Mercy - Taehyung (BTS)

Epilogue

1 year later

Eli stood before the iron gates which she had once resented. They were stained with grime and dust as if they had not been touched since she had last seen them. The one side of the gate hung from its hinges, as if it was loosely held in to place by a thread. They had once been what protected the village, iron gates which were supposed to be impenetrable, that was until they had been broken as if they were little more than flimsy wire.

She sighed and reached out for Taehyung's hand, gripping it tightly as she pushed the flimsy gate open with her other hand. Taehyung rested his head on to her shoulder because he too resented the village. Finding the village had made him even more of a monster because it had made him feel powerful. He shuddered at the vile stench of rotting corpses and the metallic smell of dry expired blood but allowed Eli to drag him through the entrance of the village.

"Despite the smell nothing much has really changed," Eli muttered as she ran her hand along the door of the tavern where Taehyung had taken her away from the village. She winced as she remembered the broken body of the child who probably still lay hidden beneath the tavern. She could never forget how Taehyung had killed the child so mercilessly but as she glanced at the frown on Taehyung's face and as his lips trembled and his eyes glistened over, she knew that he would never forget it either and he would never forgive himself.

"Yeah," he mumbled in response but the design of the village did not feel all that familiar to him because he had only ever seen it once before and that was when he had been too possessed by hatred that the design of the city had been the last thing that he thought about.

"Do you think anyone is still living here?" Eli asked as she sat on one of the light wooden bar chairs. She scoffed, as her question had been answered by the opened bottles of alcohol.

"We didn't take everyone," Taehyung whispered as he held onto Eli's hand as if he was a child. It had been his idea to return to the village in the first place so why was he regretting it so much.

Eli smiled with pity, pity that Taehyung did not want but needed. Eli grabbed a bottle from one of the shelves in the bar and she poured its contents into two glasses before handing one to Taehyung and downing the other; if she was going to do what they had intended to do then she needed the alcohol.

"We should go." Taehyung said as he stood and held out his hand.

Eli smiled at him forcefully and then to calm her nerves she placed a chaste kiss against Taehyung's rough lips which had been bitten many times before. Taehyung ruffled her long hair which had grown so much in the past year that she was ready to get rid of half of it.

"Why did we come here in the first place?" Eli asked with a slight frown as she wrapped her arms around Taehyung's neck and allowed Taehyung to carry her while she held back her tears. She chanted to herself that it was not worth crying over a past that she could not control.

"You wanted closure." Taehyung chuckled as he nuzzled his head against her head, smiling as she rested her head against his shoulder.

"It was Hakyeon's idea. I guess I was tired of his lectures about facing the past."