Storms of Fate [ SOF ] [ BTS ]

Chapter 18 : Home

ANYA :

At her reply, the atmosphere in the car ramped up a little more. The boys were excited and nervous to leave behind the only known residence. Earlier too when they were given to other people, they were blindfolded and drugged before being transported to the basement or whichever room they were chained to, of their temporary owners.

Anya had asked Jin about this earlier.

This was the first time they were conscious and watching themselves walking away from the building that had housed them since leaving the labs they were trained in.

Anya silently observed them all. The boys, right now, were all timid.

Even Jin and Jimin.

They were being taken out of the only surrounding that they were familiar with, led by the promise of a better future but having no evidence provided for it.

It was just their blind trust on her.

Their blind trust on an unknown person, who had become their owner. A trust that she would take them to a better place, would give them a better life. A life without pain, without humiliation. A life with freedom, respect.

And most importantly,

Somewhere to belong. Somewhere that was theirs.

A home.

The 7 hybrids had given her their all. All that they had.

Their trust, their respect, their faith, their will. And If she wanted, then their bodies too.

Anya knew the tag attached to what they had given her. It read PRICELESS.

As she contemplated it, the weight brought a heavy constriction in her chest.

These 7 boys were born without being asked in world where their servitude was a rule. They accepted their fates of being a low life, someone that the society crushed beneath the soles of their feet. They had taken all the misery they were bathed in and kept their heads down. No single flare of hope ever lit their nights, no bud of dreams for a normal life was ever born in their souls.

So, when Anya saw the shinning awe, the surprised giddiness in their eyes, for the life she painted for them, the way they wept quietly at the prospect of a future without any subjugation, Anya melted.

She melted at the fragility of those budding hopes. She melted at the flimsy veil of yearning they clung to. She melted at the tight desperate grip they had on the tenuous promise of the dream they still refused to believe in.

Even now, Jimin did not look outside the windows. His gaze was fixed on her.

His eyes were screaming at her to reassure him that, this moment, was indeed a reality. That the promise she had made, was going to be fulfilled.

His odd eyes were so childlike in his fear and excitement, so very hopeful in its innocence, so utterly trusting for a person whose past was dripping in the colour of suffering and pain.

Anya leaned forward in her seat to cup his beautiful face in her palms. Jimin wordlessly looked at her, his hands tightly clutched in front of his chest.

"We ARE going home Jimin. We really are." She said to him, her voice carrying the strength he needed.

Jimin closed his eyes at her words, but not before she saw them getting glossy with his emotions.

Yes. This bond, this trust, this faith they gifted her was precious.

And Anya would burn down the entire world before any individual could even think of touching it.