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You were no match for the sniper as you tried to fight him alone. You were too bruised and injured, broken and losing a lot of blood as he threw you off of him before he stormed out of your reach. Despite of struggling with your feet, you surged after him with the last of your strength.

"Stop!", you called as he stepped out of the front door, and you stumbled after him, one knee buckling as you reached the threshold. You dragged yourself back up, but fell again as he lifted his shotgun, searching for his prey through the swaying of the weeds in the field.

He spotted him in the right turn, the first gunshot whistled through the air like a wind.

"Niki, hide!", you scream out in panic, trying to break the sniper's sense of focus but it was no use.

And he could see Niki running a zigzag to avoid the bullet, his hands up against his ears, but as soon as the second shot started, his steps falters, slowed and stopped as he could feel the pain in his leg shotting up the pain through his core. His hands slipped from his head, falling down his leg to stop the blood from gushing out.

"No, please", you say as you tried to stand again, but couldn't. You knelt there helplessly, watching the red point of the laser drift onto the center of Niki's temple as he slowly faced the sniper. When your Aunt is humming a song, you felt peace. But when this fourth killer tunes in a remarkable lullaby for a kid to sleep with, you felt like you were breaking apart, dissolving into the hold of the darkness once again.

Somewhere beneath the heat and pain, you remembered the call of K - the mention about Niki not answering their calls, and none of it mattered because you were already falling.

Falling to the call of the old you.

The sniper stopped training his gun on Niki, and he stood there, a few paces away, his expression lost beneath the blaze of red light now turning in your face. "Take him, and I will be merciful"

"No"

He smirked darkly. "You, too, have sinned, Y/N", he begun. "Sinned agaisnt your own friend from the past and against our cause", his words forced their way into your fracturing mind. "You have such potential. We will do great things with Jay and Sungchul. But first you need to prove yourself. Now stand up"

You rose, shaking, to your feet. Pain curled through your body and drifted like steams from your limbs. "Jake, enough!", you shouted to him in disbelier, your heart lurching in your chest. "I am not a master like you"

He waved his hand towards Niki's frozen figure. "Embrace what you really are", Jake ordered, and his words rolled through you, sweeping away the last of your resistant. "You are as insane as us, we knew"

You knew he was right, knew what you had to do. You stopped fighting.

And as soon as you did, the pain was absolutely ignored, and the noises went out, and you fell down, down into the call of the darkness.

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The smell of antiseptic, a little bitter, with undertones of the artificial fragrance contained in soaps and cleaners filled his nostrils, his lungs and his head. His eyes tightly shut, and he wasn't sure whether he was dreaming or not. He could hear the distant and muted footsteps of the people outside his door, and the constant low of the air conditioner from the left wall.

His mouth was dry and his head was heavy. He tried to move, but it felt as though somebody beated him up all over again, and the work of the pain killers is wearing out, each small causing a pain for him to wince to keep his body still.

K didn't dare open his eyes. His mind raced to you and Jay, and the only images that replayed over and over in his head were of you fighting your own friend as you gets weaker and weaker at Sungchul's advances, and that of him trying to win over his bestfriend's repeated assaults before the world went black.

He stilled as he heard the door of his room opens, and closed again to the person who enters. And as the footsteps grew louder inside, he knew, it was making its way towards his bed as he pretended that he was asleep.

He didn't dare move, breath nor even think as the footsteps halted, and he felt the familiar sensation of someone watching over him. "You are awake, I know", came a deep and hard voice that was distantly familiar to him somehow. "Open your eyes to me and let me help"

And when he did, he found himself staring into the eyes that seemed to harsh and strict. He knew those eyes from before. They were unmistakeable. It was the same one who had molded his father into the respective but cold detective that he is.

The old but still strong healthy man towering over him smiled, it wasn't of happiness or contempt, but of a reminder of who he is, and K couldn't mute the gasp from his mouth as he stared back at the general of the army of their country.

"Hello, my grandson", he said in a voice intending to scare him at their every meeting. "It's the time you tell me about your girl friend and I have something I have to reveal about her"

He knew his grandfather's return doesn't bode well for the killers. He'd seen a glimpse of how ruthless he is in the records of his battles and rescued mission he had succeed from his job. He'd seen the other soldiers cowering before him and admiring him at the same time, for his devotion to justice.

And the thought of him being called here threatened to overwhelm K and plunged him down into a bottomless fit of fear from which there would be no return.

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Niki stood alone in the middle of the fields and felt nothing. There was no panic and no fear. Not even when the sniper stopped training the shotgun in his direction. He heard you speaking, but couldn't focus on the words, couldn't focus on anything but the guy in front of him, and at your figure behind.

You knelt there on the ground, still wrist bound, looking so hurt and scared, and he wished he could give some sense of calmness. And then the ringing from his head finally began to fade, withdrawing from his hearing rach, and his thoughts seeped together into a name.

K.

Will the detective's son comes for his rescue along yours? He fought against the haze of his mind getting dizzy over the course of a short time. Every thought is scattered, but it was shifting and sorting, finding order at last. It was Jake - the sniper - now standinh before him, and you were always one step behind. Only you weren't on your knees anymore.

You were getting up to your feet, and all the tension from your mouth to your eyes vanished, the weight of being a victim falling away from your shoulders. The handcuff crumbled from your wrist with the help of the sniper and you lifted your head, your were wide, but empty as the sky on the moonless night.

Niki's eyes watered as he stared back at you. He couldn't look away from the saw-toothed knife in your hand, and Jake stepped out of the way, and you craned your head towards him as if you were being ordered to kill.

Niki tried to retreat, but under your gaze, he couldn't. For some reason, he was frozen, not from feae but from something else, something deeper and different of what expected. His body was no longer listening to him, and he marveled at the way he got curious if you will follow the sniper or not. The way a death is so close yet so far.

You took a step forward to him. You didn't move like the other killers, didn't laugh or strike faster for the swiftness of ending a life. It was calculated and silent, like a snake slithering as he preyed for the innocent rabbit, and it was Niki at this moment.

The heat of your hand brushed up the air before his face, and the fear finally caught up to him. He tried so hard to pull away, to not believe you were innocent as everybody think you could be. Tears streamed down his cheeks, but he didn't close his eyes.

"I'm not afraid of you", he whispered, meeting your gaze as you reached for him. He didn't know if you were still the same shy transferee girl, if you could hear him, if you would care for his plea. "He thinks so well of you, Y/N. Please don't break his trust", he said bracing himself for the touch of the blade.

But it never came.

You took another step, but your hands swept for Jake instead, and as your fingers close around his throat, he gasped in surprise, but couldn't pull away. He fought, clawing at your grip yet your hold was unbreakable, the strength of your resolve is absolute.

"What are you doing..?", he demanded, but your grip only tightens, cutting him off. You leaned in, and whispered something in his ear, and Jake's face went from shocked to angry, then to blank as you continued preventing him from breathing correctly.

And then like lightning, the life inside his eyes was gone.

His legs folded, and you sank with him down to the grass, hands still wrapped around his throat. Niki stood, the flicker of fear still hovering over, but it was fading when he realized you chose him over the sniper's command. You listened to his plea.

You raised your head as you spoke to him. "We should go", you said after you straightened up and look off to the abandon house. "Before Sungchul and Jay wakes up to haunt for us"

Niki regarded you for a second, the slight movement of your head and hands letting go of the knife you never wanted to use before a small grin split across your mouth that made him think you knew more than you were actually letting on.

He blinked, and watched you crossing the space between you and him in a a strange calm gait. Like you didn't kill a person and everything else is just normal. And for a long second, your face remained empty, your features too ragged, expression as blank as the killers. He looked at you as if you'd never save his life.

As if you weren't suppose to flee together, hadn't been a victim a together, hadn't nearly died together.

Then a small crease appeared between your eyes. The faintest edge of a frown. "Are you alright, Niki?"

Your voice was still distant, but there was something in it. A sliver of concern. He let out a ragged breath as he looked down at himself, his torn dirty shirt and bloodied hands. "At least I'm alive"

A tired smile flickered across your face. "Well", you said, eyes creasing to show a relieved smile. "I did my best to help one of my classmates"

"Of course you did", he said quietly, eyeing you in concern. "I heard your screams. Did they torture you in any way?", he'd meant the worst to sound comforting, but his voice sounded wrong in his ears.

Something rose in him - a ghost of panic, an echo of fear from your presence - but then it settled.

He looked at you holding out your hand for him to take. When he reached to take it, his fingers brush with yours, and he drew back sharply, afraid of reacting in a wrong way. But of course, nothing happened.

You noticed the tremble in his hand and looked at him. "Are you afraid of me?", you asked, voice a little reluctant. "Why?"

He chewed his lip, but nodded. "I don't know how I feel right now", he confessed and he looked lost.

"I can understand", you said, fingers closing through his and waved to go on. "But we need to get out of here, Niki. Will you come with me?"

He tensed. The two of you have come this far together, and he trusted you, but the thought of you being another killer is another problem. "Where are you bringing me?"

Your knuckles went white against his hands. "I'm bringing you to safety", you said. "And we need to see the pattern of the victims and see who will be next after us"

His gaze hardened on you, but he did not speak, for he knew that you were not finished yet.

"I know how their minds work", you eventually said, continuing to fidget under his suspicious gaze. "I've been through it, but now I'm a different person. A person who are willing to risk my life to put an end to this madness before it gets worse"

The words hit Niki like a stab in the gut, and he felt his nerves tingle as a strange sensation moved through his body. It was like a sudden, new found weight had launched itself onto his shoulders at the subtle revelation within your words.

And he knew there was some semblance of crack in you - in that moment. Some semblance he could see from the friend he once knew and he was now laying unconscious inside the room he kept him as a captive for days.

And it gave him hope for Jay. It gave him a hope he still can be save and everybody could he say he was foolish to think so, but Niki knew he was still there. His friend just needed help from those who can.

And yet here you stood before him telling to run before the remaining killers found that they have been deceived. But in truth, that was the last thinh he wanted.

And the next moment the two of you were running away. Getting far from the abandon house to a place you could truly be safe for the first time in days. At the police station.

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