HIS PRINCESS | K.TH

Snakes and Jumping Jacks

AERI

I'm so scared I can't even breathe.

I can't even say sorry. My mouth won't move. It feels like my body is frozen stiff to the ground, and my heartbeat skyrockets when he takes a step closer.

He points at the thick ice cream dripping down the front of his shirt.

"This yours, kid?"

He smiles. And I see he has several gaping holes in his mouth.

He's missing teeth. A lot of them. Some of them are lined with gold— some with dirty silver. Barely any of them look normal.

"Because if it is, I might need to fuck you up a little."

I've never moved so fast.

The moment I hear that, I get to my feet and break into a run towards the opposite direction. I don't look back— I don't. Any second I expect him to grab me by the throat and drag me away to kill me.

I hear him laugh. Or was I imagining it?

Thoughts run wildly through my head.

My legs are too short. He could literally walk to catch up to me. He was going to get me. He was actually going to get me and take all my teeth and my heart and beat me to death and—

And for the second time in the last five minutes, I run right into someone else.

At this point I was just going to give myself up.

Hands wrap around my shoulder. And I'm already sobbing into a shirt, tears streaming down my cheeks as I tremble violently. My legs give out under my body.

It's all hopeless.

I should've just gone with Aemin. I should've stayed with him.

Now I was going to get sold off as a slave down in the underground of Kaz.

"...child?"

I keep crying, trying to drown out whatever's going around me. My heart feels like it's going to explode with the anticipation.

Then the hands that had wrapped around my shoulder shift down to lift my body up from the ground. And in a second I'm buried in someone's arms, my head rested on his shoulder.

I'm so surprised that the tears stop.

I start hiccuping instead.

Was this...Was this supposed to happen?

Then I realize who I'd run into. It's that man, from before. The man who had been smoking and I'd told him to stop. He's the one holding me.

I shiver when I hear the chilling voice again.

"V."

"Hand her over."

No.

No, no, no.

"Please...p-please don't." I whisper, my fingers tightening around his shoulders. I bury my face deep into the crook of his neck.

And to my surprise, he laughs lowly under his breath.

"Silly girl. Did you throw that at him?"

What?

"I— no, it was an accident!" I exclaim, my words getting faster and faster. "I ran into him, and I was holding an ice cream, you know? I only took a few bites out of that, and it got all over his—"