Kill Our Way to Heaven (Jikook) ✔

Chapter 45

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 45
"ᴛʜᴇ ꜱᴛᴏʟᴇɴ ꜱᴏɴ"

The mud beneath his fingers felt cold and rough. Some strands of grass were still trying to survive in the harsh conditions of winter, but their edges were simply covered in ice. Winter had run across the country and put her spell on everything. She cooled, then froze and lastly killed. Plants and animals hid, some powered through, but no one was safe from her frigid wrath. 

Jimin had always seen the beauty in it. The cold didn't affect him, nor did death. Winter was so powerful, clearing the world only so that the strongest could be reborn during spring. His admiration for winter had now melted. The cold was unfair. It was painful and it bit, taking hold of your loved ones and slowly burying them under layers of snow and ice. The cold was now a painful reminder of many things.

It was a painful reminder of how cold Jungkook's fingers felt against his when Jimin finally reached out to the boy lying next to him. The angel was freezing as well, but Jungkook didn't hold any temperature anymore. After all, he no longer needed to fight winter. He didn't need to cling to the warmth and battle the cold that was slowly sipping away at his lifeforce, because there was none left.

For a second Jimin wondered what would happen to him if he would die. He could lie there until the cold would seep through his skin and bones and freeze his heart, until a reaper would appear and take him to a different plain. Jimin wondered if anyone would take his soul. God had cast him away the moment his halo broke to pieces. Heaven wasn't a resting place for sinners like him, but he was still too light for Hell. There was nowhere he could rest, nowhere where a creature like him would be accepted. There would be nothing waiting for him, but maybe that was what he had longed for all along. 

Throughout his many lives, it had all played out the same way. He would die, get saved by God, cradled and then thrown into life again. He was resurrected only to hurt more, follow more orders and eventually die an even more painful death. Every death was a reminder of how endless his life was, of how he was doomed to fight until the universe itself would collapse. Now there would be nothing, finally an ending to this story.

Jimin could already feel himself getting weaker. He knew he was dying. He had felt a weight resting on his chest from the moment he saw Jungkook's corpse. It grew heavier with each moment of realisation that the younger was actually dead. At first, it was only his breathing feeling weaker, then his legs became unsteady, his thoughts kept stumbling and right now his eyelids felt so heavy. He knew he didn't need to sleep, angels never slept, but he still felt so tired. 

Still, he needed to pull through. No matter how weary his body felt or how loud the thoughts in the back of his head became, he needed to bring Jungkook's body home. He had caused this, he at least owed the human's family closure. It was the one goal still in his mind.

With aching muscles and weak wings, he picked Jungkook's cold body up off the floor and flew again. Every once in a while he'd stop, grief pulling him down to the earth like gravity. His body grew weaker and weaker with every flight until he felt like collapsing. He knew it wouldn't take long now, but he needed to bring Jungkook home. Eventually, he ended up in familiar lands. With unsteady knees and a broken mind, he had finally reached Jungkook's family home. 

The house was old, the bricks having a grey hue to them and the trees all around thicker than Jimin had ever seen them. It was surrounded by farmland on all sides, the other houses almost half a kilometre away. Their neighbours were safely hidden away in their homes to hide from the winter. None of the people even cared to look at the snow-covered ground outside. All except one. 

As Jimin approached the home, Jungkook seemed to get heavier, as if he wasn't only carrying his lover's body but also a cannonball on his ankle. The angel could feel his heartbeat in his throat, the only response it had given for almost a day it felt like. He couldn't keep going anymore. So when he saw the door open, he collapsed. His breathing evened out almost immediately, his eyes falling shut.