The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (12 page)

Yoori attempted to bring herself back on point.

She was about to be attacked by unknown enemies and she was allowing the guilt to handicap her? Yoori wanted to get her priorities straight and gather her strength. Such an endeavor felt impossible when she processed his words again. She not only killed the family in this club, but she came back days later and killed one of them as well?

“
Scars?” Yoori asked shakily.

Who were
these people? What scars were they talking about?

In lieu of verbally answering her
, the rest of the eight individuals took slow steps onto the dance floor. They moved onto the area where the flickering lights were the most prevalent. Their faces were gradually revealed.

Nine
intimidating people surrounded her. Two of them, a girl with red hair and the police impersonator, leaned against the white pillars in the club. Three guys leisurely sat against the cloth-covered tables on the side of the dance floor. One had a shaved head, the second had a Mohawk, and the third that completed the trio had an eye-patch. Two women, one blonde and the other with a pixie haircut, were crouched down. The last two, a man and a woman, whom Yoori assumed were the leaders, stood before her, their eyes breeding raw, unadulterated hatred. They all wore dark hooded jackets and cargo pants. Yoori could see the number “57” scar on each of their left cheeks.

The significance of the number was not lost on her.

Branded
, Yoori surmised quickly, realizing now why they were here for her.

An Soo Jin
had branded them as her victims.

Yoori
was absolutely thunderstruck.

What could you say to
the people you’ve victimized in the past? Especially when you couldn’t remember victimizing them?

“We thought you died a year and
a half ago, An Soo Jin,” the female leader whispered. She tilted her head in amusement. Her hair was tied up in a bun. Her features were cold and angry—just like the man who stood beside her. His pierced lower lip glinted in the light when he smirked frostily at her.

Yoori’s mind ran amuck.
A year and a half ago? She creased her brows in confusion. The math was wrong. Surely they meant three years ago?

T
hen, the answer came to her.

The math was not wrong.

They truly meant a year and a half ago.

“
The fire,” she said incredulously, recalling the mysterious fire in her “hometown” that killed her adoptive family. Her adoptive mother had sent her shopping. From what the firefighters told her, she had missed the fire by mere minutes. If she had stayed any longer, she would’ve perished in that inferno as well.

“Yes, the fires in
Taecin,” the woman with the pixie haircut replied smugly. She moved to sit on a table next to the Mohawk guy. She played with her silver gun. “Our handiwork.”

Yoori was astounded.
It wasn’t an accident after all. These people set her home on fire and killed her adoptive family—her adoptive parents and her cousin.

“Y
ou killed—”

“It’s u
nfortunate the people we killed,” the leader started bitterly. “All the houses we burned down in hopes of killing you once and for all. But we should've been more careful and actually checked out who died in those fires. It was unfortunate that your adoptive parents'
actual
daughter died with them as opposed to you.”

Yoori’s breathing became shallower.

Finally, the truth.

Her “
cousin” was the real daughter all along
. . .

The leader continued, his voice becoming more acidic. “We were kicked out of
our gang because we went rogue to get rid of you, to kill the last shred of our humiliation and avenge our sister.”

Yoori bit her lips, processing all his words
. A disturbing truth dawned on her. His voice echoed in her mind:
“All the houses we burned down in hopes of killing you once and for all
. . .
”

The homes in T
aecin were spread apart. She couldn’t have known there were fires all around the city unless she actively sought out the news, which she didn’t do because she left almost immediately after the fire. The fog in her mind became denser. Nothing was making sense. Soo Jin humiliated them and got them kicked out of their gang? She killed their sister, drove them over the edge, and caused them to set fires to homes all over Taecin? She ran her eyes over them. Who were these people?

“What gang?” Yoori
finally asked, confounded with everything she was learning.

The man leaning against the pillar
, the one with spiky hair and a pierced left eyebrow, spoke. Yoori recognized him as the police impersonator. “Because of you, we were kicked out of the very gang we grew up in. Because you humiliated us to such a degree where we couldn’t tell our own boss who fucked up our faces, why we went rogue and spread those fucking fires in Taecin.” He scoffed resentfully. “We should’ve been braver and killed you when we saw you walking around that shop in Taecin.”

“Yet, you somehow survived the fire
,” a girl with dyed blonde hair spoke. She was crouched down, staring at Yoori with venomous eyes. “And it appears that you either have an amnesia of sorts or you’re faking it. Regardless of the true reason behind your ‘I’m so innocent’ act, you somehow managed to infiltrate our gang and seduce our King in the process. You are a skilled bitch, I’ll give you that much.”

In light of all the revelations thrown at her today, Yoori couldn’t help but freeze in disbelief.

They were in Tae Hyun’s gang.

“
Ser
. . .
Serpents?”

“F
ormer,” the male leader corrected spitefully. “Boss kicked us out when he found out about the fires in Taecin. He disowned us when we wouldn’t tell him who mutilated our faces; he severed ties with us when we couldn’t tell him why we were so intent on killing innocent people in Taecin. All because of you, An Soo Jin.”

“I
. . .
I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

R
emorse gripped her. She had always known that Soo Jin tortured people, but to be standing here with her former victims, it was enough to throw an already emotional Yoori over the edge.

“Your amnesia is very convenient isn’t it, An Soo Jin? Or should I call you
Choi Yoori? That
is
your supposed name now, right?” The male leader chuckled darkly. “No matter. Boss and the rest of the Underworld may be unsure with you, but we know the person who scarred us. We know the bitch who took great pleasure in mutilating our faces. We’ve waited so long for this moment and regardless of whether you remember or not, you’re paying all the same."

“Tae
. . .
Tae Hyun knows you’re doing this?” she stuttered brokenly.

“Ace. Mina,” a
male voice spoke from the back, addressing the two leaders. It was the guy with the bald head. “Let’s get this over with. We don’t have a lot of time, and I don’t want her to die a fast death. I want to torture her for what she did to Kimmy, what she did to that poor family three years ago, and most of all, for her trying to endanger our boss.”

“He
will have our heads once he finds out, but it’s for the best,” answered Mina, the female leader. She sighed, shaking her head as she produced a knife from her pocket. She narrowed her eyes on Yoori. “We won’t allow you to infiltrate our gang, An Soo Jin. You may have stolen our boss’s affections with that innocent act of yours, but you’re nothing but a monster. You’ve killed and tortured countless people to entertain yourself, to make yourself notorious in this world. We’re going to make you pay for everything. You’ll pay for the thirty-five lives you stole in this club
. . .
the thirty-four family members, and the life of one of our own.”

Yoori’s heart ripped
when she was finally given the number of people she killed in this little club.

Thirty-five
.

She killed thirty-four of the family members and one of their own.

The massive amount was an agonizing discovery.

“
Innocent people died by your hands in this very club, An Soo Jin,” the male leader, Ace, whispered. Behind him, the rest of the assassins stood up high. They watched in anticipation, in hatred. “That sin will not go unanswered.”

“We were trained to kill effec
tively and quickly, but with you, we’ll take it slow and easy,” the red haired female taunted in the back. “We’ll beat you to a pulp and we’ll scar that pretty little face of yours as well. Let’s see if you have anymore of those An Soo Jin fighting skills left
. . .
”

Whoosh!

“Augh!”

Before Yoori could take another breath, a powerful kick to the s
tomach sent her flying backward in midair.

Bam!

She collided against the wooden table behind her. The table broke apart under her weight. She fell with the broken wood, crashing against the cold hard floor with a loud thud. Something sharp pierced into her thigh, and she screamed. Stars fell into her line of vision. Disorientation assaulted her as blistering pain shot up and down her trembling body.

“Augh!” Yoori cried, pulling out a jagged piece of wood from the back of her thigh. A spew of blood erupted from her body. She nearly passed out from the pain.

As this pain consumed her, so did her guilt for what took place here.

Thirty-five
, her mind repeated.

So many victims
. . .
so many innocent people died in this place. So many people died
because of
her. The pain in her body was nothing compared to the mental agony she was experiencing. The realization that hit her was unlike anything else she had experienced in the Underworld. She had been blaming everyone else for her misery, but she realized now that she was a culprit as well. She was one of
those
people, one of those vindictive people who made this Underworld so cruel for others
. . .

Yoori was so distracted that she could scarcely move away when another one of her adversaries came for her.

“Augh!”

Air choked at her lungs when a blunt heeled boot
kicked the left temple of her head. An explosion of pain erupted in her head. Her skull nearly cracked when it struck the edge of the short flight of stairs that led up to the next platform of the club.

“This one is for Kimmy!”

A large hand wrapped around her throat and lifted her up off the floor. Yoori gasped for air. The pressure on her neck was excruciating, and the feeling of her legs kicking helplessly in midair nearly caused her to black out.

The second bald male, who had a black eye-patch over his left eye, stared at her in rage. In her heart of hearts, she had the sinking feeling that An Soo Jin was the reason why he only had one eye.

He tightened his grip on her neck.

She could’ve easily hurt him; she felt it in the marrows of her bone. Her killer instincts were waiting to emerge. An Soo Jin was waiting to emerge, but Yoori maintained her control. She didn’t want to hurt them. The ones who raped Chae Young deserved to die, but not these people. If anything,
she
was the one who deserved to die for the horrors she inflicted on to them.

With a loud grunt
, he slammed her into a glass table.

Crack!

Another torrent of pain sliced through her after the broken glass ate at the exposed area of her skin. Her satin trench coat and boots proved that they were strong enough to protect her back and legs from the impact. Her hands weren’t so lucky. Blood began to pool around the small shards of glass that etched themselves into her hands. Although the glass embedded in her skin wasn’t enough to make her faint, it was enough to have her gasping for air.

Despite the abuse, Yoori did not fight back.

She was too remorseful to fight back.

“
I
. . .
I’m sorry,” she whispered through her anguish.

They didn’t hear her apology through their wrath.

The guy with the Mohawk kicked her face. The back of her head slammed against the steps once more. Shortly thereafter, Ace’s brown hunting boots pressed heavily on her neck, causing her to violently gasp for air.

“
You had this coming, Soo Jin,” Ace’s voice huffed.

Yoori felt slender hands hold her head still.

Ace produced a knife from his pocket. As Mina angled Yoori’s head to the side to reveal her left cheek to Ace, Yoori knew that they were ready to brand her.

“
You mutilated us and killed countless others,” prompted Ace. “Isn’t it time you paid for all those sins with your life?”

Yoori agreed
. Regardless of the fear she felt from the mutilation to come, she agreed that it was time she paid for everything her counterpart did. For the first time, Yoori was willing to die to alleviate the guilt spreading through her like cancer. She was willing to die to soothe their anger and to exterminate one more monster from this world. Yoori had feared this decision, but it was the only thing that made sense. If she died, then Soo Jin would never be able to return. She would never be able to wreak havoc over the world, and she would never be able to wage a war against Tae Hyun. Everyone would be safe from her. Everyone Yoori loved would be safe from the monster inside her. For that, at least her death would be worth it.