Note from author:

Okay, it took me a looooong time to write this chapter, because I had like... 20 writer's block while writing this. It's just soo hard to express the burden and pain for M in words. Sooo sorry about that my readers. I am really gratefull that you guys waited for me to update. =]
Oh and the same thing, if you can't understand any part, just comment and I'll explain more cleary to you. ^^

 

Hyung: Literally means “older brother”, used by males

Oppa: Literally means “older brother”, used by females

Kingka: the most handsome guy in the school

Jjang: means someone that is the best at something. In my case, I am talking about fighting jjangs.

Il-Jjang: means “First Jjang”, it means the best fighter in the school

Ee-Jjang: means “Second Jjang”, it means the second best fighter in the school

Sam-Jjang: means “Third Jjang”, it means the third best fighter in the school.

Sii-Jjang: means “Fourth Jjang”, it means the fourth best fighter in the school

Hyung-nim: Respectful way of calling someone in the higher level than them and in my case, I use it to call the gang leaders.

 

Element Colors:

Fire- Red

Water-Blue

Earth- Green

Air- Purple

Spirit- Silver

 

 

Highlighted Text Like This: Thoughts going on inside M’s mind.

*Text in This* -- Actions or sounds

Text like this: Thoughts going on in other people’s life

Text like this: Mind conversations, telepathy

_____________________________________________________________

“It seems like you forgot someone” I airily whisper. As I step out of the shadows.

 

Uh-oh, the boss is mad.

The guy’s digging his own grave.

Damn playtime’s over.

He should’ve stepped out earlier. Chorused MBLAQ’s voices in my mind.

 

Goo Jum gapes at me with his mouth hanging wide open.

“……” he can’t even sputter a single word. All hope is lost in his eyes.

 

Slowly I make my way towards him, my hoodies still draw over my head shadowing half of my face. The man on the floor crawls up to a sitting position and backs away despite the blood pouring out from his back. For he knows that the real evil has descended upon him, and his fate is hanging just around the corners of this damned, dark alley. There’s no place to run anymore since the hunt has just ended. The big bad wolves have finally trapped the scrawny little rabbit in the game of death

_____________________________________________________________

 

 

I stop 3 steps away from him and look down.

 

“Play time’s over.” I said dangerously in my low tone and narrow my eyes at the pathetic figure slumping in front of me.

 

Little by little, I lower myself to his level and kneel on one knee. Then grab him roughly on the collar and pull him to closer to my face.

 

“Listen, I’ll give you a choice here. You either tell me who you are, who’s your boss and what’s your reason for stealing that “item” by yourself or I could just get it without your corporation but I assure you that the process will. Be. Very. Painful.” I hiss out hazardously.

 

Goo Jum twitches his fingers and a big ball of water suddenly appears above my head, but fortunately Joon stops it before it could fall. The man in my hand glares hatefully at me as the faint blue glow of E.S.P. fades from his palm.
 

“The report said that Goo Jum is a fire user, apparently they are wrong. Useless idiots.” G.O. says in an unpleasant tone.

 

I slowly call my element to me, it’s still weak and broken from the incident earlier but it’s enough to take on this pup.

 

Silver air appears above my hands and flows quietly into Goo Jum’s ears and in seconds, the man stiffens and falls to the ground weightlessly as if there’re no muscles supporting his body. I stand up slowly and tilt my head to the side. The man on the floor has his mouth open in a way we do when we are screaming in absolute terror, but still no sound’s coming out from his mouth.

 

“Spiders” I said, my eyes never leaving Goo Jum as I speak, “He thinks that he’s seeing spiders, and they’re crawling on him, or into him, depending on how big his fears are.” MBLAQ momentarily shudders altogether. Goo Jum is staring into space with his mouth still hanging open in that very same state as earlier. He seems to be in his own world, and it is a very, very bad one.

 

Illusions, that’s what I’m doing to Goo Jum, I’m making him sense things with his mind instead of his five senses with Spirit. So in a way, it is not real, but as long as I make the mind believes that it’s real, it’s as true as reality. The mind is not something that we should mess with because it is as important as our heart, it might not hurt him physically but mentally, he is experiencing the worst 10 seconds in his whole life. You can heal a physical wound, but you can never completely heal a mental wound.

 

“What a surprise, a man like him has a secret fear for a tiny, eight legged arachnid.” I mumble with amusement. “Should I move on or should go with snakes, his second worst fear next?”

 

Right now I am using Goo Jum’s fear on him, but it’s not me that’s making the horrifying images, it’s Goo Jum himself. The stronger the fear he has for something, the worse the illusions will make itself to be. That can surely break a man’s spirit no?
 

I release him from his mental torture and let him rest for a few moments. By now, his body is covered in sweat and as soon as I release him, he starts throwing up next to him and trembles break out throughout his whole body.

 

“Did you change your mind yet?” I ask with no sympathy.

He just looks at me with his dull and weary eyes. Even in this condition he still has resolve, which is something I admire. But even a pig knows that sometimes stubbornness can be the death of you.

 

“You leave me with no choice.” I say in an emotionless voice.

 

As I am talking, I am actually invading Goo Jum’s mind. To control the mind of a Marrok is an easy task for me, but with Phantoms it is a different case because they have naturally stronger bodies and minds than Marroks. Therefore whereas I can still read their minds normally, it’ll surprisingly take me a little effort to completely overpower them, especially if I am in my recovery state.

Goo Jum stiffens as he feels me inside his head and he puts up a great deal of resistance. But after I attack again and this time more forcefully. The resistance begins to slowly die out and leaving behind only a faint sensation of frustration.

 

Just as I am about to read Goo Jum’s memories, an abnormal power of ESP suddenly blocks me from doing so and forces me out of his mind.

Wha- o;O

Surprised, I look down at the man and round my eyes in astonishment. In Goo Jum’s mind there is an unknown force of ESP that is acting as a barrier to prevent me from reading his memories. I guess his master sent him here well prepared to face me.

This power, I’ve felt never it somewhere before. Who can it be? I know all of the Phantoms in Korea and none of them are this strong. Right now the main suspect is Bi… but I know Bi’s ESP and this is not it. However it is definitely not a coincidence that he made himself identifiable before us today. Even in this state that I’m in, I am still stronger than half of the Phantoms out there but with this ESP, I can’t even make out the element that it belongs to……
How interesting, Min Hyung would tease me that I finally found my match.

 

Unknowingly I smirk at the thought of a worthy opponent. When I am in W mode, I can let my true aggressive feelings out and I don’t need to fake innocence. But first things first, I need to know exactly who my enemy is.

 

“MBLAQ, commanders of the Paranormal Army (P.A.), heads of the Military Branch and members part of the E.E.T., this is your order: Force the name of Goo Jum’s boss out of him. I will give you exactly 10 minutes. Do not disappoint me.” I command my best squad in the whole P.E.

 

One by one they step out of their hiding spot and bow simultaneously in a noble fashion. This is one of the customs in the P.E., when one of the Higher Levels gives an order to a Phantom(s) then this is the proper procedure that the request should be given and received in.

 

“Leader of MBLAQ and second in command of the E.E.T., Yang Seungho. If that is your wish then it shall be done.” They reply graciously like knights from the medieval periods. Well… almost knights. Mir looks up at the last second and winks at me.
“Leave it to us boss.”
 

“I’ll ask you for the last time, are you going to tell us willingly or not?” Seungho asks in a soft tone.

 

Goo Jum shakes his head slowly from side to side.

 

Seungho’s voice grows hard again when he speaks this time. “Okay, if you want it that way.” Then he makes a small gesture towards Thunder.

 

For a moment nothing happens, but then a horrifying scream fills the air.  Goo Jum crouches on the floor and clenches his hair in agony.

 

“Wh- what a-are you d-d-doing t-o me?” He chokes out painfully before letting out another agonizing scream that echoes in the late night air.

It’s only a matter of time before someone comes to investigate all the screaming.

 

G.O.I whisper in G.O.’s mind.

 

Immediately walls rise from the ground and cover us in a big semi sphere. Mir quickly snaps his fingers and fireballs pop up at different parts of the area.

 

“It’s painful isn’t it? I am pressing air inside your head. The pressure’s so insanely high that it feels like your head is going to explode. But that’s not the end of it.” Thunder explains in a monotone, all the teasing from before gone. That’s when the real torture starts.

 

The next 5 minutes are excruciating to watch. Thunder doesn’t just stop with physical force of air. He also controls Goo Jum’s breathing. Sometimes he chokes Goo Jum with it and the next second he will take all of Goo jum’s breathe away leaving him gasping for air. At the same time increasing the air pressure inside his mind but carefully controlled so it doesn’t go over his brain limit that would make him into the mentality of a newborn baby.

 

Little by little the rest of MBLAQ starts to join in the torture except for the leader. Seungho just watches from the side as the rest of MBLAQ start their persecution. Joon is controlling the flow of blood in Goo Jum’s body, for instance sometimes he stops the blood flow to the brain for a few seconds making Goo Jum on the verge of fainting but then suddenly plunges it back again. Mir is burning Goo Jum’s hands with a highly intensive flame that doesn’t have any color. G.O is controlling vines and tightening them around Goo Jum’s whole body so he doesn’t move when they torture him. Also the more he struggles, the tighter the vines will be. This goes on for another 5 minutes.

 

I have to choice to close my eyes or to look away, we all do. But all of us choose to open our eyes to watch the endless torture without looking away, because this is our commitment, the burden that we have to carry as long as we are still pawns in my father’s game.

 

Finally MBLAQ comes to a stop just before 10 minutes when Goo Jum whispered a faint inaudible name, but we all heard it as clear as ice. The state that Goo Jum is in right now is just hideous to look at. His body is covered in sweat and blood, his hands are covered with burn mark, there are red long marks on his skin where the vines bundled itself at and he looks like he just aged 30 years with his haggard face and haunted eyes.

 

Nicely done MBLAQ, you didn’t disappoint me.

Now it’s time to get the real job started.

 

“You want to know something Goo Jum?” I break the silence. He turns at me with bloodshot eyes, and I stare right back at him without a trace of emotion.

 

“A person can be rude, can be stubborn, and can be weak. But you know what they should never be?” With every word I took a step closer to him. “They should never be so painfully stupid.” By the time I finish I am standing right in front of him.

 

“And this is why you are the way you are right now. I didn’t cause this to happen, you did. Do you think that this world is in black and white? Good people aren’t always good, parents don’t always love their children, lovers don’t always stay faithful to each other and bosses can always lie to their subordinates. As far as I can see it, your boss does not have any obligations to keep his promises after you get that ‘item’ back to him, he might as well silence you because you know too much.

 

“No…No…No No No NO! I have the ‘item’! He will award me! He will-”

“Oh, you mean this ‘item’?” With lightning speed I snatch the ‘item’ from Goo Jum’s blooded jeans.

“Seem like you don’t have it anymore.” I taunt him as I hold the fist-size green scroll with dragon paintings in my hand, the very reason that started everything.

 

 Goo Jum just pathetically whimpers on the ground and shakily curls up in a fetal position.

 

I roughly grab his jaws and jerk him to look me in the eyes.

“Oh really? Then look, you are the only one suffering. Where is your boss when you are hurting like this? How is it fair that you are the only one in agony? Doesn’t he care about you at all? Don’t you want to make him suffer with you? He doesn’t care, he never did. You are only a tool for him to get what he wants, and after a tool finishes its job, there is no reason for it to exist anymore.”

 

The mumbled protests slowly become muffled, and the defeat in his eyes is getting bigger and bigger.

 

One last push.

 

“This is the truth and you know it, so stop your struggles and at least save yourself a less painful death. Tell me about your boss and his plans.”

 

All energy seems to be out of Goo Jum as he limps lifelessly in my hold. I probably just scattered a man’s whole life but this is necessary for me to get the truth.

 

There, he’s mine.

 

“My boss… he is planning to assassinate the Emp. and destroy the Paranormal Empire.” Goo Jum whispers dully at me.

 

“Destroy? He doesn’t want to take over but destroy the P.E.? For what reasons?” I ask skeptically.

 

“Take over? Don’t make me laugh.” He sneers drily at my question. “Boss would never want to keep this evil, sinful so-called empire of yours. When he finally kills the Emp. it will be the day that marks the end of all Phantoms and all suffering. The New Start.” The last bit sounds recited and memorized.

 

“I see, then where can we find this boss of yours?” Seungho asks darkly from where he’s standing.

 

“I don’t know, I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him since I arrived at the A.A. I’m tired I want to rest now. Let me rest.” He claims tiredly and closes his eyes.

 

Sighing I let go of him and he falls to the floor.

“This is the most he can tell us. Let’s contact the Higher Levels and have them take care of him.”

 

“But isn’t that our job?” Thunder confusingly asks.

 

“No, our job is to find him and get the ‘item’ back. Afterwards we will hand him over to the Higher Levels to let them take care of him.” I explain.

 

“What are they going to do with him?” This time Joon asks me.

 

“Probably to pry more information out of him. But I should tell them that he probably don’t have the spirit to tell us anymore.” I take out my phone and speed dial 3.

 

“......*click* Yes.” A low, manly voice answers the phone.

“Hyung, I got Goo Jum.” I said.

“...Do you have the ‘item’?”

“Yes. We are in Myeongdong, in an alley next to Starbucks. Come and get him.”

“Will we be getting a corpse or a living human? Knowing you it is probably a corpse.” Another voice cuts in the conversation, but unlike the other one, this voice is mellow and –if you didn’t know better- kind.

“Stop cutting in.” The first voice snaps.

“But our dongsaeng is talking to me too.” The second voice retorts.

“Goo Jum is half way in between but if you don’t come yet, he will really become one.” I continue, ignoring the bickers like usual.

“I’ll send someone, where is your location?” The first voice asks.

“GPS my phone, we will leave first. Send an Earth user because we have him inside a semi sphere made from mud. Goo Jum is not in any state to talk but I already got some information out of him. I’ll tell you in person when we meet.” I summarize the important info.

“Okay, we’ll contact you later.” The same voice replies.

*Click*

 

Finish calling, I turn to MBLAQ.

“You probably heard everything already so let’s go.” I said to them.

 

Mir breaks into a yawn.

“Another job done. Well I don’t know about you guys but when we get home I’m going to have a nice sleep. See you guys later.” He turns and walks out of an opening that G.O. created for us to get out.

 

“Is there anything else you need us to do?” Seungho asks me as we all come out to the openings.

 

“No, call the gangs and tell them to rest for the weekend, we will resume the trainings on Monday.” I tell him as we speed walk to the entrance of the alley where our bikes are parked.

 

G.O. takes out his phone and types a few words in it then closes it.

“Done.”

 

“Unless it’s an emergency don’t contact me during this weekend. I’ll go first.” I hope on my bike in one jump and start my engine. The hole on the head of my bike is still there from when I punched my bike out of anger.

 

I’ll have to let Jun Hyung fix it.

 

Briskly, I drive off into the night of Seoul, while keeping my back firm the whole time. Leaving my 5 best subordinates watching me leave with sullen eyes.

 

“Do you think he is fine?” G.O asks Seungho in a hush voice, but everyone still hears him.

 

“We don’t have the right to feel sorry for what we do. W never showed us any remorse for doing his job, never in front of others. But he is still human, we are still human. He will be fine, he always has, and so will we.” Seungho answers softly with a trace of sadness in the deepest part of his eyes along with the rest of MBLAQ. They stay there for a few more seconds before jumping on their bikes and drive off into the darkness.

 

The wind blows harshly on my face, slowly, my façade start to fade along with the blazing wind. From the cold, emotionless W to M, my innermost self with eyes filled with anger and great sadness. The sneaky conscious that lures under my compression for the whole night finally breaks free and take over my mind. Filling it with guilt and anger, trying to make me feel regret.

 

Stupid idiot, can’t believe you are still like this after all this times. You’re pathetic, this world is pathetic, but you have to live with it. Feeling like this can’t help anything, what’s done is done, and it’s by your own choice. So don’t you DARE feel regret now! Sorry can’t cut the blame. You selfish, pitiful killer.  I silently scold myself.

 

The pounding in my head from the side effect of breaking the seal to use my ESP is already getting stronger. For the whole ride back I just let my conscious torment me but never allowing myself to feel regret, and then I will shut everything out again and go back to my lies.

 

Half an hour later I arrive back at my mansion. Somehow Baby Jun and Min hyung are already there waiting for me. Wordlessly I hand Baby Jun the keys for my bike but glare at them when Min hyung tries to carry me back into my room. My brothers are the only ones that know this side of me, but even with them, I can’t help but build a thin wall to keep them from understanding the real me.

 

“Don’t start.” I warn them, erasing any chance of them arguing with me.

 

They just look at me with exasperate eyes.

 

In 3 seconds, I’m already walking in the corridor outside my room. My head feels like it’s about to burst as I stagger blindly into my room. In 2 minutes, I finish showering and changing then I force myself to bed despite the terrible headache and pain in my heart.

 

[In the Warehouse]

“Hyung it hurts me to see M like that.” Hyungjun says while fixing the dent on M’s bike.

 

“I know, it hurts all of us, but we can’t change her. She won’t let us, no matter how hard we try, it will be no use if she can’t open herself us to us.” Jungmin replies desperately while messing up his blonde hair.

 

“I just wish that a person that could change M will come soon.” Hyungjun sighs and continue to work.

 

[Somewhere in Seoul]

“Hyung, the fan meeting is tomorrow right?” Seungri asks Jiyong who is reading a fashion magazine on the couch.

 

“Hmm, yeah, are you ready?” Jiyong replies absentmindedly while flipping to the next page.

 

“Of course, I’m always ready for the fans!” Seungri shouts while doing a victory pose.

 

“Shut up!” A pillow flies and hits the maknae on the head.

 

“Ow hyung! It hurts!” He turns and yells at the oldest who is lying on the bed.

 

“Let me sleep!!” TOP roars and glares at the maknae.

 

*Silence*

No one wants to bother a sleepy lion and TOP’s glares are scary.

 

“But you know Taeyang hyung, I have a feeling that tomorrow something great will happen.” Seungri whispers to Taeyang only to be buried by 5 more pillows this time thrown by TOP and Daesung.

 

“SHUT UP!!”