Previously on Black Gold:

Taeyeon: You know, asides from the frequent checkups and needle prodding, nothing seemed weird with Mom and Dad. I mean, I couldn’t tell they were abusing me. I just thought I was sick.

Jessica: Where are your parents now?

Taeyeon: I don’t know. On the run, I think?

//

Tiffany: Do you ever wonder if you were actually sick though? What if your parents weren’t ‘experimenting’ on you like some crazy science project? What if you really were sick and they were trying to treat you via illegal means?

Taeyeon: I-I don’t…I don’t know?

Tiffany: You said they were Hyoyeon’s GP too, right? They never touched a hair on her head. I know your parents, Tae. They took care of me. They loved me…so how could they not love their own daughter?

Taeyeon …You really think it’s possible that they were treating me and not experimenting on me?

Tiffany: I can’t imagine them hurting you.

//

Jessica: Taeyeon?! Tae—are you okay? Yoona, she’s bleeding! Help!

Taeyeon: S-si-sica….

Tiffany: Don’t you dare die on us, you hear me?! Taeyeon, keep your eyes open!

Sooyoung: TAEYEON!

Sunny: Taeyeon!

Yoona: Taeyeon-unnie!

Hyoyeon: Taeng, are you okay?!

***

“You’re flicking your wrist too much. You want to stop as soon as you finish gesturing, otherwise you’ll over-flourish the spell. Fire is volatile, never forget that. If you are not precise with your actions, you could burn down the village. Now, lock up your wrist and don’t let it flop around, like this.”

Studying the African’s movement, Taeyeon tries to mimic it. “Like…this?” the young witch asks, copying the gesture and successfully igniting the candle.

“Yes!” the witch doctor praises. “You are as talented as your parents, little bird.”

Taeyeon grins, finding it adorable the way the elderly lady dotes on her. “Will I be able to do all sorts of spells with no wand, teacher?”

“All in good time, Taeyeon,” the woman tells her. “But for now, it’s time to take a break.”

“But, teacher—”

“It’s very hot out right now, and you’re not accustomed to our weather. You shouldn’t tire yourself in this heat. Go rest. Your parents will be done work early this evening.”

“Why are Mom and Dad always workinnnnnng?” Taeyeon whines as she kicks the ground, digging her toes into the dirt. “We’re supposed be on vacation. This is my first time in South Africa.”

“Your parents are meeting with some very important researchers right now, but they’ll be back soon, child.”

“Did they go up to Uganda again? What are they researching?”

The witch doctor chuckles before leaning forward to tap Taeyeon’s button nose. “Top secret stuff!”

The young girl rolls her eyes at the thought of listening to her parents brag about more pharmaceutical breakthroughs at the dinner table.

“Why don’t you take a nap, little bird? They’ll be back before you know it.”

Defeated, Taeyeon rolls her eyes before dragging her feet back towards the small tent. As she steps through the entrance, she smiles at the magical room that spans over ten-times the size of what the tent appears from the exterior. Bless magic. Not only is their accommodation spacious, but the temperature inside is perfect, and Taeyeon sighs in relief when her flushed skin begins to cool down.

She plops down onto her small bed and stares up at the pleats of fabric above her. She thinks about her American friend, Tiffany, who always voiced her jealousy about how Taeyeon’s summer vacations took her to the corners of the world. Though Taeyeon loves seeing so many different magical cultures, she still wishes that she and her family could go do boring muggle stuff, like eat the local cuisine and see famous landmarks.

Closing her eyes, Taeyeon wonders if Tiffany’s summer is any fun—or maybe the girl’s idea of “fun” is going to summer camp at the coven. She wonders if her parent’s would let her go to America next summer and maybe spend a few months in Salem with Tiffany. Maybe she’ll ask them when they come home tonight.

“WAKE UP!”

Mom? Dad?

“TAEYEON! WAKE UP!”

Taeyeon gasps.

She opens her eyes and can’t register the blobs of dark colors that she initially sees, but she feels her body being bounced.

“Wake up, wake up, wake up. Come on, they tell me it’s bad if you fall asleep—oh! I got eyes!”

It takes a bit for her vision to focus and adjust, but Taeyeon awakens to the sight of the dark forest. She also suddenly realizes that she’s being carried in Yuri’s arms while the fox is running and she wants to protest, but nothing but a flimsy wheeze makes it past her lips.

“I got eyes! Guys, I think she’s awake!”

Taeyeon’s brain feels scrambled and she gasps once the memories of the red werewolf come back to her. Panicking, she tries to look around for any sign of it, but only feels Yuri’s grip on her tighten to hold her still.

“Yoona! Check on her! Tiffany and I can stay on guard!” Hyoyeon yells from a distance.

Don’t yell! They’ll come for us!

When Yuri comes to a halt on her run, the wolf-girl wheezes at the bumpy stop, which rouses all sorts of pain over her body.

“Hi!”

Taeyeon furrows her brows at fox’s freakish enthusiasm. ‘Hi?’ she tries to reply, only to cough and gag on something wet in .

“No, no! Don’t talk!” Yuri scolds as she lays the girl’s body onto the soft forest floor. “Try not to move, okay?”

“Taeyeon?”

The wolf-girl hears Jessica’s voice and rapid approaching footsteps, but she doesn’t see her right away when the bright light from the Slytherin witch’s wand momentarily stuns her.

“Hey, we got you, okay?”

Taeyeon wants to ask Jessica what’s happening, especially since all the girls are panting hard, like they’ve been sprinting.

“Sunny-unnie, can you give me some light too?” Yoona asks as she enters Taeyeon’s line of sight too.

Taeyeon grimaces as a second wand lights up. She tries to let her irises adjust, but it’s still hard to see all her friends’ faces that are hovering over her. She frowns when it looks like Jessica and Sunny are crying.

What’s wrong?

“S-she’s still bleeding a lot,” Yoona stutters.

Oh…

Taeyeon tries to lift her head up, but can only manage to make her eyes glance south to see someone’s black and yellow cloak tied around her waist.

“I could’ve told you that!” Yuri snaps. “Make it stop!”

Eyes finally adjusted to the odd lighting, Taeyeon finally gets a good look at Yuri’s sweater and notices that the green and grey fabric has been darkened with blood. ‘Yuri, are you hurt too?’ she wants to ask.

“What else do you want me to do?! This isn’t like Sica-unnie’s leg, I don’t have any supplies or a spell for something this serious!” Yoona cries out, clearly frustrated.

“Please, Yoona, you have to do something!” Sunny says.

“I did everything I could back there!”

“She’s going to bleed out before we get back to that shed!” Sooyoung screams.

You’re all so noisy....

“Yoona, please! There’s gotta be something you can do! Just think!”

“Uh, uh…um, o-okay, I can try something. Sica-unnie, can you hold her hand?”

Taeyeon feels numb, yet achy, all over, but she suddenly feels the slightest sensation of cool fingers weaving into her palm.

“It’s going to be okay,” Jessica whispers.

Yoona’s bottom lip quivers briefly before she looks the wolf-girl in her dark eyes and whispers, “U-unnie, I’m sorry, but this is going to really hurt. I need to cauterize your wounds.”

Confused, Taeyeon wants to ask what the younger girl why she’s apologizing, but Yoona lights her wand on fire before pressing it right into Taeyeon’s stomach. For someone who had trouble finding her voice, Taeyeon’s surprised by her own screaming.

“AHHHHHH! No! No! I don’t want to do it!”

“Yah, Kim Taeyeon! Don’t squirm like that!”

“But I don’t like needles!” Taeyeon whines as tears dot her lashes.

Her mother scoffs. “You probably don’t even remember your last vaccination.”

“It hurt!”

“You were seven-years-old,” her mother laughs. “You’re eleven now. You’re a big girl.” When Taeyeon continues to pout and avoid her mother’s eyes, the woman tries to reason with the girl once more. “Blood shouldn’t scare you, honey. It’s just part of who we are.”

Lip quivering, Taeyeon grimaces as she sees the sights of the needle. “I don’t want to do it!”

“When your friend Hyoyeon got her booster shots, she didn’t cry like this. You’ll be fine too. Now, come on. Give me your arm. I’ll be ety-split quick, and then we can go get bingsu, okay?”

“It’s going to hurt...” Taeyeon continues to drone as she finally surrenders and allows her mother pick up her tiny, short arm by her wrist.

“I’ll try to be quick.”

The girl continues to frown when her mother takes a cotton ball, wet with alcohol, and begins to dab the crook of her elbow. “Did Hyoyeon get a blood test too?” Taeyeon mumbles before turning her head away from the sight of her mother prepping the needle.

“Of course. Mom and dad are doctors and need to check blood for bad germs, just like what we’re doing with you, okay?”

“…Okay….”

“Alright, honey, you’re going to feel a little pinch now. Just close your eyes.”

Taeyeon squeezes her eyes shut tight and hisses when she feels the syringe pierce her skin. She scrunches her face up tighter and tighter, holding her breath until she starts to get light-headed. She’s lucky that it doesn’t last long though, and in place of the sting, she suddenly feels a new cotton ball pressed into her arm.

“A-are you done?”

“All done, baby,” the woman replies. She continues to hold the cotton swab to soak away the residual bleeding before she wipes the arm clean and covers the prick with a bandage.

“N-now can we go for bingsu?”

Her mother chuckles. “Of course. A promise is a promise.” She takes a moment to dismantle the blood vial and discard the remainder of the needle. Once she finishes labeling the sample, she snaps her gloves off and turns back towards her daughter. “Now, you remember that this is a secret, right? You’re sick. We have to find a way to cure you, otherwise, you could get your friends really sick too. You don’t want anything bad to happen to your friends too, right?”

 “R-right.”

“Okay, then it’s our secret then. Mommy and daddy are going to take good care of you, honey,” the woman whispers as she wraps her arms around Taeyeon.

Despite the sting residing in the crook of her elbow, Taeyeon likes that the hug helps soothe the ache somehow. She feels the fears about her illness slowly diminish in the warmth of her mother’s strong embrace, so she closes her eyes and tries her best to relax.

“Open your eyes!”

Taeyeon slowly cracks open her eyelids and attempts to focus on the silhouettes right in front of her. She tries to swallow, only to find extremely dry now. She coughs and groans, rolling her eyes up till she finds herself staring at a concrete ceiling.

Wha?—Where...?

“Come on, Tae! Can you hear us? Say something!” Sooyoung pleads as she gently rubs the girl’s arm.

Taeyeon manages to reply a soft, “O-ouch….”

“Yoona! She’s waking up, get over here!”

“Go check on her! You already fixed me. My leg’s fine!” Jessica yells.

Taeyeon hears some shuffling and footsteps before Yoona suddenly moves into her vision. “Unnie?” Yoona greets with a soft smile. “Hi, can you hear me?” she asks as she leans in to peel the older girl’s eyes open before moving her lit wand from side to side.

Stop shining that light in my eyes. It hurts...

“Well, how is she?” Sooyoung asks.

“Pupils are responsive, so that’s good, but she’s lost a lot of blood.”

“Can’t we just…magically transfer some over?” Sunny asks from the other side.

Taeyeon groans once she realizes she’s lying on table, surrounded by her friends. ‘Where are we? Is everyone okay? Are there more?’ She has so many questions that she wants to ask, but it hurts just to breathe.

“Unnie, if you’re talking about that botched blood-sister mix you did when we were kids, this isn’t the same as a medical transfusion!” Yoona sighs, exasperated. “I don’t understand. Aren’t werewolves supposed to have accelerated healing?”

“Probably not to this extent,” Sooyoung says. “I don’t think werewolves are capable of growing new organs or something. Especially when her body’s doing everything it can just to keep her alive.”

“Oh, they’re back!” Sunny suddenly says.

Taeyeon tries to, but she can’t roll over and look in the same direction that her roommate is. ‘Who’s back? Who left?’ she wants to ask, worried about all the other girls she can’t see.

“Well?” Sunny asks.

“Yeah, it looks clear. If you guys are good to go, let’s go,” T