Kidnap

1

Park Seonghwa could barely feel his fingers. It was cold. So cold he was shivering uncontrollably, but he had known worse cold than this. What he did not know was what exactly was going on or where he was. He could just barely make out voices, but he could not recognize them and they seemed to belong to various people, which definitely did not help his case at the moment. On top of that he was stuck trying to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do. For now, he was blindfolded, his arms were tied behind him and the rope was laced against something else so he could scarcely move. His body was aching in multiple ways, and he was not sure he wanted to even think about the likelihood of the amount of injuries that he probably had. He did not know what had happened, had no idea what he should do now. He was stuck trying to figure out where to go, but honestly he was not entirely sure he wanted to leave.

He did not have anything to go back to anyways. The last thing he remembered was some of the King's men coming to grab him saying that the King demanded a personal audience. He had no idea why, or for what reason, but they had threatened his family if he denied, so he had gone, much to the sadness of his brother, but for what reason he did not understand. Why would the King want to speak with him? It was not as though he had broken the Law, or had any reason to threaten the working order of things. Either way, he had agreed, not willing to risk his brother's life should he deny. The next thing he knows they are being ambushed and now he wakes up in some cold, damp room with no idea what is going on, no clue where he was.

Did the King mistake him for some outlaw? It was the only thing that he could think of, considering the condition of the place that he was in, it would seem as though the King took him for a criminal. He did not understand why that would happen, though. He had not done anything contrary to the King's orders. He had not broken any laws, he had been incredibly studious in ensuring that they paid the taxes...he did not understand why it was that the King would threaten him and his family, just to throw him in prison. He had not done anything that would justify such a thing.

SeongHwa did not know what he could do. He knew that the binds holding him were fast, that was certain. He had not bothered to carry any sort of hidden weapons on him, knowing that the King's men would search him and so he had no way to cut through them. At the same time, though, if he did not figure out something he feared that he would loose his hands. They were numb with cold, and it was not as though he was dressed for poor weather. In fact, now that SeongHwa thought on it, there had not been cold weather at all in the Capitol, at least, not that he knew of. Then again, what did he know of the Capitol? He had never been there as far as he was aware, and on top of that it was not as though the town he was in got many visitors. Much less from the main city. It could have been ice cold and he would not know the difference.

He scoot himself backwards, trying to press his fingers against the back of his thin shirt. It was the only thing that he could think of to try and keep his fingers from freezing off. Not that it seemed to do much, but he did not want to try and escape. From what he knew, it was incredibly unlikely that he would be able to, if the swaying of the world seemed to say anything about it. He would wager that they were on some sort of boat, likely carting him to the prisons. SeongHwa shuddered. He did not know what the prisons held, but he doubted that it could be anything good. He did not want to think about that, but what more could he think about? There was nothing that he could do regardless.

He felt a tear drip down the side of his face at the thought. He did not know what was going on, and the whole situation really was a tad bit overwhelming to him. He did no law breaking thing, yet the King had thrown him to the prisons for whatever reason. He had thought perhaps the King had a good reason to mistake him for someone else, but he doubted it. Barring that, it was not as though he was deaf to the rumors. The King had been going mad, at least slowly. Or, that was what the traveling merchants claimed. Who was he to refute them? He had never even seen a royal guard. At least, that was until he had been taken by them.

He shuddered at the thought of what could happen to him in the prisons. They were known to be quite cruel there, and SeongHwa did not want to even begin to contemplate what could happen to him. He was fragile, he knew that, of a weak disposition. Timid, quiet, and more often than not he had a bleeding heart, and the gentleness far beyond what a man should have. He had been informed of this time and time again by those in the village. Now he wondered if it was a warning. His brother had always said that these qualities were normal for his kind, but he was beginning to wonder. Perhaps that was just his brother trying to comfort him. He had never seen others behave the way he seemed to...but...what did he know?

What would he ever know? He was unlikely to survive even a week in prisons. He would be dead soon. His brother...Seonghwa bowed his head to the floor trying to rid his body of tears that seemed to flow down his cheeks. At least his brother would survive. He deserved that after all. He had taken SeongHwa in, cared for him, and even helped him against cruelty of the villagers more times than he could even count. He owed his brother far more than SeongHwa would ever care to admit.

He flinched as he heard the voices getting louder, scrambling to hide his eyes as the door ripped open, slamming against the opposite wall leaving him to cower and whine. He could not dare to even look at the captors that held him.