The Shadow Kissed Chapter Four
Again, sorry it’s late -_-; Really…rough weekend, in more ways then one, but it’s up now! Answering some questions, bringing up more?
Characters updated.
THIS STORY IS ABANDONED AND WILL NOT BE COMPLETED. UPON REQUEST, I AM WILLING TO WRITE UP AN ADDITIONAL "CHAPTER" EXPLAINING THE REST OF THE STORYLINE AND HOW IT WAS MEANT TO END, BUT IT WILL NOT BE COMPLETED. The contents of this masterlist has been unlocked for those who still want to read the story; however, as I have already stated, it will not be updated at any point in its original capacity. Thank you for your interest and time.
Title: The Shadow Kissed
Author: insanityplays
Rating: R
Pairing: KRY (Kyuhyun/Ryeowook/Yesung), Kangteuk, Hanchul, Simin. More to be added as revealed.
Characters: Psychic!Ryeowook, Psycho!Kyuhyun, Cop!Yesung, rest of Super Junior + M, appearances by DBSK, SNSD, and f(x)
Summary: After a nightmare Kim Jongwoon forwent paying any special attention to, he’s placed on a cold case fourteen years old where the only witness is a soon to be twenty-three year old man locked away in a mental “hospital” owned by the same people suspected for the murder/arson case of the Cho Family. Boring re-investigation aside, Jongwoon finds himself thrust into living his nightmare - only this time, it isn’t a dream.
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Warning: Includes, or will include, Angst, Drama, Romance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Action, and Mystery. Also includes, or will include, paranormal activity, ghosts, attempted murder and murder.
- Chapter Four -
Yesung was stunned as he froze with his cup of water half way to his lips, and only felt a little like he’d just been slapped in the face. He watched as Ryeowook took another sip of his own water, seemingly completely unfazed by his own words, but then Yesung noticed the fear still lingering in his eyes, and finally realized how the other mostly avoided looking him in the eye.
“What,” he asked slowly, “in the world is the shadow kissed?” Ryeowook didn’t answer at first, so Yesung settled his cup down on the counter in front of him loudly. When he saw he’d gotten Ryeowook’s attention, he continued, “and what in the world does it have to do with me?”
With wary eyes, Ryeowook lowered his own cup to answer him. “The Shadow Kissed are those who have been touched by a spirit. It can happen at any time in any one’s life. All someone has to do is wonder by a lost soul and if he’s the right person, that soul will latch on.”
“So what, they suddenly become psychic? Well I’ve got news for you, I am most definitely not psychic.”
“No, they’re not psychic,” Ryeowook answered with a hard glare that Yesung assumed meant don’t interrupt. “Psychic’s can see, hear, and sometimes speak to a spirit, or ghost as most people call them, while someone like you, someone Shadow Kissed, can only be spoken too. Usually through their dreams.”
Yesung’s brow furrowed and his eyes flickered to the counter where his hands rested, vainly trying to find any signs of something that might be on him, even though he already knew there would be nothing. “So…I’m Shadow Kissed?” he asked tentatively, before looking up again. “How do you know?”
Ryeowook wasn’t looking at him though, instead staring into his own glass of water, avoiding Yesung’s question’s. “Are you afraid of me?” he asked instead when he realized he would get no answer. Ryeowook leveled him a dark glare.
“No, but I have enough problems of my own without someone of your kind leaching off of me like a vine,” he spat, soft, musical voice harsh.
Yesung was taken aback, despite the obvious lie. “I don’t understand.” Ryeowook sighed.
“Of course you don’t. Look, I can’t help you, okay? So just…please leave,” he asked quietly, eyes pleading as he pointed towards his door.
“No,” Yesung responded, eyes narrowing. “Not until I get what I came here for, and not until you tell me what the hell is going on.” Ryeowook sighed again and put his cup of mostly full water down on the counter he’d been leaning against. Giving Yesung a wide berth, he moved past him and back into his living room, onto his couch where three thick blankets and two pillows lay rumpled. Yesung followed behind him, hesitating only a moment before sitting in the chair across from him.
“Explain,” he demanded of the smaller man, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in the chair. Ryeowook glared at him but opened his mouth obediently anyway.
“I’ve only ever known one Shadow kissed myself, so I don’t know much about them, but I do know that he said, whenever he was around me, the nightmares went away, he wasn’t so cold anymore, and he never felt a draft blow across his skin again, something I’ve come to realize was a touch.” As if summoned by the young psychic’s words, Yesung felt that very draft, the one he’d been feeling since the morning he’d awoken from the first nightmare, and realized he wasn’t nearly as cold as he had been for the last two days.
He shivered despite himself, the movement not lost on Ryeowook’s perceptive eyes. The man nodded at Yesung’s wide eyed gaze, answering the silent question.
“Like I said, it’s like your type are leeches. I’m the one who feels cold now, I’m the one hyper aware of this spirits presence, and I’m the one who feels like something is eating at me, because something is. I know that spirits there, and I know that I should be able to help him, but for some reason, he’s latched on to you and I can’t get to him. For some reason, only you can do anything to help him, and the only way he, or she, can communicate with you is through your dreams, which I have now effectively blocked off.
“Sooner or later I’m going to start feeling like someone is trying to beat me up, like I’m being pushed away, and I won’t be able to do anything about it because I can’t even talk to this thing like I normally can, and all because you’ll start relying on my presence for the sake of your own mind, because I know for a fact that these dreams can kill you, just from the sheer force with which they hit you, and sooner, rather than later, you’d have figured that out on your own, and something would have told you to find the nearest psychic to leech off of.” Yesung didn’t have an answer to any of that, but his gaze stayed steady on Ryeowook’s. Something in the man’s eyes had him gulping - a sadness that seemed so much like Kyuhyun’s earlier that day.
In a soft voice, Yesung whispered “You can’t just leave me now.” Ryeowook nodded.
“I know that.”
“Then why…?”
“I hoped I could get you out of here before I…before I got sucked into all of this,” he said on a sigh, laying back on the couch the way Yesung knew he’d been laying before he’d arrived.
“And I was just starting to get warm again too,” he said on a dark chuckle that had Yesung arching a brow in confusion.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said, sitting back up with a shake of his head, “Nothing. Now didn’t you have a case you needed my help on?”
--
On the ride back to police headquarters, Yesung filled Ryeowook in on the details of his case and his nightmares, making sure to throw in the bit with Siwon and what had occurred earlier that day that prompted him to call on Ryeowook in the first place.
“I don’t have a strong belief in Psychic’s, so if I hadn’t felt it was an emergency, I wouldn’t have called on you at all, but this kid’s life is in danger, there’s no doubt about that, and I wasn’t going to let my own disbelief get in the way of helping him.” Ryeowook nodded his head in agreement before slanting his gaze on Yesung’s profile.
“How do you feel about Psychic’s now?” he questioned. Yesung was quiet, eyes focused on the road, before he sent Ryeowook a teasing smile.
“I don’t really have a choice but to trust you, now do I?”
With a slow nod, Ryeowook started talking. “You should call your boss and tell him to call up this Psychiatric ward. He need’s to buy us some time. Just ask him to tell the man in charger that his police officer came back with some less than appealing news about the health of the patient, and that he’ll be sending another police officer back in a few days time. Tell him not to give any specifics - we don’t want them ready for us, but we don’t want them thinking they have enough time to make this man’s death look like an accident either.” Yesung grunted his agreement, already speed dialing the Chief and bringing the phone up to his ear.
“I don’t see how we’re going to get this kid out just yet, not unless we have some proof to back up the suspicion that SM Industries are involved, so to do that, I think we’re going to need to visit the murder scene.”
Yesung sent Ryeowook a nod as Heechul picked up on the other end. “Calling to apologize, Yesung?” Yesung chuckled.
“I’d say yes but this isn’t a social call,” he replied before launching into Ryeowook’s request, explaining to Heechul what he should say to buy them some time.
“Wait, just whose idea was this?” Heechul asked after a pregnant pause.
“Ryeowook-shii’s. He thinks we might actually be able to get Kyuhyun out of there safely, but we can’t give them any lee way to kill Kyuhyun and get rid of him before we catch them. I’m counting on you to make the call, Heechul,” Yesung added teasingly.
“I thought subordinates weren’t supposed to order around their bosses,” Heechul bitched. “You better be on your way back here, Yesung. Junsu just finished the reenactment. I wanted you to see it, get an idea of what were dealing with here.” After answering in the affirmative, Yesung snapped his phone shut with a click.
“Done,” he declared. “And we can go visit the murder scene tomorrow. Today, we’re going to look at some pictures, see what you think, and watch one of my partner’s videos. He’s been working on the reenactment of the murder.”
“Not that you need to see it,” Ryeowook replied with a small, friendly smile - the first he’d offered Yesung. Yesung smiled back.
“Yea, well, at least this time it’ll be a lot less gruesome.
--
When they did get to the headquarters, it was approaching three in the afternoon, and the sun was just starting to go down from its peak. Yesung basked in the feel of the warm sun against his skin as he hadn’t been able to feel it for the last few days, but looked over when he realized why.
Ryeowook was staring at him in mild envy, but to Yesung, he looked well used to the feeling Yesung had only had to endure for two days. He grimaced, but Ryeowook only shrugged and pushed through the doors of the building. Yesung moved in after him to lead him to the side room he’d spent all last night in.
“Hey Yesung,” Junsu greeted with a smile when he and Ryeowook walked in. “Heechul said you were on your way, so I left the grand showing of this for when you showed up,” he announced. Henry jumped down from his seat on the desk in front of one of Junsu’s many monitors and smiled.
“I’ve only seen bits and pieces of this myself while he’s worked on it, considering I’ve been trying to break into SM’s hidden records for the last week, so it really is the grand showing,” Henry said excitedly from where he’d propped himself up against Junsu’s chair.
“That excited, Henry?” Yesung asked with a slight chuckle, but then realized it really must be exciting to the younger man, considering the load of gibberish Yesung remembered seeing on his computer last night.
Henry sent him a sheepish grin and ushered them over.
“Junsu, Henry, this is Kim Ryeowook, our psychic investigator. Ryeowook-shii, this is Kim Junsu, our computer and reenactment specialist, and Henry Lau, the tech guy and computer prodigy.” Henry blushed while Junsu beamed and slung an arm over Henry’s shoulders.
“Nice to meet you Ryeowook-shii,” they both said politely.
“Um, I meant to say earlier. Just Ryeowook,” he answered, directing his words at Yesung specifically. Yesung held the gaze, searching his eyes, before finally nodding his agreement. Junsu sent Ryeowook a friendly smile before turning back to his computer. Henry’s smile was shyer.
“Alright, shall we get this show started?” Junsu asked then, clicking around on his desktop, looking for a certain file. “Heechul had me putting this together in the hopes that it would help the investigation, give us an idea of where to look and of what happened that night,” he explained as he finally clicked on a video that would show just exactly what Junsu had re-constructed.
Onto the screen popped a perfect rendition of the two story house in the small meadow like clearing Yesung remembered seeing in his dream, and as Yesung took in the digital picture, he realized that Junsu must have been using pictures of the house to get it drawn up so perfectly.
As the video started, Yesung saw three dots heading in from the woods in front of the house, moving faster than Yesung thought they really would have been moving in real life. “I sped things up a little bit because I just wanted to give you the general idea, but if you watch these three dots here, they’re going to split up right at the edge of these woods here,” Junsu explained, pointing with his finger as the dots did just as he’d said.
“Now, judging from the pictures of the foot prints in that box over on Yesung’s desk, I guessed at where they’d come in at. So they circled the woods,” Junsu indicated, trailing their movements with a finger, “until all three surrounded the house on either side, except, of course the front, but they’d already scoured that area for any signs of life, and then they all three came in at the back door together.
“Now once there, they broke the glass window of the door, presumably as quietly as possible, before unlocking it and going inside. The light in the upper window goes on about five minutes later; I’m guessing the parent’s bedroom, where the deed was guessed to be done, where they believe the fire originally started, and where the house’s roof caved in.” All three nodded as they waited, watching as shadows danced by the window in the upper bedroom, and then as more lights turned on and they watched the three dots that were the men descend the stairs.
“What about the little boy?”
“No one has any idea how he got out or where he got out from, so I have him running out the front door a little bit later,” Junsu explained in response to Yesung’s question. “Now if you watch the three dots inside, they’ll run back up the stairs right about now - they’re scouring the house with lighter fluid, concentrating specifically on the upper bedroom where the parents and the two siblings are presumably dead. As they go back down the stairs, they’ll turn off all the lights as a cover up, and one of the men will stay a little farther back to throw the match that will start the fire before running out after them.” They all four watched as two shadows moved down the stairs and the lights turned out, and then as the upper window flashed with sudden flames.
“Watch the front door. First, Cho Kyuhyun comes running out,” Junsu said, indicating the smaller dot than the three previous as it took off out of the front door, “and he tries to make his get away, followed by the three other men.” Not but a few feet behind the smaller dot, three more came running out of the slowly burning house.
“No, that’s not right,” Yesung said in a soft voice that only Ryeowook could really make out from beside him, “One of them went out the back door to kill the horses,” he mumbled, unable to hold back the mental critiquing of Junsu’s handiwork.
“Sorry, what was that?” Junsu asked as he turned to face him, confused. Yesung blinked and shook his head.
“Ah, sorry. It’s nothing,” he answered, ignoring the strange look Henry gave him as the two turned back to the screen. Ryeowook’s gaze lingered a bit longer.
“Now watch the roof of the house,” Junsu continued as if his monologue hadn’t been interrupted, “It’s going to start crumbling soon, and you’ll see the flames as they move down the stairway.” In the little window by the stairway the fire suddenly leapt downwards.
“The little boy and the three murderers are gone now, off in the woods, the little boy will show up right outside the woods at the other end on an elderly couple’s porch, and the murderers will make their get away. As for the fire, I had to judge its pattern by the pictures taken by the police and the CSI on the case fourteen years ago, but I’m pretty certain I got the flow right.
“It’s going to eat the back porch soon, and make the balcony start collapsing, and at the rate it was moving, even without my speed up, there’s no doubt, even if the family members hadn’t all been murdered first, no one could have survived the first five minutes of it.” As the fire started to eat the back porch, the video came to an end, and Yesung set to thinking.
“There’s no way any of them exited out that front door,” he commented just loud enough for them all to hear, thinking of how Kyuhyun had thrown a basket out of the way to get down a hole under the house.
--
It was quiet as Sungmin walked down the cold, stone hallways of the Psychiatric ward to Kyuhyun’s little cell with a plate of food unlike anything he himself would willingly eat, and a bright red apple hidden away safely in his pocket for Kyuhyun when he was sure the others wouldn’t be around to see him eat it. It was the man’s twenty-third birthday today, and no one but Sungmin was around to observe it.
His mind was on a friend of his who hadn’t been answering his phone calls over the course of the last day, no matter how insistent Sungmin had been, and he sighed when he thought of how often this seemed to happen.
He knew the younger man liked his peace and quiet when he came back from case work, especially when it was in a foreign country, but he hated that the other refused to give him the comfort of calling and at least telling him he’d arrived safely home.
He and Kim Ryeowook had been best friends since their school days, and Sungmin knew well enough what Ryeowook had been through. He’d gone through most of it with the younger man, in any case, and had only ever asked of him one thing.
To never leave Sungmin hanging, worried over the well fare of his best friend. They’d been through enough already without creating more unnecessary worries.
He sighed as he pondered the idea of calling the younger man again for the fifth time that day and turned the corner to Kyuhyun’s hall, but stopped short of finishing the turn when he saw the two men standing in front of Kyuhyun’s cell.
His first thought was to hide behind the wall and watch and see what the two men were up to, but one of them caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look at him with a feral grin.
“Ah, Sungmin, we’ve been waiting for you. The boss wants to see you,” Kim Leejing said in a tone that suggested so much more. His wavy black hair was long, and touched his shoulders, curling inward as if to create curtains around the hard planes of his face. Beside him, Shim Changin stood tall, his own short blond hair a halo around his face.
If Sungmin didn’t know any better, he might think him a nice guy, but he did know better, and he knew the man was the pleasant face around here that was meant to fool everyone.
With his own demure smile and confident steps that were far from how Sungmin was really feeling, he finished the turn around the corner and made his way towards the other two men.
“I’ll just give Kyuhyun his dinner and be on my way then, if you two don’t mind. You can go now,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand, pulling out his key to Kyuhyun’s cell.
Leejing’s cold hand gripped like a manacle around the hand Sungmin had used to wave them away, and Changin reached out to grab both the food and the key Sungmin had pulled out of his pocket with his other hand. Sungmin turned hard eyes on both of them, body tense.
Leejing grinned again. “He wants you now.”
“We’ll take care of Kyuhyun tonight,” Changin added, but his tone suggested they’d be taking care of him longer than just tonight.
Ripping the offending appendage off of his arm, Sungmin sent them both one last hostile glare before doing an abrupt turn and heading back down the hallway he’d just come from, trying to ignore the feeling of being watched. Once out of sight, he collapsed against a wall and closed his eyes.
He could just hear the beginnings of Kyuhyun fighting back against the hostile men who’d just attempted to enter his room, and the clash of metal against the cell door confirmed Kyuhyun was in a rage.
Sungmin could only hope Kyuhyun knew he hadn’t sent the two men in there, could only hope he’d overheard their conversation on the other side of his door, despite it being difficult to hear voices through the thick metal at all - Kyuhyun seemed to have amazingly good hearing either way.
If Sungmin made it out of this alive tonight, and kept his job, he didn’t want his only patient to suddenly hate him - especially not one he’d grown fond of, and one he hoped had grown fond of him as well.
Pulling out his phone, Sungmin made one last attempt at calling Ryeowook and pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against, trying to ignore the sound of Kyuhyun’s growl down the hallway and presumably, from the lower hitch of the voice, Leejing’s sudden scream.
“Pick up pick up pick up,” he chanted underneath his breath, and nearly slammed his fist into the wall when all he got was the answering machine three rings in. “God Damn it Ryeowook,” he hissed as he snapped the phone shut, “At least give me the reassurance you’re okay before I go meet my death,” he grumbled.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he pulled on his neutral face and calmly continued down the stone hallway to the break room, where their boss’s, Lee Jungmin-shii’s, office was located.
No matter how Sungmin racked his brain, the only possible reason for being called to the boss’s office that he could come up with was having been found out, and if were true, there was absolutely no way he was getting out of this alive.
He closed his eyes for a second, and hoped, for Siwon’s sake, that at least he hadn’t been found out. Sungmin couldn’t bear the idea of the whole investigation going to hell, nor could he stand the idea of Siwon being dead.
As Sungmin moved down stone hallways and past patient doors, he couldn’t help feeling more and more like they really had been found out. Since he’d begun working with Siwon he’d been constantly watching over his shoulder, completely on edge and waiting for someone to pop out and tell them they’d been caught, and it didn’t seem very far off the mark to think that he was being called down to Jungmin-shii’s office because of it.
There’d been plenty of opportunity for someone to catch him and Siwon. Maybe during one of their conversations outside the building or halfway across town when they’d thought they’d been safe, or when Sungmin was passing over developed pictures of evidence to Siwon during the course of the day, or even just today when Sungmin had been telling Yesung-shii all about how the Psychiatric ward worked. It could have even been Yesung-shii himself for all Sungmin knew, though Siwon seemed to trust him well enough.
He sighed at the idea of a friend of Siwon’s ratting him out.
Finally, Sungmin turned the last corridor into the break room, but it was empty save for Siwon. The man’s eyes were hard and unfriendly, the same as they always were when anyone else they worked with was around - no one was supposed to like Sungmin, because everyone else was in it for the money they made, and the chance to be ruthless to another human being they deemed unworthy of life.
The cold look oddly warmed Sungmin, because it meant, if Siwon was still keeping up appearances, at the very least, he was going to be okay.
“Siwon,” he greeted in a clipped tone as he moved to step around him, but Siwon’s strong hands clamped down on his forearms and yanked them behind his back before he could get very far, rendering them useless.
With a confused snarl, Sungmin twisted in his embrace, yanking one arm free in order to send it around in an arc. Siwon released Sungmin fully and grabbed his fist before it could make contact with his face, twisting it around so his arm was bent in an unnatural position behind his back, his back to Siwon’s chest once more.
His other arm was grabbed before he could attempt to retaliate with that one as well, and he found himself completely immobilized.
Before Sungmin could question the older male’s actions, Lee Jungmin stepped out of his office, smirking in a satisfied way, medium length, greasy black hair doing nothing to make his pallid skin tone any less disgusting. Sungmin had the fleeting thought that Siwon was the betrayer before he shoved it immediately away.
“Sungmin, Sungmin my boy, how nice to see,” Jungmin greeted, giving Siwon a nod. Sungmin gasped as he felt his arm being pushed farther into his back, locking it in place, further increasing Sungmin’s pain. With a hiss, he attempted one last time to yank the less awkwardly placed arm out of Siwon’s grasp, but his hold was vice tight this time.
Ushering with a hand, Jungmin lead them back into his office, Siwon pushing Sungmin along in front of him. The room wasn’t small by any means, and on the far wall behind Jungmin’s desk was a bookshelf filled to the brim with books - what the man might actually need with said books was a mystery to Sungmin.
A con-artist needed an education, sure, but they didn’t care about anything but themselves.
Tasteful carpet lined the floors similar to that of which Jungmin had put in the break room, and it, and the break room, where the only two places in the entire building with carpet, not that it really mattered much when parent’s weren’t allowed past the waiting room.
On the walls were a few fancy paintings, including one from the renaissance times of a naked woman mostly covered by a blanket - mostly.
Instead of sitting behind his desk as Sungmin had expected, and instead of being shoved down into a chair, Jungmin moved over to said picture of the scantily dressed, half sprawled on a bed woman, and opened a control panel beside it. His fingers were quick on the hidden keypad with in as he pressed in a code, and then the bookcase behind his desk moved to reveal an entrance into a dark hallway.
Siwon preceded Jungmin towards it as he pushed a stumbling Sungmin along, and just as they reached the threshold where Sungmin could just make out the outline of stairs, his arms were released and he stumbled upon Siwon’s push.
With his now free arms, he prevented the inevitable face plant with his palms, and would have stood up if not for the sudden kick to his side that sent him sprawling down the rest of the stairway until he came to a halt at the bottom. He groaned as he rolled to his side, clutching his forehead where it’d hit, eyes squeezed shut against the sudden sharp light hitting him from the lighting fixture in the middle of the small room he’d tumbled into.
“Get up you worthless swine!” Jungmin hissed, kicking Sungmin in the side with a steel toed boot that sent him sprawling onto his stomach, too disoriented from the fall to collect his wits about him. Siwon reached down then to grab his upper arms and yanked him up only to throw him to the side where he landed on his ass - hard.
Gasping, head whirling, Sungmin stood up on unsteady legs and reached behind him for the table he’d landed near by, steadying himself on the flat surface and clenching his other hand on his knee. He looked up to stare down the two men attacking him.
Siwon…what’s going on? Why are you doing this? His eyes seemed to plead, but he knew Siwon wouldn’t understand.
“What do you want with me?” Sungmin asked quietly instead, avoiding looking at the man he was starting to fear was the traitor. Jungmin grinned at him, taking the few steps forward he needed to stand directly in front of Sungmin.
“I got a call from the Chief of Police today. Apparently our patient isn’t looking too well,” he drawled, grabbing Sungmin’s chin with a cold hand to tilt it up to look at him directly. “And since you’re the only one with a key to his room, I figured you’d have to be the reason for that. Only it’s you, so that can’t be right.” Suddenly the man’s fist was colliding with his cheek and it sent him sprawling onto his back on the floor again.
“So what the hell did you tell them!?” he roared, kicking Sungmin in the stomach before he moved to stand with either leg on either side of him. Sungmin rolled onto his side to spit up blood, but Jungmin only kicked him again, forcing him on to his back again.
“I don’t give a shit if you choke on your own blood!” he growled, arms crossed over his chest. “I’ll stand right here and watch it happen if you don’t tell me what you told them!” Placing one foot on Sungmin’s stomach, he ground the heel of it down. Sungmin released a keening sound, huffing when it was over and clearly hardly able to breathe.
Sungmin’s eyes fluttered to Siwon’s face then, seeking an answer to something he couldn’t voice aloud, but Jungmin’s eyes followed his preoccupation, and the look that Sungmin had seen flash through Siwon’s eyes was gone too quickly for Sungmin to decipher.
Was it guilt for what Siwon had caused Sungmin to be put through? Either by telling their boss what was really going on, or by letting Sungmin get involved in the first place? Was it sympathy, or empathetic pain?
“Siwon,” Jungmin called then, stepping off of Sungmin and moving towards the taller man. Sungmin immediately rolled over, spitting up blood. “Come take care of this little pest for me. Beat him until he bleeds my answers,” Jungmin said with a lecherous grin.
“My pleasure,” Siwon promised with a feral grin that could match Leejing’s best. Cracking his knuckles, he took a step closer to Sungmin.
“Nothing! I told them nothing!” Sungmin gasped, eyes widening at the thought of what Siwon could do. Jungmin was standing against the door to the staircase that he’d just closed, arms crossed over his chest, and Sungmin knew Siwon wouldn’t hold back - couldn’t hold back if it were even possible he wanted to.
“We’ll just see if that’s what you’re still spitting when Siwon’s through with you,” Jungmin called in a lazy tone, and then Siwon was on him, holding him up with his fist clenched in his shirt. With wide eyes, Sungmin stared into Siwon’s hard ones.
“I’m so sorry for this,” Siwon said so quietly it was impossible Jungmin had heard, and his eyes were so soft Sungmin could do nothing but forgive him. He wasn’t the traitor. How could Sungmin have ever even have thought so?
Siwon’s eyes closed as he raised his other fist and brought it down into Sungmin’s face.
--
When Sungmin went down the final time, eyes closing and no sound escaping his lips, Siwon forced a satisfied grin onto his face. He reached down to grab a hold of Sungmin’s cold chin harshly, and when his eyes didn’t open and Siwon managed to surreptitiously find his pulse, he mentally breathed a sigh of relief that the other was just out cold.
To please the man he knew stood right behind him, Siwon dropped Sungmin’s head with no regard for how hard it hit the ground, and turned to face him.
“Well done, Siwon. For a minute there I was ready to doubt you.” Siwon gave him a winning smile, eyes cold.
“Never,” he promised. Jungmin smiled back at him before kneeling in front of Sungmin himself, reaching out to twist his face this way and that, searching for any signs of consciousness. Once satisfied, he dropped Sungmin’s head as Siwon had.
“What do you think of him?” he asked as stood back up, dusting off his knees. Siwon turned to stare down at Sungmin in disgust.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think he was lying,” Siwon replied, breathing another mental sigh of relief when Jungmin seemed to believe him, nodding his head in silent agreement. Letting out his own sigh, the other turned to leave.
“Lug him home, would you Siwon? I don’t want his blood stinking up this room anymore than it already has. And leave him a note, would you? I expect to see him back at work within the next two days, no matter how bad he looks.” Siwon pursed his lips in distaste, brow furrowed in annoyance as he turned to look at Jungmin who stood in he doorway of the stairway, but he nodded resentfully and Jungmin smiled in satisfaction.
“I always liked you, Siwon. Thank you for proving my suspicions wrong.”
Without conscious thought, and very aware of the hidden eyes in the stairway Jungmin had supposedly disappeared through, Siwon hefted Sungmin onto his shoulder roughly, allowing his head to bounce off his shoulder blade before lolling against his neck. Holding tight to Sungmin’s legs, Siwon headed up the stairs, trying not to appear careful as he attempted to do Sungmin no more harm.
It wasn’t until Siwon was safely in his own car and a few miles away from the Psychiatric ward that he pulled to the shoulder of the highway and climbed into the back seat with Sungmin, propping him up in an upright position as he did a once over.
Knees on the floor and with gentle hands, Siwon lifted Sungmin’s face to his and rested his forehead against the others clammy one. With his thumb, he wiped the dried blood away from his lips and tried not to cry as he watched the bruising he’d caused start to form on his face.
All he could think of was how Sungmin could have died by his hand.
--
Masterlist/Character Information
Characters updated.
THIS STORY IS ABANDONED AND WILL NOT BE COMPLETED. UPON REQUEST, I AM WILLING TO WRITE UP AN ADDITIONAL "CHAPTER" EXPLAINING THE REST OF THE STORYLINE AND HOW IT WAS MEANT TO END, BUT IT WILL NOT BE COMPLETED. The contents of this masterlist has been unlocked for those who still want to read the story; however, as I have already stated, it will not be updated at any point in its original capacity. Thank you for your interest and time.
Title: The Shadow Kissed
Author: insanityplays
Rating: R
Pairing: KRY (Kyuhyun/Ryeowook/Yesung), Kangteuk, Hanchul, Simin. More to be added as revealed.
Characters: Psychic!Ryeowook, Psycho!Kyuhyun, Cop!Yesung, rest of Super Junior + M, appearances by DBSK, SNSD, and f(x)
Summary: After a nightmare Kim Jongwoon forwent paying any special attention to, he’s placed on a cold case fourteen years old where the only witness is a soon to be twenty-three year old man locked away in a mental “hospital” owned by the same people suspected for the murder/arson case of the Cho Family. Boring re-investigation aside, Jongwoon finds himself thrust into living his nightmare - only this time, it isn’t a dream.
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Warning: Includes, or will include, Angst, Drama, Romance, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Action, and Mystery. Also includes, or will include, paranormal activity, ghosts, attempted murder and murder.
- Chapter Four -
Yesung was stunned as he froze with his cup of water half way to his lips, and only felt a little like he’d just been slapped in the face. He watched as Ryeowook took another sip of his own water, seemingly completely unfazed by his own words, but then Yesung noticed the fear still lingering in his eyes, and finally realized how the other mostly avoided looking him in the eye.
“What,” he asked slowly, “in the world is the shadow kissed?” Ryeowook didn’t answer at first, so Yesung settled his cup down on the counter in front of him loudly. When he saw he’d gotten Ryeowook’s attention, he continued, “and what in the world does it have to do with me?”
With wary eyes, Ryeowook lowered his own cup to answer him. “The Shadow Kissed are those who have been touched by a spirit. It can happen at any time in any one’s life. All someone has to do is wonder by a lost soul and if he’s the right person, that soul will latch on.”
“So what, they suddenly become psychic? Well I’ve got news for you, I am most definitely not psychic.”
“No, they’re not psychic,” Ryeowook answered with a hard glare that Yesung assumed meant don’t interrupt. “Psychic’s can see, hear, and sometimes speak to a spirit, or ghost as most people call them, while someone like you, someone Shadow Kissed, can only be spoken too. Usually through their dreams.”
Yesung’s brow furrowed and his eyes flickered to the counter where his hands rested, vainly trying to find any signs of something that might be on him, even though he already knew there would be nothing. “So…I’m Shadow Kissed?” he asked tentatively, before looking up again. “How do you know?”
Ryeowook wasn’t looking at him though, instead staring into his own glass of water, avoiding Yesung’s question’s. “Are you afraid of me?” he asked instead when he realized he would get no answer. Ryeowook leveled him a dark glare.
“No, but I have enough problems of my own without someone of your kind leaching off of me like a vine,” he spat, soft, musical voice harsh.
Yesung was taken aback, despite the obvious lie. “I don’t understand.” Ryeowook sighed.
“Of course you don’t. Look, I can’t help you, okay? So just…please leave,” he asked quietly, eyes pleading as he pointed towards his door.
“No,” Yesung responded, eyes narrowing. “Not until I get what I came here for, and not until you tell me what the hell is going on.” Ryeowook sighed again and put his cup of mostly full water down on the counter he’d been leaning against. Giving Yesung a wide berth, he moved past him and back into his living room, onto his couch where three thick blankets and two pillows lay rumpled. Yesung followed behind him, hesitating only a moment before sitting in the chair across from him.
“Explain,” he demanded of the smaller man, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back in the chair. Ryeowook glared at him but opened his mouth obediently anyway.
“I’ve only ever known one Shadow kissed myself, so I don’t know much about them, but I do know that he said, whenever he was around me, the nightmares went away, he wasn’t so cold anymore, and he never felt a draft blow across his skin again, something I’ve come to realize was a touch.” As if summoned by the young psychic’s words, Yesung felt that very draft, the one he’d been feeling since the morning he’d awoken from the first nightmare, and realized he wasn’t nearly as cold as he had been for the last two days.
He shivered despite himself, the movement not lost on Ryeowook’s perceptive eyes. The man nodded at Yesung’s wide eyed gaze, answering the silent question.
“Like I said, it’s like your type are leeches. I’m the one who feels cold now, I’m the one hyper aware of this spirits presence, and I’m the one who feels like something is eating at me, because something is. I know that spirits there, and I know that I should be able to help him, but for some reason, he’s latched on to you and I can’t get to him. For some reason, only you can do anything to help him, and the only way he, or she, can communicate with you is through your dreams, which I have now effectively blocked off.
“Sooner or later I’m going to start feeling like someone is trying to beat me up, like I’m being pushed away, and I won’t be able to do anything about it because I can’t even talk to this thing like I normally can, and all because you’ll start relying on my presence for the sake of your own mind, because I know for a fact that these dreams can kill you, just from the sheer force with which they hit you, and sooner, rather than later, you’d have figured that out on your own, and something would have told you to find the nearest psychic to leech off of.” Yesung didn’t have an answer to any of that, but his gaze stayed steady on Ryeowook’s. Something in the man’s eyes had him gulping - a sadness that seemed so much like Kyuhyun’s earlier that day.
In a soft voice, Yesung whispered “You can’t just leave me now.” Ryeowook nodded.
“I know that.”
“Then why…?”
“I hoped I could get you out of here before I…before I got sucked into all of this,” he said on a sigh, laying back on the couch the way Yesung knew he’d been laying before he’d arrived.
“And I was just starting to get warm again too,” he said on a dark chuckle that had Yesung arching a brow in confusion.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said, sitting back up with a shake of his head, “Nothing. Now didn’t you have a case you needed my help on?”
--
On the ride back to police headquarters, Yesung filled Ryeowook in on the details of his case and his nightmares, making sure to throw in the bit with Siwon and what had occurred earlier that day that prompted him to call on Ryeowook in the first place.
“I don’t have a strong belief in Psychic’s, so if I hadn’t felt it was an emergency, I wouldn’t have called on you at all, but this kid’s life is in danger, there’s no doubt about that, and I wasn’t going to let my own disbelief get in the way of helping him.” Ryeowook nodded his head in agreement before slanting his gaze on Yesung’s profile.
“How do you feel about Psychic’s now?” he questioned. Yesung was quiet, eyes focused on the road, before he sent Ryeowook a teasing smile.
“I don’t really have a choice but to trust you, now do I?”
With a slow nod, Ryeowook started talking. “You should call your boss and tell him to call up this Psychiatric ward. He need’s to buy us some time. Just ask him to tell the man in charger that his police officer came back with some less than appealing news about the health of the patient, and that he’ll be sending another police officer back in a few days time. Tell him not to give any specifics - we don’t want them ready for us, but we don’t want them thinking they have enough time to make this man’s death look like an accident either.” Yesung grunted his agreement, already speed dialing the Chief and bringing the phone up to his ear.
“I don’t see how we’re going to get this kid out just yet, not unless we have some proof to back up the suspicion that SM Industries are involved, so to do that, I think we’re going to need to visit the murder scene.”
Yesung sent Ryeowook a nod as Heechul picked up on the other end. “Calling to apologize, Yesung?” Yesung chuckled.
“I’d say yes but this isn’t a social call,” he replied before launching into Ryeowook’s request, explaining to Heechul what he should say to buy them some time.
“Wait, just whose idea was this?” Heechul asked after a pregnant pause.
“Ryeowook-shii’s. He thinks we might actually be able to get Kyuhyun out of there safely, but we can’t give them any lee way to kill Kyuhyun and get rid of him before we catch them. I’m counting on you to make the call, Heechul,” Yesung added teasingly.
“I thought subordinates weren’t supposed to order around their bosses,” Heechul bitched. “You better be on your way back here, Yesung. Junsu just finished the reenactment. I wanted you to see it, get an idea of what were dealing with here.” After answering in the affirmative, Yesung snapped his phone shut with a click.
“Done,” he declared. “And we can go visit the murder scene tomorrow. Today, we’re going to look at some pictures, see what you think, and watch one of my partner’s videos. He’s been working on the reenactment of the murder.”
“Not that you need to see it,” Ryeowook replied with a small, friendly smile - the first he’d offered Yesung. Yesung smiled back.
“Yea, well, at least this time it’ll be a lot less gruesome.
--
When they did get to the headquarters, it was approaching three in the afternoon, and the sun was just starting to go down from its peak. Yesung basked in the feel of the warm sun against his skin as he hadn’t been able to feel it for the last few days, but looked over when he realized why.
Ryeowook was staring at him in mild envy, but to Yesung, he looked well used to the feeling Yesung had only had to endure for two days. He grimaced, but Ryeowook only shrugged and pushed through the doors of the building. Yesung moved in after him to lead him to the side room he’d spent all last night in.
“Hey Yesung,” Junsu greeted with a smile when he and Ryeowook walked in. “Heechul said you were on your way, so I left the grand showing of this for when you showed up,” he announced. Henry jumped down from his seat on the desk in front of one of Junsu’s many monitors and smiled.
“I’ve only seen bits and pieces of this myself while he’s worked on it, considering I’ve been trying to break into SM’s hidden records for the last week, so it really is the grand showing,” Henry said excitedly from where he’d propped himself up against Junsu’s chair.
“That excited, Henry?” Yesung asked with a slight chuckle, but then realized it really must be exciting to the younger man, considering the load of gibberish Yesung remembered seeing on his computer last night.
Henry sent him a sheepish grin and ushered them over.
“Junsu, Henry, this is Kim Ryeowook, our psychic investigator. Ryeowook-shii, this is Kim Junsu, our computer and reenactment specialist, and Henry Lau, the tech guy and computer prodigy.” Henry blushed while Junsu beamed and slung an arm over Henry’s shoulders.
“Nice to meet you Ryeowook-shii,” they both said politely.
“Um, I meant to say earlier. Just Ryeowook,” he answered, directing his words at Yesung specifically. Yesung held the gaze, searching his eyes, before finally nodding his agreement. Junsu sent Ryeowook a friendly smile before turning back to his computer. Henry’s smile was shyer.
“Alright, shall we get this show started?” Junsu asked then, clicking around on his desktop, looking for a certain file. “Heechul had me putting this together in the hopes that it would help the investigation, give us an idea of where to look and of what happened that night,” he explained as he finally clicked on a video that would show just exactly what Junsu had re-constructed.
Onto the screen popped a perfect rendition of the two story house in the small meadow like clearing Yesung remembered seeing in his dream, and as Yesung took in the digital picture, he realized that Junsu must have been using pictures of the house to get it drawn up so perfectly.
As the video started, Yesung saw three dots heading in from the woods in front of the house, moving faster than Yesung thought they really would have been moving in real life. “I sped things up a little bit because I just wanted to give you the general idea, but if you watch these three dots here, they’re going to split up right at the edge of these woods here,” Junsu explained, pointing with his finger as the dots did just as he’d said.
“Now, judging from the pictures of the foot prints in that box over on Yesung’s desk, I guessed at where they’d come in at. So they circled the woods,” Junsu indicated, trailing their movements with a finger, “until all three surrounded the house on either side, except, of course the front, but they’d already scoured that area for any signs of life, and then they all three came in at the back door together.
“Now once there, they broke the glass window of the door, presumably as quietly as possible, before unlocking it and going inside. The light in the upper window goes on about five minutes later; I’m guessing the parent’s bedroom, where the deed was guessed to be done, where they believe the fire originally started, and where the house’s roof caved in.” All three nodded as they waited, watching as shadows danced by the window in the upper bedroom, and then as more lights turned on and they watched the three dots that were the men descend the stairs.
“What about the little boy?”
“No one has any idea how he got out or where he got out from, so I have him running out the front door a little bit later,” Junsu explained in response to Yesung’s question. “Now if you watch the three dots inside, they’ll run back up the stairs right about now - they’re scouring the house with lighter fluid, concentrating specifically on the upper bedroom where the parents and the two siblings are presumably dead. As they go back down the stairs, they’ll turn off all the lights as a cover up, and one of the men will stay a little farther back to throw the match that will start the fire before running out after them.” They all four watched as two shadows moved down the stairs and the lights turned out, and then as the upper window flashed with sudden flames.
“Watch the front door. First, Cho Kyuhyun comes running out,” Junsu said, indicating the smaller dot than the three previous as it took off out of the front door, “and he tries to make his get away, followed by the three other men.” Not but a few feet behind the smaller dot, three more came running out of the slowly burning house.
“No, that’s not right,” Yesung said in a soft voice that only Ryeowook could really make out from beside him, “One of them went out the back door to kill the horses,” he mumbled, unable to hold back the mental critiquing of Junsu’s handiwork.
“Sorry, what was that?” Junsu asked as he turned to face him, confused. Yesung blinked and shook his head.
“Ah, sorry. It’s nothing,” he answered, ignoring the strange look Henry gave him as the two turned back to the screen. Ryeowook’s gaze lingered a bit longer.
“Now watch the roof of the house,” Junsu continued as if his monologue hadn’t been interrupted, “It’s going to start crumbling soon, and you’ll see the flames as they move down the stairway.” In the little window by the stairway the fire suddenly leapt downwards.
“The little boy and the three murderers are gone now, off in the woods, the little boy will show up right outside the woods at the other end on an elderly couple’s porch, and the murderers will make their get away. As for the fire, I had to judge its pattern by the pictures taken by the police and the CSI on the case fourteen years ago, but I’m pretty certain I got the flow right.
“It’s going to eat the back porch soon, and make the balcony start collapsing, and at the rate it was moving, even without my speed up, there’s no doubt, even if the family members hadn’t all been murdered first, no one could have survived the first five minutes of it.” As the fire started to eat the back porch, the video came to an end, and Yesung set to thinking.
“There’s no way any of them exited out that front door,” he commented just loud enough for them all to hear, thinking of how Kyuhyun had thrown a basket out of the way to get down a hole under the house.
--
It was quiet as Sungmin walked down the cold, stone hallways of the Psychiatric ward to Kyuhyun’s little cell with a plate of food unlike anything he himself would willingly eat, and a bright red apple hidden away safely in his pocket for Kyuhyun when he was sure the others wouldn’t be around to see him eat it. It was the man’s twenty-third birthday today, and no one but Sungmin was around to observe it.
His mind was on a friend of his who hadn’t been answering his phone calls over the course of the last day, no matter how insistent Sungmin had been, and he sighed when he thought of how often this seemed to happen.
He knew the younger man liked his peace and quiet when he came back from case work, especially when it was in a foreign country, but he hated that the other refused to give him the comfort of calling and at least telling him he’d arrived safely home.
He and Kim Ryeowook had been best friends since their school days, and Sungmin knew well enough what Ryeowook had been through. He’d gone through most of it with the younger man, in any case, and had only ever asked of him one thing.
To never leave Sungmin hanging, worried over the well fare of his best friend. They’d been through enough already without creating more unnecessary worries.
He sighed as he pondered the idea of calling the younger man again for the fifth time that day and turned the corner to Kyuhyun’s hall, but stopped short of finishing the turn when he saw the two men standing in front of Kyuhyun’s cell.
His first thought was to hide behind the wall and watch and see what the two men were up to, but one of them caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look at him with a feral grin.
“Ah, Sungmin, we’ve been waiting for you. The boss wants to see you,” Kim Leejing said in a tone that suggested so much more. His wavy black hair was long, and touched his shoulders, curling inward as if to create curtains around the hard planes of his face. Beside him, Shim Changin stood tall, his own short blond hair a halo around his face.
If Sungmin didn’t know any better, he might think him a nice guy, but he did know better, and he knew the man was the pleasant face around here that was meant to fool everyone.
With his own demure smile and confident steps that were far from how Sungmin was really feeling, he finished the turn around the corner and made his way towards the other two men.
“I’ll just give Kyuhyun his dinner and be on my way then, if you two don’t mind. You can go now,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand, pulling out his key to Kyuhyun’s cell.
Leejing’s cold hand gripped like a manacle around the hand Sungmin had used to wave them away, and Changin reached out to grab both the food and the key Sungmin had pulled out of his pocket with his other hand. Sungmin turned hard eyes on both of them, body tense.
Leejing grinned again. “He wants you now.”
“We’ll take care of Kyuhyun tonight,” Changin added, but his tone suggested they’d be taking care of him longer than just tonight.
Ripping the offending appendage off of his arm, Sungmin sent them both one last hostile glare before doing an abrupt turn and heading back down the hallway he’d just come from, trying to ignore the feeling of being watched. Once out of sight, he collapsed against a wall and closed his eyes.
He could just hear the beginnings of Kyuhyun fighting back against the hostile men who’d just attempted to enter his room, and the clash of metal against the cell door confirmed Kyuhyun was in a rage.
Sungmin could only hope Kyuhyun knew he hadn’t sent the two men in there, could only hope he’d overheard their conversation on the other side of his door, despite it being difficult to hear voices through the thick metal at all - Kyuhyun seemed to have amazingly good hearing either way.
If Sungmin made it out of this alive tonight, and kept his job, he didn’t want his only patient to suddenly hate him - especially not one he’d grown fond of, and one he hoped had grown fond of him as well.
Pulling out his phone, Sungmin made one last attempt at calling Ryeowook and pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against, trying to ignore the sound of Kyuhyun’s growl down the hallway and presumably, from the lower hitch of the voice, Leejing’s sudden scream.
“Pick up pick up pick up,” he chanted underneath his breath, and nearly slammed his fist into the wall when all he got was the answering machine three rings in. “God Damn it Ryeowook,” he hissed as he snapped the phone shut, “At least give me the reassurance you’re okay before I go meet my death,” he grumbled.
Shoving his hands in his pockets, he pulled on his neutral face and calmly continued down the stone hallway to the break room, where their boss’s, Lee Jungmin-shii’s, office was located.
No matter how Sungmin racked his brain, the only possible reason for being called to the boss’s office that he could come up with was having been found out, and if were true, there was absolutely no way he was getting out of this alive.
He closed his eyes for a second, and hoped, for Siwon’s sake, that at least he hadn’t been found out. Sungmin couldn’t bear the idea of the whole investigation going to hell, nor could he stand the idea of Siwon being dead.
As Sungmin moved down stone hallways and past patient doors, he couldn’t help feeling more and more like they really had been found out. Since he’d begun working with Siwon he’d been constantly watching over his shoulder, completely on edge and waiting for someone to pop out and tell them they’d been caught, and it didn’t seem very far off the mark to think that he was being called down to Jungmin-shii’s office because of it.
There’d been plenty of opportunity for someone to catch him and Siwon. Maybe during one of their conversations outside the building or halfway across town when they’d thought they’d been safe, or when Sungmin was passing over developed pictures of evidence to Siwon during the course of the day, or even just today when Sungmin had been telling Yesung-shii all about how the Psychiatric ward worked. It could have even been Yesung-shii himself for all Sungmin knew, though Siwon seemed to trust him well enough.
He sighed at the idea of a friend of Siwon’s ratting him out.
Finally, Sungmin turned the last corridor into the break room, but it was empty save for Siwon. The man’s eyes were hard and unfriendly, the same as they always were when anyone else they worked with was around - no one was supposed to like Sungmin, because everyone else was in it for the money they made, and the chance to be ruthless to another human being they deemed unworthy of life.
The cold look oddly warmed Sungmin, because it meant, if Siwon was still keeping up appearances, at the very least, he was going to be okay.
“Siwon,” he greeted in a clipped tone as he moved to step around him, but Siwon’s strong hands clamped down on his forearms and yanked them behind his back before he could get very far, rendering them useless.
With a confused snarl, Sungmin twisted in his embrace, yanking one arm free in order to send it around in an arc. Siwon released Sungmin fully and grabbed his fist before it could make contact with his face, twisting it around so his arm was bent in an unnatural position behind his back, his back to Siwon’s chest once more.
His other arm was grabbed before he could attempt to retaliate with that one as well, and he found himself completely immobilized.
Before Sungmin could question the older male’s actions, Lee Jungmin stepped out of his office, smirking in a satisfied way, medium length, greasy black hair doing nothing to make his pallid skin tone any less disgusting. Sungmin had the fleeting thought that Siwon was the betrayer before he shoved it immediately away.
“Sungmin, Sungmin my boy, how nice to see,” Jungmin greeted, giving Siwon a nod. Sungmin gasped as he felt his arm being pushed farther into his back, locking it in place, further increasing Sungmin’s pain. With a hiss, he attempted one last time to yank the less awkwardly placed arm out of Siwon’s grasp, but his hold was vice tight this time.
Ushering with a hand, Jungmin lead them back into his office, Siwon pushing Sungmin along in front of him. The room wasn’t small by any means, and on the far wall behind Jungmin’s desk was a bookshelf filled to the brim with books - what the man might actually need with said books was a mystery to Sungmin.
A con-artist needed an education, sure, but they didn’t care about anything but themselves.
Tasteful carpet lined the floors similar to that of which Jungmin had put in the break room, and it, and the break room, where the only two places in the entire building with carpet, not that it really mattered much when parent’s weren’t allowed past the waiting room.
On the walls were a few fancy paintings, including one from the renaissance times of a naked woman mostly covered by a blanket - mostly.
Instead of sitting behind his desk as Sungmin had expected, and instead of being shoved down into a chair, Jungmin moved over to said picture of the scantily dressed, half sprawled on a bed woman, and opened a control panel beside it. His fingers were quick on the hidden keypad with in as he pressed in a code, and then the bookcase behind his desk moved to reveal an entrance into a dark hallway.
Siwon preceded Jungmin towards it as he pushed a stumbling Sungmin along, and just as they reached the threshold where Sungmin could just make out the outline of stairs, his arms were released and he stumbled upon Siwon’s push.
With his now free arms, he prevented the inevitable face plant with his palms, and would have stood up if not for the sudden kick to his side that sent him sprawling down the rest of the stairway until he came to a halt at the bottom. He groaned as he rolled to his side, clutching his forehead where it’d hit, eyes squeezed shut against the sudden sharp light hitting him from the lighting fixture in the middle of the small room he’d tumbled into.
“Get up you worthless swine!” Jungmin hissed, kicking Sungmin in the side with a steel toed boot that sent him sprawling onto his stomach, too disoriented from the fall to collect his wits about him. Siwon reached down then to grab his upper arms and yanked him up only to throw him to the side where he landed on his ass - hard.
Gasping, head whirling, Sungmin stood up on unsteady legs and reached behind him for the table he’d landed near by, steadying himself on the flat surface and clenching his other hand on his knee. He looked up to stare down the two men attacking him.
Siwon…what’s going on? Why are you doing this? His eyes seemed to plead, but he knew Siwon wouldn’t understand.
“What do you want with me?” Sungmin asked quietly instead, avoiding looking at the man he was starting to fear was the traitor. Jungmin grinned at him, taking the few steps forward he needed to stand directly in front of Sungmin.
“I got a call from the Chief of Police today. Apparently our patient isn’t looking too well,” he drawled, grabbing Sungmin’s chin with a cold hand to tilt it up to look at him directly. “And since you’re the only one with a key to his room, I figured you’d have to be the reason for that. Only it’s you, so that can’t be right.” Suddenly the man’s fist was colliding with his cheek and it sent him sprawling onto his back on the floor again.
“So what the hell did you tell them!?” he roared, kicking Sungmin in the stomach before he moved to stand with either leg on either side of him. Sungmin rolled onto his side to spit up blood, but Jungmin only kicked him again, forcing him on to his back again.
“I don’t give a shit if you choke on your own blood!” he growled, arms crossed over his chest. “I’ll stand right here and watch it happen if you don’t tell me what you told them!” Placing one foot on Sungmin’s stomach, he ground the heel of it down. Sungmin released a keening sound, huffing when it was over and clearly hardly able to breathe.
Sungmin’s eyes fluttered to Siwon’s face then, seeking an answer to something he couldn’t voice aloud, but Jungmin’s eyes followed his preoccupation, and the look that Sungmin had seen flash through Siwon’s eyes was gone too quickly for Sungmin to decipher.
Was it guilt for what Siwon had caused Sungmin to be put through? Either by telling their boss what was really going on, or by letting Sungmin get involved in the first place? Was it sympathy, or empathetic pain?
“Siwon,” Jungmin called then, stepping off of Sungmin and moving towards the taller man. Sungmin immediately rolled over, spitting up blood. “Come take care of this little pest for me. Beat him until he bleeds my answers,” Jungmin said with a lecherous grin.
“My pleasure,” Siwon promised with a feral grin that could match Leejing’s best. Cracking his knuckles, he took a step closer to Sungmin.
“Nothing! I told them nothing!” Sungmin gasped, eyes widening at the thought of what Siwon could do. Jungmin was standing against the door to the staircase that he’d just closed, arms crossed over his chest, and Sungmin knew Siwon wouldn’t hold back - couldn’t hold back if it were even possible he wanted to.
“We’ll just see if that’s what you’re still spitting when Siwon’s through with you,” Jungmin called in a lazy tone, and then Siwon was on him, holding him up with his fist clenched in his shirt. With wide eyes, Sungmin stared into Siwon’s hard ones.
“I’m so sorry for this,” Siwon said so quietly it was impossible Jungmin had heard, and his eyes were so soft Sungmin could do nothing but forgive him. He wasn’t the traitor. How could Sungmin have ever even have thought so?
Siwon’s eyes closed as he raised his other fist and brought it down into Sungmin’s face.
--
When Sungmin went down the final time, eyes closing and no sound escaping his lips, Siwon forced a satisfied grin onto his face. He reached down to grab a hold of Sungmin’s cold chin harshly, and when his eyes didn’t open and Siwon managed to surreptitiously find his pulse, he mentally breathed a sigh of relief that the other was just out cold.
To please the man he knew stood right behind him, Siwon dropped Sungmin’s head with no regard for how hard it hit the ground, and turned to face him.
“Well done, Siwon. For a minute there I was ready to doubt you.” Siwon gave him a winning smile, eyes cold.
“Never,” he promised. Jungmin smiled back at him before kneeling in front of Sungmin himself, reaching out to twist his face this way and that, searching for any signs of consciousness. Once satisfied, he dropped Sungmin’s head as Siwon had.
“What do you think of him?” he asked as stood back up, dusting off his knees. Siwon turned to stare down at Sungmin in disgust.
“As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t think he was lying,” Siwon replied, breathing another mental sigh of relief when Jungmin seemed to believe him, nodding his head in silent agreement. Letting out his own sigh, the other turned to leave.
“Lug him home, would you Siwon? I don’t want his blood stinking up this room anymore than it already has. And leave him a note, would you? I expect to see him back at work within the next two days, no matter how bad he looks.” Siwon pursed his lips in distaste, brow furrowed in annoyance as he turned to look at Jungmin who stood in he doorway of the stairway, but he nodded resentfully and Jungmin smiled in satisfaction.
“I always liked you, Siwon. Thank you for proving my suspicions wrong.”
Without conscious thought, and very aware of the hidden eyes in the stairway Jungmin had supposedly disappeared through, Siwon hefted Sungmin onto his shoulder roughly, allowing his head to bounce off his shoulder blade before lolling against his neck. Holding tight to Sungmin’s legs, Siwon headed up the stairs, trying not to appear careful as he attempted to do Sungmin no more harm.
It wasn’t until Siwon was safely in his own car and a few miles away from the Psychiatric ward that he pulled to the shoulder of the highway and climbed into the back seat with Sungmin, propping him up in an upright position as he did a once over.
Knees on the floor and with gentle hands, Siwon lifted Sungmin’s face to his and rested his forehead against the others clammy one. With his thumb, he wiped the dried blood away from his lips and tried not to cry as he watched the bruising he’d caused start to form on his face.
All he could think of was how Sungmin could have died by his hand.
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Masterlist/Character Information