Apocalypse | BTS ✓

13

After bellies have been filled, an uncomfortable silence envelops the group surrounding the fire. Reine knows the Chaleuse tribe doesn't trust her, and she is sure their distrust is extended to her traveling companions.

"Let's not make things weird," Jimin says, standing and stretching his muscles before sitting back next to Reine. "She isn't here to condemn you to death or something."

"Why are you here?" Shownu asks, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his knees.

"We're passing through," Reine explains. "I am exploring the outer regions."

"You're trying to find the rebels who attacked your parents," Kihyun says and Reine nods in acknowledgement.

"I am."

"What will you do if you find them?" Minhyuk asks, glaring at Reine. "Publicly hang them? Decapitate them in the village square? Maybe even lock them away and slowly starve them to death?"

Reine purses her lips, not sure how to answer the question because she doesn't have an answer to give yet.

"Whoever attacked my family committed murder," Reine says in a quiet voice, barely heard over the crackling of the fire. "I do not think they should be allowed to walk away without facing consequences - whatever those may be."

"Your parents murdered countless people," Minhyuk says, his voice growing louder as he stands. Jimin and Yoongi stand as well, shielding each of Reine's sides so he can't reach her if he were to try.

Reine stands as well, holding her hands behind her back as she regards Minhyuk warily. "I don't deny their depravity. Please, do answer this, though: I have never murdered anyone. I have never had a hand in doing such unforgivable deeds. Why did they try to kill me as well when I have done nothing aside from existing within the same family?"

Minhyuk regards the question for a moment before sitting back, his fellow tribe members relaxing their tense muscles. "Maybe they wanted to be proactive about it; maybe they wanted to kill you before you had the chance to spread darkness like your parents."

Reine signals Yoongi and Jimin to sit back down, and they do so reluctantly as Reine continues to stand. "I was not even given a chance to prove myself to be different. I was looked at with the harshest of scrutinies. I was condemned before I had a chance."

Minhyuk purses his lips, looking around at his tribe members who are listening in on the conversation with uneasy glances.

"I spent years of my life begging to bring food to the villagers," Reine continues. "I spent hours upon hours listening to the meetings held in the library by my father as he demanded respect from people who could barely stand straight because of starvation. I swore to myself that I would not let greed overtake my heart. I swore that the bellies of my people would be full and their hearts would be happy. I have never and will never agree with how my parents ruled things, but they were my parents. My father would read books to me and laugh as I showed him silly faces. My mother would hold me as I wept because of a scrape on my knee and she would brush my hair for me while telling me tales of her childhood, years spent running through the same hallways I did."

The men around the fire watch Reine as her voice grows louder with anger and passion. "They would sing lullabies. They would tuck me in at night. They would dance around my bedroom with me; all I had to do was ask. To me, they were not cruel and they were not cold. They were my mother and my father. They were stepping from the throne so I could ascend and prove that greed has never, and will never, have a hold on my heart. Their reign was finished, but a group of people broke into my home and took their lives anyway. After my father saved my life by forcing me to pretend to already be dead, I laid there in their blood as still as I could be while they cheered and rejoiced. The royal family was dead, they thought."