Holding On To You | k.th + j.hs

Eleven

Taehyung slowly opens his eyes, the sound of faraway church bells ringing in his ears. Though, the same darkness still surrounds him. He looks down at his feet, and gives a sigh of relief when he doesn't see the dead boy staring back up at him.

The church bells become louder.

Closer.

One, two, three...

Every eleven seconds, the sound of the bell rings. And every time it rings, it sounds closer.

Taehyung furrows his eyebrows. He's not sure what to do; he can't run anywhere, considering pitch-black darkness is the only thing he sees. The cold atmosphere makes him shiver, and he's half-hoping something will happen.

Anything, really.

Ding... Ding... Ding...

The closer the sound of church bells become, the more anxiety rises in his chest. He's filled with the same worry, anticipation, and fear that filled him when he was running to the boy, so long ago...

Taehyung nearly jumps out of his skin at the sight of something flying towards him. He falls backwards and scoots away on all fours, breathing heavily.

A crow.

His breaths slow as he realizes a small, black bird lands a few feet in front of him, pecking at the ground. Taehyung just lets out a sigh and stands up, shooing it away.

As soon as the bird flies away into the darkness, a quiet sound barely tickles his ears. He concentrates hard, listening closely for the muffled sound. And as soon as he hears it clearly, he knows what it is.

Crying.

But not just any crying.

His crying.

Taehyung, now confused, listens as the sound of his own sobs fill his ears, along with the occasional church bells.

What does all of this mean?

Taehyung slowly begins to walk towards the darkness, thinking about everything that's happened in this strange place.

Church bells, a crow, his own cries...

Smack!

Taehyung stumbles back in pain as he presses his hand against his forehead. What did he just run into?

He holds out his hand, reaching until he feels cold bark surrounded by pine leaves. A tree?

A cypress tree.

He lowers his hand and squints into the darkness. The outlines of thin, vertical lines become more and more visible.

He's surrounded by trees.

Taehyung just bites his lower lip and rubs the back of his neck. All these things have to mean something. They're trying to tell him something... something important...

Taehyung woke up once again, though not suddenly this time. In fact, his eyes gently fluttered open as silence filled his ears. He sat alone in the waiting room of the hospital. Glancing over at the clock on the wall, he realized it was 12:30AM. He sighed and got up, heading down the hall to Hoseok's room.

Though, he stopped in his tracks at the sound of voices on the other side of the door.

      Taehyung peered through the glass window that showed into the room. Inside, there were two doctors; one standing at the end of the hospital bed, and one standing to the side. He saw Hoseok's calm face staring down at his hands as the doctors talked to him. Taehyung had to lean in to be able to hear. Was this eavesdropping?

"-eleven days. Though, you should still take the medicine. You never know, things could lighten up," the doctor said, eyebrows raised. Hoseok just nodded, not even looking up.

"I'm sorry-"

"No you're not," Hoseok interrupted. Taehyung was surprised, he had never heard the boy snap like that. "You deal with this kind of stuff everyday. What makes me so different?" He continued, almost expressionless.

"...We'll be coming in later to check on you. Until then, we're going to pump some more morphine into your system," the doctor sighed as she pressed a button on a machine next to the bed.

      Liquid started flowing through a tube that was connected from the machine to Hoseok's arm. Slowly, the boy's eyes began to close as his arms fell to his sides. Taehyung ran as fast as he could back to the waiting room, not wanting to get caught sneaking around.

The clock read 12:46AM. Taehyung closed his eyes as he tried to get some sleep himself, but he couldn't. His mind was rushing with thoughts about the conversation he had just overheard.

'Eleven days? Eleven days for what? Until what?' He thought to himself, though somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew exactly what.