Finding You

CHAPTER 22

Author's Notes: Contains themes which may not be suitable for some readers (violence). Please proceed with caution.

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The sound of little children and women crying faded into Tae Pyung's consciousness. It started as a distant echo, people blindly praying and begging for anyone who was compassionate enough to come to their rescue, increasing in volume until it already seemed too real to be a figment of his imagination.

He opened his eyes and found himself seated at the back row of a bus beside a mother who was covering the eyes of her child as they watched a deranged man hold an eight year-old boy as his hostage. The kid, whose face was already drained of color as the man caged his tiny head in the crook of his muscular arm to the point of strangulation, pleaded for help in between agonal gasps as he felt the cold metal of the gun come in contact with his temples again and again.

The senior investigator was quick to rise to his feet, yet his legs were strangely heavy to a point that he could not even take a step - let alone, lurch forward to tackle the hostage-taker. He opened his mouth to scream and catch the attention of the man, but even his voice was mysteriously held back.

Anxious, he let his eyes roam within the confines of the vehicle thinking of a way to intervene, only for his focus to be disrupted by a sound that grew louder as each second passed.

The moment his eyes flew open, he was immediately greeted by the white ceiling of his mezzanine bedroom, comprehending soon after that the loud beeping that woke him up from another bad dream was coming from his phone. His hand reached towards the bedside drawer, feeling the top surface until his fingers stumbled upon the device.

He sat up as soon as he was done turning the alarm off, closing his eyes in an effort to regain full consciousness after being roused again by a disturbing scenario. Replaying the dream in his mind, he was able to pick up some pertinent pieces and forced his brain to keep the details intact this time.

It happened in the afternoon, Tae Pyung thought as he recalled that the wristwatch of the hostage-taker told that it was three o'clock. And it was right in the middle of a busy street.

It's at the junction near the primary school, he deduced after, identifying a number of landmarks he caught in his peripheral vision as he scanned the surroundings in his dream a few moments earlier. He made a mental note to check on the name and the address of the academe as soon as he got to the station later that morning.

As he finished making a list of the specifics in his mind, Tae Pyung opened his eyes again, repeating the time and place several times to etch it to his memory.

Like he promised Eon Jin, he pressed 7 to call her and let her know about this odd phenomenon.

Kim Tae Pyung, she said the moment she picked up. What's wrong?

"I'm sorry for calling this early, but you said I should keep you informed if there are things that seem out of the ordinary to me."

Most certainly. What happened?

"I keep having those bad dreams," he replied as he buried his face in his hand. "This morning, I woke up to a vision of a hostage-taking in a bus full of people, mostly children."

Have you ever handled a case similar to that in the past? Eon Jin asked, her words coming out a little too fast and a pitch too high. What if you are getting some flashbacks from your previous assignments?

Tae Pyung shook his head, then said, "I have worked on some cases like this, yes. But only to carry out an investigation after it happened - not during the hostage crisis, if you know what I mean."