The walls were screaming at her, enclosing around her, suffocating her as she was chained tightly. Sarang’s head was dizzy and she felt frail from the drugs that had been ejected into her system. She didn’t know how long she had been in here, it felt like days, possibly weeks had past, she didn’t know anymore.

The drug was finally wearing off and she could start thinking straight. Her grandfather has really made it his mission to make her suffer. If she wasn’t being beaten, she was being drugged to the point of insanity.

She was finally alone and all she wanted to do right now was crawl into a ball. She thought about her life, how pathetic it was to advance her to such a horrible state. She thought about her parents and how disappointed they must be if they knew she was here right now. Then she thought of Kris, and she could only pray that he stayed away.

She didn’t want him to get hurt, especially not because of her. She knew she was being pathetic. She knew that some people would claim that he was the reason why she was in this mess. She thought differently. She was here because of her own fault. Her stubbornness and curiosity along with her undying will to fulfill her parents’ wishes was what put her here. She had no one to blame but herself.

It isn’t Kris’s fault, she repeated in her head, because she didn’t want to blame him. So she blamed herself, because it was much easier that way. All this pain, all the torture, this was her own undoing.

She cringed when she heard a loud thundering that sounded like something was crashing. She flinched again when she heard the same sound. It was way too close to be thunder; it was coming from down the hall. Suddenly shouts and screams could be heard.

Something was happening outside. Her hands formed into tight fists when a monstrous boom vibrated through the place making the walls shift in the heavy impact. Particles from the old walls fell and the wall behind her crack, she looked up and through heavy lids she saw that the ceiling had begun to crack.

Someone had just set a bomb off. A grateful smile appeared on her face before she wrapped her arms around the chains. Using the last of her energy she used her arms to pull her body up, carrying her body with her up before she tugged down on the chains.

The chains attached to the ceiling broke, breaking loose. Her body hit the cold, dirty floors harshly and she winced in pain.

She could hear screams and shouts along with the evident sounds of gunshots outside the door. She wanted to get up, she wanted to fight, but her body, mind, and soul felt so tired. Her limps were numb and her head was heavy from the dizzying.

Her body was covered in dried blood, deep cut wounds, ugly dark bruises. She looked and felt like an absolute mess. She shut her eyes tightly and willed her body to sit up.

There was a long coat that lay in the corner of the room. It belongs to one of the goons that abused her. Right now however, she just wanted some clothes.

Sluggishly crawling over she grabbed the long black coat and threw it over her frail body. Using the wall for support she stood up. Her legs felt so fragile like they were carrying the weight of the entire universe on them.

She stumbled over to a side table where an array of knifes and weapons lay. These were the same weapons used to torture her. She could even see the dried blood stains on the knives. Her blood was on the knives.

She broke off the chains that were shackled around her wrist. Her arms felt free when the heavy metal chains broke loose, though her wrists were purple and bruised. She grabbed a few of the knives before turning to the door. She needed to escape.

There comes a time in everyone’s life, a time where they think they can no longer go on, that they didn’t have any strength left in them, and in the mist of nothingness and darkness, they somehow gain the ability to fight.  This was Sarang’s moment because when she pushed the metal door open, she locked out all the pain. She went into survival mode.

She could hear gunshots, glass breaking, things being thrown from one direction, so she decided to go the other direction. She needed to find a way out. The difficult part was that she had no idea where she was. She just knew she was in a building. She didn’t know if there were several floors, if the building was big, where everyone was.

Somehow she didn’t care right now. She just ran, or more like stumble down the hallway. She kept walking into she turned the corner into a bigger room. This was a dark room with around a half a dozen tables in the room. Each table was filled with various weapons, guns, knives, you name it. There were no windows or doors, just more hallways. In this room laid several dead bodies, most of them militated in horrible ways. Whoever was here was sure not letting anyone off the hook.

Kris came into her mind and her head began to play the worst possible scenarios. What if he did come, what if he got caught? Her grandfather would kill him in a heartbeat. God, he can’t die. She couldn’t let him die.

Her thoughts must have flustered her too much because she didn’t realize that a figure was approaching her until she was knocked off her feet. Her body swung forward and crashed into an old wooden table. She whisked her head around and her breath hinged when she realized who it was.

“Lee Sarang.” His cold voice spelled and she wanted to do nothing more than burn him alive. He was one of her grandfather’s goons, the one who her.

She didn’t hesitant for a single second before pouncing on him, attacking him with her full strength. Right now the only thoughts that were able to process over in her mind were the urge to kill.

She slashed his face before plunging her knife into his chest to only repeat the step, over, and over, and over again. His body tumbled onto the ground in pain, unable to defend himself against the smaller female. She was a lioness now, ready to hunt and kill her prey.

Each swung of her knife inflicted deeper wounds; each stab injured him even more and Sarang couldn’t help but inwardly laugh seeing him in pain. He deserved this she said to herself, he deserved to be punished.

Only when he laid, half unconscious, a bloody mess did she stop. She stepped aside, her body was still covered in blood, but it was his blood.

She noticed gasoline and a lighter opening laying on one of the tables and a sinister smile appeared on her face. She reached for the gasoline and began pouring it on his body. Halfway through the process did he realized what she was doing.

He shook and tried moving or standing up, but his body was too badly damaged by the knife stabs. Her eyes were filled with anger as she poured the gasoline on him. He flinched when the liquid touched his body. He knew fully what was awaiting him.   

She took one final look at the bloody, half-conscious body on the ground before throwing the match towards him.

Fire ignited around his body and he screamed, cried, balled, and begged for mercy. Call her a sadist but she loved to watch his body burn as he cried out for help.

Her eyes watched the fire burn his flesh, her ears heard the gunshots from nearby, her legs felt like giving up, her head was blasting in pain, and her chest was bending and twisting in heartbreak.

“You are in deep .” Someone announced as they stepped into the room. Sarang looked up to the person and part of her was thankful it wasn’t who she was hoping it would be, and another part was disappointed. She pushed that part aside.

“Xavier.” She mumbled his name softly. The man stood by the doorway of the room, a mischievous grin lit on his face. So he was the one who blew the bomb, he was the one who killed her grandfather’s men; he was the one who tried to help her.  

“Looks like you got yourself into some trouble.” He said knowingly. She didn’t even bother to look at him as he spoke.

“How-” She began but stopped before the words could leave her.

He stepped closer to her. Stepping around the tables and towards her to whisper the answer to her unasked questioned.

It was only a half a second after he told her the answer did the sound of gunshots approached them. “Those are your grandfather’s men. You’re in a bad condition. Hide while I handle them.” He ordered, but Sarang rarely listened to orders.

She nodded in response before running into one of the quieter corridors leading out of the room. Before she left though she grabbed the rest of the gasoline and the matches, she knew what she was doing, god she hoped she knew what she was doing. Instead of hiding she had other plans. She knew who tipped Xavier, and strangely she didn't want to go back to that person. She didn't want to go back to Kris, at least not like this. A broken down mess.

Pouring gasoline as she ran she left a trail waiting to be casted into oblivion. She searched thoroughly for an exit while avoiding getting attacked.

She finally found a back door leading to what seemed to be woods. By now she was out of gasoline so she made a u-turn back to where the last drop of gasoline fell. She lit her second match of the day and threw it towards the gasoline before running for dear life.

Just like the story of her life it was pouring heavily when she stepped outside into the night sky. The moon casted a grim shadow for her and her wounds burned like acid when the rain splattered against her skin making her cringed. She ran barefoot through the woods while the sky poured down its worst.

She could feel the fire burning behind her as she ran. She knew Xavier was inside, but she knew he would escape. What was she hoping for was for him to believe that she didn’t make it out alive. She could feel her shadow chasing after her, so she ran. She just ran, like a fool, like an idiot, like a lost child, like a broken hearted damsel. She just ran because she couldn’t take it anymore. There was nothing else left for her.

She was feeling so much, anger, disappointment, resentful, betrayal, hurt, it was so much, too much for her to handle. She felt like a storm of emotions had been lock up within her and she had just burst open.

She didn’t know if it was the after effect of being tortured or but she just wanted to be done with all this. She was so tired and exhausted, she couldn’t do this anymore.

Only when she reached the first sign of civilization did she collapse on the dirt.  Up ahead was a small town, the streetlights flickered dark and light and the streets were quiet. Of course they would be because she knew it was probably sometime in the middle of the night.

She knew she had found refuge, but all she could feel was pain, physical, mental, and emotional.

She huffed heavily as the rain continued to wreak havoc. Lying on the ground with her head hung low she did the one thing she refused to do for so long.

She finally let the tears fall, she finally let herself cry, because they say crying was for the weak, crying was for the broken, crying was for the lost, and that was exactly what Sarang was.

She was crying, she was falling apart right at this moment. At this moment, she crumbled. She shattered.
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