Chapter 16: 20:24 – A Countdown to First Death [03:36am]

Joon POV

“Please…” Byunghee said in a ragged voice. “Let me explain.”

I stared at him. He looked so small, so crippled down there on his knees. And then there was Seungho. He was stronger than he looked. That I knew from my brief tussle with him. The skin on my left side still tingled and I knew if I examined them later there would be purple bruises.

“Fine,” I gave in. What would two minutes do to months of rage? “Speak.”

Seungho POV

How had this all spiraled out of control so quickly? Just hours ago we had been as tightly-knit as could be. We had survived the first trial. We were ecstatic. We were a family of sorts. A rag-tag brought-together-by-pain family. But a family all the same. And now here we were, fighting, talking about killing. The ringmaster had been right. It wasn’t just him that would kill us. Our pasts were the catalysts.

G.O, or should I say Byunghee, spoke. His voice was quiet. It sounded defeated.

“I wanted to save you!” he said, his voice tight with sorrow. “If I had known the enforcer’s judgment, I would have run straight for you. Heck, if I had known you were in jail I would have been there no matter what broken limbs I had or whatever thunder fell from the sky.”

Joon’s eyes narrowed.

“But you see Changsun, when that explosion went off and you were thrown into the water, I was knocked unconscious.”

“What?!” Joon’s eyes widened.

And so Byunghee told his story.

REWIND <<<<<<

Byunghee threw his arms up, a feeble attempt to protect his face as he was thrown backwards. He gritted his teeth, trying to control the pain that threaten to show, but suddenly there was rough slap to his back. In that one moment, Byunghee curled forwards, the after effects squeezing all the air out of his body and sending him reeling, blackness slashing through his vision. It felt like several ribs shattered in the process.  

Byunghee cursed and crawled on all fours, trying to move, but his brain wasn’t computing with his body and his sight was all blurry.

Byunghee tried to stand, but the pain was too great. He could feel the heat his face and he knew he had to hurry. But as sensation returned to his body, so did the pain. He tried not to focus on his haggard breathing or the feeling of stabbing needles every time he in a deep breath.

Shallow breaths Byunghee, he told himself as he clutched his chest.

But the pain was clearing his thoughts and his vision. The surrounds were taking shape. It was then that Byunghee finally took in the situation. His back was to a sturdy black pole, one of the many tall blocks that shipmasters used to chain their boats to. That had been what had stopped him from flying into the harbor and its relentless cold clutches.

Flying into the harbor...

"Changsun!" Byunghee raised his head, looking around vividly for his familiar shock of black hair. Where was he? Then he stopped. He wasn't sure how he would face Changsun. Just moments ago he had rejected him. But that didn't change just how important his brother was to him. Every family had their fights and in he heat of the moment, frustration tossed reason to the winds and Byunghee had been ruled by his emotions. But when it came down to the wire, his brother's safety was all that mattered. 

"Damn," Byunghee swore as he looked ahead of him. It was like an apocalypse early to its own party. Fire raged over the warehouse where the items Byunghee was meant to transport lay. It sizzled through the night sky, lighting it up in a demonic manner. All around him was noise and more flashing lights and he just couldn’t concentrate.

A warehouse he would have been in if Changsun hadn't intervened. 

Damn. Changsun. 

They needed to have words. 

He tried to focus on that. He looked left and right, movements slow like an old man. But everything was a blur. It was too unreal. Tonight should have been the night of his initiation ceremony. The night he finally made his mother proud. The night he finally reclaimed his father’s legacy. Instead, he had roughly pushed away the one man who had been looking out for his safety. He had his reasons of why he was so heated up, but it had been no excuse for how he had treated Changsun. 

Byunghee grabbed the steel pole and hoisted himself upright. The pain was greater than anything he could have imagined, it was like white hot flames had seared his torso. He nearly doubled over, dry-vomiting from the sheer agony the sharp movement brought. But the thought of finding his brother over-rode everything and Byunghee took one ginger step forwards. Stab. Another one. Stab.

Step 1: find Changsun. Step 2: apologize. Step 3: explain to Changsun why he had been so desperate for the job. Step 4-

BOOM!

Another explosion roared, a wild stallion released from its stables, half mad and frothing. Byunghee staggered backwards and toppled onto a small boat. The boat he was meant to escape in. As he tried to upright himself, Byunghee noticed a small black box. A red light at the leftmost corner flickered.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Byunghee stared at it and slowly realization washed over him like a cold shower.

Bomb.

Too late.

It exploded and Byunghee was lost in a world of crunched wood, flying shrapnel and lost legacies.

► PLAY

Byunghee POV

“You were right Changsun,” I said. “The BlackBeards never wanted me to succeed. The bomb in the warehouse was to cover their traces. The bomb in the boat that I was supposed to use to transport the goods was meant to kill me.”

Joon stared at me. He hadn’t moved an inch since I had begun telling my story. The only thing that had changed was the growing expression of horror.

I continued. “The explosion very nearly killed me if I jumped into the harbor first. However, the blowback force blew me into the pier and I lost consciousness.”

“And…?” Joon his lips nervously.

“The enforcers rescued me. The small scale bomb alerted them to where I was and they found me quickly. I was send to hospital where I was unconscious for the next two days…”

“And then when I woke up, they told me that you had been arrested and thrown into jail." I looked at him mournfully. "I protested, asking them to let me see you. To explain. And only then did they tell me that 24 hours after being locked away,you...you had vanished without a trace."

Joon POV

Unconscious for two days? Nearly killed by the BlackBeards…?! Asked to see me, only to be too late? Was what Byunghee was telling me the truth? Had he really tried to come for me but failed?!  

I opened my mouth, ready to speak but no words came out. What could I say to him?

I stared at Byunghee’s face, so distressed was his eyes and so grieved was the press of his mouth. I wanted to believe him, I really did. But the fear and the anger of those days in jail kept coming back to me, a zombie resurrected, a black cloud that would never leave. I could not simply forget those memories, those horrific moments when I was sentenced for a crime I did not commit and my sister was killed for doing what was right.

“Say something,” Byunghee said in a ragged voice.

My mouth opened and closed.

“I-“

Suddenly the floor underneath us rumbled like a giant waking from its century long sleep.

“What?!” cried out Seungho as he tried to keep balance.

It felt like the wooden floor beneath us was rearranging itself, the boards slipping here and there and then we were moving and the entire scenery was shifting. The red walls of velvet vanished and then there was bright lights and a wide open plane.

I stared around me, my guard still up. Still wary.

“Where are we?” Byunghee whispered, equally wide-eyed.

Behind me was a dark sheath of wood, to the sides were two dark corridors. And in front of us was a thick waterfall of royal red. Curtains.

Seungho answered Byunghee’s question in a hushed whisper, magnified a thousandfold in the empty space.

“We’re standing on the Roman Theatre stage.”