, can you hear me?” he almost cried, holding his friend’s hand. The answer came quicker than he would expect, freezing when JiYong suddenly opened his wide eyes.

“Oppa!” Chris jumped to hug him, but Taeyang caught her waist.

“Honey… I don’t think this is our oppa…” he whispered in her ears watching his friend closely.

“What do you mean?” she joined him in staring at Ji when her eyes hit JI’s empty glare. He got up with quite unnatural moves as if some sort of strings pulled him.

“O… oppa?” she asked almost whispering and he turned his head 180 degrees. Without any other word, he grabbed her throat.

“Oppa…” she barely said trying to push him away.

“Hyung!!” Taeyang jumped on him but in less than one second he landed on the ground. But he wouldn’t give up. He was getting ready to launch another attack when a cold hand grabbed his wrist. He turned around just too see SeungRi holding him back staring at him with the same empty look.

“Please forgive me, kid…” Taeyang quickly whispered and using one of his dance moves, he twisted around the youngster until he reached his back and kicked him, knocking him down. He rushed to hit JiYong several times until le freed Chris. He grabbed her hand and dragged her even she could barely stand.

“Wa… what is this?...” she heavily spoke between violent choughs.

“Not our Ji, that’s for sure!” he quickly answered ducking behind a car. But not for long since SeungRi and JiYong reached them, turning the car’s windows into million shredded pieces when they jumped on top of it. Chris and Tae screamed in fear and they resumed their run.

“Honestly, Tae? To the cemetery?...” she gasped when the cemetery’s gate rose before their eyes. When they got to it, they turned to watch the boys, looking for possible ways of getting away.

Ji and SeungRi weren’t walking funny, they didn’t shuffle their feet behind them and neither did they walked arms stretched in front, but they still looked more than frightening.

“NO!! Let me alone!” Chris suddenly screamed.

Taeyang turned to face her but his eyes got bigger when a cold, harsh hand passed through the gate’s iron bars and grabbed his head. He tried to get rid of it, but another hand grabbed his leg, pulling it as if it wanted to rip it off between the bars. Again he tried to use his hands, but before he could do it, another hand clung on his arm. Chris tried to help him get free and bit as hard as she could that one hand that hold his arm, but the flesh of it was so tough that it left her screaming in pain.

JiYong and SeungRi kept on approaching without a hurry as the hands between the bars became more and more grimly.            
...

Meanwhile, the real JiYong, kneeled before the sweeper throwing him angry looks. As little as he seemed before the bigger he looked now, looking down on them, with a certain pomposity as the ugly pygmies carried in more and more chained people.

“Hyung…” SeungRi whispered.

Ji answered through a gaze.

“Why we don’t have…” the youngster pointed towards the chains.

“You had to ask…” Ji muttered when burning chains clinched their wrists. He would’ve give anything to wipe the sweeper’s yellow grin off his face, but he couldn’t even flinch. Suddenly a sharp pain in the back of the head made him raise his hands. The chains clattered making everyone to stop. The sweeper’s smile slowly disappeared as Ji’s hands got up to touch his head in pain. The sweeper raised his palm and Ji’s hands got pinned back to the ground. A new pain made him curl a little more, watching the ground with big, wondering eyes.

“Please forgive me, hyung….” he thought he heard Taeyang’s soft voice broken by Chris’ scream. He kept on watching the ground with teary eyes. A strange ease overcame his body and he no longer felt his legs and arms moving.

“Kid…” he whispered to SeungRi without raising his eyes. But SeungRi’s answerer came through a “NO! Let go of me!!” He quickly searched for him and his eyes got stuck on the ugly creatures dragging the youngster away, pulling his chains.

“NOO!!” he screamed trying to rush towards him, but the pinned hands on the ground forced him to stay put. He bit his lower lip in spite, or maybe because of the pain he felt as if something just made it crack. A thin blood grain crept shyly to his chin. A little string that terrified the sweeper’s eyes. A grin bloomed on Ji’s face. He prayed with all his power for him to be right, and the sweeper’s look raised his hopes. He bent over easily, without taking his eyes off of the sweeper’s face, and he slowly wiped away the blood on his lip. His grin turned into a scream from the bottom of his heart. His hands got covered in red, warm blood and he raised them up in the air breaking the chains into billions of glowing pieces.

...

Back on Earth, Taeyang fought with all the powers he had, but eventually JiYong grabbed his throat, even if he hit him over and over. He was now ready to give up fighting; he just kept on watching his friend’s eyes and felt his energy draining away. He blinked slower than usual and his last power used it to take one more glimpse at Chris. Suddenly JiYong crashed to the ground, fagged out. If the half rotten hands wouldn’t have screwed him in place, Taeyang would’ve joined his friend. He tried to call out his girlfriend’s name, but his voice wouldn’t help him anymore so he just closed his eyes.       

Chris’ sharp scream opened wide Taeyang’s eyes. The first image he saw was a overwhelmed Chris, fighting for her life. His fists clenched and heavily breathed several times. He checked his position, then he suddenly pulled his right arm which was being held by only one rotten hand, and he eagerly hit it on the gate’s bars until its owner fell numb. He turned towards the other dead bodies holding his arm glued to the iron bars. He dip his free hand between them and grabbed the hair of one of them. He froze and looked at her for a while – it was the girl he saw on the newspaper just a couple of days ago, the one that died in her sleep.

“I’m so sorry!” he rushed to say and hit her face against the bars until she let go of him. The remaining one wasn’t a problem anymore. After he knocked him too, he jumped on SeungRi .
...

For a couple of seconds, JiYong felt his heart overwhelmed with joy, but his friend’s voice cut it.

“Hyung!” SeungRi screamed while the sweeper rose him one feet up in the air. Without premeditating his moves, fearing that it might read his minds, he dart at the sweeper’s besom. Hr grabbed it with both hands and pulled it away. A soft dust turned everything numb. Even though times seemed to have stopped, after the dust dispersed, Ji smiled victorious to the new golden scythe he was now holding up above his head. In one powerful blow he cut SeungRi’s chains away and some of the most fortunate who stood in its blade’s path. All of the silent souls found their tongues again and their distorted faces began begging for freedom and crowded to catch the scythe as Ji threw it right in the middle.
...

Daesung stopped, almost getting knocked down by SeungHyung. They widened their eyes watching the long river it appeared in their faces. It branched from left to right as far as they could see, but its other  side didn’t looked that far away, it just had a huge calmness air flowing around.

“Now what?...” Dae’s heartsick whisper barely came out.

“No idea…” SeungHyung answered shrugging.

The water seemed unbelievably clear, and yet they couldn’t see its bottom.

“I ain’t getting in there…” Dae whispered again when he leaned a little to check it more closely.  He took a wrong step and an almost burnt skull cracked in two. He quickly stepped back once and kicked it in fear. As soon as it hit the water, the skull was brought back to life jumping like a fish asking for help on a really high pitch voice.  They both fell on the ground, pushing back the air with their feet in a desperate attempt to troop away from the water’s edge.

A big explosion caught their eyes.

“What the hell have you done?!” SeungHyun forgot about the fact that they had to keep it quiet and he snapped a little too loud.  He couldn’t wait for his answer, because the blast looked as it had casted loose the volcano behind them. The ground began shaking and soon the ash on it swallowed their hands up to their wrists. They both screamed and jumped up. The trembling ash covered their feet up to their ankles. They yelled again and started running. After just a few steps SeungHyung grabbed Dae’s neck-collar to make him stop and pointed to the behemoth closing in. They shifted directions and choose to run beside the river.

“There must be a bridge here somewhere…” Dae said turning his voice in a long echo.

“So what? You wanna cross it to THE OTHER SIDE?!” SeungHyun tuned up on the last words.

“We ARE on the other side!” Dae snapped back, increasing his speed.

“W… what?...” SeungHyun stopped willing to ask for a prove for his friend’s words, but the ash  quickly covering his ankles changed his mind and he followed Dae without any other words.

...

Taeyang rushed to stop SeungRi attacking Chris but he couldn’t really anticipate that the both of them will collapse to the ground.

“What the…” he sat up slowly, rubbing his forehead.

SeungRi’s body was just like Ji’s, as it was made out of cloth. He rushed to search for its heart beat and his face brightened up. He turned towards his lover to give the good news, but he realized she wasn’t quite free yet. He knocked the living corpses between the bars and quickly hugged her gliding on the ground.

“It’s ok, now! It’s ok…” he said kissing her, stroking her hair. He rested his forehead on her shoulder for a while, panting softly.  The noise of the falling iron gates flung them back on their feet.

“Ok… my bad! It’s not over yet” he yelled grabbing Chris’ hand, running away from the dozens of rotten corpses who broke down the cemetery gates.

“How do we stop them?!… “ Chris asked exhausted.

“I don’t know!” Taeyang answered. “In movies they always stop when…” the first ribbon of light made him swallow his words and just stare at the dead bodies that started falling back on the ground one by one.

“…when the sun rises…?” Chris ended his sentence.

The dead crowd, more or less rotten, lay on more than a couple of miles from the cemetery gate. An awful stench drifted away along with the rash wind that brought some really cold rain drops. They got silent, but the city rose to life through its endless whirr.

“Oppa!” Chris suddenly remembered and ran to Ji’s body. She kneeled before him gluing her ear to his heart.

...

SeungRi and JiYong crossed in really high speed the stone hallway that brought the sweeper and the ugly pygmies to them. They suddenly stopped. Two little pebbles came off from the narrow edge that followed up the huge, dark abyss underneath it. A big explosion and a red light rose their hands above their heads and they only peeped at the volcano-looking-mountain behind them – It started raising ashes from its large blasting crater… luckily it wasn’t anywhere near them, it was hundreds of meters further, but they could still feel the earthquakes its explosions made.

SeungRi threw an eye over his shoulder and quickly started tapping Ji’s shoulder. Their eyes widened as the sweeper angrily floated towards both of them, circled around by dozens of other horrific creatures. Ji tried to take a step more to the left when the rocks under his feet rolled and swooped over in the great abyss dragging him along.

“Hyung!!” SeungRi yelled, catching Ji’s hands. He wasn’t strong enough and soon their hands started gliding bit by bit.

“Kid… let me go…” Ji slowly whispered trying to pull out a smile to hide the tears growing in his eyes.

“NO!! I won’t!” SeungRi cried holding on tighter to his senior.

“Lee SeungHyun, listen to me…” he softly whispered but the words never got to leave his mouth. His eyes widened when SeugRi’s clenched in a painful way. He feared the creatures reached him and they were hurting him right now, so he caught him with his both hands and got ready to pull him over so they could fall together, but a sharp pain in his chest froze him. Another sharp pain made him incapable of speaking. A third one untied their hands and they split apart. He would’ve wanted to scream, to struggle, to rip and tear, but the pain in his chest… and the systematic “beep, beep, beep” made it all impossible and it just fed him to the darkness.
...

“Kiddo!!” he suddenly managed to scream and his eyes hit hard on a white powerful light.  “Kid!! Kid!” he kept on screaming and waving his hands uncontrollable until he hit something that grabbed his hand in an extremely warm squeeze.

“JiYong-gi…” Taeyang could barely articulate because of the invading tears.

“Oppa…” Chris gently caressed his head trying hard not to choke with her own tears.

Seeing the familiar faces, Ji calmed down a little. He opened up to speak but a continuous beep shut him off. He understood now what was that beeping noise and his eyes started rolling around searching it. He understood that Taeyang and Chris were blocking his sight for a reason and gathered all of his strength to get up.

“Oppa, no, don’t get up…” Chris quickly caught his arm when he was about to fall. 

He lay back down but that split of the second he managed to sit up was more than enough for him to get a glimpse of the neighbouring gurney which had SeungRi on it and a couple of doctors trying to reanimate him. The continuous beep made Ji’s scream, covering his ears, sobbing himself to the edge of choking.   

...
After JiYong got lost in the dark abyss, SeungRi almost fainted. He lay on the ground barely breathing, covering his chest in pain with both of his hands.  His almost closed eyes saw an over-reacting sweeper bossing around to the ugly abominations, but none of them dared to approach him. A white light slowly swallowed him and a strange warmth brought Ji’s voice in an echo: “Kid, just have faith…”. These were the last words he heard before he closed his eyes for good.

The white light got bigger and bigger eating up the creatures one by one scattering them in billion little flying pieces until darkness reigned over everything once again.

The volcano kept on spitting fire balls, softly brightening the empty narrow edge from time to time. 

...

Suddenly  Ji’s eyes widened. No, he wasn’t just hearing noises! The continuous beep turned into systematic beats.

...

“I wonder if we should get there…” Dae said stopping SeungHyun with a hand in his chest and pointing somewhere with the other.

The boys watched the two round lights coming towards them in high speed.

SeungHyun took his hand up to his eyes trying to get a better view, but it was no use, he couldn’t understand the lights no matter what. Aloud honking sound covered the deep silence. A thud. A great pain all over their body and darkness, just a great darkness swallowed them.

“Hyung…?” Dae tried to speak but a voice desperately kept asking over and over again “Are you ok?”. He struggled a while to be able to open his eyes. The first thing he saw was a totally unfamiliar face. He would’ve asked it who he was but he found it very difficult to even talk, so he simply put all the questions that mattered in just one word:

”Hyung?” he barely whispered again.

A cold rain started freezing his face. He managed to turn it to the left, then his eyes widened – a couple of feet further there was a smoking car with a tree growing from its hood; next to it, a body. His blood started boiling but his own body wouldn’t help him to get up.

“Hyung?!” he managed to whisper a little louder this time.

“What?” the unfamiliar face asked lowering its ear closer to his mouth. “Oh, your friend?” the face finally understood. “he’ll be alright…” the man said softly holding Dae’s hand when he tried to move. “An ambulance it’s on its way. Everything will be ok…” the man went on talking gently.

Dae understood there was no way for him to move so he kept on watching the body on the cold asphalt. Two warm tears brought light back into his eyes when  the body moved its leg and sirens could be heard all over.

 ...

It just kept on pouring and even though all of the four of them sat together at the same table none dared to speak.

SeungRi got up without a hurry, carrying his coffee mug along `till the big window. He looked outside in search of something that it wasn’t there. He smiled bitterly.

SeungHyun, with the use of a black pen, was painting something on his left hand’s plaster.

JiYong gathered up his knees curling on the chair, squeezing his touchscreen phone, writing some musical notes as he wrote a poem.

Daesung just stared at the blackness in his cup of coffee, stirring it from time to time.

“I don’t care what people say” SeungRi suddenly spoke. “I know what happened and where I’ve been… I definitely didn’t had a heart attack and you guys definitely didn’t had just a car accident… ” he tried to encourage a talk but no one answered back.

SeungHyun quickly scrabbled the drawing of the three headed dog he did on his plaster when Chris’ soft voice greeted them.

“Are you ready to go home?”  Taeyang brightly smiled as he entered. 

Darkness had already swallowed the city but this time it was nothing sinister about it. It looked like a place from a fairytale with all sorts of colored lights coiling up to the very peak of all the tall pine-trees or spreading around in huge arches above the city main streets.  The traffic lights turned to red. Taeyang stopped the car getting ready for a speech… only that he had no idea where to begin from.   

“May i…” he suddenly heard SeungHyun’s voice.

“Ofcourse” they all answered when seeing the cigarette pack he was holding up in his hand and JiYong pointed he needed one too.

SeungHyun lit up the lighter following the white smoke as it rose proudly from the cigar’s head. His eyes turned smaller trying to get a glimpse of that silhouette from between two tall buildings.

The traffic light turned green and Taeyang turned on the engine. When they started moving, SeungHyun  lost his concentrations and the silhouette also disappeared. He quickly looked for it, but it was nowhere to be found.

“What’s wrong?” Ji asked barely whispering.

“Mmm… no nothing…” SeungHyun answered as slow.

In now time, the tall building made its way up in everybody’s eyes.

“OK, here we are!” Chris smiled turning around in her seat to face them.

“We’ll be living together… for a while” Taeyang added looking for a parking spot.

They all got out, happy and smiling, just SeungHyun couldn’t stop looking around checking every dark corners of the street while absently petting his plastered hand.

“Yah! I’ve also bought dinner! Taeyang shouted in joy rushing half of his body inside the trunk from where he came back out with four big, white packages struggling to keep them in balance with the six big plastic cups on top. He got ready to brag around but his jaw dropped in disbelief. “You guys are unbelievable!”  he laughed on his own when he realized he was left alone, and all the others got inside the building. He shut the trunk using only his elbow, making one of the cups fall and the new freshly mantle to cover up on black liquid.  He muttered something kicking the cup away from him, then watchfully stepped inside the building too.

The hot liquid melt the snow bit by bit turning it black and steamy until a scratchy besom cleaned the cup and its contents blending them together, slowly heading for the building stairs.

THE END