Broken Memories [I Did it for You - Book 2]

31

Red. Red was all he could see. Deep crimson-red blood dripped from every crevice around him, filling the space quickly and silently. It reached his ankles, seeping his sneakers in red that would never wash out, would never be just his sneakers anymore. The blood was now embedded within the white material, another person's blood there forever, as though that person would follow him wherever he went, like a ghost. Even if he threw his sneakers away and washed the blood from his skin, it would remain like an invisible stain that lasted forever. Unwashable, uncleanseable.

Amongst the blood floated dark blobs of what looked like slugs. Slimey. Grotesque. It wasn't until one of them floated towards him and attached itself to his leg that he realised it was a blood clot, dark and oozing with more blood as though the clot was bleeding out. The blood flowed from it like a waterfall twice as much as its size, filling the room faster and faster. As it bled out, the blood clot attached to his leg and suddenly came to life. It gurgled and quivered before shards of tiny, bloodied teeth grew around a mouth he'd never seen before, a mouth that was also red with blood. Only red. Nothing but red.

Frozen, he watched in horror as the clot reeled backwards, as though in a silent scream before it slapped against his leg again, its tiny teeth piercing through his jeans and into his flesh.

Even though it was painful, he couldn't move. He simply watched, eyes fixed in a widened daze as he stared at the clot, sucking his blood dry as his skin began to lose its colour.

He was fading. The life force inside him shrank smaller and smaller as he did nothing to-

"Here"

Yoosung flinched, his lilac eyes wide with fear as he almost fell off the wooden chair before a hand grabbed him. He was about to scream and fight the hand off before he realised that it was fixing him back on the chair before he fell and hurt himself. He peered at the hand, following the unfamiliar, muscular arm attached to it before his eyes landed on that agent.

Vanderwood, Seven's work partner.

"Sorry, I tried to tell you that I made you that coffee you were asking for, but you didn't hear me" Vanderwood explained, setting the cup down on the round mahogany table.

Blinking and frowning, Yoosung tried to remember where he was. He looked around him, noticing the safe house's kitchen and the mahogany table Jaehee and Jumin usually sat at to have their lunch and dinner.

He couldn't remember how he made it back into the safe house. The last thing he could remember was standing outside and seeing-

Blood.

Yoosung trembled, his body shivering violently even though he didn't feel cold. He tried to pry the memories of the security guard's slit throats from his mind, but they kept flashing past over and over again, and even though they were fast and distorted, Yoosung could still see every detail, remember the smell wafting from their decaying bodies.

Seeing the blood in his mind, Yoosung quickly shifted his head below him and saw the floor. Gone was the blood spilling everywhere with the monstrous blood clots sinking their teeth into him.

Yoosung chewed on his bottom lip. He must have imagined it. He remembered hearing something like that before when a scene played out before someone so vividly even though it wasn't actually happening. A scene that was related in some shape or form to trauma just witnessed by the person. It was the brain's own way of compartmentalizing the information, trying to break it down into pieces whilst it formed a different image, one that would take the brain away from the trauma but create an entirely different horror, a monster just as bad but something the brain could work with, could cope with more, even by a small fraction.