Save Me | K.TH *COMPLETED*

No Peeking

As days turn into months, I find myself getting better and better at areas V introduces to me.

I'm a quick learner- I ace archery and swordsmanship, karate and the arts of close combat, never taking more than a month or two.

I've only beaten V once, though.

He excels at everything he does, and it's not surprising to know he qualifies to mentor the mentors in everything that has anything to do with fighting and killing. But with other things, like socializing and mingling, he seems to know nothing about those. Honestly speaking, it doesn't seem like he even cares.

"Kir, focus. What are you thinking about?" His voice calls me back to reality from my daydreaming. I feel the grip of the cold gun between my fingers as I ruthlessly put five perfect holes in dead center of the five targets rotating in sync in front of me. "Sorry—nothing really." He glances at me, searching my face for anything hinting my thoughts and emotions.

"Okay," He says. V respects my privacy, ever since I've learned to respect his. Then he lifts his head and calls out. "Bring in the slaves."

What?

"What are you talking about? What slaves?" I tug on his sleeve anxiously, since I'm significantly shorter than him. "V..." My voice dies down as five people are dragged into the room, ragged and dirty. There's a man and a woman. Three children, all crying silently and looking fearfully at me.

Please don't let it be what I think this is. Please, please, please.

"Kir, that's the man that got caught trying to sneak in our headquarters. I need you to kill his family first, then him last." V says this to me without a blink of an eye, as if he's telling me today's weather.

The gun drops from my grip. "V, that's a family." I suddenly feel sick, and the image of my first kill surfaces up my mind. After that, I vowed not to murder, not be the cause of someone's death. It wasn't my place to take life from living flesh and blood. And here I was now, being asked to kill not just five innocent people, but a family.

"Kir. If you don't do it, then I'll do it for you. And the next, and the next, and the next. We have plenty of hostages,
all ready to be executed." I look up at V's unreadable face, but catch a flash of pain cross his eyes as he stares straight ahead. It disappears after a second.

"V, please."  I say quietly. "I don't want to kill. Can't we let them go?" His expression softens for a brief moment, and my eyes light up with hope. But the faint strand of hope is struck down as his face hardens again. He lifts the gun at the smallest child. "I'll do it for you, then."

"No!" I gasp for air as I jump in front of the gun. The dark muzzle touches my forehead, and I gulp at the shocking cold. I trust V. He won't shoot me. He won't hurt me.

I know that as a fact as well.

"Kir," he says under his breath. "Stop acting childish. Do you know what we will happen to them if you don't grow up and pull the trigger? They'll be tortured, one by one, and the others will be forced to watch."

I don't realize I stopped breathing until he pulls me into his chest, wrapping my fingers forcefully around the cold trigger. Then his large hand covers my eyes as I do what he wants me to do.

Five shots ring out, and five thuds follow suit.

I shiver under his grip, and instinctively open my eyes to look. But V stops me before I can, turning me away from the lifeless corpses of the family. He's protecting me from the nightmares that will come after, the guilt and shame of what I've done.

He doesn't want me to look, so I don't.

But that doesn't mean my enhanced senses can't visualize the horrible things I've done. I can hear the corpses drag on the ground as they're pulled away. The acrid smell of the gunpowder wraps around my nose, mixed with the metallic tang of blood. But then the smell of gunpowder fades quickly, leaving behind only the stench of rust and salt. The smell gets stronger, when it should be fading.

This is not normal.

The smell chokes me, wrapping around my neck like an accusing hand.

There's so much blood in the air.

V curses softly beside me as I latch onto his back, hyperventilating violently. I bury my face into him, to drown the smell of blood with his fresh scent. But it only gets stronger, until I collapse to the ground thrashing and screaming.