Chapter Text
The car tore through the abandoned forest, tyres chewing up mud and dead leaves, the headlights cutting violent swaths through the pitch darkness.
Inside the car, the silence was heavier than the suffocating air outside. It wasn't a peaceful silence; it was the pressurised calm before a detonation. Ilay gripped the steering wheel, his knuckles white, his profile illuminated by the dash’s green glow—impassive, bored, terrifyingly still.
Beside him, Taeui was trembling. It wasn't just the cold sweat soaking his shirt, or the way his heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. It was the man sitting next to him. The leader of Echelon. The monster who had hunted him like a dog for weeks.
"You ruined Kim's party," Ilay said softly. His voice was a low rumble, devoid of anger, yet it made Taeui’s skin prickle with horror. "You humiliated me in front of my people. And for what? A moral high ground?"
"Screw you," Taeui spat, though his voice cracked. His bravado was his only shield. "I told everyone what you did. You can't just—"
"Can't I?" Ilay slammed on the brakes.
The car skidded to a halt, throwing Taeui forward against his seatbelt. They were in the middle of nowhere. Trees twisted up from the earth like skeletal fingers, blocking out the moon.
Ilay turned to him then. His eyes were dark, void of humanity, dilated with a singular, terrifying focus. He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out a black pistol. He checked the clip with a practised snap of his wrist.
"Get out," Ilay commanded.
Taeui froze. "What?"
"Get. Out." He repeated while getting out of the car. Ilay’s lip curled, revealing a flash of teeth. Taeui scrambled out, his boots hitting the uneven surface. He stood still and because he could not process Ilay pulled the striker.
"You like to play games Taeui. So let's play one. run little rabbit because if I catch you, I won’t end it quickly."
Taeui steps backwards. Seeing the pale face, Ilay smirks.
"Oh no. First, I will peel back every layer of that civilised defiance. I will bury myself so deep inside your fear that you’ll beg me for the bullet. And only when you’re broken, only when your voice is gone from screaming... then I’ll let the forest have you."
Taeui didn't wait for a second invitation, he ran. He sprinted through the undergrowth, branches whipping his face like venomous whips, leaving stinging welts on his cheeks. His breath came in ragged gasps, his lungs burning as if he were inhaling glass.
BANG.
A gunshot cracked the sky, missing him by inches, shredding the bark of a tree next to his head. Taeui yelped, stumbling, his adrenaline spiking into overdrive.
"That was a warning," Ilay called out, closer now. His voice was a low growl, vibrating with primal hunger. "The next one won't miss. But then again... watching you run is so much more entertaining than putting a hole in you."
Terror seized Taeui’s heart. He scrambled up, ignoring the mud caking his clothes, and pushed his burning muscles to the limit. He vaulted over a fallen tree, tore through a thorn bush that tore at his skin, and stumbled down a slope.
He could hear the heavy crunch of boots on dry leaves behind him. Ilay wasn't running; he was stalking. He was letting Taeui tire himself out, enjoying the panic, the frantic rhythm of his heartbeat.
"Run faster," the voice purred from the darkness, seemingly coming from all directions. "Or I’ll have to punish you for disappointing me."
Taeui’s vision blurred with tears of exhaustion. He saw the edge of the clearing ahead, a sudden drop-off where the land ended abruptly. He tried to stop, his heels digging into the loose soil, but the momentum was too great.
The ground gave way. Taeui’s boot hit loose gravel at the edge of a ravine. The world tilted. He scrambled for purchase, his fingers clawing at mud, but gravity took him. He fell, a sharp, terrified cry tearing from his throat as the dark forest swallowed him whole.
The smell was the first thing that registered. Antiseptic. Bleach. Sterile. Beeping.
The rhythmic, high-pitched beep was the first tether back to the world of the living.
Taeui peeled his eyes open. The light was harsh, fluorescent, stinging his retinas. He tried to move, but a heavy, dull throb radiated from his left leg, encased in a white cast.
"He’s coming around."
A face leaned over him. A doctor, middle-aged, looking exhausted but kind. He shone a penlight into Taeui’s eyes, making him flinch.
"Can you hear me?" the doctor asked. "Can you tell me your name?"
Taeui blinked, his mind sluggish. Then, the memory slammed into him—the car, the gun, the chase, the fall.
Ilay
Panic surged. If Ilay were here, he would be dead. The man had promised to break him before killing him. Taeui’s heart rate spiked on the monitor, the beeping accelerating frantically.
He had to do something. He couldn't let Ilay know he remembered. If he played the victim, if he was useless, maybe the monster would lose interest.
Taeui forced his breathing too slowly, though his hands trembled under the sheets. He looked at the doctor, his expression deliberately blank, confused.
"I..." Taeui started, his voice a raspy whisper. He looked around the room, feigning disorientation. "Where... where am I?"
The doctor sighed, checking his clipboard. "You're in the hospital. You took a nasty fall. It seems you hit your head pretty hard. Do you remember what happened?"
Taeui met the doctor's eyes, pouring every ounce of his acting ability into the lie. "No. I... I don't know. It's all... dark. Who am I?"
"Retrograde amnesia, likely temporary," the doctor murmured, mostly to himself, before turning and leaving the room. the doctor's voice could be heard vaguely and a few minutes later Ilay walked in closing the door shut.
Taeui stiffened. He didn't look, but he could feel the air in the room change. It grew heavier and colder. The scent of expensive cologne and cigarette smoke wafted toward him. Taeui stared at the ceiling, his heart hammering against his ribs. He waited for a blow, for a taunt, for the sound of a gun cocking.
Instead, he heard the rustle of fabric. A chair scraped against the floor. Ilay sat down right beside the bed.
Taeui slowly turned his head.
Ilay was watching him with an expression of tender concern that was terrifying in its perfection. There was no anger in his eyes, only a dark, swirling devotion that didn't match the man who had hunted him through the woods hours ago.
Ilay reached out, his fingers cool and dry, and gently grasped Taeui’s hand. He brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to the knuckles that made Taeui want to recoil.
“You're scared,” Ilay whispered, his voice dripping with false sympathy. "The doctor says you've forgotten everything. Even me."
Taeui swallowed hard, keeping his face blank. "Who... who are you?"
Ilay smiled. It was a beautiful smile, the kind that belonged on a movie poster, hiding the shark beneath. He leaned in close, invading Taeui's space, his eyes locking onto his with a predatory intensity that contradicted his gentle tone.
"I'm hurt," Ilay murmured, his thumb stroking the back of Taeui's hand. "But I suppose I have to remind you."
He paused, letting the silence stretch, savouring the game.
"I'm Ilay, Ilay Riegrow." he said, the words landing like a heavy stone. "And I'm your lover."