"Rise and shine." Chaewon said as she entered the basement.
"Little late to say rise and shine isn't it." the wolf said.
"Oh please, what would you know about time? You have no clock or windows here." the blonde mocked her.
"Well, more than you apparently." the wolf said with a scoff.
"Why don't you just shut your mouth, doggie." the vampire said.
"You started this conversation." the wolf said.
"No I didn't. I only said good morning." she said and at that the wolf rolled her eyes.
"Fucking brat." the werewolf mumbled.
"I heard that." the vampire said as she grabbed a metal chair and placed it in front of the chained werewolf before she sat down on it.
"So, how is life all chained up and trapped?" Chaewon then asked.
"I thought you wanted this doggie to shut up?" the wolf said.
"I've changed my mind. I'm bored. Entertain me." the blonde said.
"If you unchain me then I can show you how I rip a vampire's head off. Although I doubt that you will make it to the end of that demonstration." the wolf threatened.
"Look at you, threatening me. May I remind you that you are the one all chained up and powerless and I am free and lethal?" the blonde said with a chuckle.
"So? What are you gonna do? Beat me up? Torture me? Punish me? Kill me? Well go ahead. I have been tortured, beaten up and punished for the past 9 years. I have seen it all. There is nothing I won't survive anymore. And if you decide to kill me, then thank you for finally freeing me from this hell hole." the wolf said.
"Tough wolfie. How cute. I am not planning to hurt you wolfie. Unless you leave me no other choice." the vampire said.
"Then what are you here for? To talk me to death again? I'd rather get tortured. I still haven't recovered from your previous 4 hour rant about how Handong drank your blood wine." the wolf said.
"Is my ranting really that bad?" the blonde asked.
"It is when it's about fucking blood wine for 4 hours." the wolf said.
"Well, this time it's serious." the blonde said, crossing her arms.
"I guess you are gonna tell me now huh?" the wolf said.
"Minji is making me do patrols at night and it's fucking annoying. I told her I didn't want to but she didn't care and told me to just follow her orders, as always." the blonde started.
"Isn't that what you are supposed to do? Follow her orders? She is your alpha after all." the wolf said.
"I know but we are also a family. She just never listens you know. I told her to send Dong instead of me. She is as good as me. But no Chaewon had to go anyways. Sometimes I feel like she does it to annoy me. I think she hates me." the blonde said.
"Or maybe she just thinks all your complaining is annoying. And I bet she doesn't hate you. You are her second for a reason. I think she appreciates you a lot, but just doesn't like your attitude." the wolf countered. If she was gonna have to listen to the girl's complaining she might as well just talk back and engage in the conversation.
"But I just, ugh." the blonde sighed and the wolf could see the hurt in the girl's eyes. Something was bothering her. Something that went deeper than Minji ordering to things like going on patrols.
"You just what?" the wolf asked.
"I am just, struggling. But no one notices." the blonde said softly, looking down, playing with her hands.
"Struggling with what?" the wolf asked.
"Everything just feels useless and empty. Like there is no purpose." she said.
"What do you mean?" the wolf asked.
"It's just, I used to live, or well, feel alive. Now, all I do, all we do, is sit and hide here because otherwise we will get killed. We have no more freedom. It's always about surviving but never about living and it makes me wonder if I even want to survive." the blonde explained.
"Yeah, I know what it feels like to be trapped. Freedom hasn't exactly been something I've had for the past 9 years." the wolf scoffed.
"You know, you should be happy you can at least go wherever you want. I haven't seen the outside world in years. At least you still have a will of your own. You can still make your own choices." the wolf said.
"Do I? We aren't allowed to leave this lair unless Minji tells us to. We can't go wherever we want. We can't make our own choices most of the time. All we do, all we are allowed to do, is take orders." the blonde said.
"Wow, your life really sucks. Suddenly I feel really lucky that I am chained 24/7 and get beaten up regularly." the wolf said sarcastically.
"What do you want me to do? Set you free? Minji will kill me for that." the blonde said.
"Like you want to. I bet you want to keep me here as much as everyone else." the wolf scoffed.
"Honestly I couldn't care less about where you are. Minji however does. And so do most of the others because reality is, we need you." the blonde said.
"Why do you need me? Because of my blood?" the wolf asked.
"Yes, it heals us. Werewolf blood in general is stronger but yours is different. It's the strongest blood we've ever seen. That is why you are still alive and the rest is dead." the blonde said. Hearing her say it, that the rest is dead, it still hurt her, and it still angered her. Her family, her friends, her mate, they all killed them. Oh how much she would love to get some revenge on the vampires. How much she would love to shred a few vampires to pieces. But she couldn't. Because she was locked up here, probably forever.
"You know, sometimes I wonder how we got here. We used to live in peace. How did it come to this? Why did you kill my entire kind?" the wolf then dared to ask. She had asked before but never got an answer. The blonde however seemed down to talk so maybe she would tell her.
"Because we had to make a choice. Your kind or ours. And obviously we chose ours." the blonde said.
"What do you mean?" the wolf asked.
"We made a deal with the devil. That's all I will tell you." the blonde said.
"No, tell me more. After everything, telling me your reasons is the least you could do right?" the wolf tried.
"The less you know the better." the blonde said.
"Please Chaewon, all I want to know is why?" the wolf tried again. She really wanted to know. She had to.
"No, wolf. Now drop it before I tell someone about your misbehaviour." the blonde threatened to which the werewolf scoffed.
In the meantime Minji was in her room, her ears perked to listen to the conversation between the blonde and the wolf. As she listened to their conversation she could feel her anger rise. After everything she had done to protect this pack, all the sacrifices she had made to keep everyone safe, the blonde still dared to say that she didn't care about her? She had looked after Chaewon for over 200 years and still she had the guts to say she hated her?
After a little while Minji was so angry that she couldn't hold it in anymore and she got up from her bed and for a second she thought about going down to the basement to confront the girl but then she came up with an idea. Chaewon thought she didn't care about her? She thought she hated her? Well she had no idea. But Minji would let her feel it. She would let her feel real hatred. She wouldn't care anymore. Maybe then the girl would realise how much she actually cared.
Minji wasn't the only one listening to the conversation between the blonde and the wolf. Jinsoul was also eavesdropping. And hearing everything Chaewon said just confirmed what she already suspected. Chaewon felt empty and purposeless. With their limited freedom and strict rules and hierarchy the girl felt trapped and she felt like there was no use in life anymore. Jinsoul had seen this before. Her dad went through it as well. He ended up killing himself. Not long after that her mother suffered the same fate and she was left all alone. She knew this could happen to Chaewon too if she didn't do anything. And she couldn't lose her. So she would do anything she could to save the girl.
Jinsoul got up from her bed and went down to the basement. She hesitated for a second before she opened the big metal door and she slowly walked in.
"Jinsoul, what are you doing down here?" Chaewon asked as she got up from the chair she was sat on.
"I could ask you the same thing." the older girl countered.
"I was just interrogating our prisoner." Chaewon lied.
"Chae, she's been here for almost a decade. We got everything out of her that we could. Stop lying to me." the older said.
"Okay fine Sherlock Holmes, I was just talking to her." Chaewon admitted.
"Does Minji allow that?" Jinsoul then asked, trying to not make it seem like she came down here because she eavesdropped on their talk.
"Of course not. Minji never allows anything. But I just thought screw her." the girl replied.
"You seem angry at Minji these days. Why?" Jinsoul asked carefully.
"I'm not mad at her. Do I seem mad at her?" Chaewon tried to play it off. She was not really in the mood to talk about this with the older girl.
"Yes, you do. Why?" Jinsoul asked again. Chaewon was going to talk about this with her.
"I just don't like how she orders me around like I'm some sort of slave. We used to be equals you know. But eversince she became the alpha, she's been treating me and everyone else as if we are trash while her highness is on top of the world, better than everyone else. And I am tired of it. I am worth as much as she is whether she is the alpha or not and I want to be treated like that. I used to be her friend, but now I just feel like her dog." the blonde said.
"So this is about power? About equality? Chaewon she is our alpha. She is supposed to order us around. It's how our hierarchy works. We wouldn't be able to function as a pack without her orders." Jinsoul said. She understood what the girl meant, but she also knew that that was just the way things worked in a vampire pack.
"No, this is about me wanting my fucking life back!" the blonde yelled before she stormed out of the room and Jinsoul heaved a sigh.
"You eavesdropped didn't you?" the wolf spoke up.
"Yeah, how'd you know?" Jinsoul asked as she sat down on the chair Chaewon was previously sat on.
"I'm not stupid. She's having quite a hard time isn't she?" the wolf asked.
"Yeah, she is. And I get why, I mean, our lives were great before the humans came. We were free and lived in peace. But eversince the invasion we have had to hide. We lost that freedom. We lost those lives we had and we ended up in this darkness. And in that darkness there's two kinds of people. Those who try to make the best out of it. And those who give up." Jinsoul said.
"And she has given up?" the wolf asked.
"No, not yet, but almost." the vampire said.
"And let me guess, you are going to save her?" the wolf asked.
"How'd you know?" Jinsoul asked. It was almost as if the girl could read her mind.
"Oh please, I can smell your determination from miles away." the wolf chuckled.
"Y-You can smell that?" Jinsoul asked astounded.
"Yeah, we can smell emotions." the wolf replied.
"Damn, that's pretty cool. What did Chaewon smell like?" Jinsoul asked curiously.
"Sadness, anger, frustration, longing." the wolf replied.
"Longing? What kind of longing?" Jinsoul asked.
"The kind of longing you feel when you're dearly missing something in life." the wolf said, remembering the scent, and how strong it was.
"What could that be?" Jinsoul asked, as if the wolf had all the answers.
"I don't know. But it was strong. Much stronger than the other scents. It was like, her sadness, anger and frustration were caused by her strong longing." the wolf said.
"What could she be longing for?" Jinsoul asked more to herself than to the wolf as she thought about it for a bit. The wolf on the other hand, didn't have to think about the answer. She knew. She knew what the girl was longing for, because we was longing for the same thing.
"Freedom."