"Let's race for the horizon, Seojin-ah; the winner gets to choose his reward!"
A seventeen-year-old Sejin had put up the little question as both the brothers sat right between a meadow. It was rare to find a land like that these days; how did they even find it? Weren't they fighting?

"How are we here?" Seojin stammered as he pulled his hands up, still crude. He looked at his brother with a mixture of surprise and amusement. He had to admit that it was a valid question. The two of them had been at each other's throats just moments ago, arguing over something vague.

Yet here they were, sitting side by side in the middle of an idyllic meadow, the tension between them dissipating like the morning mist. Seojin couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of magic at work, some invisible force that had brought them to this serene haven.

"Seojin ah, come on!"

With a beautiful golden glow covering the meadow, the sun seemed so alluring as it started to set. The sunlight danced on the wildflowers, creating a picturesque scene that resembled something straight out of a fairytale.

Seojin hesitated for a moment, his eyes scanning the vast expanse of the meadow. He couldn't resist the challenge from his twin, especially when it involved choosing his own reward.

With a determined look on his face, he finally nodded and said, "Alright, let's race! But remember, I won't go easy on you!"

With that, he strode down towards the road with gusto, taking off both shoes as though they were nothing but little rocks in the mud. Seojin's bare feet sank into the soft grass as he picked up speed, feeling the cool earth beneath him.

The wind tousled his hair as he sprinted, Sejin following close. His heart was pounding with excitement and determination. As he raced towards the finish line, Seojin couldn't help but imagine the glorious reward that awaited him, fuelling his determination to win.

However, just as Seojin was about to cross the finish line, his shoelaces got tangled up in the grass, causing him to trip and fall flat on his face. Sejin, who had been right behind him, didn't stop and quickly moved around Seojin, narrowly avoiding a collision.

As Seojin struggled to untangle his shoelaces, he watched in disappointment as Sejin effortlessly crossed the finish line, claiming victory.

But he wasn't wearing shoes just now? How could his shoelace even get tangled?

"When did I wear shoes, Sejin?" He looked up, confused.

Sejin chuckled, realising his mistake. "Oops, my bad. I guess I got carried away with the race. There aren't any shoes, Seojin-ah; they're mom's hands, whom I burned alive."

Seojin's confusion turned to horror as his brother's words sank in. "What are you talking about, Sejin?" he stammered, his heart pounding in his chest.

Sejin's laughter echoed through the open field, sending chills down Seojin's spine. Seojin couldn't figure out how his brother could make such a twisted joke, prompting him to worry whether there was anything truly wrong with Sejin's head.

"Why don't you look down?" Sejin's eyes were downcast, his voice thickly laced with grime, and Seojin felt a knot forming in his stomach.

Reluctantly, Seojin followed his brother's gaze and was met with a horrifying sight: his mother's body lying on the ground, the hands gripping at his ankles.

"Come with me..."
With her breathing slowly slowing, blood-soaked white clothes covered her from top to bottom.

Seojin pulled away, suddenly lifting his head up onto his finding his father, who was staring back at him, his body still muggy and his head bloody, just like he had seen years ago.

"Come with us, son," he whispered, a smile stretching across his face. "You, me, and your mother."

Something coiled inside his throat, leaving him dead and robbing him of any life or will. He stayed on the ground, still, feeling the hands crawl up his legs and the grip tightening. He watched in disbelief as he accepted the truth- this was not his father.

Panic pulsed through his veins, and he fought to break free from the grip, but instead he found another pair of hands wrapped around his neck, each finger tightening in a slow rhythm, squeezing life out of him.

"Se-jin nnghh, help..." The last wheeze he could muster resulted in his vision coming to light.

"I am...helping," Sejin tittered as his face slowly contorted into a sinister grin.

The once idyllic meadow underwent a haunting metamorphosis, resembling a desolate cremation ground as its once radiant colors faded into oblivion. Drained of life, the flowers wilted, exhibiting petals now donned in a mournful hue of grey, mirroring the devastating desolation that had encompassed our world.

Lightning split the moon in half, illuminating the desolate surroundings below. The angels wept in sorrow as death danced its tale.

Eyes big, wide, and red, burning in fury, his fangs growing through his bleeding lips. The hands tearing into claws, and the horns repelling reality; Sejin looked like the devil incarnate.

"You should have known better than to trust me, dear brother."

There was no escape from the clutches of this nightmare, and he watched in horror as Sejin ripped through his body, biting and relishing the last bits of his body.

Seojin awoke with a jolt, his mind clouded, and colours twirling around him. He lay there, unsure if he was dead or alive. He blinked hazily as blinding white split into all the colours of the rainbow, his vision too sketchy.

The cacophony of noise pierced through the silence, breaking his reveries, waking him up from his dreadful nightmare.

Cracking his eyes open, he saw the feeble rays of light seeping in. His head still felt heavy, with a thumping right by his neck. He tried to move but couldn't get it off.
Strapped to a cold metal table with unfamiliar equipment surrounding him, he squeezed his eyes, trying to make out more of his surroundings.

In fear, his eyes went to his feet. There were no hands around his feet; the meadow around him had turned into a blinding grey room. As panic surged through his veins, he battled against the restraints. The metal dug into his skin, causing pain and frustration. The room seemed to close in on him, suffocating him with its oppressive emptiness.

Why him? How much time had passed? Several hours or a day? No matter how much time went by, nothing changed. The room remained the same, cold and lifeless. The flickering yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling emitted a feeble glow that barely illuminated the dim space. It offered no solace, no hope.

But it was not just the physical surroundings that tormented him. It was the haunting sounds that resonated within those walls. The continuous sobs and reproaches that echoed through the chambers, reminding him of the agony he was enduring. The screams, oh those screams, they were the most chilling. They reverberated inside his head, driving him to the brink of madness.

In his fractured mind, he had come to understand the truth about this place. The sphere that enveloped him was not just a physical boundary, but a metaphorical prison, a cell for his tormented soul. The memories of past spectators, incarceration companions to his own misery, haunted him relentlessly. Norton, Hana, Ahyun, and Chiwon, their names were etched in blood on the walls of this inescapable purgatory.

The walls of his heart, once pristine and white, were now stained with haunting reminders of their fate. Each name now reminded him of what Sejin had done, as a grim testament to the eternal imprisonment in his brain. As the cries grew louder, a chilling realisation washed over him- he was not alone in this realm of suffering.

"You woke up sooner than I expected, my dear brother," the man said plaintively through a yawn. "I calculated it to be at least," Sejin turned his wrist to keenly read the analogue clock, "at least seventy-four minutes more."

Seojin kept reading him as the words choked out inside him like an anchor dragging against his ribcage, weighing down his every breath. He wasn't ready yet. Too messed up to fight for his life.

Sejin let out a tired chuckle, rubbing his eyes. "Well, I guess I underestimated your ability to rise early. Perhaps I should recalibrate my calculations for next time. But now that you are up, let's finish this up really quick."

Holding the steel tray, he pushed him through the darkness, navigating his way out of the hall into a brightly lit room. Settling Seojin into the middle of the room, Sejin reached into his pocket and pulled something from the waistband of his pants. It was formed of a leathery substance with curving edges evocative of rope or fabric wrapped around animal hide. The monitor that came with it passed the scientific evaluation.

Seijin grinned broadly at it as he wrapped them around Seojin's wrists so that each would fit snugly beneath his arm, "Now that's perfect."

"What are you even trying to do, Sejin?" Clearly, their camaraderie had slipped into uncharted territory. The biting sensation of the shackle on Seojin's wrists was ominous of the seemingly innocent setting getting tainted with darker undertones. Sejin, of course, swatted the confusion away as flippantly as ever, completely ignoring his pleas.

"Sejin! What are you-" Sejin interrupted Seojin's question with a laugh, his eyes glinting with a newfound intensity.
"Trust me, Seojin," he replied cryptically, his voice dripping with anticipation. "You're about to experience something extraordinary."

It wasn't as easy as it looked; jeopardised by the numerous buttons and screens coming into view, Seojin felt like he was sinking.

As he embarked on an exhilarating journey through the connect, the catapult of life had propelled him forward, propelling him further than he had ever imagined. Yet, as he encountered the vast expanse of this unfamiliar terrain, an overwhelming reality confronted him. Doubt, like an intrusive shadow, began to infiltrate his mind, raising questions about his preparedness for what lay ahead on the other side.

Turning his head in every direction, his eyes stuck upon the heap of a man on the floor, Tobias.

"What did you do to him, Sejin? What did you do to Tobias?"

"Nothing as such, brother," Sejin replied calmly, his voice tinged with a hint of amusement as he snuck a glance at Tobias's body.
"Tobias simply had a bit too much to think and do and lost his balance. I assure you. I had no hand in his current state."
But Seojin knew better.

Catering to his plan, Sejin walked up the podium across Seojin, swiping across the touchpad, pushing and broadening the holographic screens, and tapping relentlessly. As he immersed himself in the technological chaos, Seojin's will began to waver.

The complexity of the buttons and screens seemed insurmountable, and he couldn't help but wonder if he had bitten off more than he could chew. And things got worse when the glass enclosed him, like a prey in its trap.

"Stop it, Sejin, stop this!"
"Sejin, what are you doing?" His screams kept getting louder.

Stocky yet with a countenance that bellowed courage and determination, Seojin found himself captive within a glass enclosure. Seeing the glass chamber around him, two poles staged with numerous plots of wires and fuses, his hope to scream for one last time melted to ashes as a gag crept up, probably blocking his voice forever.

Miles away from his realm, Seojin found himself part of an incorrigible madman's game. His life became a hazy nightmare; the days melded into one another as the outside world seemed to hold its breath, and time lost meaning.

__________

We are so close to the end...