I was lost in my consequences, trying to retrace how it all happened. My breathing grew heavy as my head felt like weights.

I felt strong hands shove my body to the ground, causing me to lose my balance as I crashed onto the floor, the gun lost from my grip. It lay only a few inches from me. I tried crawling over to it but the man kicked it out of my reach. He bent down on the floor so he could look me in the eye before grabbing my hair and yanking it back with all of his strength. I let out a scream from the sudden jolt, thinking my neck was about to snap.

"Where do you think you're going dear?" the man demanded.

"Kim Seok Jin! Don't you dare lay a finger on her!" I could see my father stumbling to get up as he tried to walk in our direction from the corner of my eyes. The last thing I saw was the raven hair as he walked over to my father and shoved him back down before my eyes blurred with tears.

"Pathetic," He murmured under his breath as he pushed my head towards the floor before he got up and walked over to my father who was now crawling on the floor, leaving a trail of his blood behind him.

"Didn't you tell me she was worthless, Soo-hyun? You told me Jisoo was your only child! You called me your friend and then you lied to me?" His voice teased in a mocking way, there was nothing there. No feeling, no hate, nor sadness. Just a cold sour tone, deadly enough to make you question what you did in your past life to hear it.

"Do I need to remind you who I am, my dear friend?" He questioned my father as he stood before him.

"It was a misunderstanding Jin... Please, forgive me..." I couldn't believe my father's pathetic words. Was he really apologizing to the man that was one gunshot away from ending his life? My mother never lied... she did fall in love with a coward....a pathetic coward...

"A misunderstanding? So now, you think playing with me is a misunderstanding?" Jin let out that same psychopathic laugh as before, walking by my father's body.

His laugh filled the room until it was replaced with my father's sudden scream. I watched in horror as Jin stomped on my father's leg, grinding his heel into my father's gunshot wound. I swear I could hear a crack of a bone.

In this intense silence, he let out a scream that came from his whole body. His eyes were wide with horror, his mouth rigid and open, his chalky face gaunt and immobile, his fists were clenched with blanched knuckles, nails digging deeply into the palms of his hand.

Jin placed his foot back to the side of him as he gave the man with fox eyes a small nod in my father's direction. I already knew what he was going to do before the man brought out his gun, holding it up to my father's head. Checkmate, I thought. 

 "Now can you understand how I feel inside? It's painful, isn't it?" He said in a dramatic tone while holding a hand up to his heart.

I stared at my father's almost lifeless body. His eyes met mine and I watched as the life was slowly being drained from him. His eyelids began to flutter shut. Nausea swirled unrestrained in my empty stomach. My head swam with half-formed regrets. My heart felt as if my blood had become tar as it struggled to keep a steady beat.

As I laid helplessly, I wasn't ready to witness another death before me. The heartache that was there when my sister and mother died was still like a lump of red hot coal placed in my chest, it glowed and burnt me at the same time. But it didn't cool quickly like coal in water, it throbbed and tortured me. There was never any medicine or cure that could help me with this unwanted pain....and I wasn't ready to have more.

"Wait! Stop! Please, I'll give you anything! Please don't kill him!"

"What's that dearie?" My words sparked his attention as he turned on the heels of his shoes and faced me.

"I'll- I'll give you anything you want! Just let me and my father live, that's all I ask."

He brought his cigar up to his mouth and inhaled, letting out a puff of smoke, acting like he was in a trance, lost deep within his thoughts. The room was soundless, the weight of the tension in the atmosphere grew on my shoulders, anticipating his answer.

"Anything I want?" He questioned me, boring his eyes through my soul. I return his gaze, nodding my head in a small motion.

My mind hummed furiously while the adrenaline flooded inside of my system. It pumped and beat like it's trying to escape. I thought my heart would explode and my eyes were wide with fear. My body wanted to either run fast for the safety of the place above ground, or to lay in bed behind my closed bedroom door, but instead, I remained where I was. Let's face it. There is really only one thing I could do.

Pray that no one kills me.

My adrenaline surged so fast I almost vomited. I could taste saliva thickening in my throat and beads of sweat trickling down my brow. At some point, I'll have to move and live with what I get.

"You... I. Want. You." My eyebrows furrowed together in confusion of not being able to contemplate what he had just said. Me? Why did he want me if he didn't even know my secret... if he didn't know what my blood was capable of?

"Me? What?" My puzzled expression made Jin grin. His grin made the temperature of the room fall a little. Even in the dim light of the underground basement I could see his bared teeth. It was a cheshire grin of sorts, the kind that was so wide it was more as if he wanted to eat me rather than propose a deal.

"It's simple, I want your hand in marriage to my son." He explained casually as if he was just asking for nothing important. He looked in the direction of where the raven-haired man stood. I could notice the ends of his mouth turn into a small frown and the way his eyes had widened a bit as he looked back to his father, still in a complete state of shock.

"Your son? You want me to marry your son?" I managed to spit out, pointing at the raven-haired man. Jin just nodded in return.

The warmth in my body abandoned me as quickly as the world had gotten old, and everyone on earth had vanished. From the decay and dust, I thought I had been gone decades, but only hours ago, I was teasing Rose in the cafeteria. Even in the summer wave of heat, in the underground lab, I shivered. It's all a nightmare, I thought. I should just play along. Or maybe, if I refused, the world would go back to how it was like this morning. I tried hard to think of pink ponies trotting down the lab but none came. I pinched myself, praying I would wake up from this nightmare, but I stood in the same spot with eyes on me; a small tear dropped from the side of my cheek not because it hurt, but because there was a chance all this was all real.

The raven-haired man's angry whisper broke my trance that was drowning me as I slowly walked deeper into the ocean water, not even knowing how to swim. Each word I said was like a step closer of me plunging into the depths of the cold unknown ocean water.

"What?! Father, what are you doing?! Have you finally lost it?! You want me to marry a minor?!" The raven-haired man protested.

"Let me handle business, Jungkook. Remember your place." Like a dog under his command, Jungkook stepped back, obedient to his father's company. But hits of anger and hurt were hidden among his face. Jin's gaze then turned to me with his full attention.

"So, what's your answer? You have five seconds to make your decision. " 

I've never been afraid of 'monsters' per-say. I do believe they exist, I just don't think they are furry and live under my bed or in my closet. You see, I knew a monster once. In fact, I loved him. He played with me, and he spoiled me with lots of gifts. He had deep brown eyes, and a smile nearly identical to my own. I thanked God for my very own monster, every night. My monster didn't have sharp talons. The only thing sharp about him was the knife that made this gash. My monster wasn't green or purple. He didn't even like purple; That's why he made me have all of the purple on my arms. My monster didn't come out and scare me after I had fallen asleep. No, my monster only scared me when he came home. My monster gave me bad dreams too though, so I guess there is that. But I didn't make my monster leave, like the case with normal childhood monsters. No, my monster left me. My monster didn't want me anymore, so he left me all alone...with no one to go to.

In the space that should be filled with his love, there's this black void; so dark that no light can penetrate through it. It was a wound that could never heal no matter how many stitches I used, no matter how much medicine I put on, it was always there. My home feels like the tower of cards it is, even though I did like to pretend the walls are bricks held together with concrete. They are just cards that get damp in the rain and wobble in the wind. I had to thank the man lying on the floor for that.

I had told myself I would never do it. I would never fall into the same trap as my parents. I would live a different life; that I didn't need to live in a house of cards. But now that choice wavered....now I had a choice; saving the one person who had always taken away my only light, my family. And accept the life I had hid; the life that I always wanted to desperately break free of, which chained me to the ugly past. Instead of running away from, somewhere far, far away from there, I had to embrace that role that my father wanted me to claim. I had always thought that was a lie he told himself in his imagination that I would never be what he wanted...now it was only one word away.

"I-, I-...." My words were stuck in my throat, the weight of my decision swaying on me, staring at my father's unmoving body. I hesitated as I saw Jin glancing over, the corners of his lips fighting a smile, his eyebrows slightly raised. I looked away before that mischievous look of his spread.

"Hurry dear, you only have 5 seconds." My heartbeat raced as he started the countdown, hearing it ring in my ears, clouding my thoughts.

"5...4...3...2...1"