hydra | svt

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

wonwoo

the book clattered to the floor. my heartbeat clanged in my ears and lodged itself in my throat as i struggled for air. my hands flew to my neck like i was being choked and i scraped at the plush surface, causing red welts of broken skin to materialise. no other sound filled my ears and the thought of turning deaf flickered momentarily in front of my eyes; to be sure, i forced my shaking hand down to the floor to pick up the notebook but i hastily pulled it away as if it were hotter than molten iron.

i had to have just been seeing things, right?

wrong. incredibly wrong. pushing my knees into the carpeted floor of my bedroom, which now felt like a wire brush under the bruised skin, i opened the book one last time and i made sure to pause before turning to the page i was on before, attempting to steady my heartbeat weakly. it took an eternity before my hand disobeyed my mind and turned to reveal...

emptiness.

and so it had been confirmed: hansol's page was still empty, despite my 'run-in' with him at school earlier. i still had the set of keys i was sure i'd seen him drop and i thumbed the embossed metal, deciding the temperature was extremely too hot for me to think properly. i struggled with the window for a while, wrestling with the stiff aluminium frame until it finally gave way and luscious cool air breezed into the room. i was still convulsing alarmingly but i could hear and see properly again and so i feebly heaved my desk chair out from under the wooden table and stumbling into it, catching my breath in the meantime. as strange as this whole fiasco was, it definitely explained why i had felt no sign of a headache or anything to alert me of hansol's arrival. i realised i was still firmly gripping the keys and tossed them onto the white hills of my bedsheet.

i swivelled round so i was sat facing the window and gazed out into the quiet street below; even the birds seemed to have vanished. the streetlights flickered ominously and before i could fully relax, the hairs on the back of my neck stood up like an army about to charge into battle. all of a sudden, i dived to my right and rolled under my bed, the breath caught in my throat once again.

the room clogged with pure raw heat and i could already feel the sweat forming on my forehead. a dagger had lodged itself into the farthest wall of my bedroom: smoke was fuming from it like a cigarette and it was still glowing violently orange. confused, i slid over to it (careful not to stand in front of the window) and gave it a closer inspection. upon this inspection, i came to the hasty conclusion that this was, in fact, NOT a dagger. it was a foot of steaming flint, sharp enough to pierce through diamond.

and it had almost ripped a nice tooth-sized hole in me.

i didn't have any time to figure out what was going on as the room began to waver in front of me. the heat was becoming overwhelming at an incredible rate and if i didn't move quickly enough i was sure i would fry like the time soonyoung set his jumper on fire.

good evening wonwoo, i've come to collect ssssomething of that you have sssstolen from me.

what the fuck? the sinister voice satiated my head as i slithered towards the window, not daring to steal a glance outside. it seems that it was forecast to rain today because now the thick droplets were coming down like a sheet and smothered the earth; the rumble of thunder shook the house and lighting streaked the grey sky.

the heat was sweltering now and i had to make a life-altering decision in less than a second. gracefully, i dived through my open window on the second floor and tumbled down into my front garden. warmth encased my entire body and i noticed another round of dagger-teeth stuck in the brick below my bedroom window. the rain had completely obscured my vision; i could barely see my hand in front of my own face. yet i started to run against the stream of water, the force pushing back and almost sending me flying across the waterlogged grass. i was utterly amazed that no one had even glanced out of the window or noticed the swift change in the weather.

just as my legs began to shake with overexertion. the sinister voice hissed inside my head again.

my name issss hossstisss levisss and i ssssseek the keysss you ssstole from me.