Chapter 19: 19:52 – A Countdown to First Death [04:08am] 

REWIND <<

“NO!” screamed Ji-su as she struggled in the white-haired enforcer’s iron held grip. “Please! Don’t! He’s my only brother!”

 “Be quiet Enforcer Lee and stop struggling!” the older enforced huffed. Old age was indeed showing its signs. “Cease your tantrum!”

“I am not a child wailing over meaningless matters!” Ji-su snapped. “This is my little brother’s life we are talking about!”

“The judgment has been made!”

“What?!” she twisted and stared at the enforcer. “But the court-“

“The word of the government is absolute.”

“No!” she shook her head with disbelief. “The investigation isn’t complete. The evidence against him isn’t absolute. Byunghee hasn’t-“

“BE QUIET ENFORCER!” The white-haired enforcer had clearly lost his impatience alongside his ability to restrain Ji-su.  

“But-“ she wriggled out of his grip. “Changsun!” she reached out for him and Changsun for her.

And then what happened next tore his heart in two.

One moment there was his sister straining to touch him, her soft eyes fixated on his face and a firm line of determination clear in her expression. She was going to rescue him no matter what. Even if it took breaking him out of jail, defying the law and who knows what other illegal means.

Then in the next second, there was a ZAP and the crackle of burnt skin filled the air. His sister mouthed his name, then her eyes rolled back and she collapsed on the floor.

“NOONA!” Changsun screamed louder than he thought was ever possible. “NOONA!”

“Oh shut up,” the white haired officer panted. He held a taser in one hand, right behind where his sister had stood just seconds ago.

“What are you doing?!” Changsun yelled as the officer pulled out a black handheld box, his fists gripping the bars so tightly the skin pulled taut and white.

“Calling for backup,” the man glared at him being pressing a button. “Requesting backup in cell 42. Now. Hurry. There is no danger. I just need men to remove a…liability…”

Liability? Changsun’s eyes grew wide.

“What are you going to do to my noona?!” he banged his fists uselessly against the steel bars.

The officer wiped his brow. “She has been one of the best I have seen in years, but she has always been too strong-minded.” The officer shook his head sadly, as if Ji-su had achieved a low grade and he would have to put her in for detention rather than she disobeying him and the current results playing out.  

“What are you going to do?” It came out a hollow whisper. A demand. A plead.

Two men stormed in. “Sir!” they saluted.

“Good,” the officer bent to pick up his fallen hat. “Remove the liability.”

Both men bent and hooked an arm under Ji-su’s limp ones.

“WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO TO MY SISTER?!” Changsun yelled – a lion’s roar when his family was threatened. The two enforcers jumped with shock.

The white haired officer however just sighed. “When enforcers enroll, they go through two years of hard training and one year as a shadow assistant. Then they can finally begin working.”

Changsun thought he would go mad having to listen to a stupid old man’s rambles.

“Your sister did very well in climbing the ranks so quickly. In just one year,” the old man shook his head with wonder. “But boy,” he looked at Joon, “Do you know what we do to enforcers who disobey us?”

Changsun stared at him, dry mouth and dry throat. “What?” he whispered hoarsely.

“We can’t have them spilling our secrets. Nor can we have them escaping and possibly being a force that might oppose us someday.”

“What. Do. You. Do.” Changsun’s eyes were wide with the fear, his words curt with panic. He knew the answer already, but it wasn’t real till verbalized by an outside party.

The white haired officer gave him a pitying look. “We cull them.”

“NOOOOOOOO!!!!” Changsun yelled, his hands rattling the bars. He didn’t care that they were made out of ten tons of steel or that they were reinforced with iron. He didn’t care there was a firewall behind them preventing them being hacked or that if he didn’t watch it, there was nerve gas in the cell which at a button’s press would knock him out. His sister was being hoisted away, to her certain death, and it was because she had tried to save him from a crime he had not committed.

“NOONA! NOONA!” he screamed, not caring of how shrill it came out or how twisted his face was with desperation. “WAKE UP!”

The two enforcers trembled at the wave of emotion but continued to drag Ji-su’s limp body out of the room. The white haired tipped his hat to Changsun and followed suit.

“Goodbye Lee Changsun,” he said solemnly. “We probably won’t meet again.” And then the door shut behind him.  

Changsun let out an inhuman cry, so raw and animalistic that the three enforcers who heard it on the other side of the door shuddered and made the sign against the devil. There was something primitive about it, so soul-shattering that they couldn’t help but believe in black magic despite the fact many people scoffed its existence.

“Hurry up,” the white haired officer muttered. He didn’t want to hear the screams anymore. Even the officer monitoring Changsun via CCTV turned off the sound and tried to forget that painful cry which resounded even minutes after he muted it. He locked the doors, double checked the barriers and then plunged the room into darkness.

It wasn’t till two hours later when a hat, an officer’s badge with the words Rank IV printed on it, a certificate of death and a lock of soft black hair was delivered to Changsun’s cell did Changsun finally stop screaming and began crying instead, the hat curled to his chest and those incriminating words “Officer Lee Ji-su, as of 04:24 on the 25^th of January 20xx, has been culled for disobeying orders”  printed in unmistakable black visible even when he closed his eyes and drifted off into restless sleep.

***

“Lee Changsun,” his name spoken in soft, clipped words. Precise like a well-educated man. Changsun opened his eyes that were glued together with tainted tears and dried sorrow. Uncurling himself hurt. He had cried himself to sleep and lay unmoving for the past five hours.

As he awoke, the pain of his sister’s death cut him anew. Tears sprung to his eyes unbidden.

“Lee Changsun,” the man repeated. Changsun searched for the source of the voice in the midst of the blackness. “Focus. You have a greater task ahead of you.”

“Who…are you?” he croaked, his throat raw from screaming and crying.

“My name is of no importance. Not in the face of what I am about to offer you.” A moment of musing. “Perhaps though, a name would help.”

Changsun blinked. Who was this man?

There was a moment of shuffling, a shadow growing closer and then a white face in the darkness. The man glanced at him and said, “How about you call me the Ringmaster.”