Her fingers were white from clinging so hard, knuckles ready to crack, nails digging into the terry cloth as if it could save her, as if a piece of cotton could stop the hand already sliding up her thigh.
Her whole body shook. Not little shivers.
Violent jolts, spasms that made her teeth chatter, that made her knees knock, that sent burning tears down her cheeks without her being able to stop them.
She was breathing in gasps.
Short, panicked breaths, almost sobs she swallowed so she wouldn't make noise, so she wouldn't give him the pleasure of hearing her beg.
He was leaning over her.
His huge shadow covered hers.
His mouth slid along her throat, wet, possessive, disgusting, his tongue tracing a slow, cold line where her vein pulsed, where Sion had left marks of love, where he now wanted to leave his mark of hatred.
His free hand covered her mouth.
Fingers crushed against her lips, almost pushed into her throat, the taste of his skin — cold tobacco and whisky — making her want to vomit.
The other hand moved up.
Slowly.
Too slowly.
Between her bare thighs, where the towel stopped, where she was already open, already vulnerable, already defiled just by the idea.
She closed her eyes.
Tight.
So tight white sparks exploded behind her eyelids.
She tried to scream, but the sound died against his palm, muffled, pathetic, the whimper of an animal being slaughtered.
His fingers brushed the inside of her thigh.
Sion.
Nari's panic turned into a primitive, brutal force.
She sank her teeth into Sion's father's fingers.
She bit until she felt flesh give way.
Until she tasted the metallic taste of blood.
He screamed, startled, stepped back.
Nari ripped his hand away from her mouth and screamed with all the strength she had left, her voice torn by terror:
— SION!!!
HELP!!!
The door literally exploded.
Sion entered by smashing the frame with his shoulder, eyes bloodshot, breathing like an animal, his face twisted by a rage… inhuman.
A rage even he had never felt before.
Nari was on the floor.
The towel clutched tightly around her, her hands shaking, her mouth open, blood on her lips, on her chin, on her fingers.
Sion's father facing her — zipper open, breath ragged, his fingers still bloody.
The apartment was chaos.
A battlefield.
A rape that hadn't had time to go all the way.
And Sion saw everything.
A red flash.
A short circuit.
The world collapsing.
He ran — no, he hurled himself — at his father and slammed him to the floor with a violence the ground itself refused to absorb.
The impact echoed through the whole apartment.
And the rage exploded.
A rage of a beaten child.
A rage of a humiliated adult.
A rage of a son forgotten, hated, abandoned.
A rage multiplied by the sight of Nari — his Nari — hurt, terrified, dirtied.
Sion hit.
Hit.
Hit again.
His fists crashed into his father's face with a wet, sickening sound.
Bones cracking.
Blood flying.
Hair torn.
Teeth scattering.
— BASTARD!!
I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!
YOU DON'T TOUCH HER!!
His voice wasn't even a voice anymore.
It was the roar of a beast.
A beast that had been caged its whole life, beaten, broken, and that now devoured its tormentor.
Nari stayed frozen, collapsed, tears overflowing without her noticing.
She didn't see Sion anymore.
She saw a monster of pure rage.
A force of destruction.
A storm beyond human reason.
Blood splattered everywhere.
On the walls.
On the floor.
On the furniture.
On Sion's skin.
On Nari's towel.
— SION, STOP!! she screamed, voice broken, pleading.
— HE'S GOING TO DIE!! STOP!!
He didn't hear her.
He didn't hear anything.
He saw nothing.
Not her.
Not reality.
Nothing.
There was only a son killing his father.
Nari approached, tried to grab his arm, to calm the storm.
But Sion, in his madness, shoved her away so violently she was thrown back, falling full-weight onto the floor, tears bursting from the shock.
His eyes.
His eyes were no longer human.
They were the eyes of an animal.
Mad.
Broken.
Lost.
Nari looked at him for ten seconds.
Ten seconds in which she understood Sion was no longer present in his own body.
Ten seconds in which she understood that if she stayed, he would kill her too — without wanting to, without knowing.
So she backed away.
Stood up with difficulty.
Ran to the bedroom.
Grabbed the first clothes she found.
A too-big t-shirt.
Pants slipping down.
She couldn't even breathe, her hands shaking too much to close a button.
She ran to the door.
Sion turned his head.
Their eyes met.
And something broke inside him.
His heart.
His world.
His last anchor.
He understood.
He understood she was leaving.
That she was running.
That she was afraid of him.
And something in him… died.
— NARI!!! he screamed, voice torn, animal, desperate.
She opened the door, ran into the hallway, barefoot, trembling, breath ragged, vision blurry.
Sion stood up, covered in blood, staggering, reaching his hand toward her —
Like a drowning man watching the only lifeline he ever had disappear.
Sion stayed there, in front of the open door, breath cut off, eyes wide, unable to understand what he had just let slip away.
Then his body collapsed.
Literally.
His legs gave out suddenly, as if all the strength, all the rage, all the adrenaline had evaporated in one breath.
He fell to his knees.
Then to the floor.
Hands open, trembling, covered in blood — his, his father's.
He tried to get up.
His body didn't respond.
He tried to stand, to run after her, because his brain was screaming go get her, don't let her leave, you're going to lose her.
His fingers clawed at the floor as if trying to climb a cliff.
But nothing.
His muscles refused.
His breath stopped.
His vision blurred.
He was suffocating.
— Come back… come back… he whispered, lips trembling.
— Nari… please… come back…
He collapsed fully, face against the floor, shaking like an abandoned child.
And in his head, only one sound remained:
a prayer.
A silent scream into the void.
Don't leave me.
Not you.