The Afterlife

27) The Vicious Regret Amongst Chaos

Sihyeon tried numerous times to pry her eyes open.

It was pretty much the only thing she could have a chance at; otherwise, she was aching all over. Her body felt like it had been shoved against thorns countless times, pierced and thrown again to hit a solid ground. Her mouth was dry, and any attempt to swallow had her stomach raging in discontent.

She was sure that she was tied up, and even when she knew there was no use attempting to free herself - for whoever tied her, did so distinctively well - it was still frustrating.

She could not move, regardless, because when she tried, her head spun like the whole world moved at once to push her back to sleep, and the headache needed not an assistant to keep it going; it was vibrant, cruel, and unyielding in the face of all the other pain she had to endure.

Sihyeon groaned when she decided to just let the headache seize her; she wanted to open her eyes, she wanted to see, and so she squeezed her eyes shut only to force them open at once.

For a moment, she thought it had killed her - the headache - but then when she let out a sharp exhale, every other limb in her body acted on utter confusion and brought her back to the rigid surface which she lied on.

It was still blurry - her vision - but it only lasted for another few seconds before Sihyeon was able to push her head backwards and look up.

When she did make sense of her sight, she thought it useless to have made so much effort to open her eyes and immediately regretted it, for the first thing she saw was the very face she was expecting ever since her ears started ringing and she awoke to find herself trapped in the darkness.

It was not surprising, but rather frustrating - how it was so easy to expect, how, in the back of her head, she knew it would eventually happen, that he would seek revenge, but in which way? That was what she had no time to figure.

Namjoon offered her the answer all the same; as he sat back on his heels before her, he was smiling widely at the way she rolled her eyes and sighed, and his toothy grin lingered to his speech, "oh, good morning to you too," he put a hand over her face, gently at first, but then he forced it farther up by the jaw when he wanted to speak to her, "I know you do not fancy my face much, so I brought you company."

Sihyeon could not fight him even if she wanted to; her sore bones complied quietly, cracking once or twice in the movement. When he took a step back, still holding her face in his hand, to give her sight of the rest of the room, Sihyeon figured that all the pain was nothing compared to that which waited to ram itself into her heart.

Sihyeon's jaw fell, and her eyes glistened with the mere sight. She stared for as long as she could, silent with wide pores in her eyes she wanted to go blind. Before her, Yunho and San were tied in the same manner; their hands was held by chains to the wall on the other side of the room and their feet were folded beneath them for the same reason.

Beside them, there was Mia.

The older girl looked like she was still struggling with her unconsciousness, but even the uncontrollable sleep did not let her lie down.

Mia was tied with chains, hands and feet and waist and neck, to a tall pillar that stood amidst the room. It was made of stone, much like the room itself, and it stood at length, from the ceiling to the floor, allowing the older girl's feet to barely touch ground, while the rest of her body stayed upright.

"You fucking-" Sihyeon coughed the words, too frightened was she that the words no longer came to her; she looked back at Namjoon, and he let her do so only for her to feed his pride with anger, "you fucking piece of scum, I will tear you apart."