Eternal life

Chapter 45

After that memories speed up. So many years passed as they were exchanging their only heart. They were hurting each other, by using innocent people. In last century only Ji Woon was the director of the gallery, when Woong Tae, or Young Saeng - as Aeri knew him - killed the wife of Ji Woon, sending him on the edge of craziness. Then he took his revenge, with Woong Tae following him again. And like that they came to the present days.

Aeri woke up from this nightmare the goddess gave her. Tears has flown down her face, she was feeling nausea. The goddess took her fingers off of her forehead and walked away, showing her back to the nurse.

'Scary, isn't it? Such a cruelty. And all of their evil schemes. Disgusting beings, right?' She asked Aeri, hoping she'll agree.

Aeri tried to calm down her breathing. 'And every time someone died?' She wanted to know.

'Hmm, maybe not, but usually they did. Sometimes the girl, like you, wanted know what happened, but after what I showed them and you, they always backed out.'

'They lived more than 400 years...'

'Yes. I was shocked also. You know, I designed this curse like this: they can't kill each other or order someone to do it. But accident? Homicide? Or even suicide? It all could kill them! But they were so engulfed in their revenge that apparently it kept them alive. So? What is your decision?' Goddess turned around and asked her with a smile. 'I remind you, the wish you're going to say is already granted. There's no going back.'

'I want to lift their curse.' Firmly, but quietly Aeri said.

'Good choice, it's better for-' Firstly, the deity didn't catch what the girl has said, thinking she chose better afterlife. But after realising what was her wish, she grabbed her skirt and run to the nurse. 'You damned girl! You've seen all of it and still made such a decision?! You're disgrace for your parents!'

'Madam, they're dead. And if I will sacrifice myself, there will be no stupid girls like me here anymore. No one will die because of this curse.'

Goddess was boiling mad, you could almost see smoke coming from her nostrils. But again she calmed down and contemptuously said to Aeri. 'Such a pure heart wasted on something so stupid. As if this would stop another people from dying! But alright! That's your wish! Now listen what you have to do. Both of them have to be here. Maybe my right hand will help you. Then you just wait, and you'll dissolve in the body, which doesn't have a heart. All.'

'Understood. Madam?'

'What?'

'Will it hurt?'

'Sadly not.' Goddess said bitterly and walked away. Then the woman, which brought the Aeri to the temple stood beside her.

'Why did you even suggest the curse?' The nurse asked her.

'It's a secret.'

'Also... Young Saeng's heart won't die because all of those painful memories? Wasn't it in the curse?'

'It was weakened by the centuries, so probably it will handle it. Besides, Ji Woon's new heart is also going to be weak, since it's made only from the soul essence. Thanks to that they will be at equilibrium and both will survive.' The lady said and explained the plan. She had to capture the Ji Woon's soul like that, to the vessel, because in the body it was hyperactive and would never come to the forest by itself. It also would make Aeri suffer less, when the last minutes of her existence she spent dazed by her vicious form.

***

When Aeri spirit broke out and entered Young Saeng, Goddess was in fury. She tried to take the bells from her assistant hands, but she fought back. However the time she bought for Aeri was enough to deliver all those painful memories back to Woong Tae body and explain how things went since the time he and the nurse split.