Warning— viewer discretion very much advised!!!!! If you are sensitive then I strongly suggest you skip this chapter!!!

"You have no idea how pleased I am, Tzuyu. You walked in here after I had such a hard time trying to find you! Can you believe that?"

My father takes one step towards my direction, and that step is enough to make me flinch back into Jungkook's arms in absolute terror.

The fading grows faster— more dangerous as I see an entire patrol of guards, all ready to take me with just a single snap of my father's fingers.

Jungkook grips my shoulders protectively as he pulls me back even further, his eyes dark and vicious as he looks up unafraid into the devil's eyes.

Don't do that, Jungkook. Please—

A small smile appears in the corner of my father's thin lips as he murmurs in amusement. Then my horror grows even farther when he points at both me and Jungkook, which meant to have both of us moved.

Which also meant more pain and agony for the maknae.

"Leave him be, father." I say coldly, my voice surprisingly calm and perfectly frozen with an infinity layers of deadly ice. "It's me you want."

"Oh, don't take it personally." My father says, his sick smile growing even wider. "He just intrigues me— being in a group that continued to terminate my plans over and over again. He didn't succumb, you know. Only his passing out saved him. But you know me, dear daughter."

I almost gag in disgust as he motions at the guards, his beady eyes still fixed on me in a challenging stare.

"I always like to see how far someone can go until they break."

Time Skip

"Damn you." I whisper as he brandishes a syringe that I knew with all my body and soul. The transparent drug— metroprolol— would slow down my heart rate. And that meant no more fading— no chance of escape.

Like the snake he is, my father injects the syringe while I am most distracted. The sharp pain of the needle breaking my skin is only the start— what would follow after would make it seem like heaven.

My eyes dart to the clear prison that Jungkook had been forced in, a cylinder of transparent walls that I knew could be used for electrification if necessary. The clear walls had been the main point— my father wanted him to see.

Suffer more than what physical pain would bring him.

But at least he wouldn't be harmed directly— I'd be taking most of the damage. And I was used to this, I convince myself. I just needed to think of this as just another beating, another day of torture.

"You know," My father says casually, as if he wasn't just about to maul his daughter and tear her to shreds. "All these tests aren't just a waste. I discovered a cure— a permanent one. After just a few more tests and I figure out a way to transfer your ability, I can heal you, Tzuyu. Live a normal life. But for me to do that, you have to give me your participation in the— process."

He found a cure?

A cure. I would be free of this cursed fading for the rest of my life.

But of course, I knew that the only reason he would be making me take it was because he wanted to be the sole possessor. He didn't want anyone else to share my ability— not even the person who had it in the very beginning.

"See?" He says, smiling a devil's smile as he heads to the right side of the room. From there, I see a hidden compartment slide back— labeled Cures.

Cures. With an s.

From just above his shoulder, I analyze the movement of his fingers as he enters in the six-digit code.

061499.

My birthday?

The reinforced door swings open, revealing dainty, closely capped test tubes filled with liquid of various color. Each of them are labeled with a neatly scripted paper wrapped around its body, arranged carefully into orderly rows.

V's cure. It had to be in there as well.

From the rows and rows of tubes, he withdraws a particular vial filled with a green-tinged liquid. He shakes the chemical in front of my narrowed eyes in proof, and I realize that he'd just made his second greatest mistake since the accidental unlocking of my window.

He'd just shown me and Jungkook everything we'd needed.

Then the door is swung back shut, the precious vials of cures resealed.

"See, dear?" He says, eyes slightly narrowing when I cringe visibly at the nickname. "I'm a generous person, if you follow your orders and do what you're supposed to do. But you didn't do that, did you?"

He presses a button on the bottom right corner of his desk, and I take a deep breath as the door swings open to reveal two men.

Just another beating.

Just another—

A raspy noise escapes my throat when something hard slams into the side of my head, making me stumble for a split second before my legs give out underneath my heavy body.

"Noona!"

Jungkook's terrified shouts are muffled over the sound of laughter, and I'm too deep in to comprehend anything after that.

A boot slams straight into my shoulder, the pain sharp enough to wake my dulled senses. My teeth grit in an effort not to scream as the blow leaves a bloody mark on my skin, the agony horrible enough to make me want to slam my head into the walls in attempt to drown out pain with pain.

My neck suddenly feels cold and clammy— and I realize the cause too late. A strangled gasp leaves my lips as the fingers tighten around my windpipe, and I desperately claw at the iron hand to let go.

But it only grows tighter and tighter until my head is dizzy with the lack of oxygen, and until I'm reduced to a state where I can't even move a finger.

I cough for what seems to be for an hour when the man lets go, feeling the bruises beginning to show on the skin of my neck. In the blurred distance, I see a dark figure passed out in the transparent cylinder.

Jungkook.

When my fever bright eyes meet my father's, he casually shrugs nonchalantly. Like he hadn't just gassed a person unconscious and didn't have his daughter heavily beaten on the ground.

"What? He was making too much noise."

"Damn you." I repeat before something slams into my jaw, so hard that I think that it's completely shattered. Pain streaks up from my chin and colors the corners of my eyes a sickening red, blocking air from my nose and lips.

"Maybe we need to fix that attitude first."

Oh God.

Please let me faint.

Coughing and choking, I swipe at my watery eyes as I roll over in pure agony.  It drowns out everything else— and it doesn't seem like it's going to fade anytime soon.

I'd become soft.

Cold fingers grip my wrist, and I don't even have time to brace myself as it twists an angle that I didn't know the human body could make.

A shrill scream rips from my hoarse throat as I feel my wrist simply break under his hold, tears blinding my eyes and streaking down my flushed cheeks. Painful whimpers squeeze out of my traumatized body as I curl up on the ground, cradling my hand and trying to ignore the oceans of pain washing through me.

"I'll stop if you beg," The man coos, his lips stretched into a smile that I want to carve out with a fully serrated knife. If only I could move— but all I was possible of doing at the moment was cursing at the pain and the helpless situation I was thrown into.

But I wouldn't beg. I wouldn't say a single word—

False disappointment mirrors his face as he lifts his foot and hovers it just above my shattered wrist.

"I'll give you a second to improvise your stubborn attitude."

When I purse my lips shut, I see a momentary blur of black as something presses sharply against my body. Somewhere in the distance, I can hear someone screaming— screaming like their voice was going to leave their throats.

Was that me?

Then I see the familiar darkness clouding in the corners of my scarred eyes, and for a split second the relief nearly brings me to my knees if I wasn't already sprawled so pathetically on the ground.