ENG - Fractured Fates ʰʸᵘⁿˡᶦˣ

26

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With a pulsating pain that almost drove me to the brink of madness, I paced back and forth in our run-down living room. The only illumination came from the sun's rays squeezing through the cracks in the worn, once white blinds. Sitting on the couch in front of me were the two carers I had forced to come with me. Felix was still crying uncontrollably, while the black-haired man tried desperately to comfort him.
„Can you finally stop running around here? It's driving you crazy," Minho hissed at me, looking down at the two of them, his eyebrows drawn together in a scowl.
It annoyed me, it really pissed me off, the situation Chan had gotten us into. My mind was racing, but I didn't have the energy to think about what we should do with the two of them.

Instead, I walked towards the old, dusty sideboard in the dark corner of the room. I opened the squeaky, rusty drawer and reached for the cold weapon inside. I could feel the weight of the metal against my skin as I loaded it with a quick, almost mechanical movement and slid the cartridge into the magazine.
I stood in front of the two smaller ones, who stared at me with fear in their eyes, their bodies trembling with fear. I raised the gun and pointed it at them. My voice was cold and low as I spoke, „We'll just kill them. That'll get rid of the problem."
I was already pulling the catch that sent the bullet down the barrel, ready to pull the trigger as I kept my gaze firmly on the two pathetic boys who began to whimper even more in fear.

Minho's sudden movement interrupted my intention, and my arm was unexpectedly pulled down. The tension that hung in the air and the darkness that filled my heart made me instinctively pull the trigger. A bullet shot across the room, leaving a trail of smoke and smashing into the floor with a hollow, ominous thud, just inches from the feet of the other two. I could see their bodies flinch in shock.
„Are you alright?" I hissed angrily at him. „You're not going to kill anyone here," he growled back. I looked at him, stunned and angry, my hands clenched into fists, my nails dug into my palms. „Why not?" I asked angrily, my voice quivering with anger and despair. „That would solve the problem we have now. We'll just make the bodies disappear, like we always do, and get on with our shitty lives."

A dull, suffocating silence fell over the room, interrupted only by the soft whimpers of the two boys on the couch, clinging to each other. I could see their bodies trembling with fear. Then I felt a painful blow to the back of my head, forcing me to hold the spot painfully.
I looked at Minho angrier than ever, my eyes flashed with anger and I could feel my cheeks redden with rage. „Then you wouldn't have protected them from Chan if you wanted them to die," he shouted at me, his voice echoing through the room. „You protected them, so we'll protect them too."

With a single, smooth swing, he reached for the gun in my hand. His movements were so precise and controlled, a testament to years of experience. A shiver ran down my spine as I felt the power in his fingers effortlessly disarm me.
He held the gun in his hand for a moment before removing the magazine and dropping each bullet on the ground one by one. Then he hurled the gun into a corner, where it hit with a clinking sound and kicked up a small swirl of dust.
„Nobody gets killed here, today, tomorrow or any other day," he said in a voice so calm and determined that I couldn't help but believe him. „That was a fucking knee-jerk reaction, as if I cared about their lives in any way," I said, my voice shaking with anger and frustration.

I sat down on the coffee table, which groaned slightly under my weight, ran my hand through my tousled hair and took a closer look at the two in front of me. Their faces were pale and frightened, their eyes full of pain and despair. They looked as if they had already been through hell and were now begging to finally be released. But nothing had happened to them yet.
With a laugh as cold and humorless as the concrete floor beneath us, I shook my head. „What do you want to do with them?" I asked him more calmly.

Minho sat down next to me and looked at them too, his expression impenetrable. „You called them your toys, so they'll be safe from Chan for the time being," he replied more calmly, his voice still full of authority.
I let out a contemptuous snort and ran a hand over my face. „But only until he finds out it was a lie," I said, my voice full of bitterness.

Suddenly my cell phone rang, breaking the silence that had fallen over us. Annoyed, I reached into my pocket to pull out the annoying device. Chan's name appeared on the display with an incoming video call. „What does he want now?" my flatmate asked me, glancing curiously at the display. I answered the call with an indifferent shrug of my shoulders.
Chan's face appeared on the screen, his grin so wide and exaggerated that it looked almost inhuman. His eyes gleamed ominously in the dim light of the room he was in. „Hello, my darling, and Minho," he greeted us with an exaggerated friendliness.

The first thing I noticed about him was his bloodied hand, which he casually held up to the camera as he waved at us. „What do you want from me?" I asked him, annoyed, and held the phone a little further away so that Minho was also in the picture.
„Impatient as always," Chan said with a sigh and shook his head slightly. „But fine, I'll get straight to the point. I don't know if you've noticed, but I had someone walk out of the hospital with me last night who was really getting on my nerves." His voice sounded cold and calculating as he said these words.

He paced around the room, causing the camera to shake and the image to blur. „I didn't really like her mouth and the way she spoke to me," he continued, stopping suddenly.
He knelt down next to a bound woman sitting in a chair, her face lined with pain and fear. Her face was swollen from the beating he had given her and blood was still running from her mouth and nose, mixing with her drool and running down her chin.

With a jerky grip, he grabbed her hair and pulled her head back so that her face could be seen better. Now you could clearly see the bloody holes where her teeth had once been and the cuts on her cheeks from his knife. „I pulled out all her teeth, but unfortunately she still kept screaming and left an insane mess, as you can see." His voice now sounded even colder than before. „So I inflicted a little pain on her and numbed her with these, and lo and behold, she's silent and no longer screaming my ear off. Which actually makes the whole thing more boring," he said with a dangerous undertone and let go of the woman's head, who then winced with a soft whimper.

He rose again, his eyes glittering with anger as he stared into the camera. „She could never have kept quiet in her life, so for your sake, I hope your ridiculous toys can keep their fucking mouths shut," he growled, his voice quivering with suppressed fury. „Otherwise they'll end up just like the little whore behind me," he added with a sadistic grin.
He put the cell phone down somewhere so that they had a clear view of the woman sitting in the chair. She looked like she had barely survived the first round of Chan's torture. Her body was covered in bloody cuts and her face was swollen.
He stood in front of her and looked at the camera with a sadistic grin. „Besides, I also found out from her after I teased it out of her a little that she had your cock in her mouth, my darling. That makes me a little jealous," he said, with a hint of sadness and undisguised jealousy in his voice. „So I hope she's good for something too," he added, playing with his soiled, bloody pants.

He walked towards the woman, whose face was covered in blood and whose eyes widened in fear and pain. He grabbed her head and forced her to look at him. „Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that your toys don't have to miss her," he continued, pushing his cock into the woman's blood-covered mouth. He controlled her head with his hands and all that could be heard was choking and muffled, desperate screaming.
He looked into her eyes while his own eyes sparkled with lust and power. „After I'm done with her, only her bones will remain and they will never be found. So make sure your two sluts keep tight or they will suffer the same fate." His voice was cold and calculating, and you could hear him enjoying the woman's choking and screaming.

Disgusted by the sight, I simply hung up the call and put the phone away again. „I think sex is hot too," Minho said next to me. His voice sounded almost indifferent, but a slight disgust crept into his tone. „But what he's doing is just disgusting." He shook his head as if to get rid of the disgusting thoughts.
I couldn't help but agree with him myself. I didn't understand how anyone could find such a thing pleasurable. I'd killed and tortured countless people in my life and felt pleasure in doing so, but it had never aroused me sexually.
That was just sick.

My gaze slid to the two of them on the couch, still clinging to each other. Their eyes widened in horror as they realized what they had just overheard. Since the phone call had been out loud, they had heard every single word. „Is Kazuha... really dead?" asked the dark-haired one of the two, trying to control his voice.
I looked at him for a moment before answering. „Weren't you listening?" I said, my voice cold and snide. „She's still alive, but she won't be for much longer. So just forget about her." I emphasized my words with a snide hand gesture.

The black-haired man, his eyes darkened with grief and fear, began to cry again. His shoulders shook in time with his sobs, which mingled with those of Felix, who had dissolved into a stream of tears since Chan had left us. He hadn't said a word since then, which was only right for me. „We won't tell... We'll keep quiet... but please... don't kill us," stammered the braver of the two. His voice trembled with fear and his hands clenched desperately.
I clicked my tongue, a sound that expressed my contempt and displeasure all too clearly. „Shut the fuck up," I growled, my voice rough and harsh.
Then I turned to Minho, who was chewing on his fingernail, an indication of the nervousness that surrounded him despite his hard shell. „We should just kill them, that would be easiest," I said. My voice was emotionless and cold as I stood up and walked over to the gun Minho had tossed away earlier.
„We're not going to fucking kill anyone," he shouted at me now, his eyes glittering with anger and his hands balled into fists as he stood up as well.

His rambling about 'we'll let them live' pissed me off and only made me angrier. I looked straight at him, my eyes narrowed to slits and my finger pointed at the two crybabies.
„Why the hell?" I asked him angrily, my voice cracking with anger and contempt. „We kill other people every day. What's so special about these two that you want them to stay alive?" I added with a sarcastic undertone.

Minho came up to me and grabbed me by the collar with such force that I felt like I was suffocating. He pressed me against the wall behind me and shouted at me. „We kill wankers, criminals and other murderers!" he snarled at me.
„We only kill those who deserve it, not some innocent people just because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time!" He pulled me back from the wall once, only to press me back against it with even more force.

A snorting laugh escaped my throat as I looked at him with a witless grin. „Don't act like the good guy now," I replied with a mixture of contempt and scorn in my voice. „How many innocent people do you think we've turned in who've died?" I continued, my anger at him increasing. „Just because we didn't do it with our own hands doesn't mean we're not their murderers!"
I grabbed him by the collar as well and pulled with all my might. „So don't act like you're one of the good guys, because we're not!"

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