𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕟-𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕖𝕟 | ᴇɴ-

𝟐𝟑

I pace my room in the darkness, unable to conceive sleep. The Mistress didn't lie. She said Niki would be in the door down the hall. She said he was being contained. She said I only had to check on him, to see if he was still sick. But the Mistress didn't tell me the whole truth. She didn't say what she was doing to him. She didn't say he was being starved. She didn't say he would look like that.

I sit at the edge of my bed and hold my head in my hands. I can't shake the image of him fainting. I don't think he even got to see me. His eyes were unfocused before he blacked out. And then he barely moved. It has placed questions that I don't want to answer because I was supposed to have this under control.

I lied to Jay-hyung to take some weight off his shoulders. I know he's trying to solve everything by himself, so I infiltrated the maids without telling him, hoping to help him fix this. At first I thought I could even help us find a cure if I worked with the maids, but now I've realised that is impossible.

It was all going well. The other orphans had started to warm up to me again, surely after a word with the Mistress. The maids weren't on top of me like they used to be. I felt like I could finally breathe. It was like before everything. Before they found out what we where and began treating us like a plague. Before this curse came for us again. And they all wanted to help me. And I believed them. I lied to myself to believe them even when I saw the flaws in their system. But I can't ignore what they've done to our maknae.

I've been lying to everyone. Saying things just to fool the orphans around us into believing me. This job was supposed to gain their trust completely, but I can't keep lying. I can't turn a blind eye to their cruel treatment. I can't ignore what they're doing to us.

I checked on Niki like the Mistress had ordered. I saw his fangs, inhuman, and his skin, pale as if there was no blood in him. He is still a vampire, despite the days he's spent locked in that room. The Mistress is wrong. And I've been an idiot for ever thinking otherwise. The vampire in Niki isn't dying. I think it is, in fact, the only thing keeping him alive because a normal human would've already died after being starved like that.

I need to stop this. I need to stop it now.

I stand up and walk to my door, but hesitate before stepping out. He's going to be mad. Really mad. But I need him. I need my brothers now more than ever if we want to get out of this prison. I walk down the hall to his room and knock quietly. It's funny how we always seem to meet like this at night when everyone is supposed to be resting.

"What did you do?" Jay asks me as soon as he opens the door.

"Something stupid."

He scoffs as if to say, No shit.

"I'm sorry about what I said earlier. I didn't mean it," I tell him. He looks at me with a frown and I try to explain everything quickly. We don't have time for this. We need to go. We need to go now. "I was just playing out for the maids, and I needed you to believe it too. But I've never been on their side. I only wanted to find out some things on my own and... well, things got a little out of hand."

"That's an understatement." He is short in his words. He doesn't trust me fully.

"Hyung, I know I made mistakes," I beg him, "but please trust me on this one thing: we need to go. Tonight. We can't stay here longer. The Mistress hasn't told me her whole plan but I know that it won't get any better. And what they did to Niki is..."

Unthinkable. Sick. Monstrous.

"You know where he is?" He looks alarmed.

I take out the silver key that the Mistress gave me. She doesn't know I still have it. "I can get him."

He looks down, thinking. I know he's coming up with a plan. However flawed it may be given the little time I've given him to strategise.

"Alright," he says finally, "I know we've all done things we didn't want to do because of this place. You were stupid to act on your own, but it's fine. We just need to focus on getting out."

He pats my shoulder lightly before going back into his room and grabbing a coat and a bag.

"Go get Niki. I'll get the others," he tells me and goes off down the hall.

I run the other way towards the basement with the key already in my hand. As I pass by the living room I see two figures in the dark. I try to be quiet and fast to avoid being seen. If the maids are up we need to be even quicker. I just hope Jay knows what he's doing.

When I reach the wooden door down the stairs my hands are shaking and it takes a few tries to get the key into the lock. Niki is lying on the ground when I burst into the room.

"Niki!" I call him.

He doesn't move.

"Niki! Niki, wake up I'm here! We're getting out!"

I pat his cheeks and search in my pockets for a flashlight. Once I get it out I point it at his eyes and keep shaking him.

"Niki, please, I need you to wake up!"

His eyes respond to the light.

"Niki! Can you hear me? Can you stand?"

He groans and blinks slowly a couple of times. I hold his head up and study his irises. They're bleak and his pupils are dilated. Slowly, tears fill them up.

"Jake-hyung..." he breathes out. "You're real..."

a/n
just one more chapter to go!
thank you so much for reading 🫶🏼