Eleven [ Heated Speculations and Frustrations ]


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You had never experienced a terrible urge like that. It was blinding with the desire to cut someone. Your eyes begin to ring with white noise, like the aftermath of being close to death itself. That's what it fel like anyway.


Suddenly, as you retold it to K who was still listening despite of your story getting darker, it feels like you could still see Myrtle grabbing Lena away from you before she tells you to run and had thrown her car keys for you to escape that place. The realization that she'd done something terrible for you that could never be undone is a real shame.


"But it's not like I'm innocent as well to run from it", you continued, and finally bursted into tears. You buried your head in your hands as teardrops carved down your face in rivulets.


You didn't know how long you waited for his reaction, thinking over how he would be looking at you now with apprehension, but you couldn't bother to look up. Maybe he'll get up and leave. You hoped he would.


"Y/N", his voice startled you at the hint of concern, of cleary worry and your head snapped up, surprised.


His hand rested gently on your back as you began to cry even more at the thought. "She was the one to end Lena Gray, but I was the one...", you choked in your voice, "to end Mr. Morris and he was never seen again that night"


"Just take your time", he said quite stiffly. It was quiet next, and you slowly slowered your hands from your face, looking at the hand offered out in front of you. "I won't judge before I hear the whole story"


You stared at it for a moment, chewing on your bottom lip. "It's the only thing I could do for myself", you paused, experiencing the trauma again. "The girls help him in trapping me back, and he almost raped me that night. I knew he would really do it"


And in the moment of retelling it, it felt like you were back to the scene of the girls pulling on your feets and hands, Mr. Morris's maniacal laugh in the background, then they were all ripping your only left protection which is the oversized shirt before you've ended up naked, and flushed before your Principal. His nauseos sense of blood drifted into your nose, and your stomach lurched with dread.


"I was helpless", you went on, closing your eyes to try erase the memory from your mind. "I was curled up in the sand, my eyes are burning with tears and all the girls left me to be touched by him"


You shouldn’t have been able to hear the wind shaking the palms or the waves lapping the shore, but the bonfire had burned to smoke and embers, and the other girls had trembled in quiet hysteria as they laughed over Myrtle's first time of showing violence. You didn't know what to do as the Principal goes down on you as his hand trails up your leg, which was limp against the sand.


When you shook your head attempting to clear the ghastly images of your past - K sighed, a feeling of utter sympathy welling up inside him and in truth, he hardly knew anything about you, the girl he supposed he wants to protect. He remembered back to the way you were first introduced as the transferee without so much as a semblance of fear in your eyes.


Something within you snapped and you lunged for the Principal before any girls could react. You didn't even think of using any blade - you just wanted to rip him to shreds and dig at his caked up face with your nails. He managed to get a swing at your chest - but as the girl who has gone desperate for escape, you had been physically and emotionally into it.


It all happened so quickly - you dodged his futile blows and grabbed at his neck with both hands quicker than you could apprehend. You wrapped your hands around his throat completely as you shoved him back down to the sand. You squeezed and pressed madly until his airways completely constrict - a ravaging fury and cruel hunger took over you, completely turning you into another person.


And so in that brief moment, you lunged for the final blow. You forgot about the pain that was pulsing all over your body and envisioned everything that he had done, along your classmates and the so-called mother that night. All the humiliation you'd experience. All the peril he'd put you since the very start before you slashed at his cheeks and shoved it next to his temple with all your strength's force. This is where you feel the bones of his skull shatter all at once with the force of the blow.


Mr. Morris stared up at you, and you knew he was thinking he had only two options. He could no longer pretend to be anything like a clown other than what he was. You had seen that look of his face; you had seen his true nature.


The Principal's only choice now was to either raise his hand and try to crawl away from your wrath. But he was injured and tired, and neither option would be easy for him. His game was over.


And when he began to turn, to reach for your hair, you strike him in the chest.


In a way, it was a relief you supposed. For in that moment, it seemed you could do nothing more than destroy everything in your wake.


K scanned you up and down. "You killed him?", he asked, his voice dropping into a quiet gasp. He observed your features as you slumped down in the bed. "You killed a person?"


Your heart plummeted down at the dark sea as you wiped your cheeks with your fingers. "It didn't take long, and a few minutes was all it took for him to descend down the hell", you said to him. "I hung my head and wept after. I wept for the darkness that had come into my life and I wept for the innocence that would never return"


"And you were arrested because of this?", K asked, it was a question his father might pose.


Your gaze suddenly snapped up to his as though something had strung taut in your mind. "And they were all blinded by the lies of my mom. She told me I was the ringleader of all of it"


"What about Myrtle?", K interrogated as he wanted to know every detail. He didn't see you at fault in the story.


Your expression with a remorse gave the answer. Your friendship with her had died on the beach along with her life. "She was butchered by the other girls and that's why I come mainly for Lena", you admitted truthfully. "It looked cruel. It was so cruel. Because my school is trying to hide their own nature, I was never named as one of the murderers"


"What happened next?", he asked again rather carefully when he saw your face darkens at his question.


Your chin begins to tremble. "Every girls on the school turned their backs on me and they did not like the way I killed the Principal", you croaked silently, feeling tears in your eyes at the memories. "Then both of my parents proceed to ignore, me they didn't even arrive to take me home. I walked miles and upon arriving there, my mom announced that she'll be sending me here in Dalton"


K never wanted to ask too much questions, not after everything you've been through, but his grandfather commanded him to.


His countenance had taken on a perceptible weight, but it looked heavy with understanding—not judgment. At least, that’s what you hoped you were seeing as he asked curiously, "What did you feel after coming here and now see two of your first friends being a killers?"


"Nothing", you answered to him intensely, your voice nothing but a low whisper. "I just floated along the progress of my flight here and by the time I met Jimin, I was blinded by his closeness to Lyra and Sungchul that I never thought they could kill him"


If the two main killers's sin were to kill among the numbers of your new classmates, then yours was your secret. You had never thought you could share it to K - telling it to him, howevee, had opened a valve of tremendous internal pressure. Your secre - this self-inflicted burden - had finally been released.


K met your gaze, the breeze from the window shifting the strands of his dark hair and he pulled you in a determine consoling hug. "I'm sorry that you've suffered for too long. I wish you could've told me before"


"Why are you not afraid of me? I killed a person, two person at that along Jake", you asked, noticing the way his eyes flashed ever so briefly with the glint of something prudent.


He pulled back, hands on your shoulders, to examine your face. His nose and mouth screwed up in exaggerated concentration. "I don't know if you remember this, but you did it for self defense", he said. "Lyra and Sungchul goes after lives, and they will just add more to their lists if they weren't caught"


Tears pricked your eyes as you stared down at your bandaged hands. "But what I don't understand is their reason. I have no connections to the other victims other than I was a friend of Jimin"


K frowned. "Seon and EJ was the nicest guy, and they were both a part of my clique before they were killed"


You watched as he slowly bit his lips as your eyes finally clashed to his, and it was strange to met it in a simple manner. "What about Niki and Jay? What is up with the two of them?", you questioned and felt his entire form harden by the mention of his two closest friends.


"I don’t know about Niki and what are they after from him", K started, a grave look marring his face - an anxious clarity behind his eyes. "But I do know something about Jay"


"Is it a secret? A weakness? Could my speculations about them is the truth?", was all that you asked, but the way your brows laced together as you waited for his continuation made K think you were genuinely concerned.


He peered down at your violated skin that was visible above the hospital gown - taking in the many cuts and bruises you've gotten from Lyra - though he made sure not to look for too long. After all, the only garment you have is the hospital gown and your chest was incredibly apparent through the thin clothes.


He sighed, looking back at your face and he says, "His father in order to save this business had a debt with one of the notorius gambler here and he was pulled into the problems. Also, he had no say into that matter"


"He was forced to work for them in such a young age?", you said, though your words sounded somewhat forced and strained as though you were finally admitting to something you'd never wanted to believe.


He took a deep breath. It extended his lungs, making more room for the crippling fear that locked his legs in place. "No, he was forced into leading some teenage girls to the gambler's den and his conscience was eating up to him everyday until he cracked up to me one day", he continued.


This revelation appeared to upset him more than your confession and it makes you put one hand in his shoulder. The touch is charged now in a way it wasn't before but either you or him doesn't mind. He's scared enough to let you see how freaked out he is, which means he needs some kind of comfort.


Once he's breathing more normally, you bring him back to the here and now. "So I was right? Sungchul and Lyra is kiling anyone who have a weakness or a terrible secret within themselves?"


"I don't know if you're right, exactly but there could be a strong pattern there. A serial killer from what I know is calculated and full of plans before they acted on it", he says as he gets up onto his feet, pacing back and forth before you.


"The one we should worry about is who will be the next victim they be coming after", you say it quietly, without looking at him, but for some reason - you were suddenly, vividly aware of his eyes on your exposed legs.


He sagged down back to your side in frustrations, his hands pulling on his hair. "What if instead of having secrets, they are coming for the ones standing out the most?", he shook his head abruptly, trying to forget the other emotions arising inside him, but you were not helping.


"It makes sense. You stand out for being a transferee. Seon as the student council president. Jimin as one of the dancers. EJ - who we know is pitied by everyone to his guardian's situation"


Then you added. "Niki stood out as well because he has the reputation of being one of the deliquents along you"


The hospital room fell into a hush as you realized how you just had pointed the rumors about him, about them and his friends. He sighed, "I know you are telling me that I could be the next victim, but if it comes to it, I'd like to face Jay. I'd like to save him"


You close your eyes tightly until the wave of fear passes, "What are you planning to do?"


"For now", K says, his voice toning down as he runs a finger along your thigh with such gentleness you'd think he was offering a comfort if not for his eyes saying otherwise. "I wanted to sleep with you. I couldn't do it while you were gone"


When your gazes flickered toward each other, in a clash of unrelenting hunger and the need to not listen to his mother's advises, that strange warning of hers rattled throughout the bones. It was the kind of desire misplaced in such a rather tensing situation, suffused and twisted the two of you inside out. And you weren't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.


As you regarded each other, there were no lies, there was no judgement, no pretentious smile or false mistakes of showing feelings. Between the two of you, there was no fear, no mistrust and most of all, there's no inkling of any vilification.


With one final movement, he pushed you down the bed and he immediately placed himself atop you as he took the opportunity to kiss you in the lips; warmly and gently but with an underlying desire that was wrong and dangerously acceptable in its nature.


He kissed you again, possesively this time - hard and greedily as if the day you were gone had lead him to do this, as if he could pour all his longing and worries for your life into it. He stroked your hair, his fingers untangling your hair. Its the gentlest, most comforting touch in the world.


Then he almost goes down to your neck when a shout was heard from the door as it opens.


"K, your grandpa told me to - Shit, his grandson is kissing the - I'm sorry hyung!", a voice screeched, and the two of you get up quickly, pulling away from each other - only to see Niki standing there, red-faced and utterly surprised.


He then saluted you and K with a stiff wave of his hand before he shuffled out of the room. "Have fun, don't mind me. Don't be too loud for the sake of the other patients here!"


K knew his grandfather or Jungkook would have asked Niki of what the two of you are doing to take that long alone in the room. After all, they were both waiting from the next room. And he knew that Niki would come up with some innocent lie that would satisfy their concern for a while.


And he knew with a disappointing sigh that the wildfire between the two of you a few moments ago is over.


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Park Jay hit the ground running from the devil. Blood dripped from a shallow cut on his calf, and his lungs were sore from the blow he’d taken to the chest. Hisbboots slid on the slick pavement as he rounded the corner onto the warehouse.


He swore when he saw it was full of people, they were up there and cheering over their gambling tables with his dad out despite of the brewing storm. He could hear Sungchul whispering in his ears.


"Turn left. There's a secret entrance there"


Hw backtracked and took off down that direction. "Why are we even after him? I thought he is out of the question?"


"The memorial parade - you have to tell him to donate there, so that it may continue", Sungchul said through the wireless earphone. "The next on the list is among the members of the band, so I have to be there"


He felt like the avatar in some multiplayer game where it was chased by monsters through a massive city. Only in his situation the massive city was the dull small town of Dalton - and he wasn't chased by the monsters. He was controlled by the monster, by the manipulator.


He’d taken out one guard, but a second was heading his way as he was crouching from the shadows of the wall. The second guard saw him and pointed his gun to him around as he ran forward. There's a chill twisting through the damp night and fat drops of rain dripped under his collar and down his back.


"Take him down", Sungchul ordered, and he obliged, his long knife - almost resembling a sword nicked the guard on his neck, he was down by the moment Jay shoves him into a hidden corner.


Finally, he reached a narrow lot and a wall, only it wasn’t a wall, but a warehouse door, and for a split second - Jay was back in the abandoned house near the school, cuffed to a bar in a blacked-out room while somewhere beyond the door, metal struck bones and Niki's shout for him to help is vibrating through the walls. He was helpless to do anything.


"Go to the left"


Jay blinked the memory away as Sungchul repeated his instruction for him. But he was sick of following his orders, and the door was ajar, so he went straight, out of the rain and into the vacant space.


To his escape. There were no windows in the warehouse, no light at all save that from the wall behind him, which reached only a few feet—the rest of the steel structure was plunged into solid black.


Sungchul growled through his ears as he felt him doing the opposite thing of his order. "What are you doing now?"


He froze. Jay held his breath as fingers -it's definitely not Sungchul, but of somone else - curled around the door and slid it open behind him.


"Did you brought me into a fucking trap, Sungchul?", he hissed, balancing his nerves as the person filled the doorway, and for an instant, Jay imagined Lyra's eyes, her shining shining smile, and her reason to kill.


I am still a human, after all, she'd said before she too was killed. I can still feel things, but not him.


The person gasped quietly as though trying to shock him into moving, a chilling reminder of which of them was the predator and which, for the moment, was prey. Fear scraped along Jay spine as this person looked from side to side. And then he looked up - at the son of his own boss.


Jay didn't wait for any commands from him anymore. He rushes forward, long knife flashing in his hands against the light and he braced himself, surprised to see tha man too fast on his feet. He danced between blows, trying to avoid his own blade and get under his guard.


The man's fist not holding his blade raked the air above Jay's head as the boy ducked and slashed the long knife across the his outstretched hand. He snarled and swung at him, with Jay recoiling only after the cutted fist pounced into his shoulder.


He let out a curse and drove his boot into the man's chest. He was twice his size, but his desperation to escape from Sungchul drived him to pull on his strength on it, and the man went staggering backward.


The opportunity to end him presented itself as Jay launched himself forward, and his momentum carried him forward, and the man fell back, and they went down together, its body collapsing beneath as his knife punched through the cartilage and muscle before sinking easily into that vital core, his heart.


He only staggered back to his feet when he was sure the man couldn't stand up anymore, holding his breath until he reached the warehouse door.


He slumped against it, pressing a palm to the gash on his arm and blood soaked his calf and dripped from his fingers, and truth be told, he felt a little dizzy, but he can still walk and run - he didn’t have to even do it.


Instead, he wanted to find a payphone and call someone, his warning now should be heeded before the memorial parade for the victims started tommorow, not knowing how in their number, a single unknowing person is now drawn X to the list of the section.


And he knew the receiver of his call would listened, he will always be a friend of his no matter what happens.



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