I slowly opened my eyes, and a dull pain throbbed in my temples. I lay there for a moment, trying to understand where I was. The room didn't look familiar at all. The walls, the patterns, everything felt wrong.
I tried to remember how I got here. The last thing I could recall was running through the dark halls with Mia. I was supposed to get her out, I was supposed to save her.
Now I was alone.
And somehow, I had ended up trapped in this place.
Carefully, I tried to sit up, only to be met with unyielding chains.
Metal chains pulled tight around my wrists and ankles, locking me to the bed beneath me. My heart slammed hard in my chest as I jerked against them. The sharp chains bit into my skin, stinging every time I struggled.
Panic set in quickly.
Where am I? How did this happen?
I forced myself to focus and think. I tried to replay everything in my head. The escape, the run through the halls. I had been so close. I was so close to saving Mia from the castaways who had kept her prisoner.
Then nothing.
Now I was here, alone, chained, exposed, with no memory of how I ended up like this.
I was shirtless, the cool air raising goosebumps on my arms and chest. My pants were still on, which was a small absurd mercy. I tested the ankle restraints, twisting my feet, but it was just as secure. My head was pounding, matching how fast my heart was beating.
The door creaked open, and my eyes snapped toward the sound. A cold shiver ran down my back as a tall figure walked into the room.
I knew him instantly.
The man I had once taken as my own, once thought was on my side, stood there looking at me like I was a game, and a slow, playful smirk appeared on his lips.
Li Ming.
He filled the doorway, tall and impeccably dressed. It wasn't possible. I'd seen him contained, seen the safeguards. My mind rejected it, even as he stepped inside and the door sighed shut behind him.
"How?" I breathed out, the word scraping out of my dry throat.
He moved with a predator's grace, perching on the edge of the bed so close I could smell his sandalwood cologne. It was the same scent from his study, from hours of conversation that now felt like a sick joke.
He leaned in, his dark eyes glinting. "Really, Yua? You, of all people, should know better."
"Did you think your little cage could hold me?"
I said nothing.
What was there to say?
"You thought you could fool me? Hurt me? Keep me bound?" His voice fell to a soft whisper that felt close and terrifying.
I couldn't look away.
The man I'd confided in, the brilliant, troubled scholar, was gone. In his place was this… this sharp-edged creature of vengeance.
"I trusted you. I thought you were different. That was my mistake."
The words landed like a physical blow. "I'm sorry." The apology died on my lips worthlessly.
I had acted for the greater good, to protect the others from his escalating power, his dangerous obsessions with the castaways. But looking at him now, I only saw the betrayal I'd committed.
"I never meant for you to suffer," I tried, my voice was trembling now. "You were losing control. I had to protect them."
"Protect them?" He threw his head back and laughed, it was a sound devoid of all warmth. "Oh, Yua. Your compassion is your greatest weakness."
He stood abruptly and walked to a panel on the wall. With a flick of his wrist, he illuminated the space, and my heart nearly beat out my chest at the sight that greeted me.
Mia.
She was tied to a simple chair, her ankles submerged in a large glass bucket of water. A strip of silver tape sealed her lips, her eyes wide with terror fixed on me. A tangle of wires ran from a small, ominous black box on the floor into the water.
"No…" The word was more of a moan.
"Save your strength," he spat, "As for what I went through before I got free," he paused, "I'll make you experience the exact same thing."
I pulled hard against the chains, letting out a rough, helpless cry. "Li Ming, please! She has nothing to do with this! Punish me! Do whatever you want to me, but let her go!"
He ignored me, his attention on a sleek remote in his hand, which he caressed like a lover. "The rules are simple, my dear Yua," he purred, settling back into an upholstered
chair facing the bed as if he were about to watch a play. "Don't cum."