Evanesce

(Chapter 7) Tempo

 I stared at my bare feet on the dark oak floor, soaking in all the information. The images and memories flooded back to me as he explained, I was alone. Everyone I loved was dead, my father was gone, it seemed like everything lost its purpose, myself included. It was quiet for a long time, Suho and Jongin were kind enough to give me silence through my suffering.

"What happened to Jinyoung..?" I asked slowly, Suho looked at Jongin quizzically before shrugging.

"I'm not sure who that is. - Though, there was an unidentified body a few yards from where we found you." Suho said, recalling the scene.

"It was too charred to tell who, but I could tell by the size that it was an adult male. I'm so sorry." Jongin said carefully. I nodded, displeased. I don't even get the satisfaction of taking down my family's killer. It felt as if I could get no closure, no answers.

"Okay that's enough of that, Jongin, please take Minji back to her room while Kyungsoo prepares dinner. "Suho smiled softly at me once more before striding out of the room, leaving just the two of us. Jongin took a deep breathe before removing his arm from my back, offering it to me once more. I accepted it shyly and we began our ascent back to the bedroom.

He opened the door for me, guiding me in and closing the door behind him. I sat on the bed and watched him as he crossed the room, leaning against the large window pane next to the bed. Our eyes were locked for several minutes before either of us spoke.

"Thank you, Jongin" I said bravely, finally breaking the silence. His stone face suddenly melted into a bashful smile, and he dropped his head to stare at the floor. His smile faltered a bit as he internally debated.

"Could I ask something?" He said, sympathetically. Confused, I just nodded my head, "Who was Jinyoung?"

I thought about it for a while, determining how I should portray him. How I viewed him my entire life, or the things he stole from me?

"He was Sunji's father." Is all I could say, biting back emotion by the mention of her name. Innocent curiosity was written all over Jongin's face, but he didn't pry further. "Do you want to know what happened?" I asked regretfully, not looking back up to him this time.

I think jongin could sense the shift in my mentality, he pushed himself off the wall and sat beside me on the bed. Carefully grabbing my hand and stroking it soothingly.

"Only if you want to talk about it." He spoke softly, lulling me into a sense of safety.

"Sunji and my mother died the same way, a stab wound to the abdomen," I tried to disconnect from my words to prevent the pain from coming back. "I went back to the house for something, it wasn't even that important, I should've just stayed – " I felt a light squeeze to my hand, letting me know I was overwhelming myself. I sighed, cleared my throat and started again. "They went to the car, by the time I got to the car he already got to her, she was already...fading." I remembered the faint glow of my tattoo that only seemed to grow more dim.

"I don't remember much after finding her, but I do remember the burning pain inside. It was like I went to Hell. I don't know how he died." Jongin nodded slowly, continuously brushing his fingers along the back of my hand.

"As long as he's gone, and you're safe, that's all that matters." Jongin muttered, kissing the back of my hand gently. I've never been treated with such gentleness and affection, mother always coddled Sunji since she was born, so I didn't know how to respond.

It seemed a lightbulb lit up in his head as he suddenly jumped up from the bed, crossing the small room to a different door, presumably the closet. He threw open the doors, rummaging around for a moment before returning to me, something behind his back.

"We also found this near the site, figured it was something important to you." He said as he gently lay the object on the bed, it was wrapped in blackened fabric, tied into a knot at the top. As I freed the object from it's confines, my mouth dropped wide open.

"It was in an old duffel bag that looked pretty beat up. The cover is pretty charred up and we couldn't open the thing but I wanted to save it for you regardless." Jongin said sheepishly, I could tell he felt guilty. I held up the object, ignoring the black chips that crumbled onto my lap. My mother's Grimoire. It was thick with soot and the pages were swollen from damage, the Amethyst crystal was dull and cracked but still intact. I hugged the book to my chest as the tears fell. I sniffled and looked back at Jongin, gratefully.

"Thank you so much, this is the best thing anyone's ever done for me. And you and your family have done this and so much more, that I can't even express how thankful I am in words. I will work to pay off this kindness, and return the same amount of consideration to you and yours. Thank you, Jongin." He looked taken aback as I stared at him, tears still streaming down my face. Finally, he snapped out of it and smiled kindly, patting my head. His phone buzzed suddenly, he sighed heavily and stood.

"I can try to help you fix it up if it's still savable. As for tomorrow, we'll bring you shopping to get a new wardrobe and personal stuff. Suho needs me now, though, so I'll see you in a bit." He smiled crookedly, winked and then disappeared into the hall.

I shakily stepped across the room to close the door, securing the lock, and rushed back to the bed. I lay down, grimoire clutched to my heart, and quietly sobbed into it for the remainder of the day. 

A/N: I'll be making another chapter over the weekend, since I've been so lousy at being on time. Any themed chapter requests can be made either in the comments or in personal DM's. Thanks~