It was dark. Darkness, everywhere.

The grayish, cold walls of the basement had clear traces of dried up blood on them, a metallic, thin table on small wheels with lots of various instruments on it like scalpels, scissors and more, as well as a chair in the very middle of the basement.

A strong light lamp was hanging above the chair. Being the only source of light in the window-lacking room, It was shining right at the hair of a boy, who was sitting there. Hands and legs were tied up and legs to the light-wooden chair, head hanging low. He was unconscious- as well as bruised up on various body parts.

The stair fall made him have a strained foot after falling. However, his destiny was lucky enough that it ended with not too serious wounds, since to his fortune, there were only minor steps. Yet to him, as he was falling, it felt like a million ones.
Felix chuckled while standing in front of him, staring down at the pitiful boy, eyes having a somewhat dark, evil spark.

After thirty minutes of the fall and betrayal, the blonde man was losing his patience. With the bucket of ice-cold water he had in his hands all the time, he splashed it harshly onto the boy, without any hesitation of doing so.

Almost immediately, Jeongguk regained consciousness as a result of a state of shock, and reopened his eyes wide, gasping out and panting for air.

The man watched as Jeongguk was slowly adapting to his senses again, mind progressing where he was, and what was happening. And that terrified, scared-shitless look in his chocolate Bambi eyes as he looked around, realizing in what position he was in. God. He couldn't hold a satisfied smirk upon seeing that.

Finally, his eyes landed on the man in front of him. He froze. The other smiled, mischievously. "You're finally awake, huh." his deep voice muttered, a quiet chuckle following behind, filling the room. Jeongguk just stared, eyes filled with nothing but terror and distrust.

He couldn't speak, and even if he tried, he felt a painful pang in his side of his chest, the place he landed on while falling down the minor steps to the basement, squinting his eyes close to cope with it. Felix cooed.

"Does it hurt? I'm sorry. Maybe you shouldn't have FUCKING LOOKED AROUND, AND DID AS I TOLD YOU TO." His voice shouted out quite angrily out of nowhere, looking with widened, enraged eyes at the boy that was just trying to think the pain away, but he also flinched lightly when Felix raised his voice at him.

The dark-blonde man panted a little before calming down again. Then, he cleared his throat, turned to the side rather quickly, and started walking around the room, circling the boy on the chair.

"W-who are you? What do you want f-from m-me?" Jeongguk finally stuttered out, voice shaking hard. It caused nothing but pure pleasure to the sadistic-natured one. A smirk was plastered on his lips, edging up more and more.

"Oh, pardon me for my little lie right there. My name is not Felix. I'm V." he chuckled, very amused, not being surprised by Jeongguk's lack of reaction. He didn't know who V was. Of course. No one who knew that would even dare to come close to his forest. Besides... very stupid people.

"V...?" Jeongguk asked softly, body still trembling in horror. The man that came out to have a different name smiled, and let his hands rest on his shoulders right behind him, leaning up to his ear. A sickening feeling was erupting in the victim's insides. Oh, what he would do to turn back time and rethink entering that forest.

"Let me tell you a little story of Red Hills. You, as a foreigner here, probably should be informed.. beforehand." he whispered. "It is actually very simple. This whole forest? belongs to me. And anyone who enters it? Is dead meat. You get what I'm saying?" he chuckled, and then leaned away, staring to laugh louder, louder and louder, psychopatically.

And as his freed laughs echoed through the room, sounding excessively terrible in Jeongguk's ears, he felt scared to death, his insides twisting in a painful manner. Not that he wasn't already. However now, he was getting at what V was hinting. Jeongguk was just another victim. He was done for.

As tears started to evolve in the corner of his eyes, frustration getting him, V glanced at him quickly. His laughter died off surprisingly fast, letting silence occur. Then, he blinked with his half-lidded eyes, letting out a small cooe. With small steps, he walked over to him, leaned down and grabbed his jaw ever so softly. Yet jeongguk was shaking, he flinched back as far as he could at the touch, bottom lip trembling.

V examined his bambi eyes, clearly seeing the fear mirrored in them, eyebrows wrinkling up. His small "don't hurt me" was barely coherent in his breath, but still hearable for V's ears. The killer let out a raspy chuckle. "Aww. No no. Don't worry, sweetheart. Unlike my other victims, it'd be a shame to torture, or even kill you immediately. Your beauty makes me think twice about it...." he whispered, tilting his head to take a better look at all of his features.

Jeongguk, feeling more than uncomfortable, quickly threw his head, as well as hair, to the side and closed his eyes, escaping his grip. His fluffy curls bounced a little, mouth-angles trembling, quiet sounds of whimpers were escaping his dry lips. Wow. V absolutely loved that.

"You're effortlessly beautiful. I will keep you for a while, hm? my little lost puppy." he snickered, and then raised his hand to ruffle through his hair. Jeongguk squinted his eyes close even more, shoulders twitched. The disgust and fear he felt was clear, he did not even dare to speak up, only whines leaving his mouth. Yet he wasn't aware that he was giving V exactly what he wanted. A variety of small, detailed reactions.

And as he opened his eyes to look at the serial killer a little, them being glossy, the ones of V glittered in pure satisfaction, more and more convinced of his decision. "I knew it was the right idea." he commented at last, and then stood up, the corner of his mouths angled up in a smirk, again chuckling.

Even though he just distanced himself, Jeongguk didn't ease up one bit. He was still trembling, panting, looking vulnerable. And there was no better sight V could have wished for.

"W-why are you... d-doing th-this??" he breathed, more than just disappointed. It made V, who just walked away, turn around yet again and stare. Feeling as if he was getting stared through his soul, another pang of uneasiness developed in Jeongguk's body, yet he bravely held the eye contact.

Silence occurred for a little before V made his lips wet again, having a wide grin plastered on his face, pupils looking terrifyingly smaller due to him widening his eyes, too.

"Its just fun."

And with that, Jeongguk was left speechless, not getting how hurting others could ever be a pleasure to a person with a healthy mind. He was very sure of his next thought, blood flowing through his body more as the adrenaline was pumping through it.

"You're.... fucking sick...." the boy whispered, eyebrows furrowing.

Silence.

"You're a monster. Nothing but a monster." he spit again, Voice rising, ignoring how the tension was rising, how deeply V was staring at him, a face that suddenly went blank.

Silence.

"Who are you to decide of the lives of other people?! HUH??" Jeongguk's feel of frustration didn't let him stop his rant, in fact, he was getting louder and louder. "You're a fucking MONSTER, V. Nothing but a low piece of trash, playing with other people's bodies and souls-"

Steps were taken towards Jeongguk. But he ignored.

"All the people you've probably already murdered didn't DESERVE this. They didn't deserve to get their lives ended by such a horrible, horrible excuse of a human being, you're SICK in your head and YOU deserve to-"

Jeongguk's face got thrown to the side with a painful shout as V landed his fist on his cheek.

Then, he grabbed his jaw softly again, and even though pained, Jeongguk was still resisting, in fact, he decided to spit on him. But before he was even able to do that, another, even more stronger punch on his other cheek made his head get thrown to the other side.

"This is not," V spoke calmly, again bringing Jeongguk's face with his reddened cheeks to the front, just to be able to punch it with greater force, "how you will speak to me."

Hit after hit, Jeongguk could do nothing besides whimpering out from the torment he was experiencing, having lost all of his boldness, now just wishing for V to stop as the pain was getting unbearably bigger, tears leaking his eyes in his helpless state.

After V thought he has done enough, and gave him one last hit right into his face, leaving him throbbing in pain, he let go of Jeongguk's jaw. Apparently, he has hit so hard that there was blood running down Jeongguk's nose, his cheeks were bruised up and as well, leaking of blood in a darker reddened spot.

Jeongguk was crying silently a lot by now, his first time ever getting in touch with such violence- probably with any violence at all. "I-it hurts-" he mewled, and cried even more when he heard V cooe.

However, the cooe died down immediately, too fast- so Jeongguk looked up hesitantly while sniffling, wondering what was about to come. And when he noticed the aura darkening, becoming heavier than before, he gulped.

Now, his face was cupped very roughly, and a strict, terrifying glare of V with his smaller pupils was met with the scared, glossy chocolate eyes of Jeongguk. "Now listen up, you damn brat." he hissed, digging his nails into the boy's injured face, making Jeongguk experience shivers on his skin, whimpering.

"This is not how you will speak to me. This is my basement. My house. My forest. It all belongs to me. We're playing by my rules. Your role, is nothing but a toy. And if you dare to disrespect me again...." his calm, yet also irritated voice resounded.

".. then I won't be gentle. You'll land in your grave sooner than I have planned." he whispered dangerously. "Got it?"

Seeking for nothing more but to survive and being controlled by V, he nodded hastily, whining out. "P-please don't hurt me a-anymore, I-it hurts s-so bad-" he begged, and V only made a quiet tsk sound.

"Let that be your lesson of never speaking up to me like this again. I must go now." he said coldly while standing up and letting go of him roughly, and it seemed as if all the amazement of Jeongguk's beauty from before, has vanished.

"W-what? Where- w-where are you going?!" Jeongguk panicked, watching him walk to the stairs and trying to look over his shoulder as much as he could to see him.

"I'll come back soon." V simply commented, and without further ado, he walked up the stairs, shutting down the only source of light, and locked the door.

The boy with the bleeding nose was now sitting there, left in utter darkness, realizing. "N-no... no!!! Please don't turn the lights off!! NO!! COME BACK, PLEASE!" he shouted, anxiety getting him. If there was anything else Jeongguk was afraid of, it was complete darkness, definitely.

In hope, Jeongguk was messily squirming around, tugging onto his bound wrists and legs, screaming out for the man to hear him, but it was all useless. V was gone, letting Jeongguk scream and suffer in pain and terror in the cold room until the next time he'd return.

To him, the situation he was in was an utter nightmare, but little did Jeongguk know, there was so much more to come.

***

Reading your comments is so much fun thx sm for voting and commenting, I honestly never expected that this book would get liked by so many ): thank you!!! Ily!

And I must say, all of you had such interesting theories regarding the big guy! You guys are more creative than you think! Let's find out in the following chapters if your theory was right :) hehe

Also, sorry for late update! I'm finishing the school year rn and there was a lot to go through. I hope I made up for it by publishing this chapter, perhaps it was good enough!

What I'm also curious about though is, what are your thoughts on V?
Btw I know his name is Taehyung, but I'm using V for a reason!
Thx again so much for reading!!!

-Love, Mira