Chapter 4 - Branded

Ja Young was woken up by murmurings of people around her. She raised her head from the dusty ground. The first thing she saw was people crammed together in a relatively small room. She whipped her head as soon as she heard Hye Young coughing violently into her hand. Ja Young immediately reacted and put her arms around her. She ignored the dull pain at the back of her head while she patted her sister’s back. Questions flooded her mind as she was comforting her sickly sister. 

A hand suddenly touched her shoulder and she was about to punch the person behind her but her fist got caught in another hand. She then realized that it was Kai. He knew better than to taste her inhuman strength for the second time. He also noticed that it wasn't as strong as he first experienced, and sensed something strange in the room.

“Tch, your reflexes are such a pain to catch.” He smirked lightly. He released her fist and she lowered it. She glared at him for a few seconds before turning her attention to Hye Young.

“Where are we?” She quietly asked.

“A 3rd World Country called Bunshi. We’re in some kind of facility that are run by Daemens. While you were unconscious, I was trying to get some information from the people around us.” He whispered.

“Did you find out about anything?” Ja Young turned her gaze to the teleport user.

“You lot are better off as young dead Argents in here,” a new gruff voice interrupted. Kai and the sisters turned to see a middle-aged man slouching against the steel wall.

“This is no ordinary facility. This is one of Bunshi’s Death Camps. While we’re here, you kids are no longer people. Every one of us is branded by a number.”

He pulled up his sleeve to reveal his tattooed number in four digits.

Ja Young stripped off the right side of her jacket and saw her own tattooed number surrounded by swollen red skin on the back side of her forearm. The number read 5112. Ja Young’s mind froze. Her identity was taken away. Her freedom was torn from her.

She wasn’t Hong Ja Young anymore. She was prisoner number 5112.

“If you’re trying to escape, poof-boy, forget it. These walls neutralize our abilities that we can’t use them at all. Your days are now numbered, kids. Get ready to say your final prayers to your friends and family.”

The man caught his next words when the large doors suddenly opened and three Daemens tossed a boy on the ground. They also took six more unwilling prisoners effortlessly and slammed the door shut. Hye Young looked up to the injured boy and was shocked to see that none of the people sitting around weren’t concerned about him at all. She stood up out of Ja Young’s arms and stumbled towards him.

“Please be alive! Please open your eyes!” Hye Young cradled his head in her arms until he wearily opened his eyes. For a second, the boy thought he saw an angel.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt?” She hastily asked. He only nodded. He reached up to touch Hye Young’s porcelain cheek. Hye Young then realized that he was mute from his lack of speech. Ja Young and Kai approached them and looked at the broken boy.

Hye Young looked up at her sister and pleaded, “Help me take him to the corner! He needs help!”

Kai was bewildered for a moment. He had found out before entering this camp that she was dying, and yet she was showing her concern for a boy she never met before. Seeing her eyes b with tears, Kai bent down, wrapped the boy’s arm around his neck and lifted him up to lean against him.

Ja Young escorted Hye Young behind Kai. He set the boy down against the wall and the trio surrounded him. He looked around to see people around the same age as him, with genuine concern in their eyes. He had not been taken care of ever since he was branded number 4319.

“You’re mute, aren’t you?” Hye Young carefully asked. He looked at her eyes and then down his lap. Ja Young gathered the dirt on the ground and pushed it towards him so he could write on it.

“What’s your name?” Hye Young asked.

The boy tiredly lifted his hand off the floor and carefully spread out the dirt beside him. Then he spelled out his name in his foreign characters, 吳世勛

“Oh Se Hun?” Kai read, noting that his name didn't match the language he was using. The mute boy must be using foreign characters as a code. Se Hun withdrew his hand back to his lap and leaned his head against the wall. He was only wearing what seemed like a noble apparel that have been torn, dirtied and burnt. His face has also been scratched and bruised from numerous beatings. The white clothes were no longer white but more like brown and some traces of red from his blood.

“Were there other people with you?” Kai asked him, who barely shook his head from side to side. Se Hun gasped a little from the lack of water for his parched throat. Kai sighed, trying to mask his reaction. Ja Young and Hye Young did the same.

“Figures. It’s a death camp after all. Seeing you in a bad shape right now tells me that you’re a pretty tough guy. How old are you?” Kai complimented.

Se Hun spelled out 19 in the dirt. Hye Young gently wiped a speck of dirt from his cheek and turned to Ja Young. “He’s only a year older than us and he can bear so much pain. He's barely hanging onto his life.” Ja Young had pity and anger in her heart at the moment that she couldn’t even bring herself to say anything. Nothing in their lives can compare to Se Hun’s time in the death camp.

“This kid is the same age as me. Guess we’re not the only “kids” here.” He sarcastically remarked.

“Take your smartass comments somewhere else. They're not going to save us here," Ja Young sneered at him.

“‘Us’? Since when did you think I was on your side?”

“Would it really matter to you when we could die today? Is your pride more important than this boy‽” Ja Young had never been more disappointed in her life. “I never knew that you and your selfishness could sink any lower.” There was no trace of sarcasm dripping from her words. Kai got the point that she was dead serious.

“If these words are leaving through your other ear, don’t be involved with us anymore. You’d only be extra weight,” Ja Young was harsh, regardless of age difference. It was her intense and serious nature that made her act this way. The hope she had for Kai had dissipated once she witnessed his true uncaring nature.

When Kai wanted to retort back at her, the Daemens came back into the room empty handed from earlier. They approached the corner and grabbed the new prisoners with great struggle. Ja Young and Kai were fighting against their strong grips while Hye Young was trying to get back to Se Hun, who was reaching out for her like a child.

Ja Young was screeching and squirming in their grips but they were stronger than her because of the building neutralizing her power. Kai and Hye Young struggled to escape but they didn’t have any luck either. Kai would have teleported to anywhere he wanted but there was no avoiding the inevitable. When the Daemens reached a fork in the hallway, they nodded at each other and started to lead Hye Young in the opposite direction of her sister and Kai.

“No! Hye Young! Let me go! Hye Young! Don’t leave me!” Ja Young screamed at the top of her lungs while Hye Young was crying towards her sister. Kai realized that Ja Young was very stubborn and persistent, but he felt the close relationship between them that couldn't break easily.

Ja Young kept on screaming until she was tied up against a pole beside Kai. She looked up to face a Daemen that looked like a devious person. He went up close to her and examined her face. He had a look on his face that she didn’t like. He clicked his tongue in disappointment and flicked his hand as he mused on.

“Such a waste to see such a young beauty knocking on Hell’s door. Wouldn’t you agree, my dear?” He was clearly mocking her. He caressed her cheek until she rashly spit in his eye. After recoiling, he slapped her across her face, a grunt escaping from her lips.

“How dare you, you little wench! You have a face of an angel but a soul of a demon! Start the beating!”

He turned around with his black silk robes whirling behind. Two Daemen giants entered the room and took their positions in front of them ready to pound. Ja Young turned to her side to face Kai, who shared a frightened look in his eyes. She wanted to say something but the huge fist collided with her body against the pole. She let out another grunt of pain while coughing out saliva.

The giants continued to crush and pound the life out of their bodies for what seemed like an eternity for them. Ja Young’s and Kai’s grunts stubbornly refused to get louder. If this was the pain that Hye Young would also endure, then Ja Young wouldn't give into the beating and hope for death. Saliva turned into blood coming out of their mouths. Their bones were like the ingredients in a mortar while the giants' fists were the pestle. Kai was sure that at least two of his ribs were broken. Ja Young's knees were about to give up on her and her consciousness was slipping in and out of her eyes, but he still hung onto her sanity. Kai glanced through his closing and swelling eyes at Ja Young, who was enduring the hits. He realized that her resilience was for her sister, unable to imagine what kind of torture Hye Young could be going through. Kai figured that the short-haired Argent wouldn't give up without a fight, steeling her soul for her sister.

Before the last blow was given, the Daemen Lord raised his hand to stop. He stood up again and went up in between the giants with a nasty smirk on his face.

“Do you have any last words to say before you face your doom, children?”

Kai let out a dry laugh. “I have last words left.” Ja Young was dreading on what he was about to say. If he was going to agonize about how pathetic Argents were, she would be angry at him for all eternity in Hell.

“You think we’re gonna die in a few minutes? Well...” he winced for a moment. “You’re sadly mistaken, old man. This “death camp” of yours will be destroyed when we get out of here!” Ja Young could barely make out the sudden change of heart, almost scathing at his statement.

The Daemen Lord’s face turned red in anger. “What are you two doing‽ Finish them!”

Ja Young closed her eyes, waiting for the torture to be over until the doors behind them burst open with a lower ranked Daemen urgently came in. “My Lord, there is a riot going on amongst the Argents. Prisoner number 4319 has gone mad!”

Kai’s tired eyes widened. It was Se Hun’s number. The Lord shot up from his seat and got out of the room with the two giants. The door then slammed shut. Kai winced at the tightness of the ropes while trying to reach his hand into his pocket for his knife. He managed to cut his burning binds free longer than he expected and ran to the other pole where Ja Young had finally passed out.

Kai cut her ropes and caught her before she hit the floor. He checked her pulse if she was still alive. Sure enough she was, but she was very weak. Kai still had that image of the strong and complex Ja Young in his head and couldn’t believe that she was now in his arms nearly dying. He let out a sigh of relief that she wasn’t dead. Using all his strength, he made her body lean against his and hobbled out of the room back to where Se Hun was.