Moments | Sweet Home

Chapter 16

She wakes up in chaos.

Her eyes open to darkness and she blinks until shadows form into blurry shapes.

Her mind is foggy and there's a loud pounding in her ears.

She's weak.

She tries to pull herself up into a sitting position but the slightest movement makes her dizzy so she lays her head back against the floor, closes her eyes and lets out a shaky breath.

Ah that's right.

Her foggy mind is starting to get a little clearer.

She had died.

That memory is all too vivid.

Its as if she is reliving those final moments immersed in the fury, betrayal, ice, tears, blood, their screams. 

It hurts.

It bubbles up inside of her and then bursts.

"The monster's awake!" One of the criminals call. The sound is muffled as it reaches her ears. She hasn't yet realised that by monster, they meant her.

"You know what Jung Seop said, set her on fire." Another says.

One of them approaches her, douses her in alcohol. They strike a match and throw it at her.

That's when she really comes alive. When she really starts to wake.

Her nerves are alive with the pain and she screams. For a moment Jung Seop watches, satisfied to see a monster suffer. He enters the elevator with two others who drag and dump Hyun in. 

Yeonha can hear the other tenants screaming too.

She can smell ash and smoke in her nostrils.
 
Don't think about the fire, don't think about the flame, don't think about the heat.

Don't let it hurt.

She listens to her monster, and the pain stops at once and it morphs into something vicious. Anger. Red-hot, searing anger.

Before the fire can completely swallow her-she swallows it.

Ui Myeong watches her rise to her feet before the elevator door closes.

Her eyes were lit with a phoenix's fury, ready to burn the whole world to the ground. He had no doubt that she would destroy the criminals that he had came here with, but he wondered if she would destroy the tenants, her friends in the process.

Her eyes were no longer a black abyss, instead lit with a raging hellfire that glowed reddish orange.

She can feel the fire in her veins, burning and pulsing underneath her skin. Flames dance around her fingers, crackling and licking at her skin.

She's angry, all she can feel is hot rage, and it bubbles up inside of her burning viciously.

She wanted to make these bastards pay. She wanted them to hurt just as she had.

It was a strangely empowering feeling; having a new goal, one that was more than surviving, more than living to see the next day. She wanted victory. She wanted blood.

Yeonha wanted them to face the same unholy carnage she had but tenfold.

The criminals start to panic.
 
Fire was supposed to kill a monster permanently, what were they supposed to do when fire became a monsters strength? How where they supposed to kill a monster apparently unkillable? They scramble for their weapons.

They fire at her with bullets, but they melt as soon as the come in contact with her skin.
They try everything, throwing more molotovs, knives, any sort of weapon the can try but to no avail. She consumes the fire, welcomes it, and the weapons aimed at her only ignite her anger, and the flames. She stretches out a hand, reaches out with fire, and the first criminal that had set her alight is engulfed in flames, screaming and burning in agony until he becomes nothing but ash and bone.

The fire grows an angry flickering path, chasing after the criminals.

One by one until they are gone.

The fire does not stop.

"Yeonha!"

Hyuk shouts. The fire has a mind of it's own and is heading dangerously close to the tenants, to him to Jisu, to Eun Yoo and the others.

For a moment she is blinded, deaf to her own name and she's unable to snap out of it.