The world was engulfed in silence as they waited with baited breath for what was coming next. It was like time had stopped moving forward just for this moment.
Doyun's heart hammered in his chest loudly with emotions he couldn't recognize. He realized that the timer had stopped ticking, a side glance at his phone showed that it had stopped at 15:00:00.
Suddenly, a bright light flashed through
the sky. People moved to cover their eyes from the blinding light and just like that whatever moment they had been stuck in ,broke. The world finally took a breath and the time moved forward once again. But it wasn't the time to relax just yet.'15:00:01'
In the place of the light, stood a golden gate glowing with something ethereal, sound of trumpet echoing all across the world.
'15:00:13'
The gate was thrown open and from inside of it, what could only be called angels poured out.
Each dressed in armor made of pure silver, they glowed with heavenly light, illuminating the stars that filled the sky.'15:00:37'
After them a man covered in a snow white veil came out followed by 12 figures. The God and his twelve seraphs have descended on earth with their legion of cherubs.
'15:00:50'
The Lord turned his gaze down towards humanity and the world collectively paused in awe. Maybe what he saw, lacked in his eyes because in the next few seconds, God raised his right hand.
'15:00:59'
The awe of the world soon turned into the cries of despair as the angels started their attack. God had found humanity lacking and now they were to pay the price for it.
'15:01:00'
Cha Doyun could only stare as the people around him scattered, trying to run or hide from the beings delivering their punishment. His eyes scanned the area around until they locked into the form of the angel that struck down the cashier girl of the store behind him.
A bile rose up his throat and the 29 years old ran. The scene around him blurred as Doyun ran through the bloody, burning streets of the Southern part of Seoul. All around him, people were screaming for help, but they got killed not long after.
It wasn't that Doyun didn't hear them, he heard them and he did want to help but he just couldn't stop. He couldn't control his own limbs enough to stop running. It hurt.
He was always running from his problems. That was just who he was, he supposed. A coward who only knew how to run.'15:04:12'
After what felt like days of running, the ravenite finally collapsed on his knees. His vision swam and he was breathing hard. His hands felt sticky from all the blood on the concrete road of the city.
Doyun lost it. In the dark corner between buildings where he collapsed, he emptied his stomac. Unable to fully vomit as he hadn't eaten since the previous night, he retched in utter despair.
The tears flowed down his face freely as Doyun sniffled. His whole body shook from the overwhelming sense of guilt and disgust he felt.
'Dammit!...' he thought. He was so frustrated, so very mad at how helpless and pathetic he was. 'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!'
"DAMMIT!!!" the supposed dangerous killer screamed. 'Why!? Why!? Why!? Why was this happening!? How is any of this even real!?' Doyun pounded his fist against the bloody ground repeatedly.
Finally, the dark haired man stopped shaking and pushed himself into a sitting position. He leaned against the wall, hidden by the trash can and cardboard boxes thrown haphazardly across the ground.
Now that he got the worst of it out of his system, he felt oddly calm. Almost more rational than he had been before. Last time he had felt this calm had been right before his trial. That feeling of complete serenity.
'It's strange…' It had been more than several minutes since everything started, but the time on his phone showed '15:05:21'. Doyun wondered if the time had slowed down. Because he knew that he ran for more than just a minute. The dark eyed man might be out of shape but he wasn't that weak.
On top of that Doyun was pretty sure he should have died by now. He had passed by many of the angels, yet none of them had come after him. Whatever the reason was, it certainly proved useful for him, at least.
" AAAAAAHHHHH!!!!"
A loud scream echoed through the street. Soon the noise was followed by a wailing of what sounded like a child. Doyun flinched but moved slightly to peer into the street ahead. He could hear heavy footsteps splashing through the bloody concrete.
A small body clutching into a crying baby passed by the alley he hid in, chasing after them, an angel passed by as well. The black haired man froze. He trembled at the sight of the blood stained lance the cherub held.
Doyun wanted to help the kids but-
'What can I do?...' he thought desperately. He was scared to blow his cover, of whatever that was hiding him to stop working. The cowardly man clenched his fists.'But they are just kids-'
They were just kids, the older seemed to be around nine or ten and the other was a baby! Doyun was a coward, but was he cowardly enough to let a child die just so he could keep his cover? That was the question.
'15:05:57'
The tall man swallowed back the fear and slipped out of his hidding place. Shaking, he ran towards the source of the crying. He ignored the corpses that littered around the city by sheer determination alone to reach the children in time. Doyun only hoped he wouldn't be too late in helping them.
Cha Doyun passed alleys after alleys until he finally spotted the kids. They were cornered into the iron fence in another alley filled with trash. Over them, the angel hovered with it's weapn raised ready to strike.He wasn't sure what the hell he had been thinking, maybe he hadn't been thinking at all because the next thing he knew, Doyun was throwing a bloody water bottle at the monster.
A bottle he swiped from the hands of a dead person.'15:06:29'
Blood splashed across the white wings, tainting it's ethereal glow in red. The angel paused in it's endeavor to murder the children in surprise. It turned its attention towards him, body moving almost mechanically.
Doyun shivered. His knees felt weak and he wanted to run. Yet, he remained frozen in place, unwilling to move away. Instead, the black haired man grinned his brightest grin. It was probably shaky and most likely looked like a grimace but that didn't matter. Not at this moment, when something greater was at risk.
So grinning like an absolutely madman he felt like he was, Cha Doyun yelled out.
"HEY BITCH! COME AND GET ME!!!"
'15:07:00'
Cha Doyun was a coward. The truth was as simple as that. He never stood up for himself, never spoke up, never tried to help others, for he was scared of another beating if he did. The one time he tried to help and defend himself, he had been thrown into a cold, damp prison for eight years. So yes, Cha Doyun was a coward and he was rather ashamed to admit it.But what actually had made him, a coward, run in to save someone? It hadn't actually been an intelligent decision on his part to step in like that. Maybe it had been a pity, a guilt or maybe it had been because he didn't want to run anymore. Whatever it had been, it had landed him in a rather messed up situation that's for sure.The dark haired man swallowed nervously. The angel was staring at him rather blankly. It scared Doyun but strangely enough, he didn't regret his decision one bit. He had done the right thing for once and if he was to die he
When Cha Doyun came back to it, he was standing alone inside his apartment holding a robe, a noose that hung from the ceiling around his neck. And as soon as the realization settled, he couldn't breathe anymore. His lungs burnt for air while the noose held tight around his pale neck. It hurt. He desperately clawed at the ropes, trying to release himself. With every passing second without oxygen his vision swam with dark spots and his limbs weakened. Cha Doyun still hasn't stopped struggling however. He didn't survive through the previous day just to die like this. The seven minutes he spent trying to live couldn't be wasted like that. In the middle of a seemingly vain attempt to save himself, the dark haired man paused.That couldn't be right, the last thing he remembered was entering the corner shop to hide so why was he at ho… The thought trailed off as his burning lungs finally gave up. Once again the darknes
At first nothing happened and Doyun almost felt stupid for expecting anything. It was just a phone application after all, so there was no way it could give him real powers. He scowled irritated at himself and went to pick up his phone and then-And then, the pain came. An excruciating, painful burning feeling in his eye sockets that made him want to claw them out. It felt like his eyes were on fire, like they were slowly melting away until there was nothing left.Doyun's hands clawed at where his eyes used to be. He couldn't even make a sound as screams died way before they left his throat. It hurt, hurt and hurt. The black haired main trashed around, his nails digging into the empty eye sockets. To add salt to the injury, every last one of the nerves in his eyes seemed to have burst.Then slowly, slowly something grew inside that empty space. It grew and grew until it filled all of the empty space left by his eyeballs. The pain immediately died down
By the time the kids woke up, it was half past 6 am and the sun was already beginning to peek through the horizon. As soon as they were up and awake, Cha Doyun gave them the bottle of water and the bag of biscuits he found in the storage room of the camping shop. The dark haired man gently refused when the kids tried to share with him, citing that he had already eaten.In all truth, Doyun was anxious. While keeping watch, he had spied a great number of strange creatures that roamed the streets outside. He wasn't sure what they were but concluded that they were probably dangerous and that he had to keep the kids away from them. What if these things decided to attack them and the kids- He anxiously glanced around the room, trying to occupy his mind with something other than the pitfall it was spiraling into. Doyun knew he was being unreasonably worried about the children when they had only met the day prior. They weren't his kids for god'
The city looked worse than expected. Buildings that once stood tall and proud were broken down, eaten by plants. Cars were overturned, rusted and destroyed beyond belief. The corpses that littered the street just the night before had disappeared between the lava and the creatures that littered around the city.The earth had aged by a century within a single night. It was absolutely jarring how it had changed so much. Now, they stood in a dystopian world, abandoned by humanity. All those post-apocalypse stories paled in comparison to the real thing.Doyun chuckled in awe and loss. This was their reality now, he realized. Every single instance, he dreamt of going inside those novels and experiencing the post apocalyptic world, had come true just like that. Still, he couldn't find it in himself to feel the happiness and delight he should have. Not when it had condemned their entire world to despair. Never, when his desires had ruined the future o
When one is asleep, their awareness of their surroundings naturally drops. It is a state of being that most people liked to call half death. During this resting period, our body function slows down, relaxing the body. Sleep is when one is most vulnerable and it is the perfect time to take them down. That was what Doyun learnt from his time in prison. Taught by one of his more vicious inmates when they almost strangled him to death. That was also the reason why Doyun awoke the moment he heard the front door creak open, a door he clearly remembered locking from the inside. Several alarm bells instantly rang inside his head along with four facts that he realized.First, there was someone else in the apartment. Someone they did not know. Secondly, the kids were still asleep and thus vulnerable to an attack. Thirdly, they had no idea about the intentions of the intruder. Finally, the last thing Doyun realized was that he had to protect the c
Doyun had regretted many things in his 29 years of life. He regretted staying quiet when other kids bullied him. He regretted never volunteering when the teacher asked for it. He regretted never stopping his father when he beat his mother. He regretted letting his mother die alone, on the cold floor of their apartment. The point was that the person known as Cha Doyun had many regrets. But there were also things that he will never regret. He would feel miserable and guilty for sure, though he would never regret them. Cha Doyun will never regret his father's death who drank himself to death. He will never regret standing up for his schoolmates back then. And just like how he'll never regret protecting them, he will never regret leaving the kids behind. It wasn't like he left them forever. Just that he needed time to breathe for a while. So he decided to take a walk outside, leaving his kids in the capable hands of Lee Iseul.
Kim Sung-Jin may only be 11 years old but he prided himself on being capable of taking care of himself and his little sister in the absence of their parents. He would have gone as far as to say that he didn't need the constant fussing of his parents when he was already such a big boy. He had hit the double digits in age and would soon be a middle schooler. If everything stayed the way they were, at least. It had been two days at most since their parents died and Sung-Jin still could not get over the events of that day. What meager sleep he got to have, were all plagued with nightmares of blood and manic grin with sharp pointed lance that struck him down everytime. But Mr.Doyun's presence soothed him and calmed down the flood of fear and desperation that muddled his mind. He was immensely grateful for the tall man who saved them even though he himself trembled with fear before the monster that killed Sung-Jin's parents.Mr.Doyun th