[PREQUEL] (W) ᴜɴᴅᴇʀʟᴀɴᴅ ♗

19| '3' is the magic number

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STILL SOMEWHERE IN ASIA

The smell of rot couldn't have welcomed me even more than it did in the basement.

The hands that were holding me tightly before the door swung open didn't hesitate to push me into the room. I stumble into a cobblestone-like wall before I bounce off of it, hitting the forefront of my knees against the carpeted floor beneath me.

My jaw—basically–almost pops at the impact.

At the sound of a wrapper unraveling, my neck immediately shoots up towards the wall I hit.

Surely enough, it was an actual wall. The liquid leaking from my nose hadn't registered until I saw the specks of crimson on gray. I was quick to scramble to my feet—apparently not fast enough.

I get knocked down just as fast.

Confusion courses through me, as I think.

Did I just get winded by a candy wrapper?!

It would have been the only plausible explanation I could have come up with. My mind wasn't in the right place, it had been missing it's daily nutrients to function, and the Zyprexa had been too bitter to chew dryly.

I was mindful enough to take one pill per day as suggested—no, ordered by my grandfather. Any more than the mg advised, and I'd be convulsing next to the door; not complaining about the old man with the missing hair follicles slamming it a little too hard.

Even if it had brought tears to the eyes of the women who were so very hungry. I couldn't have risked it. So instead, as compensation, I gave them all the scraps the men threw in the margin and left myself with nothing but a bitter feeling of a pill lodged in my throat.

But my decisions are clearly biting me in the ass to the point that I, a member of the WEIA, highly trained for this moment, had been 'wounded' in action. The action was unnecessarily irritating. But...

A little ironic if I think about the acronym right now.

I attempted to stand, fists trying to close in on themselves. I was sure I looked like a baby-lion cub attempting to hiss at its prey, wandering alone in the back of its safari.

I didn't know how long I'd have until the word 'food' would have been the last to ever slip past my chapped lips.

''What the fuck is wrong with you people?'' I knew I had been talking to someone. Unless you'd count the paranormal chucking a rather hard bubble gum wrapper towards the back of my head.

It slipped off my shoulders and fell in front of me. I reached for it, sliding it towards me before craning my neck to the source of momentum.

Fear had momentarily been a thing of the past.