A sweet melody tickled your ears and alerted your senses to the deadly darkness engulfing your body. Your eyelids felt heavy, a strange power pulling them shut against your well, or whatever remained of it. This endless darkness seemed as if it was at your soul, draining you of every power you ever possessed. For a couple of seconds, the only thought floating in your head was: 

Am I dead? 

You took a deep breath, in an attempt to ensure yourself that you were still very much alive, and your nostrils came across a sweet, disturbingly familiar scent. A heaviness centered around your nose and cheekbones sent dreadful assumptions into your mind. 

You tried removing whatever was on your face. It was then that you realized another frightful fact. You could not move your limbs. Your arms and legs were tied down to the chair you were sitting on. Your body ached and you realized it’s been so long since you’ve been in this position. 

Am I at the hospital? Did I die? Am I in a coma?  

You’ve heard about people being in comas and not being able to interact with their surroundings, feeling like they are shackled with the helpless of their physical bodies, while their minds cried for help. But you could hear the music, you could feel the heaviness on your face. 

Your thoughts were blurry and your vision was blocked by the excess darkness. You wanted to know where the music came from. At times it felt near your ears, and at times it felt as if it was being played very far away, somewhere deep down inside a dungeon in a secluded island, miles and miles away. 

Is this heaven?

Footsteps ended your loneliness, echoing in the empty space surrounding your body and matching the slow beating of your trembling heart.  

Who is it?

You wanted to ask, but your voice was imprisoned behind a plastic mask, all you could let out was a muffled noise, to which you received no answer.  

The steps became closer, and involuntary, fearful tears escaped and rolled down your cheeks. Amid your trembles, you came to realize that something hindered the rolling of your tears and they somehow stopped midway and never reached your chin. 

Where did they go?

A soft, yet cold, hand emerging from the darkness cupped your right cheek and your head retreated uncontrollably, escaping the unknown evil radiating from the slender fingers tapping your face. 

Resisting your withdrawal, the first hand accompanied by a second hand trapped your face, thumbs brushing against your cheeks, ignoring the tears of terror streaking down your face. The sound of your whimpers was soon resonating the room, replacing the melody that had previously filled your ears. 

“Shhhhh…”

A gentle, soft voice said, in an attempt to assure you.  

“You know I won’t hurt you.” 

The voice said again and your whimpers ceased, not because the statement was anything near reassuring, but because you recognized the owner of the soft hands and the gentle voice. 

Taekwoon?

He proceeded to remove something off your face, freeing your face and nose from the eerie heaviness that had previously stood in the way of your tears.   

“Those precious tears make me happy, but I hate to see you sad. We’ll have to figure out a way to extract more of them without causing you any more sorrow, okay?”

You swallowed hard when his words left you at loss. 

Extract more tears?

He then removed the plastic mask covering your mouth. A few seconds passed before you could feel a gentle tapping on the area around your lips. 

“You’ve given me more than I deserve.” 

He leaned down, printing a kiss on the top of your head and another on your temple. 

“I am doing this so that we can be together. But rest assured, after tonight we’ll be closer than ever.”

You felt his soft lips moving gently across yours. He buried his face in the crook of your neck and took a deep breath. 

“It is this scent that had driven me mad. I’ve never came across anything this mesmerizing.” 

When he pulled away, you turned your face in the direction of his voice, tears filling your eyes as you said: 

“Please, let me go.” 

He your cheek again.

“Baby, this is for the sake of our love. Didn’t you say you love me? I love you too, I love you more than you can imagine.” 

He grabbed the mask and placed it on your mouth again, muffling your pleas. He took a few steps away from you and you could hear a click, after which you were temporarily blinded by the bright lights that had suddenly filled the room. Shivers went down your spine when you saw Taekwoon standing in the middle of his laboratory, wearing an apron and standing in front of a white table, his hands covered in white gloves, fiddling with a needle. Behind him were white shelves occupied with jars filled with liquids of various colors, each confining a flower of a different kind. Taekwoon grabbed the needle, the tube and something that looked like a blood bag and walked in your direction. You felt your heart drop and your body started shaking in extreme terror at the realization. 

Taekwoon placed his tools on the transport trolley near your seat. Kneeling down in front of you, he untied one of your hands and it gently. 

“Baby, are you cold? Do you want me to turn the AC down a bit?”

You let out a muffled cry but he shushed you again as he printed a kiss on the back of your hand. He placed your hand on his cheek and looked at you with a frightening amount of love in his eyes as he said: 

“It won’t hurt, I promise.” 

You struggled to pull your hands away from his but he flipped it, exposing the inner side of your arm and tied your wrist to the chair again. He reached for the alcohol wipes and cleaned his targeted area, attached the needle to the tube and looked at you one more time. Your eyes were crying for mercy, tears flowing nonstop down your face and neck. 

“Please don’t waste your tears. When this is over you’ll see how simple it was.” 

He paused for a second and then added: 

“Don’t you trust me?”

He smiled. Your eyes widened in pain as the needle penetrated your arm without any prior warning. You squeezed your eyes shut and rested your head against the back of the chair, wishing this was all a nightmare. 

Taekwoon sat down on the chair next to you after hanging the blood bag on the  Iv Pole. You turned your face and looked at him out of the corner of your eyes, begging him to stop this slow-paced torture. He cupped your face and you leaned into his touch, trying to gain his sympathy to no avail.

“If you hadn’t tried running away I wouldn’t have had you tied up to the chair like this.” 

You let out a whimper. 

“We won’t be doing this every day. But I need you to promise me to stay by my side.” 

You gave him a nod and he smiled. He then looked at the blood bag slowly turning crimson red and the smile grew wider. 

“See? We’re almost done.” 

A few heavy minutes passed as he stared quite passionately at the blood traveling all the way from your veins to the blood bag. When the bag was almost full, he stood up, pulled the needle out of your arm ignoring the muffled cry you let at the sudden sting. He wiped the area around the tiny hole left by the needle, put a bandage on it before carrying the blood bag proudly and walking toward his workstation. 

You were slowly regaining your strength. While he was busy running some kind of a test on a sample of your blood, the only thing you could think of was freeing yourself. Regardless of how insane this idea sounded in your head, considering the failed escape attempt you had tried while your limbs were free and your head was not as heavy, you still wanted freedom. 

It took him a couple of seconds to notice your desperate attempt to free your hands and legs. He placed the beaker on the table and walked in your direction with an unreadable expression on his face. He approached you before kneeling down in front of you. 

He let out a sigh as he placed his hand on your knee and looked up at you still trying to free yourself. 

“Didn’t you promise to stay by my side forever?”

His hand traveled up your thigh as he added:

“Or was that just pillowtalk?”

Your whole body trembled at the touch. He slowly stood up, keeping his face very close to yours. He then pulled the mask off your face and you thought salvation was near. He leaned down and brushed your lips with his. Staring into your teary eyes, he lightly slid his tongue across your bottom lip. You closed your eyes and gave into the kiss, not knowing it was only to distract you from what is to come. 

As soon as he pulled out, his soft lips were replaced with a mask. Before you could open your eyes and resist, a calming smell filled your nostrils. Your eyelids felt heavy as you watched a blurry Taekwoon smile at you before turning around and going back to his workstation. You fought the urge to sleep, but it was a matter of seconds until the only thing you could sense was the sound of your dripping blood…

Drip…

Drip…

Dr…