by Graci Kim
“Hattie?” I scramble to stand. Her back is to me, but she’s wearing her golden hanbok, too. “Hattie!” I cry again as I lunge across the bed to get to her. I don’t understand how she’s here, but she’s here. That’s all that matters.
I put my hand on her shoulder and she swivels around.
“Hattie!” I say for the third time.
“Well, hello there, dear sister,” she says, smirking.
My gut drops. There’s something wrong with her.
As I take her in, her body starts shrinking. And her face melts into a new form.
“Ahh! You’re not Hattie!” I clamber backward to get away from not-Hattie. And when I look up, I am facing the most grotesque creature I have ever seen.
He’s the height of a chimpanzee, with greasy, stringy black hair and two sharp red horns sticking out of his head. His skin is the color of blood, and his steely eyes study me from underneath his thick brows. He’s wearing a small gold hoop earring in each ear, and his swollen nose protrudes from his face like a pus-filled volcano.
He sniffs the air, and his nostrils flare like those of an angry bull. “Oh, how I treasure the aroma of frightened human girl!” He leers. “What excellent room service, indeed.”
I retreat in disgust, and he chuckles menacingly. “I am very much looking forward to having a taste….” He takes a bite of the air in front of him, revealing his teeth, which look like a shark’s—sharp and deadly. The dokkaebi is definitely a creature from my worst nightmares.
“Welcome to my lair, Riley Oh.”
I hiccup. How does he know my name?
Then I remember we are inside my dream right now. I invited him in by conking out in his room. And that means he has access to my mind. Everything I know, he knows, too.
A shiver runs down my spine, but I immediately go on the offensive. “I’ve come to offer you a deal.”
He grins and a little bit of pus drips out his nose. “I assume you, too, are after the Godrealm’s last fallen star.”
I nod and try to stop my teeth from chattering. It’s not even cold in here. “I am. So name your price, dokkaebi.”
“I hope you are more fun to do business with than your mother was.” He steeples his deformed red fingers and taps them from pinky to index in contemplation. “Now let me see.” He pauses for effect, and his eyes flick from left to right as if he’s watching the highlight reel of my deepest vulnerabilities.
His eyes finally stop moving and then pinpoint back on me. “For the services rendered to summon the Godrealm’s last fallen star, I demand that which you hold dear. I demand the elemental magic that now flows through your blood.”
I freeze. Did he just say he wants my magic?
I rub my biochipped left wrist against my right and watch the gifted mark glow red. I remember how it felt to channel my inner element and spit out that little ball of fire. It wasn’t much, but it had given me a taste of my potential.
If the dokkaebi took my elemental magic, my gifted mark would disappear. And that means no matter how many times I got biochipped, my ability to wield fire would be gone for good.
But then Sora’s words from before the initiation come back to me again. What we’re looking for is your commitment and loyalty.
My success in the trial wasn’t about my ability to wield fire. It was about the way I approached the task.
Something clicks into place inside me.
My new magic might be a part of me that I’d like to nurture and grow. But I would still be me without it. I thought I needed magic to be someone. But now I know that’s not true. It’s my actions, regardless of the magic, that really count. And right now, everything is riding on them.
“Fine,” I say, holding my ground and standing tall. I’m eager for this to be over. “You can have my magic.”
The dokkaebi’s eyebrows make choppy waves on his face. He was obviously looking for more of a fight, and it’s satisfying to know I’ve surprised him.
The goblin pauses, but only for a split second. His mouth opens again, spreading a horrible stench. “Don’t get ahead of yourself, Miss Oh. The negotiation isn’t over quite yet.”
I suck in a breath. How could it not be over? There’s nothing more he could possibly take from me!
“In addition to your magic, I require something else. Something you cherish above all else. The thing you cannot live without.” His black eyes harden like coals, and I know that whatever comes next will be devastating. I can feel it in my bones.
“I demand the Horangi’s and Gom’s memories of you. You will be erased from the minds of your two clans and your two families. All of them. That is the final payment I require for delivering to you the Godrealm’s last fallen star.”
I fall to my knees. No, no, no! He has found the one way to destroy me from the inside out. My biggest vulnerability: the fear of being forgotten. The fear of being unloved by those I love most.
I pull out the vial from under my shirt and see that only a quarter of Hattie’s heart is red now. It’s me or Hattie. That’s what this has come down to.
And it’s funny, really. You’d think this would be the hardest decision in the entire three realms to make. It should be an impossible choice, like the one my eomma was faced with, having to choose between Hattie and me.
But it’s not. After everything that’s happened—after everything I’ve put my loved ones through—it is the easiest decision I’ve had to make all day. The only way I can make things right again is to take the deal. To be forgotten by both the Gom family that raised me and the Horangi clan that welcomed me into their arms. It’s the price I must pay.
I close my eyes. I picture my eomma, my appa, my auntie Okja. I picture Emmett, who, being half-Gom, will also be affected, I’m sure. I picture Sora, Austin, and Taeyo. And most of all, I picture my sister. I imagine them all smiling and posing for a family photo, and I take a snapshot in my mind. They may forget me, but I want to remember them for the rest of my life.
“Good-bye,” I whisper. “Thank you for everything.”
Then, before I can change my mind, I turn back toward the creature. “Dokkaebi!” I announce bravely. “I’ll do it.”
The goblin rubs his horns and cackles at the top of his lungs. “Miss Oh, you have yourself a deal!”
He reaches his hand toward the vial around my neck, and I scream, grabbing the glass protectively. I will not let him get his nasty red fingers on Hattie’s heart.
Instead, he clenches his fist in the air. And as something dark and icy seeps into my chest, I realize he wasn’t after Hattie’s heart.
He’s after mine.
As he pulls back his fist, a beating black heart is extracted from my chest. The dokkaebi reels it in like a fish while licking his crimson lips.
“Ahh, human pain and suffering. My favorite meal.”
Then, before my very eyes, he seizes my payment and sinks his teeth into it.
I cry out and shed tears for the life I’ve lost and the life I’ll never have. I started with one family who loved me, gained another, and now I’ve lost them both.
“Absolutely divine!” The dokkaebi licks the final bits of my suffering off his lips. Black goo dribbles down his face. “And now to deliver you your fallen star.” He flexes his small, red hand, and then calls out, “Bangmangi! Materialize!”
In a blink, a weird wooden club appears in his hand. It’s half the length of a baseball bat, but at least twice as fat, and it’s covered with pointy black and red spikes. While holding it, the creature closes his eyes and spits out words I’ve never heard before. His chanting gets louder as he waves his bangmangi in a weird dance-like motion, until finally there is an explosion of sound and light in the room.
“Well, well, well,” the dokkaebi says to me, amusement dancing at the edges of his mouth. “This is an interesting turn of events. It seems, Miss Oh, that you are already in possession of the fallen star.”
I’m already what?!
He chuckles, quietly at first, and
then it crescendos into an avalanche of sound. “Such a shame, considering that you had to pay a price, but I upheld my end of the bargain. So I believe my work here is done. It has been a pleasure doing business with you.” He starts walking toward the door.
“No, stop!” I yell. “What do you mean I’m already in possession of it?”
But he’s already gone.
I hear a birdlike squawking faintly in the distance. I listen harder, and I can hear Eomma’s and Appa’s voices, too. The sounds are getting louder, closer, and now I feel someone’s hand on my shoulder, shaking me. I must be waking up back in the real room.
And the thing is, I should be grateful that this nightmare is ending. But instead, all I feel is doom.
I have lost everyone I love, and for what?
No, this is a nightmare I would rather not wake from.
“WELCOME BACK, RILEY OH,” Areum greets me when I wake. I’m lying on the bed, and the lamps are no longer glowing blue. I must be back in the real room 44.
I rub my eyes and sit up. The inmyeonjo knows my name! Thank Mago, it was all just a horrible dream.
“Who are you?” Appa asks, frowning at me.
Six sets of eyes are staring at me. The rest of the crew must have come into the room while I was out.
A sharp pain stabs me in the chest. “It’s me, Appa,” I say, my voice shaking. “Riley. Your daughter.”
Eomma furrows her eyebrows. “We only have one daughter, and her name is Hattie.”
And just like that, the nightmarish deal I made with the goblin becomes a terrible reality. I gave up my newfound magic, as well as the Gom and Horangi clans’ memories of me, in exchange for the last fallen star. Only the dokkaebi didn’t keep his part of the bargain. Now, thanks to his tricks, I have nothing—no star and no family. Not one that remembers me, anyway.
I take out Hattie’s heart vial and hold it up for them to see. My hand is trembling so much the cylinder swings from side to side. “I know this must be confusing for you, but I have been working with you to find the last fallen star to save Hattie, and to sever the Gom’s link to the Cave Bear Goddess.”
“How does she know our plans?” Emmett asks suspiciously.
“And why do you have our Hattie’s heart?” Auntie Okja says.
Taeyo studies me. “If what you say is true, why don’t we know who you are?”
“Because,” I explain, “I met with the dokkaebi. And I had to give away your memories of me as payment for conjuring the last fallen star.”
Their eyes widen, and Sora searches around me. “Then where is it? Where is the last artifact?”
I gulp. It’s a good question. The dokkaebi played me. “Um, he said I was already in possession of it. But I don’t know what that means.”
“I don’t trust her,” Austin says, as he starts rubbing his wrists together. “We need to neutralize her before she becomes a threat.”
Hiccups erupt out of my throat and I start to panic. Think, think, think! If I can’t convince them we need to work together, our plans will be ruined. I will have given up everything for nothing.
I look at the inmyeonjo. “Areum, tell them,” I urge. “Tell them who I am.”
“She is who she says she is,” the bird-woman confirms. “She is Riley Oh.”
But suspicion still lingers in everyone’s eyes. They don’t know a Riley Oh anymore.
Austin starts approaching me, and I anxiously fiddle with the ring on my finger. Do I run? Hide? What are my options? Then I realize…The ring.
“Em,” I say, walking up to him while holding out the ring. “You might not remember me, but until a moment ago, when your memories were wiped by the dokkaebi, you were my best friend. You gave me this before I got initiated into the Horangi clan.”
I pass the ring to him, and he takes it, studying it from all angles. When he sees the secret compartment inside the band, his forehead creases into a frown. “I have no idea who you are, but this is my ring, and I never take it off.”
“And that’s Boris,” I say, pointing to the dragon-on-wheels lying on the ground next to him. “Noah lent him to us the night of the summoning, and Taeyo souped him up.” Boris’s tail wags as if to verify my statement.
Emmett sidesteps and stands protectively in front of the scaly blue scooter. “How do you know his name?”
I turn to Eomma and Appa. “I know you can’t remember me, either, but I promise, I’m your daughter, too.” I point to Auntie Okja. “Auntie O brought me to you when I was a newborn. And you raised me. Hattie is my sister.”
They both study my face and then share a confused look between themselves. And it feels like a hundred little cuts. My parents really have no idea who I am. I swallow my tears and shove my hands in my pockets. This is it. I’m done for. I wish I had my onyx stone.
That’s when my hand lands on something round and cold and hard.
The compass!
“Taeyo,” I quickly say before Austin activates the metal stars on his jacket. “You gave me this. For good luck. This is proof I am who I say I am.”
He comes over to examine it. “How weird. It looks just like my gold compass, but why would I have given it to you?”
His gold compass.
Suddenly, the final two lines of the prophecy ring like a bell in my ears:
In the one last divine, a weapon shall rise;
Unless the gold-destroyer ends the soul who lies.
“This is it!” I scream, holding up the compass. “This is the last fallen star.”
“What are you talking about?” Taeyo asks, stepping back in alarm.
I try to contain my blossoming excitement so I can explain clearly. How did I not see this earlier? “The dokkaebi told me I was already in possession of the fallen star. I thought he had duped me, but I see now. The gold compass is the gold-destroyer from the prophecy.” I push on the overlapping symbol on the back, and the triangular blades eject out. “See? It’s a weapon. In the shape of a star. It’s gotta be the Godrealm’s last fallen star!”
“Oh my Mago…” Eomma glances at Appa and Auntie Okja. “Could she be telling the truth?”
“But how can we trust her?” Austin narrows his eyes at me.
Emmett puts his ring back on his finger and stares thoughtfully at Boris’s wagging tail. “I vote we give her a chance.”
I think quickly. Taeyo had said when the Horangi lost their Gi, they started focusing on what they possessed rather than what they had lost. My two clans may have forgotten me, but like Areum and Boris, there are others whose memories will still be intact. “How about we go up to the Gi sanctuary, then?” I suggest. “If what I say is true, there’ll be people from the other four clans who’ll recognize me. If they know who I am, you’ll know I’m telling the truth.” I hold my breath. This is my ace card. It has to work.
“I believe her,” Taeyo finally says. “It’s too much of a coincidence that she had both Emmett’s ring and my compass. The probabilities work in her favor.”
Eomma gasps and points to Hattie’s heart. I look down and blanch. There is only one tiny sliver of red left on the shrunken organ. “We’ve run out of time,” I whisper, gripping the vial tight in my hand. “We need to act now.”
And that is the final push they need. Everyone stares at Hattie’s dying heart in silent agreement. I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.
“Let’s go to the sanctuary,” Auntie Okja says.
Sora nods. “You lead the way.”
With adrenaline pumping through my body, we take the elevator up to level 88.
The sanctuary is empty today. Just my luck. I was hoping for a Gi ceremony or initiation, or at least a clan gathering so I could find someone from Saturday service who’d recognize me. Instead, the goddess statues stare blankly at us from each of the six hexagonal walls.
Austin hasn’t stopped evil-eyeing me since we left room 44, and now he raises his crossed wrists in a threatening motion. “This better not be some kind of trap.”
I shake my head furiously. “No trap, not at all.” I hold up the fallen-star compass. “But as long as you trust me, we finally have everything we need. We just need the goddess to—”
There is a shift in the atmosphere, a sudden thickness to the air, and my words stop dead in my throat. I know this feeling. It’s the same one I had at Santa Monica Pier when Hattie tried to summon Mago Halmi. A fierce gust blows over the chamber, and I cover my face. That’s when I hear her voice.
“Well, hello again, my favorite new recruit!”
I freeze, and even Areum tightens her talons on my shoulder.
She has returned.
“Cave Bear Goddess?” Auntie Okja says, stunned. She bows her head automatically in reverence.
“How is she here without being summoned?” Eomma whispers to Appa, gripping his arm.
“If the goddess has an outstanding deal with a mortal, she is able to return to collect on that arrangement,” Areum explains.
Even though I saw her once before, the sight of the goddess still surprises me. She doesn’t have her Winnie the Pooh apron or saucy ladle with her today, but she’s still a frumpy middle-aged woman with frizzy hair and dated clothes.
She smiles at me with that soft, kindly face, and I will myself to smile back. Did this Korean Mrs. Weasley really manipulate us all so she and her sisters could freely roam the Earth again? What a shrewd disguise!
If the goddess has seen the other people in the sanctuary, she doesn’t show it. Instead, she pinches my cheek affectionately. “So tell me, dearie, are you enjoying the new job? Do you think you’re in the running for employee of the month?” She chuckles, and her soft belly jiggles under her knitted vest.
I keep the smile plastered on my face. I have to be careful about my next steps. Despite her convincing act, she is not the benevolent goddess we all thought she was. She’s responsible for the Horangi clan’s expulsion, and the deaths of Emmett’s mom, my birth parents, and Taeyo’s parents. She could bring on the end of the gifted clans and mortalkind as we know it. This is not a simple trade anymore.
