“You were sold like a pig by your own parents. Reading that and the charges against you was all it took for me to understand exactly what kind of person you are.”

Those cold, cutting words come from the mouth of a well-dressed, strikingly handsome man. His salt-and-pepper hair is neatly combed, and his dark, almost feline eyes pierce through Felix. There’s no nervousness in his tone, no sadism. He speaks as if he’s discussing someone else, not the boy standing in front of him.

“I don’t like you. And I like it even less that my son laid his hands on someone like you,” the man says. Felix doesn’t understand why he’s being given this speech or why it should matter to him. His face is swollen from the beating Ivan gave him—that bastard had hit him so hard he’d lost consciousness.

“Go to hell,” Felix hisses. The words come out slurred, like a cat’s hiss, through his split and swollen lips.

“I’ll make sure you’re broken by the time your imprisonment is over,” the man says, then presses the tip of his shoe against Felix’s cheek, forcing him to meet his gaze. Felix’s eyes are bloodshot, red with exhaustion and pain. “So you can never cause trouble again. Ever.”

Felix’s eyes widen. A sharp pain shoots through his stomach, and he barely makes it to the bucket in time. He vomits what little is left in his stomach, then gasps for air. It’s awful. His brain feels like a wounded animal thrashing inside his skull, and Felix can’t make it stop.

He’s come to the conclusion that it must be the drugs. Maybe they’re finally wearing off, and his mind is clearing. Memories keep flooding back, sudden and unstoppable. Felix’s eyes widen as images from the past flash before him like a film. Then his body is hit with a kind of shock.

He’s tired.

More tired than he’s ever been.

He curls up in a corner of the room, pulling his knees to his chest. They’re thin and bony, his skin cold and pale, like a corpse’s.

That man.

Dr. Kozlov.

Ivan.

That woman.

Hyunjin.

How many people are involved in his imprisonment? How many accomplices are complicit in this atrocity? Felix rests his forehead on his knees. His head throbs behind his temples. The migraines are unbearable now. The neon lights don’t help, but at least the place is silent.

And speaking of silence…

Whoever had been rhythmically tapping against the wall stopped days ago. Felix wonders what happened to them. Did they escape? Were they freed? Or are they dead? It’s terrible, but of all the possibilities, the last one seems the most likely.

The days pass.

Hyunjin comes down less often now, and he hardly speaks. He brings food and then leaves.

He hasn’t brought the camera down here in a while.

Something has changed. Felix knows it. He feels it.

Hyunjin seems more tired, more on edge, even worried.

Felix wonders if they’ve reached the end.

How much longer does he have to live?

The dark alley. His pockets full of cocaine. His client was supposed to meet him there, but no one showed up. He pulls out his phone to message him when four arms yank him back. Felix barely has time to register two large, muscular men in black before a cloth is pressed over his mouth and nose.

He loses consciousness.

When he opens his eyes, he’s in a van.

The men are beside him. Their uniforms are too generic to be military but too polished to be casual. Felix slowly reaches for the door handle, trying not to draw attention. The door gives way, opening. The asphalt rushes by beneath him. He jumps.

Felix gasps. He’s shaking again. He’s not alone anymore. Hyunjin is there. He’s pale, scared.

“Felix!” he calls his name. Then he puts something between Felix’s teeth—it feels like cloth. Felix realizes it’s to keep him from biting his tongue. Felix trembles for half a minute before collapsing in Hyunjin’s arms.

Dr. Kozlov moves a light in front of his eyes. He orders Felix to follow it with his harsh accent. Felix’s arm and leg are in casts, his face swollen, his breathing labored. Then Dr. Kozlov disappears, and so do the casts. A lot of time must have passed. Ivan is in a room with him, kicking him while asking questions Felix can’t remember. All he knows is that the pain is excruciating, spreading through every cell in his body.

Then he’s in a massive room, dimly lit by blue LEDs. There are chairs like thrones, towering and imposing. It looks like a set from a dystopian movie.

“One day,” someone tells him, “you too will face the higher judgment.”

Then, that woman.

The taser.

The drugs.

A horrific memory comes back to him. He was tied to a chair, and that woman kept asking him the same questions over and over. What’s your name? How old are you? Where were you born? What’s your mother’s name? Why are you here? Dozens, dozens more. Felix answered, and the woman drugged him. Then she started again with the questions. And every time Felix answered, she stuck a needle in his arm and injected him. Again, and again, and again, until Felix couldn’t answer anymore because he couldn’t remember any of it.

“Breathe, slowly,” Hyunjin says. He strokes Felix’s face. Felix’s head rests on Hyunjin’s lap. He feels like he’s been beaten, but he doesn’t know if it’s real or just the aftermath of the memory. “They’re coming back, aren’t they? Your memories. I’m sorry,” Hyunjin murmurs.

He sounds so sincere it hurts.

There’s a young girl near Felix. She looks at him with teary eyes, then kneels to get closer. “It’ll be okay, after. The atonement is terrible for everyone. But it’s worse for those who’ve killed a child.”

Then, there’s the cell. Felix remembers thrashing the entire time they dragged him in. He remembers throwing himself against the bars like a wild animal. He grabbed a guard by the collar of his uniform and yanked him hard against the bars until his forehead split. Blood was everywhere.

Ivan beat him again. He would have killed him if Hyunjin hadn’t shown up.

“I’ll handle him.”

“It’s against the rules. It’s not fair for you to do it.”

“Are you really going to argue with me?” Hyunjin had asked.

Ivan growled something and then slunk away with his tail between his legs.

Felix had retreated against the wall, terrified.

That boy…

How could he be in a place like this?

How long ago had it happened? He couldn’t remember.

It was before his imprisonment.

Hyunjin wets a cloth and presses it to Felix’s forehead. Felix has stopped shaking. He opens his eyes slightly. His voice is hoarse, as if he’s been screaming for hours—and maybe he has.

“I… remember you…” Felix whispers.

Hyunjin’s lips curl into a smile. “Good. I’d have been hurt if you’d forgotten after all the lovely times we’ve shared lately,” he says, his voice sarcastic but gentle. Felix notices Hyunjin’s split lip. He reaches out to touch the wound with his fingertips, but Hyunjin pulls back slightly. Did Felix do that to him? During one of his episodes?

“No…” Felix murmurs again.

He tries to focus on something distant. He remembers the cold air whipping his face. The cars below looking as small as grains of rice. A weight in his chest heavy as a boulder.

“We… we’ve met before… outside this place,” he rasps. His mouth is dry, his throat scratching with every word.

Hyunjin’s jaw tightens. His fingers stop stroking Felix’s hair. For a moment, there’s only silence. They lock eyes, and Felix feels so stupid… So stupid. How could he not have realized it sooner?

“You… that time… You were the one who—”

“Felix,” Hyunjin murmurs his name almost like he’s begging him to stop.

But Felix can’t.

Not anymore.

“You… you saved my life.”