Aelia spent several more hours in the lab before she dared leave. When she finally packed up and left, she was terrified people somehow could tell that something had happened to her. But of course, they didn't.
«Morning, dr Bell,» an attending said when she passed her in the hall.
«Morning,» she said and hurried along. She needed food, her body ached for nutrition and she needed to process. There was so much to process!
She stopped by the cafeteria to buy some food and coffee, before she headed to a doctors-lounge where she ended up sitting in a chair, staring out the window while her mind went on a road trip. She couldn't stop it, really, there was so much to take in. She ate and drank her coffee, but if someone talked to her, they got no answer.
Her mind kept working as she tried to decide what to do. This hospital was not the right place for her right now. Now she remembered how there was nothing left for her back where she grew up. There was her last workplace, the hospital where she had met Hyunjin and gotten involved with the Butterfly movement, in secrecy of course. It would have been useful to be able to go over the data again, all the research her father had done. She had first-hand experience with the serum now, both the original one, that made the slaves forget, forever, and the one that was made to reverse it.
It was late when Aelia walked through the cemetery. It was years since she had been there. She had been so furious with her father for so long. He had made so many mistakes. So many horrible mistakes. He had started to make amends, but then he died and left it all to her. She didn't want that responsibility. She never did.
«Hey, Mom,» Aelia said as stopped by the stone with their names. «Hey, Dad.»
She sighed and sat down, scraping moss off of the withered stone. It was too long since anyone had been here to show respect. But how do you show respect to someone you feel so ambivalent towards? Aelia tried to not bring back all those feelings she had as a teenager. At some point, she hated her father with every fiber of her being. Now she had grown up. Now she knew more of the world. She had read every study he had made, and seen every video he made as part of his work with the truth serum. In those, he was more honest and open than she ever remembered him being at home. She had gotten to know him as a man, not just as the distant father she remembered from her childhood.
«Yeah, you'll be proud to know I survived being a slave, dad.» A bitter laugh escaped her. «I was injected with the original serum. My memory was really gone until I used my serum.»
Aelia swallowed and looked to the sky for a second. She wasn't going to cry. Not in front of her father. «I guess you'd actually be proud of that, if you were here. But you're not.»
She kept scraping off the stone, slower as it was getting cleaner. Eventually, she just sat there, with her hands on the stone. For the longest time, she just stared at the grass, holding on.
«I don't know if I can do this,» she whispered, tears clouding her voice. «I know what I have to do, but... I'm all alone.»
She leaned her head on her arms and sobbed.
—
He was really bad at it, being a slave. It didn't seem natural to him to surrender himself to someone else's will. That made it more difficult for him than for some of the others. He would react when someone else was treated horrible too, which earned him quite a lot of abuse during those first few weeks. The director was sick of him even before the first auction, but he would not be letting him go that easily. Quite the opposite. The staff were told to not treat him as a virgin slave anymore. Meaning, any punishment was okay, it didn't matter what he looked like. He wasn't there because they could make a lot of money off of him. He was there to be broken.
—
Woo had been quick to hide when he heard steps on the gravel path leading up through the cemetery. He didn't leave, which normally would have been his first instinct. He had to just see who it was. It was like his heart knew it wasn't just any grieving relative of the hundreds of dead resting here.
He watched her approach the stone, clean it off... The words she spoke weren't for him and he eventually turned and left her there.
As he got into the car, his husband looked at him.
«What do you think?»
«Yeah, dr Bellani was Aelia's father,» Wooyoung said as he leaned back into the seat.
«Fuck,» Yeosang mumbled in the backseat.
«Are you sure?» San asked.
«Yes, 100 %.»
«How?»
«Because Aelia just sat on their grave crying.»
All three of them stared at him.
«She's over there right now?»
«Yes, Jongho.»
«I'm glad you left, then,» San muttered.
«Shut up,» Yeosang hissed. «We don't actually know anything! We should talk to her.»
«If she's at her father's grave, she remembers!» San said, equally annoyed.
«So much could have happened since we last saw her,» Yeosang sighed.
«That's just wishful thinking.»
«Fuck, I never pegged you for one to trust so little!» Yeo grumbled. «Aelia needs us!»
«Aelia means trouble, and we should stay as far away from her as possible.»
«I'm going to talk to her,» Yeo said and opened the door.
«Don't you dare leave this car,» San said, turning to look at him.
«You don't make my decisions, San!»
«We won't wait for you, it's too dangerous.»
Yeosang heard the threat perfectly well, and after hesitating for a moment, he stepped out of the car. Jongho did the same on the other side of the car. San's hurt eyes were painful to see, but wherever Yeo went, Jongho went. As the door closed, the car drove off. Yeo and Jongho looked at each other and then they went into the cemetery.
YOU ARE READING
Take Me Home // Ateez // Stray Kids
FanfictionAfter an unexpected escape from the Mansion, Aelia finds herself in a Safe House. Who is a friend and who has alternate motives? And what do the butterflies have to do with it? As a former slave, life looks empty. Aelia has to find her way in life...
