Without missing a beat Lucy held Sena in her arms as Sam ran towards Rachel, Yuns mother, and kicked her away while stabilizing the knife that was by that point lodged in Yuns stomach.  

 

Blood leaked from the wound and eventually from Yuns mouth. If they were lucky Yun would hold out until the emergency services arrived. If they weren’t? Well it was quite obvious. 

 

The neighbors, who had been spurred on to act faster by Senas' scream, had now reached the garage and were momentarily shocked. One of the men ran towards Sam and Yun to figure out what was going on.

 

“Sam?! What happened here, why is Yun bleeding?!” He exclaimed. “And why does he have those bandages around his chest?” 

 

“I don’t know but save that for later! Get someone and help you hold Rachel down, when we got here we watched her stab him!” Sam replied hastily.

 

“Rachel did?! But why would she- no we can figure this out later. Hey Dave, come help me hold her down and honey, please call the police and an ambulance!” The neighbor called out commands, showing his time dealing with emergencies was not inconsequential. 

 

Sena managed to break out of her mothers arms and ran to her father and Yun, she had known him and his mother since they were children. They had played together for years and had noticed signs of things wrong but had chalked them up to Rachel being the only parent in the house. But now she realized how wrong that was, all the signs, the way Yun acted, the scars that would sometimes appear buzzed through her mind.

 

“Yun! Please tell me Yun’s ok dad please!” Sena was bawling as she fell to her knees next to her father. Pleading for her best friend to be ok, even if it was painfully obvious the opposite was true. 

 

As she sat there and cried, while Sam was trying his best to halt any excessive bleeding with a few rags and Yuns torn shirt, Lucy ran over as well. However she noticed something the other two failed or ignored due to the situation at hand. With a lack of a shirt and in Yuns currently messed up state, the carefully applied makeup and other items to hide ones true look had become meaningless. 

 

“Yun.. are you a girl?” She hesitantly asked. 

 

The questions caused Sena to look up at her mother in confusion, then while wiping her eyes she looked back at Yun, more specifically her chest and stomach. She stared as she wasn't entirely sure what to make of it, then it clicked when she saw the slight bulging of the wrapping around Yuns upper chest. The curves that flowed from Yuns chest towards her pants were decidedly feminine but could be ignored as a quirk of the body, but the chest wrappings that were now almost unable to obscure anything confirmed it. Yun was a girl who had been masqueraded as a boy for her entire life. 

 

The realization almost knocked the life out of Sena as she stared, only then did she notice the scars. Similarly, Lucy gasped and a few of the neighbors' wives and daughters came over to see what the fuss was about and if Yun was okay, most of whom still didn't know what was going on. What they all did know though, was that Yun was very clearly abused, no, tortured extensively. The scars crawled across her chest, noticeable even with the wrappings, down her stomach, up her back, and down towards her legs but with her pants still secured it was impossible to tell the damage. 

 

By this point Yun had almost entirely lost consciousness, her hazy eyes staring down towards the cement floor where blood, her blood, pooled. It was not an astronomical amount but more than she had ever bled before, which is saying something due to the scars covering her body. Thinking proved to be a chore and with the growing numbness she was unable to see or feel the previous help of Sam or now the hands of the paramedics bringing her atop a stretcher. 

 

When had they arrived? She thought, confused as she hadn't seen any lights or heard sirens. 

 

Another second passed and she was in the ambulance with Lucy and Sena sitting across from her as the paramedic put a mask over Yuns face allowing her to breathe easier. When the medic finally stopped wrapping parts of Yuns body and administering several drugs, she knelt next to the stretcher and looked into Yuns eyes. 

 

“Hello there, can you tell how many fingers I'm holding currently?” She asked. 

 

F-fingers? I can hardly see anything at all. How can I make out her fingers? Yun thought.

 

“T-three?” Yun asked, her unease clear in her voice. But what shocked the previously dying girl, was how quiet her voice sounded even though she put so much effort into that one word. It was clear she was in bad shape.

 

“I see.” The medic answered. “You’re pretty messed up if that's what you saw, for the record I was holding one finger up. Not sure how you got three out of that but it's clear that you’re having trouble breathing and seeing, I would imagine your other senses are shot too. Mike! Hurry it up, we need to get to the hospital fast, she’ll lose consciousness any minute now! I’ve stabilized her and I’ll try and have her friend here keep her awake but I doubt it’ll last long.” 

"You do know I have to abide by traffic laws for the most part correct? We're already almost there and we'd be in much worse shape if we rushed it and hurt her in the process." The driver called out.

 

The paramedic then motioned to Sena who had been crying quite extensively as her eyes were puffy and red. Lucy wasn’t faring much better but opted to appear calmer so as to not freak her daughter or Yun out. Although it was up for debate if the act was working.

 

“Y-Yun.. I’m here, please talk to me if you can.” Sena slid over and took Yun’s hand, the warmth surprised her, probably due to the lack of blood in Yuns body. 

 

“Hey Sena,” Yun replied barely above a whisper. “Your hand is w-warm, sorry for gri-gripping it so hard.” 

 

Sena looked down at their hands intertwined, Yun was barely applying any strength. In fact just a small movement would shake them apart. Sena felt new tears well up as she realized how bad of a condition her best friend was in. She tried to talk but her throat closed up, unwilling to allow her to speak. 

 

Lucy noticed her daughter's distress and moved to take Yuns other hand, gaining the stretcher-ridden girl's attention, albeit clumsily. Unlike in the garage though Yuns eyes were hazy, but clearly alive. When she was sat on the garage floor the ones who looked at her face would note the lack of light in her eyes. It was as if she had given up, after all her “mother” had tried to kill her. She didn’t know if it was the fact that her mother was the one to stab her, or the situation in general but it had become increasingly hard to find reason to want to live through the ordeal. 

 

Perhaps it would have been better had her mother succeeded. Although illogical, Yun had come to believe the things she was told, things she had been called, were true. 

 

Thus she awaited death, the embrace that would allow her to stop having to pretend. She could be herself in death alone.

 

When she entered the ambulance with Sena and Lucy however, those thoughts disappeared and with them some of her worries. 

 

“You’ll be alright dear, we’ll be with you every step of the way and once you’re a little better we can all chat and you can tell us what has been happening all these years. You know Sam and I see you as a so-, sorry as a daughter too. This’ll take some getting used to, I'm afraid.” Lucy laughed. “Although there were signs, I'm sorry we missed them..” 

 

“..It-it’s okay..” Yun wheezed out. “..thank you..thank you for s-saving me..” 

 

As she said that, the paramedics' words appeared to be true as the world turned black and then there was nothing.