Zen hoisted my unconscious body over his shoulder and sprinted from the blood-soaked room.
Aunt Lin stood waiting by the elevator doors, her face entirely expressionless. As if she had predicted the bloodshed perfectly.
"Mr. Zen, Mr. Ren is critically wounded,"
She reported briefly. Her eyes flicked toward Ren's body, slumped in despair and bleeding out in the room.
"To hell with him." Zen's voice was glacial. His eyes sharpened lethally.
"I am taking Yurin to the van out back. Handle the rest."
"And the staged fire?"
"Ignite it," Zen ordered with absolute finality.
"Burn everything to ash. Destroy the evidence of the struggle and blind the entire camera grid. Make it look like an accident. Or better yet, make it look like the hell he built himself."
Aunt Lin nodded. She pressed the remote in her hand.
BOOM!
An explosion detonated in the kitchen and living area. Blazing orange flames erupted instantly, consuming the expensive curtains and designer furniture in seconds. Thick black smoke rapidly filled the air.
Fire alarms shrieked deafeningly throughout the entire building.
Zen didn't glance back at his masterpiece. Not for a single second.
He carried me through the smoke, into the service elevator, and plummeted toward the underground parking garage. Leaving Ren to bleed out amidst the raging inferno.
The ultimate end for a lion. Burned alive inside his own den.
...
Swoosh... Swoosh...
The rhythmic sound of tires slicing through wet asphalt. Mingling with the faint, wailing sirens of approaching fire trucks in the distance.
I slowly opened my eyes, utterly disoriented. My head felt as heavy as lead. But the first sensation I registered was softness. I was lying with my head resting on Zen's lap.
The van sped down the highway, heading toward the pitch-black outskirts of the city.
"Are you awake, my good boy?"
Zen looked down at me.
The passing streetlights flashed into the vehicle, illuminating a smile that was warm and incredibly gentle. His large hand stroked my hair softly, like lulling a child.
"You slept for a while. You must be exhausted."
The final memories flooded my brain like a torrential flash flood.
The gunshot. The crimson blood. Ren's shattered, empty eyes.
I jolted violently. I shot up from his lap, my heart hammering in sheer panic. I scrambled to look out the rear window.
My eyes widened in horror. Faint plumes of smoke were barely visible against the night sky. The penthouse was being consumed by a raging inferno.
Thick, towering black smoke clawed at the dark sky, contrasting against the violent storm. The orange glow of the flames illuminated the area like hell on earth.
"The fire..." I stammered, shaking uncontrollably.
"Ren. Ren is still in there!"
I whipped around to Zen, shaking his arm violently.
"Mr. Zen! The fire! Ren hasn't come out! He is injured!"
"We have to go back and help him! We have to go back right now!"
"Did... did he die? Did I kill him?!"
"Shh... Calm down, Yurin."
Zen pulled me into a crushing embrace to halt my breakdown.
"Don't worry. The sprinklers triggered, and the fire trucks have arrived. His subordinates will extract him in time. He won't die that easily."
"But... listen to me."
Zen grabbed my face, forcing me to meet his unwavering, intense gaze.
"That fire is the purification of the past. Your cage is burned to ash. Your chains are destroyed. You are free now. Do you understand?"
"But the blood... he was bleeding so much,"
I kept mumbling. The image was permanently seared into my retinas.
"He won't die. A wound like that is nothing to him." Zen's tone was remarkably flat. Bizarrely cold.
"Stop worrying about him. Worry about yourself."
He reached for the brown envelope beside him. He pulled out a passport and a plane ticket, placing them into my trembling hands.
"Check them. Everything is ready. We are heading to a private airfield. The jet is waiting for us. We fly to Europe tonight. We start our new life."
I looked down at the passport. The photo was mine, but the name belonged to a stranger. A new identity Zen had forged for me.
I held it, feeling absolutely hollow. A violent tremor still seized my hands.
Freedom was quite literally in my hands. Yet why did my heart feel infinitely heavier? As if bound by chains far thicker than before?
"I... I did the right thing, didn't I?"
I looked up at Zen, my eyes brimming with agonizing confusion, desperate for an anchor.
"What I did... it was the right choice, wasn't it?"
"It was the absolute right choice, Yurin."
Zen pulled me back into his chest. He pressed a firm, reassuring kiss to my forehead.
"You did it to survive. You were incredibly brave to protect yourself and to protect me. If you hadn't fired, he would have killed us both. From now on, no one will ever hurt you again. I promise."
I buried my face in his broad chest. I closed my eyes to escape the brutal reality, letting my tears soak into his shirt.
Completely blind to the fact that Zen's free hand, resting behind my back, was typing a message on his phone.
To: Unknown 'Move in and scrub the perimeter. Wipe my fingerprints and all security footage flawlessly. Leave the gun behind. Let it be the evidence that crushes his soul.'
'As for Yurin... fabricate a false trail indicating he crossed the border. Let the lion drive himself insane hunting a phantom he can never catch.'
Zen hit send.
The corner of his mouth curled into a faint smirk. A smile saturated with absolute satisfaction.
He turned his gaze out the window. The torrential rain was washing away every trace of his existence.
He had finally won.
He ripped Ren's heart from his chest. And now, that heart was beating in the palm of his hand.
Bleed for me, Ren... Because your agony is my ultimate ecstasy.
...
The private jet ascended into the pitch-black sky. Leaving the glittering lights of Velas City far below.
I sank into the plush, cream leather seat.
The luxurious cabin was dead silent, save for the low, powerful hum of the engines.
I stared blankly out the circular window. The glass reflected my pale, drained face and swollen eyes.
I pressed my palm against the freezing pane, watching the city lights shrink... and shrink... until they resembled nothing more than stardust scattered across the earth.
The towering skyscraper that pierced the heavens. The building that was simultaneously a paradise of love and a hellish prison for months. It was now just a tiny matchbox I was flying away from.
A chaotic surge of emotions choked my chest.
Relief from escaping Ren's clutches. Terror of a new, unfamiliar world. And a profound, vicious guilt beginning to gnaw at my soul.
The image of Ren bleeding out on the floor... his shattered eyes... his trembling voice ordering me out... It played on an endless loop in my head like a horror film.
Will he survive? Does he hate me to his very core now? Was the 'Project Cage' journal the absolute truth? Or was it merely a fragment of his fractured madness?
I lifted my hand. The hand that pulled the trigger.
It still trembled.
Even though I had scrubbed it clean, I could still feel the phantom blood staining my fingertips. The metallic stench of blood. The acrid smell of gunpowder.
And the vile scent of betrayal.
"Care for some champagne?" Zen's soft voice broke the silence.
He walked over holding two crystal flutes.
"A toast to freedom and our new life."
I jolted slightly, snapping back to reality. I took the glass numbly.
"Thank you, Zen. Thank you for being my light."
"Don't overthink anymore."
Zen sat opposite me. He reached across the table, covering my trembling hand and squeezing reassuringly.
"Leave this city behind. Leave the nightmares here. Where we are going is infinitely more beautiful. You can be yourself. Do what you love. Without the fear of anyone ever caging you again."
"Okay..." I forced a smile. I swallowed the bitter, dry champagne.
I looked at Zen. The perfect, kind man. The man who reached into hell to pull me out. He seemed flawless, gentle, and absolutely dependable.
So why did I still feel a creeping, freezing chill deep inside my bones?
I turned back to the window. Thick black clouds smothered the sky, obscuring the moon entirely.
The plane soared into the vast, empty void. Like a bird with broken, bloodstained wings.
Leaving its incinerated past behind.
Taking half of my heart with it. Because the other half died alongside Ren tonight.
Goodbye... Velas City. Goodbye... Ren. May we... never meet again.