pastel [3]

forty four

Third Person point of view

The air was cold inside the weatherboard hut that held two prisoners bound in ropes emboldened with a magic so old neither of the two could withstand it. They laid motionless in the centre of the darkened room, senses drowned and muscles weighted to make any chance of escape pointless. There was no way of getting out.

The second of the two to be shoved into the prison was Jungkook, met with the dishevelled state of a second captive who was passed out on the floor with lash markings all over their body. At first Jungkook couldn't make out any identifiable features, struggling to keep his own eyes open. With the time they'd spent left to wither in the setting sun, the other prisoner roused from his unconsciousness to reveal a face that had every nerve in Jungkook's body electrified.

Why was he here?

"What are–" He tried to gasp out, the metallic tang filling his mouth making it difficult to form proper words. "Why the fuck are you here Daehyun?" Snarled Jungkook with what he'd hoped was fury but instead felt like a weak whisper.

"Nice to see you too, Kook." spoke the other with a guttural rasp to his voice, torn apart from what looked like days of physical torture. There were bruises and slashes all across Daehyun's once glowing skin, now bedimmed to a sickly grey that was only brightened by his blood which didn't seem to behave the way a human's should. The blood didn't scab, didn't pool over the wounds, instead it was visible between the gaps in his skin, unmoving and seemingly frozen in time. "Surprised it took them this long to get you here. I've been here for over a week," he scoffed, twisting the rope around his wrists to sit up against the beam he'd been tied to.

"Where are we? Who the hell are these people and what do they want with you and I?"

"Think about it genius, what's the one thing we have in common?" Daehyun mused with a significantly weaker bite than he'd previously used, eyelids sliding closed and body flickering in attempt to vanish from the space only for the ropes to glow a bright pink and sear into his skin. "Bitch ass hag," he spat, head falling back to the beam with a frustrated sigh.

"Taehyung," Jungkook eventually answered, momentarily dazed watching the once powerful presence of the psychopath completely fade in his dishevelled state. "Why? Why do they want him?" Daehyun shrugged, teeth gritting as he tried to summon a golden string to override the spell on the ropes. "Stop doing that, you'll hurt yourself more."

"And why would you care about that?" Remarked Daehyun with a begrudging sigh, listening to the advice and trying to relax into the binds.

"Because Taehyung needs you alive–"

"Hah, wrong choice of words, idiot."

"Don't call me an idiot!" Jungkook snapped, his own body twisting in a sudden rush to escape the tight and coarse restraints digging into his skin. "Venus told me everything about you, that you're a snivelling coward who took pleasure on hurting everyone Taehyung loved." The cackle he got in response to the accusation only made his fury stronger. "What's so funny about the truth? Taehyung lost everything because of you!"

"You know nothing of what Taehyung and I have gone through you naive child!" Daehyun shouted with an inhumanely loud volume, sharp eyes sinking onto the other with a burning rage. Even with the significant destruction of his life source, the howl in his tone was overwhelming. "I've had over a hundred years of my mind being taken away from me! My own life was destroyed! You know absolutely nothing about the horrors of my past so don't for one second call me a coward!"

"I see you two get along swell." A third voice interrupted the two, snapping them from their feud to look toward the familiar pink glow of Yugyeom's hair where he stood with a hip propped up against the entryway and elbow resting on his waist so he could inspect his nails with a casual taunt.