TREE OF LIFE: GOT7 JB

          “I’m…I’m…what?” Julie asked herself, shocked. The nurse had left, running to find the doctor that could give Julie the answers she wanted and needed. “But…But I’m…Oh, God.” Julie felt the tears come to her eyes at the thought of being pregnant with a man’s baby that she didn’t even know. Someone kidnapped her, put her in a coma-like state, and her. She lost the innocence she had left and…she couldn’t breathe. She pressed the nurse button at least ten times, panicking because she couldn’t breathe. The nurses and doctors rushed in, helping her calm down and sedating her.

            She let the darkness consume her.

~+~+~+

            He woke up in the same bed he fell asleep in with a headache worse than anything he had ever felt before. Immediately, he felt coldness: the love of his life was gone. His eyes opened and he scanned the room. He was in the same bed, but the difference was that he was all alone. Someone had come in, took his future wife and children, and left without being detected by him. A man walked through the door, a smirk on his face.

            “So,” he said, bringing the first man’s attention to him. “Missing something?” He snarled, leaping out of the bed.

            “Where are they?” The man smiled wider, smug. The man walked forward, trying to kill the man who took his family from him, but he was stopped by an invisible force. He banged his fist on it, angry and yelling.

            “Calm down,” the man said, slightly annoyed with the yelling and banging. “They’re safe. That’s what matters, right?” The man started to calm down, knowing it was true. If they were safe, there was no reason to get angry so fast.

            “Where are they?” He asked again, but in a calmer tone. The man smiled again.

            “Ah, good. We’re calm,” he said as he sat down in a chair in front of one of the beds his son had slept in before. “You see, the thing is…we have a problem.” The man behind the invisible wall chuckled and smiled widely, showing off enormous canines.

            “We had a problem when you took my family out of here right under my nose.” The other chuckled.

            “We had a problem when you had a lackey take out a young boy by the name of Bambam,” he paused, dramatically before pointing at the man. “Or did you do that yourself?”

            “What?” He asked, utterly confused. “What boy would do me so much wrong that I would hurt him?” The man shrugged. “Besides, I do not even know what you are talking about.”

            “So, you didn’t walk around and see a young boy tied to a tree, blood running down his face as he muttered words relating to your little whóre?” The man raised an eyebrow, smirking. He froze. I don’t…oh…him. “Ah, now you remember!”

            “I didn’t have him taken out,” the man said before the other could say another thing. “I walked by, saw him tied to a tree, and called the police. Anything else would have brought attention to myself and I did not need that.” The man let out a deep guttural laugh.

            “Thing is, you did bring attention to yourself,” the man said. Immediately, the first man was thrown to the wall, black cords of energy wrapping themselves around his neck, ankles, and wrists to pin him to the wall. The man walked forward, losing his smile of amusement to a smile of sadistic pleasure. The more he struggled to get out, the cords tightened until he just stopped moving, breathing heavily.

            “Where are they?” The man tisked.

            “They’re safe, old man. How many times are you going to ask the same question?”

            “Until I am sure you didn’t hurt them.” The man feigned hurt, holding his hands to his heart.

            “By who? Nan? Aniya~! I would do no such thing,” the man said, dramatically before giving him a wide smile at the end. He didn’t believe a word coming out of his mouth. The man sat down in the chair he brought with him in front of the hanging man. “Now. Tell me everything you know about the Tree of Life.”

            “Bwo?” The man didn’t raise an eyebrow, just gave him a poker face.

            “The Tree of Life. My resources have told me that he has a proxy doing all his dirty work for him, and that the proxy resides here,” the man said, sounding disgusted when he talked about the place he currently sat in. “My boss wants everything on the man who murdered their children.” He must be an idiot.

            “I will not tell you anything,” the man said, despite his thoughts. The man flicked his pinkie and the cords tightened, cutting off his airway.

            “Let’s make a deal,” the man said, smirking. “You tell me all you know about the Tree of Life and I will make sure you get out of here alive – most likely injured but not dead – and make sure your…children do not get killed.” His thoughts ran through his head as all the good and bad outcomes of this deal clashed inside of him.

            “I will tell you what you want to know,” the man said. “But…I want myself leaving here alive, my children not be killed, and their mother to not be killed, as well.” The man thought it over.

            “Deal.” He sighed in relief. “Now, tell me about who the Tree of Life plans to take out next.” What to tell, what to tell.

            “A child…,” he began, thinking over everything. “Lives in Seoul about fifty minutes away from here. He was given birth to five years ago and has been living with his foster parents. I told my boss about him and what my contacts said about him. He’s going to kill him, tonight.”

            “What did your contacts say about him?” He asked, leaning forward.

            “That he has the power to bring the dead back to life and should be taken out, immediately.” The man nodded.

            “What else?”

            The man hold by the cords continued to spit out half lies, knowing the boy he spoke about would already be dead by his lieutenant. When the man holding him got that call, he would break out and knock him out. As if his thoughts reached the man, his phone rang and he stood up, walking a bit away. The man holding him was the second command to the main enemy and would be hard to kill. But he was the Tree of Life. He can kill whoever he wants and bring them back if they are worth it. He worked out of the cords, silently, and watched the man as he backed away, slowly.

            “BWO?” The man yelled through the phone. “What happened?” It was silent. “What was his power?” Silence and he tensed. The Tree of Life smirked. “How far away does he live from my current location?” Silence and he threw the phone on the floor, shattering it to a million pieces. “AISH!” He turned around to the man he thought he had tied up, but was shocked when he saw he was gone. The Tree of Life used his powers to tie him up on the wall by his own cords. “What is the meaning of this?!” He smirked.

            “You got yourself trapped there, haven’t you?” He said, stepping out of the shadows with a smirk on his face.

            “You,” He snarled out, angry beyond belief. “Let me out!” He shrugged.

            “Nah. I am good. Nice knowing you.” He turned around and began walking out, the man yelling behind him to come back and “face him like a man.” He chuckled. I am not a man. I am a god. And not a very forgiving one. His screams were loud – too loud – for him and made a split-second decision. Wiggling his pinkie just like the other man did, he listened with great satisfaction when his screams got louder until there was a snap and he was silent. “I hate people who make deals.” He stood outside, looking around with wonder. “Hmm. Where would I hide an enemy’s family if I was stupid?” He thought about everything. “Ah. The car crash. They should be at XO Orphanage’s hospital in Seoul.” In a cloud of black smoke, he was gone.

~+~+~+~

            “Ms. Randi,” the doctor said, sadly. “You need to eat. It will be bad for the baby if you do not eat.” Julie just stared off into space, holding Tao and Sehun close to her – her two cuddly babies. She shook her head. He sighed and gave Lee Soo Man a look. Soo Man stepped up and began to talk to Julie in a soft, stern voice.

            “Julie, you need to eat,” he said, making her look up at him. “What are you showing your sons? When you are depressed and sad, just don’t eat and waste away? They will be without a mother if you continue this.” Julie looked at her sons, all of them staring at her with such calculating and sad stares. “You may not want your baby now, but think about them. They love you so much. Are you willing to leave them behind because you’re scared?” Julie shook her head, slightly, but he didn’t notice. He reached for her spoon, took a spoonful of apple sauce, and held it out for her. She grabbed it and ate it, shocking almost all of the people in the room. He just smiled and felt satisfied when she ate as much as her stomach could hold. The doctor interrupted the satisfaction with a comment.

            “Probably not a good time to say this, Julie,” he said, sitting down in a chair next to the bed. “But we ran a kit.” Her eyes went wide and she looked at him. “You were not .” She gasped, feeling happier than ever. “However, you are pregnant. Do not know what happened, but you are and there is something you need to know.”

            “What?” She asked, confused.

            “The boy’s original mother,” he said. She froze and frowned. “They are no longer related to her, even though she gave birth to them. We need to tell you what happened to her; what having twelve babies did to her.” Lee Soo Man told the story.

            “Kim Lee Jin was a young girl who looked nothing like you,” he began. “She didn’t have your doe eyes, didn’t have your body, didn’t have as much brains like you, and often slept around with other men; but, she had a big heart just like you. She was scouted to be a caregiver for the XO Orphanage back when we began to take care of stray children the Tree of Life produced. One day, she came to work with a frown on her face. She grew distant to us and we began to notice she started to get bigger around the stomach area. After five months of her working there, she gave birth to Xiumin. Months later, Kris, and then Luhan. We knew who the father was, but we didn’t confront her. One day, though, she came to work with Kai and Sehun in her arms and another baby wrapped up in a basket. We asked who the new baby was as she wasn’t pregnant at the time. She looked at us with a big smile on her face and said, ‘This is a child that showed up at my doorstep.’ She couldn’t see it, but we could.

            “That child was evil. We could feel the terribleness it would bring her…and it did. One day, she started to neglect her biological sons and only favored the one left on her door. We had to take care of them, but they didn’t want us…they wanted her. We tried to get her to see what the baby was doing to her, but she was blind. She got really sick and wouldn’t show up to work. After not being called about her not showing up, I thought she was okay and would come. Five hours later, I noticed she wasn’t there and drove to her home. She had died of some sickness that made her delusional. The baby she had was still there, but this evil little thing knew it killed its surrogate mother and felt happy.” He paused with a faraway look in his eye.

            “What did you do to the baby?” Julie asked, upset over the entire story.

            “We killed it.” The emotionless voice shocked her and she felt so…upset for a baby that wasn’t even hers. That poor baby may have been evil but it did not deserve to die.

            “That is why you need to be careful around everyone and everything,” the doctor said, suddenly. “The Tree of Life is dangerous…and so are his enemies.”

            After three days in the hospital, Julie was home. After three more days, things were back to normal. Julie began to love being pregnant because she could then get a better parking space at school and grocery stores, but she hated the morning sickness. It had gotten to the point where she would have to sit next to the door in her classes because she didn’t know when she would have to puke. The five boys had joined her classes and sat next to her, minding their own business unless Lee stood in front of them. If she was, they practically pushed her out of the way to get Julie back to the car with her twelve kids.

            After a month, Julie began to show – more than she had thought. Apparently, with T.o.L. pregnancies, the women only lasted four to five months of pregnancy. The pregnancy had to be shorter as, apparently, the T.o.L. needed time to name his kids. It made Julie upset: she was the mother, the father wasn’t there, he had no right to name the kid she would be having. Everyone agreed with her.

            Her sons were growing bigger and began to show traits she had when she was younger: their thumb, picking their nose, smiling at the camera automatically, etcetera. They got closer to Julie and often poked her growing stomach, putting their ears on it to listen to the baby.

            One day, while setting dinner on the table and high chairs, there was a knock on the door. She had turned the alarm off as she was to be getting a package delivered and wanted it on her front porch and not at the gate. She ran to the door and opened it with a smile, her hair flying behind her slightly with the wind she made. At the person in front of her, her eyes widened and dropped as she took a small step back.

            “You,” she whispered, shocked. “What are you doing here?”

            “I have come for dinner, obviously,” the person said, smiling wide as they walked right in as if they owned the place. “I like the looks of this place. How much money will you take for it?”

            “It’s not for sale.” They laughed.

            “I was just joking around, Jules,” they said, waving their hand. They made their way to the kitchen and sat down at the table. “What’s for dinner?”

            “You were not invited-,”

            “And yet you opened the door and practically moved out of my way so I could walk in. If that doesn’t say ‘come in’ then I do not know what does.”

            “I moved because I was shocked. Now, please get out of my house.”

            “Nah. I don’t think so,” they looked around the room. “Where are the kids? I would like to see them.” Julie shook her head, staying calm.

            “No, you are not allowed to see them,” Julie said, calmly. The person stayed quiet, looking at the pictures Julie places around the kitchen.

            “What? No pictures of me?” They feigned a look of hurt. “Thought you loved me more than this, Jules.” They touched a picture of her sons altogether in the backyard – Julie’s favorite picture – and pushed it off the nail, letting it fall to the floor and shatter the glass. They looked down at it and back up at Julie. “Whoops.” Julie saw red.

            “Jackson,” she called. He came through the door, immediately zeroing his gaze on the intruder.

            “Lee,” he said with a disgusted tone. Lee looked at Jackson and gave him a sweet smile, waving her fingers at him as if to seduce him.     

            “Jackson oppa,” Julie said, putting emphasis on ‘oppa,’ “can you show Lee the way out of our house? It seems she does not want to leave.” Lee glared at Julie, angry that she was close to Jackson and Lee wasn’t. He nodded, grabbed her arm firmly (but gently) and dragged her out of the house. Lee went, not saying anything else to rile Julie up. Julie sighed and sat down, exhausted.

            “She won’t bother you again, my love,” a voice said out of nowhere, making Julie jump. The man that brought Tao, Kai, and Sehun to her with the silver hair and black clothes stood before her. Except, now he had black hair and wore a T-Shirt and jeans. “And if she does, I will put her in her place.”

            “Get out of my house!” She cried out, angry. He raised an eyebrow and was right in front of her the next second.

            “You think badly of me,” he whispered, looking into her eyes. She felt her heart jump and start beating really fast. His eyes held so many emotions: sorrow, anger, and regret. “You think I killed that boy from the woods-,” she nodded, slightly, when he paused. “But I didn’t. I saw him and called the police. I was the one who made sure he got found.” He picked a white string out of her hair. She could smell something on him…something she vaguely remembered. She was in a cold place, but something was keeping her warm. It clicked.

            “Y-You me,” Julie stuttered out. “You kidnapped my sons and me, and me.” He froze before nodding slowly, regret shining in his eyes as he looked down at the sad, broken girl he felt his heart break for.

            “There are people trying to hurt you…to hurt me,” he whispered to her. “Children, when they are old enough, fight battles for their parents. I needed more children and…I really like you.” She felt her heart stop and opened to say something, but he cut her off. “I figured since I had you, I could give you my seeds so that you would give me another child. The plan was to tell you before you went to the doctor’s, but it was already too late. You and our sons were taken from me and sent to the hospital.”

            “My children are not fighting any of your wars,” she said, sternly. “How dare you come to my house and tell me these things. What do you gain out of telling me this?” He touched her face, smiling at her sadly.

            “Your trust…and, when it comes, your love.”

            In a cloud of dark smoke, he was gone.