𝐅𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫. | BTS |

chapter 102 ~ 𝒔𝒆𝒂 𝒐𝒇 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒔

      "Sir, who else is here with you?"

      "No one. I told you."

      "That doesn't sound like no one."

      There was a rise in tension from outside and I listened, with my breath held, as they began shouting at one another until there a slam against the far wall. Scuffling sounded and I listened to the man demand Yura get down on the floor and stop resisting. My heart pounded in my chest as I realized that it was an officer who had arrived at our front door. I cried out again and again, the sound of frettful yelling and thumping the only sounds traveling down the hallway for me to hear. The officer's voice grew deathly quiet and a whimper slipped from my mouth as I strived to hear any word he had to utter.

      "HELP!" I managed to bite out. "HELP ME!"

      The officer didn't reply. Yura's cursing thinned out until I could barely hear it and tears sprung to my eyes as I pictured him being led away. 

      Without me.

      With my good arm, I slammed down repeatedly on the door, crying out until the apartment sounded like Jigsaw's torture chambers until footsteps rushed back inside. 

       "Ma'am!" A voice called out. "This is law enforcement! I'm here to help!"

       "Please!" I whaled. "Let me out of here!"

       "Where are you?"

       I pounded my fist repeatedly on the locked door until his footsteps rushed up just inches away. His hands fumbled around the deadbolt, tugging and twisting, until he pulled away with an agitated huff.

      "I can't undo it like this." 

       There was a moment of silence as the sound of approaching sirens sung through the darkening streets of my old neighborhood. More tears rushed down my face and I began desperately yanking at the door from the inside. Help was just on the otherside, an arms reach away, but the damn door was stopping me from gaining my freedom. The officer outside pounded his fist on the door, ordering me away from it before slamming his foot down on the deadbolt. Again and again, he brought the heel of his boot down upon the metal until it clinked and crumpled, falling away to the floor with a thunk. The knob twisted and I collapsed backwards on my rear as the light of the hallway flooded into the closet, but the moment I saw the officer before me, dressed in all blank with a face mask pulled down over his chin, my heart engulfed itself in pure terror.

_

      Officer Park threw the closet door open and stared down, panting, at the young woman huddled in the far corner of the enclosed room. Her once fare, caramel-colored-skin was now sunken and pale, purple marks blooming across her face, chest, arms, legs. Her entire body looked like a bruised plum, once so sweet and beautiful, but now no more. Blood caked her left arm around her white t-shirt and the grey sock that had been tied tight around the wound. Another was double-knotted around her right foot, but blood still seeped into the carpet beneath her.

       The brunet leaned down with his hand outstretched cautiously as if she were a stray dog, trying to coax her forward with a gentle voice and sweet words that felt so bitter on his tongue. Nearly twelve years on the force, and not once had he encountered something such as this. The girl whimpered softly as his hands closed around her bent knee, his thumb brushing over her skin in slow strokes as his eyes scanned over her battered body.