The terrible sight of the Horde stops me in my tracks. I'm caught in a terrible trance to the sight, not even hearing when both Ryung and Hana beg me to keep running. They tug at my clothes and even scratch me, drawing blood, before I'm brought out of it. I say a quick, "Sorry!" before we continue running.
We run and run, catching up with the mob. Slowly, the mob gets siphoning into the shelter. We stop, move forward, stop, move forward, continuously for five minutes. It is at the end of those five minutes I realize Hana is no longer with me and Ryung. "Hana? Hana!? HANA!?" I shout.
Where did she go, Where Did She Go, WHERE DID SHE GO!? I can't find her in the mass of bodies. While looking, Ryung says, "Put me on your shoulders, I can see over the crowd."
"Good idea, Ryung. Please find Hana."
He shifts until he's on my shoulders and we continue looking. After five minutes of constant moving, constant searching, constant worry, we find Hana. She's at the edge of the mass with a cut above her left eye. I sprint over to her, shoving people out of my way, not caring whether or not they yelled at me or even tried to start a fight.
Once over to her, I can see she's crying and that the blood was slowly trickling into her eye. Hana looks up at me with tear filled eyes. I pick her up and whisper into her ears, "It's okay, it's okay. Choehabu oppa is here now."
I look back at the shelter to see that no one else was entering. A man in full combat gear states, "We're sorry, but the shelter has no more room. You must find another shelter." People are up in arms, screaming, yelling, and shouting.
There was still probably over a thousand people trying to get inside. I look at the Horde, only to see it no longer looked like it was coming over the horizon. It was much closer, maybe only fifty miles from the city. The Vibrations had gotten much stronger, so strong in fact that already some buildings were almost falling.
I start thinking of where we can go. The shelter's already out of space, so where's someplace else just as good? The High School? No, not a chance, neither my work or any building for that manner. Then where else? Wait, wait, wa-wait. What about Dracula's Place? What was it called again, Something something Dojang? That's right, Instructor Wu's Dojang.
I soon remember where it's located and start running, not thinking about anything else besides getting there. I run and run and run, and though the mind may be willing, the flesh is weak and feeble. I don't even make it a tenth of the way there before I'm out of breath, nearly falling down. I slowly, slowly, take another step, and then another.
I can barely take another step, how am I going to save them? I just want to save them, is there any way I can do that? I moved faster before retracting my Gi and even recovered faster with it. How do I unretract my Gi? How was I even using it before?
Thought after thought pours through my mind, an unending river of consciousness all focused on a single goal. How do I use Gi, and make them survive?
I falter with a step and go tumbling to the ground, only turning at the last second so Ryung and Hana don't take the brunt of it. They seem to be in a similar state to me. I lay there on the ground, unmoving. The street we were at was desolate, nobody was there. Nobody to save us.
Slowly, my eyes close, close against my will. My consciousness slowly falls, starts to fade, receding into slumber. A final tearful thought carrying my whole will. My will to save them. This thought, this will, starts a reaction in my heart, my very soul. Slowly, energy starts returning to me. My eyes open again, my consciousness returns to the fore, I could move.
A red haze starts surrounding me, light yet still there. It give me strength, strength to rise, strength to continue, strength to live. I stand now, Ryung and Hana still on me, and start running. My legs move as if gliding through the morning air.
I move faster and faster, from a light jog to a full blown sprint. Moving at speeds some cars can't even reach. Yet the whole time, I don't get tired. In fact, I get more energetic, more full of life, as if I was just now truly living. My legs rise and lower like clockwork, never stopping, never slowing. The wind blows my hair back, the wailing wind in my ears never stops.
Streets and buildings and signs and even bodies are a near blur to me as I sprint. Soon, maybe only thirty minutes of running, I arrive at Instructor Wu's Dojang. I slow down to a stop 'afore walking up to the door, opening it and entering. Inside, I see the what I had seen before, darkness with a receptionist at the end of the walkway clad in shadows.
I approach her and ask, "This is urgent, can I speak with Dracula?"
She tilts her head at me, looking me up and down, before replying, "You can, the stairway is already opened."
I yell a quick, "Thank You!" as I sprint down the stairs. I go down two at a time in the darkness, never missing a step. At the bottom of the stairs, I'm met with a familiar hallway and at the end, a familiar room. I sprint through these too and meet Dracula in a throne befitting an Emperor. I wake up both Hana and Ryung who had somehow fallen asleep, telling them, "We've arrived somewhere safe, you can stop clinging to me.."
Hana looks at me, bleary eyed, "What? Where are we? Who is that?"
Ryung echoes her question with an added, "How did we get here?"
I tell them, "Don't worry about that, just let go me."
They comply and I'm now able to talk with Dracula. He was watching the whole interaction, not saying anything. Once they're off me, Dracula starts speaking, "It's quite a shame you only visit me now that all of your lives are at an end. Did you expect me to...."
He stops talking when he sees me getting on my knees and bowing. I ask him, "Oh Dracula, could you please halt the Beast Horde, so that my siblings and everyone in this city may live?"
Dracula says nothing for a moment before a smile splits his lips. A mocking, sardonic smile, "Tis a shame, that you're like the rest. Only visiting me in their times of need. What have you to give in return? I do hope you didn't come empty handed."
"I have nothing to give aside myself, and my soul. Would that be sufficient compensation?", I ask, my voice breaking at the end.
Dracula shakes his head, "No, it wouldn't. Do you know why? It's because, you're not that unique. There are thousands if not tens thousands of others like you. You're a supply who's demand is so low that you're worth less than dirt, cause at least dirt serves a purpose."
I bite my tongue to stop myself cursing at him. Is there anything I can do that'll make him change his mind? Wait, there might be. I tell him, "I can use Gi, without anyone teaching me."
This makes Dracula's smile falter for a moment, but a moment is all I need. "I started feeling different after killing the Red-Skinn. And not in a, 'I hurt so much' kind've way. As in, I feel stronger, faster, better, kind've way."
My addition actually makes Dracula's smile stop. Stop being sardonic that is. No, instead of sardonic, his smile becomes one of actual joy. He starts chuckling to himself, before laughing, to eventually and finally an insane cackle. He only stops after a full ten seconds of laughing.
Once done, he says in a manic tone and speech, "Now, that changes things. You are no longer a simple grain of sand in an endless desert of people. No, you are something... greater. I shall stop this horde, halt it, and destroy it. In return, I shall ring out every drop of essence from your body and soul until you are merely a husk of your past self," he then puts out his right hand, "do we have a deal?"
I rise from my knees to my feet, before taking a step forward and shaking his hand, "We have a deal."
He smirks before taking the form of Blightful Shadow which forms around the room, "Be sure not to regret your decision, Choe-ha-bu."
And he exits, leaves, departs. Leaving only Me, Ryung, and Hana in the room. I go to my siblings and hug them, saying "I'm sorry, but I had to do it."
They hug me back and start crying. We stay like this for hours, until the vibrations and rumbling stop.