Fourth Shot
Hijacking Her Heart
Fourth Shot
It happened all too quickly. One second, Jessica was desparately prying at the lock, the beast just a mere inch away from Hyoyeon, its foul breath reeked of things she could not even begin to describe- the next, the beast was howling in pain and blind rage as it thrashed about, knocking one whole brick wall over. Then it charged forward, the nimble Hyoyeon side-stepped but was still ed into the wired fence. As the beast rose its head to land another bone-crushing blow, Hyoyeon tossed away her melee weapon and pulled out a shotgun. Shots fired. The bullets pierced through its thick hide,and ricocheted from the walls, permanently lodging into its skin. The beast roared and swatted Hyoyeon, the mercenary was on the ground now, but her hands were still steady, aimed at the beast's head. Shots again. Then the awful thing happened, no loud blasts escaped from the firearms, just the quiet click of an empty barrel. The beast, injured and in a violent rage, rammed against anything that would take the force. Hyoyeon took this chance.
Before Jessica could process what was happening, Hyoyeon had hauled herself over and dragged her otherwise-glued feet to work. The thing howled out and charged after them. The whole fence came crashing down. The athletic mercenary dragged her across a good fifteen blocks before stopping for a breath. Jessica struggled to breathe as she glanced at the blonde, her world was still spinning and the sound of gunshots were still alarmingly loud in her mind. "Are you OK?" Jessica's eyes met Hyoyeon's soft gaze and she managed a quick nod. The mercenary cracked a half-smile and leaned back against the grafiti-covered walls, her bruised hand scrunched up her white shirt that was bathed in red. The colour set off a panicked response. Blood.
"Oh my god!" A phrase of English slipped out of Jessica's mouth before she realized it herself. Hyoyeon squeezed her eyes shut and applied pressure to her open-wound, she took in a deep breath before responding. "It's fine, just a scratch, not deep at all."
Jessica, clearly not convinced by the tone in her voice was frightened by the situation. She hated blood. The sight of it, the scent of it, just blood in general. And Hyoyeon was covered in it. The girl watched as the mercenary's shirt quickly became a deep crimson.
"What should I do?" Jessica whispered, desperately glancing around for anything she could use as a possible bandage. The wound needed to be disinfected also, but she had nothing useful on her. Her eyes widened to a sudden thought, she had her phone with her! She could call Sooyoung and ask for help. She hurriedly dug her hand into her pockets. Nothing. She tried the other one. Empty. . She cursed silently when she realized her phone must had fell out of her pocket during the rough escape. Her vexed expression brought about a weak laugh from the injured woman.
"How about get the grocceries that the ugly thing completely destroyed?" The blonde girl joked, earning her an extremely irritated look from Jessica, who could not understand how the mercenary could remain in such a light-hearted mood after what had just happened. Hyoyeon winced when Jessica applied more pressure to her wound. Her blood stuck to Jessica's skin and dried quickly, Jessica could taste the coppery tang on her tongue and smell the metallic scent. The bleeding was not stopping and this frightened her, at this rate, Hyoyeon would die of blood loss. For once, the mercenary seemed to understand her concern and panic as she said in a serious tone.
"Go find the man we spoke to earlier. Ask him to borrow his phone and dial up Sooyoung's number. Tell her where we are and tell her to hurry the up because I think I'm dying of actual blood loss, which ."
Jessica simply nodded her head quickly and wiped the dried blood off her hands with some nearby newspaper, she glanced back to the mercenary, who was watching her intently, the pain apparent in the depths of her eyes.
"Be careful, Sica." Hyoyeon added with genuine concern. "The thing might still be out there."
Right, if that ugly thing pops up I'm definitely screwed. Jessica was geographically challenged. She had the worst memory of all people, and memorizing streets and street names were just not her forte. She pulled herself together and decided it would be a better idea to take another route, just in case the thing was still wandering around the same area. The street they came by was an alley, which led to the main road, the market street, as Hyoyeon called it. As much as part of her wanted to stay with Hyoyeon and pray that Taeyeon would find them, she knew such a coincidence was unlikely to happen. After a few minutes of hopeless wandering, she found her way onto the main street again. She could barely contain her relief when she saw the man at the store was still there, selling watermelon and all kinds of other unrecognisable exotic fruit. Jessica weaved her way through the crowds of people, almost tripping on nothing when she made it back to him.
The man was of medium stature, average in appearance with black, curly locks and an impressive sun-tan. His most memorable feature were his eyes, dark but steady, which seemed ready to make contact with anyone he came across. When he did see her, his dark orbs seemed to glitter in recognition. He waved for her to come closer and she did, he flashed her a bright smile. "Nǐ hǎo!" The foreign language rolled effortlessly off his tongue.
Oh god. Jessica thought. This was when she remembered that she was in Shanghai, not Korea and not America. She only hoped grade 3 Chinese would help her get through this conversation. "Nǐ hǎo!" She responded. That means 'hello', right? The man didn't seem to notice her accent or her apparent difficulty with responding.
"Jīntiān tiānqì bùcuò, qián jǐ tiān fēicháng rè." Judging by his tone Jessica assumed he was making small talk. Which was fine, except Jessica couldn't make small-talk in a language she had limited knowledge in. She dug into her third grade brain, trying to desperately recall anything she could say back to him.
"Shì ba." That's right. Pass! The ball was back on his court.
The man seemed to nod to her response as he continued. "Fǎnzhèng, nǐ yāomǎi diǎn shénme? Xīguā zhēn de hěn hǎo, bùrú wǒ zài sòng gěi nǐmen yīgè?"
Thankfully Liu, the tanned man, knew his way around the city a lot better than Jessica- who had already forgot the route she took to get to the main road. He said something quick in Chinese and the elderly couple nodded in appreciation as he practically dragged Jessica away. She would have complained but her mind was running wild and she was terrified. What if Hyoyeon is not okay? What if she's bled out before we get to her? Liu gave her a harsh tug down one road, almost lifting her off her feet in the process. "Gosh you are light." He muttered rolling his eyes, "hurry up, these alleys are dangerous-" before Liu finished his sentence a nasty gang had emerged from the shabby side-apartments. Jessica felt her stomach drop. Oh dear lord why?
Liu shielded her with one of his buff arms as he stared defiantly at what appeared to be the ring-leader, a slouched blonde male with a messy haircut and ripped jeans. "Oh damn," Liu cursed as a good ten or so lackeys pulled out their weapons, namely a mixture of crowbars, baseball clubs and knives. A similar feature all of them had were their use of yellow accessories. A color gang. The Ringleader advanced with a smug look, dressed in a loose yellow wifebeater. "Hey," he greeted Liu as if they were good friends. Liu on the otherhand, stiffened and growled. "We can have this fight another day Hwang, I'm in a rush." After hearing this phrase, the lackeys slowly slithered out of the darkness and gradually advanced. This made Liu tense.
Hwang, the leader cocked his head to one side exaggeratedly, feigning doubt. "Well, maybe we can," Hwang shrugged nonchalantly as a devilish glint flickered in his dark orbs of eyes, "or maybe we could have some fun with you." With that, Hwang lashed out one bandaged-wrapped fist, purposely missing Liu's cheek. The tanned man grimaced and took one step back, it wasn't until then that Hwang noticed Jessica.
"Who's this little cutie?" He said with a smirk no better than the previous, "we could have some fun with her too." The lackeys cheered and laughed, in an awful, gravelly manner. Liu was growing noticeably irritated as the two made eye-contact, Liu snarled. "She's not part of this." Hwang blinked back and eventually, after a few seconds of thought nodded, gesturing for the lackeys to stand back. Liu shoved the mobile into Jessica's hands. "Go find Hyoyeon, stay with her. Sooyoung will find you soon." He whispered hurriedly.
"But-"
"You think you can take on some scary guys with bats?" He shot back as a retort. As much as Jessica wanted to nod, she knew deep down that she was not physically fit. One lackey pushed forward and grabbed Jessica by the wrist, she'd never felt such a strong grip in her life, she thought her hand was going to be snapped off. "Let her go." The ringleader snapped angrily as he cracked his neck, a bloodthirsty glint apparent in his eyes. "It's more fun to beat up someone who resists." The lackey gave her one ugly look and released her. Jessica ran before he could change his mind.
Please be alive. Please be safe. Please be alright.
Jessica prayed as she ran through the unknown streets.
Hyoyeon found it hard to keep her eyes open. She had lost count of how many sheep had went across the fence and back again. It had been at least fifteen minutes since Jessica left and the mercenary found each breath growing more difficult. She had lied to Jessica about the wound, it was much deeper then she had expected it to be. A medium-sized chunk of metal was lodged in her abdomen and she could not risk pulling it out for the fear of more blood loss. Instead, Hyoyeon had a near-death-grip on her injury and took deep breaths, finding topics to keep her mind occupied. With every inhale she felt the metal shift deeper. Her shotgun was a few meters away from her, now, completely uselss without bullets. She knew she was in grave danger, like a fish out of water. Hyoyeon was practically defenceless, wounded and too drained to put up a real fight. If something found her before Jessica got back to her, she would be in trouble. It didn't have to be that monster.
It could be a witness. It could be a citizen.
They all posed as threats. If someone found her and whisked her away on an ambulance, they would discover that her passport identity is fake, and they'd find out all kinds of things that Snake wouldn't want to be dug up, then even a protection program wouldn't save her. She could flee all she wanted, to Europe, Asia, Antarctica even- but they'll find her, and they'll hunt her down for her betrayl. The minute you fall, you fall deep. It could either be a ditch or a rabbit-hole, depends entirely on the perception of the person. In Hyoyeon's case, it was a ditch-- a deep, grimy ditch. She tried with all her might to clamber out, but the mud tugged at her clothes and tiredness took over. It's like that for most people. They stay in the ditch or the rabbit hole for the rest of their lives. For the lucky few that manage to escape, the mud and blood never really washes away. It's there, always. Even if the physical evidence is gone, you feel it on your hands, the blood and you can hear the ripping of flesh.
It's the fear that you would contaminate pure things with the evil present in you.
Hyoyeon shook her head furiously, feeling her eyelids grow heavier. She didn't like the thoughts she was having, the effect of her tiredness and lack of sleep. She shut her eyes briefly but opened them a second later, hearing approaching footsteps. The familiar sound of the clicking of boots on pavement. . Hyoyeon bit her lip to refrain from making any noises. She was out in the open and it was dangerous. Gripping onto her wound, Hyoyeon tried to move into shelter or cover, anything that would prevent her from being found. It could be Jessica. The thought flashed into her mind but she shook it off. It doesn't sound like her. It's coming closer. Darn.
As the figure became clear, the dread set in.
Oh me.
She could recognise those legs from anywhere.
"Hey," a certain red-head murmured in her usual husky tone. Despite her nature, Hyoyeon knew she was charming in a way, otherwise Taeyeon would had never defended her the way she did. Not with her life and not with her trust, or her love, or anything.
"Hey yourself, you little ." Hyoyeon managed to growl out, appearing intimidating despite her frail state. This wiped the smug look off of her face immediately as the beautiful woman leaned in toward her. The blonde scrunched her eyes shut and hissed in pain when she traced along her shirt where the wound was slowly beginning to close. She shifted away from her touch and the woman stated calmly. "Better not move, it's going to rip open again otherwise."
Hyoyeon caught her breath again and spat out. " you."
Within seconds she saw three laser specks trailing up her body. She glanced around and spotted two snipers. Tiffany waved her hand, a signal for cease-fire. Then, she tucked the stray strands of hair behind Hyoyeon's ear. "What's the meaning of this?" Hyoyeon murmured more calmly, the poison still present in her tone. Tiffany simply smiled her cresent eye-smile, tinged with malice as she directed Hyoyeon's gaze to a old Jeep in the corner. The doors opened, Yuri and Yoona stepped out. As they approached Hyoyeon grew wary. The two lifted her up despite her growls of objection. "They'll come for you." Tiffany said, a sudden darkness wandering into her eyes. "And it would be fun to make them go a bit crazy. See just how much you're worth."
Hyoyeon wanted to resist but she could barely move without agony spreading through each and every cell. Tiffany rose her brows in amusement and nodded for the two mercenaries to take her to the black Jeep. Tiffany followed, occasionally glancing up to the snipers who were still in place. As Hyoyeon glanced at Tiffany, the woman simply shrugged. "A parting gift. They'll have fun with that." Yuri started the car and they began to move.
If Hyoyeon wasn't injured, she would've knocked all three of them out. Her body was weak and Yoona injected her with some kind of drug that made her drowsy. Her mind was clouded and she swore she saw the wicked smirk forming on the gorgeous red-hair's lips, as if she was trying to say;
"This is going to get interesting, real soon."
Before Hyoyeon could think of anything more, she shut her eyes and darkness followed.
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