Chapter Thirteen Sunny
Chapter Thirteen
Sunny
“M-Minju,” I shout, whipping my head left and right. “Captain, where are you?”
My teeth clack together from the force of my tremors. I can’t stop shaking, and a whimper slips from my mouth.
I can’t hear the screams of the tortured people floating in the wall of fire surrounding me. But their eyes roll back in agony as their mouths gape wide, their bodies thrashing. I can feel their screams.
“Ch-Cheyun!” I shout from the top of my lungs, my body curling in on itself. “Minju! Where are you?”
Then someone whimpers, “Please.”
I run down the silver road, toward the fractured voice, and skid to a halt in front of Captain Seo.
“Please.” She sobs on her knees and buries her face in her hands. “Let me just stay by your side.”
I crouch down in front of her. “Who are you talking to?”
“You don’t need to return my love,” the captain continues as though I haven’t spoken.
“Cheyun.” I put my hand on her trembling shoulder, but she doesn’t seem to notice. “It’s me. Sunny.”
“I know I’m hard and cold.” She drops her hands from her face and plants them on the ground. “I was raised to be a suhoshin—to fight and protect. I don’t know how to be anything else.”
“Come on.” I shake her by her shoulders. “Snap out of it, Cheyun.”
“That’s not true. I do have feelings.” She clutches at her chest with one hand. “My love is real, Jihun.”
I rear back. Captain Seo is in love with Jihun? But whoever she’s talking to isn’t him. She’s stuck in her own personal hell.
“But I don’t know how to be soft and pliant. That’s not me.” She weeps. “I can’t pretend to be someone I’m not.”
“And you don’t have to, Cheyun.” Gods, I hope she can hear me. “Besides, you’re not hard and cold. You are capable and honest. That’s different. There are so many lies and half-truths in the worlds. We need your brand of blunt honesty. And you’re always fair and kind when it counts.”
“He doesn’t love me.” She responds to me in a small, broken whisper. Thank gods. I’m getting through to her. “He wants me to change.”
“The real Jihun would never ask you to change. He respects and trusts you,” I say with absolutely certainty. “He thinks you are strong, brave, and loyal. We all do.”
Captain Seo pushes off the ground and rises to her knees.
“Also, you can’t blame him for not seeing what’s right in front of him.” I scoot closer to her. “Males are dumbasses that way.”
Her eyelashes flutter like she’s struggling to wake up. Come on, Cheyun. She’s strong. She can fight this.
“I admire you so much.” I clear my throat. “You never have to change yourself to win someone’s heart, because you’re amazing as you are.”
Her eyes shoot open on a gasp, and she whips her head around in terror.
“Hey.” I grab her arms and squeeze. “Hey, you’re okay. It’s me, your favorite suhoshin cadet. You’re okay, Cheyun. It’s over.”
Her face crumples, and she drops her forehead onto my shoulder. I’m not sure about the “over” part. We are trapped in hell, but I feel better having found her. It’s still terrifying as fuck, but at least I’m not alone. I pat her on the back.
She sniffs and returns the awkward pat, then she sits on her haunches and takes in our surroundings. “Hell.”
I don’t know if she’s cursing, or identifying our current location.
“I . . .” Her gaze suddenly shoots back to me. “Did I . . . say something?”
“You said a lot of things.” I huff a resigned sigh. I respect her too much not to tell her the truth. “From which I gathered that you’re in love with Jihun.”
“Fuck.” She drops her head.
“It isn’t as bad as that. I obviously won’t tell anyone.
I have zero interest in your love life. Ugh.
” I pretend to gag. When she looks up to arch an annoyed brow at me, I continue in a serious tone, “But let me make one thing clear. If Jihun doesn’t realize how fucking lucky he would be to have you, then it is his loss, because you are the biggest badass I have ever met. ”
Captain Seo’s bottom lip trembles, and she bites down on it with a scowl. I swiftly glance away with a matching scowl. But after an embarrassed second, I gasp and scramble to my feet.
“Have you seen Minju?” I look around wildly, but all I see is fire and agony.
“Oh gods.” The captain jumps to a stand. “We have to find her.”
“Minju!” I shout. “Damn it. Where are you?”
We call for her, running up and down the silver road, until our voices turn into reedy rasps.
“I can’t find it,” Minju whimpers, and my stomach lurches.
“That way.” I sprint toward her voice with Captain Seo at my heels.
We find her digging in the hard ground, her nails torn and bloody. “I can’t find it.”
“Minju.” I fall to my knees and pull her into my arms. “Wake up, Minju.”
“I have to find the answer.” She pushes away from me and digs frantically. “Everyone will die if I don’t find the answer.”
“Do not place that burden on yourself.” The captain kneels beside the distraught historian. “No one expects you to find the answer to save us all. We will do it together. The Sentinels will fight for the worlds together.”
“You are not alone, Minju.” I press my wobbling lips together and gather her wrecked hands in my own. “You will never be alone.”
And neither will I.
“What if I fail them?” She tugs on her hands, but I hold on tight. “I can’t fail them. What if I ruin everything?”
“We’ll be right by your side, picking up the pieces,” I tell her, and she blinks slowly. Am I finally getting across to her? “After we clean up the mess, we can try again. All of us.”
“It’s my job to find answers.” Her voice breaks on a shrill note. “I don’t know how to fight like everyone else. What use am I if I can’t do this one thing?”
“Minju . . .” My hold on her hands slackens, and she wrenches them back to claw at the silver road.
“I have to find the answer,” she mutters, digging and digging. “It’s the only way I can help them.”
Then she screams in anguish and bashes her forehead against the ground.
“Stop it,” Captain Seo yells, jerking Minju up by her shoulders. The historian thrashes against the captain’s hold, spittle flying from her mouth, and scratches at the captain’s arms, drawing blood with her broken fingernails.
“Enough.” I shove Cheyun aside and deliver a resounding slap across Minju’s cheek.
Shocked silence descends on all three of us.
I can’t believe I slapped my friend, but I had to get through to her somehow. I needed to stop her before both of them got hurt.
With a heaving breath, Minju opens her eyes and looks around her. Thank gods. The worst is over. She will need a minute to process the fact that we are in literal hell, but she’s awake.
I prepare to tug her into my arms to console her but stop myself short. What if she remembers I slapped her? The corners of my mouth dip into a grimace. Then again, she did stab me in the heart once.
“Wow,” Minju breathes in wonder.
“What was that?” I squint.
“There are no written accounts of hell.” Her eyes jump from point to point in near manic curiosity. “This is truly an extraordinary opportunity.”
“Fuck me.” I clap my hand over my eyes.
Captain Seo scoffs at my side. “I second that.”
“All right. Up we go.” I hoist Minju to her feet. “We need to get out of here. There’s a reason why there are no written accounts of hell. It’s because no one makes it out alive. Or is it because no one makes it in alive?”
“Oh my word,” Minju squeaks and covers her mouth. “Yes, we must leave.”
I almost stomp my foot when I realize the flaw in my plan. “But how?”
“I think we have to keep walking the silver road,” she says.
“Which way, though?” The captain scratches her forehead. “I can’t even remember which direction we came from.”
“I don’t know about you guys, but I didn’t walk here.” I gulp. “I fell.”
Captain Seo and Minju agree with a sharp nod.
“Even so, we have to keep walking the moonglade,” the historian insists. “Out of all the convoluted scraps of information about the silver road, that is the only clear, consistent fact my father and I discovered. We have to ‘walk the moonglade’ in order to reach the Realm of Four Kingdoms.”
“We have to pick a direction, then.” The captain sighs.
“Fine. Let me try something.” I search for gi—any gi—but there is no life here. Only death. “I can’t see anything.”
“Try again.” Minju slips her hand into mine. “Take your time.”
I don’t want to stay here a second longer than necessary, but I listen to her advice. Spinning slowly in a circle, I peer into the wall of fire, trying and failing to ignore the writhing bodies.
There is no life force for me to discern.
I’m about to turn back to my friends when something flickers at the corners of my eyes. I spin back, zeroing in on it. A speck of red gi glows in the distance.
The life force of Underworld.