Devil's Last Card

[Chapter 27]

Hyunjae’s sweat trickled down the side of her face. Both guns in her hands pointed at him. “Let’s end this general.” She said.

The general was out of options. There was a helicopter waiting for him outside. He deliberate a plan in his head, asking himself how the hell is he supposed to get there without having bullets fired at his head. “Are you really willing to die just to save those people?” He said, looking appalled. “You’ve grown soft and weak, Hyunjae.”

“Look at you,” Hyunjae’s lip curved into a full smirk. “Making conversation and buying your self some time. This is a new low for you, commander. Are you that scared I’d kill you?” She questioned him back.

General Song gritted his teeth in anger. Everything was backfiring. His plans were a complete pile of crap now. There was only one thing left to do… Run.

Hyunjae could help but laugh when he started running to get down to the first floor. She didn’t open fire, instead she waited for him to get down. “Are you done running?” She said.

The general drew his gun and aimed at Hyunjae.

“Shoot me,” She smiled fiercely. “If you can.”

He pulled the trigger. But he was too nervous. The shot went pass Hyunjae. It was a totally miss. “Y-You know I’ve always treated you like my daughter! I trained you and thought you everything I know! A-And this is what you repay me?” He was starting to sound desperate.

Hearing that made Hyunjae feel sick to the core. Daughter? He treated her like an animal. Punishing her for every simple mistakes, teaching her to kill… He was a monster. Hyunjae lived her whole childhood trying to please a horrible monster.

“My turn..” Hyunjae said. Oddly, she pointed her gun upwards and not at the old man. “Alright then, Father,” She looked dangerously serious. “Let’s play this little game I like to call… who can shoot better in the dark?”

She fired at the light bulbs and everything went dark.

And then she fired again. “AHGGGGGG!!!!!” The shot went straight through the man’s right knee. “You little ungrateful !” He howled in pain.

Hyunjae’s voice crept up along the walls. “That’s nothing compared to all the pain you’ve caused me…” The silent anger in her voice was chilling. It scared him that he couldn’t see her. He couldn’t see anything. But it wasn’t the same for Hyunjae. She could hear him breathing, easily pinpointing where he was. “I could shoot you straight to the head right now but that wouldn’t be enough of a payment for all the things you did!” All the anger stored up and bottled up inside Hyunjae was starting to pour out. “You made me… kill innocent people.” Her voice shook in so much abhorrence and loathing. She cried. “I followed everything you said!” She fired another shot, this time it went through his left thigh. He could no longer stand.

“That’s right.” He started laughing like he’s finally lost all his marbles. “You killed people, Hyunjae. No matter how much you’ve change or how many good deeds you do, that won’t change the fact that you’re a cold blooded killer. You are no different from me. Pwuahahahahah!!”

“That’s not true!” She cried. “I am nothing like you!” She pulled her trigger the third time. Blood poured out at the side of the man’s abdomen.

“T-This isn’t over…” He coughed up blood. “We have another thing in common, little girl.” He whispered amusedly. “We might as well both go to hell…”

“W…What?”

The general gave one last laugh. If he was dying… He might as well take Hyunjae with him. He pulled out some sort of device from his pocket, but of course Hyunjae didn’t see it. It was too dark. This was his plan B incase everything else went wrong. And unfortunately it did. This was his final card.

Suddenly, It dawned on Hyunjae…

She dropped her guns and ran…

But the general had already pressed the activate button.

The final bomb went off.

“Are you sure you’ll be fine?” Jongin asked Sunghee. He brought them safely back into a hospital. “You should get your self checked.”  

“I’m alright. I’m not hurt.” She insisted. Her eyes were red and tired from crying.

“He’ll be alright.” Jongin gave her a reassuring hug.

The nurses took Sehun into the emergency room, which only made Sunghee nervous. Waiting outside the room was even nerve wrecking than being locked up into a hanging cage. It was scarier that anything she’s ever faced before.

“Go.” She told Jongin. “Hyunjae needs you.”

He gave her a nod and left.

“W-What was that!?” Baekhyun jumped in shock like everyone else did. Suddenly they see clouds of smoke flare up from somewhere close.

“S-Sunghee!” Joonmyun suddenly screamed out in fear that Sunghee might be in that blazing building. He started running towards it and everyone followed.

The whole place had caved in and enormous flames were venting up. Joonmyun frantically started propelling water through the fire. Chanyeol helped by trying to absorb the blazes. The fire died in minutes.

“H-Help me!” Joonmyun stammered as he rummaged through the remains of the building. Tears leaked from his eyes, pulling piles off rubbish and finding nothing.

For a moment, Kris thought maybe Sunghee was dead. The place looked devastated and ruined, everything was blown to bits and charred into ashes. Kris stood silently looking at the desperate Joonmyun. Kyungsoo lifted the heaviest bits of scrap, while Baekhyun flashed light at every corner to check. Chanyeol and Daehyun dove and plunged into the dirt just to check. Everyone else was digging through everything, keeping their hopes up. Still, Kris stood limply, hopeless.

Not until his phone rang.

“Hyung, This is Tao.” The boy spoke. “We made it safely. Sunghee and Sehun are here too!” Tao said excitedly. At that instant, Kris breathed like he has been holding his breath for hours. Relief rushed through him. “It turns out Jongin brought them here—“

“JOONMYUN!” Kris screamed. “SUNGHEE’S OKAY! SHE’S OKAY! SHE’S AT THE HOSPITAL WITH SEHUN AND THE OTHERS!”

Everyone dropped whatever they were holding and gasped out their reliefs.       

“H-Hyung?” Tao said through the phone. “Is everyone alright?”

“Y-Yeah..” Kris could even express how relieved he was. “Everything’s fine now.”

“Alright then, we’ll be waiting here.” Tao ended the call.

Chanyeol was helping Joonmyun up who was sobbing happily and found his knees too wobbly to get even up. “Come on hyung, Sunghee is waiting at the hospital—“

“HYUNJAE!!?” Suddenly Jongin appeared. He looked stunned. “HYUNJAE!!!” He called again. He ran towards a pile of wet ashes and dug, looking for her. Crying, he threw away debris calling out her name. “Help me!” He looked towards the others. “Help me look for Hyunjae!!”

This time, Kris went in and joined the search.

Joonmyun walked up to Jongin and tried to calm him down. But the boy seemed to be in so much shock and kept pushing him away. “Jongin, we’ve been looking for minutes now… There’s nothing here.” Joonmyun said desolately.

Jongin stood up and started screaming her name. “HYUNJAE~YAH!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!” He called desperately.

“Jongin—“ Kris said.

“NO!!!!” Jongin cried. “I promised!!! I promised…. I’d come back—“

“Jongin!” Joonmyun strugged. He wrapped his arms around the distraught boy.

It all came back to him. The way Miyoung had died in his arms. How he couldn't do anything at all to help her. The wound in Jongin's heart was once again ripped open. This time he's failed Hyunjae too. Jongin wanted to kill himself. “I’m useless.. I’m so useless!” Sobbing in his hyung’s arms, Jongin felt like dying. He punched the ground several times, breaking his own knuckles. “It’s all my fault! Hyunjae~yah!!!” He screamed, choking in his own tears. “Hyung, help me.. help me find her..She’s alive!! I know she is! Help me..”

“G-Guys!” Daehyun screamed. “Look…” He found the general’s body. Daehyun felt sick just looking at the old man’s corpse.

“He’s dead…” Chanyeol mumbled, looking at the burnt body. “Hyunjae must’ve done it…”

“M-Maybe she’s not here..” Kyungsoo said. “We haven’t found anything, right?”

“R-Right.” Baekhyun agreed. “She could have run away before the explosion. Hyunjae is a smart and strong girl.”

“We have to go before the cops get here.” Kris reminded them.

“I won’t go.” Jongin stood up away from Joonmyun, clearly he wasn’t thinking straight. “I’ll keep looking.. I won’t leave.”

“She’s not here,Jongin.” Kris assured him, without being sure with himself.

“How would you know that?!” Jongin yelled. “Were you here when the whole damn place exploded?!”

“Were you!?” Kris spat back. “You weren’t here either!”

“Enough!” Kyungsoo intervened. “Stop fighting! It’s not helping!”

Baekhyun looked at Daehyun. Instatnly, Daehyun knew he had to take measurable actions.

“Kim Jongin.” Daehyun looked at him. “Sleep.”

Jongin dropped and was caught by Joonmyun.