After finishing the meal, which was upsettingly silent and hence underappreciated for the relish Seokjin's food extended with, his apprentice and he departed for the graveyard.

'Hesre vtyei gkinjch chelg gha misstri dri dund,' the note carried the unreadable clusters of erratic English letters. The same note Sera had been gawking at for the last minute.

"You should try reading it now, I didn't give it for you to tear it apart with your intense stare," Seokjin alerted. "We don't have that many minutes left, you should practise." 

Sera raised a brow. "I thought—"

"It won't work on its own. Needs an activated talisman for that. So it's safe for us to say it aloud."

Sera stared back at the man. Oddly, he had been seeming absolutely sane since he started driving. The pain and fear that had had been etched on his face long left behind. They were both inside Seokjin's car, the owner driving.

"What language even is this?" she ridiculed.

"Not an earthly one. I'll let you know how to pronounce once you give it a try on your own."

"Hesre vetyei ginj shelg ga misstree dree dand." She looked at the male expectedly but he shook his head in disapproval.

"It's the romanized version of what I heard of it being pronounced. You're supposed to say it exactly how it's written. Here, play the last audio file I visited." He passed on his smart phone to Sera.

A man's voice played once Sera clicked on the audio. It was a very poor attempt at remastering a coarse, breathy voice of low quality.  "Hes-re...vt-yei..gk..in..jch..gk-in-jch....chelg...g-ha...mis-stri...dri...dund."

"You said it was a non-earthy language, so who's that speaking? Non-humanly being?"

"No," Seokjin replied. "Some man from the 20th century had been fortunate enough to make those words sound valid for its activation. He managed to record it, but that was the last time he was heard."

"You should quickly practise now. We're about to reach," he said.

"Hmm.."

○◆○

Sera threw open the rustic iron gate to the once Angel's Church & Orphanage, helping Seokjin get through with his car. The place was now just a vast graveyard. Serene scene of clear grass-clad ground, with the misfit of the headstones jutting out, was dominated by voices of the autumn breeze and, faintly, automobiles. Trees of red pine and various spruces were wilding near the gate against the fence. Sparrows inhabited them. Seokjin registered the view in longing. The place was perfect for summoning, he found its natural energy very peaceful and appealing for his type of work.

After parking the vehicle, the both them stole a corner by the fence to seat themselves. Seokjin set up his 24x12 folding picnic table and arranged the notes, talismans and gemstones on it. 

"We are not wasting a minute now. Have you learned the spell? Recite once," Seokjin spoke just as he finished fishing for the energy gemstones. He looked up to meet Sera's form for inspection when he saw her sulking with her head buried in her palms.

"Great, are you possessed now too?"

"Why are you so chill about it?" Sera snarled.

"Because I've had enough of my sulking phase," he barked back. "You've been pretending all mighty these past few days, what happened to the fearless woman now, huh? And I'm not scared enough? For heaven's sake, I'm too young to die."

Sera's trembling hand traced back her hip flask from the pocket. She swigged the undiluted whisky from it and threw it away.

"Okay," she breathed. "Okay, I'm ready. I'm absolutely ready. Yeah...I am."

"Are you dead sure?"

"Yeah, we're wasting time. And...Hesre vtyei gkinjch chelg gha misstri dri dund. Correct?"

"Yea." Seokjin nodded. "So I'll open the portal, you've to be silent. Then this talisman..." He passed forth an inscription with alienic words and tiny jewels imbedded on it. "You've to place these on it." He unfolded his palm to reveal three stones.

"The blue one, the first one, you should place here." Seokjin placed the stone on a position on the inscription's replica he had made on plain paper. "Notice the angle and where it's facing, it's crucial. This one should go...here, and this should be put...here...like...this." He placed the other two stones, the crimson and pine colored one respectively.

"You're supposed to say the spell as you do it. Begin placing the first stone as you start the spell and finish the last stone and last word together. Alright?"

"Okay."

"And you should want to go to where you want to, you know. Keep thinking about your wish in your head and mind to be taken to the dimension of the dead. And don't break the thought, strict focus, okay?"

Sera hummed.

After trials, errors and success on the attempts of Sera on the inscription's replica, Seokjin decided it was finally time to take leave. He captured the view of his surroundings one last time and muttered a soft "love you eomma and appa" before he concentrated to open the portal.

Sera's eyes grew wide once she saw a glimmering sheet of neon green light above their heads. It was the shape of an ellipse, almost a foot in width( unable to fit a human body in Sera's opinion) and roughly five feet above their picnic table. 

Seokjin opened his eyes to deem his work enough satisfactory. "Commence!" he said with a hand gesture. The both of them grabbed the their blue stones together and their hands proceeded to their own inscriptions.

"Hesre vtyei gkinjch chelg gha misstri dri dund." Their voices mixed together.

While Seokjin was fast enough to make his eyes shut on time, Sera had been uninformed. She found herself dragged into the green halo with an absurdly intense pull, all under a second of time. She felt massless, it could only be even vaguely compared to how a balloon would feel if it could breathe and feel. But she couldn't help but feel like she was having a head rush. It couldn't be confirmed however, it only lasted within that wretched second of fright and curiosity. The next second onwards, she felt the pull, the masslessness, the thrill or the head rush no more. And at that next second she opened her eyes. 

"Oh gear God!" Seokjin groaned.

"What...the...fuck!" was Sera's contribution to the situation. "Can you see?"

"Well, do you believe I might be seeing a scene all lit while you're having trouble seeing?"

"Well, this isn't the scientific human world!"

"Can you stop shouting? You'll attract others around."

"It's getting better, isn't it? Squinting works."

"It's not the squinting. My eyes are fully open. I think our bodies are getting used to the place. Well, souls. Our bodies are still back there."

"Quit talking. I can make everything out now, but it stopped getting better."

"This is supposed to be a dark place, literally. I think that's as far as it'll get."

"Ohh!" Sera looked around at the sight in front of her. Ignoring the darkness, and the moonless but cloudy sky, the graveyard looked much different than the one in human world. 

Seokjin and Sera could witness the few headstones that were scattered on the land in front of them, but what they chose to focus on was the building across the graveyard adorning the dry bushy grass. It was a ruined and rotten church conjoined on its left with the orphanage that mirrored the same look and vibe. The colour of the it, they couldn't make out. But black and ash did decorate the top of the half broken walls with irregular heights. 

They were both sitting on the grass against a tree. There were many trees adjacent to it forming a line. Behind the barren, dry trees, was the fencing wall. It was evident that they were on the backside of the church. Unlike the human world counterpart of the location, the graveyard carried no sound of the rustling leaves or the chirping birds. There was no breeze, it was tranquil and unreal. Horrifying enough for Sera to wish it was a nightmare she would soon wake up from, to long for the cruel earth she never bothered to appreciate. 

The living beings were unaware of the pair of eyes that were set on them since their appearance.

Sera pushed herslef off the ground and began approaching the burnt ruins of the orphanage. "Jimin!" she yelled.

"Sera, what are you doing?" Seokjin whisper-yelled as he followed.

"Jimin!"

"Stop it!" he said as he looked around to give himself a fright at the sight of figures at the far adjacent corner by the fence. "Look there, does those not look like spirits to you. This is a grayevard for heaven's sake. You've got to stop shouting. The only reason they are still not following us is because they perhaps think we're evil spirits too."

"We came here for Jimin, Seokjin. I cannot afford to be intimidated by them."

"Intimidated? You're not even scared?"

"For Jimin! For my Jimin!"

"Alright, alright. But please don't act like you're aware of this new place and that you're even looking for a person. It's bad enough we look spotless and human-like. We can explore in silence."

"Are they watching us?"

"Again, I can only see what you can too. And I see silhouettes, they may or may not be facing us. According to my intuition, they are."

"Fuck your intuition and them, I'm gonna go." Sera ran towards the front side of the church.

"S-Sticking together is the rule," Seokjin nervously said as he stole a glance at the silhouettes again before running after her.

○◆○

It had been an hour and long since Sera started her quest for Jimin. Seokjin's idea of being silent and keeping a low profile was busted after the first ten minutes of the woman's attempts going in vain. Sera screamed her love's name, ran around the whole orphanage and the backside graveyard multiple times. Nothing seemed to bring her boy back to her.

Seokjin might not have a clue to the situation but he did take the time to look around and make of the place that he was in. The dimension of the dead. It did not look anything like the horror movies. The place was dark and silent, but that seemed to be it. There were no sight of ghastly looking creatures anywhere, there were no creepy sounds, no muddy water, or dirt, or spiders or webs or creatures. The place was clean. Certainly, the orphanage's land looked torn-down, but it made sense because the place had went down due to the fire accident. But when Seokjin went to the gate and looked out, he saw the road and buildings nearby. But one thing noticeable was, just like the orphanage all the other buildings looked like how its counterpart in the human world should have been before it was renovated to the modern taste. Everything looked vintage. 

Horror movies did scare Seokjin, and though the reality didn't match the movies, it was frightening; More so than the monsters in the movie. The reality of the fourth dimension was both sinister and tragic, and specially because of the latter, it was more chilling.

"Sera, I think we should take a break," Seokjin said.

The other glared back at him in disbelief. 

"Look, I can understand how you feel, okay? But since we had no luck here, I think we're doing something wrong. We might have miscalculated. We should take a break and think. We don't have time. So the faster we sit back and think, the faster we'll find an answer and hence, Jimin."

"You could use your stupid brain while we're searching for him. And you should, since it's all your fault."

"Excuse me, my fault?" Seokjin snickered. "Yeah, I totally deserve that for helping you even after you churned a bad blood with my cousin."

"And you're responsible for that as well. If I'd never associated with you, this would have never happened. I should never have listened to Yoongi."

Seokjin took a deep breath. "You can only wish for that alternative. Because that could never happen. It's fate."

"We're wasting time," he continued. "Argue once this is all over. Now please sit. Just for a few minutes, that's all. Then we'll resume looking for him."

The both of them found themselves a seat on the grassy ground. The man and the woman gloomily stared ahead into the nothingness.

"We always give our new souls time to adjust themselves in here," an anonymous voice spoke from behind Sera and Seokjin and the latter stilled. "But you know, I don't think you both belong here. And maybe I am right."

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