When there is a predator on the prowl, the air changes. Humans sense these changes and react like prey often do.
Some fight. Some run away. And some freeze.
Everyone outside the mansion froze when Ilay turned around; his presence was too overwhelming. They prayed and hoped the beast wouldn't pay attention to them and barely dared to breathe.
The only thing that broke the silence was Helena screaming and yelling for her girls when she became aware of the situation. The panic shredded her voice, but her heart was in a worse state. Daniel embraced her silently, also broken by the news, and looked at Kyle for help, but Kyle didn't have the time to soothe them or let himself wallow in worries; he had a deadly bomb about to go off.
"It doesn't matter."
Ilay deliberately walked towards the crowd, his voice a low whisper. His icy eyes said more than his words ever could.
That freezing rage was what nightmares were made of, because it was silent, detached, cruel and lethal. The type of rage that no matter what anyone said or did, it wouldn't go away, because his mind was stuck in a single moment, and a single person.
"Rick, snap out of it!" said Richard, blocking his path while maintaining a safe distance.
It was the first time he saw him like that. Since they were kids, Ilay always had a bored expression when he fought someone, sometimes even slightly annoyed, but he was never expressionless when he was about to kill someone. If he killed someone like this, he would really be a beast.
Ilay looked through him without acknowledging his words. His eyes jumped from person to person, looking for the culprit.
"Rick!"
Ilay locked on him. Cold sweat ran down Richard's neck from the realisation that Ilay wouldn't hesitate to kill him if he got in the way. Even if Ilay knew in the deepest part of him that Richard didn't do it, he would dispose of anyone who stood between his goal.
"Bring him back."
Ilay wasn't talking to Richard, his eyes were again looking through him at where his cousins and uncles gathered.
"The girls, too."
Ilay stepped forward, but Richard got in front of him again.
"This is what they want."
Richard tried again, but he miscalculated the distance and was closer to Ilay than he intended. Then their eyes met, and Ilay's gloved hand aimed for his neck in a split second. Christoph pushed Richard out of the way and stood in his place.
Ilay's hand stopped in the middle of the air and slowly dropped as if bored with the motion. He turned to his cousins again, but before he took another step, Christoph punched him square in the jaw.
"I still don't know what he sees in you," provoked Christoph. "Are you planning to kill everyone here and then find him?"
"..."
Ilay's razor attention was directed at Christoph, not solely, but enough for the bystanders to step back.
'Taeui.'
"Sure, go ahead and kill them while I find Taeui. I'm sure he will be more than happy when I save him. I might as well ask for a thank-you kiss."
Christoph felt Richard's glare behind him, but he didn't acknowledge it. He wasn't going to ask Taeui for a kiss once he was safe. Most likely not anyway. He only said it to bait Ilay, and it worked. The beast, barely keeping enough rationality to speak full sentences, turned fully to him.
"Or we can look for him now. And once he is safe, you can go rampant and kill them like you want to. It's not like they can run away from you, right?"
Ilay's expressionless face turned venomous as he eyed Christoph.
'Who dared touch what is mine? Who dared take him away?'
His attention turned to the crowd again, unfocused and more volatile than before. Christoph knew there was nothing else he could say to distract him or calm him. There was only one way left. The easiest way. The way he liked best.
'He is mine. His place is next to me.'
Without hesitation, Christoph punched Ilay again on the jaw. It wasn't that Ilay couldn't evade or stop the attack. The only reason he let himself get punched was because he needed it. He needed it to make sure he focused on the present, and on the person in front of him to make sure he didn't make a grave mistake. He still had nightmares about what happened in Frankfurt, and that pain helped him focus on who he was really fighting.
'I'll teach you all to never touch him again.'
In the blink of an eye, they were fighting against each other as if their lives depended on it. Amid the unstoppable force that were Ilay's punches, Christoph heard Kyle call his name. He looked at him for less than a second and understood his plan. Christoph steered the fight, taking blow after blow and attacking just as much.
'My treasure.'
Ilay was so out of it that he fought to kill, but it was due to that single line of thought that he didn't realise what Kyle's plan was until it was too late. He punched Christoph hard enough to break his jaw, but Christoph, despite his looks, wasn't made of porcelain and was just as sturdy as Ilay. Still, that punch knocked him down, and Ilay, without missing a beat, closed the distance, ready to smash his head to the ground, when he noticed the smirk a second too late. Christoph grabbed his wrists with a disgusted look, blocked Ilay's knee when he tried to attack him in the chin, and then, using Ilay's momentum, Christoph threw him over his head, to the trap door Kyle was keeping open.
'Taeui.'
The moment Ilay fell down the stairs inside the trap door, Kyle closed it, and Christoph helped him lock it. The trap door was made of solid metal, but Ilay still tried to punch his way out. His punches left kinks in the door, but didn't break it.
That didn't stop him. He punched the door over and over, his grunts growing louder with each failed attempt.
After some time there was silence, the punches and grunts stopped. No one breathed. It was as if time itself stopped.
Then a growl, so loud, so deep, so raw, erupted from Ilay's throat, shaking the ground and everyone's bones with it.
Christoph bit his lip, hating to see and hear Ilay like this. Even if he hated him, he didn't want to do this, he wanted Ilay to go save Taeui, not be trapped here.
Kyle clenched his eyes, pressing his lips together and squeezing his fists so hard that he was a moment away from drawing blood. Even though he knew everything Ilay was capable of, he was still his little brother, and this was the last thing he wanted to do.
However, he couldn't let Ilay harm the family. The second he did so, their father's word would lose any weight in the discussions, and they would lose any rights to the candidacy.
*****
It was cold. And dark. He didn't remember ever feeling the cold as much before. Much less noticing the darkness.
He felt a heaviness he never remembered feeling before. But he also couldn't remember how he lived before him.
He only truly started living when Taeui walked into his life. Yes, since that time he pointed an empty gun at his head to save someone else.
Taeui.
He didn't care who he had to kill or what he had to destroy. He was going to get him back, even if he had to kill every simple person in the world for him.
No. Taeui wouldn't like that.
But between never seeing him again or being hated a little, he preferred the latter.
'If Taeui dies, Ilay dies too.'
Yes, life has no meaning if Taeui is not here.
Taeui.
Ilay grabbed his phone from his pocket and dialled a number.
– Boss! Long time no see. Are we going on a job?
"No."
– ... Boss. Is everything okay?
Alain knew Ilay well enough to realise his voice was colder than usual.
– What do you need?"
"Taeui and my nieces were kidnapped. Find them."
Ilay hung up without waiting for a reply. His body felt very heavy, and he sat down to take a deep breath. His mind was the same, unable to complete a thought without thinking of Taeui.
Even now he wanted to slam that door open. Or even blast it open. Whatever it took for it to open.
It was unbearable.
Even when Taeui first ran away from him, he didn't feel as bad, nor as crazy. From everything that he had, Taeui was a constant in his life, a constant that had never been ripped away since Seringe.
Taeui's voice, smile, touch and presence served as a lullaby to calm Ilay's beast. Take it away, and the Beast will fully awake and stop at nothing to get his treasure back.
Ilay closed his eyes and waited.