Bruised (Completed)

Chapter 36

Every place knows decay, though some hide it better than others. Busan, however, shows signs of it the further you close in on its Hell: brightly lit by the sun beautiful homes and stores make room for badly renovated buildings cloaked in shadow which upkeep is neglected, the salty brine of the ocean gets replaced by the penetrant stench of stinging alcohol and rotting refuse, properly functioning infrastructure transforms into barely useful pavements and roads.

Vision is fogged by the crimson mist of fury as an iron fist drags along a monster, returning the spiteful creature to the abominable realm where it belongs, the kingdom I escaped despite once being a part of it. Being a creature much like the one being towed along.

'Open the door,' I command monotonously when we stand before the entrance to the apartment I used to call "home", even though the naming has always been sarcastic, for my real home was in the train yard with Namjoon.

'You have a key, don't you? Since you managed to escape already once,' Dad drawls, obviously enjoying the mockery of his son.

'I threw it away.'

'You threw it away?' A blasting laughter erupts from his throat, scaring away the birds that had taken up a spot on the stone grey concrete that forms a sort of railing. He shakes his head when he is done, clacking with his tongue in disapproval. 'You're even more stupid than I thought.'

'I'm still wiser than you ever were.' A raised eyebrow and a cocky smile, showing the challenge which cannot be suppressed anymore.

'You little-'

He tries to attack despite the hold on his collar, already raising a threatening fist, but I turn us around and grab the raised arm with the hand that previously held the shirt stained with spirits, turning it on Dad's back whilst my left forearm pins him to the door. 'Open. The. Goddamn. Door,' I hiss, growling demanding like an aggravated tiger. A painful push further into the entrance to Inferno. 'Right now.'

'Well, I can't if you don't let me go, now can I?' Knowing he is right, I  liberalize the grip so he can do as he was told.

A soft click which seems to resonate at a higher volume in the empty passage, followed by the tumult of me pushing him inside and slamming the door shut with a deafening slam. The flat is even more cluttered than when I escaped it a few weeks ago. Packages of instant ramen litter the coffee table in an array of multi-coloured plastic, the sink on the far end of the space is filled with a pile of dishes from the evenings that he may have had a somewhat decent meal before taking to the bottle again, and the stench of the cheap soju hangs even heavier in the air than before.

Disgusted by the animal's lair on top of the anger due to him threatening Alistaire and my unborn child, I scrunch up my nose as I look around. 'How can you live like this?'

'I could ask you the same thing.' As if attention is put on a leash, Dad tugs it to guide it towards him viciously, scrambling to regather his composure as he leans against the wall I had thrown him into. 'What are we doing here?'

The wonder is justified because I could have acted in the streets, but the risk of being caught in spite of the few occasional rare cops roaming the pavement was too great as was the chance of someone interfering. However, all thoughts were erased, feet heading determined to the place where it all began.

And where it shall end.

'How can I live like this?' I throw my head back, a jeering laugh falling from lips curled into a snarl, before infuriated eyes turn towards their prey. 'I can live the way I do because of my wife, because of Namjoon, because I actually try to be better than you.'

'You aren't better than me. Want to know why? Because you're exactly like me, worthless bastard. We share the same blood, the same genes. You think you are your own person, but in the end, you're still partially me.'