[C h a p t e r 5 3]

Donghae stood up out of his seat on the bus, making his way over to the door as the vehicle came to a stop. As the doors slid open, he hopped off, a few of the others that he recognised from his daily trips to uni also stepping off here. He smiled at them in greeting before turning down a side street which led to his home.

It had been a long day for Donghae, cramped up in his seat in his 3 hour long lecture, listening to the professor drone on and on about several different diseases that affect the liver, their symptoms and how to treat them echoing through his tired mind relentlessly. Donghae had been glad when the lecture had finished, hurrying over to the bus stop to catch then next bus home eagerly.

The evening air was cool, deceptive of the rather hot day it had been. Donghae veered down into the cul-de-sac where his home was located; smiling to himself as he remembered the little lunch date he had had with Seohyun. Although it was brief and a little rushed as he had a tutorial to attend immediately after, it was nevertheless enjoyable. However, Donghae’s smile soon faltered as Seohyun’s parting words returned to his mind.

= Flashback

“Make sure you head straight back home after uni, okay, Donghae? I’m worried for you. You should have let Oppa come pick you up,” she said, peering at Donghae with a concerned frown.

Donghae smiled, trying to hide the fact that he too was a little nervous about returning home late and by himself. “I don’t want to trouble Henry over a little trivial matter such as this. Don’t worry, Seohyun; everything will be fine.”

End Flashback =

Donghae glanced around him nervously now as he quickened his pace, mindful about how much more sinister and dark his surroundings suddenly appeared. It would be easy for an assassin to be hiding somewhere in those dark depths, lying in wait as he passed to pounce on him from behind and slit his throat. Pulling his bag firmly onto his shoulder, he broke out into a jog, unable to stand feeling so exposed and wanting to just return to the safety of his house. At least there he would have his foster parents to keep him company, and any assassin that may be after him probably won’t attack him there.

Walking up to his front door, Donghae fumbled for a moment as he searched his bag for his keys, his hand shaking slightly as he tried to insert it into the small hole. After what seemed like an incredibly long time but was only in fact a few seconds, the key finally slid in and he hurriedly opened the door, slamming it shut behind him as he leant against it. He let out deep breath, not realising he had been holding it in. Donghae realised he was slowly losing his mind here, panicking over nothing. It wasn’t like him to lose his cool like that, and all over his own imaginings. Now that he was safe inside his own home, the thoughts he was having just moments ago now seemed absurd.

He shook his head as he stood up straight, taking off his shoes before walking towards the kitchen. The sound of the TV drifted into the hallway as he passed the living room, a loud round of applause and whistle hoots blaring from the set. His foster father could always be found watching the TV at this time, and the fact that Donghae found the TV on like that brought a sense of normality back to his panic stricken mind.

Popping his head into the kitchen, Donghae had expected to see his foster mother in there, preparing dinner for him. Instead, he found that no one was in there, food in a pan on the stove burnt to a crisp. Donghae crinkled his nose in disgust at the burnt smell as he rushed over to turn off the stove, the slight reassurance from seeing the TV on now chased away by suspicion. His foster mother would never leave the stove on unaccompanied, always in fear that something would catch fire.

Donghae turned away from the stove, searching for any sign of where she could have gone. He decided to track back to the living room to check out whether his foster father was really in there or not. Slowly, he crept into the room, peering through the gloom in search of any sign of life. He stepped up to the couch and what he found chilled him to the bone.

On the couch, his foster father sat there staring at the TV blankly, blood from several stab wounds to the chest staining his white shirt a deep, crimson red. Donghae’s heart went still at the sight, unable to tear his eyes away from the body. Another cheer emanated from the TV like a horrifying mockery of the scene before his eyes. He rushed over to turn it off, unable to stand the stark contrast of sound with image.

His breathing began speeding up as he refused to turn back around to the couch, unwilling to stare at the body once more. If his foster father was sitting here… dead… then where was his foster mother? Panic started to gnaw away at his insides as a dozen different possibilities ran through his mind. He closed his eyes as he tried to shake away those thoughts. It was no use imagining what may have happened to his foster mother; what he should do is try to locate and escape with her… if she was alive. He turned around and quietly sped out of the living room, refusing to glance at his foster father’s body on the sofa.
Donghae ran back into the kitchen and began glancing around for clues. His foster mother had to be around here somewhere, maybe in hiding. He spun on the spot as he heard a soft crunch sound from within the pantry. Arming himself with a kitchen knife from the drawers, he cautiously made his way over. Taking a shaky, deep breath, he opened the pantry door, brandishing the knife far in front of him in case the killer was still in the house and hiding in there. He then almost dropped the knife when he found his foster mother cowering on the floor inside.

“Ajumma! You’re still alive!” he exclaimed in a soft whisper as he knelt to the floor.

“Oh, Donghae…” whispered his foster mother as she embraced him in a tight, frightened hug. “It… it was… horrible… he… he…” Her voice caught in as she broke down in his arms.

Donghae continuously patted the back of her head as he tried to comfort her. “Shhh… It’s okay now, Ajumma…” He then pulled away from her, holding her at arms length as he peered into her eyes. “We have to get out of here now, Ajumma. Do you know if… if the guy who… who killed Uncle is still in the house?”

His foster mother shook her head furiously as her hands flew to the sides of her head. “I don’t know, Donghae! But just take me out of here, please?”

Nodding his head, he helped his foster mother to her feet. Warily, they made their way over to the kitchen door, Donghae still brandishing his knife before him. As they made their way past the living room, Donghae felt his foster mother’s grip tightened on his left arm and he tried to reassure her with a pat on her hand. However, no sooner than had they passed the living room, did Donghae suddenly feel a pair of cold hands grip him around the neck from behind.

His foster mother suddenly let out a shriek as she backed away hurriedly, cowering in fear as she stared up at Donghae being held captive. Then Donghae suddenly remembered the knife he held in his hand and he raised it, aiming to stab at the man’s leg. However, the man saw what he was doing and managed to grab his hand first, twisting it painfully so that Donghae had no choice but to release the knife.

“Trying to be sneaky, are we?” sneered Zhou in a raspy voice from behind. “I don’t think so.”

Donghae continued to struggle against the man, but this only earned him a beating. Zhou began relentlessly punching into his back at his kidneys, causing Donghae to groan in pain as he fell to the floor bruised. He then boxed his ears and Donghae let out a shout as his ears rang mercilessly.

“I am going to have fun, killing you tonight,” he said, removing a nasty looking dagger from his back. “But first, I’ll have to make sure you won’t run away while I deal with that screaming woman over there.” With a cruel smile on his face, Zhou suddenly drove the dagger into Donghae’s leg, pressing down on it as Donghae grunted against the pain. He then let out a small shout as the man pulled the knife out of his leg, and he hurriedly went to staunch the blood flow, glaring hatefully up at Zhou.

Turning around, Zhou made his way over to Donghae’s foster mother, taking slow steps as the woman backed into a corner. She began shaking her head in fright, as if begging him to leave her alone. But the action was futile as he kneeled before her, gripping her hair tightly.

“You’ve been one noisy woman tonight, lady,” he said. Raising the same blade he had used to stab Donghae, he was about to drive it into her when something suddenly struck his arm. Dropping the dagger, he released Donghae’s foster mother as his hand when to the small metal dart protruding from his arm. But he didn’t have the time to pull it out yet when someone suddenly flew into the room, aiming a kick square for his head. Zhou managed to dodge the kick, rolling out of reach as he held onto his injured arm. Still holding onto his injured leg, Donghae tried to sit up as he saw that their saviour was none other than Amber, who now swiftly removed two daggers from hidden sheathes on her arms.

Zhou peered back at Amber, a crooked smile playing across his face as he finally pulled the dart from his arm. “Ah… so you came to rescue this ‘friend’ of yours, am I correct,  Josephine Liu?”

Amber narrowed her eyes as she stared at the despicable man’s face. “Leave now and I won’t kill you, Zhou,” said Amber icily. She in fact had no intention of letting the man leave so easily, and she knew that he would not anyway.

Zhou let out a crazed laugh, throwing back his head. “And what makes you so certain that you will be able to achieve that? Sure, you are the infamous Dawn, but you have grown weak recently, and it is because of these pathetic beings. Your presence here now just proves how deeply affected you are. Lee Soo Man was finally right to decide to get rid of both you and Kris.”

‘Kris…?’ thought Amber. But she didn’t have anymore time to ponder what Zhou had said when he suddenly lunged at her, another of his knives in his hand. Amber dodged the blade, sending a kick at Zhou which he deftly dodged. She followed through with two sweeps of her dagger which he then countered by plunging his knife in a downward strike aimed at her head. Amber crossed her blades as she met with Zhou’s knife, the man putting his weight into the small blade as he tried to force it closer and closer to her head. As Amber realised she couldn’t fight his strength, she then rolled out from underneath by twisting to the right, pushing his blade away from her. She then quickly moved in to take him by surprise around the neck from behind as he was still unsteady from the move she had just pulled on him. Without a second thought and not leaving him a chance to recover, Amber drew her blades across his neck, cutting deeply into the flesh of his throat as blood from his aorta and jugular sprayed the walls bright red. Amber released Zhou’s body to fall to the floor, collapsing with a soft, heavy thud. Donghae’s foster mother let out a soft scream from her spot in the corner as she stared at all the blood before fainting. Donghae himself had been staring horrified at what Amber had done when he suddenly saw his foster mother faint from the corner of his eyes.

“Auntie!” he shouted as he tried to shuffle over to her side, wincing as pain shot through him up from his injured leg.

Amber, upon hearing Donghae’s shout, turned to see his foster mother lying unconscious on the floor. As she made her way over to the woman, Henry suddenly burst through the front door, charging straight into the living room and coming to a horrified stop as he saw the state the room was in. Spotting Amber kneeling on the floor beside Donghae’s foster mother, he went to kneel by her side, gripping onto her arm tightly.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to come?” shouted Henry as he shook her. Amber pried his hand from her arm, glaring at him disapprovingly.

“Yell at me later, Xian Hua. For now, help Donghae over there.” She turned around to face Donghae. “Do you have a first aid kit anywhere in the house?”

Donghae stared at Amber, the scene he had seen of her killing the other assassin only moments ago still fresh in his mind. “Up… upstairs… in my room on the left…” he answered nervously.

Amber nodded as she then ran out of the room, her footsteps soft as she dashed up the stairs. Donghae, still nervous about what he had seen, slowly began crawling over to his foster mother again. Henry, seeing how his friend was struggling, hurried over to help him.

“You shouldn’t try to move so much, Donghae,” said Henry, concerned. He then turned to see the body of Zhou lying on the floor, the walls sprayed with an unbelievably large amount of blood. Swallowing nervously, he then turned to glance at Donghae, who had been watching him closely. As his eyes searched the boy’s, Donghae gave a slight nod, confirming that Amber had indeed been the one who did such a thing.

Amber returned back to the room carrying the first aid box which she had gone to retrieve. Opening it, she passed a small bottle to Henry. “Let the woman breathe some of this in. That might stir her out of her faint.” Henry proceeded to do as he was told while Amber continued to pull several other things out of the box. “You’ve lost quite a bit of blood, Donghae. The ideal thing would be to get you to a hospital now, but even that will be dangerous for you.” She pulled up the leg on one of her pants and removed a small hidden knife, which she then used to cut the rest of Donghae’s blood stained jeans away.

Donghae cringed slightly when he saw Amber bring the blade close to his skin, but continued to watch in interest nevertheless as she proceeded to clean his wound gently. “You seem to know what you’re doing,” he said after some time, wincing slightly from the sting of antiseptic.

“Of course I know what I am doing. There have been plenty times when I must clean and dress my own wounds, not to mention some of those that Kris tries to hide from Lee Soo Man,” replied Amber as she finished cleaning and began opening a sterile curved surgical needle with thread. “This wound is rather deep so I’ll have to stitch it up. Xian Hua, can you go turn on the light for me?”

Henry immediately did as he was told once more, placing Donghae’s foster mother back down onto the floor gently as she began to slightly stir. He then returned to the woman’s side once the lights were on, watching as Amber prepared to stich Donghae’s wound.

“Do you have something you can bite on Donghae? There’s no anaesthetic.”

Donghae nodded as he scrounged around in his bag, removing the cloth he had wrapped around his water bottle. Folding it up so that it was quite thick, he then bit onto it as he leant back, preparing himself mentally for the pain he was about to go through. In his degree he had learnt about surgical methods, and stitching was one of the earlier skills he had learnt. And during that time, he had also been taught that stitching a patient up with no anaesthetic was one of the most hardest things to do.

Amber suddenly plunged the needle into Donghae’s leg and tears began forming at the corner of his eyes as the pain seared up his leg. He let out a shout muffled by the cloth in his mouth, gripping tightly onto its ends as he tried desperately to relax. Several painful minutes passed by in this fashion until Amber was finally finished. She cut off the last stich, placing the used needle into the disposal box in the first aid kit before proceeding to clean the area once more with antiseptic. Removing clean bandage from within the kit, she then wrapped Donghae’s leg as his foster mother finally came to her senses next to Henry.

“Good that she’s now awake. We have to get everyone out of here now and to somewhere safe. Lee Soo Man would probably realise by now that I’ve escaped and the first place he’ll come looking will be here. Xian Hua,” she said as she turned to look at Henry as she finally finished bandaging Donghae’s wound. “I want you to take everyone who has ever been involved with me at the orphanage up to our place in the hills.” Amber stood up, and walked over to help the dazed woman to her feet. “Did you come here by car or your motorbike, Xian Hua?”

“My motorbike,” replied Henry as he went to help Donghae to his feet.

“Okay… Donghae, do you have a car or anything here?” asked Amber as she turned to look at Donghae.

Nodding, Donghae replied, “Yeah, my foster father has his van parked in the garage and the keys should be on the table over there.”

Amber turned around to see where Donghae was pointing and made her way over to grab the set of keys which lay in the bowl. “Right, then let’s get into the garage.”

Donghae led the way to the garage, and Amber helped his foster mother into the back of the van before Henry helped Donghae in as well. Once they were both in, Henry closed the door, only to be handed the keys to the car by Amber.

“So I’m driving? Alright, hurry up and hop in,” said Henry as he sped around to the other side of the van. He paused, however, when he saw Amber walk off. “Josephine? Hey, Josephine! Where are you going?”

“There are others I have to get to as well. Go and do what I said,” she commanded as she walked over to Henry’s motorbike. When she reached it, just as she had guessed, she found that Henry had indeed left the keys in the bike.

Henry came to grab her arm from behind. “I’m not letting you out of my sight, Josephine. We’ll go together.”

“No!” snapped Amber as she yanked her hand out of his grip. “There’s not much time. I need to go and pick up several other people, too.” When she saw how angry and worried Henry looked, Amber softened the look on her face as she let out a soft sigh.

“Xian Hua, I promise I will return to meet you at our hut . There’s nothing more that I want than to see you and the others safe and sound, and to live with you in peace…”

Henry suddenly leaned down to cover her lips in a loving kiss, pulling her in as he held onto her tightly. Amber returned the kiss with as much feeling as him before slowly pulling away, somewhat regretfully.

“We have to get going, Xian Hua. Time is not with us tonight and if we don’t hurry, then there’ll surely be more lives lost,” said Amber sadly as she went to sit on Henry’s bike, starting the engine. “I’ll see you at the hut,” she shouted as she tore down the street.

Henry watched her go for a minute, unable to decipher the mixed emotions he had at seeing her go. Then, remembering the emergency of the situation at hand, he rushed back over to the van and started the engine, Donghae staring at him in silent curiosity the whole time.

tbc.

Next Chapter: Amber and Henry gathers everyone up to their hut.