Hongjoong gulped. This story wouldn't have a grand ending, no matter what. He risked his life for this intel, and if he hesitated now, the snake would dig venomous teeth into his skin.

He exhaled.

"I'll play your game," he muttered, reaching for the glass. Ravenous, Seonghwa watched how he downed it in one go and wiped the residue with his fingers.

The effect came quickly. Hongjoong's vision became hazy until the beautiful widow blurred before him. Laughter tickled his ear as all other sounds barely reached him anymore. His limbs were sluggish and his voice slurred, but he didn't feel as if he would die.

He was utterly in Seonghwa's hands.

After patting him down to check for artillery, Seonghwa beckoned some helpers to the table. They grabbed Hongjoong under one arm each to haul him outside, towards the shiny black Alvis Speed which Hongjoong was sure hit the stores just weeks ago.

Thrown onto the bench smelling of leather and Seonghwa's cloying perfume, the detective tried to locate the widow as he glided behind the wheel. His gloved fingers steered them further away from the city and towards a mansion in the countryside. The peeper had no other choice but to listen to the roar of the powerful engine and try to focus on the moon drifting past as he became the widow's newest plaything. Blinking eyes tried to concentrate against the heady wear of the dope.

Once they arrived at an old villa that must have belonged to one of Seonghwa's former husbands, the widow's two lugs dragged Hongjoong out of the vehicle. Sluggish feet scraped over the ground when he wasn't in control to walk by himself.

The building was dusty with age, not lived in for a while. Gorgeous Victorian decorations wound around the ceilings and railings, and the old furniture was worth more than anything Hongjoong ever possessed combined.

Like a sack of potatoes, Hongjoong was thrown into a seat in the sitting room. The big painting on the wall was crooked, and it showed Seonghwa himself sprawled over a cushioned chair in a long dress, pipe in hand as the twinkle in his eyes proposed the beholder to come hither.

As Seonghwa shrugged off his coat in the garderobe, one of his goons reached to help him. A single glance had him back away. Hongjoong scrambled over the diwan as he tried to sit up.

"I assume our guest is impatient for us to return. Check on her first. I will call for you shortly." Seonghwa told his goons and, without hesitation, they stalked off. Leaving their master with the flailing detective.

Was Seonghwa able to defend himself? Or did they overestimate how peaceful Hongjoong was?

Then again, gowed up like this, he wasn't hurting anyone but himself. 

Uncaring of the dust that contrasted his glamour, Seonghwa sunk into a seat and crossed his legs in a mirror of the picture on the wall. He surveyed Hongjoong's queasiness, how he almost threw up all over the ground. Something was odd about this room. Seonghwa's scent of perfume couldn't quite cover a distinguishable sweetness which made Hongjoong stick to the stomach.

Noticing his confusion, Seonghwa bent down to reach for the white sheet on the ground. Through his stupor, Hongjoong could make out some shapes beneath, but his foggy brain couldn't piece them together.

"I prepared this for you," Seonghwa purred as he yanked the sheet aside in a grand reveal.

Bile gathered in Hongjoong's throat.

Before them lay an old body, rotting with age. It must have rested there for over a month already, as the skin looked hollow and mice and insects feasted upon the cold flesh. They left ugly traces, horrid wounds and bone stripped bare. The cause of death was multiple stab wounds to the chest and stomach of the young man. Hollow eyes stared at the ceiling.

Unperturbed by the vision, Seonghwa glommed back at Hongjoong's reaction. Dropped the veil for the detective to figure out who would believe his mad story.

"Who-" Hongjoong choked out. His body wasn't gathered enough to vomit up his lunch, but he felt his stomach twist and turn. Cowered away from the stench.

He had seen bodies before, up close as well. But the lack of care for this one and nature at its work were most grisly to look at.

"A police officer with too much time on his hands. Cho, I believe. Not that it matters." Seonghwa hummed. "You wanted a story, didn't you? Write about his bulging eyes, about this stench. About the stiff limbs and the bugs gnawing at his skin."

Excitement brightened his eyes. 

"Write about a detective utterly useless, with no evidence to his name. The puppet of a cruel killer."

"You sick-" Hongjoong began, but his head drooped, feeling like a brick atop his neck. 

Seonghwa cooed at his helplessness.

"I prepared even more for you to enjoy," he whispered, and his madness was too much for Hongjoong to deal with alone. He would bite the linoleum if his mind didn't clear soon. Would amuse Seonghwa until he lost his interest. 

"What are you up to?" The gumshoe gritted out. He had lost his lid when they dragged him into the car, and Seonghwa's supercilious smile didn't sit right with him. Out here, there was no one to hear a cry for help.

"Patience," Seonghwa hummed with a vexing smile. When a door opened upstairs, Hongjoong flinched. He scrambled on the gritty sofa to grab Seonghwa as his hostage, but his body had no strength left. Lame, he had to wait until the narcotic wore off.

Heavy steps dragged down the stairs. With them sounded an occasional whimper, and a moment later, Seonghwa's two goons stepped into the foyer. One carried the bound body of a woman over his shoulder. They placed her in the middle of the living room and Hongjoong sucked in a breath when he realised the many bruises and cuts littering her body. The edges of her skirt were torn and bloodied feet scrambled over the rough ground to escape.

The goons held her down, and one of them ripped off the pillow case obscuring her features. Once a beaut, but now marred by fresh scars, the girl blanched in fear at her company.

Messy brown hair tumbled around features that could barely be of legal age. One eye was swollen in a purple mouse, and the other one widened at Seonghwa's sight. Her split lip wobbled. She looked parched, tormented for days.

Hongjoong glared at Seonghwa. In utter nonchalance, he got a slant at the girl before his feet. Scratches at her neck and wrist meant some jewellery had been ripped off her with force. She curled away from Seonghwa on instinct. Were those small, rectangular black bruises on the backs of her hands from his heels?

Hongjoong blinked rapidly. He didn't understand. How many crimes did Seonghwa commit? How deep was he in the underworld? Did he draw the most water? Did those husbands woo him for his dough and not the other way around?

If so, Hongjoong majorly miscounted the trumps.

"This is Elizabeth May," Seonghwa explained to Hongjoong. The purr of his voice was naughty, not sharing the detective's horror at the doll's pitiful state.

"May?" Hongjoong echoed, having stared for so long at that last name on the files.

Seonghwa crossed his fingers in his lap. The tilt of his head was patronising.

Elizabeth whimpered, not daring to glimpse at him.

"My late husband never deemed it necessary to introduce his two spouses to one another. She cried so prettily when she found out he liked acting like a dog with men."

Hongjoong gulped. That was a crime on Mister May's side. The tormented girl bit back tears she no longer had left to shed. Disgust repelled her from Seonghwa, while the vamp sat untouched. His standing was hard-earned.

Hongjoong coughed against his heavy breaths.

"Is this your revenge plot? She is innocent!"

"You may notice her age, young detective. What do you reckon, how long were they married? She was his first wife," Seonghwa smiled ironically. Hongjoong's lips clamped shut. When Seonghwa leaned forward, his bare hand with the pointed red fingernails traced up his leg. He caressed the sheer stocking, slowly trailing up to the seam of his dress.

Hongjoong couldn't look away as more and more of his long pins were exposed.

"Is it so bad to kill those who do wrong? Who cheat, and rape, and use their capital for foul purposes?"

Parched, Hongjoong glanced back at the helpless jane. At her squirming before her tormenters.

"Then why kill her?!"

Seonghwa's shrug was so nonchalant

"She is a witness I need to get rid of. A thorn in my eye. And she is your trial, Mister Kim."

"What do you mean by that?"

Seonghwa's fingers halted at his upper thigh. A gleaming shiv was tucked against the pale skin where his stockings ended. He slipped it from the garter and exposed the curved, polished steel.

Hongjoong was frozen in place. Staring at the knife and the skirts that fell back down. Finally, the effect wore off, and he sobered up. 

Murder was offered right before him.

In Seonghwa's hands, the weapon looked terribly fitting. As if he knew how to handle it.

With a smile as sharp as its edge, he offered it out to Hongjoong. The room fell silent when Elizabeth held her breath.

"I'm giving you a choice, detective. Your life for that of poor sweet Elizabeth here. Sacrifice yourself and I will let you run free. Otherwise, bump her. You have seen too much to lam off in one piece, but I would adore having a young and honest sheik by my side. Someone to come home to after a hard day of work. Kill her and be free or sacrifice yourself in the name of justice."

Hongjoong trembled. His hands bunched into fists by his sides.

"How do I know you won't kill her after me? We both have seen too much to live."

"You'll have to trust my word," Seonghwa whispered with gleaming lips. He offered Hongjoong the blade.

Choose now:

Kill Elizabeth -> Go to chapter 22

Run -> Go to chapter 27