Demoniac | Renjun | Demon

Chapter forty-one: Sweet death

It was dark, really dark. There was no sign of light except for Jaemin's house but it was way too far out of her reach now, and Jieun felt her body freeze in fear.

Lycans and Daerius slowly approached her -like predators with their prey- and, suddenly, their eyes... glowed?

Jieun closed her eyes for a second and took a deep breath. Clearly, she must have hit her head hard when she fell, because there was no way what she had seen was real.

But when she opened her eyes again, their pupils were still glowing red, the exact same color as her contacts. The color of blood.

"It's midnight," Daerius spoke, revealing sharp teeth.

Jieun's heartbeat increased. She was sure he wasn't wearing fake fangs before, and she doubted that he had suddenly decided to spice up his Halloween costume.

"What is it, angel?" Daerius taunted when he noticed the terror in her eyes. "Never seen a real demon before?"

"Get the Hell away from her," a low voice groaned from the shadows of the trees.

Lycans let out a bitter laugh, "Well look who finally decided to join the party," he snickered.

Renjun took a step forward, the whiteness of his costume standing out on the dark background.

"Let her go," he spoke again, ignoring the mocking comments.

"But we're having so much fun..." Daerius sneered.

Renjun took a step closer and, with shock, Jieun realized his eyes were glowing the same shade as the others, too. Was she dreaming again?

She tried to get back up, but Renjun gestured for her to stay down.

"You have no right to touch her, the Lord himself sent me here to complete the task myself. I won't let you get to her."

"Fine," Lycans surprisingly admitted, "we'll go. We can't take her with us anyway; she won't take off that damned bracelet of yours. Very smart, I must say."

Daerius shot him a confused look, not sure where his partner was going with this.

"But if we can't take her back to Hell ourselves," Lycans added, his smirk growing larger, "then I'll make sure you won't either."

Out of nowhere, a red fire came out of his fingertips, ready to burn Jieun alive. The girl was right in front of him, unable to move. It wasn't that she didn't want to -as a matter of fact, every nerve in her body was screaming at her to get up and run, or at least roll to the side to save herself from a horrible death- but she couldn't.

She was frozen, which was quite ironic considering the fact that she was about to be burnt alive.

Everything happened in slow-motion, and Jieun looked to the side, only to find Daerius holding his hand in front of him, a devilish smirk on his lips.
For some reason, Jieun knew he was the one preventing her from moving, and she cursed at him, trying her hardest to move just a finger.

Only her head seemed to be still in motion, and Jieun looked to her left, hoping to see Renjun. The boy stood there; his eyes wide open in shock as the fire was about to hit her.

The panic and terror in his eyes when he looked at her made her heart tightened; there was nothing he could do.

Just as Jieun felt the heat of the fire get to her, she let out a heartbreaking scream of fear.
She didn't want to die; she was too young for that. And what kind of death was this, anyway? What kind of unreal situation was she in?

Jieun wasn't a believer, but at this moment, which she thought to be her last, she prayed. She prayed and asked whoever was ready to listen to save her life. She prayed this was only one of her weird nightmares again, that whatever this was; wasn't real. After all, it couldn't be, right?

Just as she thought she was dying, the desperate voice of Renjun reached her ears, "NO!" he yelled, the word echoing in her mind.

Jieun felt herself go, but she didn't feel any pain. All of a sudden, the growing heat had stopped, and she couldn't hear herself scream anymore. She couldn't hear Renjun either. She couldn't hear anything, actually, besides her crazy-beating heart. She could feel the rapid and dull sound in her ears, beating incredibly fast.

But if her heart was still beating... that meant she was still alive.

Mastering all the courage she had left, Jieun slowly opened one eye, then the other. She couldn't see anything, she was surrounded by darkness, but she wasn't cold.

As a matter of fact, she felt warm. It was not the same heat as the fire, it was... welcoming. As seconds passed by, Jieun started to notice other things, like a weird sound, for example...

It seemed familiar, almost like the sound of a heart beating... except it wasn't her own. She then became aware of something, or rather, someone, holding her.

It was still dark, so her vision wasn't really useful, but her other senses slowly came back to her, and she felt a pair of strong arms holding her protectively.
The next thing she noticed was smooth hair tickling her neck, and a scent... she knew that scent.

When she finally spoke, she whispered, scared to somehow break the comforting silence that was surrounding her; she wasn't scared anymore, she felt safe.

"Renjun...?"

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If you're confused, don't worry, that's the point