I woke up feeling disoriented and slightly nauseated. Someone touched my hair and smoothed it back.

‘Mom,’ I murmured, opening my eyes and blinking against the light.

I squinted up at a boy – who didn’t even remotely resemble my mom – to find him staring at me with a stony expression on his face. He was tall and thin with messy brown hair, high cheekbones and a small mouth. Everything about him seemed distant and aloof, from his posture to the expression on his face. He also wore a thick iron collar around his neck.

‘Where am I?’ I rasped out.

I looked around the room I was in, it was small and contained only the cot I was currently lying on and a very sturdy looking iron door – I guess the only good thing was that I wasn’t tied up.

The boy reached down to the floor and came back up holding a glass of water. All of a sudden, all I could think about was how horribly dry my throat was and I stared at the water longingly.

‘Here, have some,’ he murmured, pushing the glass towards me, I noticed he had a small lisp when he spoke.

I took the water gratefully, chugging it down to quickly and choking. I drank it more slowly.

‘Thank you,’ I said as he took the glass back from me, ‘who are you? Where am I?’

He gave me another stony look and I thought he wasn’t going to answer but then he answered,
‘I’m Sehun. You’re in Wu Yifan’s… underground facilities.’

‘You’re Sehun? Jongin’s friend?’ I asked in astonishment.

He recoiled and his eyes widened in astonishment, but then they quickly narrowed. ‘You know Jongin?’

I tried not to feel offended by the way he emphasized “you” like I was some sort of alien creature.

‘Yes! He was my cat, er, I mean, I thought he was my cat but then he actually turned out to be a boy. Anyway, him and Minseok have been trying to find a way to break you and Luhan out. And there’s others, others like you guys, that are helping them-‘

My words were cut short by Sehun who lunged forward and clapped a hand over my mouth. I stared at him wide-eyed.

He put a silencing finger to his lips.

‘Not here,’ he whispered, ‘not safe to talk here. Later.’

I nodded slowly and he removed his hand from my mouth. The door clanked open and two uniformed men walked in, they were both huge and armed to the teeth. The one in front was staring at me with an almost gleeful expression on his face, he had a tattoo running down his face… I froze in horror as I recognized him.

The man who’d attacked me in the warehouse. The one I’d stabbed… oh, shit.

‘Well, well, well! Look who we have here?’ smirked Tattoo Face.

I grimaced. ‘How’s your neck? Guess I didn’t hit anything vital, huh? Pity.’

He strode towards the cot with a snarl but Sehun stepped in front of him before he could reach me.

‘Yifan said she was not to be harmed,’ said Sehun, his expression once again aloof.

‘Well, he’s asked to see her,’ spat Tattoo Face with barely contained violence, ‘so I suggest you stay out of my way, boy!’

He shouldered past Sehun, reached down, grabbed my arm and hauled me off the cot. I glanced back at Sehun before getting dragged out the door, but I couldn’t read his expression before I was being dragged down a long corridor.

I didn’t even try to fight them as they took me to Wu Yifan (needed to keep my energy up for better things, like escaping – yes, my optimism knew no bounds!).

The fact that I was cooperating didn’t seem to matter to Tattoo Face as he pushed, shoved and threatened me at every turn. Couldn’t say I was surprised, considering I had one upped him last time I saw him – must have been quite the blow to his ego.

We reached a pair of majestic double doors. An intricate pattern had been sculpted in to the iron, it was quite beautiful but for some reason it made me shudder. It took me a second to realise that the figure sculpted across the doors was a dragon. If I weren’t so terrified I would have rolled my eyes at it – real subtle!

They took me through the doors into an opulent dining area, there was a long table in the middle of the room that could easily seat thirty people but it was only set for two, the seat at the head of the table and the one to its left. I was hauled over to the seat on the left and shoved down roughly on to the chair.

‘Oh, you brought me out for dinner, you shouldn’t have?’ I sneered.

His eyes promised payback but his fear of Yifan must be great indeed because he only stepped back towards the wall. I didn’t know why I was being so mouthy, maybe it was a belated reaction to intense fear, or maybe it was Chen’s influence, but whatever it was I had to stop or I was going to end up getting myself killed.

I swallowed and clenched my trembling hands in my lap.

I heard steps coming down the corridor, they stopped in front of the dragon doors. My breath hitched and stopped all together when the doors swung open. A man in a black suit strode inside, he was very tall and broad shouldered. He had burnished auburn hair and it was all slicked backwards. He had very distinct eyebrows and a razor sharp jaw. I knew without being told who he was.

He seemed to exude power and arrogance, even the way he walked was intimidating.

I imagined him beating a young, defenseless Jongin and my fear was replaced by anger (okay, mostly anger, there was still quite a lot of fear too).

He took the seat at the head of the table, then slowly stapled his fingers together under his chin.

I waited for him to say something but he only regarded me wordlessly – it was nerve wrecking!

I avoided his gaze and looked around the room, shifting nervously in my seat. I knew he was trying to intimidate me into spilling information on the others. It wasn’t going to work but it was making me feel slightly ill. I mean, was he going to torture me if I didn’t tell him what he wanted to know?

But, surely, Tao had told him everything about their plans and he knew a lot more than I did anyway. I swallowed thickly.

Okay, enough of this, if I had to wait one more second for someone to break the silence I was going to scream.

I lifted my chin an inch higher and looked him straight in the eye. ‘You wanted to see me?’

His lips lifted slightly in a mocking smile and I bristled.

‘Since you’re going to be a guest here for a while,’ his voice was deep and warm but his eyes were cold as ice, ‘I thought we could get to know each other a bit better.’

I barely held back a snort. ‘Guest!? You had me kidnapped, you maniac! I am of absolutely no use to you. There’s nothing that I know that you have, no doubt, already been told–‘

I cut my words off and squeezed my eyes shut as Tao’s betrayal hit me again.

‘So, you’re saying you are of no use to me?’ he drawled, then paused for a second with a thoughtful look on his face. I looked at him and felt a sliver of fear run down my spine.

He leaned back in his chair like it was a throne and smiled chillingly, ‘If that’s really true, that would leave you in a very, very bad situation, madam.’

I stared at him and he stared back, it was a battle of wills and I broke first. I looked down at the delicate china plate in front of me.

‘Fortunately, for you, we both know that’s not true.’

I imagined being anywhere else but here – even hanging upside down over a pit full of snakes seemed far more appealing at the moment.

‘See, Jongin and Minseok both know that I wouldn’t intentionally kill any of our kind but you… you are another matter entirely,’ Wu Yifan smiled and clicked his fingers.

Tattoo Face opened a drawer, pulled out a rectangular shaped wooden case and placed it on the table.

Wu Yifan opened it and looked at me enquiringly. ‘Cigar?’

I tried to say “no, thank you” but the words got stuck in my throat, so I just shook my head instead. He picked one out for himself and pulled a cigar cutter from inside his jacket pocket.

'My brother has assured me that you're important to the boys,' drawled Yifan.

Something clicked into place in my head, Tao's torn expression flashed across my eyes. I was so shocked at discovering that Tao was Yifan's brother that I almost missed his next words.

‘Especially Kim Jongin,’ he twirled the cigar cutter between his fingers and, almost against my will, my eyes followed the movement, ‘I wonder (he put the cigar between his lips) how he’d react, if he started receiving (he fitted the cutter to the end of the cigar) bits and pieces of you.’

He cut the end with a snap and I flinched.

‘I’m sure he’ll come running, he always was a bit of a hot head that one. Of course, Minseok will come with him,’ he drew deeply from his cigar, a faraway look came into his eyes, ‘I’ll have my boys back where they belong.’

‘They don’t belong to you,’ I said through gritted teeth.

Wu Yifan’s eyes snapped to mine and I could swear that they glowed red for an instance. I shrank back in my chair but my glare didn’t abate – done for 8, done for 80, right?

He moved so quickly, I didn’t even have time to register what happened until I was face down on the table. His hand dug into my hair at the back of my head and he leaned down over my back.

I tried to shake him off but it was like being pinned under an immovable object. My breath was coming out in frightened little gasps - if I thought I’d been terrified before; it was nothing compared to what I was feeling now.

‘I think you fail to understand the position you’re in, Cassandra,’ Yifan murmured close to my ear, ‘And we can’t have that.’

He grabbed my wrist and forced my left hand flat on the table.

‘I didn’t want to do something like this so soon, but you leave me no choice,’ he sighed.

I cried out when he started slipping my ring finger into the cigar cutter and renewed my struggles with a newfound vigor. It was futile, of course.

I resorted to begging. ‘No. Wait! Please- I’m sorry! I’m sorry, okay? Please just-‘

He paused. My legs where shaking so badly that if he hadn’t been holding me down I would have promptly collapsed on to the floor.

‘I can’t just let your behaviour pass like this, it would create a terrible precedent,’ said Yifan with a playful tone in his voice.

I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to prepare myself for the pain. I bit my lip so hard, I could taste copper in my mouth.

‘Tell you what, since you’re new around here, I’ll give you a 50/50 chance,’ he said, straightening up slightly behind me.

I held my breath, still not trusting him not to snap my finger off just for shits and giggles.

‘Tank, toss me a coin,’ ordered Yifan.

Tattoo Face (or Tank) jogged forward and handed him a coin.

‘If I flip heads, I’ll let you go.’

Tank let out a low laugh and I imagined running him over with my car, then reversing and doing it again.

He flipped the coin high in the air and I waited with bated breath for the verdict. The damn thing seemed to be twirling in slow motion through the air. I knew this was just his way of flaunting his complete power and dominance over me.

‘You’re a lucky girl,’ said Yifan, softly. He tossed the coin and cutter at Tank, and I let out the breath I’d been holding – that had been way, way too close for comfort!

He flipped me around so I was on my back facing him.

‘Tell me,’ he said, softly, ‘am I not merciful?’

When I didn’t immediately answer, he shook me roughly by the shoulders and I let out a startled cry.

‘AM I NOT MERCIFUL?’ he roared an inch from my face.

‘Yes,’ I whispered without looking at him.

‘Good girl,’ he murmured with a small smile, then he leaned down and kissed me on the lips.

He released me and returned to his seat. As for me, I was feeling justifiably petrified at the moment.
I pushed up from the table a bit unsteadily and sank down on to my chair with as much dignity as I could muster.

I was expecting one of his goons to drag me back to my cell but to my surprise, and utter horror, two women wearing aprons walked in carrying platters of food, and placed them on the table in front of me and Wu Yifan.

I realized with an impending sense of doom that I was going to have to sit through dinner with this psychopath – this day just kept getting better and better.

‘I’m just famished, aren’t you?’ enquired Yifan, like he hadn’t just been threatening to chop off my fingers, literally, thirty seconds ago, ‘I recommend the lamb.’

It was at least an hour before I was dismissed and dragged back to my cell. I had forced myself to eat because I needed to keep up my strength in case an opportunity for escape presented itself.

Tank threw me into my cell and I went sprawling across the floor.

‘That was so uncalled for,’ I muttered.

‘You won’t be talking like that for long, bitch. Better watch your back!’ he growled.

I glared at him, and with one last crack of his abominably large fingers, he slammed the door behind him and left.

I crawled into my cot and wondered how the hell I was going to make it out of this place.

---

---

Hope you guys enjoyed this new chapter! Thank you so much for reading. If you like what you've read so far, please subscribe and/or comment.
Lots of love,
Ange
xxxxxx

Notes