VAGUELY, HE CAN remember being taken.
They took him in the night — Jeongguk woke up to someone pressing a cloth over his nose and mouth. He struggled for a few seconds before succumbing to darkness.
He doesn't know how long it's been.
And it's his fault for being with the wrong side in the first place. He joined BANGTAN, the Resistance, as a spy for The Other Side. But he'd grown too close to the boys leading the cause and, as a result, betrayed the people he was working for.
He would do it again in a heartbeat.
Right now, his heart is beating at a lightning-quick pace as he runs away from his prison, hoping to god or any deity above that he wasn't going to be found again.
The ties on his hands — thorns — dig into his wrists and draw blood that drips as he powers through the forest, moving at a fast pace for someone who'd been recently tortured for information. Jeongguk is running on pure adrenaline and he knows that, at some point, his energy is going to run out.
He pauses, gasping quickly and greedily swallowing up air. Even after he stops for a while, his ears are still ringing and the world is still spinning.
His left shoulder aches and he looks down, gasping at the sight of words branded near his shoulder.
SUBJECT 221.
Jeongguk growls. He is not property to marked and experimented on. He lifts his hands, still bound, and stares at the thorns before bending his elbows and jabbing the thorns into his shoulder, ripping the words on his skin apart, wounding himself without hesitation.
The pain doesn't hurt as much as he thought it would, but he thinks that's because he's on the verge of passing out.
It was an impulsive decision, but he'd rather have a large scar there than once again be property of The Other Side. He lowers his hands and glances at the thorns, covered in blood, as red runs down his shirt, staining the white fabric.
He looks up, swaying on his feet. The sky looks like it's falling.
His feet give out from underneath and he collapses. The last thing he sees before he blacks out is a crow flying through the sky.
