pointed teeth || iz*one

29

Eunbi coughs and jerks her head to the side, mouth open and tongue lolling out in a desperate attempt to take in more air under the restraint around her neck.

Their kidnapper is asleep, sprawled out on the ottoman. She looks disgustingly beautiful and everyone - especially Yujin - hates it.

"Kwon Eunbi,"

Eunbi blinks in the dark, eyes failing to adjust to her surroundings from lack of oxygen.

Evening is coming on, dark purple blanketing over orange outside.

"Don't be too loud," Wonyoung's familiar voice whispers, accompanied with the soft jangling of metal somewhere in the hall, "but me and Yena managed to twist out. It hurts a little bit, but I'm alright."

Her hand feebly lifts to pat the younger girl's head affectionately, running her fingertips through slightly damp black strands before Wonyoung takes it in her own and sets it back by her side.

"I can't see, unnie. But Yena's trying to set down the lev-"

CLANG-

-loss of momentum.

Wonyoung hisses, then whimpers. "Yena!" she cries out softly.

Eunbi jerks her chin to the opposite angle in panic too quickly, swallowing back a yelp.

The girl shifts her body and they don't know if she's awake and toying with them, or still asleep enough for another chance.

The ones who are conscious hold their breath.

"Are you older or younger?" her low sleepy whisper drawls, shattering any remnants of hope.

...

"God damn it," Hyewon screams, banging her fist on the dirt. She's crumpled onto all fours and cursing the bus driver for running over a glass bottle and wasting half an hour of their precious time.

The hourglass sand is slipping through their fingers like water through a sieve.

Sakura pulls Hyewon to her feet roughly, "Just suck it up and save your anger for later," she growls, "the train leaves in fifty seconds."

Scowling, Hyewon maintains eye contact with the greasy part time driver and crumples the ticket in her fist with a loud exhale.

She lets Sakura drag her by her wrist away, looking behind her shoulder and flipping him off.

...

Wonyoung freezes in place and trembles slightly, on the edge of replying her. A wheeze of shaky breath leaks from her lips.

Before any sound can leave her, though, Yena's at her side and replying loudly back, "Older."

She tugs blindly and frantically at the nearest noose and slips Wonyoung in as subtly as she can before the girl can see anything, then pushes her to her knees like she never got out.

Eunbi's eyes and mouth are wide open, gaping, but she's powerless to do anything. If she pulled a Yujin and screamed out whatevers in futile attempts to distract their kidnapper she'd earn nothing but the lever being lifted to bring her further away from
touching the floor, and probably the deaths of one of the younger kids.

So, painfully, she just silently begs God, any being, the rocks and forest outside - if it means Yena stays alive and well.

"Older," the girl repeats thoughtfully, and the click-click of black school shoes echoes around the room as she walks. A heavy knock of rock against metal follows after, and then the lights are all suddenly on at the same time, blinding them.

A devilish grin tugs the corners of her lips upwards.

"Oh no, you've escaped," she whines. It's a tone too comical to be serious, but Yena guesses it was on purpose. "What am I going to do now?"

She turns to her left and walks towards a panel in the stone wall. There's a pattern she punches in a hidden number pad, swinging open a rectangular door.

A long metallic clink follows as she reaches in and pulls out a thick chain and padlock.

Yena turns to run, but she's at her side in an instant and pinning her down; straddling the back of her shoulders and wrapping the loop around Yena's arm.

Yena shuts her eyes in fear after she stands up and stays beside her leg.

But the girl sighs and whirls back around instead, slamming the door in the wall shut.

"Huh...?" Yena murmurs, puzzled.

"What? I'm going back to sleep," she replies in a matter-of-fact tone. "Nothing much for me to do while waiting for your Kkura. After all - she only has five minutes left to get here."

Yena's left sitting that way, held by a chained arm to the wall.

...

In the far corner of the tank where Nako pressed her body against the cold glass to stay warm, she feels it vibrate lightly when the lights are turned back off.

She can see Yena's silhouette moving about, trying to pry the thick loop off her arm.

Nako opens her mouth a little wider so the knot of the cloth settles in enough for her to take it between her teeth. She bites down on it, tugging fiercely with her hands on the knot holding it behind, but it's stuck like a dog muzzle.

She keeps tugging and picking at the fabric until it frays, though, and finally her back bangs against the tank walll as the tension snaps and it flies off her face and into a corner of the tank.

Nako grimaces in pain - her neck snapped back when her head hit the glass.

She scoops the cloth back up and stuffs it into the hole in the glass where water supposedly flows in. At least, it'd buy her some time.

filler chap