Beneath The Surface

Chapter 24

3rd POV

"It was 4 years ago" Tae started all the members taking that as their cue to sit and listen. "Taehyon and I were walking home from school, everything seemed like normal when a car pulled up" he said in a' I couldn't care less' tone though his body showed otherwise every part of him looked tense. "It was a nice car and when the man in the back of it offered to drive us home we took it" he finished.

"Wait! You took a ride from a complete stranger? Exactly what kind of fairytale story did you grow-" yoongi started before he was cut off. " He wasn't a stranger at all, he was my uncle. He's my fathers younger brother, he wasn't around much when I was little but came back around about a year or two before this" Tae explained. The others nodded in understanding waiting for him to continue.

"We trusted him he'd never given us a reason not to. So when he offered us soda to drink we accepted without hesitation, especially since our mother never let us have it" Tae said gritting his teeth a bit in recollection of the memory. Seeing where this might be going the others tensed up fear of what happened next creeping in. "Needless to say he'd spiked it with some drugs and we passed out not even 2 minutes after" he said twirling his bangs in his finger.

An 'I knew it' expression crossing the faces of the others. "Woke up in a basement cliche' set up I know, my leg chained to the wall, stripped of my clothes and cradled in my brothers arms as he'd awoken first" he said letting his hand fall from his hair. "I still remember the face of enjoyment plastered on that bastards face as he looked at our confused and betrayed faces" he said clenching his fist enough to draw blood.

The members were speechless none knowing what to say or how to react to what they'd just been told. Too many emotions running through their head as they watched Tae relive such painful memories. "I-I don't understand, w-why did he do that to you?" Jungkook stuttered out disbelief etched on his face. "Well apparently the plan was to sell us to some cult enthusiast dip shit who he'd gotten tangled up with while doing business behind my fathers back." Tae spat fury in his eyes.

"I never met said man thank god but he would send people over to" Tae stopped at this point closing his eyes taking a moment to breath "t-to 'prep' us" he said letting out a broken sigh. "Prep? For what?" Namjoon asked not comprehending this at all. "For what ever cracked up shit they do, they kept going on and on about how lucky we were being chosen for the ceremony and big our part was." Tae said rage building as tears fell "Even our uncle went on and on saying he loved us and knew this was for the best" he said starting to tremble.

"How the hell could he love us and do that to us" he said stopping as he was engulfed in someone's warm embrace. Realizing his state of distress he composed himself almost immediately pulling Jin off of him. "If you can't continue it's ok, we understand" Jin said trying to hide the hurt expression as Tae pushes him away. "No, I already started. Just the memories seem so much rawer then I thought they would" Tae said wiping his face dry.

"Anyway there began our week of hell...... stuff happened I'd rather not recount but just know that the tattoo you asked about was one of the last steps in the process, that's what they said anyway. It was also one of the most excruciating feelings I'd ever experienced in my life. Everything that led up to it seemed like a paper cut in comparison. The reason for it being it was no ordinary tattoo, it was also in a place that tends to be an incredibly sensitive area.

"The pain from that finally sent us over the edge, we'd found some comfort in each other and in the hope that our parents would come rescue us. All that ripped away with the marking engraved on our skin, how could we ever dismiss that horror when we had such a painful reminder. And it only got worse, we were made to sit in our own blood and feces over that time period so of course they got infected only magnifying the pain.