Chapter Ten

Ouroboros
 
Chapter Ten
 
 
“Hey, you doing alright there?”
 
Bound by their feet and with their arms behind their backs, Sana and Yeri sat in a dark, damp and cramped room. Their ropes were taught around them and they could barely even twist their wrists to change their angle and position. In one top corner of the room there were small windows that allowed in some daylight to shine through, but the room was mostly dark and gloomy as the sun was already setting.
 
“Yeah, I’m doing better thank you,” Sana heard Yeri reply with a careful voice, but she could sense Yeri was already a lot calmer than she had been moments earlier.
 
After being hauled off into the motorboat they had been taken across the city through an intertwined and confusing route of channels both wide and small. Sana was fairly certain that a few times they looped through the same location before turning randomly again, a route meant to throw off any would be potential chasers.
 
It was at some point during this random zigzag through the city’s waterways that they were blindfolded and so could only hear the splashing of the water, unable to tell which way they were going other than from the way the boat listed. Finally they stopped as their surroundings got dark; Sana suspected that they must have driven directly into a boatshed out of sight. There would be no risk of them being spotted by a random bystander.
 
They were then hauled up from the boat still blindfolded and abandoned in a tiny storage room, probably adjacent to the boatshed they had arrived in. Soon after Sana heard the doors to the room close she had wiggled herself in a way as to remove her blindfold off assisting Yeri in the process too, completely removing the gags from their mouths so they could talk. For a while the two listened to see if there were any sounds from the door beyond but it was completely silent. It appeared they had been left there on their lonesome for now.
 
“Hey, are you able to bring your arms around forward? It’ll be easier to do stuff that way than when they are behind our backs. I’m not quite flexible enough,” Sana asked out of the blue as they sat quietly in the storage room, breaking the silence that had been lingering for most of their time in this storage facility.
 
“I can try,” Yeri replied as she turned around to face Sana who shuffled along lifting herself up to lean against one of the crates in the room.
 
First she needed to get her arms around her . Falling onto her side so she could move them, Yeri placed her legs against some of the larger boxes to push from. “Could you come and lean against my back, I need something to push against?” Yeri said hearing Sana shuffle behind her.
 
The tied hands pulled taut as she reached them lower down her back and flexed her shoulder muscles to push them down around her . She pushed against the boxes with her feet as her shoulders pushed against Sana’s back, applying pressure. The strain felt like it would pop her shoulders off before her arms suddenly and quickly slid around her buttocks to be under her thighs.
 
Yeri relaxed her muscles and breathed out a long sigh before looking up at Sana with a little hopeful smile, “Step one complete. Now for step two.”
 
She rolled over so her back was now against the boxes and pulled her legs up to her chest as tight as she could.
 
“Can you press against my legs when I ask you to? I need you to push hard, okay?” Yeri asked as she lay sideways on the ground, her back against the boxes and legs tucked in front of her facing Sana.
 
Sana positioned herself with her back against boxes and placed her feet carefully on Yeri’s shins getting a good stable hold to push against. With a nod Yeri pulled her legs against her chest tightly as Sana pushed against her shins, first carefully but soon with a lot more strength after commands from Yeri to push harder. At the same time Yeri pulled and swung her arms around her feet getting them around and over in front of her.
 
“Great job!” Sana exclaimed with a big smile already feeling a lot more hopeful. Yeri equally flashed a bright smile at the success encouraged by it.
 
“So what now?” Yeri asked as she stretched her arms back and forth and relaxed them after the strain she had put them through.
 
“Now reach into my pants.”
 
“Wha…” Yeri looked at Sana incredulously recoiling at this weird request.
 
“My phone, I hid it down the front of my pants in my underwear so they wouldn’t find it. I need you to get it,” Sana replied rapidly, her face already turning a similar shade of red as Yeri’s.
 
“Oh… yeah okay,” Yeri said carefully and still a little embarrassed as she approached Sana and put her hands close to the front of Sana’s jeans. “I… I’ll try to get it now.”
 
Both women looked away in embarrassment as Yeri slid her hand down the front carefully, finding the phone very quickly to her relief. She pulled it out and shuffled a step back.
 
“Good, good,” Sana said as she turned back to look at Yeri and her phone, “The code to open it is 9999. Then turn the GPS signal on and share the location with my friend Dahyun.”
 
Yeri did as told, the phones GPS finding their location swiftly as Yeri attempted to share it with the aforementioned friend of Sana’s, “Uhm… which one is Dahyun? You don’t have any by that name in your contacts.”
 
“Oh right, it’s the one named Dubu.”
 
Yeri found the tofu in the contacts and looked up at Sana, “The one with all the hearts?”
 
“Mhmmmmm,” Sana replied with her face turning completely red. “Tell her ‘This is our location. We are alone now but don’t know for how long.’”
 
Yeri typed the message fast and they didn’t have to wait long for a reply.
 
Thank God you’re still in the city. We are coming straight away there. Are you guys alright? Are you hurt? How many people took you?
 
“They’re coming…” Yeri could already feel tears in her eyes from relief before wiping the few stragglers and typed a reply to the message.
 
“You hear that?”
 
Both Yeri and Sana stopped for a moment to listen in, Yeri stopping her message midway. There was the creaking of old metal doors and shuffling coming from the other side. The kidnappers had returned.
 
“Quick! Turn off my phone and stuff it back down my pants,” Sana whispered hurriedly as she stuck her pelvis out for Yeri to slide the phone down the front end of her jeans and underwear for hiding and safekeeping. She managed to turn it off and just push it deep pulling her hands out before the lock on their door clicked and it opened with four men filing in.
 
“Cosa pensi di fare? Fuga? Puttana!”
 
The first man, a well built larger muscle mass of a hulk with a scraggly beard walked over and yanked Yeri clean off the ground staring with ferocity at her before barking orders to the other three.
 
They stuffed more cloth into their mouths to gag them again, Yeri and Sana screaming in response to their voices being muffled and this time a whole canvas bag was placed over their head to inhibit visibility. As Sana was still tightly tied like she had been earlier she was straight away dragged out while Yeri’s hands were wrapped around a few more times with rope before it was looped around her waist and pulled tight. Yeri’s arms were pressed against her body in front of her and she couldn’t move them one inch. She was bound even tighter than before.
 
Yeri was pulled out after Sana, she could hear her muffled shouting in the darkness ahead of her before a sharp command for ‘Silencio!’ rang in the hall. A few short steps and low thudding sounds later they were once again on a boat and this time were tucked further in under the front of the boat and then covered with blankets to hide their bodies. It was now completely dark to them but they could feel the boat lurch and begin to bob in the waterway.
 
They were being moved. They needed to inform Dahyun again before they were too far gone.
 
 
---
 
 
The air was heavy in the room as Chaeyoung sat on the bed with her head sunk into her hands massaging her temples. By the window of the room Dahyun stood looking out into the evening sky while the warm oranges faded into purple and blue bringing with it the darkness of the night. In one corner sitting in silence and still in a little shock Nayeon looked on at the other two in the room, more so waiting for one of them to initiate the discussion after what she had just been told.
 
When Sana had been kidnapped Dahyun and Chaeyoung quickly gathered their wits about them and went in search of Yeri and Nayeon. She knew that Yeri had wanted to go shopping in the antique store that Dahyun had burst through while Chaeyoung and Nayeon had been on the opposite side of the road grabbing some drinks and snacks for them to nibble on their way to their hotel.
 
The three of them, Nayeon having joined the search, couldn’t find Yeri anywhere and after questioning the shopkeeper it was quickly revealed that Yeri had been talking with Sana and the two had been shopping together. Dahyun remembered the second Asian woman in the boat next to Sana and with a visual description it was confirmed that she was taken too.
 
Chaeyoung had done her best to keep everyone safe and wasn’t going to reveal her true identity to her friends, planning to finish her trip through Europe in safety and with as little risk as possible before beginning her search for her fellow Eternal Ladies, her Sisters. After visiting her old family in Salzburg she was content and happy with her situation, having an opportunity to read about the life of her little sister Marianne from the diaries while waiting for their Euro trip to end. She figured that her trip would have been over a few weeks after the awakening so most of her Sister’s would have found their way to Europe to reunite with each other.
 
But fate was an uncaring mistress and here she found herself already tugged into the chase and battle for survival. She was happy to have found her sister Dahyun alive and well so quickly, but not at the expense of her best friends. Chaeyoung would have been lying if she said she wasn’t half prepared to meet Dahyun in Venice, knowing that in her past reincarnation Dahyun was a Venetian merchant’s daughter and she had visited Dahyun’s home during the previous Cycle. But she would have wanted to meet her discreetly and quietly only to exchange contact details for a meet up later when all the Sister’s could gather, or at least once her friends were well on their way back to Korea.
 
“So you got compromised then?” Chaeyoung broke the silence that had lingered since her and Dahyun had finished their explanations of the situation as well as revealing their true identity to Nayeon.
 
“They didn’t see my face but it seems Sana’s… so yeah we did,” Dahyun mumbled, disappointed in herself for being revealed so fast and her failure to keep Sana safe. “I didn’t think that they would have been guarding my old home. I thought they didn’t find out my identity last time.”
 
“I guess whatever remnants rose from the ashes of the fallen Cult members found out after the ritual and closing of the Door, there was nothing you could’ve done to know,” Chaeyoung tried to console her Sister who, not unlike her, had a downcast and distraught expression.
 
“I could’ve avoided my home altogether just in case. In our lives and line of work not knowing is not a valid excuse,” Dahyun said turning around to look at Chaeyoung who still sat on the bed. Chaeyoung opened but then just nodded sympathetically. She knew that if it had happened to her she would be feeling just like Dahyun and saying the same thing. And it was the truth too. They had to be extra cautious as they had no way of knowing what the Cult had found out in their absence.
 
“So, our next move. We should figure it out soon,” Chaeyoung turned to look at Nayeon as she said this, “You should get yourself home to safety. They don’t know who you are yet so you can disappear back to safe obscurity.”
 
Nayeon so far mostly confused and befuddled eyes and expression changed into one of shock and hurt. Maybe she was completely lost and didn’t understand all that was going on or have a reincarnating soul, but she still wasn’t one to abandon her friend. “No! Yeri is missing! I can’t go back to Korea without Yeri, I can’t fly back and have my mom and Yeri’s mom asks where she is and why I’m alone, why you aren’t with us!”
 
She had risen up from her seat with a start and was now right next to Chaeyoung, her large eyes staring right at her while her brows furrowed deeply. She was terrified and distraught, but she wasn’t one to abandon her friends.
 
“Nayeon, it’s dangerous, too dangerous.”
 
“I know.”
 
“No you don’t! You can die!”
 
Nayeon blinked a couple times hard as what she just heard sunk in before fixing her posture and unblinking looked back at Chaeyoung. “I- I know. But I can’t leave Yeri and you here, I can’t abandon you.”
 
Chaeyoung engulfed Nayeon into a hug and squeezed her tightly. “If that is what you want then okay. We will do our best to keep you safe but… but I can’t promise anything. That’s why I wish you would go home. I can’t promise you will be safe and that I can keep you safe.”
 
“It’s okay, I know you will do your best and it will be enough, I have faith,” Nayeon smiled, catching Dahyun’s careful smirk from the corner of her eye. This stranger they had just met was Chaeyoung’s Sister from ages beyond, a reincarnated soul that knew her friend better than they did. Nayeon would have to try and pry information and all of the stories about Chaeyoung from her and from the other Sister’s once they met.
 
Although she wasn’t quite certain that she had fully accepted all of this and believed it entirely, there was a little bit of suspension of disbelief in this moment. Considering that Yeri had been kidnapped out of the blue and Chaeyoung had endearingly met with this Dahyun, she had let go of her rigid belief of reality for now. Maybe it would come and bite her back later on she didn’t know, but for now it helped her go along with everything and not collapse into a mind blown slobbering mess. Nayeon suspected that this suspension of reality in her mind prevented her from doing just that.
 
“It’s a message from Sana!” Dahyun shouted out of the blue as a wave of relief immediately washed over her. Chaeyoung released her hold on Nayeon and walked up to see the contents.
 
“What’s it say?” Chaeyoung said as she rushed over to see the message.
 
“She shared her location. This must be where she is being held. They’re alone now but don’t know for how long,” Dahyun said as she replied to Sana’s message.
 
“I’m amazed they didn’t take her phone away, or maybe she managed to hide it,” Chaeyoung said having a look at the map that showed the shared location.
 
“Maybe,” Dahyun replied immediately screen capturing the location on her phone. Nayeon had by now carefully walked over and stood next to Chaeyoung.
 
“Does it say anything about Yeri?” Nayeon asked. Everything tonight had been insane and she couldn’t believe her misfortune to have been dragged into a kidnapping, let alone in some weird world ending Cult business. She was once again violently dragged into the reality of the situation, but right now the safety of her friend was most important.
 
“They are together, still waiting for their reply,” Dahyun said. Seeing Nayeon’s eyes cast down with worry and distress Dahyun gave her an encouraging smile, “I’m sure they are alright. Maybe this was all they could manage to send without being caught, they will be alright. In the meantime let’s get going there, we don’t know how long they will stay there.”
 
Chaeyoung was already a step ahead of Dahyun having grabbed her backpack and was stuffing in a few necessities and already on her way out, Nayeon being almost dragged up to get ready to leave.
 
With the equipment gathered they were out within a minute, Dahyun intently staring at her phone to wait for a reply. None came and she worried that Sana’s phone had been found, although she didn’t voice this to anyone trying to stay hopeful as not to compound on Chaeyoung’s or Nayeon’s worries, the latter probably feeling like her whole world and everything she believed in had been unravelled. Dahyun had to believe that they were alright and Sana had merely hidden her phone again to avoid being caught.
 
The location of Sana and Yeri on the map was pointing to the east side of Castello, which luckily meant that it wasn’t too far from their hotel; half-an-hour walk, a lot faster running. Time was of the essence and she hoped they could reach the location within ten minutes. With any luck the streets would be empty with the progressing evening and Dahyun chose a fast but uncommon route to try and avoid the usual flood of tourists enjoying their evening.
 
They arrived at the canal and street where the map location was pointing to and peeking from the corner Dahyun looked to find what the map was pointing at. Some fifty metres away down the street along the canal there was a little footbridge that crossed over a tiny side alley of water; the entrance to a boat shed. That was the location.
 
Acting as tourists they slowly walked along the bank and past the entrance to the shed to scout it out. Wondering about their surroundings and taking pictures with their phones, they slowed down as they were reaching the shed and stopped at the bridge to take selfies, all the while Dahyun and Chaeyoung actively looked for ways in and for signs of movement or people. All the windows were dark and there were no signs of life in the building. It also looked like there were no security cameras in sight.
 
Nayeon and Dahyun stopped a little short of the door to look around with their phones as if they were lost or looking for directions while Chaeyoung a few steps behind them walked to the front door and picked the lock. To her surprise she found the door unlocked, and she hailed for the other two to get ready.
 
The handle pressed down with a loud clacking and Chaeyoung winced, hoping that it wasn’t too audible to the inside. As carefully as possible she opened the door, managing to avoid the screeching of the poorly oiled hinges of the old door. A rustic door with an old lock, Chaeyoung could easily see it being pre-war era.
 
The door ran almost parallel to the boatshed and opening the door there was a long corridor that lead to a set of stairs up and to a backroom. There was one door to the left along the corridor that most likely lead to the boat shed.
 
“Nayeon, stay out here and keep a lookout. If anybody that doesn’t look like a tourist starts walking down the street come in, shut the door and let us know,” Dahyun said following Chaeyoung inside. Left fidgeting outside, Nayeon looked around nervously before taking her phone out and attempting to look as touristy as possible while keeping an eye out in case anybody made their way towards her.
 
There were no lights in the building as Dahyun and Chaeyoung creped along the corridor further in. No sounds of talking or shuffling could be heard either. As they passed the door on the left midway down they tried its handle. This one was locked. Walking further down they reached the bottom of the stairs and stopped to listen for any sounds. Complete silence. To the left of the stairs the corridor continued to another door and the two carefully crept forward to it, Chaeyoung placing her ear onto the door to listen. Once again nothing.
 
Trying the door it was unlocked and Chaeyoung opened it just a sliver to have a peek into the room. There were no lights on and it was completely dark. It was a storage room with stacks of boxes and narrow windows at the top edge of the opposite wall. Along the left wall there was another door. Sneaking into the room the two made their way to this final door before Dahyun spotted rags in the middle of the floor. She reached out to grab one and could feel the wet saliva still on it. These were their gags. It meant Sana and Yeri had been here.
 
Placing themselves on either side of the door Chaeyoung counted silently to three before carefully opening the door to peek inside. It was a boatshed with various boating implements and boxes for transport. But worst of all it was dark and void of any people or a boat. They were gone.
 
The pits of their stomachs dropped and the terror of losing their friends almost immediately sunk in as they scoured the boatshed for any signs or clues to follow. It had been barely fifteen minutes since they received the text message, how had they already gone. The fear that Sana’s phone had been found out and forced them to move was the first thought that crossed their minds, and if that was the case then they had already lost track of them. The dusty floor showed boot tracks and signs of dragging. They really had been here.
 
Dahyun and Chaeyoung unlocked the door and walked out to find an expecting Nayeon who could quickly tell from their expressions that something was wrong.
 
“Is it… empty?” Nayeon asked as Dahyun closed the door behind them while Chaeyoung grabbed Nayeon’s arm and began walking down the path next to the canal further away from the boat shed to avoid suspicion.
 
“Yeah. No sign of anybody,” Chaeyoung said with a frown as they found a place to sit by a pier that was down the same street. “No lights, no evidence of anything, no boat, no Yeri or Sana.”
 
“Wha… what do we do now?”
 
“There isn’t much we can do except wait for contact. The city is too big to search in and they could have easily sailed out of the city to any of the islands,” Dahyun said as she sat down by the pier next to the other two.
 
“Should we wait and see if anybody comes into the apartment? Can we contact the police?” Nayeon asked peering over Chaeyoung’s shoulder to look in the direction of the boat shed. She could see the little foot bridge they had crossed so they could easily observe if anyone returned.
 
“Maybe, but we don’t know if the police are in on it. Waiting here is probably our best chance right now,” Chaeyoung looked up at Nayeon with a half smile.
 
The three set themselves up to act inconspicuously once more, taking photos and sharing what they were looking at on their phones, Chaeyoung and Dahyun mainly trying to plan contingencies while they waited and Nayeon often was staring at the foot bridge.
 
For an hour they waited, the sun had completely set by this point and all of them were beginning to feel fatigue setting in. It had been a long day and incredibly stressful and emotional to them all, all of this taxing their bodies and Nayeon was the first to begin to nod off although she fiercely fought against her eyelids that tried to force them to close.
 
“A message!” Dahyun squealed as she stood up looking at her phone, almost teetering over the edge of the pier. Nayeon’s eyes shot wide open all sleepiness gone and Chaeyoung was almost on Dahyun that instant.
 
It was another shared location message without any text this time. The utter despair of moments earlier was replaced with hope once more as they had confirmation where they had been moved, still within Venice. “They’ve been moved to Poveglia.”
 
“What’s Poveglia?” Nayeon asked immediately dashing to Dahyun as did Chaeyoung, the trio staring intensely at the map that showed on the screen.
 
“It’s a quarantine island some six kilometres south from here and west of Lido. Any ships with sickly infected people, or even Venetian residents would be quarantined there. Or it used to be one,” Dahyun said as she searched the island on the internet to see what its current state was now. It had been over a hundred years since, everything could have changed completely.
 
“Ah, it is empty and abandoned now, restricted access. No wonder they took them there, it’s a perfect hideout.”
 
“It was a mental asylum?” Nayeon said as she read the article on the island off of Dahyun’s phone.
 
“Seems so. Either way that’s where they took them so we need to get going. We can use the cover of night to approach it in the dark. It’s a bit risky but better than to be seen.”
 
Chaeyoung had opened satellite images of the island on her own phone for a quick recon and plan. “We are in luck. The buildings are on the south side of the island and the north is just woods. We can approach it directly from the north and beach somewhere on the north side as long as it’s not too rocky and take it from there.”
 
“There’s only one bridge to cross to the southern island however and it could be guarded,” Dahyun noted, looking at the same satellite map on her own phone.
 
“In that case we can try approach along the north east edge of the island and disembark there. That might be our best chance.“
 
“We can’t come back to Venice or our hotels after the rescue so let’s go back now and gather our things. I suspect that they won’t move out of Poveglia before tomorrow earliest so we have time.”
 
They were already moving back towards their hotel, the escape plans that Dahyun and Chaeyoung had been hatching while waiting for a message now being put into action.
 
“Best case scenario is we all get out together and go straight to Ravenna. If we split up we meet here,” Dahyun zoomed in on the map to a small pier just a little ways up the mouth of River Brenta past the town of Chioggia, about thirty kilometres south of the city of Venice, “Then we can move together from there to Ravenna where we can rent a car to drive away.”
 
“Why don’t we fly? Isn’t it faster?” Nayeon asked. She wasn’t even sure where she would fly, was she going back to Korea after this, could she even go back. There was a chance that her involvement in this already risked herself, preventing her from going back home. It was a thought that scared her and which she now hid into the deep crevices of her mind to stop herself from panicking.
 
“It is, but we don’t know how well connected they are here in Italy, and there is no passport border control between the EU countries, we can just drive straight through. It’s easier to disappear into the thousands of kilometres of road than an airport. Those places are choke points. Once we are out of Italy we can consider flying out of Switzerland.”
 
“I agree, let’s move,” Chaeyoung replied and with haste and determination they made their way first to Dahyun’s hotel where they gathered all their things and checked out before walking over the Grand Canal to Chaeyoung and Nayeon’s hotel by the Campo San Polo square. In the soft moonlight of the early night they raced through the surprisingly busy streets which still had plenty of tourists and night revellers walking around.
 
On their way to the hotels they managed to pop in to a shop just before closing and grab themselves small sling bags. Within an hour they had completed all packing and checking out and were on their way to find themselves a speedboat. Nayeon hadn’t been clued in on this, but the three would unfortunately have to commandeer a boat for the rescue. They would make sure to leave it intact and return to the owner if they could after everything.
 
Arriving at the piers along the Grand Canal they saw plenty of boats. Nayeon and Chaeyoung waited further out behind a corner as Dahyun scouted for her mark which she luckily soon found. A larger fancy looking black speedboat just arrived by the piers and after a few minutes its owner was out and walking. Dahyun observed where he placed the key to the boat and once he was walking out to the city she made her move.
 
Acting as a lost fumbling tourist Dahyun walked right into the man, profusely apologizing after and leaving him none the wiser of what had just happened; Dahyun had pick pocketed the speedboats key from him. Making sure that the man was out of view far into the city she moved over to the pier and boarded the speedboat, Chaeyoung and Nayeon walking over once they saw her move in.
 
“I managed to borrow this boat,” Dahyun said with a bright smile. They threw their luggage and bags into the boat, storing them safely.
 
“Essentials like wallet, ID, passport, phone and money into the sling bag, everything else leave into the luggage. Worst case we will have to abandon the luggage at a moment’s notice so we need to have our essentials on our person at all times, and we don’t want to leave the kidnappers anything to ID us from,” Chaeyoung explained to Nayeon as they boarded the boat and loaded the luggage in.
 
The twin engines of the boat roared to life and Dahyun carefully began to reverse the boat out of its hold. She had never really driven one, so took her time to get used to its control which she learned quickly. Next stop Poveglia.
 
 
----
 
 
“I got the flowers you ordered, these are very special ones you know?”
 
“Thank you, I know.”
 
“It must be a very special someone,” the flower store clerk said in a motherly tone as she handed the bouquet to her.
 
“Oh yes, they are,” Irene replied smiling back. The people these flowers would help her find were very special and dear to her indeed.
 
The hotel room she had managed to book was close to the harbour and out of the way of prying eyes. She had spent the previous few days trying to find out a way to smuggle herself out from Korea and into Hong Kong or another where it would be easy to disappear from the prying eyes of the Cult. She had also ordered the Calla Lilies at the flower wholesale store that was close to the port. This would help her with her meditation to find out where the Daughter’s were.
 
Returning to her shabby but cheap room she set about to meditate, setting down her flowers and scented candled. Sitting in the centre she focused on herself and the thin veil that separated the spirit from the body. The room cooled down in temperature and slowly but surely her mind was pulling itself apart from her body, finally feeling the release as her consciousness floated away above her.
 
She was in her own well of spirit energy and she began to climb out of it, finally reaching out of the well of soul energy onto the plane that spanned the globe and to her surprise, there was a dip not far from here. Only a few hundred kilometres away there was a well that was concentrating spirit energy into it. One of the Daughter’s was in Korea with her.
 
Over to the west she felt multiple dips in the membrane, all of them seemingly coalesced into a similar place and direction in Europe. They weren’t all in the same place however and so she knew that they hadn’t all met up yet, but soon they would. She needed to get herself over there.
 
Ever since her arrival in Busan she had been slowly inquiring and trying to find ways to board a ship illegally to take her to Hong Kong which didn’t have extradition treaties. In the worst case scenario if she was somehow found out to be in Hong Kong, at least the authorities wouldn’t get involved or give her up.
 
What she needed to decide however was whether she would attempt to contact the Daughter that was still in Korea and together they would leave, or trust that she would also find a way out and move alone. At this point when she was a fugitive, it probably was easiest to slip out alone. Additionally moving together with Irene risked exposing the Daughter’s identity assuming she hadn’t been discovered yet.
 
Maybe she could inform whichever Daughter it was here to meet her in Hong Kong; because although getting out of the country illegally might be easier alone, once she was out she desperately wanted to meet up with the rest. They could pool resources and get things done more efficiently. How she would manage to contact her was however questionable.
 
Avoiding the public eye seemed to be working so far as she had yet to witness any situation that she deemed as risky or being followed. She always went out with a face mask which wasn’t unusual there, she could feign sickness or sensitivity to pollution, and luckily it had been sunny enough lately that wearing sunglasses didn’t look out of place.
 
Having found the information she needed Irene dragged herself out of the meditation feeling the horrible familiar sense of drowning as her mind was violently ripped and shoved back into her body, opening her eyes and waking up exhausted and cold, a result of the meditation.
 
With her shoes and items waiting next to her she quickly placed them in the directions she had felt the pulls from before getting up to make herself a hot drink to sit out in the sun with. Her body was freezing and she needed to warm up. Even though the air-conditioner had been turned off before the start of the meditation the room felt extremely cool.
 
Her scheduled departure was for the next day and she had already packed all she would need; a little bit of food and drink, her money and valuables and a change of clothes, all fit nicely in a larger backpack. The next morning before noon she was already at the docks. The scheduled departure was for the afternoon around five once all the cargo was loaded, but she had been asked to come early to get all the ‘formalities’ sorted before her illegal departure from Korea to Hong Kong.
 
Waiting by one of the side gates at the east end of the docks, she wore her cap over her hoodie and hugged her bag on the front. She had been requested to dress and act this way for them to know it was her. A metal door creaked open to her far right and she watched as older uncle with a hint of a scraggly grey beard motioned to her from beyond the door to follow. Irene swiftly made her way through closing the door behind her.
 
She was now in the docks but nothing was safe or certain until she had reached Hong Kong and was in the city there out of the docks. In her bag she had brought with her a short metal pipe to use for self defence if it ever came to it, but hopefully everything would run smoothly.
 
Following this man donned in the dock workers’ overalls she was lead out to the cargo courtyard from which an external staircase lead her up into an office room. There she was greeted by another younger man who she was left alone with as her guide here left the same way they had come.
 
“I see you are our passenger this fine evening. Do you have the deposit?”
 
Irene nodded and handed a pouch that contained the first payment for her trip. This had not come cheap. The man opened the pouch and ran the bills through a money counting machine before huffing with a smile, content with the amount paid.
 
“Everything seems to be in order, we’ll have the security inspect and clear you, and then you can board.”
 
“An inspection? I thought the whole point was to avoid inspection, no questions asked. That was my specific request and what I’m paying extra for,” Irene said confused and already on guard.
 
“Of course, these are our own internal inspections. We don’t want our passengers carrying any weapons or things that could bite us in the behind.”
 
Eyeing through the window Irene could see the inspection men that he was talking about. Two rather large and burly men, both in plain blue and white button shirts with straight pants were standing around waiting for orders. They were not dock workers or foremen, if anything they were blue collar workers or gangsters. Considering this was an illegal smuggled crossing it wasn’t surprising, and it made sense that they would want to be in full control of what was being let on their ship. However, she had paid extra to just be let on without question so this was an extra step that was not part of the deal.
 
Considering all this there was another possibility, that this was either an attempt to kidnap her for slavery or they were the Cults men; neither option was enticing. The dock officer’s response to what she would do next would reveal their intent; was it an innocent inspection or was she about to get taken.
 
“Do you know what, I think I have to give this trip some more thought. I’ll contact you if I reconsider going over. You have my deposit so consider it a booking fee,” Irene said with a smile before turning around to exit in the way she had come.
 
“Where do you think you’re going?”
 
Irene felt a tug on her shoulder as the dock officer grabbed her. So this was how they were going to play. Before he could manage much else Irene had grabbed his arm over her shoulder and lowered her body down, pulling the guy into an over the shoulder throw, his body slamming the ground with a great thud. She quickly followed this up with a palm strike to his forehead, the officer’s head smacking onto the floor boards knocking him out cold.
 
The thuds were bound to get the attention of the two men waiting outside. Irene dashed over to the desk to grab the deposit money she had just paid before heading out the way she had arrived as she heard doors opening and shouts behind her. If anything she had made herself out to be suspicious and if those men were working for the Cult they now possibly had an idea where to look for her. She had to get on the ship unseen.
 
She was out of the main building in a flash and dashed across the road into the midst of the thousands of containers that stood at docks ready to be loaded onto each cargo ship. Weaving in between the container’s Irene did her best to stay out of sight of any dock workers as she headed towards the Sea’s Fortune, the cargo ship that could take her to Hong Kong.
 
A visibility vest and a pair of worker gloves hung off the back of a forklift and she grabbed them putting them on to blend in with the workers, and after a few more corridors of containers she arrived to a stack of boxes that were being tied up by a few men. One of them spotted her and hollered out.
 
“Hey you new person, stop gawking and come help!”
 
Smearing some of the grease on her gloves onto her forehead and cheeks Irene rushed over to them to assist with the packing and transport of goods. This could be her way in. Packing and tying the boxes up together on the platform, she then volunteered to help unpack them with the forklift driver who took her onto the ship. Constantly looking about she could see some men running around looking for her further out beyond the containers. They seemed to be confused whether she was still in the docks or had run out.
 
Her grip tightening harder on the side of the forklift as she slowly made her way into the ship, she finally felt a little relief as she was in the belly of the beast, finally helping the forklift driver lower the boxes into their correct place. Feigning to stay to help with its organising, as the driver drove off Irene dashed out of the centre of the cargo bay walking rapidly to look for some nook or hole to hide in.
 
Then she found one. Tucked behind a stack of crates were a set of lockers that hid behind them a triangular empty space to which you could just squeeze through if you made the effort and was small enough. Making sure she wasn’t seen Irene climbed the side beam and slipped between the hull of the ship and the lockers, finding herself in a space only a couple square metres in size mostly in the shade but clearly out of view. It was the perfect place to hide in.
 
She felt pretty confident she would not be found in this corner of the ship. It would still be a few hours of loading the containers on before it departed on its seventy hour trip to Hong Kong, almost three days. She had enough snacks and water to survive that long, albeit a little uncomfortably and would be feeling the hunger by the end of the trip. As she had assumed she would be able to travel as a passenger and eat in the mess hall she hadn’t packed too much water and snack with her, but walking around the ship to find food was not a risk she was going to take.
 
It was unfortunate she couldn’t contact the Daughter that remained in Korea and she whispered a silent prayer for her, so she would stay safe and find a way out of there. With how things had turned out, her twin being Adhabu and her having to suddenly ghost away she was thrilled to be off and out of the country. Adjusting her position so she could comfortably rest and sit, Irene was finally able to smile a little from the relief. She was on a ship to Hong Kong; all things considered her situation was decent. All she really had to worry about was how to get out of the Hong Kong docks without trouble.
 
Freedom was just a few days away.
 
 
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Dahrene7
#1
Chapter 23: Wish this was still going, is such an unique story truly
Hope everything is okay Author!
poplarbear #2
Chapter 23: Ah reached the latest, I'm sorry to spam your comments section over again with my thoughts but i just love this story so much you don't even know :') thank you. I hope you're doing good and in a healthy condition, see you!
poplarbear #3
Chapter 22: I want to guess that Sukkagirl is Seulgi's first name? Did some research its Aramaic? If so it's around tenth century BC..
poplarbear #4
Chapter 21: <span class='smalltext text--lighter'>Comment on <a href='/story/view/1390872/21'>Chapter Twenty One</a></span>
So did some searching and i found out that the era that the era they were in at the beginning of this chapter is in early bronze age (fifth or sixth millennium BC) and judging from their names they are Sumerians, and it seems they weren't that far from the first cycle
poplarbear #5
Chapter 20: Ah this chapter never fails to put a smile on my face, i want to imagine where they all would meet, Seulgi would be so overjoyed and her oldest sister instinct would kick in making her checking them from head to toe for any injuries in a gentle way and when it's Tzuyu turn she would full-blown breaking down blabbering apologies.. I'm sorry :')
poplarbear #6
Chapter 18: Tbh I've saved their old names and its meaning on my notes as i find it very interesting how you decided to give them names from old languages:)
poplarbear #7
Chapter 17: Oh I'll be waiting for the day all of this will end :')
poplarbear #8
Chapter 7: God i want Seulgi and Tzuyu to meet up soon
poplarbear #9
Chapter 5: Reading this story always fills me with melancholic nostalgia about things that never happened, longing, and yearning.. beautiful :')
poplarbear #10
Chapter 4: I love that you choose Jannah as Jeongyeon old name, means paradise or garden in arabic.