I grit my teeth together as I ram my body into the side of the cage. The damp bars rattle from my weight but they don't budge. A rising scream builds in my throat before coming out as a strangled gasp. I wrap my hands around the bars and shake them violently, praying I can snap the rusted parts with sheer strength and willpower.

"Stop, stop!" Hoseok shouts from the cage beside mine. "You have to calm down!"

I lower myself to the ice-cold ground and fight back a sob. My body is curled underneath me in order to fit in the cramped cage. I shake my head, refusing to believe this is my reality. "This can't be happening," I whisper shakily, "this isn't real, it can't be real..."

This must be some kind of medication-induced nightmare or intense trauma episode. I refuse to believe this is real.

Hybrid smugglers did not kidnap us from the McDonald's parking lot. We aren't locked inside rusty cages for interrogation about Jimin's whereabouts.

This isn't some kind of action movie where the protagonist gets kidnapped by smugglers. I thought this was the "tired college girl adopts a hybrid for comfort" type of story. Anything but this.

"Eden?" Hoseok's voice shakes me from my dissociating thoughts. "Do you hear that?"

I lift my head and stare at the darkness beyond the cage bars. I squint my eyes briefly only to feel my headache from the concentration. I rub my temples and sit back onto the ground, pulling my knees to my chest. "No?"

In the corner of my eye, Hoseok crawls to the edge of his cage and looks out. His heart-shaped lips are pulled into a worried line. "It sounds like crying," he whispers.

I have no doubt somebody is crying in this hell-hole, but I don't listen to the sound. I'd rather not add more sound effects to my upcoming nightmares.

"Can you see anything?" Hoseok asks, still trying to see beyond the cage. He turns around to face the other side of his cage and grips the bars tightly. "Do you see a window on your side?"

Slowly, I twist my body around and look up through the cage bars. I make out the faint shade of a domed ceiling and a pale white light shadowing over it. "I don't see a window but I see light."

Hoseok faces the cage wall facing mine and leans against the bars. He tries to look up to find the light I'm talking about. "It doesn't look like it's coming from outside."

In the darkness, I can see the outline of Hoseok's sharpish chin. He lost his hat during the kidnapping and his dark hair is lying awkwardly in a sweaty mess. He shakes his head at me, "We're going to escape, Eden. We can't give up."

I frown in response. "I didn't say that we should give up. I'm just saying that it's going to be difficult."

Impossible, more like it.

Hoseok scoots closer to the cage wall and reaches through the bars. His hand just barely reaches my cage bars. My eyes soften at the gesture so I move closer to him. I reach through the bar and lightly touch his hand.

"We're going to escape," he promises quietly, his fingers brushing over mine. "We just need to keep calm. Everything is going to be alright," he says but his voice is tense. He is struggling to lie but I appreciate the effort.

He must be scared out of his wits right now. I am impressed by his ability to stay calm, and ashamed of myself for freaking out.

He's right, after all. I have to accept what happened and find a way to escape.

If Jimin could escape, we can escape too.

"Thank you for that," I replied sincerely. "You're right. We need to stay calm."

Before I could truly gather my thoughts, I heard a door open and slam shut. We jump back and snap our hands back into our respective cages. I scan the darkness, struggling to see anything past the bars until I see a figure appear.

"Rise and shine, kids." The figure pauses in front of our cages. He turns on a small penlight and flashes it at us, momentarily blinding me. I turn away wincing as the light travels straight to my brain and causes my headache to flare again.

"For lack of better resources and the stupidity of my staff, we put you in these cages. They're washed so don't worry," he explains with a hint of annoyance in his voice. He scowls over his shoulder, "If we had normal rooms, we'd take you in there but we don't. Anyway, I'll try to make this quick."

He shines the light up into his face revealing a set of muddy green eyes. He is younger than expected. He is clean-shaven with a few moles on the side of his neck. His black jacket is unzipped revealing a button-down shirt underneath it like he just came back from the opera or a fancy party.

He doesn't look like he's supposed to run a hybrid smuggling ring. He doesn't look like a monster. He looks like a regular guy you'd find walking on the street.

My blood boils inside my veins as a wave of rage passes through my mind. This is the man responsible for Jimin's circumstances. This man is in charge of this horrible operation. He's dangerous and cruel.

I'm not one to decide on a person's ultimate fate, but I believe this is a man who deserves to burn in hell for what he's done to Jimin, his family, and all the others who may be trapped here.

The man takes notice of my furious expression but doesn't skip a beat. "You must be Eden. We received word that you were the one to adopt him. Unfortunately for you, your adoption is completely void as he is not the property of the state. They do not have the authority to sign him away and according to the AGE Hybrid Ownership laws, you are legally required to return him to us."

"The what?" I question in disbelief. The audacity of this man, good Lord. "What are you even talking about? Nothing about this is legal! You can't demand that I follow the law when you're probably breaking a thousand laws right now!"

He only raises an eyebrow at me. "What laws are we breaking? We have the right to experiment our research on willing volunteers."

"Jimin was not willing!"

The man sighs and presses his fingers against the bridge of his nose. "You really don't understand, do you? I'll make this simple for you." He smiles cruelly and tilts his head to the side, "Okay? Very simple. You will bring Jimin back to us and we won't sue you for kidnapping our property."

"He isn't property!" I shout loud enough to hurt my voice. "You don't own him!"

"You don't either."

"He chose to come with me! The adoption was only to get him out of the hospital," I argue fiercely. "Also, do you think I'm stupid enough to bring him to you? To this terrible place willingly? Hell no!" I smack my hand against the bars of the cage causing them to rattle. I glare at the man, wishing I was strong enough to actually attack him.

Jimin fought to escape this place. I will never bring him back here.

The man sneers, "You think you're so clever, don't you? Do you honestly think we were only going to ask politely?"

I freeze.

He approaches the cage slowly, like a predator approaching his prey. His lips curl back into an arrogant smile as he leans down to look into the cage. "This isn't a game, Eden, and you sure as fuck are not the one holding the cards."

I feel my blood draining from my face as he stares into my eyes. I press myself against the back of the cage, feeling the water on the bars seep into my clothes. I swallow hard and lift my chin into the air. "I won't tell you where he is."

I already know where he is. He left the house to come here to save his family. He's already on his way.

He's walking straight into danger. It isn't a trap, but it may turn into one soon. These men don't know he's coming back regardless of what I do, but if they found out...

I can't let them know this. I need to convince them that I don't know where he is. Somehow, I have to warn Jimin not to come here either.

The man turns to Hoseok's cage and peers into it. "I'm not sure who you are," he states clearly, "but you must be her accomplice. My men overheard you talking to her about finding him. Do you know where he is?"

Hoseok quickly shakes his head. "No, I don't. I don't even know him," he admits in a rushed voice. I can see him shaking from here. He lowers his head to shadow his expression. "I was just walking by."

The man scoffs at him, "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"He's telling the truth," I said on Hoseok's behalf. "He doesn't need to be here. I don't know him. We were just standing next to each other, he's never even seen Jimin. Just let him go, he doesn't know anything."

The man rolls his eyes and walks away from the cage. "Wow... that was the worst lie I've heard in a while. And that's after listening to the guy who lost Jimin in the first place." He shoots us a dark look over his shoulder, "Maybe a bit of time in isolation will let you think it over."

I grit my teeth together and shake my head. "We're telling the truth! You can't just—, we don't know anything, isn't that enough?"

"But that's the thing... you do know something," the man argues stubbornly. "You're lying to me. Both of you. I won't let you go until you tell me, do you understand? I don't care if it takes weeks to get it out of you! You're going to tell us where he is!" he shouts loud enough for his words to echo off the metal walls of the large room.

"We're not lying!" Hoseok shouts back with equal power. "Let us go!"

"Do you have any idea how valuable he is to us?" the man questions with an anguished expression. "Do you have any idea how much money we've spent on that hybrid?! We won't lose him! I won't allow it! I'll sell my soul to the Devil if it means finding him! I won't let this slide! I won't stop looking for him!" He storms up to the cage and kicks my set of bars, "TELL ME WHERE HE IS!"

I jerk away from the bars and feel a rush of hot rage rake over my heart like a set of claws. I grind my teeth together and yell back, "Your soul is already headed to the Devil, you bastard! And it's not worth much so I doubt it would even work!" I stumble over the curse word, as I am not used to using that language, but it feels good to scream at him.

Hoseok flashes me a quick look of panic. It wasn't until I looked up at the man that I realized I crossed some kind of line.

His muddy green eyes are void of any light. His shadowed expression turns his facial features into empty slots of darkness. He clicks his tongue in disapproval, overcome with terrifying calmness. "You will tell me where he is."

For a moment, I saw my father in him.

He reaches back and slowly pulls out a taser from his back pocket. He flips the rectangular device in his hand a few times before testing it. A flash of electric blue light sparks from the end of the taser, buzzing like an angry bee.

My stomach drops at the sight of it.

Is he going to torture me? Did I think that only happened in the movie? Oh my God, is he going to actually torture me?

The man chuckles quietly as he gazes down at us. "Oh that's cute, did you honestly think your words had no consequences?" he asks in a gentle voice. "I'm going to enjoy this..."

"What are you—?" I stutter out of terror, "I—, you can't—, this isn't... You can't do this!"

He casts an obvious look, "Can't what? I can do whatever I want to you." His head slowly turns towards Hoseok. "And to him."

"Hold on, wait," my head feels light, "hold on, you can't—!" I shout as the ground sways underneath me.

The man taps the bar of Hoseok's cage and clicks the button. Time slows around me as I watch the electricity of the taser travel through the wet bars of the cage in frozen horror. Hoseok didn't have time to react or move away. One minute he was fine, the next he was screaming at the top of his lungs as the cage turned into an electric one.

"HOSEOK!" I scream, slamming myself into the cage wall to break free and save Hoseok. "NO! NO! STOP IT! YOU'RE HURTING HIM! STOP IT!"

Hoseok's scream turns guttural as his body twitches violently. He turns his head up to the ceiling before flopping onto the ground.

Blind with panic, I scream and beg the man to stop it. I beat my fists against the bars, desperately trying to break them and scream louder. "LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO! He has nothing to do with us! He's innocent, STOP IT!"

Something inside my head snaps.

Then, suddenly, my body felt like it was lit on fire. My nerves buzz with stinging pain as if I were being attacked by a swarm of murder hornets. I taste hot blood in my mouth. My eyes roll back into my head.

My vision darkens and leaves me suspended in a world of intense agony.

This isn't an action movie. This is real life. And we're going to die here.

For a split second, I wanted to blame Jimin for it all. I wanted to hate him for escaping in the first place. For running away when he could have asked for my help. We wouldn't be here if he hadn't done this.

And yet, as I experience the worst pain of my life, I still won't give him up to these men.

I will protect him. I will save him from these people. He saved me, and this is how I am going to repay him.

Hoseok's scream echoes in my head before softening and trailing off into eerie silence. My eyes slowly close as my body stops stinging with pain. I let out a shaky breath and my body twitches involuntarily.

I release one last breath before my mind slips away from reality and falls into darkness.