Apocalypse ✦ Nomin

74

⊱ ───── { Jaemin } ───── ⊰

"What room is this?"

"Just a pit stop," Sungchan assures him as he opens the door up to vast room with books lining the walls in the built-in shelving. Jaemin enters the room, staring in awe at how elegant the place appeared and how expansive the collection was.

Sungchan closes the door behind him and approaches Jaemin. He begins to slowly circle around him, making Jaemin slightly uncomfortable, but trying his best not to confront him about it. Not yet, anyway. Jaemin chooses to quickly dart over to a nearby desk with papers lying askew across it, hoping that walking away from Sungchan would get him to stop.

Jaemin picks up a book from the desk and opens it up to a random page. Upon finding that the words are in Latin, he shuts it and places it back down.

"Why are we here, anyway?" Jaemin asks.

"I needed a moment to figure something out, and I felt it was much safer to do so in a room which no one is allowed to enter into," Sungchan promptly answers.

"What were you–"

Jaemin's inquiry is cut short at the sound of something small scratch against the wooden floorboards. He looks down to find what looked like a piece of metal that he had accidentally kicked on the ground. Jaemin bends down and picks it up as he takes a sharp breath. Between the pads of his fingers was Jeno's ring.

Jeno had been here. This must've been where he lost his ring.

Jaemin examines the glimmering red jewels as a sad smile crosses his face before falling into a deep frown.

He hated having left Jeno behind, again–and part of him feels guilty for having broken his promise to take him with him instead of running headfirst into danger, alone–but Jaemin didn't know what else to do. Jeno was unwilling to compromise, their options were limited, and time was running out. Jaemin considers it a necessary move on his part to actually get things done. As angry as he feels towards Jeno and how he was handling the situation, Jaemin still can't help but hope he was looking for him right this very moment.

"I heard you were an archangel," Sungchan startles Jaemin as he seemingly appears out of nowhere, just barely a foot away from him.

"Shit! You scared me," Jaemin's heart beats fast in his chest, "Yeah uh, I am."

"Hm...you know, archangels have the capacity to be just as powerful as Taeyong, himself. They're the purest form of an angel that one can be. It's quite literally impossible for one to ever become a demon," Sungchan says as he steps just a little closer to Jaemin, invading his personal space to the utmost extreme he possibly can without touching him.

Sungchan suddenly brushes his nose against the base of Jaemin's neck and inhales deeply as he raises his face to smell up to Jaemin's jawline.

"So tell me why the sweet fragrance of an archangel is contaminated by the scent of a demon," Sungchan says in a darker tone.

"I–I what?" Jaemin stammers as he fails to understand what Sungchan was trying to tell him.

"You are not pure. Your being has been defiled and polluted with the sacrilegious taint of something demonic."

"H–how? How is that possible?" Jaemin struggles to understand.

"It's not," Sungchan states plainly, echoing his initial claim about archangels.

"D–did I do something wrong? What did I do? What's wrong with me? How do I fix it?" Jaemin fires off question after question as he starts to feel as if an elephant had sat on his chest and was crushing him to death.

"You can't," Sungchan answers coldly, "You know...Taeyong used to have several archangels just like you. Ten, to be exact. But Yuta knew that his son would bring the apocalypse, and if he were to survive the downfall of Heaven, he couldn't let a small army of archangels stop him. He and I lured nine out of the ten into a trap, and he spared only one so that there would be a proper sacrifice that his son could give him, but the rest were mine for the taking. Yuta gracefully granted me permission to devour. Every. Last. One."

Sungchan brushes some of Jaemin's faded hair out of his face and trails his long, slender fingers along his cheek.

"I wonder how you taste with your inexplicably tarnished purity," Sungchan utters quietly.

Jaemin backs away from him, feeling his breaths quicken. His head becomes like a top that refuses to cease spinning, making sick rise up his throat. His legs beg him to run away, but his brain is unable to tell him where. His inability to start running causes his body to feel almost as if it was vibrating from all the energy it wasn't using to sprint out of the room. Sungchan pursues him at a casual walking pace, very clearly unbothered by Jaemin trying to distance himself. Jaemin feels his chest begin to pain him so severely that it was almost like he was having a heart attack.

"Don't run, Na Jaemin. I promise not to kill you. I just need one taste," Sungchan speaks in a bafflingly calm voice.

Jaemin's heel hits an incredibly thick book that lies in the floor, and he trips. He lands on his back, slamming his head hard into the floorboards. He wants to scream in pain and fear, but he had managed to knock the wind out of himself. This makes it even harder for Jaemin to breathe with the difficulties he had already been facing prior.

"J-Jen...Je-n-no," he wheezes out, but doing this takes more oxygen out of his lungs than he's able to replenish when he inhales. It was almost as if he wasn't breathing in at all.

"Now look what you've done," Sungchan lectures him.

Jaemin feels himself wanting so desperately to shut his eyes and rest, but he uses every bit of energy in him to fight it no matter how badly his body was failing him. He clutches tightly onto Jeno's ring and tries to think of him. Jaemin has one final thought before his body gives up on him and he is unable to remain conscious any longer.

Jeno...help me...