Taken

Chapter 5

The day was getting dark. The middle-aged woman was busy walking back and forth at the front porch of her house. She was really worried that her daughter wasn't home yet, which was very unlikely of her. "Haejae... Where are you dear?" she whispered to herself as a drop of tear fell down from her worried eyes. She had been trying to contact Haejae's school as well as her close friends, but none of them had any idea of her daughter's whereabouts. She even tried to call the police several times, but it was useless because the police couldn't do anything unless she had been missing for 24 hours. The woman looked at her phone screen again. She was hoping for a call or even a text to lessen her worry, yet there were none. All she could do was to pray. As the sun began to set, she fell down on the couch, broke in tears and deluging confusion.

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"That was awesome!" Luhan clapped his hands enthusiastically. Haejae slowly opened her eyes; she could see that Luhan was now standing near Xiu min along with Kris below her. "I don't know, that was pretty intense for me." Kris chuckled. Haejae was beyond messy; tears and blood were stained all over her face and naked body. "That was nothing," said Xiu Min proudly, while patting the younger boy's arm. "You can let her down now," he continued to Chen, as he wiped out his mouth and went back to other side of the room. Obediently, Chen pulled off the rope that tied Haejae's hands to the columns on the ceiling. The girl's body dropped to the floor with a loud thud, causing her to shriek over the shocking pain.

She could feel the grating spreading over her knees. Not only that, each time she took a breath it felt like her stomach was about to bloat onto pieces. Her consciousness began to slip away, when she heard a faint sound of music playing somewhere. It was beautiful yet haunting at the same time. "Can you hear it?" asked Luhan, while he was standing beside Haejae's broken body. "Yeah, that's our talented Yixing rhyming with his guitar. Have you ever seen him doing a solo before? It's a shame if you haven't, because he's really good." He said, now putting his right hand on the girl's head and patting it gently. Yixing smiled a little bit from his seat, he was still plucking on the acoustic guitar strings with his tapering fingers. Luhan then bent down to the girl and whispered on her ears, "You're going to be a part of his beautiful tunes soon, darling," he wiped a little bit of blood and sweat on her forehead and kissed it. The kiss sent immediate chills down her spine, throughout her wrecked body; the one that made her physic went rigid all of the sudden.

Without letting go of his gaze toward Haejae, he said, "Create something pretty with her, will you?" Luhan then stood up when he heard footsteps from behind him; switching place with Yixing who brought his guitar along. Haejae's body trembled on the floor, fighting against the pain and fright over what would have come out next. Yixing sat beside her, and calmly started to pull out the guitar strings one by one. His face was cold yet there's a strange smile carved on it.

"I beg you.. Don't do this..." Haejae worded out in a soft voice, trying hard to hold the pain. Instead of giving her answers, Yixing just hummed to a song which he played before with his guitar. He surely took his time in doing his thing. After some time, Yixing finally finished taking out all the six strings on the guitar. Still humming along, he looked at each of them, just like a father trying to pick his favorite children. He pulled out three of the shiniest strands and looked at Haejae with a fascinated stare. The girl gulped, her body began to quiver in terror once more. "Stay calm. This won't hurt as much if you stay still." said Yixing.

Yixing grabbed the girl's feeble right hand, and took one shiny silver string from the floor. Slowly he pinned down the sharp pointer of the string into the girl's arm. Haejae cried out in pain and Chen immediately held her to the ground to stop her from trashing around. She could feel the thin string penetrating under her skin, bursting out fresh blood as it pierced her epidermal. In all of the strikes, the loudest scream echoed in the entire room. Haejae screamed with massive flow of tears strolling down her eyes. The rest of the members chuckled while paying close attention to Yixing's action towards her.

"Ssshh... It's okay. Just stay still. It will only hurt you more if you move so much!" Chen said to her ear. Yixing put on a small smile while planting the string on her skin and then he drew it a few inches out, as if sewing a cloth. He's doing it through her arms, causing fatal irritation and bleeding for each string pointer that he pinned in and pulled out. The pain that's clouding Haejae was unimaginable. She wanted her life to just end right there and then. Her other hand was shaking under Chen's grip, holding her distress.
"As usual, it looks beautiful, Yixing", said Kris as he came to take a closer look of the scene. Yixing didn't say anything except humming to the same song all over again. His face showed a serious concentration over the string and swelling skin in front of him. After he finished with one string, he took another one from the ground and began to move nearby Haejae's chest. "N-NO, PLEASE!!" trembling, Haejae begged hopelessly. Ignoring the girl's plea, Yixing softly stroked Haejae's chest. Her skin was smooth and soft, it aroused him more in performing his action.

It didn't take long for him to pin down the second string upon the corner of her left chest. The sharp pointer went through her skin, down to her flesh and produced cracks in her blood vessels. More red body fluid was coming out from the surface of the skin on her chest. Haejae screamed in pain as if her lungs would jump out of her rib cage. Yixing smiled wider, and continue stitching the girl's skin with his silver strings. The tone of the song that he used to play was still flowing out of his mouth; like a haunting hummingbird.