I have an important question at the end of the chapter so please take a moment to read it once you reach it and possibly give me your opinion, it would mean a lot to me! It's nothing to worry about so don't worry!
"Alright, little sis, how do you feel?" Mark asks me as the sealing session ends.
I look up to meet his eyes and I take a moment to find the right words. "I... I feel really good, as if I was given a new start" I tell him, amazed by how light my soul feels now. That fear that something might come to the surface to haunt me is completely gone. I couldn't remember what this felt like, to feel free, until now.
He smiles brightly and hugs me tight. "I'm glad Y/N, really. All the dangerous memories are gone, they're all gone. It wasn't easy to reach that point, especially with everything that's been going on but you did well. So well" he murmurs before leaning back to gaze at me.
His words feel unknown, as if this is all a dream. Do-hwan decided to make me keep the smallest memories that don't bring danger to my soul because it would be a waste of energy for all of us to get rid of them, something I completely understand. To be allowed to feel like that? I don't care if I still have small nightmares from time to time, I don't care at all.
"It's all thanks to you, Mark, you too, Do-hwan, I really appreciate it" I reply, watch as the quiet man bows with a smile before leaving us behind, his job now complete.
So much progress, and Eunwoo can't even see it. He would be so proud to see how great I feel now, how much better my state has gotten. I can't wait to see him again, to hug him tight and tell him how much I missed him, how much we all missed him. My brothers, his soulmates... it breaks my hurt to hear them cry during the night only to see them smiling the next day.
I don't know in what state we'll find him and that scares me, I would never forgive myself if they hurt him badly, which leaves me with only one thing to focus on right now.
That picture.
"I need to head to Seo-joon's office, we need to do that session with the picture he brought back yesterday. It might just tell us everything we need to know" I tell him and he hums, his smile leaving place to seriousness.
"Let's go then".
We quickly reach the boss's office and when we step inside, it's to find him already ready to go. He must have been expecting me.
"You're here, do you feel ready to read that picture? We don't know what you're going to find until you can reach the information we need, it's going to be difficult, especially since you don't know how to connect only halfway" the imposing man says as he comes to join us by the door.
I nod, knowing full well that it won't be fun. Definitely not fun. "I'm ready. I can take it now, I'll be fine" I reply, to which he nods. "Just make sure to stop when you need a break. Wearing you down is the last thing we want" he warns before leading us out of the room.
We leave his corridor to start heading to our destination, knowing all the people taking notes are probably already waiting for us. The word spread quickly about yesterday's events and now everyone believes that this might just be it. The final piece we needed. All of that because someone with an ability to see the future said that the end is near.
I can't help but feel tense, knowing that a lot depends on my shoulders today. I don't know how deep I'm going to dig, I don't know all the atrocities I'm going to find and I need to go backwards, something very draining. It's not just starting from a certain point and then let the course flow, I have to swim against it.
Mark holds my hand and I squeeze back, thankful for his presence besides me. I hope I don't have to find anything about our family's death, I don't think I'm ready for that. I didn't have Jungkook seal my memory of their death only to see it again through the picture, I don't know what impact it would have on me.
As we walk through the gigantic building, I suddenly feel Yoongi try to reach out to me through the bond link and I allow him in with a relieved sigh, his presence comforting, even if he's not here physically. "Is it time, snowflakes? Do you want us with you?" I hear him ask me, his voice concerned and gentle.
"You must have felt my nerves hm? I'll be fine, Mark is with me. I just worry that I won't be able to find the information that we need... what if I was completely wrong and this man doesn't know what we're looking for? Not knowing what I'm going to find... it worries me even more, everyone seems to think that this is it, but what if it's not? I don't want to disappoint" I admit, hear his hum resonating in my head.
"It's going to be fine. You're doing your best and everyone can see it. If you could hear what they say around the place, they're all thankful for your efforts. They believe in you and so do we, snowflakes. It's okay if you don't find anything, it won't be your fault" he tells me and I sniffle, the sound catching my brother's attention.
I nod as I use my free hand to wipe my cheek, something that makes him understand I'm currently talking with my soulmate. "Thank you, Yoonie... I'll be strong and believe in myself as well, we'll see each other later? I heard you were the one given a free day with Jin today" I ask, willing to talk about something a little less nerve-wrecking while we reach the intimidating room.
"I am, we're both waiting for you, Waffle as well, we had to scold him earlier because he tried to eat one of our pillows, damn dog" he mumbles the end, clearly unhappy about that one. I giggle, not realizing how weird this must seem to everyone else around me but I don't care, instead using this small opening to have some relief.
"There you go, I'm glad I could make you laugh before you get busy. I love you snowflakes, it's okay to take a break so don't overdo it okay?" he says softly and I nod with a small smile. "I will, Yoonie, I love you".
He gently leaves my soul and I sigh in deeply to calm my growing nerves again. "It's going to be fine. You won't be alone" Mark says once sure that I'm not talking anymore and I gaze at him with a smile just as we reach the closed door.
We enter the lighted room where the usual note takers are seated and they nod at me, a small encouragement that they know I need while I reach the desk where sits one picture. One that makes me shiver.
I take a seat and grab it between my fingers, the memories of that day one I don't really enjoy. I got so close to death and I wouldn't be alive today if not for Namjoon's barrier. Me taking a picture of him, I don't know how I managed that in that sort of situation.
I try to ignore the splash of blood in the corner, knowing full well that the guys who entered our house must not have expected the surprise attack they got. "You didn't paint out house in red, did you?" I ask Seo-joon who only quirks an eyebrow at me with a shrug.
"Cleaning services exist for a reason" he replies and I sigh. Going back home might end up being more scary than everything we went through while being here. I'm not excited to go through the cleaning spree that will happen for a few days, knowing Jin as I know him.
Because we will be able to get back home one day. I just know it. This whole situation will be over and we'll be able to live a normal life, one in which I won't have to be afraid of the M.I., one in which my soulmates won't have to be scared for me, one in which my brothers can be together once again, where we can all have fun together, just like before.
"When you're ready" the boss says, his words pulling me out of my thoughts and I watch as Mark gets a chair to set it besides me before sitting down, hand reaching out for mine again.
I look down at out laced fingers, how complete I feel when my twin is with me. I am my own person, but when I'm with Mark, it's like we're one and the same, my most important family, my blood, the half to my soul. He smiles and nods at me and I nod back, eyes falling on the picture again.
If I start from how complete I feel when I'm with Mark to how I feel when I'm only me, isn't it the same for my ability? Tone down everything about it, from the feelings to the emotions, I don't want to become one with a psychopath. Just like my brother and I are two distinctive persons, I too can be separated from the memory while still being part of it.
With that in mind, I close my eyes and let my soul reach out to the picture, to become part of it instead of all of it.
And when I open my eyes, it's to find myself in a large room.I take a moment to just blink as I take in the new environment. I look down to my body. My body. Did I really do it?
It's so different from usual and I look around me, bewildered. I must have cracked the code, this... I've never seen anything like this before.
Where I normally would have to go back in the past starting from the present, connections made to memories the source would have to travel faster, here, it's like a board in front of me. All of the memories in order from oldest to most recent.
I walk around it in amazement and as my eyes fall on each one of them, I can simply know what each memories are about. "This is so different... I think I did it, Seo-joon, I did it" I whisper, unable to hear them but I know they heard me and that's enough.
I let my fingers graze some memories and I see them like flashes, brief images that give me everything I could possibly want to know from it. I shake my head, amazed and also mad that I couldn't do that sooner.
Just how much pain this would've avoided me. To have such an easy access to a person's memory, it's both fascinating and scary. I could never do this to my soulmates. This is... too much, too detailed, too personal, too invading.
But to me? This is the perfect exhibition. Images that speak of stories, all of them connected and making sense, feelings and emotions within each of them that I can understand without needing to feel them myself.
I could easily get lost in here for hours, just letting my fingers graze the memories and take them in, but knowing that what I get isn't happy memories but murders, that dims the fun, reminds me of what I'm supposed to do here.
As if guided by instinct, I make my way to one particular memory, one that looks normal but holds information about all the main meeting locations they have. Where they put their prisoners. Who of the government is paying them, sponsoring them, protecting them.
I follow the links, all of them bringing me to people like me, attached to an unforgiving life because of their abilities, families taken from them, some dead because of fighting against the chains, others pitiful, without hope, crying, like me. Maybe they're still alive.
I relay everything I find, everything I see, names, locations, a goldmine filled with nuggets everywhere I walk. This fire man... wasn't just a random puppet. They sent after me someone who knew more than he let on.
He was a spy spying on his own boss.
He was a man who fed himself on death and relished in thinking about the day of his own. His hobby? Digging and finding everyone's secrets.
As I walk around, I realize that seeing me take him in picture that day... it amused him. Wondering if I would be able to pierce his own secrets. He acted scared when Waffle attacked him, but now, I see that this was only a game for him, a play, a show for his death.
The deeper I go, the more disturbed I become by what I find. This man wasn't sane, far from it. I avoid certain memories, ones I know without knowing that I shouldn't approach and I'm thankful for it, thankful for this instinct that protects me somehow.
But then I reach a particular memory and I can't help but freeze. This... is my parents.
When they were still alive. So they really worked for them at some point. They look like they're hiding from something, shock on their face, one that I feel reflected on mine. The longer I stay in front of it to try and process that information, the more I start hearing a particular sentence, a sickening one.
"We need to breed these children, their abilities are rare and if we can get these females pregnant with males of the same ability, then the chances of the result's ability being the same as their parents is incredibly high".
Bile rise to my throat and I step back from it stumbling. This is disgusting. Is that what mom and dad heard that they weren't supposed to? Was that what they revealed that cost them their life?
Did this not happen to me because they couldn't find a male with a similar ability? Would I have become a breeding machine if they had found one? Then I wouldn't have ever found my soulmates. I wouldn't even dare approach them.
This is sick. I feel sick.
"I'm going to throw up" I blurt out as I try to disconnect from the picture, the transfer from memory to reality a blur as I stand up from my chair and hurry to the closest bin to let out all of my stomach's content.
A hand on my back rubs up and down softly as I gasp for air, unable to handle this knowledge without feeling a second wave of sickness taking me over. Disgusting. That's all I have on my mind. This didn't happen to me, but who's to say it didn't happen to others? Disgusting.
"You're fine, it's over, you're fine" Mark whispers as he remains by my side until the worst passes. I'm given a glass of water that I use to rinse my mouth and spit in the bin before stepping back to the desk, notice that Seo-joon is gone, the others getting ready to leave the room as well.
One of them walks to me and pats my shoulder. "You did it, Y/N. You gave us all the pieces we needed, we now know who is behind their group, the lawyers are going to start attacking to get the case to go faster" she says and I sag into the chair, taken aback by what I was told.
I did it? Just like that?
I turn to stare at Mark who smiles at me, eyes proud. "You did it, little sis, just like we believed, you did it". I rub my face with my palms, stuck and lost within all the information I just gained, I don't know how to feel right now.
"So what now? What happens now? Are they going to be able to find Eunwoo and the others?" I ask, watch as he nods while sitting back down on the chair next to mine.
"Seo-joon left as soon as you gave us names and locations. He was overexcited because that's what he'd been waiting for for years. You have no idea how long we've been searching for all that information. To think that a single man was holding all that knowledge to himself" he says with disbelief.
"Tell me about it" I sigh out. "The same man who tried to kill me, who killed our family for his boss is also the one who's going to bring said boss doom" I mumble before chuckling. The freaking bastard. Did he try to kill me because he wanted this to happen? Was this all a huge game for him?
"Indeed... I'm sure you're exhausted now, you stayed in there for hours little sis, I think we should bring you to your soulmates so you can take it easy for the rest of the day. The next few days are going to be intense for us so you'll have all the time in the world to rest" he muses as he runs a hand through my hair and I nod, definitely feeling tired now that everything is slowly sinking in.
We can finally see the end to this nightmare.
Alright so this story is surprisingly coming to an end. I thought we would have some more time before reaching that point but this chapter decided otherwise and while I'm not mad about it, I'm certainly taken aback!
I am left with two possibilities and I think you, dear readers, are in the best position to decide. Which one do you prefer?
1. Next chapter is the real end, a closing chapter before it's truly over.
2. Next chapter is the beginning of an after-story, so them settling back in a normal life, processing that it's over, that they can finally have a well deserved break. I don't know how long it would last for, might be simply a few chapters or a dozen, who knows? It would depend on how inspiration hits me.
I should mention as well that if you guys want this to keep going, I would switch this book from my schedule with The beauty of love, so this book would become updated once a month while the other would be twice a month.