Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Seriously. I hate these fucking things. Do we have to do this?” I sighed. My breath formed a visible puff in the air in front of me as I planted my feet firmly to the ground. Bitter autumn wind bit at my face, causing me to pull my denim jacket around my cheeks a bit more. My best friend Onew laughed and pushed me forward. The sounds of leaves crunching under my feet mingled with my whines of protest.
“Yes! You promised!” Onew shoved me and I threw my body weight back. It was really annoying that he was so much stronger than I was. He pushed me forward like I was weightless. I stared up at the building in front of me. It was a warehouse with walls that looked like they weren’t made of more than just some flimsy sheet metal. A huge banner was haphazardly hung with a font that was supposed to look like dripping blood that read, “Haunted House: Enter at your own risk.”
Despite the cheesiness of it all, I still felt my heart jumping into my throat. Although I was a Halloween fanatic, I despised horror. I hated scary movies and I refused to enter haunted houses every year. Onew had helped me decorate my apartment for Halloween, though, and he said that I owed him one. I just hadn’t been anticipating that me “owing him” meant that he was going to drag me to a haunted house. My jeans were already sticking to me from how much I was nervously sweating, and we hadn’t even gone inside yet.
We stopped out front and the lady taking entry fees asked, “how many?”
“Just one! I’m just dropping him off.” I tried to quickly run, but he grabbed my arm.
“Nice try. Two. I’m paying her entry.” I groaned and stomped my foot in a faux tantrum. The girl laughed and wished us luck. She waved as I walked past, giving her a pleading look of “save me!” I turned to stare back up at the building, and gnawed at my bottom lip, probably a little bit too hard. My heart was beating rapidly against my chest, and Onew smiled down at me.
“It’s all fake, y’know?” I nodded, but didn’t reply. As we walked up to the door, I could hear shrieks, followed by laughter. The sounds of chainsaws and evil clown laughter flew past my ears, and I closed my eyes.
Shaking my head, I turned to my best friend one more time. I shot him a glance that pleaded, “don’t make me do this!” He simply wrapped my arm through his and dragged me in the door behind him. The building was set up with a maze of hallways. Occasionally, part of it would open up into a room that had a theme. I was simultaneously panicked and impressed at the thoroughness of it all. One room looked like we had stepped back outside into a forest. Fake trees and greenery filled every space except a stone path that had been cut through the room.
I had been temporarily distracted in admiring the artistry of the room when a man with a chainsaw and a “Nightmare on Elm Street” Jason mask jumped directly in front of me. He revved the engine of the machine and a scream escaped my throat. I ducked down and sprinted around him through the room. I was almost to the door when a woman stepped in front of me. She had prosthetic make up on that made her look like a witch, just without the cliche green face paint. She reached for me, her hands withered and nails long, dirty and broken. This made me reluctantly step back toward the direction of chainsaw-man. She cackled and shrieked, “come with me lovey. I’ll protect you from the dangerous man.”
“It’s all fake.” my brain screamed at me. Yet, I wasn’t able to control my hyperventilating. I took another step back, and screamed when I felt arms grab me. I started to shove them off of me until I heard Onew’s voice.
“It’s me! It’s me! Calm down!” I turned my head and saw him laughing hysterically at me.
I reached around and slapped him. I turned back toward the witch that had been previously blocking my path, only to see that she was only a few centimeters from my face. My throat was already sore from how much yelling I was doing. She was “examining” me thoroughly. Doing circles around Onew and me, she said, “your boyfriend looks strong. Hopefully he won’t put up too much of a fight when my sisters and I try to cook him.”
Onew laughed and began to push me forward again. I didn’t even bother correcting the lady that he wasn’t my boyfriend. Once we were in the hallway on the other side of the forest room, Onew wrapped me in a hug. “You know they can’t even touch you, right? None of this is real.” I nodded, but it did not make me feel any better, even repeatedly acknowledging the fact. I turned around again and marched forward. I was determined at that point to just get through this god damned thing and get it over with.
The next room that we walked into was set up to look like a hospital operating room. There was a fake body laid out on a bed with just as fake “intestines” pouring out of it. Gagging slightly, I mentally prepared for, what I could only assume, was someone dressed as a psycho doctor to come around the corner and scream something about “wanting to cut me open.” I felt my shoulders tense as a scream from another room sounded too convincing and was not followed by laughter. Instead, the phrase, “they’re not part of this! It’s fucking real!” More screams of panic and sounds of a lot of footsteps running followed.
I reached around for Onew’s hand and his eyes grew wide. He scanned the room and pointed at the gurney that held the fake victim. He put his fingers to his lips to tell me to stay quiet. I ducked under it, trying to still be able to see under the sheet that was hanging. I put my hand over my mouth to try to keep my breathing quieter. My heart was pounding in my ears. All that I was able to see were Onew’s feet, and then another pair of feet join him in the room. I heard his voice ask, “have you heard what’s going on?”
Another man’s voice said, “I’m not sure. They’re saying something about real murders.”
Onew turned and said, “I wonder if we could sneak back out through…”
I had to bite my tongue as he was cut off and I suddenly saw a struggle going on between him and the stranger in the room with us. I saw Onew being shoved around and heard him shouting protests and profanities as he wrestled with the other person there. There was a long struggle before I heard a gag, followed by watching splashes of crimson hit the floor right next to my hiding spot. I watched Onew’s body go limp before I saw his face again as he was dropped. His eyes were empty as they met mine. It took every fiber of my being to keep my scream locked in my throat as I felt his still-warm blood begin to pool under him and stream toward me. It stained my clothes and hair.
I needed this to be a joke. I needed the gash in Onew’s throat to be fake. I needed this to be a giant rouse that he was a part of. I could not handle this being real. There was no way in hell that I had just watched my best friend be murdered in front of me. He was about to jump up and tell me that it was a joke.
But he didn’t.
I kept my hand over my mouth and could taste my own blood pooling in my mouth from biting my lip to shut myself up. It was excruciating being patient. The other person was either waiting to see if anyone was hiding and would reveal themselves, or if anybody would come sprinting through the room. After a few minutes of neither happening, I watched as he walked out, a trail of fresh blood following him out in the pattern of the prints of the bottom of his shoes. I waited a bit longer before finally allowing a sob to escape me. What the fuck was happening? The flurry of screams that had been filling the halls were becoming fewer and fewer. Was I about to walk out to a massacre? How was I going to get out of here alive? Surely I couldn’t sit around and wait. Who knew how long it would be before help came?
In that moment, an idea came to me. I reached down and ripped a hole in my shirt around my chest. I winced with an emotional pain as I reached over and took a handful of Onew’s blood and stained that area of my skin and outfit heavily. I had to lay it on thick so that it looked like an actual wound and not just a splash of red. I hoped that, at least in passing, it looked like I had been stabbed and nobody would even bother checking.
I lowered my head against the floor again to check for any signs of anybody in the room. I heard voices several rooms away, but it seemed like the coast was clear where I was, at least for this fleeting moment. I raised the sheet and saw the room was empty. Well, empty other than my best friend’s lifeless body laying on the floor. I felt tears spilling from my eyes as I climbed out from my hiding spot and had to crawl over Onew to escape.
He had died protecting me. This was my fault.
After I had moved over him, I sat next to him for the briefest of seconds. I leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to his hair. The knot in my throat ached as I tried to whisper a “thank you.”
Suddenly, I was frozen, despite every nerve in my body screaming at me to sprint. It felt so wrong to abandon him there. He had saved my life and I was leaving him here.
“Don’t make his death worthless!” my brain suddenly screamed at me. Although I felt as if I weighed a million pounds, I forced myself to lift myself off of the floor. I took a deep breath and took my first step away from Onew.
“I’m so sorry.” I whispered as I took my second step. I caught myself repeating apologies every step I took from abandoning him. I made it to the door on the other side of the room that we had entered in before. I slowly pushed to door open and peered into the forest room. The smell of blood filled my nostrils. I wonder if the chainsaw man or the witch from before were going to be who I saw dead next. The room didn’t have any immediate stirring in it, so I took a step in. I was anxious that somebody was going to jump out at me. I slowly tiptoed through the room, irritated at the attention to detail that I was earlier impressed with. Twigs and leaves cracked under the weight of my steps and I cringed every single time that they did.
Voices suddenly cut through the room as I heard people talking on the other side of the door that I was walking directly toward. I froze as I tried to pick up the conversation on the other side.
“Doyoung already did this room!” someone complained.
“Lucas,” a second voice, much more firm, spoke. “I didn’t ask what Doyoung had done. I’m telling you to do one more sweep through. Is that understood?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m going,” the first voice said, and I saw the door knob start to turn.
“Shit.” I whispered. I looked around and dove toward the ground. I knew I had scratched up my face pretty severely and my shirt got a few more holes in it, but luckily that just added to the “already hurt and murdered” look that I was going for. I hoped that the collection of fake bushes around me would keep me hidden enough that “Lucas” wouldn’t see me hiding. I could hear him walking in my direction. It was as if time had stopped. It felt like it was taking him too long to get to the other door. He started whistling as he walked through the room, which made this worse than it already was. Goosebumps formed under my jacket, and I realized that this plan was never going to work. I wanted to believe that he wouldn’t be thorough, he had sounded like he wanted to leave, but luck really was not on my side today. His steps stopped directly in front of me. My face was covered by the bushes, but I had been stupid enough to not make sure that my feet weren’t sticking out in the walkway.
I took a deep enough breath and held it, hoping my need for oxygen wouldn’t betray me right this very moment. Parting my lips slightly, and keeping my eyes staring forward, focused on a very particular fake branch, I prayed that I gave off the impression of somebody dead. Sure enough, I saw Lucas lean forward and separate the branches of the bush that had been housing me. He chewed at his bottom lip as he examined me.
It took, quite literally, every single ounce of energy that I had to not react when he cupped my chin with his hand and turned my face toward him. Miraculously, I kept my expression blank as my eyes landed on him. There are no words to describe how inappropriate it was that my brain took notice of how attractive he really was. Dirty blonde fringe hung directly over his wide eyes. His lips were full and formed a handsome, terrifyingly maniacal smile.
He dropped me back down and shrugged. “I wonder who got to you first. It’s too bad. You’re pretty. You would have been fun to kill.”
He continued his whistling as he walked through the entire area. Unmoving, I waited for the sound of a door opening, but it never did. I don’t know how long he stayed there, waiting for any hidden survivors to show themselves.
“Alright! I’m leaving!” he yelled to the room. A glimmer of hope filled my chest as I heard the door open and close. I just about jumped up, but held my ground. Something didn’t feel right. An unsettling feeling told me that I was not the only person in the room.
Thankful for my gut instinct, I finally heard Lucas sigh and stand up. I was confirmed that I was actually alone as his voice rang out and he said, “this room is all clear.” from the other side of the door. I decided to take the risk and stand up, slowly. I half expected to see Lucas there directly in front of me, like he had caught me and tricked me into thinking that he had left. Much to my relief, however, the room was empty.
He had been talking to somebody on the side of the door that I was trying to get to, though. How was I supposed to know if that other person was still there or not?
I guess the only way to find out would be to just… open the door.
And so I did.
Taking a deep breath, I shoved the door open to an empty hallway. I muttered “thank god” under my breath, then cupped my hand over my mouth, realizing that was a horrible idea. I tiptoed down the hallway, realizing that there were no more screams anywhere. The building was quiet. I could hear an occasional door slam as someone, I assumed the murderers who had taken over this place, were checking for any survivors. I creeped and tiptoed against the wall until I reached the next room. The door was left open, and I peered into the room, getting goosebumps again, but this time for different reasons.
This one was made to look like somebody’s creepy house, and it succeeded. It actually looked like my grandmother’s house that I was forced to spend several summers of my childhood at. I used to tell my mom that it was full of ghosts. My older brother always teased me, telling me that it was a little girl that grandma had eaten. I spent seven years thinking my grandma had cooked a little girl in the oven that she also baked our chocolate chip cookies in. Naturally, as a teenager, I figured out that Johnny was just an asshole and had lied to me. My poor grandma.
Now, however, was not the time to feel sympathetic for my grandmother, though. I had bigger concerns right now. Like, y’know, survival.
I headed to make it through the other door. There was only one more room after this to have to make it through. Freedom was palpable.
Right as I went to reach for the knob, however, it turned.
I didn’t have enough time.
I had nowhere to hide.
I was going to die.

Chapter Text

Frozen. I was absolutely frozen. There was no way in hell that I was going to make it anywhere with sufficient enough time to hide from whoever was on the other side of the door coming my direction.
The door opened and a man with firetruck-red hair stepped into my line of sight. He stopped, taken aback at the sight of me. He cocked his head to the side, analyzing my state. I saw his eyes stare at my “wound” and a smirk crawled across his lips. His eyes met mine again, and I was mentally screaming at my “Fight or Flight” to kick in, preferrably into “flight.” Not that I genuinely believed that I could outrun the man in front of me holding a blood-stained knife in front of me, but I wanted to make myself have any sort of chance.
Instead, I let him walk up to me. His pace was slow, as if he knew that there was no way in hell I was going to run. He circled me like a vulture, making no show of hiding the fact that he was checking every bit of my body out. He finally made it to stand directly in front of me. He eyes bore into mine as he reached forward and touched the spot that I had made look as if I had been stabbed already. When I didn’t flinch in pain, he smiled at me again. He then brushed some of my matted hair away from my neck and checked for any type of attempted slash mark. The graze of his fingers sent chills down my spine.
When he saw nothing, he took a step back and examined me again.
“You’re smart. Did you actually fool anyone with this.”
I couldn’t speak. My throat was so dry from breathing so heavily. All that I managed was a nod, and he chuckled.
“Damn. I’ll have to train my guys a little bit better.” He spun the knife in his hands through his fingers for a few seconds. I held eye contact with him, anticipating him to catch me off guard at any moment and shove it into my skin.
Instead, he raised it to my face slowly. He rested the sharp edge against the skin of my cheek and pressed lightly. He didn’t apply enough pressure to cut, but enough that I could feel it teasing to break my skin.
“I like you. You’re smart. You almost got away. I like the way your brain works.” He turned my face more toward him and said, “we could use a feminine touch around the house.”
I didn’t like where this was going.
“Alright, pretty. I’ll give you two options.” He traced the edge of the knife down my cheek, this time actually breaking enough skin to let a trickle of blood run down my cheek. Tears immediately welled up in my eyes, and I felt a burn as one rolled down and mingled with the cut on my face. The knife found rest right on the edge of my neck as the red-haired man continued speaking. “I can kill you right here. It won’t be quick, and it won’t be painless.”
His eyes grew wide as he offered me my next choice, “or, you can come with us and we can see how long you manage to stay alive in a house full of men who kill for fun. Think you’re up for the challenge?”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure which option was worse. Although I wasn’t ready to die, being held hostage by a murderer didn’t sound ideal either.
I didn’t have to actually make a choice, though. Someone else burst into the room. He had sharp eyes and jet black hair. He had an intense gaze that seemed completely unphased by my presence. I noticed the blue Converse immediately.
This was the guy that had killed Onew.
I didn’t have time to express my rage at all, as he said, “Taeyong. Jaehyun just picked up on the radio that police are on their way. We have an ETA of seventeen minutes before they get here. We should bolt.” He nodded toward me. “Is she the last one? Get it over with and let’s go.”
The one named Taeyong didn’t waste any time. He spun me around and pressed the knife to my throat fully. “Walk princess. Follow Doyoung. You’re coming with us.”
This time, Onew’s killer, now named Doyoung, did seem surprised. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“I’m bringing us a new toy home.” Taeyong said as he pushed me forward to walk.
“Are you fucking nuts?” Doyoung walked with us, but spent the entire walk out of the building objecting. Don’t get me wrong, I was totally on his side that my presence with them was not a good idea, however, arguing would have led to slowly bleeding out on the floor of a haunted house, and that didn’t seem ideal either.
I was escorted through all of the hallways all over again. We were headed toward the back of the building, and I was hit with the realization that I was going to have to see Onew’s lifeless body again.
Sure enough, we passed through the fake hospital room, and there he was. I didn’t mean to, but I stopped. Both Taeyong and Doyoung were caught off guard and didn’t exactly know how to react. I turned to them, and somehow found the strength to whisper, “please.”
When neither of them said anything, I knelt to the ground. I leaned forward and took Onew’s hand in mine. It was sticky, coated in his blood, but so was I at this point. Tears spilled over as I apologized again and again.
It wasn’t a very long goodbye before Taeyong grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet again. “We don’t have time for this.” was all that he said as he dragged me from the room, my last glimpse of Onew finally torn from me as we rounded a corner.
The rest of the building had other random bodies lining the hallways. Doyoung chuckled as he said, “wow. We did some serious work today. Sometimes I wonder how we pull this off with just a few of us.”
I was floored at the amount of people we passed. Each body had been slashed in one place or another, be it the throat or the abdomen. A couple of them had extra cuts across arms and legs along with the kill wounds. Someone was enjoying an extra bit of mutilation. My stomach turned with every new body we came across. There were so many people who would never see the sun shine again. So many people who would never see their families again- who just came out for a fun adrenaline filled day.
I was shoved through the back door and there was a van with a door open waiting. A man in the driver seat was screaming at my captors to hurry up. Lucas was holding the door open. I could see the inside had been gutted so it just provided room to jump in without seats to get in the way.
Both of the men already in the car were obviously shocked at the fact that there was a third person with their friends. I could see realization hit Lucas like a train that I was who i was. A strange combination of rage and pride crossed his face.
“Well I’ll be damned.” he said as the door slammed behind Taeyong and he told the driver to go.
“We need to work on your ‘checking if people are alive’ skills,” Taeyong mocked Lucas.
The driver, Jaehyun I learned was his name, was in a bit of a panic as he sped away.
“Taeyong. What in the fuck is that?!” He pointed over his shoulder at me. Normally, I would have had a plethora of objections to being called a “that.” Right now, though, I couldn’t peel my eyes off of Doyoungs blue Converse. How much of that blood was Onew’s?
A rush of bravery flew threw me as I interrupted the argument about me with, “you killed my best friend.”
The van grew silent at the sound of my voice. Doyoung realized I was talking to him when he saw my eyes drilling into him. He chuckled as he said “if looks could kill you could be one of us with that stare.” He leaned forward on his elbows. “Which one was he? What room was he in? Did he at least put up a fight? I hate when they’re boring to kill.” His smile was similar to Lucas’ in the aspect that it was absolutely maniacal. It spread across his whole face and he had a look of pure pleasure at the thought of killing Onew.
I don’t know what washed over me, but I tried to dive forward to, well, I don’t know. I probably couldn’t hurt him, but I sure as hell wanted to try. Taeyong grabbed me around the waist and held me down. Doyoung leaned forward until he was inches from my face. He whispered, “that’s awfully brave, sweetheart. You’re going to try to and attack someone who just killed several people, in a van full of other killers, of which only one of us actually wants you around?”
“I kinda want her around.” Lucas interjected and raised his hand. He was leaned back against a wall and had a grin across his face that I wanted to slap off. He kept talking and said, “she’s got some nerve. A guy could have fun with a girl like that.”
I must have had an expression of disgust cross my face, because Lucas laughed again. “Don’t look so upset, baby. You’ll never know ‘til you try.” He winked at me before turning back to the group. “So now what? We goin’ home or gonna try to find somewhere else to hit?”
There was a knot forming in my throat again. I did not want to be around if they decided to attack anywhere else. I did not want any type of association with these guys. There was no way in hell that I would be able to stomach watching them come back out covered in more innocent people’s blood.
To my relief, well, somewhat relief, Taeyong, still holding me tight by the waist, said, “nah. Let’s go home. I gotta get this one settled.”
“‘This one’ has a name.” I muttered. It was a stupid comment, but I had hoped maybe they would realize I was still a fucking person and not a trophy from a murder conquest. I was still staring at the one named Doyoung. He, however, had lost all interest in the fact that I was upset at him the most. He was wiping his knife off on his jeans, attempting to remove some of the dried blood on it.
“What exactly are you even going to do with her? Why the hell did you keep her alive?” Jaehyun turned to get on the highway and I stared out of the front windshield. Not a single person that we were passing had any clue that a van of murderers were sharing the road with them. What if one of these cars held a family member of somebody’s lifeless body that I had just stepped over? They were going to be waiting at home for a phone call or a text that will never come. I was driving away while they were driving toward one of the most heartbreaking, devastating moments they will ever experience.
It wasn’t as though these people died a natural death. They didn’t fight a long term battle with an illness and lose to it. They were murdered for no reason. These people lost life for absolutely no reason other than some other people’s sick, twisted, fun.
I was brought back to reality when Taeyong nudged me a little bit. I had tuned him out as I stared at my freedom escaping me.
“What?!” I snapped.
“You really have a bold tone for your position.” He cocked an eyebrow at me and repeated, “I asked you what we thought we should do with you.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re just going to kill me in the end, aren’t you? I feel like I don’t get much of a fucking say in what’s done with me in the meantime.”
Taeyong let a grin cross his face. “Well, I mean, you could always move to the dark side. You’re good at hiding fear. You’re clever. You tricked Lucas, which, apparently isn’t a hard feat…” he moved out of the way as Lucas threw the crimson-soaked rag he was cleaning his knife with as we drove at Taeyong. “It’d be fun to have a girl on the team.”
Doyoung scoffed. “Yeah. Okay. Like she’s gonna say yes to that.”
“I hate to say that somebody who is a horrible monster of a person is right, but he’s right.” I whipped around to Taeyong and asked, “what in the absolute hell makes you think that I would ever agree to join your fucking gang or whatever the hell it is?”
Taeyong shrugged, ignoring me as if he never asked me the question in the first place. “I dunno Jaehyun. I’ll figure something out. If anything, she’s at least cute. It’ll be better than staring at you assholes all day.”
Lucas protested and Doyoung rolled his eyes. Jaehyun’s shoulders slumped in a sigh as he said, “this is a big mistake, Tae. I hope you’re ready for a shit show.”
...
The drive was long. My heart beat thudded in my ears the entire time. We eventually left city limits as the sun was setting and a knot formed in my throat. Realization had hit me that everything I knew was gone now. I wouldn’t show up for work tomorrow; everyone would be mad. The would think that I no-called-no-showed. Eventually, people would go to my house. They would call my phone…
Holy shit. My phone.
My phone was still in my jacket pocket. I knew that there was no way to get it out now and call for help, but if I could make them think that I had dropped it at the haunted house, that could be my saving grace.
My brain raced with ideas as Jaehyun turned into a dirt road. It was pitch black outside now. We were well beyond anywhere with street lamps. Dust was illuminated by the van’s headlights as it was kicked up from under the tires. I bounced around uncomfortably, chuckling to myself as a particularly hard bump woke Lucas up and threw him to the ground of the van.
Finally, a little country-style house became illuminated as Taeyong whispered in my ear, “welcome home, sweetheart.”

Chapter Text

The house looked as if it had literally been plucked from a horror movie and placed in front of me. I had absolutely no idea where in hell we were. No sounds or lights from the city traveled this far out.
It was a rickety old place. The steps up to the front door and the porch had loose boards and holes in them. The screen door screeched like a banshee as Jaehyun opened it and Taeyong dragged me by my arm through the threshold. I cringed at the sound of metal and then squinted as I was temporarily blinded as the foyer light was clicked on.
Once my eyes adjusted to light again, I was slightly surprised. The house was much nicer on the inside than the outside. It was clean and orderly. It even smelled nice. I must have let my surprise be apparent, because Taeyong chuckled.
“What were you expecting? Torture whips and handcuffs and chains?”
He started to guide me down a hallway as Lucas called out, “if you want whips and handcuffs, though, I can get you some. You just let me know baby girl!”
I rolled my eyes and gagged so that he was able to see me. The thought of being with someone like him, an evil, horrid, vile mass murderer, disgusted me. He just laughed and said, “you’ll come around.”
Taeyong led me to a room that had empty walls with no windows. A rickety metal bed frame was all that was in there. The mattress on it seemed thin and only one blanket was folded on the bed. No pillow was provided. There was a bathroom attached to the room, but beyond that it was empty and cold. I couldn’t help but break down at the circumstances I had found myself in. It truly seemed like a dungeon.
I sat on the floor and wrapped my arms around my knees, hugging myself. Taeyong didn’t respond but simply turned and shut the door behind him. I jumped up and tried the knob, but right as I did, there was a “click.”
“Come on, sweetheart.” his voice broke through the door. “You didn’t expect me to let you have free reign, did you?” He walked down the hall and his fading footsteps made me feel emptier and more alone than I ever imagined possible. I didn’t want his company, but being alone with my thoughts and reliving everything that had happened that night felt like a whirlwind through my brain and body.
I sprinted to the attached bathroom and threw up. I was still covered in my best friend’s blood and had watched so many people die tonight. My stomach continued to turn and empty itself at the thought until I had nothing left. I leaned back against the wall and began crying again.
Taeyong’s voice caused me to scream and jump slightly as he said, “you should clean up.”
He was standing in the bathroom doorway holding a towel in one hand. In the other, he had a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
“I’ll wait out here.” He laid the clothes on the bathroom counter and I snapped, “I can’t even shower alone?!”
“I don’t know yet, Princess. I don’t know how bold you are. Are you gonna try to drown yourself or tie the shower curtain around your neck?”
I flinched at his passive mention of suicide, but responded with “I keep saying that y’all are gonna kill me eventually anyway. May as well take some of that joy from you.”
Taeyong was the one that rolled his eyes this time. “I don’t want to kill you or you’d be dead. I have plans for you. Chill out. Clean up. I’ll be out here when you’re done.”
The bathroom door shut and I sighed, a few more tears managing to escape. At least I was able to get all of this blood off of me. It had hardened and caked into my hair.
I stayed in the shower for a long time. I let the hot water flow down my skin, a warmth that I knew I was going to miss once I went back into the bedroom. The water finally ran clear instead of red, and I figured I had better get out of the shower before Taeyong felt the need to barge in on me.
I dried off the best I could and started to dress in the clothes Taeyong had brought me. I was folding up my bloody clothes when I remembered my phone in my pocket of my jacket. I quickly dug it out and checked it. I had no service. Naturally. We were in the middle of fucking nowhere. Why would I have that much luck?
I hit the power off button to preserve battery. Who knew how long it would be before I had a charge for it again? I contemplated putting my bra back on so that I could stick the phone in it, but it was soaked in blood that had gone through my shirt. I ended up tucking it in the waistband of the sweats. They had a drawstring so I pulled it tight to hold the phone in place against my body. It was my new security blanket.
Thankfully, the shirt that Taeyong had gotten me was giant on me. I checked my reflection for any signs of a bulge from the phone. All that I saw was a scared shitless version of myself. My eyes were swollen from crying and I had a cut on my cheek from Taeyong’s knife earlier. My lips were bruised from where I had bit them to hold my screams inside of me. My hair was wet and stringy and I shivered as water droplets from it ran down my spine.
I opened the door and stepped out carrying my ruined clothes. Taeyong walked up to me and offered to take them.
“Don’t worry,” he winked, “I know how to remove blood stains.”
His joke missed its target and he whispered, “tough crowd.”
I went and sat on the bed and pulled the blanket over my lap. Anything to put a barrier between him and the lifeline sitting against my hip was a comfort.
As if he was on the same train of thought, Taeyong quickly began emptying the pockets of my outfit. My wallet and various pieces of paper hit the ground as he dug through my clothes. He turned and eyed me, asking, “no phone?”
I shrugged and said, “I think I lost it at the haunted house.” My voice was suddenly hoarse. I could feel my pulse quickening, and he walked up to me. He told me to stand up, and I obliged. He looked me up and down and reached over and ever so slightly lifted up the hem of the shirt. Once he assessed that the sweat pants didn’t have pockets, though, he seemed satisfied. Those few seconds felt like they had drug on forever and I realized that I had been holding my breath once he walked away.
“You don’t have to freak out everytime I’m near.” he said as he headed toward the door. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“You’ll have to forgive me for not believing you.” I spit back at him.
He shrugged and cocked his head to the side as if to say, “fair enough” as he made his way through the door jamb. Instead of leaving, though, he reached down and grabbed a bundle of rope.
Fuck.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“You didn’t think that I was going to just like, trust you, did you?” he asked as he walked back up to me.
“You lock the door! Why do I have to be tied up?!” I could feel myself starting to hyperventilate. I couldn’t control the rise and fall of my chest and I started begging. “Please! You’ve kidnapped me. You’ve killed Onew. You don’t have to add tied up hostage to your list tonight. Please?! Just let me have my own control of my body! Please?!” Taeyong ignored my words.
He tied my ankles together. The rope rubbed against the skin over the bone and I hissed slightly as it left a burn where he pulled it tight, creating uncomfortable friction.
He only took one of my wrists in his grip. He tied a knot around it, and then tied it to the bed frame. He checked the strength of it to make sure that it wouldn’t pull loose, and then walked away. He didn’t say another word to me as he shut the door behind him, the lock clicking again before he was gone.
I bawled again. I wasn't sure how I was expected to sleep in such an uncomfortable position, but i wasn’t exactly sure that I felt safe enough to sleep anyway. Instead, I simply stayed awake, sobbing off and on. My eyes hurt and I wasn’t even sure how my body was able to continue producing tears to cry, but I kept this up for what, I’m sure, was hours.
I didn’t know what time it was. I had no window to watch for a sunrise. I had no use what time we had even gotten to the house. Eventually, though, the lock on the door turned again. Expecting Taeyong, I was caught off guard by Doyoung’s presence. He was holding a plate of eggs and toast and a glass of water.
“Jesus. You look fucking awful. Did you get any sleep?”
“I was a bit preoccupied.” Asshole.
“Look, I don’t fucking want you here…” he started.
“That makes two of us.” I interjected.
He looked at me annoyed, but continued, “but Taeyong insists. Since he runs this whole operation, I have no choice. So, I come bearing gifts.” He set the plate on the bed and tried to hand me the water, but I shook my head and refused. He shrugged and set the water down on the floor next to me.
Days went by like this. I lost complete track of time. During the days, I guess they would be, Taeyong would come and untie me. He would tell me that I was “allowed” to roam the house as long as someone was home the whole time. Other times, I wouldn’t see anyone after my breakfast was delivered for who knew how long. I rarely ate more than a few bites of toast every few days. I would occasionally shower when Taeyong would untie my ropes, but I wouldn’t go beyond my little room other than that.
One day, my door opened. I didn’t bother sitting up from the one position that I finally figured out how to lay down comfortably in. The knots were untied and Taeyong’s voice was soft as he leaned down and whispered, “come on.”
I sat up and looked at him, confused. He handed me the jeans from the night of the massacre at the haunted house.
There weren’t any blood stains on them.
“Why?”
“Because I’m tired of you moping around and you need some sunshine. It’s not as chilly out today. Let’s go.”
“‘Tired of me moping around?!’ Are you kidding me?” I jumped to my feet. “I have been fucking kidnapped- by you, I might add! So I’m sorry if I’m not all fucking sunshine and rainbows.”
He smiled at me and handed me my jeans again.
“Let’s go.”
Taeyong waited outside of the door and I finally opened up the door and took a step past the threshold for the first time. I followed Taeyong down the hall and heard a gasp from the kitchen. “She lives!” Jaehyun smiled and waved from the kitchen table. He had a cup of coffee in front of him and was reading a newspaper. It felt so casual. It was as if I was in a house with a bunch of college roommates, not murderers.
I gave an awkward half wave as I made my way out of the front door.
Fresh air was a surreal feeling. There was a breeze that ran over my skin and I closed my eyes for a second. There was nothing but silence for a bit. An occasional bird interrupted, but beyond that, I was able to forget everything that had happened for just a second.
When I opened my eyes again, Taeyong was watching me and I was brought back to reality.
He nodded his head to the side and I followed his direction. There was nothing but open field around us on every side, but there was a path through a bit of it. A lone tree was off in the distance and Taeyong started walking toward it.
Our trek was silent. Not that we had much in common to talk about that I was aware of, but I really didn’t feel as if I could relate to him, considering that my recreational pastimes included jogging and singing drunk karaoke with friends and his included slaughtering random people. I began to wonder how many more he had killed during my stay here. Was I unintentionally an accomplice? I knew what they did, and, although I wasn’t aware of when or where they were doing things while I was locked away in my room, could I be considered a member of all of this if they got caught?
We got to the tree and I grabbed Taeyong by the shoulder. He was caught off guard by my touch, but more caught off guard by the question that followed.
“Why do you kill people?”
I wanted to ask so much more, but that one question seemed to encompass it all.
He sighed and sat against the tree. I stayed standing and, for a millisecond, I wondered if I could run. I wondered how far I would get before I started to see another house or another person. Quickly deciding against it, though I sat down. Now wasn’t the time to run. Plus, I had left my cell phone under my mattress in my room. I hadn’t had enough time to put it in my jeans, and I would have just as little service out here as I did in the house.
When Taeyong finally spoke, he said, “I have an older sister.” It seemed out of place, but I let him continue without asking for clarification. “Even though she’s older, I’ve always felt the need to protect her. She and I grew up really close, and I never wanted her to ever be hurt.
“One day, she came back to our parents’ house. I had been visiting and she showed up unannounced. She wasn’t expecting me there. She… she was covered in bruises. She had some stitches on her cheek and both of her eyes were deep purple, even underneath the makeup she had tried to cover it up with.”
He took a deep breath. His hands had formed fists, even just telling the story.
“She had been dating this guy. I hadn’t liked him from the beginning, but she accused me of being the overprotective brother and shrugged it off. I still regret not being more adamant about the fact that something seemed off about him.
“So that night, Doyoung and I went and found him at his regular bar. We waited until he went outside to smoke a cigarette and dragged him into the ally.” He paused for a minute and finally made eye contact with me. “You know how people say they black out with rage?”
I nodded.
“That was me. It was a few minutes, I guess, before Doyoung finally pulled me off. Apparently, I had taken a broken beer bottle and started to just stab him over and over.”
He looked back up at the sky, an almost nostalgic grin crossing his lips. “The bar had music playing too loud for people to hear him screaming. By the time I was done, you couldn’t even really recognize him. His face was broken and disfigured. Doyoung helped me toss the body in a dumpster and we threw some bags on top of him. I never heard if he was found or not.
“We bolted to Jaehyun’s after that. He had known we were going to kick his ass, but when we got there, Lucas was there and they saw us both covered in blood. They started to lose their shit, obviously.
“I should have panicked. You see it in movies, right? When people freak out and start to realize what they had done? But I didn’t. I borrowed some of Jaehyun’s clothes, showered, and then explained what happened. I was calm. Probably eerily so… but I was.”
He looked back at me and waited for a reaction. When I didn’t give one, he furrowed his eyebrows together and asked me, “have you ever hurt somebody who deserved to be hurt?”
I shook my head.
“Have you ever wanted to?”
Shrugging, I finally spoke. “I guess I’ve thought about it. Doyoung has been the star of some of my fantasies lately. I just keep picturing him getting what’s coming to him for killing Onew.” The last few words weren’t more than a whisper. “But I don’t know that I could ever execute something like that out…”
He chuckled lightly. “Yeah. I can see how we may be the most prominent ones in your mind.
“It wasn’t supposed to go beyond that, initially.” Taeyong continued answering my question. “Once I realized they weren’t likely to find the piece of shit, I went about living day to day. I acted like nothing had happened. It was a few months before Lucas called me up saying he had pulled some drunk frat guy off a girl. He was trying to force himself on her in a bedroom at a party and Lucas had intervened. He had heard her saying ‘no’ over and over again and he got pissed off.
“He walked the girl home and then called me. He was seething and I remember the exact words he had said to me.”
“You know how you got rid of that guy who hurt your sister? I wanna get rid of this piece of shit.”
Taeyong sighed. “I met up with him and made sure he understood the weight of what he was saying. But at that moment, I could tell that he knew what I had felt the night that I defended my sister.
“Lucas is a shit head, but he’s got a good heart. He just wanted to get rid of somebody evil.”
I scoffed. “How can someone with a ‘good heart’ do what you guys do? You created murderers. One less bad person in the world was replaced by another. You’re not vigilantes. And besides- y’all mass murdered strangers. How do you know they all were evil and deserved to die.”
I caught myself yelling when I said “Onew didn’t deserve what he you did to him.”
He didn’t flinch at my screams. He simply stood up and started walking back to the house. I followed. I don’t know why I did. Maybe he was giving me the chance to walk in the opposite direction. Maybe it was a test. Whatever it was, I followed him and grabbed him by the wrist. He turned and looked at me and I just repeated, this time in a whisper, “Onew didn’t deserve what you did to him.”
Taeyong sighed and, to my surprise, reached up with his other hand and ran a thumb along my cheek where a tear had escaped. I hadn’t meant to cry. Talking about Onew sent my tear ducts into auto pilot, though.
“Everyone has evil in them. Everyone does something at one time or another to deserve it.”
I dropped his wrist and he removed his hand from my cheek at the same time.
“Who are you to play Judge, jury, and executioner?” I held eye contact with Taeyong for a long time. We stood outside, just staring at each other. The wind was pulling at our hair and the sun warming our skin. I took in his features while he thought of the answer to my question. He had a scar next to his right eye. His lips were a thin heart shape that fit his face very well. A sharp jawline partnered his intense stare very well. There was no denying that he was handsome. If I had met him in a bar or at a coffee shop, I would have been very interested in him.
Alas, circumstances were different and I had no interest in somebody who had a God complex that made him believe that he had the right to take lives.
Taeyong resorted to never answering my question. Instead he just turned around and walked back into the house. He left me standing outside with more questions than I had gotten answers.
I moved to the front porch and was surprised when I was joined by Jaehyun a few minutes later. He sat next to me and said, “I’m sorry.”
I whipped my head to him. Unsure what to expect from him, that sure wasn’t on the list of things I thought he might say.
“What?!”
He laughed. “You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You’re strong as hell. I’ll give you that. But I’m sorry that you got tied up in all of this. We’ve all tried to convince him to get rid of you. In one way or the other,” he saw me flinch and shot me an apologetic glance. “Sorry. It’s in our nature at this point.”
“We think you remind him of your sister. You’re a woman figure he can actually protect when he couldn’t with her, you know? Just know that, while you’re here- no one will hurt you. None of us are stupid enough to defy Taeyong. We know what he’s capable of…”
He trailed off and he looked sad for a bit. Eventually, though, Jaehyun stood up and offered me his hand. I hesitated, but accepted it to stand up.
“You were smart not to try run, by the way.” He nodded at a window where Doyoung was perched lazily with a rifle. He waved and stood up, walking away from the window.
“That’s dramatic.” I said, but I also gulped at the thought of that being how I could have ended up dying. Jaehyun laughed lightly and said, “you’ve barely eaten anything the last couple weeks. Wanna come in for dinner?”
Something about him made this whole situation feel so… typical. It was as if we were long time friends and not a hostage being held against her will by four psychopaths. I shook my head, rejecting his offer.
“We aren’t friends. I don’t want to interrupt your team dinner.”
He smiled as if he understood and nodded. He held the front door open for me. I walked in and made my way back to “my room.” Jaehyun followed me and leaned against the door frame. He said, “I’ll leave stuff out for you to eat if you change your mind.” He shut the door behind him and I sighed, falling back on the bed. The next few hours, I tried to process everything that I had heard today. Why had Taeyong told me everything that he did? Why had he opened up that much to me? If everyone was evil, why had he kept me alive? Even if he thought he could use me as his redemption for not being able to protect his sister, based off of his logic of everyone being evil, he should have killed me and left it at that.
I spent so long overthinking, I must have fallen asleep. I don’t know how long I was out for, but I woke up and realized that the house was quiet. My door was still open, but there wasn’t a lot of light shining through.
Tiptoeing, I made my way through the house to the kitchen. I was admitting defeat and I needed a full meal. The clock on the stove read 1:27 AM. I was surprised that Taeyong hadn’t come to attach my nightly restraints before he had gone to bed.
True to his word, Jaehyun had left a bowl of soup on the counter. It was covered in some Saran Wrap and a note was left that said “sandwich stuff in the fridge if this isn’t enough. Don’t worry about the microwave. We won’t hear it so enjoy the soup warm. -J”
I popped the bowl and typed in 45 seconds. Turning to the fridge, I pulled out everything to make a sandwich. As I made my food, I grew more excited about the idea of a full meal in my stomach. I opened drawers to find something to spread the mayo on my sandwich. All of the knives that I found were… way too sharp for spreading condiments. I got anxious and a knot grew in my throat. Had any of these been used to kill someone?
As if they were reading my thoughts, and with no warning, a voice behind me made me jump. “They’re safe to use. I promise.”
I spun around and saw Lucas standing in the frame. He smiled and apologized for scaring me.
“I thought I heard you moving around. Just wanted to come check on you.”
Taeyong’s words of him “being a good guy” played through my head. Immediately after, though, Lucas’ own words of “you would have been fun to kill.” repeated themselves as well.
I just nodded and grabbed a knife that he assured me wasn’t a murder weapon and kept fixing myself some food. I heard him shuffling behind me, and, suddenly, his body was super close to mine. He placed a long arm on either side of me on the counter and whispered against my ear, “how are you liking it here? I’ve been thinking that I could make your stay a bit more comfortable if you were up for it. My room is always an option for you to stay in, you know.”
Something came over me and I spun around. I took the knife in my hand and pointed the tip against the underside of his chin. A huge, beaming smile crossed Lucas’ face and his eyes grew wild.
“Go ahead.” he encouraged me. “See why we do it. Don’t you want to know why we have so much fun?” He lowered his chin against the tip of the blade a bit more.
My instinct told me to pull the knife down, away from breaking his skin. I didn’t listen to it, though. My need to stay strong and prove myself won the battle and I simply locked eyes with Lucas and said, “back off.”
He raised his hands and stepped back, still smiling fully.
“You’re gonna fit in fine here, babe. Just wait until you actually get a taste for it. We may have to start sleeping with our doors locked once you realize how brave you really are.”
“I don’t want ‘a taste for it.’” I told him.
I was caught off guard with how quickly he moved and had managed to knock my arm away from still pointing the knife at him. He somehow had taken it from me and suddenly, I felt less courageous.
Instead of turning it on me, though, he handed the handle of it back to me.
I was hesitant, but reached for it. He took my wrist in his large hands and guided mine to place the blade in the palm of his hand.
“Put pressure.”
My eyes grew wide at his direction and he continued, “go ahead. Hurt someone you think deserves hurting. See what it feels like to get, even the tiniest bit of revenge. Channel the pain you feel into me.”
He raised an eyebrow and began to slightly pull on my wrist to move the blade against his palm. I took a sharp breath as a tiny stream of red formed in his hand, however, another voice joined us and made him stop.
“That’s enough, Lucas. Go to bed.”
Taeyong was standing a few feet behind us, and Lucas nodded at him. He tossed the knife in the sink, which made a super loud noise. I flinched and wondered if Doyoung and Jaehyun would wake up. Lucas turned to me and ruffled my hair.
“See you around, gorgeous.”
Taeyong shook his head as Lucas left the room. He turned back to me and said, “go ahead and eat.”
I wasn’t sure that I had an appetite anymore, but I made myself take as much of it in as I could. Taeyong at at the table with me, but he didn’t make conversation. He simply sat there and flipped through the newspaper Jaehyun had been reading that morning.
Afterward, Taeyong walked me back to my room and began to form the knots with the rope around my ankles. I had quit fighting him on this a while back, and I stuck my arm out as I nibbled on my bottom lip, lost in thought.
He finished tying my one wrist to the bed frame and before he left, I asked, “why am I alive?”
His eyes were tired as they turned back to me. He simply responded with, “not everyone deserves to die just because I think people are evil. Some are still better left up to fate.”
With that, he turned the lights off in my room and the door shut and locked.

Chapter Text

A few more days passed.
Every morning, Taeyong would walk in, release my wrist and my feet from the ropes that held them, and walk out. Every morning, he would leave my door open.
The conversations that I’d had with him, Lucas,. and Jaehyun stayed fresh in my brain. I replaced them over and over again trying to figure out who each one of these guys really was. On the surface level, none of them seemed like actually bad people. It scared me to realize that I might have been humanizing them. Doyoung, however, always seem to have a stick up his butt. He was the one that made me the most uncomfortable, and, subconsciously, I think that was partially why I never wanted to leave my room.
One morning though, the smell of fresh coffee drew me out. It was like one of those old-school cartoons where you could practically see the sent luring me out into the hallway.
Jaehyun laughed when he saw me and said, “I wondered if that would pull you out of there. You need more sunlight, darling.”
“I don’t remember the last time that I had a fresh cup of coffee!” I gasped as I saw the pot brewing.
He chuckled as he poured two coffee mugs full of it. He clinked his mug against mine and took a sip. Normally, I doctored the hell out of my coffee with cream and sugar, but at this rate, I was just thankful to have any at all. I cupped the warm ceramic between two hands and closed my eyes as I savored the smell of the drink.
Jaehyun nodded his head toward the dining room table and I took that as an invite to join him. We sat in silence for a moment, sipping our bitter beverage. He looked as if he wanted to say something, but I let words spill out of my mouth before he had the chance.
“So what about you?” I asked him. He looked at me, confused. “What’s your big redemption arc? Taeyong had one. Lucas had one. So what’s yours?”
“I don’t have one.” That caught me off guard.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, when Taeyong and Doyoung told me what they had done, I panicked. I knew that there was some way that they were going to get caught. Then, the dumbasses got Lucas involved and killed somebody else. I knew that I had to intervene. I knew that things were about to get way worse. I was afraid they were going to go all vigilante, but knew they definitely couldn’t do it by themselves. They needed someone behind the scenes. The Alfred to Batman, I guess you could say.”
A tiny grin cross his lips as he said, “hostage?” (Not my favorite pet name I’ve been given since I’ve been here.) “Would you believe me if I told you that I’ve never actually spilled anybody’s blood with my own hands?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really?”
“Well don’t sound so surprised!” He laughed. “I am more of the ‘getaway driver’ member of this crew. I want them to stay safe if they’re going to be morons.”
I scoffed. “‘Morons’ is putting it lightly, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t change their minds, but at least I could help them stay safe.”
“But,” I stared at my mug and swirled the coffee around. My eyebrows stitched together. “Don’t you worry that, if they do get caught… that you’re in just as much trouble as an accomplice?”
Jaehyun shrugged again. “I know I am. But we’re in this deep- so why stop now?”
He tilted his head to the side and he looked at me softly. “You know, Taeyong really saw something in you.”
“What do you mean?” I asked as I shook my head. “That’s the second time you’ve said that.”
“Well, you’re smart. He keeps bringing that up. Now, mind you, it’s probably not too difficult to trick Lucas in the first place, but you still did it. We are pretty well trained to make sure that nobody gets away. I’ve directed them towards runaways before.
“The fact that he let you live means that he thinks you’re cunning. There’s a bigger picture to all of this. All of this is just practice.”
“Practice for what?” I asked.
Jaehyun smirked. “I can’t tell you that quite yet. It’s probably not my place. Just know that there’s a bigger picture involved. You wouldn’t be alive if you didn’t have a place in it.”
I slouched back in my chair and I looked at him.
My brain was swirling. “Why are you telling me all of this? Why do you all keep offering me inside to your minds. It doesn’t make sense. I’m just a hostage right?”
Jaehyun threw a newspaper on the table in front of me. Front and center of the first page was my picture. The title of the headline read “Local Woman Still Missing After Haunted House Massacre.”
“I guess some of your friends knew that you were going there. A girl named Molly keeps doing interviews and newscasts asking for any clue as to where you’re at. Apparently she’s been annoying every radio station a newspaper outlet that will talk to her trying to find you.”
“And how is this supposed to help y’all? Letting me know that I’m being looked for?”
Jaehyun stares at me for a second before answering. “Maybe, once Taeyong tells you the end game for all of this, you’ll be more open to the idea of coming with us without running away.”
I took a sharp breath.
“You mean you would take me out on one of your heists with you and trust that I wouldn’t try to escape?”
He looked at me with big eyes and said, “We want you to see that we’re not just evil monsters.”
I heard a laugh from behind me and turned to see Doyoung standing there. His arms were folded and he looked exceptionally annoyed.
“Maybe not all of you,” he started, “but let me tell you my side of the story.”
He sat down across from me. Jaehyun looked slightly annoyed, but simply took another sip of this coffee to let Doyoung speak.
“It took a long time for me to admit to Taeyong why I had helped him that night in killing his sisters boyfriend. I had no real reason to in his mind, other than the fact that Taeyong was my best friend.
“Truth be told, I always was kind of in love with his older sister. She’s beautiful…” Doyoung’s voice trailed off and his his eyes left my face and wandered behind me. I could tell that he was picturing her, and felt slightly uncomfortable at the fact that he had a soft look about him for once.
Finally his eyes landed back on me. He continued. “When I heard that she had been hurt, I wanted nothing more than to end the life of the man that had hurt her. I knew that Taeyong would be the one to do it, but I also knew that he wouldn’t be able to stop unless I made him. I knew damn well that I wasn’t going to make him stop either.
“As soon as I saw the life leave that fucker’s eyes, I couldn’t help but feel a total joy filled my body.” I got shivers as he spoke. His wide smile crossed his lips again as he said, “you don’t know the thrill of watching somebody that you despise with every fiber of your being take their final breath. Tell me, is there anyone that you hate?”
I shook my head he laughed. Too loud for comfort.
“Don’t lie. Especially because I’m the one you do. Are you telling me that you wouldn’t love to watch me face justice for slitting your best friends throat?”
My breathing hitched. I managed to choke out, “I would love nothing more than to watch you suffer. But it’s not my place to decide that.”
Doyoung asked me, “why not? When we helped Lucas kill the guy who tried to hurt that girl, It was just as much fun as me is killing the guy that hurt Taeyong’s sister.”
“So that’s why you do this? I asked you do this? It’s just ‘for fun’ to you?”
He nodded. “I mean hell yeah. I was growing bored with life anyway. It’s so much more fun to take the wrong out of the world and be on the run constantly. The thrill behind having no obligations to anything but doing something that brings you so much happiness?”
I got the shivers again. This man just enjoyed killing people just to kill people.
“You don’t make a very convincing argument.” Taeyong’s voice raised from behind me. I was surprised by the sudden urge to go stand by him. Maybe instinct was telling me to do whatever it took to get away from Doyoung at this point. He terrified me more than any of them.
He cocked his head to the side as he saw my body turn toward Taeyong. “Don’t get too comfortable,” he said. “You may think that they want you around, but in the end you’re just a liability.”
Doyoung stood up he pulled a small knife from his pocket to point at me. “Liabilities to my friends and what I do for a living aren’t something that I like to keep around.” He turned and walked out of the room.
Taeyong reached out and put his hand on my shoulder. He said, “come on. Let’s go talk somewhere.”
He escorted me to, what I assumed, was his room. It was small, like every other room in this house that I had seen. It was nice to know that mine wasn’t the only “dungeon-esque” type room in the home. He had the same layout, with nothing on the walls. He at least had a window. It also had a bathroom attached. Other than that, even the bed frame was the same.
“You guys need some help from interior decorator.” I muttered under my breath.
Taeyong laughed. “So you do have a sense of humor buried somewhere in there.”
I rolled my eyes. “I guess. I haven’t had much of an opportunity to show it lately.”
“I heard Jaehyun telling you that there’s a whole of the reason behind why we do this.” I nodded.
“He said you might want me to be a part of it,” I hesitated, “and that I might want to if I knew the bigger picture.”
Taeyong began to talk. He guided me to sit on his bed as his lecture began. “Nobody would disagree if I were to say that we live in a corrupt world, right princess?”
“Please stop calling me that.”
Taeyong ignored me. “Look at our court system. Look at assholes like Brock Turner. People who hurt other people and get away with it. Parents who kill their children and get no jail time because there’s no ‘solid proof.’” He made air quotes as he said those last two words. “We live on a disgusting planet. Judges, police, and all kinds of people who were hired to protect people- who are being bought out for their titles. Owned by city mafias and any family with a name with a price tag. It makes me sick.
“Now that we’ve gotten down that we could get away with mass killing, we want to start our project. ‘Frying the bigger fish’ so to say.”
He could tell that I didn’t understand stand what he meant so he continued on. “We have a game plan, and we need someone with a little extra cunning to help us get inside of one of where we want to be.”
“Which is… where?” I questioned.
“We want to break into a prison.” Taeyong said.
“Well, you belong in one. So that makes sense.” I muttered.
“Still not on my side, huh?” He smiled. “That’s fine. We need someone to get us court records and who can present themselves- herself- as someone like a Warden or something similar. I’ve confirmed a few of the rapists and child abusers and child molesters who have recently been sent to this prison nearby. I just need someone who can get me information on details such as cell numbers and…”
I held up my hands to stop him.
“If that was your endgame, then why murder a bunch of innocent people?! For “practice?” Are you shitting me?! Your ends don’t justify your means!”
Taeyong’s shoulders slumped as he sighed. “You’re not understanding. We had to make sure we could get away with a large scale killing without being caught. It sucks. I understand, but like I said, I’m sure everybody in that place had a reason to die.”
“Except for me, apparently.” I rolled my eyes.
“I know that your friend was there,” Taeyong whispered, “and I am sorry for what happened to him. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. But so were half of these people who had bad things happen to them. So were all of these girls who had men touch them without their permission get less jail time than they were entitled to!” His whispers had turned into shouts, and, at only a few inches from my face, he was starting to scare me a little bit more.
“You are insane if you think that I’m going to help you on your crusade.” I matched his pitch and sat up straighter. “I am not going to be a part of this! I don’t care what you think your justification is. I’m not going to go and play God with a bunch of psychopaths who like stabbing people for fun!”
Taeyong’s face fell. “I was afraid of that.”
A beat of silence fell through the room and he said. “All right, then let’s get you back in your room.”
“The day just started! Haven’t I had the freedom to roam the house during the day?”
“Yeah, but now you’re making me question your loyalty.”
I laughed an obnoxiously loud laugh. “I never had loyalty to you to begin with Taeyong.”
“I guess you’re right. I just hoped that maybe once you saw that we were trying to do good in the end, that maybe you’d be on our side.”
“Wiping out bad using bad doesn’t mean that you’re doing good.”
That was the last thing I said to him before I marched myself back to my own room I shut the door behind me and heard the lock turn.
A little while later, there was another knock on the door and it turned again. It was Doyoung holding a plate of food.
“Hey”. His voice was sharp. Monotone.
“Do you want this or not tonight? I’m not gonna keep wasting food on you if you’re not going to eat it.”You can just go ahead and take it back.” I said. “I don’t wish to inconvenience anybody else in this house by still existing here, just take it away and pretend like I’m not here.”
Instead of turning out of the room, Doyoung stepped forward in it and shut the door behind him. I sat up straight. “What are you doing?” My voice barely came out as a whisper.
“Taeyong, Jaehyun, and even Lucas may want you here and may want you alive, but I sure as hell don’t. It would be a shame if I had giving you a knife to feed yourself dinner with and you had, oh, I don’t know, used it to end your misery here.” He took the knife under the planet and twirled it in his fingers
“Get the fuck out of my room.” I said to him. It meant to come out as a roar, instead, it was more of a whimper. Doyoung threw the plate of food on the floor and quickly closed the gap between us. I felt the pressure of his blade land against my throat. His eyes flared with hatred.
Doyoung was about to kill me.

Chapter Text

Doyoung moved quickly. In a second, his body pinned me down on the mattress of my bed. He was much stronger than I was. A flash of silver flew in front of my eyes quickly as he placed his knife against my throat. This time, there was no teasing or threatening. This time- he was going to actually do it. I could feel the pressure that he was applying begin to break skin.
I knew that it was a risk, but I took the chance and swung my arm underneath his and swat the blade away from touching me. Doyoung was caught off guard and, in his moment of distraction, I slammed my head up and made contact with his.
He fell backward and I took the chance to jump up. Doyoung was fast, though. Before I could get to the door, he was grabbing me by the waist and throwing me to the ground. I kicked my feet to attempt to keep him at a distance, but he wasn’t intimidated. Instead, he timed his grip just right and grabbed both of my ankles to attempt to hold me still. He managed to get his feet on either side of me and pinned me down with his knees in my shoulders. I cried out again as pain shot through my shoulders and I did my best to wiggle free.
His eyes were filled with rage as he wrapped a hand around my throat, blade discarded on the floor somewhere.
His fingers tightened, closing off my airway. I began gasping, unable to free my arms to fight his hands off my throat. Mentally, I told myself that struggling would only make it worse. Physically, I couldn’t help but try to free myself.
My eyesight began to turn hazy. I felt myself begin to pass out, and I couldn’t help but think that this was the end for me. I was, honestly, thankful it wasn’t by being stabbed, which, honestly is a dumb realization to have right before you die. My chest felt like it was on the verge of explosion and I was dizzy and lightheaded.
And then, suddenly, I could breathe again.
I gasped for air as I sat up. Freed from Doyoung’s hold, it took me a moment to recuperate enough to catch my surroundings. Subconsciously, I must have crawled to support myself against the wall as I caught my breath. It took a few seconds, but I finally realized why I was breathing.
Taeyong and Doyoung were fist fighting in my room.
Punches were being carelessly thrown. Taeyong had a fury behind him that I hadn’t seen from him. Even when he was preparing to kill me, he was calm. Even when he was yelling about the “injustices of the world,” he wasn’t this angry. His knack for composing himself was out the window. (Metaphorically, of course, as my room didn’t have a window…)
Finally, he landed a solid hit on the side of Doyoung’s skull. Doyoung lost his footing temporarily, and, during his stumble, Taeyong took advantage and began laying swing after swing against his jaw and cheekbones. Doyoung fell to the ground, and it was as if it was happening in slow motion. His face was covered in blood and his lips and eyes swollen and purple. Taeyong knelt next to him and grabbed the front of his, now crimson stained hoodie. He pulled him up by it and stared directly into his mangled face.
“If you ever decide to defy me again, it will be the very last thing that you do.” His words came out in half whisper-half growl.
Doyoung laughed. It was broken and weak, but it was a laugh. “You’re gonna pick some bitch over me? I’ve been by your side from the very fucking beginning.”
Taeyong helped Doyoung to his feet. And said, “if you think this is me choosing her over you, then you don’t know me very well, my friend. I would think that you would have more trust in me, considering you’ve been by my side from the very fucking beginning.”
Him reusing Doyoung’s words against him struck a chord. Doyoung turned to limp out of the room and paused in the door frame. He turned back to look at me, still sitting on the floor against the wall.I braced myself for a snide comment, but one never came. Instead, he just shook his head, winced in pain, and limped out, supporting himself along the wall. I could hear his hands dragging across it until he was far enough out of range.
I became aware of Taeyong’s presence next to me. I flinched when he reached for my jaw, but he told me to trust him in a soft tone. His demeanor had completely shifted from what I had just seen with Doyoung. He gently touched my chin and raised it enough to check my throat. He murmured something about light bruising, but stood up again. He offered me his hand and I accepted it to stand up.
I followed him with my eyes as he walked into my bathroom. The sink turned on, and I heard him make a noise as if he was holding back some pain. I walked into the bathroom to see him washing his hands, his knuckles cut up from beating the shit out of Doyoung.
“You should put some antiseptic on those and ice them.” I said. It was barely loud enough to be heard over the running water, but he must have heard me, because I saw the faintest smile cross his lips. Instead of acknowledging my comment, though, he turned off the water and turned back to me.
“That wasn’t fun.” was all that he said. I shook my head. He sighed, letting his shoulders droop. “You should take a shower. Wash some of the nerves off.”
He didn’t say anything else, but turned and walked out, shutting the bathroom door behind him.

After my shower, I pulled up my panties and clasped my bra around my back. My hair dripped and I shivered as a few stray droplets my towel had missed rolled down my back and between my chest. I opened the bathroom door to see Taeyong standing against the door frame waiting for me. I noticed that he had cleaned the floors of the room of Doyoung’s blood, and even changed my sheets and laid fresh clothes out for me.
“Alright, princess.” I rolled my eyes at his nickname for me. “Hurry up and get dressed so I can get you back in place so you can go to sleep.” He waved a bundle of rope at me, unphased at my half naked appearance.
Although it was true that I still imagined sprinting out of this house of horrors, it was, admittedly, less so than before, which was an absolutely horrifying thought. Other than Doyoung, the guys had taken to talking to me, at least that was what it seemed. It was still absolutely terrifying to be held hostage in a house full of serial killers, but I couldn’t help but feel safer with Taeyong around. Especially after what had just happened.
Beyond that, I was fucking tired of sleeping with ropes around my feet.
I stared at Taeyong for a second. It had been a while since I fully acknowledged his beauty. I know, I know. Here was a man holding me in a house against my will; and yet, I couldn’t help but admire his intense stare. His deep eyes refused to leave me as I walked across the room to get my clothes that were folded on my bed. He didn’t think I saw him run his eyes down my figure, but I did. He had done it the first night that he had let me shower the blood from the Haunted House massacre off of myself. It was less flattering and more creepy then.
But, tonight, his tongue subconsciously running over his pink pout as I bent over to pick up my shirt was sexier than I could have anticipated. I’m sure it was just the hero/victim complex taking over, but it was working. I turned back to him and he cocked an eyebrow at me as I stood up again.
“It’s been warm in here the last few nights.” I lied. I offered him my wrists. “Can I sleep like this tonight?” Taeyong shrugged as he walked over and muttered something about doing whatever I wanted he guessed.
He walked up to me and tied a knot around my left wrist. He gave the rope some slack as he went to tie the other side to the bed. Thankful for the bit of freedom that he still gave me by not tying both of my wrists, I moved quickly to throw my arms over his head and spin him around. He landed with me straddling either side of his lap. As fast as I had moved, so had Taeyong. I’m assuming from out of his pocket, he had whipped out the knife that Doyoung had brought with him as we had moved. I guess that he had kept it while he was cleaning up. His jaw was clenched as his arm looped over mine and he held it only centimeters from my throat. I held his stare as a beat of silence passed between us.
“What’s your next move, princess? Choose it very, very carefully.” He was growling the words at me.
I tested him by leaning more toward the knife, but he pulled it back as I got a bit closer to him.
“Do you really think,” I whispered as I moved to whisper in his ear, “that I would be fucking stupid enough to try anything like escaping when I’m practically tied up with a rope still in your hand, almost naked, and weaponless?”
His guard didn’t drop as I leaned back again.
“Put it down. Trust me.”
Taeyong pulled the knife down, but kept it in his hand. His expression refused to soften. I ran with the fact that he was no longer immediately threatening to kill me and lowered myself a bit so that our hips met. Instantly, a satisfying sensation washed through me. I hovered my hips over his and placed my hands on either one of his shoulders. He tensed up as the dangling rope brushed against the back of his neck.
“Trust me.” I whispered again, and our mouths were close enough that my lips grazed his ever so slightly.
That was all that he needed. I heard the knife hit the floor as he grabbed the back of my head and closed the gap between us. Our lips met in a desperate kiss. His jaw slackened and his tongue met with mine as his hands moved to my hips. I began to roll my body, rubbing myself against his clothed dick that was growing harder beneath me. I knew that he was going to eventually be able to tell how horny I was getting. I was all but dripping against the fabric of my panties.
His lips moved to my neck as he began to unclasp my bra. So much for having just put that on. He rested a hand on the small of my back to keep me steady and balanced as he had me lean back slightly. He kissed down the valley of my breasts before taking the time to suck on each nipple.
“Mmm. Taeyong.” escaped my lips as a moan, and i could tell that that drove him crazy to hear his name from me like that. He suddenly grabbed me under my ass and flipped me over, causing me to shriek at the sudden change of position. I landed on the mattress on my back and had him hovering over me. He slid out from under my hold and, for a disappointing moment, I expected him to leave.
Instead, he freed himself from his clothes. He had an insanely sexy figure. Abs cut nicely into his stomach and he was lean and fit. As he took off his boxers, I couldn’t help but prematurely moan at the sight of his cock, long and hard and ready for me.
“Who would have thought that Stockholm Syndrome would be such a turn on?” he quipped as he pulled my panties down my legs.
I didn’t want to think about how fucked up our situation was, so instead, I said, “Taeyong - shut up and fuck me.”
He smirked and said, “last I checked, you’re the one with the rope I could use to my advantage and I’m the one that gives the orders around here.”
Tease.
“Fine.” I said and put my fingers against my own clit. I began to rub circles into it and began to sigh with relief at how good any type of touch against me felt.
Taeyong didn’t like that, though. Hovering over me again, he wrapped the slack of the rope around his hand and pulled my tied hand up above my head. With his free hand, he took the other wrist and pinned it down.
“I said I was giving the orders.” he said, low and dark, “and I didn’t tell you that you could make yourself cum. Only I can do that to you. Is that understood?”
I nodded and he said, “good girl.”
With one hand still holding my restraint above my head, he let go of my wrist with the other to line himself up with my entrance. I felt my back arch slightly as he slid himself fully into me.
“Taeyong.” I whispered.
“Say it louder. The louder you are, the harder I fuck you. Let the other guys in this house know that they don’t have a chance with my pretty little hostage.”
I did as I was told, and Taeyong kept his word. I let my volume raise from a whisper to repeating his name over and over and over aw a scream. I wanted to claw at his back. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to escape from this rope and knot my fingers in his hair. Instead, I continued to beg for him to let me cum as he thrust into me again and again.
With a snap of his hips, I was sent over the edge. My core tightened around him and I came hard, gasping as the knot in my stomach released. He groaned with satisfaction as the sight of my coming undone at his doing and came quickly after me.
He pressed his forehead against mine as we caught our breath and surprised me by kissing my cheek before he stood up. He reached to the ground and picked up the knife. I momentarily panicked as Taeyong walked toward me with it. He took the blade and placed it against my wrist. He slid it between my skin and the rope, and cut it free. Normally he untied my rope restraint, and only at shower time. He had never cut it before.
Tossing the knife to the nightstand, he said, “I only have one rope left, and it’s the one I normally use for your feet. Don’t make me regret the decision to believe you won’t run after what just happened.”
I was in shock.
“So stay here then.” I suggested after the surprise had subsided a bit. “Sleep here. You’ll know if I try to run.”
“You’d want me to stay?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because you’ve watched me kill people and I kidnapped you? Just a couple of reasons.” He looked extremely caught off guard by my proposition.
“I’ve also seen you genuinely care for your group of psychos out there, you saved my life, and we just had a bit of a moment. Unless I misread that whole thing.”
I saw a new Taeyong in that moment. He was suddenly softer than he had ever been. His hair hung loose over his eyes and he looked gentle and the furthest thing from the intimidating man I had grown used to.
He crawled in the bed next to me and wrapped himself around me.
“You’re about to change this entire thing I’ve started, aren’t you?” he whispered, lips pressed against my scalp.
I didn’t answer. I didn’t know how I could, and I was suddenly too tired to try to come up with an answer. I drifted off to sleep. If there was going to be any night that the nightmares wouldn’t visit, it would have been that night.
I wasn’t that lucky.

Chapter Text

Onew’s fingers pressed to his lips. He pointed at the fake hospital bed in the room and signaled me to hide under it.
I’ve been here before…
A pair of blue converse stood next to Onew. But this time, instead of the conversation that had happened the first time, (and the other several times I relived this night in a dream), a different conversation was had.
“She’s under there.” Onew’s voice was sharp. Suddenly, a pair of hands reached down and grabbed me. Onew was staring back at me as Doyoung held my arms behind my back. Onew’s expression was sad. A knot was forming in my throat seeing his alive face again.
“You let me die.” he whispered. “You let me die for you, and you repay me like this?”
“What are you talking about?!” My voice was choked. I couldn’t comfortably form words and struggle against Doyoung’s grip.
I grunted as I hit the ground. Doyoung had, to my surprise, dropped me. He went and stood next to Onew. Blood rushed through my body so quickly, I could feel my heart rate pulsing in my fingertips that were holding me up as I sat on the ground. I was hot. It was so hot in this room for it being mid fall.
Doyoung suddenly had a knife in his hand. It was stained with a deep red. A scream wanted to rip at my throat as I watched him raise it to Onew’s throat. How many times had this happened again and again and again in my dreams? This time was different. I had never watched Doyoung actually kill Onew. I was never face to face with what had happened as my best friend had died.
The blade started to slide across his neck. A pained expression crossed his face. Blood started to flow from the gash…

“Wake up. Hey. It’s okay. I’m here.” A voice that didn’t belong to Doyoung or Onew pulled me out of my dream. I jumped slightly away from the touch before I became fully aware of my surroundings again. I opened my eyes to see Taeyong. He looked slightly panicked, and I felt guilty for being the cause for his concern.
“You repay me like this?”
Onew’s phrase rang through my ears again. Suddenly aware of what he meant, I couldn’t help but burst out in tears. “Onew… I… He… My fault…So much blood…” Words failed me. I wanted to explain to Taeyong what had happened, but I couldn’t.
Taeyong’s arms wrapped around me. “It was just a nightmare.” he whispered as he placed a kiss to the top of my head. He let me continue to cry as he slightly rocked me back and forth. His fingers traced light circles in my arms and, after a few minutes, I felt my breathing steady. My heart eventually slowed to an almost normal pace again and my eyes had run dry of tears.
I sat up and turned to Taeyong. “If I’m going to help you, I need to know that I can be a part of this and not have to actually kill anybody. You have to promise me that, while I’m around, you won’t kill someone who doesn’t deserve it.” He went to speak, but I raised a finger, “I don’t mean in your way of ‘everyone deserves it one way or another.’ I mean if they are not a prisoner living in a cell for some super fucked up shit, I don’t want you to kill them. Is that understood?”
Taeyong took a hold of the finger that I had raised at him. He opened my whole hand and laced his fingers through mine. His other hand reached up and cupped my cheek. I nuzzled my cheek into his palm and softened my gaze.
“This whole situation is weird.” I whispered. “But you have been good to me when you could have killed me. My life is literally in your hands. I’ll help you.”
Taeyong responded with, “I don’t want you to do it because you’re afraid of me.”
I leaned forward and kissed him. “Does what just happened between us seem like it’s because I’m afraid of you?” A small smile spread across Taeyong’s lips.
We got up and got dressed. He held my hand as we walked down the hallway, almost a little bit too tight. He tensed up the closer that we got to the common areas of the house. I gave him a confused look, but he didn’t acknowledge it. His lips formed a tight line as we walked into the kitchen. It was empty, and he eased his body language a bit.
Taeyong started brewing coffee and I walked up to him and asked, “hey, what’s going on? Why are you so…”
Before I could finish, though, I heard someone walk in behind us. I turned around to see Lucas and Doyoung there. Lucas looked amused. Doyoung did not.
Lucas chuckled and said, “You know, I was hoping it was gonna be me you ended up being cool with. I got beat to the punch.” He walked into the kitchen and nudged me with his elbow on his way to grab a cup of coffee, winking. “Welcome to the club, kid.”
“Kid? I’m 99% sure that I’m older than you.” I retorted.
“Yeah, but I’m taller than you.” He handed me a mug of coffee that he had poured before turning around and pouring one for himself.
“So this is where we’re at.” Doyoung’s voice was sharp. It cut through the air and I whipped around. His eyes bore into me and I felt my cheeks flush hot. We held eye contact. I wanted to cower away, but I also knew that I needed to stand my ground. He was livid, and I could tell. After last night, though, I knew that my place was secure. I wasn’t going to let him push me down anymore. I was safe. Taeyong made sure of that. I couldn’t show Doyoung that I was scared of him.
Even clean from the blood from his fight with Taeyong last night, he still looked rough. He was bruised to hell. Both of his eyes were swollen and purple. Cuts laced his lips and cheeks. He grimaced slightly as he walked into the kitchen and I realized that he wasn’t holding his arms crossed, but holding onto his ribs on his left side. Taeyong must have landed a few hits there too. He stopped directly in front of me. I half expected Taeyong and Lucas to say something, but neither moved.
There was a beat of silence and Doyoung smirked. “I don’t trust you. I don’t care that he does. I don’t. You’re going to be bad for us. When you fuck something up, I want you to know that I’ll be the one to kill you.”
“Doyoung. It’s too early for your dramatics.” Jaehyun suddenly appeared in the kitchen and I jumped. I hadn’t been expecting his voice and Doyoung looked annoyed at both his comment and the fact that Jaehyun had scared me more than he had.
Jaehyun looked just as irritated. “I know that I wasn’t the only one in this house who didn’t get any sleep last night,” he shot a glance at me, “so can I at least get breakfast and coffee in before we start threatening to kill each other?”
I knew that Doyoung meant his words. I also knew that he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me with the other three in such close proximity. A wave of bravery flowed through me, and, still not breaking eye contact with him, I raised my coffee mug and took a sip. He shook his head and, without another word, walked over and lifted himself to sit on the counter next to Lucas.
“Now that that’s done with,” Taeyong said, “and now that everyone is on board, can we please start to discuss how we’re going to do this whole thing?”
“Can Jaehyun at least make breakfast while we talk?” Lucas whined. “I need food for my brain to work.”
Jaehyun rolled his eyes, but walked toward the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs. I realized that I was still awkwardly hovering in the middle of the kitchen, so I walked over and stood in front of Taeyong. He mimicked Doyoung and propped himself up on the counter. Pulling me in, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and rested his cheek on my head.
“My vote is having her pose as a lawyer.” Doyoung wouldn’t acknowledge me by name or even look in my direction as he spoke. “She can go in, saying she’s going to find a client…”
“No.” I interrupted. I saw Doyoung close his eyes and his jaw clench. Before he could snap at me or ask why, I said, “Jaehyun showed me a newspaper with my face on it. Do you really think I would go unnoticed as your main point of entry? How do you propose that I get y’all in with a guard by my side every step of the way?”
Nobody said anything. For a couple of minutes, the only sound in the house was the egg Jaehyun was cooking sizzling against the pan. I saw everyone get lost deep in thought for a bit while they tried to come up with a new idea.
“Good lord, you four. Have you never watched a tv show?” I finally sighed. “It’s cheesy and cliché, but prisons get their food from somewhere, right? They have delivery trucks.”
I waited for a lightbulb to click in their minds. Jaehyun turned to me and pointed his spatula at me. “That’s a damn good idea. We hijack a truck to get into the prison. You guys can take out guards as you go through. You can take a few of the uniforms once they’re down for the count…”
“Just knocked out-” I interjected, “not killed.” I turned around and raised an eyebrow at Taeyong. “Right?”
Taeyong nodded. “We’ll have to work on just knocking people out, but no random kills this time around.”
This time, it was Lucas that scoffed. “Knocking people out leaves them time to wake up and risks us being caught. We can’t afford to not kill them as we go.”
Doyoung raised his hands in the air. “And since when does she get to call shots? What’s the point of her anyway? It’s not like she’s going to be willing to participate.”
“I’m your excuse to walk through the prison, dumbass.” The room went silent at me calling him a the name. Having Taeyong behind me had me feeling bold. “You, dressed as guards, will be escorting me, the food delivery service manager, through the prison to find the Warden to discuss food options and price changes. We’ll find something that could mimic a uniform in my size. I’ll say that I need to discuss a few things with him and that, on the way to his office, we got lost. Y’all are new guards, after all.”
“Okay, genius.” Doyoung jumped off of the counter and came and stood a few inches from my face. Taeyong’s grip around my shoulders tightened and I saw Jaehyun and Lucas both turn toward us as well. “How the hell do we find out where these fuckers we want to do this whole ordeal to are then?”
“You actually take me to the warden. Once he’s unconscious, we access the databases. We can make sure that we have everything from the truck we need to actually look like we’re there for that specific purpose. Of course, he’ll quickly realize that you aren’t his guards, so you’ll have to make fast work of him, but we’ll be able to snag some Visitor passes from his office. From there, we’ll say that I had permission from him to tour the facility- accompanied by guards- and we can make our way to the cells you have the most interest in.”
Doyoung looked pissed off at the fact that my plan wasn’t a bad one.
“There’s a few things that need ironed out,” Jaehyun said as he turned back to finish cooking, “but it’s better than anything we were coming up with.”
Doyoung stomped out of the room. Lucas yelled after him, “can I have your eggs, then?!” He turned back to me and smiled. “I’m impressed. You managed to come up with a plan to infiltrate a prison and piss off Doyoung, all before breakfast!”
I laughed. “I feel like I piss Doyoung off before breakfast daily. That’s not much of an accomplishment.”
Jaehyun grabbed my arm and held me back while Taeyong and Lucas made their way to the dining room to eat. He dropped his voice low and whispered, “I don’t know what the hell that was with Taeyong last night, but please, please be careful. Doyoung doesn’t take stuff like this lightly, and Taeyong’s ultimate loyalty will lay with his friends. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.”
I nodded. “I’ll be more gentle with Doyoung.”
He shook his head. “I don’t just mean him.” Without another word, Jaehyun followed Lucas’ whines for food out of the kitchen. I was left, standing in the middle of the room again, wondering if I had made more mistakes than I could fix in the last few hours.

Chapter Text

The next few weeks were kind of a blur. I was out of my room significantly more. Lucas had gone and gotten a job at Ben E. Keith food delivery company long enough to learn how to operate one of the trucks, get his photo ID card, and hijack a few uniforms.
He also managed to snag their delivery schedules, which offered information such as dates and times the trucks were expected to head out for delivery to the prisons.
Everyone seemed distracted. Taeyong was constantly running in and out of the house to, only god knows where. He rarely communicated with me where he was off to. Some days it was shopping for food, others it was buying supplies to make copies of Lucas’ ID card to make some for us in case they needed them to ward off any uncertainty. I had at least expected him to stay with me more since what had happened between us, but he didn’t.
I felt relatively useless. Jaehyun kept me company most days. Doyoung and I did everything within our power to never be in the same room. Some days, Lucas and I played video games together while the rest of the guys had gone out to stake out the location they hoped to take over the truck before arriving at the prison.
The dynamic in the house had changed. There was an ecstatic buzz through everyone. I think that mine was more related to nerves, but part of me was excited. It felt wrong to be excited about being involved in something related to murder, but everything was changing soon.
One day, a few days before our decided on date, there was a knock on my door. Taeyong stood in my door frame. He was holding up a few garment bags and had a smirk on his face.
“Feel like putting on a fashion show for me?”
He shut the door behind him and laid the bags out along my bag. He unzipped them and I let out a small gasp. They were full of beautiful, professional, expensive looking business suits.
“Where did you get these?!” I ran my hand along the hem of the blazer of one.
“You’re doing this for me. I wanted to do something nice for you. You deserve it. You’ve been through a lot. These will help you fit the role, and I feel like you’ll look sexy as hell in them.”
I stripped directly in front of Taeyong as he sat on the bed and chose a grey suit with black pinstripes out of the bag. I put it on. I left nothing but my bra on through the blazer jacket, and spun around. I asked him what he thought and he let out a small growl as he grabbed the front of the jacket and pulled me toward him.
I landed with a knee on either side of him, straddling his lap. I wrapped my arms around his neck and placed a soft kiss to his lips.
“Hey stranger.” I whispered.
“Hey.” A smirk spread across his lips as he said, “i was right. You look hot. Totally giving off the ‘sexy CEO’ vibes.”
He kissed me again, this time, deeper, but somehow more gentle. When he broke free, he cupped my face and ran his thumb along my cheek. “I’m sorry I’ve been so distant. Things have been a little crazy with all of the planning. I just want to make sure all of this goes over well.”
I stayed on his lap, but asked, “what are you gonna do when all of this is done?”
He sighed, “I don’t know. It’s all I’ve been looking forward to for so long now. Maybe I’ll just whisk you away and we can run away together. What do you think? Start a life in a brand new town?”
“Maybe we can stick to being petty thieves instead of murderers there.” I teased. He chuckled but then kept staring at me, expecting an answer. I kissed him and said, “let’s get through this. Then we can plan the future. Okay?”
He nodded and pressed his forehead to mine. “Deal.”
That night, he stayed the night in my room. I was restless, though. My anxiety was pretty high and I was stressing about how everything was going to work out. I was careful and slowly raised his arm off of my stomach, making sure to not wake him up with my movements. I slowly shifted myself off of the bed and made my way to the kitchen.
To my surprise, the lights were on. I peeked my head around the corner and saw Jaehyun standing there with a mug in his hand. He nodded and raised it at me. “Tea?” he asked.
“Sure!” I walked in and sat on the counter next to him as he made me a cup.
“Are you sure you’re ready to be a part of this?” He asked me after a few minutes of us silently sipping.
“Are you?” He looked at me confused, but then nodded.
“This is a really big move on our parts. I’m afraid it’s not gonna work out. What if any little detail goes wrong?”
I shrugged. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“Bigger picture of it all, right?” he asked. I didn’t answer, but instead, took another drink of my tea. We talked through all of the plans before deciding it was time to go to bed. We walked down the hallway, and he peeked in to see Taeyong sleeping on my bed.
“He really cares for you.” Jaehyun whispered.
I sighed. “I suppose he does.”
“Don’t suppose. You wouldn’t be a part of this otherwise.”
-
Finally, it was the “day of.” It was time to put this whole operation in motion. After waking up, I got dressed in one of my suits. Taeyong has bought me some nice, simple shoes and half of a drug stores worth of make up because he “doesn’t know what the hell women use or need! What if I had picked the wrong color?!”
The guys dressed in the one piece zip up uniforms of the delivery drivers and I couldn’t help but laugh as Taeyong and Jaehyun posed in their outfits. I fanned my face and, in faux seduction, said, “I have always loved a man in a uniform.”
The first step of the plan was to drive to the outskirts of town where the prison was located at. It was only a two lane road and it was low traffic. We parked the car in the road and waited. Once we saw the delivery truck coming, we flipped on our hazards and I jumped out, waving my arms.
When the truck stopped, I walked over and faked thankfulness as I tried to tell them we were having van engine trouble. The guys were more than willing to jump out of the truck to see what they could do for me.
While they did, Jaehyun snuck around the front of the truck and jumped in the driver’s seat. Once he was in, Lucas and Doyoung both choked out the delivery guys until the were unconscious. They laid them in the back of the van, took the keys after he had moved it safely off of the road, and we took off in the delivery truck. I caught a glimpse of the van that taken me away from my normal life and watched as it faded away.
We arrived at the prison and my heart was practically in my throat. My breathing was heavy, and it wasn’t until Jaehyun had reached over and pat the top of my hand and told me it was okay that I realized I was all but hyperventilating.
He backed up the truck to the loading dock and I smiled anxiously at him as I jumped out of the passenger seat. I walked up to the guards that had come outside to meet us, and changed my smile into a warm, confident one.
“Hi! I’m Anne Marie. I’m the manager of our branch of Ben E. Keith.” The two guards shook my hand as I continued my lie. “I have a change of budget I need to go over with the warden. I know I shouldn’t have just shown up, but is there any chance I can chat with him?”
“That should be fine, ma’am. We just have to check this order before we are able to let you in.”
“Of course! I wouldn’t expect anything less!”
They opened the back of the truck, and Lucas and Doyoung quickly grabbed them, catching them off guard before they were able to react. Once they were both unconscious as well, they swapped their delivery uniforms for prison guard uniforms.
“The time crunch begins now.” Taeyong said. He was still in a delivery uniform, but that was for the best since a prison guard wouldn’t have red hair anyway.
He kept talking. “The warden’s office is two lefts and a right past this hallway through the kitchen. We get there. We get the master key, and we have five cells we will have to hit.”
“This isn’t going to work.” Doyoung said, catching us all off guard.
“What the fuck?!” Lucas asked, hand ready to open the door to the prison kitchen.
“Too many factors. We need to reconvene. The plan isn’t thorough enough.”
“And you wait until we are right here to fucking tell us this is how you feel?!” Taeyong snapped.
“It’s too late for this and you’re taking up too much time with your uncertainty. Let’s go.” I pushed past Doyoung and told Lucas to open the door. We walked through the kitchen and dining hall, almost even unnoticed. It was as if everybody in there saw guard uniforms and chose to ignore the existence of whoever was wearing them.
We made two lefts and a right. My heart was loud in my ears and The secretary eye balled my “guards,” but shrugged it off. She muttered something about “them always bringing new staff in,” and waved us through to the warden.
We knew that it was going to happen. We opened the door, and immediately, the warden noticed something amiss. He stood up, attempting to say, “who are you?” He was suddenly cut off, however, by Doyoung taking his knife from his holster and jumping forward to drive it into the Prison Warden’s chest. Lucas had no sooner shut the door before three more holes had been punctured into the man’s abdomen.
I covered my mouth with my hands to stifle my noises of disgust and buried my face into Taeyong’s chest. He quickly shoved me off and Lucas took his place. He held me close and held my head against him so that I wouldn’t have to watch the man in front of me die.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Taeyong growled at Doyoung. I could tell that he was holding back to not draw attention to the room, but it was difficult.
“This wasn’t going to work by just leaving people unconscious. People wake up Taeyong.” Doyoung’s footsteps moved in my direction and I heard his voice right by my ear. Lucas tightened his grip against me, but Doyoung whispered, “and I don’t take orders to not kill people from bitches who shouldn’t be here in the first place.”
I heard Taeyong sigh. “You’re letting your emotions compromise our plan.”
“And you’re letting yours jeopardize everything we have worked for. You kept her alive for some unexplainable reason and I can’t stand by and pretend she’s not a hazard to everything anymore.”
“You’ve never once pretended anything!” Lucas’ voice vibrated as he kept me held close. “This was her plan. She’s the only reason we are in this far. Get your head out of your ass for five minutes while we finish this.”
Taeyong’s voice was soft. “I don’t have time for him to take his head out of his ass. Lucas- keep her there.”
“The hell are you doing?” Doyoung’s voice was laced with panic. My breathing became shorter as realization clicked. I heard the scuffle. I felt Lucas gripping me harder than was comfortable, but there was too much running through my brain to tell him to let loose. When he buried his face on the top of my head, there was the thud of someone hitting the ground, and then silence, I stopped wondering.
“Stay there.” Taeyong’s voice was strained and I didn’t dare defy his order, nor did Lucas. I heard the sounds of computer keys clicking, the sounds of a pencil scratching fervently, and then drawers opening. Eventually, the jingle of keys told me that Taeyong had found the keys that he had been looking for.
“Turn around now.” His voice was right next to me. Lucas dropped his arms and I slowly circled around and opened my eyes. I was surprised to see Taeyong directly in front of my face.
“You can’t react like that out here. Is that understood?” His words were firm, but soft at the same time. They had concern behind them.
I nodded. “I just, I think it was the innocent person dying that made me uncomfortable. I know who y’all are here to kill. But he didn’t deserve that. I just hadn’t prepared for that.” Taeyong understood, but made sure to reiterate his point a few more times.
“When we walk out of here, we tell his receptionist that Doyoung stayed behind for a training meeting. Hopefully, by the time she starts to wonder and gets up and finds both of them, we will have made it out.” I still hadn’t confronted the sight of Doyoung on the floor, but, behind Taeyong, I could see pools of red staining the carpet.
Despite Doyoung and myself having our differences, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of guilt. In a way, his death was on my hands. He was right. I was a liability to him; a liability of having himself killed by his best and most trusted friend.
The receptionist, again, greeted us with a look of absolute apathy. I caught solitaire on her computer screen as we walked out. If only she had known and cared enough…
“Our first two prisoners are side by side. I sent a mass pager messenger on the computer system. A perk I noticed while trying to find these locations. Most of the guards have been moved to keep an eye out on a ward that’s considered problematic. I just payed out a red alert and the cells furthest from ours. Hopefully that helps keep the halls clear.”
We found our way through, and I was shocked at how well Taeyong’s plan had worked. Almost nobody was around, and the few who were saw Lucas in a uniform and never paid us a second glance. It’s was actually extremely unnerving how little everyone around seemed to care.
We made our way to the first two cells on Taeyong’s list. My anxiety was through the roof. I couldn’t believe it was here. The window of time to get this done was so short. I watched as Lucas took a deep breath. The first prisoner kept asking what was going on.
“I ain’t ever seen you as a guard here before. Who are they? Why ain’t you answering my questions?!” Were repeated as Lucas found the master key to the cell. He unlocked his door before handing Taeyong the key to unlock his.
“What the hell’s happening here?!” the prisoner in Taeyong’s cell asked.
“Y’all need to go in now. This is causing a scene with the other prisoners.” I muttered. Everyone around her started gathering at their doors. A few boots and hollers in my direction were thrown, but it was mostly a bunch of questions.
Taeyong handed me the keys and he and Lucas nodded at one another. The three their doors open at the same time and sprinted into their cells.
The prisoners were bigger than both of them, but they were faster. They were able to jump around and get an edge on them. They danced through the tiny, cages rooms, sounds of scuffles and shouts of panic filling the hallway.
This was taking longer than either of them had anticipated. Their prisoners weren’t going to go down easily. I could see the fear in Lucas’ face as his prisoner cornered him. Finally, however, he was able to maneuver it just right and shoved his knife through the underside of his inmate’s chin.

I took a few steps forwards, and quickly locked the door with him inside of the cell.
Taeyong was finishing up at the same time, so I sprinted over and locked his door as well.
The room was eerily silent. The other prisoners were in shock. Taeyong and Lucas both stared at me through their bars.
Lucas’ eyes were filled with hurt. “How long? How long have you been planning this?”
“Long enough.” I whispered. Strangely enough, he was the one that I had the hardest time betraying. He had started out as a cringe worthy wanna be fuck boy, but he had become somewhat like a brother to me. He was so young; it broke my heart to do this to him.
“I can’t fucking believe this.” Lucas snapped.
He was going to continue, but Taeyong interrupted with a soft phrase. “I fell for you, though.”
“That was your mistake.” I turned to him, a heartless expression crossing my face. “You have so much blood on your hands. I could never love someone like you.”
Taeyong staggered back.
Lucas continued his rage filled rant. “When we get out of here, we will kill you. I hope you know that.” He started pacing as he stared at me. “You’re going to die. You better be on fucking guard. You won’t get away with this.”
Taeyong stopped him again. “Don’t be stupid. Jaehyun will never let her out of his sight without us.”
I smirked. “You think so?”

2 weeks After the Kidnapping:
I was laying in bed, crying. This had become a pretty common state of being for me. I always assumed that I would run out of tears to cry, and always surprised myself by bursting into tears.
There was a knock on my door, which surprised me. My door had been shut and Taeyong had tied my wrist and foot, so I was sure that it was likely the middle of the night. I didn’t respond, but the key turned in my door.
To my surprise, Jaehyun had walked in. He smiled softly at me and waved a key in his hand.
“Taeyong took Doyoung and Lucas’ key to your room, but I guess he trusted me enough to assume I wouldn’t set you free.”
I propped myself up on my elbow as much as i could quickly. “Are you going to?! Are you going to set me free?”
He shook his head. “No… I’m not. But, I did come with gifts of tea and toast. You really need something to pick your energy up.”

I explained to Taeyong and Lucas that, from then on, Jaehyun had visited me almost nightly. There were the rare occasions I would stay up waiting for him, and he wouldn’t show up, but on the nights he did, we would be up for hours talking.
“We had slowly started toying with the idea of getting out of there. He was growing tired of supporting this lifestyle and I still wanted my freedom.
“The night after what happened between us,” I stared at Taeyong, “Jaehyun came into my room again. He was pissed, but more so at himself for not being honest with me.”

The night after sleeping with Taeyong:
There was no knock this time. Jaehyun all but flew into the room. Before I could react, though, his lips crashed against mine. He gave me the deepest kiss as his fingers laced in my hair.
Meeting no objection from me, he slowed the kiss down. We stayed like that for several minutes before he finally broke free. It had been a risk because anybody could have walked in and seen us, but we stayed undiscovered.
“Please tell me you have feelings for me too.” He presses his forehead to mine. “Please tell me it’s me and not Taeyong and we will run away together. I should have told you sooner. But please don’t love him.”

“I was relieved.” I shrugged. “Once we had established that I would continue to pretend to have feelings for you without compromising my relationship with Jaehyun, we set this game plan in action to free us both.”
Lucas was fuming at this point. Taeyong’s eyes bore holes into my skin. The other prisoners had started to finally get over their initial disbelief of what had happened and started yelling at me from their various cells. You would have thought that i was a pastor for them to confess their sins to.
“Sweetheart! Let me out. I’m not like them! All I did was smuggle some cocaine!”
“All that I did…”
“Give me the keys! I didn’t do anything bad like them…”
Taeyong finally let his shock fade and he began to mix in with everyone’s shouts. I spun on my heels and, without another glance back at the two men that I had just betrayed,
I made my way toward the kitchen again. Taeyong’s fake 911 page must have been established as a fluke, because guards were starting to make their way toward their designated areas. A group of three stopped in their tracks when they saw me.
“I’m so sorry!” I giggled. “I had met with the warden and got lost on my way back to my truck.” Thankful that Taeyong had made fake badges, I flashed mine at the guards. They pointed me back in the direction I needed to go, and I thanked them. They seemed confused, but shrugged it off.
Once I was outside, I saw Jaehyun standing next to the truck. He had been biting his thumb nail, probably out of anxiety. The widest smile crossed his face when he realized that I was okay.
He sprinted up to me and picked me up and spun me around. Kissing me quickly, he pulled the guards out of the back of the truck, (that he had had to knock out a couple more times), and we took off while we still had the time.
“I can’t believe that worked!” I screamed.
Jaehyun had a look of relief on his face. I asked him what he was thinking and he smiled. “I didn't think I would feel so good about leaving them behind… but to know that this is behind me…” he glanced at me, “it’s freeing. Let’s go start over.”
We knew that we could never go back to “normal.” Jaehyun would be tied to Taeyong and Lucas once they were discovered in the dead prisoners cells. We knew we had a lot of work ahead of us, abandoning the van, finding a way to find somewhere to live. We knew that Taeyong would reveal the location of the house and we could never go back there. We would figure it out piece by piece, but for now, we weren’t going to let those things deflate us. We had won.
“Oh! Here.” Jaehyun reached into his pocket and pulled my cell phone out, handing it to me.
Beaming, I turned it on for the first time in weeks. I dialed Molly’s number, and she answered in tears.
“Molly-“ I interrupted her sobbing blubbering, “I’m okay. I’m coming over to explain everything.”
I couldn’t help but smile I said, “I’m alive.”