Playing The Dreams // a Dreamcatcher story

Chapter 16

❝ 𝐀 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧'𝐬 𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐮𝐥. 𝐖𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭, 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞. ❞

~

"Unnie! Unnie save me.."

"Gahyeonie.."

"Unnie.. H-Help.. Help me.. UNNIE!"

JiU's eyes flicked open. Her mind was playing tricks on her. It was not real but that shrilling scream just tickled her spine. It felt so real, it was Gahyeon's voice but she sounded so terrified. JiU started to pant after trying to get that hallucination out of her mind.

"Wake up," a deep voice called. JiU could not see anyone but a blurred figure, not until he walked closer. JiU's head fixed it's position to pull it upwards to scan the room. Her head fell forth and she tried to adjust her view again, this time just scrolling through the dark room. She caught a glimpse of a row of tied up people, three on her left and two on her right. Her members.

"Wha.. What did you do," she sighed out a breathe full of fatigue, "t-to my members? W-Where's.. Gahyeon?" Her lips felt numb.

The figure in front of her now was less blurry. He had his hands in his pockets and his eyes looking down at JiU. He leaned forward and inspected JiU closely, his eyes just moving here and there while JiU could only infer what was going on. Then he smirked. "Well done, very well done." He took his body back.

JiU had her eyes still judging him. She tried to scan his outfit and his looks to observe who she was with. A villain? A scientist? A business man?

"I'm sure you've been wondering for the past few days who am I? Who is this person who has been speaking through the phone? Sending the texts.. Planning the maps. Allow me to introduce myself. Kim Taehyung, pleasure to meet you all."

"Where is G-Gahyeon? Where is she?! What have you done?!" the eldest screamed as she tried to strangle out of the restraints on her arms and legs. She looked around the room, remembering she was not alone. Behind Taehyung was Yoongi and Namjoon, just watching and not doing much. Then she looked sharply to her sides. She saw Siyeon, Handong, SuA, Yoohyeon and Dami, tied up, unconscious.

"S-Siyeon?" She shook her head to finally start seeing the member's sleeping faces clearly; she tried to call them out one by one but none of them awoke. She turnwd back to Taehyung. "W-What did you do to them?"

"Simple tranquilizer, easier to get the job done."

"What job?!"

Taehyung crouched again and this time laid a finger on her chin. "The project." He then chuckled and snapped his fingers, causing Namjoon to walke forward with a tablet in his hands. "But before anything else, let me just fulfil your wish to see your precious little maknae, alright?"

After a few taps on the tablet, he shoved it in front of JiU for her to see. JiU's head shifted closer just to see the black and white video. It was their surveillance camera from another room, all spying just on this one chair, one girl, stiff as stone. "Gahyeon..," she murmured.

"Now that you've seen her," he pulled the tablet away, "you're going to listen to me."

"What did you do?! Let her go!" JiU again tried to strangle out of the chains. "Listen to me!" Taehyung screamed back, nearly thrusting his fists at her. He took a breathe and calmed himself. "Now," he straightened his face and grabbed JiU's chair while holding it firmly as he moved his face closer and closer, "you will want to listen to me, because if you don't you'll be in immense shock. Oh wait.. You'll be in immense shock anyways once we've put you through it, my bad.."

"What are you talking about?" JiU asked, voice shivering.

"Why do you think we kept you alive? Kept you looking for clues? We needed you, but for what reason? For our experiment. The reason we're hunted, why people need this organization to fall is because, well.. We're trying to do the impossible."

"Which is?"

He pulled back once more. "The mind is a powerful tool. It has the ability to trick and manipulate it's own body or even make it think that they're in a different world. Dreams; another world without even moving anywhere. Your imagination and experiences brings it all together. Our project requires us to.. Let's just say.. "play with the dreams"," he explained while pointing his hands to his temple and smirking like he was going onto something.

JiU raised her eyebrow.

"But anyway, you won't understand once you've entered it. Good luck Miss Kim."

Before she spoke another word, nausea climbed up her body and her eyes grew blurry. "I really do hope to see you back here in reality," one of the last things he said before walking off and leaving all the members as if they were grasped by death.