The truck lurched forward with a a sharp jolt, and the sudden movement caught Lisa clean off guard. Losing her balance she toppled into the wall of the vehicle above Jennie, smacking her face against the interior with a crunch. Jennie found the strength to reach up and snatch the gun out of her aggressor's hands, wrapping her own blood stained appendages around the hilt with minimal movements. Lisa recovered quickly from her blow, and she wasted no time in boring down on Jennie with a venom in her eyes. Punching Jennie in the side at the point of injury, she reprimanded the gun from her person and aimed it at Jennie's head for the third time. A ruckus from the end of the truck made Jennie slide a glance at the source of the noise. Chen stood a few feet away from her and Lisa in all his masked glory. His hands were gloved, and blinking the tears out of her swollen eye, Jennie noticed that he was holding something she couldn't quite make out.
"Can you hurry up with that?". His voice was gruff.
"I will soon", Lisa replied. "I enjoy making her suffer".
"Well, make it quick, because we have other places to be".
Lisa passed the gun into her other hand. "Fine".
Jennie took the opportunity Lisa left open whilst in conversation with Chen to raise a hand and claw at her face, digging her nails deep into Lisa's flesh with all the power she could muster. Enraged, Lisa's hands flew to her face, presenting Jennie with another chance at gaining the upper hand in this situation. Scrambling for the gun that had skittered within arms reach, her fingers touched the cool metal just as Lisa rained slaps down on top of Jennie's already horribly marred visage, and as a spike of adrenaline flooded Jennie's veins, she bucked her hips to jostle Lisa and then proceeded to wrap both thighs around her assailant's thin frame, hindering Lisa's counter attack greatly. Jennie aimed the armament against Lisa's skull and she fired a bullet into her head, wincing when brain matter and blood spatter hailed down on top of her exposed neck and collarbone like a lumpy shower. Fluid, shards of bone and chunks of brain splashed up against the interior of the truck behind them too. Lisa's body went lifeless, and gagging, Jennie released the chokehold and crawled out from underneath the dying corpse, vomiting up bile and her lunch with ragged heaves. Her ribs throbbed with every palpitation her heart threw at it. The rancid stench of bloody remains clung to her clothing and, withholding another gag, she wiped herself down, backing into the side of the truck in shock. Her jaw and nose began to swell and she could feel the bruising spread with every agitated sniffle she did. The sound of someone entering the belly of the truck made her cower like an abandoned dog behind a stack of crates. Chen prowled the scene and upon seeing Lisa's dead body, he let out a roar that made Jennie's ears ring, before vanishing from earshot. Gripping her wounded side, Jennie lifted herself onto her knees and slithered towards the exit. The sound of car doors slamming followed by a screech of tyres on tarmac only spurred her on, desperate to return to her freedom before it slipped out of her grasp one more time. Voices shattered her fragile mind, and, suddenly overwhelmed she began to cry. The night air chilled her to the bone as she climbed out of the truck, finally standing to her full height. A wave of nausea grew intense inside her gut and keeling to the side she vomited a second time, the warm liquid splashing up onto her leggings and bare ankles for good measure. She could hear someone calling her name. Taehyung.
"Tae", she rasped, unable to find her voice. His name died in her throat, coming out as a meek, incoherent squeal, much to her dismay. Taehyung came into view just at that moment, and Jennie stretched her pulverised jaw into a grin at the sight. Taehyung jogged towards her, almost in slow motion. Jennie took a step, and then she felt nothing as her legs dropped from underneath her and she collapsed to the ground. She became aware of a malignant human presence behind her right at that moment. The knife slid out of her form as she fell, curling up face down on the ground as her body gave up the fight. A warm, viscous fluid flowed steadily from the stab wound in her side, and blinking slowly, she could feel her life drain away, memory by memory, thought by thought. As the memories played like a movie behind her eyes, becoming more vivid the closer they got to the present moment, Jennie realised that there was never going to be an easy way out. A simple escape. This was her karma. Her karma for murdering Kai and Lisa. For taking them away from their families and the destructive lives they led. For ruining her own life all those years ago and for trusting Kai when her better judgement warned her about his intentions. This is what she deserved. Incapable of letting go of the misery. This warped misery that she craved, and how insatiable her hunger for it seemed to be. How she had been so easily manipulated into thinking that the life of an addict was all she'd ever amount to be. How fleeting her time was with Taehyung and the uncomfortable, the unshakeable sensation that she'd always be inadequate in his eyes, even thought he made regular attempts to convince Jennie otherwise. Jennie knew she was going to die, and even with exhausted, tear filled eyes she accepted the inevitable. Penance for all the mistakes she had made, and the degrading things she experienced in the name of her addiction. The poison of it and the holes it left deep in her psyche. Everything around her moved at snails pace. She could no longer see or hear anything. A heat soaked into her clothing, and the pain in her ribcage seemed to disappear as death came knocking on her door. Benumbed. Paralysed. Cold.
*
"Yeah Hoseok", Taehyung said unto the phone. He stared around his bedroom one last time. The backpack at his feet was heavy with belongings and sentimental items that he had kept in his apartment since the day he moved in. Jennie's backpack lay on the divan beside him. Hoseok's voice grew louder as the conversation became heated, and Taehyung scratched at his overgrown beard scruff, having not washed his face in days. The apartment felt empty. Cold. Quiet.
"I have to go now", he said, rubbing at his ear once th call had ended. The weight he felt in his chest was indescribable. His clothes stank of body odour. Slinging his bags over his broad shoulders Taehyung stepped into the hallway, glancing into the untidy kitchen one last time before leaving his apartment. Coffee mugs were piled high in the sink and the dishes had been left undone for days. Envelopes crumpled at his feet at the entrance, and frustrated he kicked them out of the way before dragging the door wide in one lazy movement. He couldn't help the surge of emotion that overcame him just at that very second and uselessly he stood in the doorway, not moving. Residents in the neighbouring apartments emerged into the main corridor, casting puzzled glances Taehyung's way when they caught sight of him. That was enough to snap him out of his stupor, and swallowing his grief, he made his way down towards the elevator, bags acting like the physical representation of his burden as he dropped to the ground floor, relentless in their avoirdupois. It began to rain gently just as he got to his car, and he wasted no time in chucking his baggage into the backseat and then sitting into the mess of blunt, burnt out cigarettes and litter. He pulled out of the car park and merged with the steady flow of traffic, keen to get out of town as soon as he could. The road stretched out ahead of him and he zoned in on the horizon, anxious yet confident in what and where it would leave him. The sign for Briarwood whizzed past him. There was nothing on the radio so instead he sat in silence. The thrum of his vehicle eating up the road the further he got from his hometown was enough to drown out the thoughts he didn't, he refused to consider or think about. The bockety air conditioning stimulated unwanted tears to form in the corner of his eyes, and overcome with a case of mental exhaustion he let the tears fall, leaving streaks down his unkempt cheeks, drying into the coarse strands of his facial hair once they had no where else to go. He had another two hours of driving before he reached the next town, and putting the car into the highest gear he was adamant to make it in one.
END
