Thursday, June 18, 2015

[BL NOVEL] Kill the Lights (Chapter 1 Part 4)

Kill the Lights by Janryang
Proofreader/Editor: Kaima, Hwarang

Ch. 1 Part 4


***


….Beep- Beep- Beep-

There was a rhythmic sound coming from a distance. And elsewhere there was a sound of air pumping. No… It sounded like it was coming from close by….
Mason couldn’t move and was thinking what these noises were, while he was still half asleep. He thought he’d heard this somewhere, but couldn’t place it. ‘No’, he thought, ‘I can’t think because my brain is echoing’. It sounded similar to the heart monitors and respirators in a hospital, but no way, because he was definitely dead.

He didn’t think that he could miraculously survive and wake up in a hospital, not at all. He got shot at the back of his head at a very close range. He could tell that the left part of his forehead was blown away even though he couldn’t see it. Of course the world is big, so there were probably a few who had survived a gun shot to their head, but he wasn’t one of them. The one who shot him was Aaron, in the middle of the enemy’s territory. It’s hard to survive even if you got shot inside a hospital. But then he got shot in the middle of a desert, inside a bunker, which was a 120 km (74.6 miles) away from any hospital. And there was one fake doctor who fainted. It was obvious that Mason died but…

Amidst the sounds of the machines, there were voices too. He was sure it wasn’t just one person.

“-------“

“…….so embarrassing, seriously… I can’t even show my face.”

There was an annoyed voice close by. It sounded like a disrupted radio transmission.

“Did you guys see the newspaper yesterday? The media was badmouthing about how the Hollywood’s worst scapegrace flirted with the America’s holy sanctuary. They said he doesn’t know his place.”

“It’s true. This guys is a dirty rag and obsolete.”

After hearing their sharp tongues, a woman laughed. There was a sound of someone sitting on a chair.

“And suicide? Does he actually think somebody is gonna sympathize with him?”

“What are you talking about? He’s so stupid that he can’t even kill himself properly. Don’t you see him still breathing?”

“It was probably because he was too high to commit suicide. A heart attack,” said the woman, “how pathetic! It’s not even a suicide.”

“Liz was always like this. Singing like he was screaming and whenever he appeared on a talk show, he always kept his mouth shut. And when it did open, he always spewed something stupid. All he did was acting, but he couldn’t even act because he was too stupid to memorize his lines…. Only thing good about him was his face, but now because of the drugs, he looks nothing special, more like a common junkie. But he was doing well, making troubles like any other star. So here I was, hoping that he was gonna leave all his fortune and die of a heart attack…”

“Ahh!”

“I know right!”

Everyone agreed upon hearing the woman’s honest words. For a while, people were sighing and didn’t talk. Everyone was looking at each other, and one guy started to talk.

“–Liz won't wake up right?”

Everyone got mad at him.

“No way! Dr. Joe already said it’s a miracle that he’s even alive right now. If the heart stops for five minutes, the brain stops functioning too. This guy is very stubborn indeed.”

“There is no way that he’ll wake up”. –One woman said boldly and everyone agreed with her. But another one was nervous.

“But, but what if…. he really wakes up?”

“I need to renew my house interior, but if Liz doesn’t die, that means I would have to do it with my own money”. –Her thoughtless words made everyone uneasy.

“….”

Mason tried to open his heavy eyes. ‘What are they saying?’ Hearing the sounds of the heart monitor and respirator was confusing enough. He didn’t think he was
hearing the voice of angels. It cannot be the devil either, because it was too snobby to be either of them. He was so confused.

I’m definitely dead, but what are these secular stories? Do people die and always fall in this kind of world? Mason frowned and tried to open his eyes. He couldn’t move a muscle as if he was in a scissor lock. Well, I’m already dead, so it’s obvious that I can’t move. But something felt uncomfortable, and may be if he tried a bit he could move?

“…..I think I’ll be a little sad. If Liz disappears, I can’t sell any of his gossip for my pocket money.”

“Who would buy his gossip? He did so many things that even if we sell his sex video, it’d probably fetch less than $ 500.”

“Sorry, Liz.”

We’ll definitely put your fortune to good use. Her voice didn’t sound sorry at all. Her voice was right next to his head. Mason breathed deeply and tried to move his finger. While his focus was on his finger to make it move…

“….!”

Someone’s hand approached his face and landed on his oxygen mask. Carefully the mask was removed. Cold air hit his face. A small breath came out and the finger that had all of his strength started to move, and the body that felt heavy like a rock started to loosen up. There was a tiny light seeping through his eyelids.

“…..”

White ceiling, and there were people standing around the bed. Beep- Beep- slow and stable heart monitor, and there was also the respirator sound.

‘…. So it was a hospital?’

Mason blankly stared at the ceiling and looked around. It all looked so realistic. ‘What the… am I still alive? Why am I alive?’ He slowly blinked his eyes. It was dark for a second and the bright world rushed back with stark reality.

“Why isn’t this turning off? Wasn’t it supposed to die after making a beeeeep noise?”

Everything happened like in the dramas. A bewildered looking woman was holding Mason’s mask and talking, “Is this machine broken?”. She looked down and saw Mason blankly staring at the ceiling. At first she was startled and screamed.

“Aaaah!”

“Uh, uh?” “Oh my, oh my, oh my!” There were sounds of people’s surprised tone. Mason blinked to adjust his blurry eyes. When he got used to the light, slowly the world got clearer.

It was little cold inside the hospital room. Everyone was looking at him with shock.

“Oh, my god, Liz…?”

Liz? Mason frowned at what they are calling him and got up. He was a little dizzy and stiff, but it wasn’t bad enough that he couldn’t move. Mason blinked and stared at people looking at him and carefully touched his forehead. There was no hole. There wasn’t even a bandage wrapped around.

‘Am I really alive?’ Mason was blinking while looking around the room. There was slight breeze outside the window and a warm sunlight was pouring in. It not at all looked like the afterlife.

“Oh, oh my…. are, are, are you, okay?”

A woman asked, stuttering. ‘You're right. Am I alive?’ Mason tried to ask back but stopped. He saw skinny pale hands. For a second, he thought they were someone else’s hands, but they were hands that are properly attached to his arms.

“Uh….”

What’s wrong with my hands? Mason blankly stared at his hands. The shape of his hands and palms were all new to him. He was a six feet tall mercenary. He was an orphan and grew up in a slum. There were no harsh things he didn’t do. When he grew up, he became a mercenary and everyday under the hot sun, he shoved, shot, fought, and did much more. He never rested his hands. His hands and palms were full of calluses, small scratches, and he skin was dark, tanned. But right now, his hands that are attached to his arms were new. These hands had blue vessels underneath the pale skin and had long fingers instead.

“……..”

Mason nervously checked everything. The silhouette of his legs, lying under the blanket, looked very thin compared to his. He got anxious, and his heart started beating like crazy.

“…Liz? I’m asking if you’re alright!”

This middle-aged woman was screaming at him and a pixilated middle-aged man, coughed loudly and left the room. A young man said, “I’ll, I’ll call the doctor,” and ran outside. Mason was just blankly staring at his hands and was looking at the woman who looked mad.

“What, what are you looking at?”

“…. Who’s Liz?”

A slightly dry voice emerged. It was dry, but the voice sounded very light. It was strange, but he tried to think it could be because he just woke up. It's all in his head that his hands looked strange and, his arms and legs looked way skinnier than before. It’s all because he never paid attention before and now he suddenly realized that they looked weird. –Mason tried to avoid this reality, and the woman looked a little surprised that Mason asked her that question. But soon she frowned.

“Okay. Sorry for calling you ‘Liz’, Haley. You don’t have to be rude. I know we disowned each other, even so, I ran all the way here because I was worried that you were gonna die…. You are as insolent as always. I shouldn’t have come.”

She said and roughly took her purse from the table. Haley? Worry? Disowned? Mason frowned from hearing all these words he didn’t recognize, and the woman got mad and left. The door slammed loudly and there was a young woman behind that woman. She was looking around nervously and smiled at Mason.

“She got used to your nickname. You were pretty close with her when you were a child. Aunt Anna and you.”

“…. I was close with that woman?”

After Mason’s question, she awkwardly smiled and said, “You, you don’t seem to feel good today. You look healthy, so I’ll be going.” She hurried out of the room almost as if running away. There was no time to stop her and ask what was going on.

“………”

Mason was left alone in the hospital room. He stared at the door for a while and stared at his hands again. These thin hands looked like they never did any work. He slowly got off from the bed. There were many wires attach to his chest, hands, and everywhere. He took them off, one by one, but soon got annoyed and plucked them all at once. Somehow he felt edgy. With a wobbly pair of legs, he stopped in front of the restroom door.

He turned the doorknob and took a deep breath. He didn’t know why, but he felt nervous. There will be a mirror, right after he opened the door and as usual, there will be a nonchalant face like his usual self. He swallowed in his dry mouth and turned the knob and opened the door. And he froze right away.

“…!”

Right across from him, the face reflected in the mirror wasn’t his. In the mirror, instead of his fierce looking regular self, his normal black hair and a tall figure, there was a pale young man with platinum blonde hair, who looked about to faint any minute.

What is this? Mason swallowed his dry spit. ‘What’s this? What happened? Who is that?’ Mason stared at the mirror like he was nailed on the spot. He took a step back right as the door opened and the doctor and nurses hurried into the room. The guy who said he was gonna call the doctor didn’t come back, but guess he called them after all.

“Oh my, Mr. Lusk! You can’t get up like that!”

“You took out all the needles!” The two nurses sounded a little annoyed. They pressed his arm, where blood was dripping down, with a cold, alcohol swab. They glimpsed at him, and he looked as if he was a bit high. Mason looked at the nurses treating the back of his hand and looked at the doctor who was looking through his chart.

“Have you been awake for a while? Do you remember what happened? You came to this hospital because of a heart attack, last night. And your heart stopped for a few minutes. I don’t know how you are still alive, and why you were walking around, dripping blood all over the place. You don’t go to church right?”

“You don’t look like the type who believes in a miracle” –The doctor said in an insulting manner and Mason got cold sweats. ‘Heart attack?’

“I came here because of a heart attack? Not a gun shot wound?”

“… -Haley. It’s pretty serious if you can’t tell the difference between the reality and hallucination. I’m sure you understand that.”

The doctor was looking at Mason like he was the worst junkie he ever saw. Mason turned and saw the mirror again. There was the blonde man in the mirror, trembling. ‘Are my eyes crazy?’ He tried blinking a few times, but that man was still standing there, staring back at him. He was stupidly blinking because he didn’t know what was going on.

“Haley? What are you doing? Go back to your bed.”

“-Who’s Haley?”

Mason stuttered and asked–

“Is that man Liz, Ha, Haley?”

Mason pointed at the mirror that was reflecting him. That made the doctor and the nurses look at him with surprise and they whispered among themselves. ‘What is he doing? What’s wrong with him? Is it because of the drugs? Maybe he’s embarrassed that he survived when he thought he was dead?’ –He touched his face hearing some of the things they were talking about. The man in the mirror moved exactly the same way. He blinked, and the pretty man in the mirror blinked his eyes at the same time. He saw the man in the mirror moving his lips, and he touched his and felt the dried lip that was trembling a bit.

“…-Is that, me?”

His voice was hoarse. ‘That, the strange man in the mirror, is I? I’m the man named Haley?’ Mason asked with fear on his face. The doctor and the nurses stopped talking and looked at him and exchanged a few looks.

“What are you talking about, Haley?”

The doctor asked with surprise. Mason looked at the mirror once more. The mirror was still reflecting the platinum blonde young man.

“Haley? –Are you okay?”

“……”

No. No, I’m not okay…. What is happening? Who is that? No, who am I? There were many things going on in his head, but Mason couldn’t say anything aloud. His neck was growing cold with sweat.

------------------------------------------------------------------
Continue to Chapter 2

10 comments:

  1. This story reminds me "true star" (chinese bl novel).
    It seems quite interesting! I hope you will continue to translate it after "Yeho"!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with clochette this remind me of True star. I discovered your blog today grâce to chinese BL translations website and i have to say i was really happy. I like this kind of stories so much. Yeho and kill the lights are the first korean novel I read. And they are really interesting. I hope you will continue the translation of this story in the future. thank you for sharing this with us.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Violet suki: je suis allee sur ton google+ et c'est ce qu'il me semblait: une francaise comme moi! :) C'est le "grace" dans ton message qui m'a mis la puce a l'oreille! (desolee, pas d'accent car mon clavier est anglais!)

      Delete
    2. Trahie par mon clavier !!! :D
      Bonjour Clochette ! Oui je suis française. Je me doutais au pseudo que tu devais l'être toi aussi. J'adore les fanfic et autres histoires BL et j'en écris aussi en français et en anglais. Si ça te dis d'y jeter un coup d'œil tu peux me trouver sur LiveJournal et aussi sur fanfiction.net. Par contre fais pas attention aux fautes d'orthographe j'ai tendance à balancer les choses sans trop prendre le temps de corriger. :/
      Toutes mes histoires sont des BL "stories" j'écris beaucoup de poèmes aussi dans les deux langues. Je serai ravie d'avoir ton opinion sur mes écris, mais ne te sent pas obligée. Merci pour le petit message, en tout cas !

      Delete
    3. Coucou Violetsuki! Des que j'aurai le temps j'irai faire un tour sur ton livejournal et fanfiction.net
      Si toutes tes histoires sont des BL stories, il y a de grandes chances que ca me plaise! ;) J'en suis une grande fan (par contre je ne lis pas trop de fanfic).
      Bon apres-m'! :)

      Delete
  3. Now that Clochette mentioned it.. This really reminds me of true star too! Will you be continuing I after Yeho?! :DD

    ReplyDelete
  4. Now I'm curious about this novel "True Star," but I'm pretty sure the story will be totally different!! Can someone share me a link to that novel?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. here's the link: http://giraffecorps.liamak.net/unspotted/

      Delete
    2. Thank you! Wow it's really similar! But only the outdated celebrity part! I think the idea is similar, but the story will be very different haha.

      Delete