people’s will // pt.1
TW:/ violent themes
“You’ve always known we were coming, didn’t you?” Her head was gripped up, the intense pain shoots all the way down her toes while feeling cold metal next to her temple. The man threatens to shoot “Listen, Minseo, we wanted to make it easy for but you’re just stubborn aren’t you?”
“I didn’t agree to kill her—“ a woman’s voice echoes near by. She could smell cigarettes burning. “Look at her—!”
With a bloody grin, eyes shot to the four, she shakes her head gently.
“Just fucking pull the trigger…”
“Where is it—!”
Minseo only spits blood out of her mouth, hitting the man straight into his eye as he swings with blunt force that sends her toppling in the wet concrete ground. She notices a hint of red, and was unsure if she was losing that much blood.
“The will isn’t anywhere in her apartment, I looked well… it has to be in the house!” another voice jumps in. There must’ve been four people there. Minseo being the fifth. “We can’t kill her until we find the will—!”
From the way they spoke, their tone of voice made her realize these are people she knew— the board of directors. Four out of five had carried a plan to steal the will and ensure their placement in the company, while one was the whistleblower that she had threatened with. No legal negotiations could possibly save them from Minseo’s decision to eliminate all their existence knowing that the conflict of interest had been a problem with her new ruling. It was easier said than done. But they found a window to torture the answer out of her. Finding herself in a tough place to escape. She couldn’t recall how she got there, but waking up with her hands bound and severe head pounding was the last thing she thought she’d be in. At least, she thought she’d be —
A rough kick in her stomach brings her out of her thoughts while they still plan what to do. Her soft winces echo in the building, her skin scratches the hard ground while taking it all in. The plastic zip tie, the taste of her own blood— the mocking voices saying how incompetent she was. Her body was already in survival mode because she could barely feel all the lingering injuries in of her body. She could barely see out of her left eye indicating it’s inflamed from a severe impact.
“Minseo— all you had to do was listen..!” The woman presses her cigarette end on an open wound on her back, which earns an excruciating scream. “Tell us where the will is and everything will be okay.”
Minseo felt as though all those times she had tortured someone else came back to haunt her in the form of these four heads that once held a position in her company. Minseo already knows they won’t return and planning vengeance if she survives. Perhaps it was one that spoke, she truly wished she killed that one official before he could speak about what she had done to him. Her already frail body attempts to save the last of her energy though, focusing on an escape route while they have done the damage. If there was one thing she excelled well was running away, after all. Her wrists endure the pain of squeezing in between the zip tie, sharp plastic digging in her skin that she could feel her own blood lubricating its way out. She lets them be, just enough that she could fight back.
“Fuck…” one laughs out of nervousness and surprise. “I think we’ll finally kill this one— remember when Jungnam wished Hyeseo really killed her? Damn… you were destined for death since you were born—“
Another kick. Another punch. Minseo swore that she coughed up a piece of her lung this time around. Her cries weren’t even heard. She thought it was great timing as her body rolls back that she could hide the fact one hand had already escaped the zip tie secretly. It was time to plan her run, whatever happened was her own decision. The first plan was to see if they were armed. Two out of four. It was time to pick the target. The one in the left, he’s the closest. Where’s the exit? The door with the brightest light. Figure out where you’d run after. Ready?
Set.
Go.
Her foot uses all force to swing out a kick to the man on left, aiming the hit between his legs to stun him. It worked— but her injuries had caused a painful response that she could only grab him to the ground with force. She sees the gun by his hip, putting up a fight the best she could as she grabbed him on a hold. It caused a ruckus as screams soon followed from the other woman while the other man with a weapon was too nervous to fire because Minseo had used him as protection. She had successfully pulled the gun out, aiming it to the other. Knowing none of them have no fighting experience, she could play dirty, and she will do it well. But with her failing eyesight, she fires the gun aimlessly, and after four she makes a break for it. It was more a limped jog that got her out of that hangar. She was bleeding, but she didn’t know from where as the adrenaline fueled her to keep going.
Her will to survive was strong as she realized she was in the pier. The Incheon Pier: She knew this place front and back, under and over. The summer breeze greets her warmly but Minseo was quickly brought to reality again as a bullet ricochet near the metal walls. She continues to jog out, anywhere but there. At her final run, she could see it was the end of the dock, and the distance was the sea’s unforgiving waves. It was dark, only the faint hazy path lights from boats provided whatever it was out there.
“There’s no where to run!!!” The man says. She shuts him out with a trigger, aimlessly wasting the bullets before she felt a sharp pain down below. She falls to the ground unbeknownst to her that her right thigh had been grazed by a bullet. “It didn’t have to be this way..!”
Minseo manically laughs in between her tears, holding on to one bit of sanity she could. She was crawling back closer to the edge with the threat of an empty gun. The other woman had caught up, begging him not to kill her because they needed her alive. Once more they tried to negotiate her survival by ensuring they get the will.
With some hesitation, Minseo throws herself to the open water, hearing their screams of fear muffled by the waves. She didn’t care to swim up for a few seconds, but then attempts to quickly paddle under the pier where the low tide had given her luck to hide from them. Holding on to what she could, she waited for stillness. She was falling weak, hooking the zip tie at a chain hanging from above for boats to hook their anchors to prevent herself from being washed away completely. The adrenaline was wearing off once she knew she could touch the bottom, earning herself a smile even though everything was painful. It was like as if needles had stabbed her in multiple places at once. She makes the decision to completely let go, the zip tie breaking to leave a trace for the directors to see floating away, assuming she had drowned.
She found her way at the upper edge, a slope of rocks provided her stability to sit. She couldn’t hear a thing as she watches blood slowly ooze out of her thigh. It was starting to get cold. And wishful thinking start playing in her head. God, if I survive this, I’m really gonna start believing that you think I’m a cat… she giggled in her head at her on thought. Fuck… let me live… please? I actually have someone to go home to now… The haze of the sun rising out from the east makes her head turn. It’s morning? I’m sleepy… is that heaven? She could mutter a soft hum, closing her eyes. If you let me live, I promise to be nicer to myself. The thought dying didn’t usually scare her but now, it felt real. She closes her eyes and sighs.
someone… anyone… please— save me.
-
“Ah—! Here you are again always early—!! Let me pull up the anchor!!” A fisherman screams to his group, all of them of to sail out to the sea for a morning hunt. He realized something weird, it almost looked like someone’s foot.
It was then he found Minseo under the dock. The shock had alerted the party, including passerby’s who had snooped closer. Some scream to call an ambulance, other the police. But one thing was the same.
They were all calling out for a still body.