He killed me.

You could hear him humming a song next to you as you laid in your bed with your eyes closed. You were afraid to move just in case he noticed you were awake.

He killed me.

The smell of various flowers floated through the air towards you, mixing in a way that made you relaxed, as if you’d smelled it before. You let out a breath before pretending to stretch in your bed and opening your eyes slowly.

“Good morning, sleepyhead.” Woohyun finished arranging the flowers in the vase on your nightstand and smiled at you. “Sleep well?”

“Yeah,” you said, “I slept fine.” He sat down on your bed and ruffled your hair.

“Where’s Sunggyu? I haven’t seen him lately.” Your voice trailed off slightly as Woohyun looked towards the door.

“He’s been a little bit busy, working on something for you. Jaehyo should be by later today to fit you with it. Hopefully it works.”

“What is it?” You gave Woohyun a curious look as he grinned at you and pinched your cheeks.

“You’ll see in a little bit. Just wait. You’ll like it, I promise.”

--

“Is Jisa okay?” Sunggyu asked, looking up from his current project and casting Woohyun a concerned look.

“What? She’s fine. Why?” Woohyun leaned over the work table and prodded at it a few times, earning a smack from Sunggyu.

“You didn’t feel it? She was ridiculously nervous this morning, like she wanted to get away from something.”

“What? But I was the only one that visited her this morning.” Sunggyu raised an eyebrow at Woohyun, who was biting his lip as he tried to think.

“... Are you sure she doesn’t remember?”

--

You were folding stars and throwing them into a small bucket Woohyun gave you to pass the time. Your sense of time was completely destroyed now since you’d stayed so long in the white room. Now, it felt like you only existed just to exist.

You didn’t even look up when the door hissed open, and Jaehyo walked in, carrying something that looked like silver armor with gloved hands.

He stood at your bedside until you finished folding the star you were working on and put away all the paper into the bucket and leaning over to place it onto your nightstand, next to the flower arrangement.

“What’s that?” you asked, eyeing the armor in his hands.

“Braces for your legs. Made especially for you, to work with the chip inside of your body.” You blinked a few times. Wasn’t the chip destroyed when Woohyun electrocuted you? That’s why you were here now, right?

“Bendable metal, meant to bond to the first contact it makes with skin. This sort of thing is common now, but Woohyun and Sunggyu made sure this was made, tailored in a sort of way, just for you.”

“This is... common? But... There was nothing like this... before? Right?” Jaehyo placed the metal on the bed carefully before picking up a piece and moving your sheets with his other hand. He straightened out your legs and leaned in to make sure he was positioning the first piece in the right place over your knee.

“You still have one more dream sequence before everything makes sense,” he said quietly, gently pressing the metal to your skin. You cried out when a sudden burst of heat flashed through your leg as the metal bonded with your skin.

“Oh, right. Sorry. Forgot to warn you that happens. But at least you stayed still. You have to stay still for this next one too, or it’ll go on crooked, and you’ll walk weird for the rest of your life,” Jaehyo said louder, chuckling at the dark look you gave him.

He picked up the next piece and rounded to the other side of your bed and leaned over your leg, positioning the next piece over your leg. “Good, you’re not moving it,” he said.

“Well, it’s not like I could move it in the first place,” you said sarcastically. Jaehyo looked up and raised an eyebrow at you.

“Sarcasm. First time I’ve heard you use it since you first woke up. Interesting,” he said, concentrating on your leg. After a few minutes, you got irritated with him.

“Would you just-” Jaehyo pressed it onto your skin, making you yelp again as another flash of heat went through your other leg.

“And that’s it. It’ll take about an hour or so before it completely adjusts to your body. Woohyun and Sunggyu will be in here later to see uh... how well it works. In the mean time, take a nap. It’s a strenuous process. You should feel it draining some of your energy already.” You nodded, feeling your eyelids suddenly get heavy.

“I’ll be by later...” You were passed out before Jaehyo could get up and leave the room.

“You won’t like what’s in that last dream sequence...”

--

Begin Dream Sequence Ten

--

As soon as you began to dream, you knew something was off. This dream felt different, which meant this memory was different somehow.

You were watching yourself on a table, a black hole on your chest where Woohyun electrocuted you. Lab techs were everywhere, wires and machines were hooked up to your body, but they were all working to the sound of a flatline on the heart monitor.

The hands you could see were holding something you assumed was a chip. Your heart was cut open, and the black remains of your old chip were being removed.

“Did you get all of the pieces? There will be complications if there are any pieces left after we install this new one,” you heard a familiar voice say.

“Yes, sir.” A few lab techs shifted, and you watched the hands dive into your heart and press a button, latching the chip inside.

“Close her up and start the chip up. Her body should start to heal up on its own when chip is booting up.” You started to move and pulled off the mask over your face and your gloves as you left the room.

What? That didn’t make sense. You were laying dead on the table. Whose eyes were you watching through?

They left and leaned on the sink, sighing and wiping away some sweat on their forehead. It wasn’t until they looked up and stared hard in the mirror that you realized who it was.

This is Jaehyo’s memory.

--

Jaehyo watched as you slept on the bed in the stark white room. He examined your arms, seeing that the marks that Woohyun and Sunggyu left were gone. You were fully healed, skin whole and smooth. You were breathing, but you still hadn’t woken up.

He wasn’t sure if you ever would, or if he managed to save you in time.

“How is she?” Jaehyo turned and looked to see Woohyun walking in. You felt him clench his fists in the memory and try to keep his anger in check.

“We’ve done all we can. I told you not to do it. You could’ve killed her!” he yelled at Woohyun. Woohyun looked like he aged fifty years before running his hands through his hair with a sigh.

“But I didn’t. She’s still alive, she’s still breathing, and she’s still here.”

“There’s a good chance she won’t wake up. And whatever slim chance of her waking up, she might have some trauma, damage to her brain, she might not even remember anything. Is that what you wanted?” Jaehyo asked quietly, turning back to your sleeping form.

“Actually, it is.” Jaehyo turned to look at Woohyun in surprise.

“What?”

“I’ve made too many mistakes. I don’t want her to remember any of them.”

--

The next time you saw yourself through Jaehyo’s memories, you were sitting up in bed, staring blankly off into the distance. What in the world was going on?

Jaehyo was giving you a check up, testing your reflexes. Sunggyu entered the room and approached the bed apprehensively.

“She’s fine, physically, but she’s gone, mentally. She’s basically a robot, now. All you can do is program whatever you want her to do, how you want her to act into the chip and let it control her body.” Jaehyo turned to look at Sunggyu with hard eyes.

“She may as well be dead.”

--

The next memory you saw felt different from Jaehyo’s memory. You were watching yourself sleep in your bed, the bed in the mansion before your eyes fluttered open.

“Good morning, Jisa,” you heard a voice say.

“Good morning, Woohyun,” you replied, smiling slightly.

So this is Woohyun’s memory.

--

Woohyun watched as your body mechanically followed all of the programs he programmed into the chip. He had a different one for every day of the week, and sometimes, he put it on shuffle to see which program you would follow in the morning.

It was okay, at first.

As more time passed, all of your actions became predictable, too mechanical, following every single order exactly.

Woohyun felt remorseful. He felt guilty. He was depressed, because he was the one that did this to you.

“Jisa, are you happy?” he asked one day as you sat in the library, reading your favorite book for the thousandth time.

“Of course, Woohyun. As long as I have you and Sunggyu, I couldn’t be any happier.” A pang went through Woohyun’s heart. The response he’d heard so many times, the response that he programmed into you to make himself feel better, was no longer making his guilt go away.

--

“Woohyun. We can’t keep her like this. I can’t stand it. I can’t watch her like this,” Sunggyu said, burying his face into his hands.

“Keep her like what?” Woohyun said monotonously. Sunggyu looked up in anger.

“You know damn well what I’m talking about! She’s a mindless robot, doing the same things, day in, day out. Do you know how long it’s been? Do you?!” Sunggyu yelled at Woohyun. Woohyun’s gaze fell to the floor.

“A hundred and fifty years. A hundred and fifty years, three months, twelve days, fifteen hours, thirty-six minutes, and twenty-two seconds. Yes, Sunggyu. I know how long it’s been.”

--

The feel of the next memory changed again. This time around, you recognized it was Jaehyo as he trekked up the ramp leading up to the mansion. He pressed his palm against the pad and let the scanner scan his eyes before the door opened.

He stepped into the mansion, looking around. His black military armor was on, and he was carrying an unmarked steel briefcase. You watched as he made his way to your room and into your bathroom before opening up the briefcase.

You saw a whirl of strange gadgets before Jaehyo started to do something to the mirror.

--

The next memory, you recognized was your own. You’d just finished showering and stepped out of the bath to wrap a towel around you. The mirror was fogged up, and as per your programming, you were to draw a picture into the mirror with your fingers before wiping it away with your hand.

This time, your hand wrote a message into the steamed up mirror.

You’ll remember this time, I promise. I’m sorry I took so long.

Your programming took no heed of the words you wrote and wiped them away with your hand. As soon as you were done, a shock went through your body, making you yell before you collapsed to the ground.

You woke up on the floor of the bathroom with a throbbing pain in your head. You blinked your eyes opened, groaning slightly as you curled up and held your head with your hands. Your head felt like it was going to split in half as you squeezed your eyes shut.

After a few minutes, the throbbing stopped, allowing you to open your eyes and push yourself up into a sitting position.

“Jisa! Jisa! Open the door! Are you okay?” You blinked a few times in confusion at the door. Jisa? Who was Jisa? Was that you? When you didn’t answer, the man on the other side of the door got impatient.

“Jisa, get away from the door. I’m breaking it down.” You barely had time to scoot back towards the tub before the door splintered in half and fell to the floor. You stared wide-eyed at the man that pushed his way through, giving you a worried look.

“Oh, god. Jisa. I thought you-” He suddenly stopped talking when he reached out for you, and you shrunk away from him.

“Jisa? What’s going on? Are you okay?” he asked again. You shook your head rapidly at him before curling up into a ball against the tub.

“Do... do you know who I am?” You wrapped your arms around your legs and avoided his gaze before shaking your head again.

“Do you know who you are?” You shook your head again.

--

The memory shifted one last time, and you could feel it was Jaehyo. Jaehyo was staring into a mirror and talking to himself, but you knew it was a message for you.

“Jisa. I’m sorry it took me a hundred and fifty years to get you your memory back. The process was tricky, since I had to short circuit out the current chip in your heart. I installed another one, an inhibitor chip, a much more powerful version of a regular chip into your body when Sunggyu and Woohyun took you down to the labs for regular check ups when you were a robot into the back of your spine. It’s at the base of your neck. It’s of my own creation, so I’m sure it’ll work fine.

“I rigged your mirror to send a jolt of electricity and information to the inhibitor chip and destroy the current chip in your heart. You won’t be able to walk for a while since the inhibitor chip will be slowly releasing information to you as dream sequences. It’ll take a bit for it to fully boot up and support your body. You’ll be stronger, faster than you used to be, and a lot more durable. Nothing short of physically ripping the chip from your body or throwing you into a volcano should be able to destroy it.” Jaehyo heard a knock on his door and told whoever it was that he’d be out in a moment. He spoke again, this time in a whisper.

“Woohyun and Sunggyu. I know they love you, and I know at some point, you loved them, too. But they’re not good for you Jisa. In those hundred and fifty years they kept you enslaved in the mansion, they used you as a weapon. I couldn’t find any memories of that to show you, but there’s a war going on between the supernatural creatures and humans. Vampires are enslaving the human race to fight for them during the day, the wolves are hunting them like deer.

“Jia... she was caught on the front lines of a battle and got killed. It’s just me and you now.” You saw Jaehyo’s eyes tear up slightly before he regained some composure.

“So much has changed, Jisa. We need to get out of here. There’s a resistance of humans and supernaturals sympathetic to our cause. We just need to get out of the mansion and disappear into the crowd. Exactly one week after you receive this memory, I’ll bring your armor down to the library and hide it behind your favorite book. There’s a secret compartment behind it in the shelves.

“It’ll be equipped with weapons and give you a crash course on how to use them. I’ll be waiting at the emergency exit for you. Don’t expect it to be easy to leave, but we’ll make it this time. We have to. Or the price will be death.” The person at the door knocked again, yelling something through the door.

“Good grief, Zico! Leave me alone! I’m trying to practice my speech for my employee of the month award I know I’m going to win this time!” Jaehyo turned and left the bathroom, ending the memory.

--

End Dream Sequence Ten

--

Your eyes opened on the bed as you sat up and stared off into the distance. You turned to look at the mirror, knowing Jaehyo was watching and waiting for a signal from you. You brought your hand to your forehead like you had a headache.

Jaehyo watched through the observation mirror as you tapped your forehead with your fingers, once, twice, three times. He knew. You remembered everything now.

--

You glanced up with a smile on your face when Woohyun and Sunggyu walked through the door, giving you apprehensive looks.

“Hello,” you said, making the tension leave their bodies as they returned your smile. Sunggyu sat down on the bed next to you and wrapped his arm around your waist.

“How’re you feeling?” You stared at your legs and frowned slightly.

“This feels kinda weird... Not to mention it looks really weird.” The metal rested as a thin layer on top of your skin, completely bonded to it. You poked at it and was surprised when you could feel through the metal.

“It should help you walk. Wanna try it?” You gave Sunggyu an apprehensive look while Woohyun watched from the side.

“I guess.” Sunggyu got off of the bed and held his hands out. You took one and slid off of the bed, wobbling a little bit on your feet. You could move your legs now, you definitely could.

You took a step towards Sunggyu, shaking a little bit. And then another one. After a few steps, Sunggyu let go of you and let you walk on your own. Woohyun watched, body tense. He was afraid you were going to fall. You rounded the bed and suddenly tripped, falling into Woohyun’s arms.

Woohyun caught you with a laugh, pulling you back up to your feet.

“Slow down there. There will be plenty of time to practice walking. Does it feel okay?”

“Yeah, it feels fine. Thank you,” you said quietly, sitting back down on the bed.

“You’ll be free to come and go as your please then, as long as you don’t go falling all over the place.”

--

Sunggyu and Woohyun watched you like a hawk the first couple of days you went out on your own. You assumed it was because they didn’t want you to get hurt, but another part of your mind told you they wanted to see if you were going to try and escape again.

But you didn’t. You visited the greenhouse often, standing there to admire the plants, and pluck a few for you to keep. You went to the library, to the simulated park. Every day you passed by the training room and never looked inside.

One day, someone was leaving the training room as you walked by, and you stopped to see Jaehyo in all of his armor, minus a helmet. He was wearing a headpiece instead. It wrapped around his head and extended an eye piece over his left eye.

“I don’t remember that,” you said, staring at his headpiece.

“It’s the new helmet. It does everything,” Jaehyo said, reaching out to ruffle your hair.

--

The day you planned escape with Jaehyo was the day Sunggyu and Woohyun were pulled into a long meeting. You heard someone mention battle tactics before they disappeared down the hallway. They came to visit you in the morning, planting kisses on your forehead and cheeks before leaving for the meeting.

You took your time, wandering down to the library and browsing the shelves slowly, moving with a strange fluid grace. Things got easier when the metal braces on your legs synced with the inhibitor chip that Jaehyo installed.

You ran your fingers over the books until you settled on your favorite one. You pulled it out and ran your fingers along the back of the shelf and felt a rise in the panels. You pressed on it, and it opened, revealing a compartment with your armor in it.

You looked back and forth to make sure no one was there before getting dressed.

--

As soon as you put the new headpiece onto your head, it booted up and started to give you a crash course in your weaponry. Your chip recorded everything and helped you remember certain things as you examined your armor.

You had a watch now, and a sense of time. Jaehyo’s voice in your ear said you had a two minute window of opportunity where the path to the emergency exit would be free of people. The library was about ten minutes away at a slow walk.

You’d make it if you ran. You had to run.

--

You were only halfway to the emergency exit when an alarm went off, and Jaehyo came running down the hallway after you, yelling at you to run for the exit.

The hallways started to flood with the emergency response team, and when you crashed into the emergency exit door, it didn’t budge. You and Jaehyo turned around, completely surrounded and trapped. Sunggyu and Woohyun came running down the hallway, standing behind the emergency response team with wide eyes.

“Jisa? What? What are you-”

“Escaping. That’s what I’m doing.” Sunggyu and Woohyun looked at each other before Woohyun held his hands up.

“Jisa. Let’s talk about this, okay?”

“There’s nothing to talk about,” you said, narrowing your eyes at him. “I remember everything. You killed me. You killed me.”

“It was for your own good, you can’t survive in the world out there. Everything’s changed Jisa, but not my love for you. Not Sunggyu’s love for you. We still love you the same way.”

“But I don’t,” you said, taking a step back. “Did you enjoy keeping me as a slave for a hundred and fifty years? Pampering me but using me as a soldier for your cause?”

“Jisa, we took the best care of you that we could. We just wanted to see what you were capable of-” Sunggyu flinched as a shot flew past his ear.

“At this point, I’d rather die on my feet than live on my knees serving you.”

“Jisa, be reasonable. We don’t want to hurt you, please, just calm down and-”

“I’m done talking,” you said, pressing a button on your armor. There was a small explosion, blowing open the emergency exit door and sending the emergency response team flying back. Jaehyo grabbed onto your arm before grinning at Woohyun and Sunggyu’s shocked expression.

“We’re out of here.” He dragged you through the emergency exit door, and the two of you jumped.

The mansion was floating in the air now. You could see the lab extending beneath it. Jaehyo pressed another button on his armor and opened up a hang glider and you held onto his arm.

“Don’t let them get away! Get them!” you heard Woohyun yelling. Your eyes scanned over the surface of the world. Everything looked so different now. Jaehyo turned back to look at you and watched you sigh.

“Don’t worry, Jisa. We’ll be back. And I’ll finally get to kill Woohyun with my own two hands for doing this to you.” You turned back to the open emergency exit to see Sunggyu and Woohyun staring out in the distance, face angry, worried, concerned, remorseful.

“No,” you said, turning back to the front.

“I’m going to be the one to kill Woohyun and Sunggyu, if it's the last thing I do.”