\\ DUSK\\ Fantasy AU \ ATEEZ Fanfic

// Chapter 11 \\

The creak of a metal door and the uncomforting shutters of unnatural chills was familiar. Yet, I was still standing there.

Despite how those eerie violet eyes made the comfort of these halls shrouded in a starry skied world seem more foreign than the home they had been for me. Despite the chills that ran along my tan and speckled skin, making them feel darker than the night above. Despite the weight of that gaze and how I felt stripped before it. How I felt so ashamed and yet so prized. However, I knew that I needed to do this and that is why I stepped forward into that cell.

They'd all tried to talk me out of it: Hongjoong, Yeosang, Heeyoung, even Seonghwa decided to put his opinion in the matter. I'd either brushed off their comments— statements of rebuttal— or simply outright refused their claims. My own guards had given looks of question to my actions as if I wasn't even their own High Monarch. No matter the case, they said nothing. Even as Elara stifled a remark that I surprisingly saw in her features. She had complied with my order in escorting myself and the rest here. The only one who solely followed my lead without any questions or justifications against my motive was Nanny. She'd been the one in front of the group now, standing tall with prideful eyes on me from the other side of the threshold.

The door creaked closed behind me. That was when he shifted.

His head had been tilted down. Though, it had made a slight angle upwards when the door opened with me on the other side of it. The angle was just enough for him to see me and for me to see the violet glint that had almost pried me to the threshold; not entering. It wasn't his full gaze, though, as his shift now drew up the full view of his violent souls. It almost made me recoil, but, if there was one thing I'd learn from these passing months, it was to keep all my dreaded emotions within. Except, this had felt different.

I would've recoiled, shivered, and had my legs fall to the floor as unblinking images would flash in my clear gaze. But my recoils had no more strength for the symphony. Shivers too familiar, they became obsolete. And, images too confusing, I truly didn't know if they drew me in the room with comfort or pain. I was too numb of all the things to decipher that. Or perhaps the inference of the ache of my head from being in his had me believing there was a way to get something out of him. Perhaps that was what kept me going through the fog of confusion; I'd believed I found a lead to a clear path.

A redemption.

I glared and he smirked. No words were spoken as a breath of chills blew throughout the room, the air of it signifying the monster in front of me. We simply stared, observing each other's gaze.

I tried to be like my brothers of past— those two men— and drew up a mask of cold, calculated observance. It didn't seem so hard to mask with my golden glow of eyes. Truly, it didn't seem like there would've been anything to hide because I'd come down here to ask questions. I wanted this path, and all presumed thoughts or pains couldn't keep me from that.

His gaze didn't seem to reveal much of what I wanted at all, however. They were as maniacal and as mischievous as ever; their own kind of mask and guard allied with the forceful thrust of his mind which hid the true answers I seeked. He seemed to know that himself, his smirk conveying that as it grew ever wider.

"Ah, it's good to see you getting well, my darling," Wooyoung mused from where he sat. He smirk remained there in silence before a frown— what could've been taken as a pout— fell over his face as he drew out his next words, "I mean, as well as you can get."