Treasures of The Damned

38. Too Fragile To Hold

Briar was walking silently beside her father, and she took a deep, shaky breath as her leg started to hurt and put a hand on her father's arm. "Wait, Dad...please..."

Logan glanced back at her and nodded his head softly, understanding instantly and gently leading them to a bench, where he helped Briar sit down. Briar took a deep breath as she looked down at her leg. It was mangled and frankly looked horrible. The three scars from earlier in the night were still there, but they looked horrible, along with the new claw marks from just now. She could still see where a lot of her leg muscle was showing from the long and deep rips.

"I can't even walk on my leg...I don't think I'll be able to get out of here, Dad..." Briar whispered after a few moments, looking down at her leg and taking a deep breath.

"Thornbush. It'll be okay. I promised your papa. I'm going to get you out of here, and then we'll take you to the hospital room. Has medical procedures gotten better since we were alive?"

"They've...gotten better. I still can't live without my chip, but they're better. They'd found quick and easy ways to heal a lot of things..."

"Your heart condition-...?" Logan left the question open, letting Briar answer it when she was comfortable.

"Still unknown what the condition is. Plus our family is the only known case of the heart condition, so doctors aren't exactly rushing to figure out what it is, especially if it only has to do with our DNA."

Logan nodded his head softly and pressed his lips together as he smiles softly at Briar. "You've grown up so well, baby girl. I'm so proud of you."

"Thank you, Dad" Briar glanced up at Logan and nodded her head slowly, taking a deep breath before humming softly and slowly standing up, keeping all of her weight on her left leg.

She looked up when Logan stood as well and held her close, nodding. "Ready to go?"

"Yes...let's go...and not waste this opportunity Papa gave us..." Logan nodded his head in agreement as he let Briar lean against him and they started to walk again. She felt immense pain as she slowly shifted her weight to her bad leg.

"Hey, Thornbush. It's okay. I promise. We just need to get to your car and things will be okay."

"I took a cab here. I don't drive anywhere."

"Oh? Why don't you drive anywhere?"

Briar glanced over at Logan and let out a low little chuckle. "Because driving killed my parents. I can't deal with that anymore so I usually walk everywhere. But it's kind of hard to walk to a theme park that's about ten miles away from Seoul...so I had to bite the bullet and take a taxi here."

"Why not use the bullet trains?"

"No stop near here. Yet."

"Ah...well...I for one am glad that you're here, even if it took you a long time."

"Me too...I was just so scared of what I was going to see...if I was going to get recognized."

"Were you recognized today, Thornbush?" Logan asked after a few moments. They'd never been able to tell Briar what to do if there were fans around, but she seemed to have learned in her way.

"Oh yes, quite a lot. Especially when I was in Papa's area of the park. A lot of people recognized me, but it was quite okay. They were fairly nice about it as well."

"That's good. Some fans can be crazy." Logan nodded his head. "I remember when your papa and I first went public."

Briar nodded her head softly. She remembered that story from when she was a baby. She'd heard them talking and laughing about it before.

"Dad...? Do you think that we'll be able to get out of here? Like...away from Hongjoong? He's stronger than any of us, plus, Papa is already weak..."

"What do you mean? Your papa isn't weak."

"Even though he's not the one it's pointed at, the electromagnetic device still sends waves to him. He's been using it all night, which means that he's been getting weaker and weaker throughout the right."

Logan slowly nodded her head and took a deep breath. "Okay...well...the most that we can do for your papa is to hope that he'll be alright. That's all that really matters, right Thornbush?" He asked softly, smiling a little bit when Briar just nodded her head and leaned more against him.

"How does your leg feel?" Logan asked after a few tense heartbeats, glancing over at his daughter with a worried look on his face. He hated seeing his little girl in pain.

Briar just nodded her head slowly. "Numb. Like if I take a single step on it, it's going to collapse and make me crumple to the ground."

"So...don't let you put too much weight onto your leg." Logan hummed softly, causing Briar to nod her head. "Yep- and we should be okay."

There was nothing else said between the father and the daughter before, after a few moments, Briar slowly hummed. "Dad..."

"Yes, my thornbush? Is everything alright?"

"Is it my fault that we got into an accident? The one that killed you and Papa...?"

Logan didn't say anything for a few moments, just very gently held Briar closer, before slowly shaking his head. "No. Of course not baby. It was never your fault. I and your father got distracted, and it was our fault we didn't see the light change color. But that was never you."

Briar nodded her head ever so softly and hummed to herself for a few moments, growing lost in thought once more just as she and Logan made their way to the front gate.

Briar looked at the gate as Logan gently settled her down on the ground, making sure that her leg wouldn't hurt too much for trying to stand, and she relaxed as she watched him. After a few moments, Logan nodded his head. "Alright. I think I'll be able to get this open for us. Just be prepared. I'll carry you out of here but.."

"I weigh a lot. You're okay, Dad. It'll be okay. I just need a little bit of help."

Logan nodded his head, opening his mouth as if about to say something before a snarl came from where they'd just gone to. He didn't say anything for a few moments, just staring at where he heard the snarl before hissing.

"Hongjoong."

"Hello, Princess. Would you like your darling husband back?"