The War of Gods (A Welcome to the Underworld Novel, Book 3) (11 page)

“We have a situation
up there,” he answered her. “What street do you need to get on?”

“
Jin Street,” she replied, wondering to herself how she was going to get home if the entire street was blocked off.

He nodded.
He pointed to a dark adjacent street ahead. “Just go ahead and drive straight, make a left at the end of the street, and keep going until you hit a curve. After that, follow that road. You should be able to find the unblocked portion of the street and eventually find your way back on to Jin Street. It’s pretty dark up ahead and the signs are small. Be alert while you’re driving.”

Despite how easy that sounded,
Yoori felt edgy. She attributed this to the fact that she always hated taking unfamiliar routes to get home.

“Okay,
” Yoori said unsurely. It did not matter how much she disliked having to take a new route home. It was either chance a new route or be trapped in this traffic for God knows how long. Yoori wanted to get home soon. She did not want to sit in traffic all night. “Thank you for your help.”

“No problem.” The police officer
stepped aside to allow a hesitant Yoori to drive through. “Drive safely.”

Through the veil of
snow twirling around them, Yoori could’ve sworn she saw a scar on his left cheek when the flashing orange light hit his face. Throwing the fleeting observation aside, she carefully drove through the blocked off road. She was careful to not run over any cones or get herself stuck in any big potholes.

Yoori eyed her rearview mirror. T
he two cars behind her, which were filled with Serpents, were stopped by the police officer.

Nervousness clawed at her.

“Hope they don’t have anything illegal in those cars,” she whispered.

Cops and gang members were
never good combinations.

She mentally wished the other cars well and followed the directions the officer gave her.
She initially debated on waiting for the other Serpents, but decided against it. If shit were to go down, she was afraid of getting in trouble with the cops if those Serpents were arrested.

The last thing I need is more trouble
, Yoori thought as she disappeared into the night.

Yoori followed the officer’s directions without deviation. With every block that she passed, the
nervousness within her evolved into full-blown paranoia. The night snow poured furiously onto her car, and Yoori couldn’t help but think that something wasn’t right.

She surveyed her surroundings.
Yoori observed that she was in an unfamiliar, desolate area of town. She kept looking for Jin Street, yet she found no familiar streets signs that would help her off this scary road. Her heart rate quadrupled in speed when it was evident that she wasn’t about to find Jin Street, or any familiar street, any time soon.

“Crap,
” Yoori muttered, already knowing that she was in trouble. Was it possible that the officer gave her wrong directions, or was it something else? Also, where were the Serpents who were supposed to be following her? Did they get arrested? More importantly, where the fuck was she?

Her stomach
twisted in dreadful knots.

She had to get out of here
.

Yoori instinctively locked her car doors and stepped on the gas pedal. She
sped out of the block in hopes of getting to the end of the street. From there, she hoped that she could hop on to the freeway or something. Something about this street scared the hell out of her.

Her fast speed was short-lived when out of nowhere, a loud pop sound exploded in the air.

“Ahhhhhh!”

Yoori’s screams accompanied
the Mercedes when it suddenly dropped to one side.

Screech!

Two of the tires on the right side had popped out at once. The metal wheels shrieked in the night as Yoori struggled to steady the car. With no other options in sight, she hastily stepped on the brakes. The car squealed to a stop, sliding over the curb and nearly hitting a street sign in the process.

Silence collapsed over Yoori as the car’s engine hummed loudly. Once the shock passed, she unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed the car door open. The smell of burnt tires swarmed her nose when she stepped outside.  

“Damn it!” Yoori cried after she examined the damage.

She quietly cursed
when she discovered that she had not only damaged Tae Hyun’s beloved car, but she had also screwed up her chances of getting home. While snow collected on the pavement and piled over her, Yoori raked her fingers through her hair in frustration. Curious as to what she ran over to cause such destruction, she looked around frantically. Her heart stilled when she saw what had destroyed the Mercedes’ tires.

“What?” she whispered in disbelief.

Barbwires that were more than sharp enough to puncture holes into the tires sat on the abandoned street.

Yoori crouched beside the barbwires to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her. No matter how much she blinked, the barbwires remained.

This
. . .
is not good
, Yoori thought uneasily.

Who could’ve placed this here? Was it specifically set up for her or was it just placed here by some hoodlums? Ice dripped into Yoori’s bloodstream. Either answer was not a favorable one for her. Shit was hitting the fan in her life, and she needed help.

Yoori withdrew her black flip-phone from her pocket and tried to dial for help. She was flustered when the phone refused to pick up reception. Goosebumps chased after one another on her trembling body. Stranded in an unfamiliar street, Yoori gauged the world around her in fear. Her eyes narrowed onto a club in the distance where music pounded fiercely from its closed doors. She mulled over her options. Stay stranded outside or go into a club filled with people for help?

The choice was easy.

Afraid that she’d be a sitting duck for gang members if she continued to loiter in the quiet street, she sprinted over to the blaring club. She hoped that someone in there could help her. As she ran, Yoori noted that there were several cars on the streets and in the parking lot. She felt more comfortable knowing that she was going into a club that had lots of people partying within it.

What a
strange place to party though
, Yoori thought in the back of her mind.

She dashed
closer to it. The sounds of her trotting boots echoed in the snow-veiled night. She approached the two-story building and reached for the door. A wave of air-conditioned breeze and heavy hip-hop music thrashed upon her once Yoori pulled the door open.

She stopped in her tracks after she entered the club.

Yoori’s eyes scanned over the vicinity. With the exception of the flashing blue and red strobe lights dancing off the walls, the club was considerably dark. Yoori was momentarily caught off guard. She hadn’t expected the room to be this cold, especially considering the weather outside. Eager to find a phone so she could leave this neighborhood, Yoori raced onto the dance floor with the hopes of borrowing a cell phone from a patron.

Shock assailed her
when she found that there was no one else in the club.

Her eyes charted the room, confusion blurring her vision. The darkness and heavy music drowned her senses, nearly driving her crazy. Where was everyone else? Why was this club empty?

A cold chill hit her, and she painstakingly acknowledged that perhaps this club wasn’t as empty as she thought.

Silence descended over the room.

Akin to waiting for her grand entrance, the earsplitting music was switched off. Nothing but the multitude of swaying lights filtered into her senses. The sudden hush frightened Yoori. Now that the music was gone, she concluded with certainty that she wasn’t alone.

She could hear them.

She could hear
all
of them breathe around her
. . .

“
Well, if it isn’t the Queen herself.”

The voice that originated from the upper level of the club scared the hell out of Yoori.

She whipped her head upward, alertness engulfing her.

A
dark canvas greeted her eyes. Although she could not make out the silhouette of the owner of the voice, it was clear to her that whoever was in here with her had been waiting a long time for her.

Her senses livened.

Initially, she couldn’t hear them over the music. Now that the distracting sound was taken away, she could hear people breathing and moving on the balconies of the club. Every now and then, as the strobe lights lit up the world above, she could see figures standing on the balcony’s circular curve. She could literally feel their eyes on her.

Cursing under her breath for the terrifying situation she was in, Yoori made a move to run out. She halted
when she noted that there was a tall figure standing in the hallway she had walked through. Like an imposing statue, he blocked her path. Darkness pooled over him until the swaying light hit his face.

“You
. . .
”

Yoori backtracked when she realized that he was the same “officer” who re
directed her and eventually brought her here. She exhaled knowingly, everything becoming clear to her. All along, it had been planned for her to enter this deserted club.

Yoori moved through the darkness, nearly tripping over objects she couldn’t see in her quest to find another exit.

Footsteps followed her, causing her fear to amplify.

She wasn’t dealing with
ordinary gang members. Considering the big production they put on, it was evident she was dealing with a group of highly trained individuals. They were well accustomed to redirecting and inconveniencing an entire city to get to the target they wanted. And tonight, she was that target.

Yoori nearly stumb
led over a chair as she continued to navigate through the sea of darkness. From what she could gather from the swaying club lights, the furniture all around her were covered in white cloth. The dust from the cloth collected on her fingertips. The club was abandoned and from the amount of dust that lingered on her fingers, Yoori surmised it had been abandoned for quite some time.

The white cloth slid off the table as she moved by. When the blue and red club lights landed on the surface of the table, it revealed intricate engravings that had bullet holes in it.

Yoori’s head started to pound at the sight of the bullet holes.

Screams from a distant past filled her head.

Visions that didn’t feel like her own inundated her mind. In those visions, she saw amputated fingers, pools of blood, and corpses piled atop one another. The screams and the vision shook her, nearly causing Yoori to collapse. She struggled to breathe amidst her fear.

She inspected the room, speculating about the significance of this place. Leaving became second priority. The only priority was figuring out why she was lured here in the first place.

“What do you want?” Yoori cried, trembling after several figures jumped from the balconies above.

Eight
of them fell onto the dance floor, landing on the pavement like cats. They crouched down, like they’d done this many times before, and with ease, stood up. The man who impersonated a police officer strolled onto the dance floor to join them. Now, there were nine of them in total—five men and four women.

“Aw,
” a mocking female voice piped up from behind Yoori. “She looks scared.”

“She does, doesn’t she?” said a male voice to the right side of her.

“You guys have the wrong person,” Yoori gritted out. It didn’t take a genius to deduce that these people were Soo Jin’s enemies. It also didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Yoori was going to be executed in this club unless she saved herself. “I have no idea what’s going on and—”

“It’s a b
it poetic isn’t it, my Queen?” the same male voice from the balcony drawled. Scorn throbbed in his voice. He didn’t deign to listen to her words nor did he relent on his hatred. He edged closer to her, moving with such predatory speed that he was only inches from her now. He went on, circling her like a shark. “It was in this very club where you murdered that poor family, and it was in this club days later where you overpowered all ten of us, killed one of us, and marked our humiliation with scars that would last us a lifetime.”

Yoori’s world tilted on its axis at the barrel of information that
slipped casually from his lips. It rocked her world so hard that she was sure blood stopped pumping in her veins.

“Club?” she breathed out.

She gazed around the room. Her eyes blossomed when the realization hit her. This
. . .
This was the infamous location of the “Club Massacre.” She shook violently, horrified that she was in the very place where she not only murdered an innocent family, but also killed two children in the process. The ghastly visions and screams besieged her again. All the while, the guilt thrashed into her consciousness, nearly suffocating her as she fought to steady her stance.