RESCUE

Yina

For the nth time this night, I woke up staring at the same white ceiling above me. The reason why I woke up was because I could feel light buzzing on both of my temples. I raised both of my hands to try to pull the wires attached on my temples away but unfortunately, I find myself being strapped.

They must’ve tried to make those images enter my mind again.

I tiredly looked to my side and gave a weak glare at the window beside the bed I am strapped on.

I know that they’re watching me beyond that window; it is a two-way window I’m not stupid.

“I don’t know why you’re still trying to do this, I won’t get brainwashed. Ever. Over my dead body that I will join you” I gritted my teeth, trying to shake the images away.

For the past few days, they will try to make images enter my head either through a machine or a person with the power of memory transfer.

The images contain memories from the past, though its blurry now but overtime it gets clearer. Explaining why the red force is established and their main goal, everything mentioned is completely the opposite of what the history of Elyxion has taught all of us.

Do they really think I’m stupid to believe that the apprentices are the bad ones?

A screech echoed through the room and I winced, the sound signalling that they have turned the mic on from the other side.

“This is not brainwashing, it’s a fact. Whatever you’re seeing right now is real”. The voice said, completely filling the empty white room. I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head, “Lies.” I hissed and I could hear some of them sigh through the speaker.

The window is now lit up, making the spectators visible through the window. 6 girls, dressed in all white with a red visor each were standing there.

They look ridiculous, what kind of outfit is that supposed to be? The fashion police in me is screaming.

I kept staring at them and saw one girl starting to move from her spot. “I’m going in,” The girl told the rest but they quickly held her back.

“What are you planning to do now, Joo?”

She simply ignored her and disappeared from my sight. The one and only door opened, automatically my head turned to the direction warily and saw Joo walked in. She is bringing a cup of water in and I bit back the urge to quench my thirst, looking away.

When she reached me, the bed suddenly is adjusted just by a click of a button, it made me sit up unwillingly.

“Drink.”

I scoffed and turned my head to give her my hardest glare, before looking at the cup with a disgusted look. “What’s in there? Poison?”

She then uses her other hand to take the red visor off to glare back at me, “We don’t have plans to kill someone that we need”.

“About time you take that ugly hat off, what is it for anyway?”, I asked with a mocking voice. Her nose flared and she answered impatiently, “To protect our pretty face from being clawed by you”

I internally laugh in satisfaction, they made the right choice because I may have hurt one of them yesterday.

She then pulled off one of the strap that is tied to my arm and shoved the cup into my hand. “Drink”

I scoffed and threw the glass away to the floor, “I’m not joining your cult!”. The glass shattered into pieces on the floor and I could see Joo closed her eyes, trying to calm herself down.

The other girls entered the room upon the mess that I have made but halted when Joo raised her hand up to prevent them.

She opened her eyes just to see me glare at her again and that’s when she loses it.

“Okay, listen here” Joo hissed, her hand finds her way to my hair as she tugged on it hard. I refused to scream, biting my tongue until I could taste own blood.

“You don’t have a choice but to join us! You will change your mind once the memory we seep into your brain makes sense, it’ll take days but we don’t the time for that-“

Another girl stepped forward, pulling Joo away from me but her hand is still pulling on my hair; making the pain worse.

“Let go of my hair!” I screamed and clawed her hand away with my nails. Joo immediately retracted her hand in pain and was about to attack me again but her friend pulled her away.

“Leave her alone, Yeri will do the work“

“I can’t Wendy! She’s such a !” Joo hysterically shouted, her voice fading as she was dragged out. The other 3 girls laughed and followed two of them out, leaving Yeri alone in the room with me.

Again, giving her my infamous glare, I said to her that I’m not having any of their sh*ts.

Yeri chuckled, slightly smirking and approached me. The thing about her is, she looks way too young to be in this so-called cult they have and out of all of them, she’s the member that often comes by to transfer the images into my head.

A memory manipulator.

I winced when the straps became tighter, especially the ones holding on my legs and arms. I gave her an annoyed look and she wagged her finger at me.

“I’m not going to risk it. You’re never cooperating, always trying to hurt us. Stop trying yeah?”

“I swear, you all are dead when I escape from here”

She laughed, placing her hands on both side of my head. “And how are you going to do that? Blast us with your power? You’re always welcome to do that”

I scowled. She has a point, what good can my power do in situations like this? Freaking useless I tell you.

I tried to shake her hands off, but when I failed I tried attempting to bite on her hand and she sighed loudly. She gave me a frown, placing her hands on her hips.

“Should I call Seulgi here?”

I immediately stopped and threw her some harsh curse words. Fine, if she’s going to transfer those stupid images then be it. It’s better than being in a temporary paralysis, feeling numb and weak.

Soon enough, I could feel the images seep into my mind; making me partially dizzy and confused.

“You know,” Yeri started again while uploading the memories to my brain. “we’re not bad”.

I gritted my teeth and my knuckles turned white. It is not painful but it is very uncomfortable to the point that it made me nauseous.

“Keep saying that and I will still choose to not believe you”

She hummed, ignoring my statement completely before continuing, “You won’t say that once the memories make sense, believe me”

I almost gapped at how brainwashed these people are. Who is their leader and what kind of lies did he or she told them to make them believe that they’re the good ones in this world?

My thoughts came into a halt when a specific scene popped into my mind.

Castle. Gold robes. Crowns. The royal emblem.

My face scrunched up in confusion, what is this all about?

“This is going to be overwhelming a bit, these part of the memories is quite old” She said, her eyes closing and I stared at her in disbelief. I could see sweats forming on her forehead, her face scrunched in concentration.

I began breathing heavily, it’s too much to take in. I tried to shake her hands off, moving my head left to right even though I’m restricted.

“Stop it” I choked out, my voice barely coming out. My mind is clouded with all sorts of unexplained memories, I let out a whimper and it felt like it’s going on forever and I gasped out loud when she finally released her hands off my head.

“Finally done”, she stated and chuckled breathlessly. I scoffed, “What am I supposed to do with all of this unnecessary information? It’s going to drop my pride but I’m still going to say it, I’m too dumb to understand and connect them”

Yeri snapped her finger and pointed at the machine at the corner of the room; the one that they attach to my temples every night. “That’s what the machine is for. To arrange those memories in order, so you’ll understand. Irene made it, genius right? Saves my time and energy”

She kept rambling about how the machine works; what catches my attention was the fact that they have a member that could transfer powers. Wendy, I managed to catch her name.

“Were you recruited or are you originally from Awa?” I find myself asking her, unable to stop being curious.

“Recruited. Our Joo is the only pure blood between us 6 but if I include all of the members of the ‘red force’ ”, Yeri mimicked the name given to them with two fingers up to represent the quote, “Most of them are pure bloods”

Once again, a screech echoed through the room and a voice filled the room through the speaker. ”Already interested in joining? That was fast”, I recognize the voice as Joo’s and I scowled internally but physically, I gave the window the sweetest smile I can ever pull off.

“Or maybe it’s for when I actually escape this hell hole and tell people your information”, I said with a mocking tone.

“Keep dreaming , no one can track us ever”

“How are you so sure?”

“We have a spell caster to seal our tracks”

“Wah, such a well-rounded team you have huh? If only my hands aren’t strapped, I’ll give you a round of applause for recruiting, illegally”

The door slammed open again and I smirked upon seeing Joo’s pissed face again. “I swear if you don’t stop I’ll kill you right on this spot!”

“Try me”

She then reached out the back pocket and my eyes rounded at the sight of her dagger. She’s serious this time. Joo was this close to throw the dagger to my face when suddenly she stopped moving.

“What the- Seulgi!” She exclaimed and the latter shook her head. She plucked the dagger out of Joo’s hand before releasing her from paralysis and Joo groaned.

“We need her, sorry to burst your bubble but her power is needed to defeat the apprentices.”

I’m not even surprised that the apprentices are still alive, I have my speculations. I already assumed that they were the nine men the red force kept of badmouthing nowadays, the ones that ruined their whole plan.

“If only I didn’t let them go in the first place, the  wouldn’t have to deal with this thing here”. Joo groaned and points her finger at me in the most unfriendly way. I rolled my eyes and the side of my mouth twitched in annoyance.

Almost all of them were gathered inside the room when the last of the six, Joy suddenly came into the room, panicking.

“We’re under attack! The apprentices are here, get ready!”

Speaking of the devil, guess that Joo spoke too soon.

The soul has given directions to Aecha, leading them to an underground laboratory near the second docks of Odana. It seems like fate is kind to them this time as it will be easier to escape.

It is almost midnight by that time and the reason why they chose this was because around this time, most of the red force members went back to Aurelia; leaving only some behind in Odana. The source provided by Donghae of course, who seemed to blend in well with his fisherman disguise for half the month.

Entering from the escape tunnel is Chanyeol, Aecha and Suho. It is common logic to block the path first things first because that is where most probably where they are going to escape. The laboratory used to be a crystal mine and Aecha managed to summon miners from the past who have died at the same spot; that’s how they came to know where it is and entered from the end of the tunnel.

It is quite dark inside as they wait silently for someone to come. They began to doubt whether they will be using this or not but that died out when they heard footsteps—but it sounds almost too calm.

“Why don’t you come out and face us? I’m sure you’re not cowards since you have already come this far” A voice echoed through the tunnel and the trio looked at each other, heads filled with questions.

If they already know that they’ll be here, then why did they choose to use this path still?

Suho bravely came out of his place and stated, “Seems like you’re confident since you still came here, knowing that we’re waiting”.

Not far from the three stood 5 people; 3 females and 2 males but only one seems familiar to them. is covered with a black cloth and her hands were chained by a device that they also knew about, a power restrictor.

Yina desperately let out a shout through her covered mouth in which Irene shut her up by making the metal device on her hands tighter. The metal manipulator smiled in satisfaction when Yina fell silent before she turned her attention back to the enemy.

“Joy saw a vision. We already knew who’s in which group” Irene answered with a lopsided grin, her finger pointing at each of them as she speaks.