She hears a large door opening, her body being tugged forward. She feels the sensation of being pushed into a seat, making her gasp out at the forcefulness Park implements. She keeps the knife hidden underneath her hand, the instrument about the size of her index finger.
Park straps her wrist against the chair then her ankles follow. She doesn't bother to struggle, her sight being impaired a liability if she were to give Park a hard time. Once the captor finishes locking her to, what feels like, a metal chair she hears him leave the room. The door slamming echoes throughout the chamber then re-locking.
Evangeline sits there. Completely still. She waits a few moments to see if Park was going to come back any time soon. Going with her intuition she begins her plan. She wiggles her arms around, feeling the material of the straps. They appear to be something that can be cut through. As much as she can she starts to maneuver the utensil hidden underneath her palm upward.
The woman needs to act quickly. Anyone could walk in here while she's trying to set herself free. She stops to take a moment to breathe and gather her thoughts. Once she does start cutting through the bands around her arms and wrist, then what? Take off the blindfold. Then?
Then she will...She pauses when she hears rustling coming from beside her. Her hand instinctively pushes the knife back down as she moves her head to the side. She listens for the noise again. A daunting thought pops inside her head: was someone in here with her? Her heartbeat picks up like a drum beating inside her ears. Her skin begins to perspire in anticipation.
"Oh, princess."
Evangeline's heart drops at the sound of his voice. It was all too familiar. How could she not recognize who that was. Then her mind shifts to the utensil underneath her arm. She doesn't know where he is in the room, could he have noticed what she was doing?
She flinches when the bag over her head gets lifted. She squints to adjust to the lighting, eyes cascading from the ground up at the man before her. He smiles when their eyes meet, but the woman hastily looks away to take in her surroundings. Taehyung calls out to her, telling her to look back at him.
Reluctantly, to keep on his good side, she peers back at the man. She hates the pet name he has for her. After what she's been through in the care of him; punched in the face, strapped to a table like some live experiment, injected with an unknown substance that hurts at entry, and to lie to keep her obedient—he has the audacity to call her 'princess.' Was it to aggravate the woman? To further deride her distress.
The man standing in a black suit asks calmly if Evangeline was aware of why she's in the middle of a chamber with barely any lighting. The room smells wet. His voice echoes despite the low tone. She answers with the shake of her head, arms still fidgeting against the straps. He rolls his neck, letting out a drawn sigh. "Were you talking to another patient?"
Evangeline tries her best to keep her facial expressions dull in hopes to hide the truth. She's unsure how to answer. The way he questioned her was odd. She saw the cameras, but could they pick up on sound? If he's asking her like that then that means they saw her mouth moving and the way she looked up. However, she doesn't know the range that the camera picks up.
Does that also mean...he saw her take the knife? Of course not, her back was facing the camera and Park and her body were in the view of the metal tray. Though, she didn't think to look around for any other cameras despite the one she could see when strapped to the medical table. Her mind too focused on the only chance at grabbing the instrument.
She opts to not say anything at all, instead lowering her eyes down to her lap. She hears the tapping of his shoes as they come forward. Taehyung crouches down. The man chuckles, hand coming up to his face. "I...I almost went beserk when I found out." Then his hand lowers as he stares at his palm. "I had to do something, to suppress my anger. I told you you were my favorite. Did I not?" He looks up at the woman, expecting a response to his confession. His obsessive adoration turns sour, gaze shifting into a glare at the lack of attention. "You never answer me anymore."
He stands back up after a few delayed seconds, hand coming up to wipe at his mouth as he keeps his sharp gaze on the trembling woman. Pacing back and forth as he thinks. He's behind her now. His presence sends chills down her back. She gulps when she feels him closer, breathing in and smelling her hair.
"Act One begins now."
Her head distinctively shifts away as he moves back, coming to the front again. Evangeline looks up to see where he is. She catches him nodding his head toward something behind her. She looks over her shoulder in the direction he was staring, failing to notice another man standing off into the corner. His hand rises up to a lever on the wall.
She whips back around, this time seeing a wide sinister grin on Taehyung's mouth replacing the snarl that was once there. His hand rises then comes down. Evangeline screams as the floor underneath her opens up, swallowing her whole. She's dropped into a body of water, engulfing her almost immediately. She starts choking, not having enough time to hold her breath.
Her ears start to pop at the immense pressure. Limbs shaking and vocal cords straining as she screams underwater, struggling to remove herself from the straps. She's panicking too much. She's unable to think cognitively. The drowning woman peers up at the surface, seeing Taehyung looming over the edge.
Just, watching.
In the midst of her hysteria she tries to tug the knife back out, feigning difficult with the water blurring her vision.
She cries out, head feeling like it's about to explode. She inhales involuntarily, throat convulsing. Her eyes shut, head swiveling. She's almost close to passing out before she feels the chair being lifted up. When her head breaks the surface she coughs out the water that breached her lungs. She sounds grotesque. The sound of survival. High pitched, hiccupy. Her eyes and face red. Her whole body quivers in the seat.
What was that? What just happened? She almost died. Taehyung was trying to kill her.
Her wide eyes snap onto Taehyung when he begins to clap on each syllable. "Beautiful," He's referring to what had just occurred. Evangeline almost drowning and he's marveling at the after-math. The after math that was nothing but horrid.
His arms lower. Then he places his back up against the concrete wall. He allows her to calm down and catch her breath as he studies the woman. He tries to put himself in her shoes, wondering how it felt instead of the on-looker. He sighs when unsuccessful.
"Tell me. How was it?" Her blood shot eyes flicker up at the pseudo man. She was still caught on the fact that he was easily able to let her stay under water for what felt like five minutes watching her thrash against the restraints. Too much, yet too little was going on in her head. Her thoughts all over the place. He knows she's afraid of drowning, so why—"you're still not answering me?" Is that what this is about? To punish her for her lack of response he'll drop her in a body of water until she's on the brink of death? "Again."
"Wait!" Evangeline screeches, body thrumming at the impact. The top half of her body hunches over as she aches. She can barely think. God, she's scared. She tells herself to think of something. What words could describe what she felt. Her eyes frantically move as she stares toward her soaked feet. "S-scary...why-why did you...do that...?"
Taehyung shakes his head. "No, I know what being scared feels like. I need something more than that." Her lip begins to wobble. Was he tormenting her? How could someone say something like that? How could someone do something like this?
It hurt just for her to talk. Throat burning with each strum of her vocal cords. Her eyes gloss over with tears. She's afraid of what might happen if she continues to remain silent, forcing herself to speak despite the hoarseness. "Burned. It burned. My lungs. My-my chest hurt like-like I was suffocating...then," Her prune fingers clutch against the arm rest. "Like I was about to fuckin' die!"
A tear runs down her cheek and lands beside her feet along with the water dripping down her cold and wet body.
He grins, "And on the seventh day he rose. Born again."
Evangeline tries to hold her composure, freaking out on the inside. She doesn't want to experience that feeling ever again. She chokes out a hiccup, groaning at the pain that follows. She flinches at the feeing of a hand pushing her chin up. His hand caresses the supple skin against her cheek. They stare toward one another. She notices a second of a flicker of emotion in his gaze. His eyebrows risen.
His henchman beside the lever calls toward his boss, awaiting his next order. Taehyung holds his other hand up, keeping his eyes on the strapped woman. Despite her wrecked appearance, the snot clinging onto her philtrum, somehow the man before her finds it all ravishing.
He takes a deep breath, removing his hands from her before stepping away. "Geez, you make things harder for me, Princess." He snickers and groans loudly, arms coming out. His hand goes up to his nose, smelling the remnants of her fragrance. "Venus, time."
"12:15, sir."
He focuses his attention on the shivering woman, disregarding the blue coloring of her lips. "I want answers to my questions." He's closer now. Placing a finger on her forehead, he pushes up her head. "What were you discussing with another patient?"
Again, she's left unsure how to answer his question. If she were to lie would it make things worse for her? If she were to go around the question, would it make things worse for her? If she told the truth, would it make things worse for her? Does he already know what her and Lang were talking of and wants to see if she'll be honest.
He doesn't know what they were talking about. Yet somehow he knows she was talking to someone. She keeps her mouth shut as she holds his gaze.
They both knew she was going to lose this battle. His aura was demanding and loud. Her challenge doesn't arouse Taehyung like previously before. It strikes him with annoyance, disparagingly waving his hand.
"Again." Her mouth gapes open, the chair tilting toward the large hole. The last thing she sees before going down is Taehyung's evil smirk.
She sits there. Trembling. Soaking. Pruning. He's dropped her into the water so many times that she's lost count. She threw up at one point. Blacked out at another. Every time she comes up she begs him to stop. And when she doesn't acknowledge his questions about Lang she's thrown back into the pig pen.
Over. And over again.
She clenches her fist, but cries out at an immense burn that slices through her palm. She's completely forgotten the knife tucked underneath her hand. Evangeline swallows down the pain, trying to keep quiet. She lowers her eyes down to her hand, blood dripping down the metal arm rest.
She holds her breath upon hearing Taehyung step forward. She tries not to draw any attention to her injury, slowly meeting his gaze.
"I'll admit, I went too far—especially only on your first Act." His hand cups the side of the woman's face. Evangeline jerks her head away from the touch. Then groans at the pull of her hair upward, Taehyung forcing her to look at him. Despite the roughness of his actions, there's what appears to be sympathy in the mans expression. "I got carried away in the scene." He apologizes, "I'll have Park grab some dry clothes for you." He nods slowly, wanting her to nod along.
Evangeline nods to appease him, earning a sadistic smile in return before his lips land against her wet and matted hair.
He walks over to the locked door. "Have the maids bathe and dress her."
She's finally able to let her guard down once he's left the room, eyes closing in exhaustion.