Stay Alive [BTS fanfic]

Let Me Know

Park Jimin was guarding the truck while the rest of the team was gathering supplies, keeping a look-out. Somehow all the buildings around the block looked jumbled and disordered like they weren't even real. Even the sky seemed the wrong colour.  Despite observing carefully, the moment happened anyway, a surprise attack knocking him out cold on the pavement. Now he watched himself being thrown limply over someone's shoulder and carried off. Silence. Shouting of his name in the hazy background.

What's going on? Yoongi hyung, is that you calling my name out there? You sound panicked.

Strings. Fishing line wrapped around his wrists and restraining his arms behind his back. Everything was painful as he opened his eyes. Smells of chemicals, fuel, and gunpowder, and something else on the air. Jimin blinked, finding himself lying on a blanket on a cement floor. Where is this? A shop? Smells like a machine shop. Am I dreaming?

It wasn't very bright in this building, wherever it was. A window was open, a crude lantern was burning on a workbench and Jimin finally spotted the man who had kidnapped him. You.

The wound across the trap-maker's left cheek wasn't healing well by the look of it, stitched closed with fishing line. It looked red and angry. He noticed Jimin was conscious and came over to crouch in front of him, watching him squirm with discomfort.

"Relax. I haven't quite decided yet, what I'm going to do with you. Are you afraid of me?" The accent was hard for him to understand, and it took him a moment. Jimin shook his head, not sure if he could speak. His mouth felt dry. "Hm. You should be very afraid of me," the man assured him with a little smirk, reaching out to caress his face and noticing the tattoo behind Jimin's ear. "...That's English? What does it say?" he asked.

Jimin shook his head. "It doesn't matter," he mumbled.

"Weren't there more?"

When Jimin wouldn't answer the question he yanked him up by his shirt collar so he was sitting and moved behind him to cut the strings around his wrists, placing the knife against his throat. "Don't, or I can make your pretty face look just like mine," he warned.

Jimin let out a little hiss of pain as the circulation returned to his hands, and rubbed them with a wince. "Ow..." his shirt was pulled over his head suddenly, and he resisted the urge to fight. It seemed like this enemy soldier just wanted to have a look at his tattoos, playing a little game of finding them all.

His fingers are rough, Jimin grimaced as he felt them brush over his moon tattoos, and the backs of his arms. It occurred to him why the man's finger pads were so rough. They've been burned off.

"Is that all of them?" he asked softly. Jimin raised his left hand to show him the 13 on his wrist and the little seven tattooed on the side of his index finger. "Bangtan, right?"

His eyes widened in surprise. "Was it that obvious?"

"You were all on the special list, with some details. There was a reward for killing all of them and bringing back their dog-tags. No one said what the reward was though. I'm not one to trust it," he decided, getting to his feet. 

"What's your name?"

He paused a moment. "It doesn't matter."

"I think it does. I'll remember it," Jimin assured him. Still, he wouldn't tell it to him. Maybe he's dying and he's aware of it. That wound is getting infected and it might kill him without proper treatment, and there isn't any available here. He can't be much older than Jin hyung.

Jimin figured out what that unidentified smell was as he looked around. A dog corpse with its skin and guts removed was hanging up in the one corner. He swallowed warily. This guy is eating that isn't he? "Are you going to kill me?"