The fire didn't stop. It burned through my body bit by bit, slowly setting each atom aflame. It only got worse. Every time I thought it was subsiding, releasing me, it just came back — and the intensity crippled me each and every time.

Jisung told me it would speed up the process, biting me, injecting more venom into my system. Chan and Felix had bitten me as well.

After that, I had been moved to Jisung's bedroom. Jisung stayed with me — even as I screamed and sobbed and thrashed around for hours on end.

He talked to me. He told me that he didn't want this for me, that he was sorry it happened this way, that he wished I could have made the decision for myself. He asked if I liked it when he talked, and I reached out to him — my arm shaking and twitching. He took my hand and held it to his lips.

He decided to tell me our family's stories. I didn't know if the others were in the room for it — I was only focussed on him. Everything not focussed on him was consumed by fire.

"Chan was a farmer," he told me. "His father — a religious man, with a vendetta against evils Chan thought non-existent — ordered him to join a raid on an alleged vampire den. Chan went off on his own, rebellious, and was bitten, all but torn apart. He knew, if his father or anyone else from the raid found him like that, they would kill him.

"He hid himself. He changed, experiencing the pain you're experiencing now — only alone, stifling his crying and screaming to avoid being caught.

"After the change, he couldn't see his family again. He always says that walking away from his old life was painful — worse than the pain of changing — but it was also freeing, in an odd way. Finally, life was something he could create for himself.

"He was still tremendously unhappy, lonely, slogging through decades without ever really knowing anyone. His passion was helping people, healing people — it was all he wanted. It became a bit of an obsession, practicing control over his thirst. He knew he could reach more people if he could handle the smell of human blood.

"That was all his life was, for a while.

"And then he heard a heart in distress. He found a man's waterlogged body lying on a beach — Haseong's body. He wouldn't survive as a human.

"Chan was nervous. He was sure in his stability around blood, but he'd never turned a human before, hadn't even tried. He nearly walked away, fear overpowering his desire to do good, to help this guy on the edge of death."

Jisung's lips twitched into a tired smile, an emotion like pride on his face. "Chan is... good. He's truly good, and his passion was stronger than his fear.

"So... he finally had a friend. More than that. It didn't take Chan and Haseong long to fall in love. They felt as if they were made for one another, fated, like lost souls coming together again.

"More stories, love?"

My answer was a strained, trembling sound that hurt my stripped-raw throat.

He kept rubbing and petting my legs as he continued.

"Jeongin had been hiking up the Seoraksan with his friends, taking in the wild rivers and plant life — the rocky slopes, pitching downward for miles and miles. The depths below him and the never-ending sky above him made his head spin.

"All it took was one foot in the wrong place. He fell — plummeted down the jagged mountainside until the rock gave way to a cliff. He dropped into a lake and broke his neck on impact.

"The smell of human blood drew Chan and Haseong to Jeongin. It was by chance — a perfect coincidence. Chan bit him, changed him, and welcomed him into their little vegetarian club. Jeongin thought they were a cult at first. I can't really say he was wrong."

He laughed. I played the sound over and over in my head, clung to it — a sliver of reality not steeped in pain.

"You already know this one," he whispered. "Chan found me in septic shock, surrounded by garbage and needles. I was lethargic when he tried to wake me, my blood pressure seriously low. There was... no other option.

"Anyway. Chan had lost his job at the hospital. Jeongin had noticed a stranger following him when he walked at night. It wasn't safe to stay in the city anymore. The four of us decided to live off the land for a while.

"One day, when we were out wandering, we heard screaming coming from the north. It was too alarming to ignore. When we looked into it, we found an ancient church, crumbling and caving in on itself. The screaming only became louder as we approached.

"In the basement, a group of cultists were burning a boy alive. Burning Hyunjin alive.

"Hyunjin is... very, deeply gullible. The men had promised him wealth and he'd followed them willingly. They had tried to sacrifice him.

"We saved him, of course — it didn't take much to scare the cultists off. Hyunjin was dying of his wounds. We carried him to shelter, and Chan bit him.

"Hyunjin and Jeongin instantly had a connection. When Hyunjin 'woke up' from the change, I went to help him to his feet. He took one look around the room and asked for Jeongin to help him instead."

I thought I heard someone giggle an apology.

"The two of them were out on a date," Jisung continued, "and heard a barrage of gunfire from a nearby city. Tensions between rival crime syndicates had escalated to the point of a shootout. They tried to avoid the bloodbath, fearing they would expose themselves if their thirst overpowered them.

"But — like total lovesick morons — they were taken with a boy, the only person in the mayhem trying to protect innocent lives. The boy was crawling on his hands and knees, leading civilians to safety.

"That was Seungmin. He was shot twenty-seven times. Jeongin and Hyunjin got him to Chan before it was too late.

"Do you still want me to talk?"

I nodded spastically.

"Felix was the son of a circus ring master — a money-obsessed man, who abused Felix's psychic abilities for ticket sales. It was Felix's job to guess facts about the audience, earning applause if he was right, or a beating if he was wrong.

"Felix ran away — slipped past the dogs and made it to the nearby train tracks. He threw himself into a boxcar, riding till he was miles from his home, his family, his prison.

"He wasn't alone in the train car. An alluring voice pulled him into the shadows, held his face in her hands and buried her teeth into his throat.

"Felix didn't stay with his creator. His premonitions told him of her true nature, and Felix managed to escape, disappearing into the mountains.

"Felix was at an impasse. Go left or right — down one snowy ravine or another. He took one step to the left, and his mind was flooded with the image of a family, a family of people like him. He was with us in the vision, the eighth addition to our coven, held in the arms of a short, honey-skinned guy with a soft, triangular face — his words."

Hushed laughter.

"Changbin lived on a small plot of land with his mother and older sister. He was an insomniac. Every night he would wander the fields, waiting for the morning sun to shine over the treetops and set him free from the isolation of the darkness.

"It was eighteen ninety-nine, during another sleepless night, when he discovered a group of strange, beautiful people. They lured him deep into the forest, into a sense of security — a sleep-like calm.

"The beautiful people bit him, turned him, and kept him locked in their blood-soaked regime for decades.

"He only found the strength to leave when a kid showed up, asking for him. It was Felix. He was barefoot, panting, ecstatic — blabbering about how he knew Changbin, how they were meant to be together.

"Felix promised him a better life, a family that cared for him. Changbin couldn't help but trust him.

I could hear my family react to this story. Changbin kissed Felix's palm, and Felix grinned widely. Chan patted Haseong on the right knee, and Seungmin squeezed his boyfriends' hands in his. I could hear their each individual movement — their hair sway, their muscles twist, the scuff of their socks on the floor.

They were gone. Now all I could hear was Jisung's shallow breathing, the creak of the couch as he leaned closer to me, his hand gently rub my back.

"You... might recognize this one, too, my love," he murmured. "So there was this boy. Er, the boy is me. I've lived a long time, you know? Slowly, I started to feel so, so tired. Of living. I felt... crushed and broken by the callous creature I was, the voices in my head — everyone's thoughts.

"And then I met you. You" — he laughed dryly — "wooed the human out of me, bit by bit, piece by piece. You spoke to me as if I was normal. You didn't seem to care about my baggage. I couldn't hear your thoughts — finally, after a hundred years, I could have a moment's silence, only when I was near you. I didn't want to tell you how much I loved that. I mean, what a flattering compliment — 'Your brain is so silent, I like it!' I have a feeling you'll find that funny anyway.

"Oh, my love. You were... shameless and smart and kind... and so goddamn human.

"I fell in love with you. We fell in love.

"I was so stupid to know about the nomads, yet still invite you to the game. I should have protected you better — I shouldn't have been so self—"

"No," I howled, grabbing for him blindly.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He caught my hands and held them between his. "I... won't focus on that. You're changing. It'll be over so soon, my love. I swear to God, you'll be okay."

When he ran out of stories, he sang for me — every song he'd ever written, some he hadn't shown anyone. Each was unique, ranging in genre and tone, and his voice was beautiful, heartbreaking. He told me about his writing process, demonstrated it. He even got a smile-like grimace out of me when he ad-libbed a hymn about my nose.

Then he shifted onto the topic of my killer. He explained vampire bloodlust, the unstoppable thirst and split-second compulsions. James hadn't made a conscious decision to attack me — it was a core instinct, to hunt his prey, to drink my blood. There was nothing for Felix to see, nothing for Jisung to read. He smelled me and leapt for me and nearly succeeded in killing me in a fraction of a second.

Jisung told me how they tore the predator off me, broke him into pieces, while Jisung, Chan and Felix brought me back to the house. He said the only way to kill a vampire is by ripping their body apart and burning the remnants — which was exactly what they did to the entire coven.

He wasn't proud of it. He didn't like to think of himself as a killer. But there hadn't been any other option. The nomads would have come after us — the other two had been just as overtaken by bloodlust as James had. Besides, Jisung added, how bad was it that three murderers were off the streets?

He told me that our brothers had taken my truck, acquired a cadaver, and staged a crash in Forks. They hadn't consulted with him before they did it. They knew he would find it unethical and try to stop them. It was self-preservation on their part. What would people think if I went out with their strange family and never came home?

They made it look like an accident, like I had gone to the grocery store for the cayenne I'd promised my father earlier that night, and lost control of my old, unreliable truck on a sharp turn. By the time authorities had arrived, all traces of my body had been burned to ash.

I was dead — in more ways than I could comprehend at that moment.

Sometimes Jisung would go silent — listening to my jagged breath, watching me whimper and writhe in pain — and he would hold his face in his hands and try not to cry. It never worked, and sensing him crying would make me cry.

Then he would lean over me and kiss my cheeks, forehead, and eyelids, whispering apologies and sweet nothings in my ear.

He told me about my future. I'd be thirsty, and nothing would be more demanding than that thirst — it would consume my every thought. He told me that I would be fast and strong and alien. My body would feel weird at first, difficult to control. He told me that I didn't have to commit to their ways of life, their vegetarian diet, and that I didn't have to stay with them at all, if I didn't want to. I let my arm twitch and hit him for suggesting it. I couldn't even enjoy that it made him smile.

He told me that the fire would get worse as it ended, and held me as I sobbed in horror.

He told me that I wouldn't get hungry anymore — just thirsty. I would stop aging, stay seventeen forever. I wouldn't get sick. Human memories would fade, become blurry, but I would remember every second of my new life. I wouldn't need to breathe or blink or sleep.

He told me the history of the Volturi — an ancient vampire sovereignty, in charge of maintaining vampire law. Humans couldn't know of their existence. If they did, the Volturi would quietly, discreetly, eliminate them, as well as the vampire that disclosed the secret.

That was why I couldn't tell Charlie or my mom I was still alive — why I couldn't speak to them at all. The Volturi were too powerful, too deadly — telling my parents would be putting them in too much danger.

Just being near my parents would be too dangerous. If newborn thirst was as all-consuming as I'd been told, what was to stop me from killing them myself?

A new flood of tears burned down my cheeks — this time caused by heartbreak rather than pain.

The fire was still burning, permeating my cells, enveloping them. I was aware of every centimetre of my skin, every screaming organ inside me, every piercing, stinging-hot nerve ending in my body.

So I knew when something changed.

The tips of my fingers stopped burning. It was a slow snuff, the pain retreating — now down to my joints — yet it startled me. I started coughing, whining.

Jisung looked up — he'd had his head resting on his forearms — and his eyes found my hands. He had been on the edge of panting for days, and now his breath calmed, just a little.

I stretched my fingers, felt them tremble. It was a shot of solace into my charred body.

And then it became clear that the pain hadn't gone. It was moving.

As the fire lifted from the soles of my feet, it became more defined in the rest of me, hotter. Like a dial switching from ten to eleven. I could feel myself start to panic. This was what Jisung had told me about — the 'worse.'

Jisung noticed. He held my hand, looked into my eyes. It lulled me, slowed my breath — though I'd never been more terrified than I was in that moment.

All the pain was converging on a single spot, focussing all its heat on my vulnerable chest. I cried for it to stop, bucking my legs, grinding my head back into the couch. My heart started beating faster, so fast it hurt, so fast I felt it break my bones, wreck my body from the inside out.

"Jisung," I sobbed, digging my nails into the back of his hand. "Stop — p-please, make it stop!"

His voice was nearly as panicked as mine. "It'll stop, my love, it'll stop — I promise."

The fire pulled from my knees and elbows, dragged up into my heart. I bit back a scream, my entire body lurching, seizing. My heart started to pound even faster — climbing and climbing until it was one persistent sound in my ears.

My limbs were finally released, but my chest just buzzed stronger, hotter. The pain in my throat seemed to deepen — I tried to inhale, but my throat was sewn shut. I heaved and choked and thrashed like I was chained underwater.

Jisung grabbed my arms, held them still, whispered that it would all be over soon. It only vaguely registered that his skin wasn't ice-cold anymore.

My heart vibrated like it was trying to rip itself from my chest. Just kill me! I wanted to shout, feeling a surge of tears scrape down my face. I hadn't breathed in minutes or years and my lungs felt like they were collapsing. My body was clear, free, absolved of the impossible burn, but fire still clawed at my heart, tearing it apart, squeezing into one, heated, piercing point inside my chest.

A scream tore up my throat as my heart stopped completely.

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what did you think of the family's stories?

what do you think will happen next...? :3

i hope you liked it ❤️ see you next time~