~ Part 2 of a double update ~

“Choi Siwon?” he sniggered, shaking his head in disbelief. “No, no, no, mister officer, I don’t know this Choi Siwon you’re talking about. I’m Andrew now; your darling Choi Siwon doesn’t exist anymore…”

Hyukjae gritted his teeth, feeling his entire body tense up at the sound of his evil laughter. “What exactly did you do to yourself? Plastic? Is that why I couldn’t recognize you the whole time?”

Siwon scoffed. “What plastic are you talking about? I merely had a couple of jobs done here and there… I guess it could hardly count as plastic. Well, you gotta admit the doctor certainly knew what he was doing; don’t you think I look absolutely stunning now, officer? Perhaps even more handsome than before?”

“Handsome?” the ex-officer rolled his eyes. “From what I see, you’re the most disgusting and lowly human I’ve ever met in my entire life!! What kind of sick bastard would go around killing innocent girls at random just like you!!”

The kidnapper’s eyes narrowed in distaste. “You’d better watch your mouth there, officer. I am not lowly or disgusting. If anything, those girls deserved to die!!”

“They did NOT deserve to die. NOBODY deserves to die like that. You’re sick, you know that? You’re totally sick to your stomach and you don’t even know it.”

“SHUT UP!!!!” Siwon yelled, brandishing the dull knife at him. “I wanted to be a good guy but you’re making me regret it. I’m gagging you.”

Hyukjae struggled all he could to prevent the other man from gagging him, even resorting to harshly biting down on his fingers, but all he got was a resounding slap and then a cloth soaked in a strong, pungent liquid was smacked onto his nose and mouth. His eyes widened and he fought to stay awake but the smell invaded his senses and slowly he began feeling rather drowsy.

“Chloroform…” he uttered, before completely blacking out.

“Good night, officer.”

* * *

Hyukjae woke up with a pounding headache for the second time. Siwon was nowhere in sight. Much to his chagrin, he found himself well and truly gagged and he could barely even breathe. The sides of his mouth were hurting from the rough sandpapery cloth tied around his mouth and his tongue was painfully dry. There was still a faint smell of chloroform lingering in the shed and it was all he could do to prevent himself from wanting to throw up.

He scanned the shed again for any movement at all. To his surprise, he saw the faint outline of a huge bag, or blanket, which he guessed was grey in colour on the floor. It wasn’t there before, and he was really curious as to what was in it. Was Siwon perhaps sleeping there in the shed with him? He’d better be quieter than a mouse, then.

Fidgeting a little, Hyukjae tried stretching himself. His limbs were going numb from sitting still in a position for too long and his neck was aching badly too. His thumbs rubbed against the thick rope coiled around his body and he quickly thought of a way to escape before he became the madman’s next victim. Now that he didn’t have a knife, he’d have to figure out a way to untie himself. He remembered the words of his trainer back when he was taking self defence and attack classes.

“Find the first knot. After you’ve figured it out, you can practically free yourself within a matter of minutes.”

So he tried locating the knot. He squirmed in his seat and ignored the intensifying throbbing pain in his injured arm, frantically searching for that one knot. He imagined himself being just one knot away from freedom and that was enough to motivate him to continue.

Of course, finding the first knot proved to be nearly impossible seeing that state that he was tied up in. However he refused to give up, and finally he thought he’d found it. His wrists were rubbed raw from the rough material of the rope but he didn’t care; he continued working on the knot behind him as much as he could, ignoring the pain shooting through his entire frame. He was exhausted, thirsty, and hungry, but he still didn’t want to give up. Now that he knew who the real culprit was (he could have kicked himself for not realizing it sooner), he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. Who knew what the deranged man wanted to do with him.

The door swung open again, and Hyukjae immediately stopped what he was doing in favour of turning in the direction of the door. Well, Siwon was just entering the shed, which meant that he definitely wasn’t sleeping on the floor of the shed as he previously thought. Hyukjae was even more curious now; what or who was in the grey bag?

“Good morning, officer,” Siwon greeted all too cheerfully, closing the shed door and locking it. Hyukjae could only manage to grunt at him.

“Oh, I forgot. The officer can’t talk now, can he?” the kidnapper laughed to himself. “Silly me.”

Hyukjae fought to stay calm and Siwon neared him. He seriously hoped that Siwon wouldn’t catch on to what he was doing. He’d only just managed to loosen the knot by a bit, and a small ray of hope had alrea