chapter twenty-eight / eeship-pal Blood, Sweat, and Tears (028)
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I gasp, my eyes snapping open, but almost immediately, I shut them closed, grimacing due to the sudden intake of light. For some reason, my head is throbbing and it feels like I'm being stabbed behind my eyes. My body is dripping with sweat and I have a difficult time getting my breathing under control. I look around the room I'm in, but that only adds to my confusion and worry. I don't know where I am.
How did I get here? The last thing I remember was finding that boy who was injured. What happened between now and then?
I try to bring a hand to my aching head, but that's when I realize that my hands are tied behind my back. I can feel the rope burning my skin as I struggle to free my hands. This is when I start to panic, kicking and thrashing in my chair, screaming for anybody to help me, but I can tell by the way my voice echoes off of the walls, this room is soundproof.
"Hey, can you be a little more quiet, I have such a bad headache right now and you're making it so much worse," a strained and tired voice requests, startling me because until now, I thought I was in here alone.
"Y-yoongi?"
"Don't worry, I'm here."
Though the situation is still dire, relief floods through me, making my chest seize and I immediately feel sobs racking my body.
"What's going on? What happened?"
"I'm gonna tell you, but, while I'm doing that, I want you to concentrate on breathing slowly through your nose; you're going to hyperventilate," he soothingly instructs. I suddenly feel his hand grab mine, and despite all that's happened, feeling my friend rub comforting circles on my skin with his thumb is enough to ground me. "After we found that kid, some sort of smoke or gas started to fill the room. We were all knocked out by it. My guess is the boss separated all of us into groups and put us in different rooms."
"How long have you been awake?"
He hesitates for a moment. "I think it's been a few days."
I purse my lips. "You've been alone this whole time," I sadly realize. "Have you seen him? The boss, I mean, did he come back?"
It's silent for a long moment, but that's enough of an answer for me. "Yoongi, what did he do to you?" I ask calmly.
"I think we should come up with some kind of plan to escape." He completely ignores my question, and somehow, that's worse than knowing, because all I can imagine is the boss torturing him for hours, for days, and he had to suffer alone. I wish I could turn my chair to face him, to see his face, to know whether or not he was okay. I can't though, so instead, I focus on his voice, and that's when I know he s definitely not okay.
"The boss comes around two or three times a day to bring food, or to-"
"Yoongi." The air is silent, and I can tell he knows what I'm thinking just by the way I called out to him. "I'm sorry." My voice breaks and tears stream down my cheeks. He grabs my hand and leans his head back so that it's resting against the back of mine.
