WARNING: STRONG DEPICTED VIOLENCE & MATURE CONTENT
Kim Taehyung
After what seemed like hours, like days, like an eternity, a sharp stab of pain shot up my stomach, causing me to jolt to consciousness.
The light. It was everywhere. For a moment I thought I couldn't breathe, but another stab made me gasp out loud. Becoming aware of the pain, it hurt. It hurt so much. Wait...was I dead? It really did feel that way. But wasn't death painless?
Coming to that conclusion, I was aware of my eyelids. I could move them. So I tried. That hurt too, as if someone was shoving pins into them. The light returned as soon as I did, nearly blinding me. Trying to ignore that, I looked around to the best of my ability.
I was on the ground. The world twisted upside down, such that the earth was above and the sky was below. I could make out a blurry form of something else a few feet away. Maybe it was a someone, I couldn't tell.
More pain, making me yell out in agony. Unbearable, a red hot knife twisting up my legs and my gut. My ears rang with a faint buzz. It smelled of flames, of smoke, of dust. I could move my fingers now.
A burst of courage overtook my mind. Somehow, I don't remember how, I managed to lift my head and look at my body.
Or, at least, what was left of it.
Pain. So much pain. I tried pushing it away, the thing on top of me, but it was too heavy. Too painful. Someone was screaming, their voice ringing against my nearly deaf ears. Maybe it was me. I didn't know.
My head fell back in defeat, against the hard earth. I felt wetness against my cheeks; tears. Maybe blood. So much pain, as if my bones were slowly getting crushed.
And then, I felt the thing shifting, if only slightly. Opening my eyes against the fierce desire to die felt like agony, but somehow, I did. And I saw him.
Namjoon.
The one name I could remember, other than my own. Namjoon was pushing the thing, pushing it off me. And it hurt. It hurt more than before. I tried telling him to stop, to let me die. If he heard, he didn't relent. The buzz in my ears was slowly disappearing, and I could hear my yells now, ringing discordantly into the mountain air.
And through them, I heard him.
“Stay strong, Tae.” he was saying. “Don't you dare die on me. Not now.”
What could I do? What could I do, as I lay there in the blistering heat, feeling each separate broken shard getting pulled out of my body? As the only friend I had left put all his strength into pushing the car off of me?
Nothing. Nothingness. Darkness gathering at the edges of my vision. Yells dying down. Life draining out. Pain numbing. Slowly, yet so surely.
Death was near.
—————
Kim Namjoon
“Oh God...oh God...”
I saw his movement stilling, his eyes getting unfocused. No, not him too, please. With one, final heave, I managed to roll the part of the destroyed car off of him, revealing the rest of his body.
