Chapter 8: Torture

Violet walked down a simple concrete hall along with her bodyguard. They both walked in silence. The bodyguard observed her closely and the hall around them. Looking out for any potential threats or incoming attacks. They may be in AGH but the chance of getting attacked was never zero, especially for someone of Violet's status.

Violet observed the hall in front of her emotionlessly. She felt nothing as she continued to step forward. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right, left, right, left. Her arms swung in such a way that they felt like they were a robot's actions rather than a human. Out of habit, she checked her counter to see what had happened to it.

41%

‘It’s higher than it should be.’

The counter should have dropped down to at least 30% while she slept. The whole reason she didn’t wake up despite the chaos was because she had entered a trance in her sleep that caused the counter to lower. The fact that it wasn’t low enough meant that something external must have interfered.

Violet began to comb through her memories in search of the events that transpired and what could have interfered with her state. It was of utmost importance to keep the counter low enough over time to prevent a premature outburst.

Looking into the past Violet could only remember one scene, yet it was blurry and broken. Violet's face became puzzled. She had tested it in the past and confirmed that sleeping to reset the counter should end soon after being interrupted by an outside presence and even provide her subconscious memories of the event. Yet this time it appeared that the person who had interrupted the reset process was not only aware of it but also of how to defend against it.

Violet began to focus her mind on that event, hoping to pull out even some small memories. As she did she began to see something. Two people were there, facing each other, both brimming with animosity towards each other. One of them, apart from appearing blurry, looked relatively normal. The other, however…

As Violet looked at the other individual she suddenly suffered a splitting headache and she saw them turn towards her. Violet immediately stopped recalling her memories and her focus returned to the hallway in front of her.

‘This… it’s kind of like that time with Mark.’

Violet remembered what had happened when she looked into Mark's soul. As she looked back at it she suddenly realized that it, and many events before it, were extremely hazy and distorted. It was as if someone had gone into her mind and manipulated her memories themselves.

‘Is this all Mark’s doing? What is he hiding?’

“Ms. Woo. We have arrived.”

Violet stopped less than an inch away from a door. She was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she hadn’t even realized that she was about to walk into a door. She stepped away from it as the bodyguard took it and placed the key in the lock. He turned it and opened the door, stepping in slightly to check for any potential dangers, only to stop and suddenly bow.

Violet, confused, looked upwards. There she saw a small room with a person in it. They were decently tall, at least 6 feet. They had an athletic build and wore a tight-fitting suit around them. Their hair had begun to show the first signs of age as it had become silver along the edges, yet the man's skin was pristinely excellent. Ignoring the hair, the man could easily be mistaken for someone in their mid-20s.

Jewon immediately bowed her head and body slightly, although not as much as the guard. The man in front of her was one that she knew very well. It was the man who had defined and trapped her life for so many years. That man was her father.

Jewon came up for her bow emotionlessly, her face remaining stone cold. Had this been a day earlier she would have been completely panicking at the thought of her father showing up all of a sudden. But, with her counter down beneath 50%, she was easily able to remain in control of her emotional state.

“Father, I’m honored that you would come all this way to see me. I didn’t expect you to come in person to see me.”

Jewon’s father looked at her. His face too, was an emotionless slate. Yet when he spoke his voice possessed a strange sense of power, one that encouraged silence and subservience.

“Jewon…” The man took out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. He blew a ring of smoke into the air and watched it dissipate. All the while keeping Jewon’s name hanging in the air.

“Jewon, I heard about your test score.” The man suddenly smiled. His face contorted almost unnaturally as he looked towards the girl he called his daughter with joy.

Instinctively Jewon almost took a step back. Her father was not a man who so easily smiled or showed joy to other people. Her father smiling here, in a situation where he should have been completely disappointed, left Jewon in fear. Her emotionless state was shaken by a sudden fear for her life as her father began to slowly walk towards her.

She saw her father grab her hand and felt him pull her inside the room. However, he had used psychic powers to enhance his strength, leading to him throwing Jewon across the room and breaking her hand.

Jewon crashed into the wall, her hand now a mangled mess and her head began to bleed from the impact. Turning away from her, Violet's father looked at the bodyguard who hadn’t moved from his bowing position this whole time.

“Keep watch outside. Close the door and make sure nobody enters.”

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The bodyguard quickly performed his duties and stood guard outside the room. Jewon’s father now turned back towards his daughter who had begun prostrating herself on the floor to show her fearful subservience.

“Father,” Jewon said as tears of fear, shame, and regret began to well up in her eyes, “I’m sorry for my failures.”

“Now now Jewon.” Jewon’s father placed one knee on the ground before her and adopted a warm, caring tone. He placed his hand underneath Jewon’s chin lifted it, and forced her to look her dead in his eye. In contrast with his warm smile and voice and his soft hands, his eyes were cold and filled with a deep wrath that made Jewon shudder.

“You don’t need to be so scared. That was just a single reprimand. I won’t harm you any further. After all, anytime I do… it hurts me the most. I love you after all.”

Jewon felt her father begin to caress her cheek. His soft warm hands rubbed her face gently.

“Yes, father. Of course. Please accept my apology for causing you such pain.” Jewon once again bowed her head to the ground as she humbly apologized to her father.

“Very good. Now, I am disappointed in you. You barely made the top 50% of applicants, and only 5% of you will get in.”

Her father pulled Jewon up by her arm as he supported her side, his grip now humane and firm, rather than the boneshattering grip he had before. Jewon stood up now, yet her head was still down as she didn’t dare look at her father again despite the warmth he had been showing her suddenly.

“Violet. You can look up you know. I’m not mad anymore.”

Jewon in response to this looked up at her father and instinctively, looked him in the eye. She felt a hand slam across her head as she was slammed to the ground, her mouth bleeding. Jewon began to cry now, not out of pain but moreso fear.

“I said that you could look up.” Her father's voice now shook with an overwhelming animosity, his disgust apparent. “I never once permitted you to look me directly in the eye. Do you see yourself as an equal to me bitch?”

“No father. Of course not, I would never.” Jewon had now begun to cry and once again entered a prostrated position. Her shoulders shook uncontrollably and she felt nothing but fear at the man who had been so warm and caring just a few seconds before. She sensed her counter rising continuously as her father had targeted her head two times now, leading to her brain suffering a concussion.

53%

“I’m sorry for my actions. I beg you, please forgive me.”

Jewon’s father grabbed his daughter by the hair and dragged her up, Jewon limply allowing it without resistance. He looked at her, disgusted, as though she were a cockroach in his room.

“Here’s what you’re going to do for me as an apology for your insult. Are you ready to accept it?”

“Yes Father, I’ll do anything. I’m sorry.”

Her father then smiled again and gently set his daughter on the ground. He once again caressed her face with his soft, warm fingers, wiping away her tears.

“That's my good girl. I want you to gather as much information as possible about that boy who had hurt you earlier. If I recall correctly his name is Mark, and he scored the highest on the first section.”

Jewon looked at her father, although didn’t allow her eyes to move higher than her father's mouth. It made sense why her father would want her to spy on Jewon. The attack she suffered had likely made its rounds in the higher-ups of society and would soon be revealed to the public. The damage to the Woo family's reputation would be widespread and the main family would be under attack from the branch families at the idea that a daughter of the main family had been so easily hurt. By spying on Mark there may be information they could use as revenge or to rationalize the damage Jewon had suffered.

“Yes, father. I’ll gather information on him. I’ll do whatever you ask.”

Her father, with his warm smile, kissed his daughter on the forehead. His lovingly warm lips seemingly took away some of the pain of the head injury she had received earlier.

“Very good Jewon. Now if you fail to do this, I’m sure you are aware of what the consequences will be. Right?”

Jewon nodded vigorously, trying to use her physical movement to convey how deeply she understood the meaning. If she failed she knew that she would be punished horribly, the pain she was feeling now wouldn’t even compare.

“Yes Father, I understand”

Her father now helped his daughter up again. Gently supporting her body as Jewon struggled to stand up due to her dizziness from her head injuries. She continued to look at her father's mouth, too terrified to dare look any higher in the case that her father might misunderstand.

“Very good Jewon. My beautiful daughter. Please remember, I do truly love you. It really does hurt me to give you a lesson like this.” Her father pushed some of Jewon’s hair behind her ear and ran his fingers lightly through a part of her hair for a moment. His gentle, slow-moving hands ran through her hair effortlessly. Suddenly he stopped and placed his hand firmly on Jewon’s shoulder. His grip quickly tightened, causing Jewon to wince in pain.

“I do have one more thing to ask you. Why have I been receiving videos of you tackling a son of the Nordt family?”

Despite her father's smile Jewon’s eyes quickly widened in fear as she braced herself. Her father kicked her in the stomach. Jewon was sent flying back and crashing into the wall again, this time forming a crater with cracks flowing throughout the wall.

Jewon fell to the ground now, feeling her ribs broken and suffering incredible pain. Jewon suddenly felt something rise in her throat and she coughed, releasing blood onto the floor and her hands.

“Why do you make me hurt you like this Jewon? Why do you hurt me this way?”

Jewons father now took out another cigarette and lit it once more. He breathed in deeply and let out a plume of smoke. He looked once more, dead and emotionless inside. He looked at his mangled mess of a daughter one last time before exiting through the door, closing it behind him, and turning off the lights, leaving Jewon in darkness.

Jewon, despite the excruciating pain, crawled over to a corner in the room and curled up, hiding herself from the world as she formed a defensive shell with her legs and arms. Her shoulders began to shake uncontrollably. Her heaving sobs caused pain in her chest as her broken ribs screamed out, causing her to experience worse sobs in an endless cycle of miserable existence.

Blood ran down the back of her head, seeping through her hair and down her back, staining her clothes. Her mouth was filled with the taste of iron as blood drooled down, dropping onto her legs and drying there, as though to form an exoskeleton to protect its host.

‘I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.’

These words repeated over and over again in Jewons head as she sobbed in her pain.

‘I hate you more than anything else in this world. Why? Why was I born into this hell? Why was I born to you people?’

Blood and tears dropped onto the floor, forming a puddle around Jewon as she now proclaimed her inner thoughts aloud, unable to hide them from the world, even if nobody was around to hear her.

“I HATE YOU! I HATE THIS FAMILY! I HATE THIS LIFE! I HATE MY BIRTH THAT LED ME HERE!”

Jewon now looked towards the ceiling yet her gaze pierced past it, looking directly at the heavens above. She spoke once again, this time, her voice quiet and shaky.

“I hate this name. I hate Jewon. Why gods? Why did you give me this life?”

Violet waited for several moments. Begging in her heart to hear a voice, a response, anything. But all she heard was her heartbeat, pumping blood into her head, her pulsating head.

Violet curled up into a ball again and sobbed some more.

“I hate you.”

Violet began to look back to the past day. She remembered hearing Mark ask about her name, Vivian laughing with her, Roland stepping up to her as though it were his responsibility to talk to her. She remembered Mark and Vivian cooking a meal together, and then doing a strange and joyous performance to introduce the meal. She remembered Roland beginning to laugh and she remembered herself, feeling that joy along with them. She remembered her grin, feeling the corners of her mouth twist up happily. She remembered, wiping away that tear, that tear which signified so much joy in her life. She had made up her mind.

“I don’t know what love is. I don’t think I can love people so soon after meeting them. But I love them more than I will ever love you, Father. I love them more than I could ever love anyone in this damned family. 10 times more, 100 times, 1000 times, and even more. I will never betray them.”

Violet looked up, her poofy red eyes filled with a rage-filled determination.

“I won’t betray Mark.”

…

Outside the bodyguard listened to Violet's self conversation. He stood motionless, guarding the door, not daring once to set his eyes off the hallway. Yet he felt his heart stir and his eyes water as he looked toward the end of the hallway.

End of Chapter 8