Theresa Chang is an undercover agent whose sole motivations in life are anger, hate, and vengeance. She and her teammates are on a mission to uncover the cure for a deadly virus that has spread throughout the world, marked by a rose-shaped rash, pos...
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The walls were old and musty, and the air was stained with uncertainty, longing, and grief. It was her first night in South Korea, the city of second chances and light. However, she could never have guessed that her first few nights would be spent locked away, so alone.
"Mummy! Daddy!" The little girl shrieked, thrashing her arms and legs against the restraints, trying to break free. Her eyes widened with fear as she scanned the dimly lit room for her parents.
The door then opened, letting in fresh air that the girl choked down. But when she saw who came in through the door she held her breath and screamed anew at the sight before her.
Because the people that came in were barely conscious, they were thrown into the room. Their faces were sickly white, streaked with dried blood. Their skin tinged an unnatural pale yellow colour and their eyes fluttered open and closed.
And because the people that came in were her parents.
A sob buckled the girl's small, trembling body as her cheeks and tunic turned soaked with tears, staring at the couple's hands, which were still entwined together—
The door then opened once again, and a man walked through. He started walking towards the girl who was still struggling with her restraints.
The man knelt and stared menacingly at the terrified girl. His hair reached his shoulders and his lips were bright red matching perfectly with his snow-white skin. He would've been the perfect Prince Charming straight from a fairy tale if he didn't have that diagonal scar on his left eye, cutting straight through.
He clamped the girl's hand down and quirked his lips into a dangerous smirk.
"Theresa," He started, pressing her fingers together. "I have a few questions for you, will you answer them?"
The little girl, Theresa, gasped with pain as she tried to pull her fingers free, but to no prevail, her weak body had already been put through too much pressure. She looked down at the man and fear overtook her as she stared at him. Her eyes then flickered to her parents on the floor behind the man.
"Did you hear me?" He growled. Theresa turned her gaze back to the man her entire body exhausted and threatening to fall unconscious. That's when he sighed frustratingly and let go of Theresa's hands.
Theresa filled with relief and let out a deep breath. But her relief only lasted for a minute when the man barked an order at the few heavily armed guards around them that Theresa hadn't noticed. They picked up her parents and roughly forced both of them into chairs and restraints.
The speed of it all had Theresa blink one second then to see her parents open their eyes in pure shock. Both of them rested their eyes on Theresa asking quietly if she was okay, their voices hoarse and painful to hear.
"Quiet," The man with the slitted eye snapped, he then turned to Theresa once again his expression and voice equally fierce. "Theresa, I know you love your parents, enough that you wouldn't want me hurting them. So you will answer my questions and I'll leave them alone. You understand?"
Theresa looked up at him and then back at her parents, who looked back at her, terrified and trembling. Since she was young, her parents had always told her to keep their business a secret, under any circumstances, but she never learned what to do when her dear parents were tied up.
Theresa fiddled her fingers and finally came to a decision. She nodded, some of the sweat on her forehead dripping onto her dirty, soiled tunic. The man flashed another dangerous grin and turned to Theresa's trembling parents, "My, what a smart girl you have raised."
* * *
As question after question was asked, secret after secret was revealed, triggering Theresa's parents to gasp quietly at each piece of information being unveiled. The man's expression morphed into a mask of pure delight as he proceeded to instruct his accomplices to meticulously transcribe every single word that poured, reluctantly and painfully, from Theresa's lips.
"Now, Theresa, tell me the pass key to project PRO1-TESSiVY," The slit-eyed man said, his eyes gleaming. Theresa's dad's head jerked up, sweat dotting his forehead mirroring Theresa's mum's panic-stricken face.
"I—"
"No," Just when Theresa was about to speak, her dad interrupted, his voice weak with exhaustion, but still unruly "She doesn't know."
Theresa gave her dad a quizzical look—which was a huge mistake. Now the abductor is certain that Theresa's father is lying.
