For Clarity:

Lee Chaeyeon - Male - 24 years old

Choi Yena - Male - 24 years old

Kim Chaewon - Male - 22 years old

Lee Chaeryeong - Female - 21 years old

Jo Yuri - Femal - 21 years old

Ahn Yujin - Male - 20 years old

Honda Hitomi - Female - 23 years old

Chapter 1

The woman in his dreams

In a dim lit room, the sight of dried and splattered blood covered the walls, chains hang from the ceiling, knives and bullets littered the floor. There stood a 12-year-old boy with scars and wounds marring his skin—he was a sight that perfectly belonged to the ambiance of the room where he stood.

Across from this boy, a 20-year-old girl crouched down to his level, a girl whose skin was so fair and so perfect, she seemed so untouchable and so out of place. In a room that exclaimed death and pain—she was the light, in a room that took away all joy—she was an angel.

“Chaeyeon! What are you doing here?!” The girl shook the boy’s shoulders as she whispered in fear. Her eyes darting from the only door in the room to the boy’s guilty stature.

The boy pursed his lips, a sign that he wouldn’t answer her question. The older girl sighed, shaking her head, they both had bigger problems than why Chaeyeon was out of bed.

“You can’t do this again! Do you know what will happen to the both of us if they caught you here?” The girl asked, frustrated. Fear was evident in her eyes; she was looking at the door behind him—as if it was where monsters were born.

The girl stood up and took Chaeyeon’s hand in hers, leading the boy to the door with the intent of taking him back to the room where the other children were. The girl hoped that she would have enough time to do so, before they came.

Her hopes were crushed immediately.

The boy and the girl froze, hearing the footsteps that echoed from the hallway and smelling the cigarette smoke that lingered in the air.

“Chaeyeon-ah you’ll be good for noona, won’t you?” a twelve-year-old version of Lee Chaeyeon nodded earnestly, fear evident in his eyes as he heard the desperation in the older girl’s voice.

“Okay, then hide for me.” This time the child’s response came a bit more hesitant. His eyes darting to the door. “But noona… why can’t we just go back to the others?”

Chaeyeon’s question was left unanswered as he was dragged and pushed into the cabinet by the corner. He was about to protest when the older girl covered his lips with her hand and signalled for him to be quiet.

The girl looked at Chaeyeon pleadingly while shaking her head. Tears escaping the corner of her eyes.

The moment the older girl closed the cabinet, was the same moment the monster walked through the door.

            Screams.

            Pleas.

            Cries.

            Blood.

That night Chaeyeon discovered that his noona wasn’t untouchable, that his angel was also nothing but a prisoner.

Lee Chaeyeon woke up drenched in sweat. He sat up with his hands gripping his gun, finger on trigger. He scanned his surroundings, squinting his eyes to see in the dark of his room. His adrenaline was enhancing his senses, paranoia clouding his judgment.

Breathing heavily, Chaeyeon tried to calm himself, seeing as there was no other threat present apart from himself. Laying back down on his bed, he covered his eyes with his forearm, gun still heavy in his hand, memories haunting his thoughts.

“Chaeyeon-ah you’ll be good for noona, won’t you?”

Chaeyeon remembered that night so clearly it was as if it just happened yesterday, when in fact, a decade has already passed from that night that took the last piece of Chaeyeon’s innocence… that night that decided Chaeyeon’s life.

Tears spilled from his eyes, remembering the helplessness he once felt as a child, but he wasn’t a child anymore—he didn’t need protecting. It was those that hurt him and his family that will need to pay this time, they will be the ones to feel the same helplessness, the same pain, and he would shed blood and so much more.

He swore he would or he would die trying.

“Oppa?” Chaeyeon removed his forearm that was covering his eyes, looking towards the source of the familiar voice that interrupted his thoughts and sent his inner demons scampering to hide.

“Chaeryeong?” Chaeyeon asked, his eyes squinted as light suddenly invaded his sight. Once he got over from the abrupt brightness, he saw his little sister standing by the door looking like a deer caught in headlights.

“Are you okay? I heard you screaming.” Chaeryeong asked, concern evident in her voice as she took a step towards her older brother. Waking up to the screams of her brother were a regular event, but this night his screams were different, it was haunting… The kind Chaeryeong never wanted to hear ever again.

Chaeyeon smiled at Chaeryeong and patted the spot beside him, hoping to hide the gun he held in his hand. Chaeyeon wasn’t blind he knew how he was at night, but seeing the way his dreams has shaken his younger sister was like a stake in the gut.

“I’m fine Chaeryeong,” Chaeyeon tried to comfort his sister, but he could see that it was futile with the way she hesitantly sat beside him, eyeing the gun, her shoulder’s tense.

Chaeryeong looked at Chaeyeon’s face and wasn’t shocked to see tears in his eyes. She raised up her hands and wiped those that had started to escape its confines.

“Did you dream about her?” Chaeryeong asked, knowing how the woman from his past affected him.

Chaeyeon closed his eyes at the comfort of his sister’s hands on his face. Nodding like a child, he let his guards down, remembering that even if he wasn’t able to protect her, he’s more than able to protect the people who mattered to him now.

Chaeryeong smiled at her brother’s defeat at her comfort, knowing how Chaeyeon liked to front his strong resolve, but when other’s feared him, Chaeryeong could see the cracks on the surface, she knew along with Yujin, Yena, Yuri, and Chaewon—they knew how to let the true Lee Chaeyeon out, even when if it was only for a bit.

                     “Blackbird singing in the dead of night,

            Take these broken wings and learn to fly.

            All your life,

            You were only waiting for this moment to arise.”

Chaeryeong sang softly as her brother’s breathing slowed and sleep started to claim him back. Chaeryeong laid her brother as soft as she could back to his bed, propping his head over a pillow. She wiped the sweat on his forehead and his hair, lulling Chaeyeon to sleep like a mother would to its babe.

            “Black bird singing in the dead of night,

            Take these sunken eyes and learn to see.

            All your life,

            You were only waiting for this moment to be free.”

Please Subscribe to read the full chapter