celestial strings | h.js

three.

The strings couldn't work with one hand.

You have never considered such a circumstance before; the circumstance when only one set of your fingers work while the others were rendered completely useless. It was so suddenly presented to you that you weren't able to think of any plausible solution aside from struggling through the pain and hoping you could somehow make the patterns work with one hand.

You remembered seeing your mother do it when she was multi-tasking around the house so at least you could have faith that it is possible to do that.

After finding an empty alleyway, you reached the far corner of the dark space and slid down against the dry, rocky concrete wall. Even puffs of air went in and out of your lips as you tried to regulate your breathing and not cause any more pain within yourself; the broken hand and the torn skin were hurtful enough. Glancing down at your hand, your previously steady breath came out shakier than ever upon the reddening bulge, glazed over with the pouring blood that stained the blue string.

You couldn't feel your arm anymore when you poke at it, but somehow the pain still lingered strong. It looked ugly.

"Okay... okay..." You kept reminding yourself as you reached to blindly a loose end of your blue string.

It was submerged with your skin entirely, you found out. Using the wrong string for a power-type spell was already bad enough as it channeled unnecessary energy. But you had to keep using it for pain-reduction to keep yourself from collapsing from the injury, causing the string to keep draining your blood through the tissues of your skin by wrapping its bladed surface tighter around your arm.

You had no other choice but to dig your nails through the gap where the string was etched into, hoping to needle out an opening for you to lose your finger through and tug the string out slowly between your flesh. Tears welled up in your eyes at the agonizing pain when you ever so lightly pulled at the hem of the string, peeling it away. It felt like the sharp end of a blade running across your skin repeatedly, the sharp and stinging pain gutting you with each inch you take off.

The pain-reduction spell was losing its patience with you. You had less than enough blood to give.

Opting to take breaks between each little peels, your heart clenched at how hopeless you were, and a bitterly triumphant smile slowly eased its way to your face. This situation hit home for you—being in trouble and being alone. You welcomed this eerie nostalgia, even relaxing into it so you could feel better about this situation.

A loud exhale left your lips as you let your arms drop to the ground, your eyes rolling skywards at the clouds, and your smile dimmed with satisfaction when it suddenly hit you that you could kindly take your time with soothing the pain out. You didn't have anywhere else to be anyway.

Your phone suddenly rang, snapping you out of your thoughts. Letting it ring for a while, you clicked your tongue at how insistent the caller was before you fished it out of your pocket. When you saw Jisung's name flashed across the screen, your heart halted with a stumble.

Oh god, what were you thinking? Someone out there was desperately looking for you. Han Jisung has been looking for you all over the place.

"[Name]! Where the hell are you?" Jisung's panicked voice came out as a shout when you picked up.

"I... uhh," you gulped down a harsh breath, "I mainly ran straight. You will see a mini-park when you leave the shopping area and go straight. If you turn a corner around the crossroad, you will see an alleyway. I'm just far inside."

There was shuffling on the other side. You could hear Jisung call out to his friends before he pressed his phone back to his ears and he huffed with each step, not quite running but walking fast enough to be out of breath. You didn't dare hang up. He sounded angry when you finally picked up the call and you assumed he had things to tell you. While he stayed silent to follow your direction, you decided to hold your phone between your ear and your shoulder as your hand went back to business.