To Mustang's Inferno, RC, Diem Kieu, opheliablack, and marie david: Thanks so much for the reviews! :D All your questions will be answered soon, I'm sure (although we're only 1/4 of the way through the story). I hope this chapter gives you something to look forward to next Saturday, when I promise I will update. :)
A/N: "Sin" is Korean for "god," and I use that for the name of the primary deity in this story that inhabited Duk Hwa in the original series. And this chapter starts back a few seconds from where the last one left off, just to give a little background on what Kim Shin sees that Eun Tak missed. Anyway, please review and be sure to read the chapter next week! :)
"It's for Ji Min-hee," the Reaper says. The Dokkaebi doesn't even question whether the Reaper respects him; he doesn't care right now. He snatches the death announcement away, but he still can't read it. He turns it in the light, daring it to tell him she will die. "Progressed hereditary anemia and heart disease."
Kim Shin swears under his breath and hands back the certificate. "I'll take her to the hospital, then."
"She'll die at 4:15 this afternoon if you do not hurry," the Grim Reaper warns.
He nods and turns, then hears yelling from the kitchen. The Reaper immediately steps away from the porch, but Kim Shin does not heed him. Sunny's voice is strained; Woo Bin is afraid. They're yelling out her name, the name of his bride, the name he has loved for over almost a century and dreaded to hear echoed in death yet again.
"Ji Eun Tak!" he cries, racing into the kitchen. Her head nearly hits the floor before he slides on his knees, catching her in his lap. He lowers her from the chair and leaps to his feet.
"Big Brother, what's going on?!" Sunny demands.
Kim Shin doesn't answer. He runs out the door with Eun Tak in his arms, his pulse quickened against her dying one; he won't lose her again. No. Sin can't do this to him; fate would never be so cruel, this has to be an act of trickery.
He gently lays her in the backseat of his white van and leaps into the front, swerving out of his driveway almost fast enough to roll the vehicle. He slams his foot into the gas pedal, unable to keep up with his adrenaline, even in a car. He curses and wishes under his breath a thousand times, weaving through traffic—if he had his powers he would stop time and have her out of harm's way with no trouble at all. With his powers he could have just taken her through a door and immediately appeared at the hospital.
With his powers there wouldn't be people honking and yelling at him as he forges his way through the busy streets.
Not quickly enough, he arrives at the hospital, throws the door open without bothering to close it again, and races inside with Eun Tak. He cries out for an open emergency room.
The doctors eye him warily and angrily, when finally a young woman with lighter, reddish hair and large eyes stops him.
"What is it, sir?"
"Blood cancer," he says. "Please, do something for her!"
"Doctor Kang, a table just opened upstairs," an older, black-haired man blurts. "We can take her up there."
They force Kim Shin to remain behind while they rush her upstairs. He tries to follow, but other doctors grab his arms and hold him back. He yanks against them, watching his wife's limp body hurried away, losing life and blood faster than he can process it.
"Eun Tak!" His cry emerges weak, and they sit him down in the waiting room. He shakes his head over and over; at least the Grim Reaper hasn't come for her yet.
"It will be all right, sir," the doctors reassure him. They bring him water, food, but he refuses to touch it. They blur by, faces of ignorant sympathy and a lack of concern where it should be, focused on his dying bride. His feet launch him from his chair, searching for peace in pacing with no respite . . . as though walking will help. It stilled the pain so many decades ago, but it can't cut off the realization that his paradise of the last three years is suddenly going fading away in a hotel room he can't even access.
The clock ticks, seemingly faster and faster: she's been gone for thirty minutes. An hour. Doctors come back confirming her diagnosis, and a new shipment of treatment is arriving presently. Three hours. More hysterical families rush their bleeding patients into the hospital. Five. Sunny and Lee Hyuk eventually find their way to the hospital and wait with him. Seven hours.
Then he realizes it's 4:00.
He makes a break for the doors he saw her disappear to. Cries of protest follow him, hands reach to take him back. He evades them, watching the clocks embedded in the blank hospital walls as they tick effortlessly on, as though time isn't killing or breaking anyone. He shoves through an endless sea of faces and bodies, unwilling to let this happen again. He will save her this time, he's sure.
Five minutes; he doesn't know where she's gone. Ten minutes; he races by a staircase.
He remembers she is "upstairs" somewhere, and he catapults himself one stair up after another. Doctors protest, but they have patients to look after: someone else will stop him, if he guesses their thoughts correctly. His gaze flickers from one doctor to another. Three minutes—he finally locates Doctor Kang. He bolts to her side and grabs her arm. She looks sympathetic.
"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "The treatment was too late, and her heart is failing. The blood transfusions won't work. There's nothing we—,"
He doesn't wait for the rest. 4:14, the clock teases. "Where is she?!"
Doctor Kang glances over her shoulder, and Kim Shin leaps into the adjoining white room. Doctors mop up blood from Eun Tak's side; her face is paler than a bowl of rice. She weakly attempts a smile, then grimaces in pain.
He crashes to his knees by her side. "Ji Eun Tak!" He bites his lip, straining not to cry: he can't let this happen again. It won't.
The Grim Reaper is already here, but hesitantly waiting. Above him, a clock hits the thirty-second mark; he has thirty seconds left with the love of his life before he loses her for more time than he can stand.
Time. His whole life has been time, time wasted, time spent looking for a creature Sin couldn't stop taking from him; time he spent in pain, time he spent wishing for her to come back.
"Eun Tak . . ." His voice settles into a hoarse plea. His fingers grip hers, willing the life to return to them.
"Sarangheo," Eun Tak manages. "I'm sorry I couldn't have stayed longer."
Ten seconds—her eyes drift closed, and her breathing shallows.
"Eun Tak!"
Three seconds. Her hand drops from his, and the Grim Reaper steps forward.
"Sin, please let me save her!"
The clock freezes, with two seconds left.