Ferocious

by Paula Stokes

  I nod. Now is not the time to tell him one of those sisters is dead. “I need you to loosen one of these straps.”

  He starts to sit up but then gasps. His body falls back to the metal table. “I’m sorry. I think I’m dying.”

  “You’re not dying. That’s just pain. So much at once can be … overwhelming. But you’ve got to fight it, all right?” I say.

  “Why is it so cold in here?”

  I watch the blood ooze from his wound—it’s a steady bleed, which is bad, but also good because it means his lungs and arteries are probably intact. “That’s blood loss, but it’s not that bad. Just reach out for me. Can you reach my left wrist?”

  Jun flails desperately with his bound hands but doesn’t quite make contact with me.

  “Scoot a little closer to the edge of your table and try again,” I urge. “All you have to do is loosen the Velcro and then I’ll take over. You can do it.”

  Jun reaches out again. His fingers brush against mine, but it still takes him several seconds to find the end of the Velcro strap. “Nuna,” he says. “I don’t think I can.”

  “Yes, you can. Just pull back with your fingertips.”

  Jun manages to pull the Velcro half-apart and I tug sharply with my wrist until it lets go. “Good. Good job,” I say. “My turn now.”

  I have the rest of the straps undone in less than a minute. I sit up quickly and the change in position is almost too much for me. Blackness plays at the corner of my vision, but for once it’s because of my blood pressure, not because Rose or Lily is trying to control my body. For once it is all me.

  I slide from the steel table, but when my feet hit the floor, my ankle gives out and I collapse to the white tiles in a heap. I swear under my breath.

  “Nuna?” Jun says weakly.

  “It’s all right.” I use the edge of the table to pull myself back to my feet. “I twisted my ankle earlier.” The rest of my body seems to be working all right, but the ViSE recordings have left my heart rate elevated and my muscles weak and twitchy.

  I lean over my brother and twist his wrists sharply to break the zip tie. I press one of his hands over the wound in his stomach. “Hold pressure on it,” I tell him.

  Jun nods. His face is gray. He looks half-dead. I’m terrified that Kyung’s wounding did massive internal damage, that my brother is bleeding out from the inside and I can’t save him.

  “Do you have a phone?” I ask.

  “They took it.”

  “Mine too,” I say. “God, I wish you weren’t here. Did they kidnap you or something?”

  He shakes his head weakly. “I go to academy here on Friday nights. Mr. Kwon called and said I was needed for a special focus group, something about a marketing campaign to attract more science scholars.”

  “Were you in a different lab on this floor?”

  “Yes. Right across the hallway.” Jun shudders. More slick tears make their way down his cheeks. “There was a man in there with me, a security guard. They killed him.”

  My heart drops. Jason. He didn’t deserve to be involved in this. His death is on me, but I can’t think about that right now. “Look,” I say. “We just need to get you to the street. Someone will call an ambulance for you.”

  And then I remember we can’t even get out of this lab without a badge.

  I scan the room, looking for an alternate way out—a heat vent, an air duct. Something. Anything. And then my eyes fall on the fire alarm.

  If the fire alarm is activated, all of the badge-coded doors will unlock and all staff must immediately evacuate the building via the stairwells …

  Perfect. “Saved by the world’s most boring training videos,” I mutter.

  “What?” Jun asks.

  I pull him to a seated position. I go pale when I see what he looks like. The splotch of red on his shirt is growing. He’s got both hands pressed to the spot now but he looks like he’s in danger of passing out. “Keep pressure on that wound, and use your other hand to grab onto me. I need to see if you can stand.”

  It takes him a few seconds, but Jun gets awkwardly to his feet. He clutches my arm with one bloody hand, his legs looking a bit wobbly.

  “Can you walk?” I step back.

  Jun steps forward to meet me, his fingertips digging into my skin.

  “Good.” I tilt my head toward the wall of the lab. “I’m going to pull the fire alarm. Once I do, all the doors will unlock. I’m not sure if the elevators will still work. Do you think you can make it up two flights of stairs to the street level?”

  Jun looks at me like I just asked him if he feels up for running a marathon. “I guess?”

  “Don’t guess. Just keep going, all right? Don’t stop. Don’t rest. Don’t sit down. I’m not certain how long the doors will stay unlocked, but there’s no badge reader on the first floor since it’s just the lobby and restaurants. So don’t panic if the noise turns off.”

  “Okay.” Jun starts limping toward the door. “You’re coming with me, right?”

  “I’ve got to try to find Kyung and try to recover something he stole from me,” I say. “But I’ll find you in the hospital—I promise.”

  Jun nods and then exhales a deep breath in several shuddery little gasps. “Imo showed me a picture of two girls, both dressed in hanbok. My sisters. She said one day she’d help me find you.”

  Hanbok are traditional Korean dresses. Rose and I only put them on for special occasions. “I would love to see that picture someday.” I wipe away a tear. My fingers hover over the fire alarm. “Get ready.”

  Jun rests his free hand on the door to the lab. “I’m scared.”

  “Me too,” I say. “Just keep going up. Do not stop until you hit the lobby. Ask the first person you see to call for an ambulance.”

  “What do I tell the medics? What if the police come?”

  “It might just be easiest to tell them you don’t remember what happened for now,” I say. “Making accusations against UsuMed could be dangerous. But if you want to tell the truth, you can. I have resources. I’ll figure out a way to protect you—I promise.”

  Jun nods. “I’m ready.”

  I pull the fire alarm.

  CHAPTER 48

  A siren starts to wail. Jun vanishes into the hallway. I grab my knife, still wet with my brother’s blood, before following him out. I help Jun to the doorway leading to the stairs and wait until he’s disappeared from view before I let the door fall shut. I have no idea where Kyung might have gone, if he’s tucked away in one of the other labs or if he took the flash drive with the research up to an office, or back to the SkyTower hotel.

  Just as my ears become adjusted to the shrill noise, the fire alarm stops ringing. That didn’t take long.

  I hear a shout from behind me.“Ha Neul!” It’s Alec. “What have you done?”

  I spin around. Our eyes meet. My knife is still clutched in my hand. Kill. I think of Sung Jin’s glassy eyes, of the blond man lying dead on the floor of the K-Town guesthouse. There is something intoxicating about ending a life, about wiping bad people off the face of the earth. But it’s also a dark and deadly pull. After all, who am I to decide who lives or dies?

  He raped us. He tortured our brother.

  True. And what’s worse, he didn’t even seem to feel bad about it.

  Alec is halfway down the hallway now, hurrying toward me with almost a concerned look on his face. “You’re going to get us both killed.”

  I rear back, let the knife fly. It spins end over end. “Just you,” I say, as the blade embeds itself in his throat.

  He reaches out with one arm as he falls, but he doesn’t scream. He can’t. All he can do is make a gurgling sound. I go to him, bend down, remove the knife from his throat. He’s still alive.

  “That was for my brother and sister.”

  Alec lifts one hand to his neck, attempts to staunch the blood.

  “This one is for me.” I rake the tip of the blade hard across the side of his neck, severing the carotid artery
. He dies in seconds.

  I rise to my feet, my bloody knife clutched in my left hand. Now to find Kyung.

  But just as I turn toward the stairs, the elevator chimes. Someone is coming. I don’t want to hurt anyone else, but if a staff member sees me covered in blood or sees Alec’s body, they’re going to call the police. I hurry down the hallway and pin myself back against the wall just to the side of the elevator, ready to strike. If it’s an innocent person, I’m going to have to knock them out or lock them up somewhere.

  But when the silver doors open, Jesse steps out from between them. My muscles go slack with relief and I nearly end up on the floor in a heap.

  “Jesse.” I slip my knife back into my boot and reach out for his arm, both for support and because I’m afraid he might not be real. He feels solid and warm beneath my touch.

  “Winter, thank God you’re okay.” Jesse throws his arms around me right there in the hallway. “I was so afraid.”

  “Kyung stabbed Jun,” I say. Tears trickle down my face. “They were torturing him. I pulled the fire alarm so we could get out of the lab. I helped him to the stairwell. He only had to go up two floors, but I’m not sure if he made it to safety.”

  “I’m sure he did,” Jesse says soothingly.

  “Are you alone?” I ask.

  “Yeah,” Jesse says. “I told Baz I was meeting you for dinner like you said to, but when you didn’t show up and I couldn’t reach you, I came to find you. Come on. We have to get out of here. The cops are probably on their way.”

  “But they turned off the fire alarm.”

  “It doesn’t matter. Someone will still check it out.”

  “But Kyung. The tech,” I choke out. “I can’t let him win.”

  “You can go to his hotel room or something,” Jesse says. “If we stay here now, all that’s going to happen is we’ll get arrested for breaking and entering.” His eyes focus on Alec’s body, lying at the far end of the hallway. “Or worse.”

  I glance down at the gun clutched in his hand. He’s right. It’s hard to leave, though. I feel like I failed at everything—at retrieving the tech, at protecting my brother, at killing the man who ruined my life.

  This whole trip has been a mistake.

  I try to tell myself what really matters is that my brother is on his way to safety. “Let’s take the stairs just in case Jun needs help.”

  We head down the hallway, passing Alec’s body on the way to the stairwell. “Is he definitely dead?” Jesse asks.

  “Yes,” I say. “It’s a long story. One you might not want to hear.”

  “I want to hear anything you want to tell me,” Jesse says soothingly. “Once we get out of here safely.” Dim fluorescent lighting illuminates the stairwell. There are drops of blood on the steps and a smeared red handprint on the door leading into the lobby of the building. I breathe a sigh of relief that Jun made it this far.

  “You’re limping,” Jesse says.

  “I sprained my ankle. Another long story.”

  All the main lights are off when we step into the lobby, which means it’s after ten P.M. It was only about six p.m. when I went out the window and Alec cornered me in the parking garage. The last few hours are full of rips and holes. But the one thing I’d like to forget keeps replaying in my mind—the sight of Kyung stabbing Jun with my knife.

  I turn toward the revolving doors and Jesse grabs my hand. “Do you have anything under that shirt? You look like a horror movie victim.”

  I realize the front of me is covered with blood. Jun’s blood. Alec’s blood. I shake my head.

  “Here.” Jesse shrugs out of his coat. “Put this on. Keep your hands in your pockets.”

  I slide his coat over my bloody shirt.

  And then the center elevator dings.

  Jesse and I turn in unison. The doors open.

  Kyung steps out.

  Inside of me, dark wings stretch and flutter. Almost without thinking, I grab the gun from Jesse’s hand and take aim. “Give me the neural editor and flash drive.”

  Kyung freezes midstep but recovers quickly. “Put the gun down, Ha Neul,” he says smoothly. “You’re not going to shoot me.”

  “Why wouldn’t I?” The gun wavers in my trembling hands. “You have taken everything that I love.”

  “Not everything,” he says.

  I assume he’s talking about Jesse. “You’re responsible for the death of my sister and the closest thing I ever had to a father,” I say. “You sold me like I was a product.”

  “Yes, yes, and look at you now. Resilient. Ferocious. We’re not so different, you and me. So put the gun away and we can both walk out of here.”

  “I don’t think so. You’re a thief and a killer. Do you know how many lives you’ve destroyed? Do you even care?” I clench my jaw. “Give me back what you stole and maybe I’ll make it quick.” My finger dances on the trigger.

  Kyung sighs deeply. He reaches behind him to press the button for the elevator, and the doors slide open. Mr. Yun steps out. He’s half-shrouded in shadow. But I can see he’s got his own gun out. It’s not pointed at me, though. It’s pointed at a hunched-over figure he’s holding by the scruff of his shirt.

  Jun.

  CHAPTER 49

  “If I die, he dies,” Kyung says. “Do you really want to be responsible for that?”

  I swear under my breath. So much for getting away on his own. I can’t even tell if Jun is still alive right now. I feel Lily beneath my skin. She’s feeding on the darkness. Do it. Do it, she whispers.

  “Winter, give me the gun. Your brother’s life means more to you than vengeance.” Jesse’s voice is a lighthouse in the blackness, but I wave it away.

  “He’s already dead,” I say. “Look at him.”

  Kyung glances over at Jun. “It appears you might be right.”

  Mr. Yun releases his hold on Jun and he crumples to the floor.

  My brother.

  He crumples.

  Like clothes without a body.

  Like he’s not there anymore.

  Like he was never there to start with.

  Like I imagined him too.

  No. Just because I am sick doesn’t mean that nothing is real. Jun is real and Jesse is real and Kyung is real and I am real. I blink hard and then I can see the body on the ground. There’s no movement.

  Mr. Yun turns his weapon toward me. It’s a standoff. If I shoot Kyung, Mr. Yun shoots me.

  I remember a time when all I wanted was a gun and to learn how to use it. I thought a gun would make me feel safe. I thought a gun would make me feel powerful. But right now I just feel … heavy. Like I live in this world of death and destruction and I’ll never escape alive.

  The quiet of this moment is interrupted by the shrill cry of sirens approaching.

  “We need to go,” Jesse says.

  “You go. I need to stay here, with my brother.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “Then you’re going to get arrested.”

  “Fine, but for what? You think you need this, but you’re wrong,” Jesse says. “Kyung? The tech? They aren’t worth going to prison or dying for.”

  Lily rises up again, whispering all sorts of things, about how good it’ll feel to pull the trigger, how it doesn’t matter if I die, because Jun is dead and Rose is dead and Gideon is dead and at least now we can all be together. Her logic makes a strange sort of sense.

  “Lily’s right,” I say hoarsely. “This is the only way.”

  I close my eyes and surrender to the darkness.

  CHAPTER 50

  LILY

  The hated man waits. Watches me with eyes that are bright and dark, like a serpent’s.

  I glance down at the boy on the floor. Winter doesn’t want him to be dead, but there’s so much red, and sometimes nice people die.

  Sometimes nice people are made into prostitutes against their will.

  I was nice once, I think.

  Sometimes nice people quit being nice.

&n
bsp; “Winter.” The voice is kind, calming, like a ripple in a lake. Soft, but growing. “Winter, you don’t want to do this. You want to live. Otherwise all of their deaths have been for nothing.”

  “I’m Lily,” I say softly. “Winter didn’t want to do this, so she went away.”

  The kind voice doesn’t miss a beat. “Lily. Winter doesn’t want to die for this.”

  “What do you know?” I snap. “He killed her whole family. Winter is already dead inside. She won’t survive this.”

  “My whole family died too. My military family. I survived. She’s stronger than me. She can make it.”

  The hated man inches toward the back door, like he might turn and run. I start to pull the trigger.

  “If you do this, if you die here, then Rose and Gideon died for nothing.”

  “Gideon.” A spark of lightness flares up inside me.

  “Yes,” the kind voice says. “Gideon died so that Winter could have a life. She can have a life, if you let her.”

  “She needs vengeance for the family she’s lost,” I whisper.

  “There are better ways. She’s not a killer. Do you hear me, Winter? You are not a killer.”

  CHAPTER 51

  I blink. My gun is still pointed at Kyung. Mr. Yun’s gun is pointed at me. Jesse is talking.

  “He’s not worth all the good you could do if you walk away from this,” Jesse says. “You don’t have to shoot him, because he is already dead inside.”

  The words are tiny fireflies that light up the dark. Jesse is saying the same things to me that Gideon said to me in his ViSE. I can help people. I can be happy. I just have to escape this nightmare. I didn’t believe those things back in St. Louis. I thought becoming whole again meant killing the man who broke me.

  But maybe I don’t need that. Maybe I can put myself back together. With help.

  With hope.

  I lower my gun. “Fine. Go.”

  Jesse swallows back a sob. He whispers something under his breath that I don’t quite catch. It sounds like a prayer.