Nightfall | BTS

t h i r t y s i x

01 JUNE 2034

◣ C A M E R A 1

everything was quiet for the following five days.

the crowd of four was met with silence instead of the distasteful ringing of the creatures' shrill screams at nightfall. rather than providing them with comfort and serenity, it only drowned them in anxiety.

it was the calm before the storm.

namjoon buried himself more and more in books and so did the others. with short urgent trips to the library around the corner, they were gathering as much information as they possibly could.

"so as of now, electricity and fire are their only weaknesses right?" yoongi spoke as they gathered around candlelight in the kitchen. books were piled up in towers as the four sleep-deprived boys read through every word, in search of possible ways to overstep the system.

"yes and all of you must have the lighters and matches with you at all times, okay?" namjoon remarked and the trio nodded in agreement.

"do these scare off the bad guys, hyung?" jeongguk spoke timidly, holding out the matchbox on his palm and namjoon gave a small nod. he took a hold of the younger's hand and enclosed the matchbox in his hand creating a clenched fist.

"will this keep us safe unlike the others who-"

"yes, jeongguk."

"hyung, they're happy now aren't they? wherever they ar-"

"yes, jeongguk for the millionth time-" namjoon remarked, smiling as he lightly poked the younger's cheek with his forefinger. "-they're in a better place."

namjoon returned to the books and was too engrossed in a matter of seconds and jeongguk's response failed to reach his ears.

"that's good." the younger said, his voice barely audible but yoongi caught it. he glanced over at jeongguk and smiled, reassuringly. his eyes trailed back over to the book he was skimming through and when the page turned and his eyes met with the surface, he felt his heart sink to his stomach.

written in black ink was a poem. and the familiarity of the words chilled him to the bone.

namjoon stood up, abruptly.

"guys, i've got the worst headache of my life. i think i'm gonna rest for a while." he announced and the others muttered in agreement, wishing namjoon a goodnight's sleep.

yoongi carried the book to his room after casually announcing that he, too, needed to rest for the night. he hurried to his bed, sat cross legged and hesitantly flipped through the pages. when he found what he was looking for, he closed his eyes.

he didn't know what to expect. and he always feared the unexpected.

he opened his eyes and began reading.

delicate are the petals of the rose,

that's what we found the very first time. the day jimin died.

beautiful in the hands of a lover,

that's taehyung's.

purer than a flustering dream,

that's what namjoon said was written in hoseok's book.

his eyes trailed over to the remaining lines. he felt his breath quicken when he realised there were a total of four lines as remainder.

and the next few lines screamed at him, a silent warning of some sort. yoongi had gone through hell and right back but the fact that he was intellectually lacking to unravel the lines just below hoseok's line made the beating of his heart thump harder against his chest. blood rushed to yoongi's head and his grip on the book tightened.

he read the lines over and over again until they didn't seem like sentences anymore.

a crumpled petal is yet so beautiful. the next line read.