Disgustingly enough, sitting in your own blood wasn't the worst of this whole experience.
Well, it might've been for some people in your situation, but for you the worst of it was the unknown. You had no idea what was in front of you. You were sitting in complete darkness with absolutely nothing you could see. The air was humid, but it wasn't necessarily hot.
What a weird place you were stranded in. You opened and closed your eyelids to find no difference in the shades of black. You wondered how hot it was outside. Was it raining? Was it cold? Maybe it was a sunny and hot day, the kind where the sun layered your skin in its gentle warmth.
The fact that you missed the outside was a given. If you survived this place the first thing you'd want to do is see the sunshine. Or feel the rain, if that's what nature provided you with.
A memory crossed your mind as you remembered the thunderstorm you drove through on your ride here earlier this summer. When you first moved into the small town, you had to drive through one of the worst thunderstorms of the year. The details were still vivid in your mind.
Your hands gripped the wheel of the old, run-down impala your mother passed down to you. Driving down an old country road, nothing in sight except for the rolling hills on the horizon. Dark grey clouds covered the sky like the world was wearing one of those dark gray Hollister beanies.
Shaking the memory aside, you closed your eyes and found a comfortable angle to rest your head against the pole. Your insides shook with the constant need to eat, you could feel the muscles shifting inside you as they searched for something to digest. It was starting to get painful, and even though you had a death wish you weren't willing to suffer for it.
Sleep swallowed you whole, much to your relief. The cold you had caught went away, luckily for you, but the headache never ceased.
Pressure was put on your shoulder, and you turned your head, trying to get away from the source. It didn't leave you alone though, and it continued to shake your body gently.
"Hey, hey, wake up..." Yeosang said, shaking the hostage slightly. He felt a slight panic rise and turned to Seonghwa's direction. His hyung leaned against the wall in front of the stairs, looking at the girl with interest. He raised his eyebrows at the older as if he was asking him what he should do. Seonghwa shrugged and Yeosang turned back to her figure.
An idea sprung into his head and he lifted the plate of sunny side eggs to her nostrils, wafting the smell in her direction. The girl opened her eyes at last and locked eyes with Yeosang. The boy felt a tingle in the back of his head at the sudden eye contact and took a step back.
He didn't usually care if she was awake or not when he gave her food, but he was growing concerned this time. He even turned the light on and her eyelids didn't even twitch. He didn't know the last time someone interacted with her so his mind automatically assumed she had died.
She blinked tiredly and fixed her posture, looking at the plate of food next to her legs.
"I thought you were dead," Yeosang muttered and stared at her with wide eyes, his panic subsiding. "But you were just sleeping...."
"Can I have that?" She asked him, nodding her head towards the plated eggs and ignoring his speech. He nodded, swallowing the little saliva in his throat and recovering from the scare. He thought he had killed their only hostage.
She moved closer to the paper plate and skillfully pulled it closer without the use of her hands. She surprised him with her flexibility despite being so restrained.
"Are you still hungry?" He asked after she finished the small meal. She nodded, her expression bored but alert. This guy was her only source of food. He reached into his pocket and brought out a package of crackers wrapped in plastic. He moved to sit in front of her, sitting cross-legged and held up a cracker.
She shook her head and started to protest before it was interrupted- "Listen, I'm not undoing your restraints, so you go along with this, or I can eat these by myself."
She closed her mouth, debating her option. Her stomach let out a low growl and their eye contact faltered.
Well, might as well. It's not like she had any dignity left anyway. She bit the cracker out of his hand when it was close enough, tipping her head back and easily letting the cracker fall into her mouth.
"See, that wasn't so hard," He said as he dug out another one from the packet and popped it in his mouth, chewing as he spoke, "You sleep very deeply. I tried waking you up but you were out cold."
Why is he talking to you? You decided not to reply, although you were considering it. He seemed harmless, but that didn't convince you of his innocence completely. You had to remind yourself that this man helped with a massacre.
He was trying to open the brown package even more when it snapped and erupted in his hands, sending crackers everywhere. He managed to grab most of them, but two or three landed in the dried blood next to you. "Awe, yuck... I'll give those to San," He mumbled to himself before he finally looked back up at you, pressing a cracker to your lips.
It would've been funny if you were in any position to laugh right now. You took the cracker and watched as the boy brushed the floor crackers into a small pile beside him, dried flakes of blood sticking to their sides.
"I wouldn't say I'm a deep sleeper," You spoke up gently, testing the waters for a conversation. Lord knows how much you needed one.
"I thought you were dead," He chuckled and began fishing out more crackers. "I thought starvation might've gotten you."
You shuddered at the thought. It surely wasn't impossible to die like that. These living conditions were definitely taking a toll on your health. You were convinced you cheated death multiple times here. Even through your sweatpants, you noticed how your thighs decreased in size on the brink of starvation. It was a scary thing to witness.
You peered up at the man in front of you. It took a moment for him to catch you looking at him, but when he did he stopped chewing and stared back.
Then gave you another cracker.
The audacity.
He wasn't really trying to talk to you like Yunho or the blue-haired guy. He kept to himself for the most part, hardly looked at you.
"Do you know what time it is?" You asked.
"No, but it's sometime in the morning. Maybe 10 or 11. You've been here for almost a week." He said and passed the last cracker to you. You shook your head so he ate it instead.
He stood up quietly and picked up the floor crackers before lingering awkwardly for a moment.
"Hey," He spoke, looking down at your limp figure. You looked up at him and he couldn't help but notice the dark circles under your eyes and the hollows in your cheeks. A pang of guilt hit his chest but he pushed it away, "I haven't been feeding you as much as I should have. You look like a ghost."
You chuckled dryly, and he almost thought he imagined it.
Did she laugh? Surprised was an understatement- nobody would laugh in the situation she's in. But sure enough, he saw the dry smile your cracked lips gave.
"You think that's my fault?" She asked, and Yeosang looked at her confused. "I was thrown into a basement after witnessing mass murder. I don't exactly feel dandy."
He shook his head and turned his back to her, feeling strange but he didn't mention it. He threw a glance in Seonghwa's direction, who was still watching her. He glanced back at him in acknowledgment. He turned the light off before leaving her in the darkness once more.
⤜⚘⤛
"You're going to get yourself killed."
"Will you shut up, Sara?"
"I'm being realistic my guy. You're not gonna make it." Sara watched in amusement as her friend was trying- and failing- to climb over a fence to the parking lot of the crime scene. It was currently late evening, the workday over, nobody was left in the East River Mall. Nobody was left to guard it either, all the evidence had been collected and taken to be investigated. All that was left was a messy, recently abandoned mall and a sad feeling. "Can't we just open the gate?"
"It's locked," Nalini grumbled as she kicked her leg over the top of the fence with a grunt. Beside her, Sarah backed up and threw herself onto the gate, the sheer force snapped the pathetic lock open and sent the girl twisting on the ground.
Now sitting at the top of the 10ft fence, Nalini watched her friend recover with a shocked expression. Sara stood up and brushed the dirt off her butt, giving her friend two thumbs-up and a cheerful smile.
"I climbed this for nothing?" She mumbled and scratched her thick black hair which was tied behind her head, sighing before treading down. The two girls headed to the entrance.
"Okay smartass, how are we going to get in? The doors are locked." And she was right, once they approached the entrance the glass doors refused to open.
"I came prepared. Have some faith in me," Nalini twisted and grabbed a hold of her backpack, searching through its contents before pulling out a ring of different little rod things.
"Oh my god, when did you become a locksmith?" Sara asked and watched in amusement as Nalini became possessed by Alfred Hobbs. Even if they were sitting there for quite a while, Nalini eventually got the lock open. Nalini stood tall and swiftly opened the double doors, walking bravely into the empty mall.
"So why didn't you use that on the gate?" Sara asked casually from behind, taking the small flashlight from her bag and turning it on. Nalini turned around to face her, opening her mouth to protest before closing it again.
"I forgot I had it." She whispered. Sara let out a loud laugh and the brunette turned back around, 'Shush, we're supposed to be quiet."
"There's literally nobody here," Her friend retorted as she looked around, her volume still somewhat loud.
Nalini groaned inwardly and got to work. Searching around the dark deserted mall, she looked for any clues or evidence that the authorities might've left behind using only the light from their flashlights. Suddenly, Sara heard a gasp and she jumped, facing the direction of the sound.
"Holy shit," Her friend said, looking at her with a stuffed animal in her hands, an alpaca with a red thing around its neck. "They have BT21 merch-"
"Put it down."
"-Look how vintage-"
"Nalini," Sara interrupted her. "Focus."
Nalini frowned and put the white alpaca back on the shelf. She eyed some keychains besides the display before shoving an identical alpaca keychain into her backpack.
After a few minutes of looking around, they were ready to give up hope. Nalini made camp on the floor with a blanket for a makeshift mattress with the mall to themselves. Sara was snacking on some chips that she found.
"Those are probably old," Nalini had mentioned.
"They're chips. They won't go bad after a week."
Nalini kept tossing the flashlight into the air and catching it, watching as the light flicked around the walls. When the light landed on a glass window, it got reflected across the room and lit up the small portion of the mall they were in. Nalini took a deep breath and closed her eyes, the smell of cleaning alcohol filling her nostrils. This place probably got a deep cleaning after the murders.
As the flashlight flashed around her once more, something on the ceiling caught her eyes. She pointed the flashlight in its direction.
"A camera," She sat up suddenly, Sara looked up from her phone and followed her eyes. "Security cameras! Why didn't I think of this earlier?"
Sarah turned back towards her, watching as Nalini stood up from her seat and started in a direction. She groaned, putting her chips to the side and following after her and her newfound revelation. "What are you doing?"
Nalini started to jog around the perimeter of the mall, her eyes searching every wall and door for something. "We need to find the security room."
She already knew where she was going with this, "They probably removed the footage from the cameras. The chances of you actually seeing what happened that day is slim to none."
"But there's still a chance." She said. "And I'm not going to give up this easily. If someone was paying to Mr. Sookyun to stay quiet, I wanna know why."
And so, the smaller girl continued her search, finally coming across an unlabeled grey door next to the public restrooms. She beckoned Sara closer before she slipped into the hallway. It was pitch black, and darker than the rest of the mall. She opened every door in that hallway and peeked inside, smiling in victory when she came across the one she wanted.
The security room was smaller than she expected. She let her gaze wander around the room before it eventually landed on the screens in front of a large desk. there were about nine in total, but the screens were blank instead of displaying the camera angles.
When they turned the devices on. Nalini's hand reached out to rewind the track. "Wait, stop."
"What?" She turned to her partner in crime, looking at her eagerly. They were so close, so close to discovering what happened that day. Nalini was brimming with excitement and nervousness, this interruption by Sarah frustrated her.
"Are you sure you wanna see this?" She asked after a moment, her wide eyes searching Nalini's. "This footage... it's a genocide caught on camera. This shit messes with your brain, Nalini." Her voice wavered slightly, but she kept going. "Are you sure about this?"
The tanner girl gulped, looking back down at the screen, her hand hovering over the rewind button with Sarah's on top of hers.
"I need to know what happened." She said finally, turning to her with perseverance.
That's when Sarah saw it- the spark in her eyes. The fire that lit when she got fixated on a goal, whether it was getting a cat out of a tree or running the last lap on the track field. She knew there was no stopping her.
She let go of her wrist, stalling for a second before turning away. "I'll wait outside..." She mumbled before she hurriedly stepped off. She, unlike Nalini, didn't want to witness such a traumatic event caught on camera. She knew it would keep her up at night.
She waited at the little fort they created, sitting on the blanket Sarah left out. She waited patiently, in all honestly, she just hoped when Nalini came out that she'd be okay. Playing with the rings on her fingers, she sat in silence until she heard a door open.
She turned towards the security room, "Nalini?" She asked carefully. She paused for a second when she realized nobody was there.
She jumped at the sound of a voice. "Hey! You there!"
"Fuck-" She mumbled and scrambled to her feet, running towards the security room.
"Hey! Stop right there!" The policeman exclaimed and pointed a flashlight at the girl. She looked behind her shoulder for only a brief moment before she collided with someone.
"Sarah!" Nalini exclaimed and helped her off the ground. She opened her mouth to say something before she was interrupted. "Somone survived! I saw it, they took someone-"
"We have to go!" Sarah exclaimed as she started pushing Nalini towards one of the exits. "Now."
The girls ran- very clumsily- towards the nearest exit and booked it towards their getaway car. Hopping the fence, Nalini turned around once she reached the top of the metal fence. The policeman was running after them, but not very fast. She took one last look at the mall, she'd never be able to see it the same anymore.
"Nalini!" Sarah called. Apparently, while Nalini was zoning out, she had started the car and pulled it up to the base of the fence. "Hurry up, c'mon!"
Nalini hopped down and slid into the passenger's seat, very out of breath, watching the policeman run after their car as their car sped away.
"Stupid teenagers," He cursed, hands on his knees as he tried to regain his breath. Beads of sweat rolled down his face as he watched the headlights fade out behind the forest.
"So? What'd you see?" Sarah asked once the adrenaline high wore off.
"They deleted most of the footage." She mumbled. "And I don't think it was the police that did it. I think those guys had this all planned. I saw nothing, except for the very end." She gulped and scratched her head. Her friend gave her a glance of sympathy.
"Thos whole operation was planned out. Even if I didn't see the whole thing, it was obvious. Those... attackers. The group of guys, we used to think they did it spontaneously, but the attack was so deliberate. There six or seven of them, I think, that's how many I saw. All the cameras had been cut except for one, but it only showed the end. Sorry, I'm all over the place.." She apologized, her head was hurting and it was hard to process what she saw.
"It's alright. You're not good at telling stories," Sarah smiled. "You're probably just confused as well. So tell me what happened once you calmed down.
She nodded and took her friend's advice, breathing slowly and calming down enough to tell her what happened. "There were five men at the main section of the mall, I think they killed the most amount of people. The camera started rolling when I saw one of them going towards this girl, she was trying to get a gun, I think. He caught her and made her watch something."
Nalini gulped, "...Sarah, one of the men, I don't know if it was a camera trick or something, but he just appeared in thin air. He, like, just showed up in that postal store nobody goes to. He was nowhere near there, and then he was. And he killed someone, I think she was friends with the other girl, maybe? I don't know... but then that guy just sort of dropped her when he heard the sirens. But this other guy held her in front of the police people, and they escaped. They escaped, Sarah, they didn't kill her!" She was getting worked up again. "Somewhere out there, a poor girl is being held captive by a group of murderers."
"Nalini, you're saying a guy appeared out of thin air? And then kidnapped a standby?" As much as she wanted to believe her crazy story, it was getting hard to.
"Yes. I know that sounds crazy, I still am processing everything. But I wouldn't make this up."
Sarah bit her cheek, she knew she wouldn't. And that just made it all more believable.
"Sarah... I have to help this girl." She said and looked at her. Her friend met her eyes and felt her stomach twist.
"Nalini, the more you get involved with this, the more dangerous it will get. Please," She mumbled, "Think about this."
Nalini shook her head and stared ahead at the empty and deserted road in front of them. "I have to help her." She whispered again.
Sarah knew there was no stopping her.
⤜⚘⤛
"I'm back," Yeosang announced as you lifted your head.
He's been visiting more recently ever since your first discussion. He stayed a bit longer each time, just making conversation with you. It took you by surprise how easily you two talked with each other. He gave you things like weather updates, the time of day, and all the other little stuff you missed.
"Hi," you said. Parts of you hated yourself for allowing yourself to talk so easily and let your guard down when he was around. But it's not like you were giving him your whole life story or anything, conversation with him was the one thing that kept you sane. Sometimes he'd talk about the other people in this place, and you were happy to listen.
He had mixed feelings towards you. When he first talked to you, you were quiet, like you were afraid to speak up. But then you warmed up to him enough to talk. You'd ask questions, mostly about what it looked like outside, which he thought was weird but cute.
Every once in a while you'd get emotional or heated and cuss him out, blame him for ruining your life. Which wasn't wrong, but it got annoying after a while. After discovering that yelling at him wouldn't help your situation, you stopped doing it as often, much to his relief.
"Hwa made tteokbokki yesterday." He sad and sat down across from you like he always did. "He didn't do a good job though... nobody ate much." He showed you the plate of the so-called failed tteokbokki.
"Ah, I'm flattered." You mumbled before scooting closer. You and he had a routine of eating, since your arms were restricted he'd help you get the food to your mouth. You thought it was embarrassing at first, but when you realized Yeosang didn't care it made it easier.
"Yeah, he told me to give it to you so we didn't waste food." He said when he reached out, putting the food into your mouth. "He was bullying me the other day as well, called me lazy-"
You heard a 'tch' from across the room and visibly jumped, jerking your head in that direction. "I never bullied you, stop lying to her."
"But you called me lazy," Yeosang turned to the direction of the sound as well, completely unphased by the voice. You squinted and tried to see into the darkness, but you saw nothing.
"I called you lazy because you didn't help us yesterday, Yeosang. We needed you and you neglected us."
"How could I have helped? I don't have any useful abilities."
"Don't say that. We all know you do, but-"
"We just don't know it. Yeah, you've told me before, hyung." He turned back to you, but he never reached your eyes. He looked down at his lap, he was upset about something, you could tell.
"Who are you?" You asked into the darkness. You heard a shuffle and felt your heart rate quicken as someone came to light. He was tall, lean, and his face held a solemn and reserved look to it.
"My name is Seonghwa." He said, moving to sit next to Yeosang.
"He's been watching over you these past weeks," Yeosang told you, glancing at the male who was now beside him. You struggled to understand... he's been here with you all this time? He's so quiet, you didn't even realize someone else was in the room. You thought you had been alone. Your cheeks reddened at the thought of what he might've seen while he was here.
"Me and another guy, but mostly me." He told you. Seonghwa didn't look at your eyes for too long. He could only hold eye contact for two seconds at a time before his gaze fell elsewhere.
"San and Seonghwa have been swapping based on whether you were awake or not." Yeosang filled you in. That explained why you'd sometimes hear footsteps in front of you- you thought you were genuinely going crazy.
"And you never told me?" You asked Yeosang, and he met your gaze.
"Why should I?" He asked you in return, and you felt your heart sink a bit. You thought you had developed a relationship, a small one, where he could tell you things like that. He was your only ally here, but you were reminded that just like everyone else, he was your enemy too.
You gulped and looked down at your lap. You were an idiot for feeling betrayed because of something as small as this. You knew Yeosang had no loyalty towards you.
"You should go," Seonghwa told the boy. "I'll feed her. I heard Wooyoung calling for you."
The younger boy nodded and stood up, quietly and quickly leaving. You were surprised at how his mood completely flipped, but you assumed that Seonghwa touched a sensitive topic for him.
Now with your only comfort out of the room, having Seonghwa feed you was just as uncomfortable as you imagined. He didn't like to look at you, you concluded. When you did catch him looking at you, it was always an intense stare. It always caught you off guard.
"I want to make one thing clear," He said to you, and you met his eyes. "You shouldn't get too comfortable with the people here. Okay? We're dangerous. One wrong move from you and you're dead." He wasn't trying to sound threatening, he was just giving you a warning.
Too nervous to speak, you just nodded and tried not to shrink under his glare. You thought you had been doing a pretty good job of standing your ground.
He took the finished plate of tteokbokki and pushed it to the side. "I don't want to hurt you, but I can't promise the same for the others. Just be careful and stay put. Things will get better soon."
He stood up to take the plate away before your voice stopped him, "Promise?" You asked.
He met your eyes, and for a small second you saw them soften.
"Promise."