Hunted [Chapter 18]
*KNOCK, KNOCK* Great…
“Come in.” Dae’s words barely left his mouth before the door opens. There are four police officers walking into our room, all stopping halfway towards the bed.
“Seugnhyun and Daesung I presume? I’m sorry to interrupt you but I will have to ask you two to come with us to the police station.”
Crap, they don’t look friendly at all… well, actually… they look a bit scared.
“Hyung.” Dae’s whispering. I look at him, signing ‘what’s wrong?’ with my head.
“You’re still changed.” Oh. I change as fast as I can back to what could be described as a normal looking person. Three of the officers look at me with wide, judgmental eyes. The other, I presume he has the highest rank among them based on the outfit, only lifts his left eyebrow.
“I’m sorry.” I apologise. It’s best to show them a gentle, human side right now. Even if it’s a little over the top. Right now, I don’t want to take a chance. The three officers clearly relax a little. Their leader even smiled.
“That is all right, I assume this trip hasn’t been easy for any of you. Unfortunately Seunghyun, we still have some questions that need to be answered. So I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to come with us.” Apart from the doctor, he’s the first one who isn’t actually afraid of us and who treats us like normal people. But can he be trusted or does he only wants answers?
I nod and get off the bed. It’s easier than I expected. I am healed almost completely. Daesung is smiling at me, telling me it’s okay to go with them. They are walking beside me, not holding me like the other guard. After a while we halt in front of a door. But the scenery triggers a memory from back in that prison. The door looks like that massif door separating me from the torture room.
“Are you okay?” The head of the officers asks me, slightly worried.
“You look pale…” I also feel like I just came out of a swimming pool, I’m sweating that much. I nod in answer.
“Flashback by any chance?” And again I nod. He has a sad smile on his face and pats my back, only to stop doing so after a minute. He doesn’t really know if it’s okay, but I can see he’s trying the best he can to make me feel comfortable.
“It’s an interrogation room, just like the one you see in those cop shows.”
We enter the room and he’s right. A simple table with three chairs, a camera and one of those one-side see through windows. The leader offers me to sit down and I do as he asks. He sits down as well as one of the other officers at the other end of the table. I’m not cuffed nor is there anyone standing at the door. What a difference.
“Listen, I want you to know that you’re free to go whenever you want. You’ve been through a lot lately and if you want any help, psychologically, we will get you some one. Okay?” I’m pretty much good. What would I tell a shrink? How could he possibly help me? It’s not like I can ask him ‘hey, I’m a monster, how do you deal with it?’. So yeah, that’s ridiculous. I’m finding this a bit too good to be true. Why are they suddenly so nice to me? They work for the government as well. The leader must be able to see my sudden distrust however.
“I understand if you don’t trust us, Seunghyun. But I can assure you, we know how you guys have been treated, we know you mean us no harm and we know what happened… mostly. That’s why we want to talk to you.”
“How can you possibly know?” I ask, well… I growl. How can they know all that? And if they did, why would they believe it? But it seems I’m pretty easy to figure out. The leader puts his hand in one of his jacket’s pockets and takes out a white device.
“Do you know what this is?” Stupid question.
“An old mp3 player.”
“Yes, but this one is still young enough to be able to record… It’s the doctor’s. She turned it on when she was with you. She told us she was worried about your well-being. When you were brought in, she overheard the guards talk about how you were the big prize…” He stops talking and looks at me with pity.
“We also know about the torture because of this… The last conversation was… horrifying and… I hate to have to ask you but… Based on the last part of the audio file, they planned to rape you, did…” But I cut them off.
“No… No Daesung, saved me just in time…” I realise I answered that very fast. It’s true that I was lucky, but I can still feel those hands on me.
“That’s… that’s a relief.” The officer smiled.
“Unfortunately and I know that sounded slightly wrong, however that means we can’t actually give that as a reason to give them a higher sentence… But they did try, didn’t they?”
“…Yes.” I can barely talk. I almost forgot about that incident but this conversation doesn’t exactly help. The officer however nods understandably and is signing to the other one next to him to write it all down.
“Look, it’s already proofed that they were planning to, tortured you and made you guys live in inhuman conditions. Not to mention they deceived the entire nation to make them believe they were trying to cure you. If they don’t get sentenced for life, I’d be surprised, but you can’t be too careful.” He’s talking in a very loud voice now, trying to convince me of the fact that there’s nothing to fear.
“But enough about that, I guess you want to forget most of that… I do have some other things I need to glue all the pieces together.”
The officer asks about my power, what it is and how I feel about it. I tell him everything I know. There’s no use trying to hide anything because they’ll find out eventually. He also asks me about my wounds. For a guy that has been tortured and shot a couple of times I don’t look bad I guess. I tell him about the blood, the healing part of it as well as the part that makes me high as hell. In my hastiness to get out of the interrogation room I also mention Daesung and the, what I now know is not true, dream I had the first time I got high.
“Heh, seems like something good came out of this, after all.” The officer smiles at me.
“Which brings me to the next topic. Did you really not know about the fact that Daesung is also… well, what you are?” There’s still no name for us. You’d think that after all this bullshit there would be one…
“I didn’t, Dae told me later that he didn’t know it himself for a very long time. He also kept it from us to protect us I guess, so we didn’t have to lie.”
“I see… Well, that’s about it. The doctor wants to keep you for a few days but after that, you’re free to go home or anywhere else you want to go.” It’s my turn to look at him with wide eyes.
“Free to go?!?” This can’t be right? There’s some catch, there has to be one!
“Yup… there’s no cure and there’ll never be one… They discovered it’s your DNA that has been altered so right now there’s nothing to do about it… Not that there should be a cure anyway.”
“What?” Okay seriously, this is weird. First, everyone wants us gone or turned back normal at least. And now this guy tells me it’s better if I stay this way.
“Why are you not against it, against us?” The officer laughs briefly and gets up.
“I have a 12 year old daughter… at the time of her birth, we didn’t have a lot of money. So we put her up for the tests… She’s the sweetest girl in the whole wide world. And you guys are also good kids. That’s why. You’re no more a treat as any other person.” He puts his hand on my shoulder.
“And after the trial, the rest of the world will know that as well.” He waves his hand towards the door.
“Shall we? I’m pretty sure you can’t wait to get out of this room.” He smiles again and this time I smile as well. Finally someone who doesn’t hate us for being different.
On our way back to the hospital ward he tells me how I scared the other officers when they came to get me. He also makes a joke about my possible future in a haunted house and the success it would have. I think the guys and I are very lucky to have such a good person as our head officer on our case. We stop right in front of the ward’s door and he turns around.
“Got a little surprise for you.” And as he opens the door, I see four pair of eyes looking my way.
“HYUNG!”
A/N: told you the next chapter would be here faster.
Oh I also forgot to mention that I went to Japan for 3 weeks and had the utter luck to catch a ticket for Daesung’s concert. It was so good! And as a special guest: GD!!!
Now back to work!
“Come in.” Dae’s words barely left his mouth before the door opens. There are four police officers walking into our room, all stopping halfway towards the bed.
“Seugnhyun and Daesung I presume? I’m sorry to interrupt you but I will have to ask you two to come with us to the police station.”
Crap, they don’t look friendly at all… well, actually… they look a bit scared.
“Hyung.” Dae’s whispering. I look at him, signing ‘what’s wrong?’ with my head.
“You’re still changed.” Oh. I change as fast as I can back to what could be described as a normal looking person. Three of the officers look at me with wide, judgmental eyes. The other, I presume he has the highest rank among them based on the outfit, only lifts his left eyebrow.
“I’m sorry.” I apologise. It’s best to show them a gentle, human side right now. Even if it’s a little over the top. Right now, I don’t want to take a chance. The three officers clearly relax a little. Their leader even smiled.
“That is all right, I assume this trip hasn’t been easy for any of you. Unfortunately Seunghyun, we still have some questions that need to be answered. So I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to come with us.” Apart from the doctor, he’s the first one who isn’t actually afraid of us and who treats us like normal people. But can he be trusted or does he only wants answers?
I nod and get off the bed. It’s easier than I expected. I am healed almost completely. Daesung is smiling at me, telling me it’s okay to go with them. They are walking beside me, not holding me like the other guard. After a while we halt in front of a door. But the scenery triggers a memory from back in that prison. The door looks like that massif door separating me from the torture room.
“Are you okay?” The head of the officers asks me, slightly worried.
“You look pale…” I also feel like I just came out of a swimming pool, I’m sweating that much. I nod in answer.
“Flashback by any chance?” And again I nod. He has a sad smile on his face and pats my back, only to stop doing so after a minute. He doesn’t really know if it’s okay, but I can see he’s trying the best he can to make me feel comfortable.
“It’s an interrogation room, just like the one you see in those cop shows.”
We enter the room and he’s right. A simple table with three chairs, a camera and one of those one-side see through windows. The leader offers me to sit down and I do as he asks. He sits down as well as one of the other officers at the other end of the table. I’m not cuffed nor is there anyone standing at the door. What a difference.
“Listen, I want you to know that you’re free to go whenever you want. You’ve been through a lot lately and if you want any help, psychologically, we will get you some one. Okay?” I’m pretty much good. What would I tell a shrink? How could he possibly help me? It’s not like I can ask him ‘hey, I’m a monster, how do you deal with it?’. So yeah, that’s ridiculous. I’m finding this a bit too good to be true. Why are they suddenly so nice to me? They work for the government as well. The leader must be able to see my sudden distrust however.
“I understand if you don’t trust us, Seunghyun. But I can assure you, we know how you guys have been treated, we know you mean us no harm and we know what happened… mostly. That’s why we want to talk to you.”
“How can you possibly know?” I ask, well… I growl. How can they know all that? And if they did, why would they believe it? But it seems I’m pretty easy to figure out. The leader puts his hand in one of his jacket’s pockets and takes out a white device.
“Do you know what this is?” Stupid question.
“An old mp3 player.”
“Yes, but this one is still young enough to be able to record… It’s the doctor’s. She turned it on when she was with you. She told us she was worried about your well-being. When you were brought in, she overheard the guards talk about how you were the big prize…” He stops talking and looks at me with pity.
“We also know about the torture because of this… The last conversation was… horrifying and… I hate to have to ask you but… Based on the last part of the audio file, they planned to rape you, did…” But I cut them off.
“No… No Daesung, saved me just in time…” I realise I answered that very fast. It’s true that I was lucky, but I can still feel those hands on me.
“That’s… that’s a relief.” The officer smiled.
“Unfortunately and I know that sounded slightly wrong, however that means we can’t actually give that as a reason to give them a higher sentence… But they did try, didn’t they?”
“…Yes.” I can barely talk. I almost forgot about that incident but this conversation doesn’t exactly help. The officer however nods understandably and is signing to the other one next to him to write it all down.
“Look, it’s already proofed that they were planning to, tortured you and made you guys live in inhuman conditions. Not to mention they deceived the entire nation to make them believe they were trying to cure you. If they don’t get sentenced for life, I’d be surprised, but you can’t be too careful.” He’s talking in a very loud voice now, trying to convince me of the fact that there’s nothing to fear.
“But enough about that, I guess you want to forget most of that… I do have some other things I need to glue all the pieces together.”
The officer asks about my power, what it is and how I feel about it. I tell him everything I know. There’s no use trying to hide anything because they’ll find out eventually. He also asks me about my wounds. For a guy that has been tortured and shot a couple of times I don’t look bad I guess. I tell him about the blood, the healing part of it as well as the part that makes me high as hell. In my hastiness to get out of the interrogation room I also mention Daesung and the, what I now know is not true, dream I had the first time I got high.
“Heh, seems like something good came out of this, after all.” The officer smiles at me.
“Which brings me to the next topic. Did you really not know about the fact that Daesung is also… well, what you are?” There’s still no name for us. You’d think that after all this bullshit there would be one…
“I didn’t, Dae told me later that he didn’t know it himself for a very long time. He also kept it from us to protect us I guess, so we didn’t have to lie.”
“I see… Well, that’s about it. The doctor wants to keep you for a few days but after that, you’re free to go home or anywhere else you want to go.” It’s my turn to look at him with wide eyes.
“Free to go?!?” This can’t be right? There’s some catch, there has to be one!
“Yup… there’s no cure and there’ll never be one… They discovered it’s your DNA that has been altered so right now there’s nothing to do about it… Not that there should be a cure anyway.”
“What?” Okay seriously, this is weird. First, everyone wants us gone or turned back normal at least. And now this guy tells me it’s better if I stay this way.
“Why are you not against it, against us?” The officer laughs briefly and gets up.
“I have a 12 year old daughter… at the time of her birth, we didn’t have a lot of money. So we put her up for the tests… She’s the sweetest girl in the whole wide world. And you guys are also good kids. That’s why. You’re no more a treat as any other person.” He puts his hand on my shoulder.
“And after the trial, the rest of the world will know that as well.” He waves his hand towards the door.
“Shall we? I’m pretty sure you can’t wait to get out of this room.” He smiles again and this time I smile as well. Finally someone who doesn’t hate us for being different.
On our way back to the hospital ward he tells me how I scared the other officers when they came to get me. He also makes a joke about my possible future in a haunted house and the success it would have. I think the guys and I are very lucky to have such a good person as our head officer on our case. We stop right in front of the ward’s door and he turns around.
“Got a little surprise for you.” And as he opens the door, I see four pair of eyes looking my way.
“HYUNG!”
A/N: told you the next chapter would be here faster.
Oh I also forgot to mention that I went to Japan for 3 weeks and had the utter luck to catch a ticket for Daesung’s concert. It was so good! And as a special guest: GD!!!
Now back to work!