With All That I Am: Bound To You

Till Death Do Us Part

Winter strolls along a stream in Colorado, willing the beautiful landscapes and the ripples of the stream to calm her troubled mind. A day hasn't gone by where her mind was ever at ease. She didn't sleep much anymore, and when she tried to, always awoke from nightmares. The screams of Yunho and Boa, the blood that was shed, the bastard's crusty hands on her, every single detail tainted her mind to haunt her forever.

It was never ending.

Winter felt like a walking zombie. There was no life in her anymore.

Running her hand over her stomach, Winter traces over the stab wounds that were imprinted on her. The evidence of the horrific events she's been through. Eight stab wounds and three slashes across her stomach.

Yunho's screams of agony echoing in her head, Boa's lifeless body resurfacing everytime Winter closed her eyes. It made her stomach clench with nausea, with distraught.

Winter bends over, one hand on her knee, and the other curling around her stomach as she waits for the nausea to pass by. When it did, she continued her path along the stream, routing back to where the cabin that she and Yizhuo were staying in was.

While Karina was busy with throwing cops off her blood trail, Yizhuo managed to withdraw money from her account discreetly, and that's when they fled. They bought an RV and have been fleeing state to state since. It was less risky to be found, only using cash for necessary things, and no cellphones traveling with them.

Winter thinks if she were to do this all over again by herself, she wouldn't have survived it. Probably would have gone insane, but having her best friend with her on this journey, Winter feels less lonelier.

They've stayed in Colorado the longest. It felt the most at peace, the most safe. Winter knows that safety was something that she wouldn't have for a very long time; she's accepted that fact.

But looking out into the scenery, Winter feels the serenity from her environment. She sits atop a flat rock, tilting her face up to the sun, and smiling at the birds chirping around her.

Her body sways with the direction of the wind, back and forth, back and forth. She hums to the rhythm of the bird chirps, the rustling of the leaves on the ground.

These are the small moments Winter could appreciate.

After going through, and surviving her traumatic attack, Winter forced herself to soak up the sun every morning, going for runs along the streams to strengthen her body after skipping out on physiotherapy. This was how all her mornings started, and Winter can only pray that she will start to feel normal again.

Standing up on the large flat rock, she stretches her arms above her head and lets out a soft grunt, eyes still closed and soaking up the sun.

"Enjoying the sun, my love?"

An audible gasp pierces through Winter's throat, and she has to balance herself from falling off the rock she was standing on.

Karina. In all her glory. Staring right at her with tense eyes, and a smirk on her lips. She was sure Karina was finding extreme pleasure in just how much fear she instilled through Winter's body.

"Ka-Ka—," Winter can't even get a word out, taking slow steps back. She was much higher than Karina, and Winter thinks if she jumps off this boulder the wrong way, she would have a sprained ankle, and have a harder time trying to run away from Karina.

"You're a pain in the ass to find, Minjeong." Karina shakes her head in disappointment, taking a closer step towards her. As the back of her foot meets the edge of the rock, Karina eyes her with a raised eyebrow. "I know you're smart, baby. If you jump, you'll hurt yourself. Either way, you can't escape me again."