Deadlock || ᴠᴍɪɴ

Chapter 3

“Fuck him up!” yelled the man who was pinioning him. The three other men lunged. One threw a heavy blow to his stomach; another took a swing to the back of his head. When Jimin crumpled to the floor from the pain and shock, he was kicked fiercely while he was still down.

Jimin knew he could put up a decent fight if he wanted to, but four against one was too much of a disadvantage. Instead, he curled up to protect his organs, brought up his arms to protect his head, and dedicated himself solely to defence as he waited for the storm to pass.

“Next time you decide to mouth off to BB, remember it won’t be this gentle next time. Alright guys, let’s go.”

Once they made a quick job of beating up Jimin, the black men turned swiftly and ran off. Nathan and Micky appeared immediately afterwards. When they saw Jimin on the floor, they hurried over to him.

“Jimin, hang in there. Are you alright?”

“Damn it, it’s those bastards from the Black Soldiers!” muttered Micky, his voice dripping with hatred. Nathan ordered him to bring V. The man came bursting into the room just as Nathan was supporting Jimin in his arms, helping him to sit up. V stared into Jimin’s eyes.

“Can you see my face?”

“…Yeah. Two eyes, one nose, one mouth. Hello, handsome.”

“If you’re well enough to joke, we’ve got nothing to worry about. Let’s take him to our cell.”

Jimin managed to stand up with the support of Nathan and Micky. His chest felt racked with pain whenever he inhaled, no doubt because of the ruthless kicks he had been subjected to.

“Walk. It’ll be solitary for you if they find out you’ve been fighting. Meanwhile, I’ll thank my lucky stars we’ve got a troublemaker from day one.” V’s snide tone struck a nerve.

“I haven’t done anything,” Jimin shot back with a grimace.

“Micky was nice enough to warn you back there, and you laughed him off. You brought this upon yourself,” V said icily. Jimin felt his face stiffen.

“I’ll let you know right now that you’re not going get off scotch-free because you’re the victim. For the guards, the commotion itself is the problem.”

“So you’re saying if someone gets lynched, he’ll get punished for it, too? That’s messed up,” Jimin said irritably as V peered outside the washroom. V did not even turn around.

“I don’t care if you think it’s messed up. This is where you’ll be living from now on. ―Alright, let’s head out.” At V’s signal, Nathan and Micky began to walk, half-carrying Jimin. Jimin felt his body scream in agony at each step. But no way in hell was he going to say he couldn’t walk. His manly pride was already hurt considerably from the shame of being subjected to a beating without even a chance to retaliate.

“Where’s Matthew?” Jimin asked Micky, noticing that the boy was nowhere to be found.

“Nathan and I were wondering where you’d disappeared off to when we saw the guys from the Black Soldiers running out of the washrooms,” Micky answered. “We had an idea of what might have happened, so we made him go back by himself. We don’t want to involve a little boy with a short sentence, do we?”

“You’re right.” Jimin smiled through the pain, feeling a little redeemed by Micky’s kindness.

“Nathan, what’s wrong with the newcomer?” demanded the guard standing at the entrance of Block A, his voice suspicious. It was Guthrie, the guard who had brought Jimin and Matthew here.

“He got knocked over and fell down. It was crowded, so he was trampled pretty badly,” Nathan said calmly. Guthrie seemed convinced; he jerked his chin as if to tell them to hurry along. Micky sighed in relief beside him.