A Garden Of Loneliness

Act One: The Magician - Chapter Seven

Singing that was as deep and as beautiful as a whales call in the ocean echoed like a lullaby through the empty space of darkness that shrouded the garden as if it was a veil. There was no light. No stars or moon hanging in the sky like a beacon from the shadows. No fire or lamp to lead ones way. Just a heaviness that was all consuming in its dark embrace. In the center of this black abyss was a man devoid of all clothing, his bronze knees pulled up to his chest. Raven hair that was thick and long fell down to the small of his back, kissing at the dimples at his hips, and falling in his face from where he rested his head onto his crossed arms that sat at the top of his knees. Long blades of grass and colorful purple, white, and yellow flowers concealed his large feet that dug into the ground. His toes becoming covered in dirt. But in his nakedness, with the only light in the place landing on his vulnerable frame, he was not as bare as he seemed. Large black feathery wings wrapped around him like a comforting quilt in order to protect his scarred frame. The once handsome features of a young man marred with healed burns that had pebbled and torn at his flesh. His entire face and neck all the way down to his clavicle and covering the entirety of his chest and right arm was red and wrinkled. The brows that were supposed to be on his face almost nonexistent. Bubbling blisters pushed forward like sacks of water against his burned arm. The liquid inside sloshing and churning despite the fact that they never popped. Even his hands were charred. Darkened and brittle. His palms resembling leather.

As the singing echoed in the emptiness of the space, the mans dry cracked pale lips pulled into a thin line as he sat in his own personal silence. He didn't utter a word as he perched himself in his spot as still as a statue. His entire frame unmoving. And as the singing grew louder and louder and louder he continued to sit in his trance. Unblinking and still.

Silent.

Booming thuds as loud as thunder began to roar on top of the singing. The sound reminiscent of giant's footsteps as they clapped against the air with thudding ferocity. Wind picked up in the darkness with every shuddering clap. The whales lullaby chilling in its chanting. Though the figure still never moved. Not when the wind picked up his hair and danced it around his body like a cyclone in the sea. Not when his wings rustled and feathers began to pull and strain from where they collected at the membrane and bone. Instead of reacting or even moving, he continued to sit completely still. The ruckus around him not affecting him in the slightest as he sat there unaffected and bored. His expression of apathy making it appear as if he noticed nothing at all.

It wasn't until a new voice entered from the shadowy depths of the world surrounding the small garden of light that he reacted. That his statuesque form twitched as his eyes darted towards the sound coming from directly in front of him, though still many meters away. His reaction was instantaneous. The miniscule movement happening at the same time as the sound as it caught on his nonexistent ears. The small whisper of 'Taehyung' floating forward with the swiftness of a dart swooshing past his cranium. 'Taehyung' it called. Haunting and powerful. Holding weight and heaviness where it shouldn't as a simple sound. It made chills race up and down his pronounced spine as goosebumps erupted all over his arms and noticeable ribs. And as it cried out to him, the air thrashed as sound waves burst and shattered like glass at the shrieking of his name.

'Taehyung.' Frozen in his spot he sat there unfazed, a heaviness in his clouded gaze.

'Taehyung!' Power sparked and ignited around his little circle. The light dimming as it began to close in around him. The circle becoming smaller and smaller and smaller till it touched at the tip of his dirt covered toes. Yet still he didn't move. Though the life in his eyes began to lighten when before they were dim.

'TAEHYUNG!' Similar to a candle in the wind... the light was snuffed out. Shadows lapped at Taehyung's limbs and chest, attempting to pull him under the murky sludge that crept in over the light. When the voice called again and he snapped. His body was halfway pulled into the convulsing darkness, his wings covered almost to the root with his head and shoulders barely holding up above their depths, when his opal eyes shot open with a glow that overpowered the surrounding black and formed a beam of opalescent light. The shadowy hands that had lapped at his skin pulled back and shrieked in horror as the beam of light washed over him and he pushed forward with a string of light lifting his weight and corralling him forward towards a place unknown. It pulled and pulled. Dragging him as the voice continued to call his name as a floral path sprung up from the ground underneath his feet.

Stars and galaxies swirled around him in the abyss. Bursts of color and light colliding with each other as the chanting lullaby roared and the stomping continued its dance. Until he arrived to a tunnel. The hovering orbs of the dead floating and dancing along its cobbled stones as candles swayed from their candelabras and all noise stopped.

He stood there. Glowing opal eyes studying his surroundings with curiosity as familiarity began to fill his consciousness.

"Taehyung."

A man.

A man that looked like him suddenly appeared.

Though a mask that was white with a single black tear stain creeping down from its left eye, an eye that glowed the same as his, was worn by the figure in front of him. From their hair to the nudity of their frame they were his identical match. Everything from the scars on their body to the way they held themselves as straight as a bored was the same. All but the mask and the wings at his back. These wings were different. They were skeletal and cold. As if the being attached to them was supposed to be dead. "Taehyung." Even their voices were the same.

"Who are you?" He asked. Wondering who the doppelganger was as he stared deeply into the eyes that were identical to his own.

"Taehyung." The matching voice called again. Ignoring his question entirely.

"Hello?" He raised his brow in question but again, the figure only called out his name. "Can you say anything else?"

"Taehyung."

Irritation filled his every pore as he felt his temper start to burn through his veins. "Who are you?"

"Taehyung."

Voice rising, he asked again. "Who are you?"

The tunnel around them began to shake. The walls crumbling around them as the shadowy tendril like hands began to pull it apart piece by piece in order to make it collapse. Sand started to fall from the cracks and the figure started to blur. "Wait!" Taehyung screamed. "Who are you!" But it was too late, the him that wasn't really him disappeared, the world trembling around him as it was being torn apart by the shadows. And in front of him at the end of the tunnel was a wall of water falling against a sandy shore. A young man kneeling within it and letting the sand fall between his fingers. Not knowing what else to do, Taehyung ran towards him. Tiles turning into sand as shadows lapped at his heals and pulled the floor out from under him in order to catch him and drag him back into the abyss.

"Hello!" He shouted, though there was no response. "Hello!" He tried again and this time, the young man with sparkling eyes that held a thousand heavens stared at him. His pouty lips pulled together in a grimace as he tilted his head to the side and allowed sand to filter through his fingers before breathing on the falling particles until they erupted into a swarm of shadowy butterflies.

"Wake up." Though raspy the voice was soft and Taehyung paused. The feeling of shadows gripping onto his flesh overwhelming as he stared at the young man in fear and wonder.

"What do you mean?" Icy cold tendrils lapped at his flesh in fury yet he stood his ground even as this part of the world started to fall apart around him. "What do you mean 'wake up'?"

Eyes closed and the young man stood. "You'll find out soon."

"Who are you?" This time when he asked the world fell into black. The shadows having got the best of him and his eyes snapped open to the real world. He was in a room. A room that was warm and inviting filled with floral arrangements and brown and red hues that reminded him of his mothers cottage back at the mountain. At a window sill were a series of wolf figures arranged neatly so that the curtains shrouded them beautifully in order to make them the center of the display. And beneath his back was the comforting feeling of a mattress that was a little worn but better than what he had had for the most part of his adult life. In front of him though, at eye level on the floor, sitting in front of his brother was a figure that made him pause. And this time when he asked, "Who are you?" He knew he would get his answers as both Jimin and the stranger turned to look at him.