The four travelers huddled around the fire, deep in a barn crafted from mud and stone. The walls, worn by the wisdom of the local architectural ingenuity, seemed to lean together in solidarity against the encroaching insects of the highland quite effectively. The campfire pitched elongated shadows that waved across the uneven floor, the warm glow invited a deceptive sense of safety within the humble space. While the unusual quantity of the highland mosquitos was still hardly kept at bay by the fire, the gust outside warned a frightful lament that sang through the gaps in the barn's structure. An eerie silence mixed with wooing sound of pests punctuated their momentary time to rest.
Claus had gone days without eating or drinking more than a few sips of water, she had become gaunt, and her cheek hollowed.
"Was the surprise arrangement by the Gatekeeper a gesture of retaliation, or it was simply his way of pursuing justice? However, the prophecy of the Gatekeeper's return had been actualized." Master Kwon sat furthest away, beyond the reach of the camp fire. His aged face, and his lined eyes were deep pools of contemplation. "He wants you to know that he is here. He wants you to know that it was him who killed the beast." He spoke as if agonizing his own thoughts out loud that heavy with a thousand unspoken secrets.
"Are we close to finding him?" Fung asked innocently, though she had been strangely bound to their mission since its inception. Yet, no one had instigated it too deeply.
Alice looked at Claus, feeling sorrow and sympathy for her anguish. Her heart sour for her, an actual pain that seemed to spread from her chest, and she spoke with a firm will that belied the tremor in when she spoke. "We must find a way to reunite them," she said through a tightening throat.
Master Kwon solemnly answered, he spoke with a depth of understanding that only one who had walked a similar path could possess. "If he wanted us to find him, we would have done so already. There must be a reason for why he has not yet show himself before us."
Glancing into Claus' weary eyes, Alice saw only emptiness, a void where once had burned the fire of purpose as Claus cried out, her voice raw with pain and self-loathing, "He must be still enraged at me for not telling him the truth. I didn't have a choice back then when I was but a small cog in evil's machine! There was nothing I can do even I know full well that the deal with the demons could never be honored!"
Alice shouted in response, her words a balm against the harsh truth of her confession, "It wasn't your fault!"
Claus sobbed, her body wracked with grief, "Fifty years have passed since I last saw him; I've been waiting all this time to right my wrongs."
As the fire crackled and hissed in the center of the room, the four companions sat together in a fragile, shared concordance, yet each lost in their own thoughts and guilt. The wind continued to howl outside, a dirge that seemed to carry with it the ghosts of their pasts, a reminder of the journey that had brought them to this moment, and the uncertain road that still lay ahead.
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The twilight sky blazed a brilliant orange, a vivid masterpiece of color that painted the heavens above. It saturated its warm hues on the departing figures of Claus and Alice, as Alice strolled Claus away from the village in a rickety wheelchair. The once-reliable contraption creaked beneath them, showed the strain it had endured. They made for the hilltop— a place of dreams, where Claus and the Gatekeeper had always gone together to escape their routine lives, their secrets and hopes spoken in hushed that seemed to still hang in the gentle breeze, a testament to the love that had once bound their spirits together.
"This is where he told me he'd go with her even to the deepest hole of hell," Claus uttered wistfully, the words tumbling from her lips like a cascade of sleepless nights, each one more poignant than the last.
A heavy but sweet Japanese accent of a girl came from behind an old Tung tree. "I knew I can find you here."
By the edge of the hill, a long and still shadow's head turned with awe, and quickly, he immersed himself into the darkness.
"Why do you hide? The Gatekeeper," The girl stood with her black hair streaking across her porcelain skin like tar, she continued to utter to the shadow. "You know it's me, and only me who knows your true name. Rin!"
The unusual night remained silent.
"But if you think by killing that animal of beast is going to console my pain, you are ignorant." Her words were a sharp blade that sliced with ease. The girl stepped closer into the light of the moon. Her beauty surpassed her surroundings. "Come back to me. For I have not regret anything of the past if I can only see your face again." She spoke softly and tenderly as if lovers' prattle in each other's arms.
The young man strode out of the gloom, his movements fluid and genuine, his face was strong and angular. A fire of energy burning brightly in his eyes. It was him, Rin—the same man that Alice saw in the old photo hung in Claus' apartment.
"It's you? You really are the Gatekeeper? You barely aged." The girl who disguised herself as the young Claus was Fung.
"I am sorry for the suffering that I had brought you." Rin seemed to have not yet realized the girl's identity.
Fung slowly approached the young man.
The boy's short dark hair had recently been trimmed. He had thick eyebrows, tall nose, and wore a thin black windbreaker. While Fung observed Gatekeeper, she forfeited to notice the boy had already discovered her pretend status. "Who are you? For what purpose you teased me of such fabrication." The boy's imposing rage made the land tremble.
Fung's shook in excitement and said, "I had never witness such might of pure force. You are the Gatekeeper of heaven! For you who can demand power, must lead us in hell. You are the chosen heir of Hell Lord's throne." Fung's high sharp shriek sounded as crows gathered in feast.
"I should have ended you, Hell Beast. Leave what is left of you from this poor girl."
"Leave her? We both know this girl is strong. Her fate is with power!"
"Her fate belongs to her! You cannot demand her!"
Behind the Tung tree, Claus was held back by her broken legs to join with Rin. When she and Alice overheard Fung was possessed by the remnants of hell beasts, a strong wind swept away their cover, exposing them.
"Perfect! They are here! Join me or they will die!" The beast bellowed through Fung's twisted lips, a perverse grin spreading across her face. As the possessed Fung became wildly uncontrollable, strong winds on the hilltop again harassed the woods by its edge.
"I will not join you. For what heaven and hell had done to me, I serve no one." The Gatekeeper's voice was clear and loud even in the clamorous wind.
The darkness on the hilltop gathered to contrast the bright flaming red above the village. The smoke reached high in the night sky, and it writhed, licking at the thatched roofs, consuming everything in their path. A cackle rang out — Fung's voice twisted and distorted by the malevolent force controlling her. "If you don't join, everyone will die. And it's your decision who is going to die first. hahaha. I am going to enjoy this." While the possessed Fung plagued the highland village with blazing fire, Alice and Claus were nowhere to be found. The Gatekeeper was left behind with the loud creepy laughter that could be heard for miles of halo woods.