Before The Shadow: White Chrysanthemum Flowers

Chapter 14: Kidnapped

I open my eyes slowly and feel the cold hard ground pushing itself against my face. I squint and look around the room. I raise my head but I'm suddenly struck with a blinding pain that shoots its way across my temple. I lift my hand to my head and try to figure out what's wrong. I can feel something, a cut maybe? I pull my hand away and see fragments of dried blood on my hand. I pause and images flash across my eyes of what happened. White chrysanthemum flowers, Yoongi got shot, that woman Jieun appeared and then the last thing I saw was Yoongi lying face down with blood pooling around him. Red Chrysanthemums.

Shit, no. He's not dead. He can't be! I sit up and try to figure out the situation I'm in and discover that both my hands and legs are bound tightly together with rope. Great. I look around the room and realise that there are no windows, the room is bare with just a single light bulb and a chair in the middle of the room. How long have I been out? I can feel myself begin to panic. It's okay Hailey, we can do this, I can do this.

I try to get out of my bounds but they're so tight, the door to the room abruptly swings open in the middle of my attempt to free myself. Jieun walks in and looks at me "Oh, you're awake. That's good. I was starting to worry that the guys had hit you too hard." She says playfully and points her finger at her head.

She strides over to the chair and sits down, her gun is present in her holder that rests over her shoulder. "You've been out for nearly two days, ya know?"

I glare at her from my position on the floor, she has me now sure but what does she want with me exactly? She hardens her gaze on me "I did think you'd be more of a looker but oh well," She scoffs.

I spit at her and she looks down in disgust at my saliva that is now resting on her shoe, she stands from her seat and advances towards me. She grips my hair fiercely and pulls my head to face her, "Hey, that's not very polite you know." She says through gritted teeth with a crazy look in her eyes.

"Fuck you."

She grins, "Oh ho! She has a voice!" She lets go of my hair and kicks me hard in the stomach which sends me flying across the floor. I gasp and try not to cry out in pain. She hits me a second time, and a third and sweat pour down my face. I refuse to give in and cry. I can deal with this. I can.

My breathing is heavy and I look up from the floor, "Now then let's have some girl time, a chat just between you and me." Jieun smiles sweetly and sits back down in her seat.

She leans back in the chair and the wood creaks beneath her "Now, how much do you know about Yoongi?"

"What?" Why does that matter? Surely she knows everything about him so why would she care about what I know?

"I guess he didn't tell you about our past together," she leans her elbows onto her lap. "I'll tell you, the man you love is a murderer." Her eyes for a moment look sad before they switch back to their stoic stance.

I know he's killed people, that's part of his job. "Oh, you don't seem surprised? Well you see he broke my heart, shattered it in fact."

I scoff, "Still pining over your ex? Are you jealous he's found someone else?" I know that this is gonna piss her off but I want to say it. I want her to be envious of something she doesn't have anymore. If only my hands and legs were free I could put up a fair fight.

She laughs "You think I'm jealous?" She looks off to the side before looking back at me, "No, I'm not jealous Hailey. I want revenge, revenge for my brother and father who were killed in cold blood."

Yoongi killed her brother and father? But...why? I try to control my expression but I can't help my eyebrows twist together in shock. Jieun notices this "Are you frightened? Do you feel betrayed? You should."

"I...don't believe you."

"Should I tell you how he did it? How the walls and floors were covered in blood? The smell that burned my nose and throat? The way he slit my father's throat and shot my poor defenceless brother in the head? BANG!" She shouts and points a finger gun at me. "My brother who was begging for his life, he shot him with no remorse through the head."

I look at the ground in defeat. Yoongi wouldn't just kill someone for the sake of it, right? There has to be some sort of reason or explanation for why he would do that. "That's the man you love. A deranged killer who murders an unarmed child." Jieun says in a horrified tone.

I whip my head from the ground to face her. A child? No...no! Yoongi couldn't...he wouldn't. Jieun smirks at my reaction. "That's right, a child. My brother had only just turned eighteen at the time and so had I. We're twins you see," Her voice is pained.

"His name was Jae-Sung. He would've been twenty-five this year," She bites her lip to feign back the tears I can see forming in her eyes. She wipes her face with her hand and hatred returns to her eyes.

"Why tell me all of this?" I say shakily.

"Because Hailey, I want you to know why I'm doing this to you. I want Yoongi to suffer and you are the key to achieving that." She paces over to me with excitable eyes and crouches down to my level.

"What do you mean?"

She pinches my chin her hand and her long acrylic nails dig into my skin, "Don't you understand? I'm going to break you the way he broke me. I will use you to make him feel a fraction of the pain I felt that day.

I'm not some pawn. I can and will fight back. "What makes you think I'll just go along with your plan?"

Jieun raises her hand and slaps me across the face and pulls me closer to her, so much so I can feel her breath on my skin. "Because Hailey, you don't have a choice." She says in a twisted voice.

She stands to her feet and walks to the door and knocks three times on it. The door swings open and Jieun turns around to face me "Try and get some beauty sleep, you need to look somewhat decent for tomorrow." She grins.

"Tomorrow?"

"Yes, tomorrow. It's a very important day," She says in a giddy voice and closes the door behind her.

Fuck. What is tomorrow? Is she planning on killing me or...something worse? What if Yoongi doesn't get to me in time or worse he's actually dead? No, no! I can't think like that, he is alive and so is the rest of the guys.

I need to be ready for an opportunity to escape and keep my eyes open for anything. My hands shake. I can't be scared, you can't be scared, Hailey. You can and will do this! Suddenly the conversation I had with Yoongi at the motel floats to the front of my head.

"Do you think if I involved my feelings I would be able to do something like that?" He asks in a thick voice as he leans against the chest of draws.

"Involve your feelings?"

Yoongi sighs, "I have to...shut everything off when I kill someone. Put on a mask of sorts so I don't let myself get emotionally involved." He pulls out his lighter and flicks it on and watches the flame for a moment. "I do this to protect us, Hailey. I know it's wrong but this is my way of life." He flicks the lighter off.

A mask...to shut off my feelings. I can do that and just function in survival mode. I can't let anything else interfere with my escape. I will get out.

A/N

What will happen to Hailey? Will she be able to escape? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

Also, I hope you're enjoying the story so far 🥰

See you in 4 days 💜