𝐁𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧 𝐂𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐬 | VMINKOOK

Sane And Insane

"I know you can take on Sebastián, Anthony, there's no need to worry," I said, gulping when none other than Carlos Capello glared at me over the rims of his thick glasses. "You can defeat him."

"I think so too, Capo," Anthony said softly. "But-- t-the thing is that I don't want to..."

"Anthony, you have to."

Marco began to hand out knives to everyone, and the daggers all looked sharp enough to cut clean through wood.

"W-what about you, Capo? Carlos he-- he won't hesitate to kill you. You have to strike first."

I hummed, taking a knife from Marco with trembling fingers.

"Capo, you can't lose," Anthony said, grabbing my wrist and giving it a small squeeze. He wasn't saying the words, and it wouldn't have been obvious to anyone, but the look in the younger boy's eyes told me that he wouldn't be okay if I died today. That he needed me to survive this class, right along with him.

"I won't," I said, giving the boy a curt nod.

I walked away and tightened my hold on my knife, thought I feared that I'd drop it the moment Carlos attacked me.

I shook my head, shoving that possibility right out of my mind. Why was I pretending as though I had any other option than to win? Everyone I cared about would die if I did not succeed. It was not my life that was at stake here... it was Taehyung's, and Jin's, and Namjoon's, and Yoongi's, and Hoseok's.

"You're going to die today," Carlos said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. The boy was already pointing his knife toward me, ready to strike me down the second Marco would whistle.

"I'm... I'm sorry, Carlos," I said, taking a stance as well, and mentally preparing myself to take a life for the very first time. "But... I can't."

The sound of Marco's whistle had never quite pierced through the air as loudly as it did that day. I had thought every student at Camp Corleone to be strong, tough warriors, but when I heard them all shout and scream and cry for their mothers, I realised that each of them were just scared little boys.

We'd been taught many different knife-fighting techniques over the course of the year, but I immediately came to realise that those techniques were all rubbish. When you were in an actual knife-fight, and death was standing in front of you, all you could really do was swing the pointy end of your dagger around until you managed to slice someone's skin.

And so that's exactly what I did.

I closed my eyes and jabbed and jabbed until I felt like I'd hit something, and when I carefully allowed myself to look again, I saw Carlos, desperately holding on to his throat as blood gushed from the wound I'd created.

The boy had to have hesitated...

Even though he'd been out to kill me so many times in the past, he'd hesitated...

I dropped my knife and looked over at Anthony, who was throwing his dagger around as well, until twenty-year-old Sebastián fell to the ground and bled out from a deep stab-wound to his gut.

"Very good, very good! As usual, Jimin and Anthony have shown you all how it is done!" Marco said, clapping with a large, relieved smile as he approached me. "You have proven yourself to be a mighty warrior, Park! I must confess I had my doubts, but you really are your father's son!"

Marco wouldn't stop clapping and laughing, giving me the sense that he would've been a dead man if I'd been murdered by Carlos today.

Around me I saw my fellow student drop like flies, and one by one, my class grew smaller and smaller. It was as though their lives had been worthless all along. As though they were all as expendable as coins. So many families would experience loss today...