Before Her Very Eyes

Chapter 49

Arin tried to call Hyojung many many times, but was met with no answer.

The panic rose to her chest and constricted her breath. She was on the verge of a breakdown, feeling like she was on the cusp of yet another catastrophe that she could have prevented had she tried harder.

What if Hyojung had already committed the crime?

Fingers shaking, she managed to navigate through her phone to call Jun.

"Arin! What happened? Where are you? I've been trying to get in contact with you..."

"Is everyone okay?" Arin asked. "Das and Hoshi and everyone else..."

"Yeah, they're all... wait, why?"

"The curse killed Jitae," Arin revealed, near tears. "In front of her."

Jun stayed quiet, realizing what this meant.

"She collected all of the magic she needed," Arin said. "I just... I don't know where she is. I don't know how to stop her."

"Uh..." Jun trailed off, breath hitched in his throat. "Okay. I'll talk to Dasinai. We'll dispatch all the teams we've got to try and track her down," he added shakily. "You just rest, okay? I'm sorry for your loss."

She was so numb to the pain of that loss. It happened in a flash to someone Arin didn't even realize she still loved, and Arin still had not quite registered that it had happened. She didn't even want to think about it, because thinking about it made her weak in the heart, and she didn't want to be weak right now.

She didn't want anyone else to die. And she couldn't just sit back and rest until it was too late.

Where could Hyojung be? Arin thought, feeling helpless.

Her body was shivering from a combination of terror and cold. It was freezing in her room, and her already sick body was not reacting well to the cold. She headed for the staircase to find warmth there, running into Woozi who stood at the staircase's doorway, waiting for her.

"You're shivering," he noted. "Would you come down to my place next to the heater?"

The thought of sitting beside a heater was tempting; the cold made her feel weak, dizzy and disoriented. However, she was afraid of her curse and didn't want to be involved with this person anymore, so she shook her head to reject his offer.

"Arin..." he said. "I need to understand. Did they do anything to you? Do you need help?"

The nosey neighbor was at it again. He just wouldn't leave her alone, always sticking his nose in things that were none of his business. No matter how much she tried to get away from him, to stop involving him in her tumultuous life filled with death and despair, he came back to her like a magnet.

She remembered how he was used as a pawn in Hyojung's game, how his limp body was brought before her to generate magic. She remembered watching him be knocked out by a memory loss spell. She remembered how hard it was to watch him be dragged into this.

She cared about him, and it scared her.

"Could I ask you to leave me alone?" she said, her hoarse voice shaking as she shivered in the cold.

"Please come down next to the heater," he nearly begged. It was like everything she said went right over his head.

"I'm fine. I just need you to stop talking to me," she said. "It's dangerous. Please."

"I want to help you."

"There's nothing you could do to..." she paused as an idea came to her. Woozi was a hacker. He tracked people down, like he did with that murdered girl in the news.

Could he also track down Hyojung?

"What is it, Arin?" he asked. "What can I do to help?"

-

Using Hyojung's phone signal, Woozi was able to pinpoint a location on the map.

"It's probably not very accurate," Woozi said as he showed her the map on his screen, "but she's likely within a half kilometer range of that point."

"Thank you," she said to him. She immediately took a picture of the point and sent it to Jun, and explained the context.

However, Jun was not opening that message. She tried to call him, but he wasn't picking up.

She paced in panic. Her heart was beating so fast and the tremors were taking over her body. Just as she was on the brink of another mental breakdown, Woozi took her hand and pulled her to the elevator.

"Come on, I'll drive you there."

-

The GPS took them next to an old, empty graveyard in the outskirts of the city. Woozi parked at the side of the road, and they agreed to split up to search for Hyojung.

Within a few minutes of running around the wide, expansive burial sight, Arin finally caught sight of Hyojung in the distance. She was sitting next to a fresh grave that Arin assumed was Jitae's.

Hyojung did not notice that Arin was there.

Now that Arin had found her, she did not know what to do. All she could do was watch her undetected from the distance and think about her options. She was too weak to capture her, too weak to stop her from doing anything.

Hyojung was crying and praying; Arin could hear it even from nearly an acre away. The cries filled Arin with guilt, as she came to realize that she was the one responsible for this. The recent memory of the dying purple face of her stepfather resurfaced to haunt her, but that wasn't the worst of it. When she remembered the hurt in Hyojung's eyes when it happened, Arin lip quivered.

Even after everything, it hurt Arin's heart to see Hyojung like this. It hurt to see her sob and cry for her father. Arin really wanted to go hug her, to apologize to her, to heal her broken heart.

This was love. The purple color on her bracelet confirmed that. The dark magic begant to swirl around Arin menacingly, threatening her.

Arin turned around so that Hyojung was no longer before her eyes. She decided to call Hyojung one last time, to see if she could reason with her friend. To see if she could change her mind.

This time, Hyojung did answer.

"Ar," Hyojung answered through sniffles. "How are you?"

"Please don't do this," Arin immediately said. "Please don't kill off the mages."

"I..."

"Please, please," Arin said, also crying this time.

"I'll make this all right, Ar. You and Jeonghan will be happy very soon. Please be careful out there, okay? I love you, and I'm sorry for everything."

"You can't do this! I won't let you..."

"I have to. I have to end it! Magic destroyed my life and will destroy many others."

"But it's not right," Arin tried in one last desperate attempt to change her mind, to change the course that Arin now knew she had to take.

"Please, Hyojung, please," Arin said. One last attempt. One final plea.

"I'm sorry," was Hyojung's answer.

"Then I'm sorry too," Arin said. Tears were streaming down her face; her heart hurt like never before. She hung up the phone, turned around and looked directly at Hyojung.

It seemed like Hyojung had seen what was going to happen, she stood up with wide, horrified eyes and turned to see Arin standing there in the far distance.

"Hyojung!" Arin yelled as loudly as her weak lungs could manage.

Arin watched as her friend, her sister, her guardian angel, died before her very eyes.