The Receipt
798 Words
[KANG JIN-WOO]
The silence in the warehouse was heavier now. The Messenger was gone, swallowed by the shadows at the back of the building, but the threat remained hanging in the cold air above us.
Snipers. Plural.
"Don't look up," I said quietly to Seo-Yeon. Her breathing was ragged, hitched in her throat. The threat against her sisters had hit her harder than a physical blow.
I sheathed my knife and walked to the card table. I picked up the manila envelope. It was light. No chemical smell. Just paper.
"Stay on my hip," I ordered. "We're walking out the same way we came in. Slow. Predictable. Don't give them an excuse to twitch a finger."
I put my body between her and the deepest shadows of the rafters, walking backward towards the broken side door.
Every step felt like a mile. I could feel the unseen eyes on us, the weight of crosshairs tracking our movement. Seo-Yeon was gripping the back of my tactical vest so hard her knuckles were white against the black fabric.
We reached the door. We stepped out into the cold night air of the docks.
"Keep moving to the car," I said. "Don't run."
We reached the sedan. I shoved her into the passenger seat and slammed the door, diving into the driver's side a second later.
I didn't turn on the headlights. I threw the car into reverse, tires spitting gravel, spinning us around, and punched the accelerator.
Only when we were a mile away, merging onto the empty highway back to Seoul, did I exhale.
I tossed the manila envelope into Seo-Yeon’s lap.
"Open it."
[PARK SEO-YEON]
My hands were shaking uncontrollably.
The adrenaline was gone, replaced by a sickening, cold dread. Not your sisters. The Messenger’s pale, dead eyes haunted me.
The envelope on my lap felt heavy, radioactive.
"What is it?" I whispered.
"He called it a receipt," Jin-Woo said, his eyes scanning the mirrors for a tail. "Proof of purchase."
I tore open the seal.
Inside were three glossy 8x10 photographs.
I pulled out the first one. The breath left my lungs in a strangled gasp.
It was a photo of Ji-Eun. She was in her bedroom at the penthouse. She was wearing headphones, singing into a hairbrush, completely oblivious to the world. The photo was grainy, taken in low light.
But it wasn't taken through a window. The angle was high up, looking down from the corner of her ceiling.
I pulled out the second photo. Min-Ji. She was asleep on the living room sofa, curled under a blanket, surrounded by her tech. Again, the angle was from above, looking down from the crown molding.
The third photo was of me. In my bathroom. Taken yesterday morning while I was brushing my teeth.
"Oh god," I choked out, dropping the photos like they were burning me.
Jin-Woo glanced down at the pictures scattered on the center console. His jaw tightened into a ridge of granite.
"They aren't just hacking your phones," I whispered, nausea rolling in my stomach. "They're inside. They've been watching us inside the penthouse."
"Hidden micro-cameras," Jin-Woo diagnosed instantly, his voice terrifyingly calm. "Probably installed weeks ago by cleaning staff or maintenance paid off by the Architect. Min-Ji missed them because they aren't on the network. They're hardline taps, recording locally."
I hugged myself, feeling violated. Every moment of privacy I thought I had over the last few weeks was a lie. They had seen everything.
Then, the fear ignited.
It burned hot and fast, consuming the shame and the terror. They had watched my baby sisters sleeping. They had invaded the only place on earth where I was supposed to be able to protect them.
I sat up straight in the seat. The leather jacket felt tight across my shoulders.
"Jin-Woo," I said. My voice didn't sound like my own. It was deeper, rougher. The voice of the monster that lived in the back of my head.
He looked over at me.
"They violated my home," I stared straight ahead at the ribbon of highway asphalt illuminated by the headlights. "They threatened my blood."
I turned to him. I knew my eyes looked wild, just like they had in the alley.
"I don't want to just survive this anymore," I said, the words tasting like copper. "I want to hurt them. I want to find this 'Architect' and tear his whole world down, brick by brick."
Jin-Woo held my gaze for a long second. A slow, dark smile spread across his face. It wasn't a nice smile. It was the smile of a wolf acknowledging another member of the pack.
"Now you're talking my language, Boss," he growled, shifting gears and accelerating into the night. "Let's go home and sanitize the nest."
- Writer
