𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕟-𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕟 | ᴇɴ-

𝟏𝟗

My head spins as I swallow down the pills. It gets worse every day. And the ceaseless questions in my head don't improve the situation. What is the Mistress planning? What's her next move? Has she already made a move that I don't know of? I need to figure it out. The orphans are her eyes and ears, they can be a good source. I just need to find the right way to approach them.

"Have any of you seen Niki?" Sunghoon asks, breaking my train of thought.

"What do you mean?"

We're at the dining room, finishing up breakfast. Only five of us because Sunoo hasn't been let out of his room for two days and our maknae is absent. The others are struggling to push the pills down their throats.

"I don't think he got to his room last night, and it was empty this morning when I checked," he tells us. "I haven't seen him since breakfast yesterday."

"Sunoo isn't here either," Heeseung-hyung comments. "Maybe they're together?"

"I doubt it," Jungwon says.

He and Sunghoon share a look that makes me wonder if they know something.

"Yeah, I don't think so," Sunghoon adds.

"What happened?" I refuse to keep secrets from each other again. "Did the maids say something?"

"They took his..." he starts but trails off, blinking rapidly and looking away.

"His what?"

"His fangs," Jake completes, speaking for the first time. "To cure him."

"Cure him?!" I'm aghast. When did this happen? How could this happen?

"How did you know?" Sunghoon asks him almost at the same time.

"I... heard," Jake stammers. I didn't hear a word of this until now. Then again, he's a bit closer to the orphans than any of us ever were.

"I'm going to be sick," Heeseung-hyung mutters.

"There was nothing we could do," Jungwon says. "It would've happened even if we had intervened."

"You were there?" I breathe.

He nods.

I curse. No matter how hard I try, I'm always one step behind. The Mistress already made her moves. She might hide behind the "cure" excuse for now, but the moment she realises there isn't one...

"Is he okay? Has anyone checked on him?"

No one answers me.

"His door has been locked," Jake says.

"I'll try to get into his room tonight," Jungwon promises.

Our hyung puts his head on his hands in defeat. "We can't keep up like this."

I agree. We need to change the course of these waters. We need to show them we're not evil. This is a curse for us too and we don't completely understand what it has done to us. How do you explain that?

"Maybe it will work," Jake says quietly.

"What?" I ask him.

"Maybe that can cure him. Cure us."

I look at him like he's insane. "There is no cure for what we have. At least not a viable one."

Only a wooden stake through the heart and I doubt any of us would want to test it. Jake doesn't say anything else. I stare at him for a moment longer. Something doesn't sit right with me. Where is he getting this information from?

"So no one has seen Niki since yesterday?" Sunghoon asks us again.

We all shake our heads.

Silence settles between us after that. It's choking. There is nothing more to say yet so much to. What are we going to do? I don't like that the maids are making moves under the table. How am I supposed to play myself if I don't know where their pieces are moving?

Jake excuses himself from the table saying he needs to get to his duties, but he doesn't go to the kitchen like usual. Instead he goes to the hallway that leads to the infirmary. Some of the orphans greet him as he passes them by. I follow him with my gaze for a few moments before going after him.

I catch up to him as he walks past the infirmary. Huh. Where was he going then?

"Jake, wait up."

He turns around surprised. "Jay."

"Where are you going? I thought you had kitchen duty."

"Ah, yeah... the Mistress gave me a new job."

"You talked to her?"

He nods and puts his hand in his pockets. "I'm gaining back their trust," he adds quietly.

"Doing what?"

He doesn't answer, but he doesn't avoid my gaze either. What did he do? Is he a piece in the chess board? My gut tells me something is up, and he's looking at me with hard eyes, like he's trying to tell me something.

"You know something about Niki, don't you?" It's a hard guess, but one I need to ask either way.

"Trust me on this," he whispers and then adds in a normal voice, "If we want them to trust us, we need to trust them a little too."

I stare at Jake intently, trying to figure out his play.

"What did you do?" I ask.

"I haven't done anything. None of us have done anything!" He throws his hands up. "All we do is sit around all day, hiding ourselves, and hoping things get better tomorrow. But they don't. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of being alone so, yeah, maybe I stepped up a little and actually talked to the maids. And guess what? They do want to help me, help us. But only if we trust them. All of us. They need all seven of us on board with this to do it. Do you trust me?"

I can't believe him. I don't know what the Mistress has fed into his ears but this doesn't sound like him at all.

"I don't know what they told you, Jake, but if what they did to Sunoo is any indication, they don't mean any good. I don't know what they've done to Niki, but they wouldn't need to hide him if it were actually good. If we make a move, fine, we do it together, but not this. Taking out our fangs isn't going to fix us. It would kill us."

"This is exactly why they don't trust you," he spits. "This is why they hide it. Because you'd just ruin it."

"I'm sorry you think that way," I say. "But I can't let you pull us down with you. Whatever your plan is, keep us out of it. We don't need their, or your, fixing."

I turn away, fuming. What is he doing? I can't believe he has turned his back on us and made moves without telling us.

"Tell Niki we're coming for him," I tell him just before rounding the corner.

If this is how it's going to be, running away will be harder than I thought. I just need to figure out where the Mistress is hiding our maknae and get everyone out. Even if it means dragging Jake out the door with us. As much as I hate it, we can't leave him behind. We need to make him reason again.

The Mistress has made her moves. Now I'll move our piece.