BETRAYAL <NCT OT23>

T H I R T E E N

"N-No!" Taeil's throat became sore, he's shouting and begging for help for minutes and yet, no one heard him. Both of his hands are chained up, as well as his ankles. The chains are too strong for him to move them a bit. "Stay still." Those short words are enough for Taeil to freeze, panic slowly grew when the light hit the man's hand, showing him holding a scalpel. "Surprise, Taeil."

"Why... Why did you do this to us? I-I thought you care for our safety, just like a b-brother?" Taeil shakily spoke, staring at the man above him. "And you really believed that? How foolish of you, you should've observed more instead of just believing the words that I utter. You should've checked and observed my backgrounds wisely, my life, my thoughts, my hidden intentions, my history..." Taeil can see the man smirking as he stepped closer into the dim lights. Screaming grew louder and louder when the scalpel began to touch his skin.

"No! No! Stop!" The stinging pain that was caused by the sharp blade became stronger as he ran the scalpel from his chest to his stomach. His pleading cry made him smirk and dig the small blade even deeper. "Oh, what a lullaby." He continued to dig through Taeil's skin. The sound of the flesh being cut covered the entire room, as well as the terrified cry of his brother. "Keep this in mind, quiet people make the best murders." His laugh grew louder and more evil as he began to tear Taeil's stomach open, leaving the inside fully exposed. "Y-You will get caught!"

"Oh, come on. I come from a famous group with an innocent, smart reputation, no one will ever believe you, and they will take my side and blame you instead." He then took some heated iron balls and threw it into Taeil's now open stomach. A grin escaped from his lips as he heard the intestines getting burned, melted, and boiled by the extremely hot tiny irons. Taeil couldn't bear the pain anymore, but he couldn't do anything to escape but to endure it until he dies. "JUST KILL ME ALREADY!"

"Ah! No no, I like listening to your voice." Then he added more, and more, and more.

•

Mark was surprisingly the first one to wake up, the sun slowly showed up to the window, making him take a relaxing deep breath. As he sat on the chair and grabbed a book, he noticed something poking on his head. It was wet. "Hm? But it's not raining outside..." The dripping never stopped, until a single droplet ran through his forehead. The curious Mark touched his forehead to check what it was. To his surprise, it wasn't the droplet he expected to land on him, it was red instead of just a clear water. "What the..." A sudden huge wave of horror hit him straight in his eyes as he looked up to the ceiling, he never thought that the first thing he would see in the morning is his member getting hanged above him with his ribs wide open and his intestines looking like they got burned.

It didn't take a while for Mark to run and bang the other members' doors one by one, making them groan and whine in annoyance. "Mark, what the hell is wrong with you?! Can't you see we're still sleeping?!" Doyoung annoyingly opened his door in a harsh manner, the others did the same. "Speak up Mark! What is the meaning of this?!" Mark couldn't let the words out because the face he saw kept crawling around his brain, it made him kneel down, leaving his members confused and concerned. They then began to panic when Mark let out a loud, traumatizing scream. "Calm down! Calm down! Oh Jesus..." Jaemin kneeled down after Mark, trying his best to comfort him without making him feel that he's panicking too. "Mark hyung?! Please calm down and tell us what happened!" Jisung gently shook him with worry in his eyes. "T-Taeil hyung!"

They immediately scattered around the house to search for Taeil, and they were as traumatized as Mark. He was hanging at the ceiling like a disgusting Halloween decoration, looking like he was tortured in the worst ways possible. "Oh dear Lord... How the hell did he got up there?" Renjun stood frozen below the hanging Taeil. "We must find a way to get him down there. I think we have a ladder here somewhere..." Haechan looked around.