I held my breath again as many footsteps sounded past the door along with multiple, overlapping urgent voices. Once the area was silent again, I let go of the breath I was holding. My head was spinning and I felt a little dizzy. I’ve never been inside a government building before nor have ever been in this kind of situation. But one thought seemed to clear my mind.

Find Tao.

I nodded slowly and stood up. There was a glass window behind me and I carefully looked outside. The front of the government building was peaceful and quiet. There were no guards around, but I guessed there’d be many cameras on the walls. I poked at the window, seeing if it would open. It shifted a little the more I put pressure on it with both of my hands. The window creaked a little as it opened, letting in some fresh air from outside. I looked down below me. There didn’t seem like any places I could climb down or up without falling to my death. I looked to my left and saw another window like my own. It was closed. I sighed and closed the window. The walls of the government building are made of bricks, so there’s no way I could have climbed the walls. I decided the only way to go was back the way I came. After approaching the door and listened for about a minute for any kind of movement or sound from the other side, I slowly unlocked the door and opened it.

The hallway was empty and silent. I was practically walking on the tips of my toes in order not to make any sound. I made it to the end and opened the door. There were stairs leading down and that’s the direction I decided to go. I walked down until reaching the ground floor level and opened the door leading to the hallway. To my surprise, there were no guards. I made my way down, looking from side to side. Then I came across a metal door with a small window in the middle of the hall. I approached it and looked through the glass. The room was grey and small and slightly hard to see through the glass window, but my eyes focused on the guy sitting right across from the door with his back against the wall and his head resting in his folded arms. His black hair was very messy and I could see traces of red stains on his balled up fists.

“Tao.” I whispered and put my hand on the glass.

Tao slowly looked up. The circles under his eyes were much darker than before and there were even more traces of cuts and stains all over his face. His expression turned the slightest bit brighter the moment he met my eyes. His mouth moved but I couldn’t hear his voice.

I quickly looked down and jiggled the knob of the door. It didn’t budge. I looked back through the glass and shook my head a little.

He moved his arms off of his bent legs to stand up, but I could tell even doing that simple action was extremely painful for him. He hung onto the wall grimacing.

“No, don’t!” I hissed. “Don’t hurt yourself!”

His eyes met mine again and his mouth moved again. He took several steps toward the door and seemed to collapse against the glass window of the door. I leaned back a little surprised, but then leaned in closer, keeping my hands firmly attached to the glass. I could hear his deep, hard breathing even through the thick glass. His eyes bore into mine and I could see every bit of the pain he received in this damned facility. I wanted to break open the door and hug him.

“I’m so sorry…” I whispered. I could feel tears coming to my eyes.

He shook his head a little.

“You won’t die in here…I promised I’d find a way to break your curse and I won’t stop even now. Even if it kills me…I will find out how to break this curse.”

His shoulders rose and fell in a deep sigh. “You’ve done enough, Jill. Please just stop.” His voice was slightly muffled by the tight glass.

“I won’t.” I replied adamantly.

“We can’t win anymore. It’s too late.” His gaze shifted down.

“No it’s not! Don’t think like Kris is thinking now! It’s not too late!” I raised my voice a little.

“Jill. I always knew this was the way I was going to die, even if I was in denial about it for a long time. Now that it will happen soon, it’s just best we all accept it. I already have.”

I stared at him in wide-eyed disbelief. “W-what are you saying!?”

“Find Kris and get out of here. Get out of the country. Go live a peaceful life.” Tao’s voice became very quiet and his gaze remained attached to the ground. “I’ll never forget meeting you, Jill. Meeting you was…one of the best moments of my life. Thank you for caring about me so much and making me feel like a somewhat normal person. Tell Kris I said the same thing.”

I was quiet for a couple seconds as tears welled up in my eyes. “…no…I don’t want you to die.” I said very quietly.

“It can’t be helped.”

I shook my head. “I’m not giving up…even if you have, I won’t ever give up!” I paused as warm tears fell down my cheeks. “I…I love you.”

Tao’s eyes widened slightly and he slowly looked up.

I sniffed and wiped my eyes with the top of my hand. “I love you, so I won’t give up on you!”

Tao’s mouth hung open a little. He seemed to be at a loss of words. There was an unreadable expression on his face.

“Alright, that’s enough.” A calm voice spoke from behind me, making me jump. My arms were brought behind my back and my wrists were bound together. “Time for you to leave now.” I was pushed away from the window with more tears falling from my eyes and my head staying low.