𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐖𝐈𝐍 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐃𝐎𝐗 ✓

38: HOUSE OF FIRE

"Put your arms down, you are home. You are finally home."

...

The dark night air was crisp, brittle, and cold. A washed-out glow was cast from the light of the streetlamp onto the sidewalk. The falling snowflakes glittered as they leisurely carpeted the world in white. Was it winter already?
And leaving the comforter wasn't entirely a smart move. And not listening to Tobias wasn't going to end well.

"No matter what happens, Seojin, do not leave the house. Trust me, I want you alive."
He didn't ask for a reason, but he revolted.

Seojin couldn't sleep. After hours of tossing and turning in bed, the stifling covers had finally driven him out into the night. It had been ages since he had experienced life. He wasn't looking for an explanation, however. That could be dealt with another time. But right now, he wanted to escape.

As his gaze moved up the street, his mind wandered back in time. The sight of an empty city street and apartment buildings was replaced by a quiet residential lane in the suburbs, one layered upon the other with quaint little woods and shrubberies adorning the landscape. He hurled his neck back and tilted his head towards the sky, recalling the clarity of the stars beyond without the city lights messing with their visibility. In retrospect, life wasn't half bad then.

Moreover, there were no flying cars, no humanoids, or any enchanted saucers to trade in the city.
Was it even 2076?

Tall mounds of trash jammed up against the deteriorating walls of the scrapers enclosing the street were overtaken by the stench of burning flesh. It had a smell that was easily overbearing compared to the smell of the constant trash burning and decomposing in the sun each day. The deceased creature's charred skin was being greedily devoured by the flames. The putrid smell of the street filled the air, overpowering the stench of sewage and industrial smog.

Nothing like the future Seojin had thought of. He had hoped for a prosperous future with new technology and modern comforts, but instead he was surrounded by the pungent scent of death and destruction. It was a bleak contrast to the idyllic life he had imagined. His hopes were dashed, and the reality of the cosmic society was far more daunting than he had expected.

Tiptoeing into the open didn't help him; instead, it left him with a lot of doubt and self-pity because he had missed the time he could have stopped it somewhere down the lane. He thought he had made a mistake and that the future could have been different if he had done something differently.

He could feel how his love had been the root of his own trauma. And it took a little time before someone felt compelled enough to not only see through this façade but also believe it hurt badly beyond repair.

The hurt had just begun to thaw its claws stark against his ribcage, trying to crawl out, until some static inflection banged right against his eardrums, a callous litany. He winced and scratched his temples, trying to shake off the jarring sound, but it was too late.


"He is there!" The chaos had been scary, and all he wanted was to run.
And it was the fight or flight response. In the face of danger, people either faced it head-on or fled from it.

For Kim Seojin, the obvious choice was the latter. Without giving thought to anything else in the world, he broke through his reverie and ran for his life. Darkness and monotonous white walls formed the long roads of the hollow night.

Not far behind him were men armed with loaded pistols and intent on thwarting his escape. As the road came to a standstill and split into two, forcing him to make a decision, he wheeled idly to the left. His pursuers weren't far behind him, as shown by the hail of gunshots that pounded the wall behind him.

He took one last momentary look at what remained before trying again in vain for an opportunity to get away while making quick work out of these things. He knew he had to act fast, as his chances of survival were diminishing with each passing second. He took a deep breath and sprinted towards the nearest alley, hoping to lose his pursuers in the labyrinthine streets of the city.