Fallen Lightbringers' Return

"But, Christ Almighty, what the hell is going on?" Park Hansoo dabbed the sweat off his forehead. "My phone's not working either, no matter who I try to call. What a nuisance."

Kim Jyejin eyed him weirdly. Though Lee Dojin did not know who he was, the same did not go for her. That guy had been pursuing her for quite a while already, though he probably imagined he was discreet about it. 

Park Hansoo, in her mind, always had at least two other girls to his side. Every time they talked, he'd at least mention his rich dad once, and if not this then his penthouse and luxury car. Kim Jyejin loathed these types of people, and she was quick to make it clear to him. Still, for Park Hansoo, the harder the rebuttal, the greater the challenge. For him to be here, she could not imagine it as a coincidence.

"It's better if you put your phone away," Lee Dojin told him. "No matter who you call, they won't come. It is simply a needless distraction."

"Huh? What the hell are you talking about?" Park Hansoo scoffed. "I just don't have any connection right now. Just watch, I'll catch these terrorists, and get them behind bars in due time. I will get the best lawyers, the best detectives and on my family name, snuff these bastards out." He laughed. "You commoners have no need worrying about this."

Jyejin, hearing him speak, grew angry. "How the hell are you talking to your savior? Do you have no shame?"

"Wait, wait, I didn't mean it like that."

"Hush!" Park Wonho stopped them from talking. At once, it was as if they had turned mute. Park Hansoo quickly hid behind Lee Dojin, catching Kim Jyejins ire. "I think the next floor will be hard to access." He pointed at the staircases, leading up.

Lee Dojin's eyebrows raised. He was surprised by that boy's intuition. Looking at him, he did not seem the type to be so cautious and observant. "I agree."

They didn't hear anything, nor was there any weird person to be seen, but if one looked carefully, there seemed to be blood dripping down the stairs. Whatever was going on, it was close.

"Then what do we do?" Kim Jyejin clicked her tongue. She guessed it too. If all the people had run upstairs, then that must be where all the mayhem was happening. So many humans dying, then turning to dolls and attacking each other as if they were zombies. The thought alone made her shudder. "We can't go up this way."

"Wait, what? Did you say up?" Park Hansoo looked at the girl as if he had seen the dead rise again. "Are you nuts? Why would we go up? I thought we were going down!" He looked to his right. There, he saw two fingers, laying in a pool of dark red liquid. He could not even swallow, seeing such sight. And they wished to go there? Not by a mile.

"Did you not listen to the broadcast?"

"So what? Why would you trust a bloodthirsty murderer?" Park Hansoo shook his head. "No way. I am going down. You all can go to your death by all means."

"Are you serious right now?" Jyejin appeared exasperated. She'd have knocked some sense into the guy if it weren't for the perilous situation. "You can't go down. The whole place is surrounded by these dolls. We'd be eviscerated on the spot!"

"Then up is better?" Park Hansoo held his head. "Do you know how many people ran up? I can't hear a single one of them anymore. What if they have turned into monsters too? And even if not, isn't the big bad there too? What if they have weapons? You wanna battle royale them? It's suicide!"

"Guys, relax please." Park Wonho urged them to be silent. "If you scream too much, the other dolls may hear us."

"I think your worry may have come true," Lee Dojin pointed at the door. At first, they did not quite get what he meant, but as the three of them listened, they heard some dull, thumping footfalls slowly coming up.

"They're here!" Park Hansoo shouted, then immediately held his mouth. The dolls were coming up the cafe. But that was obvious, seeing as how everybody below had probably already died.

"Fast, fast, we need to hide," Jyejin urged the guys and pulled them away. "They are way too many."

Everyone quickly scrambled, as if they had discussed it prior. Kim Jyejin hid underneath a table wrapped in cloth, sitting next to the chair and holding her breath. Park Hansoo went away as fast as he could going for the toilet again. Wonho followed right behind, hiding in the women's bathroom.

Lee Dojin, he sighed, watching all the people hide, he wondered, should he follow? If anything, as a person who joined the trailer, he could easily beat these puppets. Still, this wasn't about the puppets. The scariest thing in this cafe would be the guide. If he caught her attention this early, would he be able to protect Kim Jyejin and the others? 

Thus, he hid in the closet, with a small slit letting him see outside.

The noise continued to grow louder, until one by one, mangled dolls walked up the stairs, leaving innumerable red footsteps on their path. 10, no maybe 20, stuttered around looking possessed, searching for anything in reach.

Kim Jyejin held her mouth. She saw each of their feet (if they had any) pass by her table. There was a thick smell of blood surrounding them, disgusting her thoroughly.

A doll, out of the blue, stopped moving. The others started to gather around it and searched through the floor. Park Hansoo and Wonho felt goosebumps well up to their skin as they approached the toilet. The first one even felt like crying.

Suddenly, an unknown voice came from the upper floors. "Oh God, there are some here too. Pick up your weapons everybody!" A young guy, dressed in a tanktop appeared, in his hand, there was a club.

Following right behind him, a few other people appeared, building somewhat of a group. They held various utensils, such as knives, a bottle, or even a broken broom.

"If it's only this much, we should be able to get them." Behind him appeared a group of people of varying ages and genders. The person who just talked was a young woman wearing a cap and clutching a long metal rod.

In total, they were around 12 people, just a little less than the dolls. They all charged together with their weapons and destroyed the puppets without mercy, clubbing their heads in full power, and smashing them to bits. Though they sustained quite a few wounds (some looking rather grave), the dolls fell one by one, until ending as nothing but broken corpses.

"Hah," the young guy breathed out. ".. .What the fuck is this?" His face twisted in pain, though it wasn't from the wounds. "This is harder than the time I went to military service."

A middle-aged woman leaned on the wall. Her clothes had a bloody imprint. She wept silently in the corner. Still, no one could console her, even though they heard everything loud and clear. A young child hid in the corner. Even she had a small hammer in her callus-free hands.

"Hold on, guys, do you hear this," someone else in the group spoke up. "Be quiet. There's some noise from the stairs."

The group promptly tensed up. They tightly gripped their makeshift weapon, hard enough to tremble. As the guy said, there was a sound. It was rhythmic, incredibly heavy footfalls, slowly making its way up the stairs. The ground shook a little with every step it took.

"What in God's green earth is this?" 

The young guy looked up. His weapon fell to the floor as he let go. The doorframe broke as a gigantic monstrosity, clad completely in metal and in its hand a double-handed ax, reaching from the floor to the ceiling came through. His armor clattered with every move it took, creating heavy sparks. Its eyes glowed red, though there appeared to be a black-ish aura surrounding it.

There was no one willing to fight that thing. At once, everybody broke into a dash. The young guy quickly turned around. However, the great knight moved fast, and with one swung of his ax, he broke several lamps, left a deep crater in the ceiling, and split the man in half—his internal matter splaying everywhere.

Every step it took left a deep imprint on the floor. Its rumbling was like a low-grade earthquake. It swung its ax haphazardly and destroyed everything in its sight. The group was decimated and massacred without a single chance. They were all split into pieces, several human body parts flying around. All it took were several seconds for almost everyone to die.

The child stood there, her legs quivering greatly. She cried loudly, but there was no one to save her. The knight looked at the girl, it was about to swing his ax down, yet at the last second, it moved away, its eyes glued to a wardrobe in the corner.

Lee Dojin stared at the knight, great bloodlust oozing out of him. His eyes were full of darkness, the deathly aura leaking out of him bent even the surrounding air. It was as if the grim reaper had arrived.

The armored puppet moved. No one was sure what happened. However, it left for the stairs, returning to the bottom floor once more.

Lee Dojin's party walked out. 

"This is insanity," Park Wonho muttered. His eyes shook greatly as he looked at all the bodies on the floor. It looked even worse than before. Park Hansoo quickly ran to the toilet. He retched out everything he ate.

Kim Jyejin, she could say nothing. Underneath the table, she had witnessed the terror of what happened. Her face was deadly pale, and she seemed to have trouble staying lucid.

Lee Dojin looked at all the fresh corpses—or what was left of them. Suddenly, the individual body parts started to move. He quickly backed off. His eyes opened wide. "You have got to be joking."

Kim Jyejin held her mouth. She stepped back then fell to the ground. "This has to be hell.. ."

A torso, a hand, a leg, a head.. . they all started floating, almost dancing, and moving with a thought of their own.

The people who died here had turned into dolls.