Night had fallen over the house. The silence was broken only by the creaking wood beneath the scurrying mice.
In that stillness, Dante crept down the stairs with the caution of a thief.
Reaching the door, his hand hovered toward the handle, fingers hesitant.
Then suddenly, the light flared.
Caught off guard, he spun around.
There, leaning against the wall beside the switch, stood Jophiel.
Her half-closed eyes betrayed her fatigue, but the hardness in her gaze was enough to pin him in place.
Arms crossed, she towered over him with all the small, sharp weight of sisterly authority.
— "Where exactly do you think you're going, Dante?" she asked, her voice low but steady.
Cornered, he scratched the back of his neck, a clumsy smile, scrambling for an escape.
— "I… I was just going to visit Mom."
A heavy silence fell. Jophiel's face tightened. She shook her head slowly.
— "It's far too late for that. Besides… we went only a few days ago."
She stepped closer. Her movements were slow, but each one tightened the noose around Dante.
In front of him, she looked small, fragile even— but he knew. She was the one, his little sister, who had carried so much of his burden in his place.
Despite her young age, Jophiel was already a woman. And Dante — he looked every bit the irresponsible older brother in her presence.
When she reached him, she let out a long sigh, searching for words.
— "Dante… you've changed lately." Her voice trembled despite her effort to keep it strong. "You've quit your part-time jobs. You isolate yourself. And the few times I see you, all you do is train, over and over again."
She paused, her eyes shining with restrained worry.
— "I still don't know what drove you to…" She faltered, her throat tightening.
"…to that attempt. But ever since that day, you spend your time meditating in you room, trying to control your corruption, punishing yourself. You don't even take your medication anymore…"
Her voice broke. She collapsed against him, arms wrapping around his body as if she feared he might vanish.
— "I know you're hurting… but listen to me, big brother. No matter what happens… I'll always be here for you."
Tears slid down her cheeks, muffled sobs filling the silence of the house.
Soo Jin, trapped inside Dante's body, stood frozen.
A wave of compassion rose within him. Despite the gulf between their two lives, he felt the fragile but genuine bond that now tied him to this sister.
He lowered his head, unable to find the words.
Dante's memories of that suicide attempt were nothing but a heavy fog, a broken puzzle he could not piece together.
He longed to explain, to confide, but he had nothing to offer her — nothing but guilty silence.
So he did the only thing that felt right : he closed his arms around Jophiel and held her tighter. Tighter still, until she knew he didn't want to push her away.
— "Thank you… for everything."
Then, slowly, he let her go. His fingers touched the handle, and he cracked the door open. The night air slipped into the hall, cold against their skin.
— "If I don't come back tonight… or tomorrow… don't worry."
Jophiel stood there, frozen, her tears still fresh on her cheeks.
She knew there was more, something he wasn't telling her. But she was too tired to keep fighting against his silence.
So in one last surge of resolve, she wrapped her arms around him from behind, trembling as she clung to her brother one final time.
— "Promise me… promise me you'll come back alive."
Dante sighed. Or perhaps it was Soo Jin breathing through him — a heavy exhale, thick with pain. But he nodded gently.
— "Alright… I promise."
And the door closed on their two silhouettes.
...
Soo Jin wasn't really lying. Before leaving, he went to the hospital to see Annabelle.
Stopped above her in his hamzat, his hands tightly clasped around Annabelle's, stared at her face.
Now that he had taken control of his spiritual energy he could absorb the curse with glutonny power.
Rather than weakening him, it nourished him, like a monster that absorbs vital energy, except that here it fed on impurity.
After that, she looked more peaceful than in previous days, but the pallor of her skin and her strange blindness remained unsettling.
— "It's been a long time since I've cured someone like this. Maybe this blindness will go away later." He thought staring at his mother eyelids, a dull worry.
He could still feel the warmth in her body, and yet, something cold lingered in her gaze— an absence that stirred a deep, gnawing anxiety inside him.
Ginny sat curled up in a corner of the room.
Her eyes, full of worry, kept darting toward Soo Jin, but she said nothing.
She didn't need to. Jin already knew what he wanted to say.
Her master clenched his jaw squeezing his other hand showing the veins on his hand and arm.
That old companion—rage—was rising again.
— "You know why do i want to help you so much…?" he finally said, voice hoarse with emotion. "Not because your son or that I have a good heart, but because you remind me of someone."
Annabelle, as always, gave no answer. But that silence, pulled something from deep inside him.
A memory he thought he'd buried beneath layers of fury, but which always came crawling back when he least expected.
...
Flashback
The mountain road lay empty. The headlights carved through sheets of fog, briefly unveiling the hulking silhouettes of pines.
Inside the car, Soo Jin, curled up in the back seat, flipped through a comic under the dome light.
His eyes skimmed the panels, but he wasn't really reading.
— "Soo Jin-ah…" his mother's voice was weary, yet gentle. She glanced at him in the rearview mirror. "I'm sorry, sweetheart. I couldn't pick you up earlier. Work…"
She sighed, frustrated with herself, her hands tightening around the wheel.
— "Always running everywhere, and I still leave you waiting…"
Soo Jin didn't answer. He turned the page too hard — the paper snapped.
His knitted brow, the way he bit his lip, made his sulk obvious.
— "Ya, Soo Soo… are you mad at me?" she asked, using his little pet name.
— "…No..." he muttered without looking up. But his voice shook.
Her smile was sad.
— "I'll try harder. Promise."
Soo Jin stayed silent.
And then — everything shattered.
A violent impact slammed into the car, as if some massive weight had struck the side.
The wheel spun from her hands. Tires screamed against the asphalt.
— "Hold on!" she cried.
The world lurched. The headlights swept across trees, then sky, then empty air.
The car flipped, tumbled, and crashed into the ravine below.
After the cacophony of twisting metal and shattering glass — silence.
Soo Jin forced his eyes open. His head was bleeding, the taste of iron filling his mouth.
Beside him, his mother's breaths came shallow, her chest barely rising.
And yet — when she turned her head, she was smiling.
— "Soo Jin…" her voice was hoarse, little more than breath. "I never thought… it would end like this."
Her trembling hand reached for her neck, tugging free the necklace she always wore — an old silver pendant, worn smooth with time.
— "It was your father's gift… take care of it." She coughed, blood staining her lips.
Then her eyes glistened, and her voice grew firmer, despite the weakness of her body.
— "If I could leave you one truth… it would be this : don't waste your life chasing what fades.
I spent mine running after money for us, always too busy to be the mother and the father you needed.
And in the end ? It all means nothing. A breath… and it's gone. What remains forever… is love."
— "Eomma… no… don't say that!" Soo Jin cried, his tears blurring the wreckage.
— "I'll just… close my eyes for a moment…" she whispered.
— "NO! Stay with me! You promised me you would give me more time! You can't leave me!" His small hand clutched hers with desperate strength.
But even as he begged, he felt it. She was slipping away.
And then — an alien sound tore through the night.
A shriek of rending metal. Heavy footsteps shaking the ground.
Soo Jin froze.
A colossal shadow loomed closer. A monstrous, clawed hand ripped through the wreck, seizing his mother in its grip.
— "EOMMA!!" he screamed.
Before his horrified eyes, the creature — towering, fanged, with glowing eyes and a grotesque jaw — raised her to its mouth.
Teeth tore into flesh. Blood sprayed. The crunch of bone, the wet rip of muscle, echoed endlessly in his head.
The last thing he saw was her face, still faintly smiling… before it was swallowed whole.
Something snapped inside him. Grief and fury fused into a torment beyond bearing.
He crawled free of the wreck, legs shaking, clutching the necklace tight to his chest.
With trembling fingers, he fastened it around his neck.
Then he looked up.
All around him — demons. Twisted forms, fangs dripping, wings stretched wide.
They circled him, their guttural laughter clawing at his sanity.
His eyes widened. Tears streamed into his hairline. Terror knotted in his gut — but rage gave him a desperate courage.
— "GIVE HER BACK YOU STUPID DEMON !" he screamed, voice cracking.
— "SPIT OUT MY MOTHER!!"
The demon that had devoured her let out a booming, hideous laugh.
Then it lunged. The others followed, a tide of shadows closing in.
Soo Jin curled into himself, shrieking, powerless to fight.
Suddenly, the pendant flared.
A blinding white light erupted from the necklace, bursting outward in a wave that scorched the demons like paper in fire.
Their screams split the night before they were consumed, erased by the radiance.
Silence followed.
Soo Jin sat paralyzed, tears streaking his cheeks, the pendant burning against his chest.
Hours later, police lights swept across the ravine. They found him sitting among the wreckage, eyes hollow.
He told them everything.
The adults exchanged puzzled looks.
— "Poor kid… trauma."
— "Hallucinations, obviously."
— "We are not demon hunters."
He insisted. He showed them the pendant — but no light came forth.
They took notes, nodded politely. No one believed him.
And over time, even he began to doubt.
Maybe they're right. Maybe it was all a dream.
Until the day the Great Catastrophe came.
And in that moment, Soo Jin knew : it had never been a dream.
...
He slowly stood and walked over to the window, his gaze lost in the night.
— "You see, Annabelle… what I saw that night made me who I am now," he said, almost to himself. "A monster created by demon. And yet, when I look at you, I see my mother."
Ginny rose to her feet and quietly crossed the room. She stopped near him, head bowed, silent as ever.
Soo Jin placed his hand against the wooden frame of the window, eyes still locked on the empty street outside.
— " All of this… for what ? For them ? For a world that pretends this evil doesn't exist because they whip themselves asking forgiveness from a nameless bastard ?Where was this God when I suffered for him ?"
The silence stretched between them, but inside him, a vow made long ago.
What he couldn't do back then… what he couldn't stop… he would finish now.
He finally turned to Annabelle. His expression softened. He stepped close, leaning over her fragile form.
— "Don't worry. I'm bringing you back." He paused, eyes steady. "They're going to pay."