Zero Encounters

I Am...

    Yeonwoo woke to the pounding of her head, the cold sweat rolling down her nape and the muffled sound of children laughing in the distance. She sat facing a wall with a small cross hung in front of her. She focused her eyes to see she was in a storage room with just a slit of sunlight peeking through the dusty blinds. She watched the dust particles dance in the light for a moment until she realized her wrists and ankles were bound to the steel chair she was on.

Flashbacks to what happened the night before appeared in her mind and she tried to fight her ways out of the restraints, but the thick rope only burned her skin.

"Come on, children! It's time to go." She heard the familiar voice and started shouting for help. She continued to scream until her voice cracked, but no one came running.

What am I doing here? She thought to herself and looked around the room to see if she can utilize anything to help her escape. The room was bare besides boxes stacked against the wall. Her weakened state made it difficult to hop with her chair to check the contents of the boxes. Suddenly, the heavy metal door pushed open and the concierge she once met stood there. Iron? She swallowed hard. Instead of his proper suit, he wore a black silk shirt and gold chain. His stereotypical outfit made her eyes roll in disgust, but she kept it brief.

"You're awake." He said and taunted her with a roll of duct tape. "You're just a little too noisy this early in the morning." She tried to back away from his advances, but the weight of her body and the chair kept her still.

"Where is Mr. Baek? Please, let me go." She begged, dodging his attempts to tape her mouth, "I don't know what's going on. I don't know why I'm here. I-I was just having dinner with Mr. Baek and then.. I don't know. Please, there must be a misunderstanding. Let me talk to him to clear things up."

"I'm just following orders." He shrugged and stuck a piece of tape against her lip. He tossed the roll on the table by the door and reached for his back pocket. He held a needle and vial in front of her. Her eyes widened in panic and she used her remaining energy to avoid the injection. Her cries and unwillingness frustrated the man to which he slapped her across the face. The strength from the impact stunned her. She has received her fair share of beatings before, but nothing like what she just endured. Her face pulsed and she felt the needle go through her neck again. "Sleep tight." He said and the pulsations stopped.

The torturous cycle would continue every few hours she would wake up. Her negotiation tactics continued to fail and by sundown, her grasp on reality diminished. Her dreams were vivid and hallucinations were prominent whenever the man would enter through the doors. By the end, she stopped resisting and allowed herself to be put to sleep. She hoped that her team would notice her absence as Yeonwoo and raise alarms. In her waking moments, she tried to piece together the reason for her abduction, but with each injection, her mind would reset to a fuzzy mess. All she could do is hold onto the hope the team would come to her rescue.

-

"You wanted to see me, Captain?" Jisung walked into his office to see the man holding his head in his hands.

"Have you seen her today?" He asked, gesturing him to close the doors.

"She still hasn't contacted you?" He asked with concern in his eyes. Captain Lee shook his head and scrunched the paper on his desk. He could tell the amount of stress that weighed on the Captain with just one look.

Minhyuk had received a text from Yeonwoo that night that she would be working late at the library. They pinged her phone to show that she was at the location she mentioned and to ease their worries, he looked into the CCTVs by Taejoon's residence to confirm that she left his place earlier that evening. Captain Lee also stayed the night at her place to wait for her to return, but she never showed herself. All he found were notes she had made about Taejoon and his company along with a toxicology report. He found Zero's phone left on her bed which didn't concern him as she often took one or the other or both phones depending on her outings. When the team arrived to work the next morning, Yeonwoo's last cellphone ping remained at the library, but her phone eventually turned off.