✔ || Save Me [[SEQUEL to DISTRACT ME]]

Chapter 47

When Taehyung woke up, his scars were on fire. He writhed, jerking off the bed, but a wave of nauseating pain sent him rolling onto his stomach, dry heaving against his pillow. He called softly, "Jeongguk?"

"Never say that name again."

Taehyung stiffened as the blood in his veins turned into a frozen sludge. Weary, he lifted his head and almost screamed at the sight before him.

Raphael's cheeks were hollow, his eyes protruding from his skull in two sunken holes. His hair was laying in greasy tendrils on his forehead, reaching like clawed fingers to brush his eyebrows. The stench of death permeated the air, and Taehyung gagged as he stumbled to his feet.

"Where's Jeongguk?"

He hardly had time to register that he was being attacked before his head whipped to the side with a loud smack.

"Do as I say, little one," Raphael ordered. Then, softer, "Always do as I say."

Taehyung cried out as the archangel suddenly grabbed a fistful of his hair, yanking his head back. He begged, "Please!"

Please stop, please go away, I don't want you here, leave us alone, leave me alone...

"Shut up, shut up!" Raphael suddenly shouted, his head jerking violently, and somehow Taehyung knew he wasn't talking to him. But before he could say or do anything, the deranged man dropped a wicked smile on him. "Ignore them, little one. No need to be jealous."

"Jealous of who?" Taehyung gasped, tears pricking his eyes. His back was still aflame, and the archangel's grip on his hair was only adding to the pain. 

"Of them," Raphael waved his free hand nonchalantly in the air. "They're noisy, but that's okay. They'll never drown you out, little one." The man leaned in and inhaled deeply, his eyelids fluttering shut. "You're much prettier than him."

Taehyung was shuddering at this point. He whimpered, "Jeongguk..."

He was greeted with another harsh slap.

"That human is in Hell where he belongs," Raphael hissed. "You'd best stop thinking about him. You're mine now."

No.

Jeongguk was in Hell? Taehyung sobbed. This was all his fault. This was his world, and he was too selfish to realize just how far he'd dragged the younger boy into it.

"Shut up!" Raphael snapped.

"No!" With the last bit of his strength, Taehyung lurched out of the archangel's grasp and collapsed to his knees on the floor.

Raphael gazed down at him, amusement lighting up his eyes. "What was that, pet?"

"I'm not your -" Taehyung was cut off with a sharp stab of pain that zinged straight through his spine. He hissed, arching his back, and then forced himself to grit out, "I'm not your pet."

Raphael crouched before him, and Taehyung was too weak to do anything more than glare at him.

"Little one, you're upsetting me. Don't you want to please me?"

Please...

"No," Taehyung sobbed.

Raphael tsked his tongue, shaking his head. "You love me, little one. We can have what we had before, even now. I'm ready to forgive you."

Taehyung's very soul shuddered at the archangel's words. He was two seconds away from a full-blown panic attack, but he knew he had to keep as clear a head as possible. Jeongguk needed him.