The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

24

Staring down at yet another jumpsuit of a former teammate she didn’t even know, Mel wasn’t sure how she was meant to feel. Tears threatened to escape her eyes and cascade down her face but she also felt like she didn’t deserve to feel sad when she didn’t even know them. Overall, she just felt completely devastated. How could she have been so oblivious to the lives of her own people that had been lost? And when did they even lose them? Was there anything she could have done to save them? Or would she always have been too late?

She was also infuriated at the thought of someone murdering all these people and then disposing of them without a care in the world, without even having the audacity to bury them. Clutching her fists and squeezing her eyes shut, Mel just wanted to scream, to curse whoever did this and find them immediately. She wanted to avenge these innocent lives and prove once and for all that she was the Ace of Hearts and never again would she let any of her people die. Her role was to lead them out of here and she swore she would do that even if it killed her.

Whoever did this will pay.

Along with the aforementioned emotions, she was also confused. Not only did she want to know what exactly happened in this Pen, she always wanted to know how her teammates got here in the first place. Could this have been the original Pen for the Hearts? And if so, when did they move to the one Mel arrived in?

How many of her teammates knew about this place? How many of them were accomplices in this murder?

She shook the thought out of her mind. She lived with these girls for as long as she could remember, if they were living a double life, she would know it by now. There weren’t ever any inconsistencies in their stories and they never even mentioned this place or any of the girls that died here. If they had taken part in any of this, Mel would have already been suspicious of them. They couldn’t have done this.

With every skeleton she found, she would take the jumpsuit, fold it up neatly then dig a shallow hole in the ground and bury the bones. If she had a shovel, she would have tried to make the ‘graves’ better than just a hole in the ground but she only had her nails to work with. And if she had more time, she would have stayed still and had a moment of silence for all of them individually. However, she knew with every passing minute, the sun was descending in the sky and she most certainly did not want to be in this cursed forest at night.

The further in Mel went and the more skeletons she found, the narrower the gaps between the trees got. Although she managed to squeeze through most, some she swore no human could even attempt to get through and so eventually she deemed the gaps too narrow to even dream of hiding a corpse behind. Whoever discarded the bodies here did so carelessly that she knew they wouldn’t even bother hiding a body behind the densely packed trees.

Spinning around, she decided it was about time to go back to Seungmin, Minho, Brea and Jeongin and tell them what she had found. However, she instantly halted all her actions when she noticed a girl standing a fair distance away from her, blocking Mel’s path back.

The girl had dark chocolate skin and black eyes that inspected Mel carefully before finally meeting Melody’s gaze. The girl held a spade in one hand and a machete in the other.

“You shouldn’t be here,” the girl stated. Her voice was much deeper than Mel had expected and her tone had a hint of amusement.

Mel gulped, “why not? Are you going to kill me?”

“Not unless I have to,” she shrugged before nodding towards the jumpsuits in Mel’s hands. “I see you’ve got a collection of those. Storing them for when you have to manipulate more people?”

“Manipulate?” The Ace of Hearts raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “Are you trying to pin this on me? Don’t you dare try accusing me of all this! You did it, didn't you? How could you live with yourself knowing you killed these innocent people?”

“You think I did this? Honey, look at this place. There are bodies everywhere. If I were to murder a whole group of people, I wouldn’t be so sloppy. Besides, if you didn’t do this, why are you collecting all those jumpsuits? If you aren’t going to manipulate people then perhaps are you trying to get rid of evidence?”

“Getting rid of evidence?” Melody scoffed. “If I killed them, why would I only be getting rid of evidence now? Clearly these people died years ago. I’m collecting these jumpsuits so that a Joker like you wouldn’t take them and use them against me.”

“A Joker like me? Unless you want a machete through your throat, I’d suggest you never call me that again, alright love? If you must know, I’m the complete opposite. I’m Kayleigh, the Ace of Diamonds.”

The shock that took over Melody’s was unmistakable. With a relieved smile, she told the other, “no way! I’m the Ace of Hearts. And the Ace of Spades is waiting for me just outside this forest. Now that there’s three of us, the Jokers stand no chance!”

But Kayleigh didn’t mirror the other ace’s excitement, in fact, as soon as Mel told her who she was, her face dropped.

With her a faraway look in her eyes and a concerned look on her face, the Ace of Diamonds shook her head gently, “the Ace of Hearts. I met a girl who claimed to be that too once… she looked nothing like you.”