The Hunt ✓

👑12| Torture

              🌸🌸

Juggled in thoughts, my hands bounce beside me at each step I take. With a sudden trip along the way, I'm forced to look back. But I find only a few guards escorting me back. He was nowhere to be found.

 "Move it," one of guards yell after he realizes that I had stopped walking. Just at the mere sight of his sword, I nod and turn away. As they chuckle behind my slow movements, some maids rush and pass my us marching towards one of the halls.

Pursing my lips, I gather my thoughts and look forward. I think silently throughout the way out while being accompanied by guards outside. I sigh and clasp my hands as I exit the palace at the gate. I twirl back to face the gate for the last time. But just as I thought, I still didn't find him behind us.

"Get on! Leave," he adds on while he attempts to unleash his sword. I step back involuntarily and twirl swiftly towards the opposite side. Unfortunately, I was back just as I entered.

 The guards toss me away just like the day before. After pushing me over the gate, my feet stumble as I adjust my stand. They leave me in front of the firmly closed gates and shove me out with a strict face.

Gosh! They're just like their master. Who learns from who?

 

In the palace, a young man in a black long coat with a long face grins at a thought. Standing a few metres from the gate, his hands drop beside him. The guards standing on post bow tie him when he stops by them.

The guards rush to open the dungeon gates for him. Sighing, he flings his hands over his side at each step and lazily moves towards a dark room as he twists his head in sequence in a playful manner. With each step he takes, squealing noises rummage though the atmosphere. His shoes crush the muddy floor dripping with stale water.

Twitching their ears at his approaching footsteps, the rats squeal around separately while twitching their mouth as they rush past the young man.

The dungeon reeks from an awful smell and looks so unkept, dirty and disgusting even from the entrance. What lies above is in a much worse scenario. The entrance reveals some prisoners who lie dead in their cells. The stench from the dead body lurks in the atmosphere and creates a foul aura in the dungeon.

Others have bite marks on their necks which caused them to die. Judging by their lying state, they could have been there for a few days at least. He walks slowly around inhaling the powerful scent of blood which makes his eyes roll and draw a red pupil.

Walking along the cells, his lips curve into a simple when he stands face to face with an elderly man.

He squeezes himself at a corner in the cell as to mumble something continuously. Dabbling a repeated word all over the walls, he seems to be resuming from where he sits. The screeching noise from his dabbling makes Ji Min scoff.

He raises his head when he sees from beneath him a silhouette of a shadow of a man.

He is clothed in a creased red shiny gwanbok and a black hat which becomes tattered with passage of time. His clothes are very dirty beyond repair even from the the dark side he sits in. His body screamed for a bath for years now.

With his bare toes exploring the floor, he looks away for a moment. 

His face looks wrinkly, dirty and gloomy as he raises his head. His beard appears gray though touching his neck.

His hands are shaking every second and his body is very lean and skinny. He clenches his hands covered with cracking skin and trembles with fear and anger as his eyes settle on the young man.