Taken

Chapter 10

Slowly, Haejae tried to get out off the freezer. While holding back her pain, she used both of her arms and wobbled knees to support her body on the edge of the freezer. Her breathing hitched for a second when she realized the freezer was too tall, that there were no way her hands could reach the floor; not without inflicting more pain to her already injured body. She inhaled deeply and with a loud thud she fell and yelped when her body hit the dusty wooden floor. The tailor stitches on her right arm, chest, and thigh created massive pain as they were rubbed against the cold tiles. Haejae could feel someone's eyes on her; she immediately looked up, and saw Kris was staring at her impatiently. Slowly, she turned her severely injured body, so that she could crawl to get to her belongings, especially to her mother's old, precious photograph. She started to crawl using both of her arms, while trying hard to limit the contact between her injured abdomen and the floor. She couldn't stop wincing all the while she was dragging her battered body. It took her a while to even move an inch. Kris' patience reached its limit. He walked abruptly to the side of the room to get the only chair there, and put it near the table. "Sit!" He told Haejae, nudging the chair with his feet. Haejae didn't pay any attention to his command; she fixed her sight to the table, which was around 1 meter away from her. She knew that ignoring the Leader's order was risky, but she had nothing in her mind but to retrieve her mother's photograph back.

"I TELL YOU TO SIT HERE!" roared Kris impatiently. As if nothing happened, Haejae continued to crawl. She sobbed quietly, not only because the pain was too much for her, but also the situation that made her confused beyond words. Whether she obeyed or not, she knew the result would be the same; she would end up being tortured anyway. "That's it!" Kris lost all of his patience and was angrily walking toward Haejae. He grabbed Haejae's right arm, exactly where Yixing stitches were, and roughly pulled her body up to the chair. Haejae screamed from the lungs as the guitar string punctured deeper into her skin. Some bones inside her abdomen were cracking audibly. The excruciating pain was once again rose throughout her body. Her broken bones didn't allow her to even make a single move without shrieking from the pain.

Kris slammed her body down onto the chair and pushed around her lower chest. Haejae screamed as she felt one of the bones pierced something inside. She took shallow breaths; worried that long, deep breaths would only worsen the injury in her internal organs. "Anything... But that pi-picture...," she breathed out the words one by one with so much effort. Kris smirked, satisfaction evident in his face, "Not so fast!" He then told Chen to take some ropes from the other side of the room. "What... Are y-you... Doing...? No..." She sensed that the worst was about to happen, although she knew that she couldn't do anything to save herself. Her physic was too weak and her mental was already scattered in the most inhumanely possible. Without answering, Kris grabbed the rope Chen gave him, and started binding Haejae's body parts.

"Don't... D-do this..." She begged, her weak voice started to crack. Naturally, he didn't give her any response. "Ss..stop..." tears started to form in her eyes, but Kris looked so absorbed in what he was doing. First, he tied both of her ankles, each to the left and right foot of the chair. He continued, grabbing a longer rope and tied her body to the chair, except for her arms. The bond was so tight that it crushed her chest and abdomen. If she was having trouble breathing then, it was nothing compared to what she felt with the rope binding her body. The rope pushed her broken bones which consequently punctured her organs from every angle. With another rope in his hands, Kris stood up. He pulled Haejae's arms forward, forcing them to be stretched in front of her body. He tied her left wrist first so tightly she felt her hand went numb. Next, Kris moved behind her, and with the rope, he made a circle around her neck. Frantically, Haejae trashed her head around. "STAY STILL!" A hard slap landed on Haejae's head compelled her to stop. Finally, the other end of the rope was bound to her right wrist.
She was in a sitting position, with her two arms reaching out into thin air. She couldn't move at all, except for her fingers. A sudden hitch in her breathing jerked her body. Naturally, her arms moved a little bit, and then she felt a tug on her neck caused by the tightened rope. It came to her senses that if she moved her arms, the rope would suffocate her. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Xiu Min was looking through their pictures from her bag with an unpleasant expression on his face. Recalling what they boys were talking about earlier, she began to stammer. "Please... I-I'm not... that kind o-of... f-fan...," sobbing hard, she tried her best to explain. At that, Luhan came forward. He took some of the photographs from Xiu Min's hands. He smiled and crouched down in front of her, "Really, now? Then, what are these?" He discarded some of EXO's pictures on Haejae's lap. "It's... A f-friend took th-them..." she wished her voice didn't crack since she was telling the truth. Luhan smirked "Tsk, tsk, tsk...princess... Hasn't your dear, old mother told you that a good girl shouldn't lie?" He showed Haejae her mother's picture in his hands. Haejae uncomfortably shook her head, the friction of the rope and the soft skin of her neck burned. "N-no... b-believe me... I was j-just following m-my f-friend's... ad-advice..." she started to wail. "A-all I want is... to s-see you... u-up close..." Luhan stood up, he looked disappointed for a while, "Oh well, that's too bad...," he forced her to look at him by pulling her chin up; a maniacal smirk appeared on his face, "Liar, liar, pants on fire. You should have known better than to lie to us, princess! Kris? You know what you have to do..." He gave Haejae's head a pat, before moved to stand behind her. He squeezed her shoulders gently and whispered right to her right ear sweetly "Enjoy, my dear!"

Luhan gave Haejae's mother's photograph to Kris with a sarcastic smile on his face; the one that indicated that he had something in mind. The Leader, instantly understanding the signal, took the photograph from Luhan's hand. He then got something out from his jeans pocket. It was a long thin box, silver in color, with a flip on top. It was a cigarette lighter. With a smirk he lit it up, within a second a small flame flared. He moved Haejae's mother's photograph closer to the flame; ready to burn it into ashes. "NO!!!" Haejae shouted, half choked. She coughed, her lungs felt like they were about to burst. Nevertheless, she pleaded, once again. "PLEASE... DON'T!!" Haejae trashed about in her seat. The rope on the neck created distinct red marks as she hysterically tried to squirm out of the bounds. "If you don't want to see her burn... then come and get it," Kris walked closer to Haejae's chair but not close enough for her to reach the photograph.

"Please..." The girl tried to get the photograph on Kris' hands, even though that meant she would be choked even more. Each time she forced herself to move forward, the ropes on her body would squish her harder. Kris chuckled seeing Haejae's struggle, and with his cold eyes, he drew the lighter closer to the photograph until the flame started to lick the bottom corner of the old photo. The paper turned black and curled up. Haejae could not utter any coherent word as tears began streaming down her eyes. Sobbing hard, she gritted her teeth while fighting to get her hands closer to the photograph. She coughed as a hard tug of the rope around her neck hastily cut the air to her lungs. Kris put out the fire by waving the photograph rapidly. From her back, Luhan whispered, "See? You can do it... Take it..." Adding the pressure, Kris asked with his infamous smirk, lit the photograph with the lighter once again, "Are you going to let this... burn into ashes?" The flame reflected on his eyes. "Go on..." Luhan whispered, urging her. Haejae was torn, since she very well knew that pulling her arms forward meant she would suffocate to death, but on the other hand she knew that it would be her only chance to see her mother's face again. "Pull your hands forward... Take it... It's your mother... " Smirking, Luhan whispered into Haejae's ears from behind with his sing-song voice. Haejae let out a groan, a choking sound could be heard from her throat. "Go on... A little bit more..." Luhan insisted.

"M-mom..." Haejae whispered when the flame had burned more than half of the photograph, closer to her mother's smiling face. "GO ON!!" Luhan yelled. Haejae poured every bit of her energy left of her, and pulled her arms forward.
"I'm sorry, Mom... I'm not coming home tonight..."
At that, a loud crack was heard audibly throughout the room. Along with the chair, Haejae's body fell down onto the floor. There on the cold, dusty wooden floor laid the poor girl's body. Shattered. Wounded, with bruises, blood and sweat mixed into one horrifying form. Not a single move, not even a slightest draw of breath. Her fight was done; she didn't have to suffer from the pain anymore. It had ended.

The photograph was completely burned. The ashes from the photograph slowly fell down in front of her dead body. Without blinking, Kris looked at her for a minute. No remorse in his eyes, as if he was only staring at a broken toy, "Ah, I guess that's it, then..." The leader's voice broke the silence. Luhan bent down to see Haejae's face one more time. He turned her head facing him. She was still even looking pretty despite of her form. Luhan then brushed her hair softly and gave the last gentle kiss on her marked shoulder blade. "It's a pleasure meeting you," he whispered with a sincere smile.

Xiu Min approached Luhan, and gave a pat on his shoulder, "The manager just called. We need to go back." He said while grabbing EXO pictures that were scattered on the floor. The other members walked to the table, took all Haejae's belongings and started walking outside. "Don't forget to burn her stuff!" Kris who was still standing there, told the other members. He then fixed his sight toward Haejae before finally turned his back and walked away. "Let's go," he said with a low tone. Luhan stood up and walked along with the leader, leaving the old, dusty room with a lifeless poor girl in it. The sky outside was so dark, only the moon light shone pale.