--: Keifer's POV: --
I stood in the doorway of that rotting side room, my boots crunching on broken glass. The smell of the place—unwashed skin, tobacco, and the scent of Jay Jay's fear—hit me like a physical blow. The Stepfather was backed into the corner, his arm locked around Jay Jay's throat, a jagged, dirty shard of glass pressed so hard against her skin that a bead of blood was blooming like a dark rose.
"Five seconds," I said. My voice didn't even sound human. It was a cold, mechanical rasp, vibrating with a hunger for his death.
Behind me, the door frame splintered further as Angelo and Aries charged in. They skidded to a halt, their weapons leveled, but they froze. They saw the glass. They saw how close she was to the edge.
"Keifer, don't —" Angelo started, his voice thick with a brother's agony.
I didn't wait for him to finish. I didn't wait for the count of five. In a blur motion, I clicked the high-intensity strobe on my vest. The room exploded in a blinding, rhythmic white pulse. The Stepfather shrieked, his eyes squeezed shut, his head snapping back.
That was the only opening I needed.
I lunged. My hand caught his wrist—I didn't just grab it; I crushed it. The sound of his radius snapping was a sharp, wet crack that echoed off the damp walls. He let out a pathetic wail, the glass shard clattering to the floor. I wrenched Jay Jay away with a force that nearly pulled her arm from its socket, spinning her behind me into Angelo's waiting arms.
"Aries! Angelo! Take her out! Get her to the air!" I roared, my eyes never leaving the monster who was now sobbing on the floor.
--: Author's POV: --
Angelo caught Jay Jay, but as he looked at her, his heart shattered. She wasn't clinging to him. She was as limp as a rag doll, her eyes staring at the ceiling, vacant and hollow.
"Aries, take her!" Angelo commanded, his face twisting with a dark, secondary purpose. "Go! Go with her. I'm staying with Keifer."
Aries didn't argue. He scooped Jay Jay up and sprinted for the exit. He burst out of the factory into the cool night air.
The yard was a scene of fractured relief. Thyme was sitting on the bench, his face buried in Gorya's neck as she sobbed. Kavin was on the ground, his jacket wrapped tightly around Kaning, his forehead pressed to hers. Edrix held Freya, Denzel held Grace, Calix was with Mica, and CiN was holding Raki.
When Ella saw Aries emerging with Jay Jay, she let out a strangled cry and ran to them. Aries set Jay Jay down on a bench, and Ella collapsed at his arms, also clutching Jay Jay's hands.
But when the F4 looked over at Jay Jay-who was sitting perfectly still, staring at nothing with eyes like shattered glass-their relief turned into a cold, murderous vacuum.
"Wait for us," Thyme whispered to Gorya. He stood up, joined by Kavin and MJ, Ren. They didn't look back as they walked toward the factory where Keifer and Angelo were waiting.
--: Keifer's POV: --
The door to the side room slammed open and The F4 came and again the door slammed shut, locking the six of us inside with him. Thyme, Kavin, MJ, Ren, Angelo, and me. The Stepfather was trying to crawl away, his broken arm trailing behind him. He looked up at us, five shadows silhouetted by the single flickering bulb. Even now, with his life leaking onto the floor, he didn't beg.
He laughed.
It was a wet, rattling sound. "You think you saved her?" he wheezed, looking directly at me. "I spent seventy-two hours in her head. I showed her things she can never unsee."
"SHUT UP!" Thyme roared, his boot connecting with the man's jaw with the force of a sledgehammer.
We didn't use our guns. We used our hands. We used our boots. We stayed until the laughter turned to gurgles, and the gurgles turned to silence. We stayed until the bones were crushed and the monster was finally, irrevocably dead.
--: Jay Jay's POV: --
The night air felt like needles. I could hear the thuds from inside. I knew he was being erased. But the "lesson" was still playing. The woman... the bed... the sound of the zipper. I felt like I was covered in a layer of invisible filth.
The door to the factory creaked open. The boys walked out, covered in soot and blood. Keifer walked straight toward me, his eyes filled with a desperate, burning love.
"Jay," he whispered, reaching out to pull me into a hug. "It's over. I've got you, baby."
As his hands touched my shoulders, my brain short-circuited. I didn't feel Keifer. I felt the Stepfather. I felt the ropes.
"NO!" I shrieked, the sound tearing from my throat. I scrambled backward, falling off the bench and crawling into the dirt, my nails digging into the earth. "PLEASE DON'T! PLEASE DON'T TOUCH ME! DON'T DO THAT! STOP!"
--: Keifer's POV: --
I froze. The girl who used to find her only peace in my arms was looking at me with pure, unadulterated horror.
"Jay... it's me. It's Keifer," I choked out, my voice cracking.
Thyme walked over, his face pale. He looked at Gorya. "Gorya... what happened? Why is she like this?"
Gorya stood up, her voice a broken whisper. "He took her, Thyme. Every night. For hours. He locked her in that side room. We didn't know what was happening... we just heard him talking. And the food... he used her to break us. He told us if we didn't eat, he'd choke her. He made us watch him forcefully feed her... he turned her into a weapon against her own friends."
I looked at my hands, stained with the blood of the man I had just killed. I looked at Jay Jay, who was being held by Freya and Ella because she wouldn't let any of us near her.
The monster was dead. But as I watched Jay Jay flinch at the very sound of my voice, I realized the truth. He hadn't just kidnapped her. He had buried her alive inside her own mind.
--: Author's POV: --
The courtyard of the factory was bathed in the haunting glow of emergency flares. The monster was dead, but the wreckage he left behind was still breathing.
Thyme and Keifer stepped toward her together. They were the two pillars of her world—the protector and the soulmate. Their faces were grim, splattered with the evidence of the justice they had just served, their eyes searching for any sign of the girl they knew.
"Jay, it's okay now," Thyme said, his voice unusually soft as he reached out to take her arm and help her stand. "Let's get you out of here. The car is right there."
As Thyme's hand approached her, and Keifer leaned down to lift her from the dirt, the air in the yard seemed to vanish.
Jay Jay didn't just move. She exploded in a panicked thrash. A primal, jagged shriek tore from her throat – a sound of such pure, visceral terror that it made the veteran Section E guards flinch. She scrambled backward on her hands and knees, her nails digging into the gravel until her fingertips bled, trying to put distance between herself and the two men.
"NO! PLEASE DON'T! PLEASE DON'T TOUCH ME! STOP IT!" she screamed, her eyes blown wide, staring at their blood-stained hands as if they were extensions of the monster they had just killed.
--: Keifer's POV: --
I froze, my hands hanging uselessly in the air. Beside me, Thyme looked like he'd been struck by lightning. The rejection felt like a physical blade through my lungs. Watching her crawl away from us in the dirt—watching her treat our help like a second assault.
"Jay Jay... it's just us. It's Keifer and Thyme," I choked out, but the more I tried to step forward, the more she hyperventilated, her small frame shaking with a violence that looked like it would break her.
Gorya and Freya rushed past us, their faces pale.
"Stay back! Both of you!" Gorya shouted, her voice echoing off the factory walls.
They dropped into the dirt beside her. They didn't grab her; they just sat there, murmuring soft, low words, forming a human barrier between us and her. Slowly, carefully, they slid their arms under hers. They acted as human crutches, lifting her from the ground. Jay Jay leaned into them, her head hanging low, her hair matted with dust. She was a hollow shell, and we were the triggers for her nightmare.
--: Author's POV: --
The walk to the car was a slow, agonizing procession. Gorya and Freya shielded Jay Jay, keeping her in middle of safety. Thyme walked to the driver's side, his jaw set so tight his facial muscles were twitching. Keifer slid into the passenger seat, his body rigid as a board.
In the back, Jay Jay was sandwiched between the two girls, her eyes fixed on the floorboards, refusing to look up.
--: Keifer's POV: --
I didn't care about the road or the convoy behind us. I just stared at her in the rearview mirror.
I could see her through the gap in the headrests. She was staring straight ahead at nothing, her eyes glassy and unfocused. Every time I shifted my weight or the leather of my seat creaked, she flinched. The very space I occupied was a threat to her.
"I'm right here, Jay," I whispered, the words tasting like ash.
She didn't look at me. She just squeezed Gorya's hand until her knuckles turned white, then leaned her head onto Gorya's shoulder and closed her eyes. A single, heavy tear traced a path through the grime on her cheek.
--: Thyme's POV: --
I gripped the steering wheel so hard the leather groaned. I drove in total silence, the engine's hum the only sound in the suffocating cabin.
I looked at Keifer. He looked like a man who had been hollowed out. He was watching her in the mirror with a look of such pure, concentrated agony that it made my own chest ache.
"She's in there, Keifer," I muttered, my voice low so the girls wouldn't hear. "She's just... she's buried under the rubble."
"He didn't just take her, Thyme," Keifer rasped, his eyes never moving from the mirror. "He stole her safety. I killed him, but he's still sitting in this car with us, holding her eyes shut."
--: Jay Jay's POV: --
The hum of the engine felt like it was vibrating inside my skull. I could feel them – Keifer and Thyme. I knew their hearts were breaking. I could feel the heat of their gaze, and normally, it would have been the only thing I needed to survive.
But all I could see was the "lesson."
Every time I felt the car move, I remembered the Stepfather's hand. I remembered the sounds. I felt like if they touched me, they would be able to see the images inside my head. I felt like a stained glass window that had been shattered and glued back together with filth.
I squeezed Gorya's hand.
Don't let them touch me, I screamed silently into the dark. Not yet. I'm still in that room. I haven't left that basement yet.
--: Author's POV: --
The convoy of black cars screeched to a halt under the sterile, blinding white canopy of the Paramaanantra International Hospital. The emergency bay was already crawling with hospital staff, but the atmosphere changed the moment the lead car's doors opened.
Thyme and Keifer jumped out, their faces set in grim masks. They moved instinctively toward the back door to help the girls out, but a sharp look from Gorya through the tinted glass stopped them in their tracks.
"Get the gurney! Get the female nurses only!" Angelo roared as he stepped out of the following car, his voice echoing through the bay like a gunshot.
--: Keifer's POV: --
The back door of our SUV opened. I watched, my heart hammering against my ribs, as Gorya and Freya slowly helped Jay Jay out. She was still trembling, her eyes darting around the parking lot like she expected the shadows to swallow her whole.
A male orderly stepped forward with a wheelchair. "Sir, let me help—"
"Noo!" Jay's voice was a jagged shard of glass. She didn't just flinch; she ducked behind Gorya, her hands clutching Gorya's jacket so hard the fabric strained.
The orderly froze, confused. I felt a surge of white-hot protective rage. "You heard her! Get away!" I snarled, stepping toward him.
But as I moved, Jay Jay looked at me. For one second, our eyes locked. I saw the love I knew was there, but it was buried under a mountain of visceral, sickening fear. She looked at my hands – still stained with the dirt and blood of the factory – and she whimpered, backing away from me too.
--: Author's POV: --
A team of female nurses quickly took over, sensing the delicate psychological state of the patient. They formed a protective circle around Jay Jay, Gorya, and the other girls, moving them swiftly through the sliding glass doors toward the high-security VIP wing.
The boys – Keifer, Thyme, Kavin, MJ, Ren and Angelo and others – followed, their boots thundering on the polished linoleum. But as they reached the double doors of the Intensive Trauma Unit, a lead doctor and two security guards blocked their path.
"I'm sorry, sir," the doctor said, his voice firm despite the intimidating presence of the F4. "The patients are in severe psychological shock. Especially her." Pointing towards Jay Jay "We cannot allow any male presence in the wing for the next twelve hours. It's triggering her trauma."
--: Keifer's POV: --
"You're joking," I said, my voice dangerously low. I took a step into the doctor's personal space. "That is my girl in there. I am not leaving her side. Move. Now."
"Keifer, calm down," Kavin muttered, grabbing my shoulder.
"Don't tell me to calm down!" I shoved Kavin's hand off me. I looked through the small glass window of the double doors. I could see the back of Jay Jay's head as they wheeled her further away. "She's scared! She needs to know I'm there!"
"She's scared of us, Keifer!" Thyme yelled, his own frustration finally boiling over. He slammed his fist into the plastic chart holder on the wall, shattering it. "Didn't you see her in the car? She thinks we're him! Every time she looks at us, she sees that monster!"
The silence that followed was deafening. Thyme's words hit me like a physical blow to the stomach. I slumped against the wall, the adrenaline that had been keeping me upright for three days finally vanishing, leaving nothing but a cold, hollow ache.
--: Angelo's POV: --
I looked at Keifer. I'd never seen him look like this—broken, helpless, and bleeding from the soul. We were the most powerful people in this city, and we couldn't even walk through a set of glass doors to comfort the person we loved most.
"He's right," I whispered, my voice thick. "The doctor is right. We're the triggers right now. Every time she sees a man, she hears his voice."
--: Keifer's POV: --
I sank to the floor, my back sliding against the cold wall. I put my head in my hands, the scent of the factory still clinging to my skin.
I could hear the distant sound of a door closing down the hall. Jay Jay was gone. She was behind a wall I couldn't climb.
"I'm not leaving," I said to the floor. "I'll sit right here on this floor until she lets me in. I don't care if it takes a year."
--: Author's POV: --
Inside the room, the nurses were gently cleaning the dirt from Jay Jay's face. She didn't speak. She didn't cry. She just stared at the door, her hand gripped tightly in Gorya's.
"Is he still there?" Jay Jay rasped, her first words in hours.
Gorya looked at the door, knowing Keifer was just inches away on the other side. "He's there, Jay. He's not going anywhere."
Jay Jay closed her eyes and a fresh sob escaped her. "Tell him to go... tell him I'm too dirty for him to see me."
——————
Inside the VIP suite, the air was thick with the scent of antiseptic and the soft, muffled sounds of the girls' heavy breathing. Jay Jay lay in the center of the bed, her skin looking almost translucent under the harsh hospital lights.
"I'm dirty, Gorya," Jay Jay whispered again, her voice cracking like dry parchment. "I'm so dirty."
Gorya grabbed Jay Jay's hands, squeezing them with a fierce, desperate strength. "You are not dirty, Jay Jay! Look at me. Do you hear me? You are a victim of a monster. You are still the same Jay Jay. You are pure, and you are loved."
Kaning, Freya, Ella, Mica, Raki, and Grace moved closer, forming a tight circle of warmth around the bed. They were a shield of sisterhood, their presence a soft wall against the darkness of the last three days.
"He can't touch your soul, Jay Jay," Mica whispered, reaching out to brush a stray hair from Jay Jay's forehead.
"We're all here," Raki added, her voice steady despite the tears in her eyes.
Grace leaned in, clutching Jay Jay's hand. "You don't have to carry the sight of those things alone. We'll help you wash them away."
Gorya waited until Jay Jay's breathing slowed slightly, then she leaned in, her voice a gentle caress. "Jay Jay... can you tell me? What happened in that room? Did he... did he touch you? It's okay if you don't want to tell. I won't force you. But please, don't let it rot inside you."
--: Jay Jay's POV: --
I looked at their faces—Gorya, my sisters, my friends. I saw the genuine love in their eyes, and for a second, the images of the "lessons" flickered like a broken film strip. I started to cry again, the kind of deep, chest-heaving sobs that felt like they were tearing my lungs.
"He didn't... he didn't touch me like that," I rasped, the words spilling out in a panicked rush. "But he made me watch. He brought a woman, a prostitute in... every night. He tied me to a chair and forced my eyes open with his own hands. He told me he was 'teaching' me for when he finally took me. He said Keifer wouldn't want a girl who didn't know how to be a 'woman' like that."
The girls gasped, a collective shudder running through the room. Ella covered her mouth to stifle a cry, and Kaning pulled the blanket higher around my shoulders.
"He told me that every time Keifer touched me from now on, I would only remember the filth I saw in that room," I sobbed, my heart racing. "He said he was planting a seed in my head that would grow until I hated being loved. He made me watch them for hours... and if I looked away, he said he'd kill you, Gorya. He'd kill Kaning. I had to watch to keep you alive."
--: Author's POV: --
The room fell into a horrified silence. The psychological cruelty was worse than any physical wound; he had attempted to weaponize her own eyes against her future.
A female doctor entered quietly, checking the monitors. Seeing Jay Jay's escalating heart rate and the way her body was trembling, she sighed. "She needs rest. Her mind is on fire and her body is exhausted."
The doctor adjusted the IV drip and gently injected a sedative into the tube. Within minutes, Jay Jay's eyes began to flutter. The terror didn't leave her face, but her body finally went limp as the medicine forced her into a heavy, dreamless sleep.
--: Gorya's POV: --
Once Jay Jay was finally under, I wiped my eyes and stood up. My heart felt like it had been dragged through gravel. I walked to the door and pushed it open.
The hallway was a graveyard of broken boys.
Thyme was the first to see me. He lunged forward, his face frantic, and pulled me into a crushing hug. I could feel his heart hammering against my chest. "Are you okay? Is she okay? Did she speak?"
I pulled back just enough to see all of them. Keifer was still on the floor, his back against the wall, his eyes bloodshot and haunted. Angelo, Aries, Kavin, and MJ, Ren and the others stood like statues, waiting for my words.
"She's asleep," I said, my voice trembling. "The doctor had to sedate her. And..and she told us what happened.."
"Gorya, tell me," Keifer rasped, his voice sounding like it was coming from the bottom of a well. "What did he do? Why is she so afraid of me?"
I looked at him, and my heart broke for him. "He didn't touch her body, Keifer... but he destroyed her mind. He forced her to watch him with another woman. For threedays. He told her he was 'teaching' her. He told her that you would think she was dirty. He told her that every time you touch her, she'll only remember the filth he showed her. And Keifer... she only watched because he threatened to kill me and Kaning if she looked away. She did it to save us."
--: Thyme's POV: --
I felt the air leave my lungs. My grip on Gorya tightened until I realized I might be hurting her, and I forced my fingers to loosen.
That bastard.
I looked at Gorya, then at Kaning through the glass. They were alive because Jay Jay had endured a psychological hell. She had sacrificed her own sanity to keep my girl safe. I felt a debt of gratitude so heavy it felt like lead in my stomach, followed immediately by a wave of nausea.
"She protected them," I whispered, my voice thick with a mixture of respect and horror. I looked at the closed door. I wanted to go in and tell her thank you, but I knew my face was just another trigger now.
--: Angelo's POV: --
I felt the world tilt. My little sister... my baby sister.
I leaned my head back against the wall, eyes closing as the words forced her eyes open echoed in my skull. I was her older brother. I was supposed to be the shield. But she had been the one shielding everyone else.
"He used her,"I choked out, a hot, angry tear escaping. "He used her goodness as a weapon against her."
I looked at my hands, still shaking. I had helped kill the man, but I felt like I hadn't done enough. I wanted to reach through the barrier of death and tear his soul apart for what he had done to her mind.
--: Aries's POV: --
I stood in the corner, my shadow long against the hospital tiles. Usually, I was the one with the plan, the one who kept a level head. But hearing Gorya explain the 'lessons'... it made me want to burn the factory to the ground.
I looked at Keifer, who was falling apart on the floor. I'd seen Keifer in gunfights, I'd seen him handle the most brutal missions of Section E without blinking. But this? This was a wound we couldn't stitch up.
"He didn't just break her," I muttered, my voice cold and lethal. "He poisoned the very idea of love for her. He knew exactly what he was doing."
--: Keifer's POV: --
The world stopped spinning.
I felt like someone had reached into my chest and ripped my heart out with cold pliers. I didn't yell. I didn't punch the wall. I just sat there as the weight of Gorya's words crushed the air out of my lungs.
He taught her to fear my love. And she did it to save her friends.
I looked at my hands—the hands that had killed that man. I thought I had ended the nightmare, but the monster had left a ghost in her head to guard her against me.
"She thinks she's dirty," I whispered, a single, hot tear finally falling. "She thinks I'll look at her and see what he showed her."
I slumped further against the wall, my head falling into my knees. A low, broken sob escaped me—the sound of a man who had won the war but lost the very thing he was fighting for. I had her back, but she was a thousand miles away, locked in a room I couldn't enter because my very presence was now a trigger for her pain.
"I'll kill him again," I moaned into my hands, my voice muffled by my own grief. "I'll go to hell just to kill him again."