The Villianess's Redemption (HYUNJIN ff) ✓

21.The Struggle for Freedom

Chapter 21: The Struggle for Freedom

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Y/N's POV
The cold, damp air of the dark room wrapped around me like a suffocating blanket. My wrists ached from the tight ropes that bound them, and my head throbbed with a dull pain. The faint flicker of a candle cast long, eerie shadows on the stone walls, heightening the sense of dread that gripped my heart.

Where am I?

The last thing I remembered was searching for Eliza in the bookstore, calling her name when I noticed the back door slightly ajar. Then, a hand had clamped over my mouth, and everything had gone dark.

Panic clawed at me as I realized I was tied to a chair in an unfamiliar, windowless room. I strained against the ropes, but they were too tight, biting into my skin. My breath came in short, ragged gasps as I tried to steady myself.

“Help!” I tried to scream, but my voice came out as little more than a hoarse whisper. The knot in my stomach tightened as I realized how alone I truly was.

A shadow shifted in the corner of the room, and my heart nearly stopped. A man stepped forward, his features slowly coming into view as he moved closer to the dim light. His face was twisted into a smile that sent a chill down my spine—a smile that I didn’t recognize.

“Do you remember me, my love?” The man’s voice was sickeningly sweet, filled with a twisted sense of affection.

I stared at him, my mind racing as I tried to place him. Who was he? How did I know him? His face, his voice—none of it was familiar. There was no character in the novel with his features, no one that matched his crazed demeanor.

“Who are you?” I managed to ask, my voice trembling.

The man’s smile faltered for a moment, a flash of something dark crossing his eyes before he let out a low, sarcastic laugh. “You don’t remember me? How could you forget, Isabella? It’s me, Jae-sun.”

Jae-sun.

The name rang out in the darkness, but it did nothing to jog my memory. There was no Jae-sun in the story I knew—no one by that name existed in the world of the novel. But then, as the realization dawned on me, I thought of Jasmine and the other characters I’d encountered who hadn’t been in the original story. It hit me that this world was changing, evolving in ways I couldn’t predict.

Before I could process this revelation, Jae-sun’s smile returned, darker and more twisted than before. “Oh, Isabella,” he murmured, stepping closer. “How could you forget me? I’ve been searching for you ever since you left me. I knew you couldn’t stay away forever.”

My skin crawled as he spoke, his voice dripping with a sickening mix of affection and obsession. There was something so familiar yet so terrifying in his tone, a feeling that sent shivers down my spine.

“Why are you doing this, Jae-sun?” I asked, trying to keep my voice steady despite the fear coursing through me.

“Why?” His expression darkened, the smile fading from his lips. “Because you left me, Isabella. You ran away from the one person who loved you more than anything. Do you know how that felt? To be abandoned like that?”

His words hit me like a punch to the gut, and suddenly, memories I didn’t know I had started to surface. Flashes of another life, another time, came rushing back—moments Isabella had tried to bury deep within her mind.

Then flashbacks came me of the  moments of Isabella with Jaesun.

Jae-sun had been a lover of Isabella, someone who had initially charmed her with his wit and kindness. But that charm had quickly turned to obsession. His love had become a prison, his possessiveness suffocating.