Human |BTS|

Chapter 1

The smoke was suffocating. Suffocating and smudged. It crept up noses, filling lungs with a toxicity that ate away at the senses and stained noses black. The fires that emitted these choking gasses were far behind— swallowing buildings and fogging the atmosphere with every cough they made, as if it were a single giant man puffing at his cigarette. And, due to this, each step was like walking into a void. The world dipped below oddly in pavement cracks and pothole craters.

Above the discord were a few streetlights, flickering and straining. Vandalism had left a mere remnant of three to struggle and choke in the velvety darkness of the night, and it was the LED that fought harder against the evil in the city than the people who had adopted it.

Because it'd become a world of craving, after all. Craving for blood, sex, drugs, and power. Down each street, every house— every place— the poison had crept in. The lies, the darkness. The world was a madhouse now, and there was nowhere left to run and no one left to protect the innocent. But even so...

They knew. Everyone knew.

It wasn't supposed to be this quiet.

Distant laughs and gunshots could be heard— maybe even a few cuss words. However, there was nothing close enough to signal signs of life down the oddly empty street. The area was uncharacteristically quiet, and it was unnerving to anyone who experienced the silence.

Jimin stopped his slow, clumsy pace— the sword in his hand wobbling uncertainly.

Taking a look around, he sighed, beginning to tip precariously before catching himself.

He was searching... Waiting. And drunk.

The White Lotus was a common threat in the Anarchists' territory. No one knew what they truly looked like— few have lived to tell the tale. But whoever it was, they were living proof that serial killers could still plague a city full of criminals. And those who have lived to tell the tale of even the craziest psycho's demise, say they have a black mask. A black mask with a white lotus imprinted on its cheek.

And so the legend has become.

But as Jimin slowly walked down the street it was last glimpsed, he couldn't find himself feeling afraid.

"I'll hunt him down... Kill him. Then everyone will worship me. Maybe Anarchy will have its king," Jimin thought aloud— playing with first the idea, then his katana.

But he was a drunken fool with drugs in his system, and hallucinating was a common side effect of what he'd done to himself. So when he spotted a figure and charged precariously, there was no surprise when it abruptly disappeared. And he cussed— singing the praises of the devil in a slurred fashion.

What better way to call a demon at this hour?

Still, anyone would call him a fool. And, indeed, what a fool he'd become... But what a fool they'd all become.

Slowing his pace as he puffed out a frustrated sigh and stumbled briefly, Jimin studied his surroundings— eyes lazily moving over the scenery as it wavered.

Not a soul remained.

Cussing out his deceiving eyes once more, he clumsily put his sword away and sighed. It couldn't be helped. It was dark. Not to mention it could've been any nameless psycho in the forsaken city of Busan.

'Maybe even a hallucination,' Crossed his twisted mind.

Jimin stumbled again, biting his lip as the world's color remained oddly heightened.

Suddenly, something caught Jimin's eye and his gaze flickered over to a drifting piece of paper. It was small— maybe the size of a receipt. And as Jimin caught it in a rapid succession of clumsy movements— he realized it was heavily written on. Both the back and the front were littered in Hangul, causing Jimin's full lips to dip into a quizzical frown as his eyes flickered over it oddly. He couldn't read it properly. The words kept wavering...

He tried steadying them, moving his gaze closer.

That's when he took in a sharp breath. Because it couldn't be... But it also had to be...

Jimin's bloodshot eyes narrowed at the familiar handwriting. He'd seen it a few times before— passed along after the crime scenes. The White Lotus had always left notes with their victims, and they were always horrific, speaking of demise and violence that would even make the craziest person to shame. And as Jimin read the writing, he realized he was getting a peak into what the White Lotus was planning.

"Fool for writing everything down..." Jimin mumbled.

The White Lotus apparently didn't plan to stay in Anarchy for long... And hell would sing if the serial killer made it successfully into the Shadow Territory.

Crushing the paper before stuffing it in his pocket, Jimin jumped at the alarming sound of a familiar laugh.

"Having trouble Jiminie?"

It didn't take long to spot the figure as it kept its distance. The beam of a flashlight suddenly hit Jimin and he hissed, temporarily going blind as he tried to regain his bearings.

"Taehyung, I told you to stop fallowing me around," He growled in a slurred fashion, finally adjusting.

"Damn..." He laughed oddly. "You're as high as a kite. Where'd you get the pot?"

Uninterested, Jimin wished he could turn his back on the conversation and simply walk away. However, he knew if he turned his back on Taehyung for a single second...

The ground moved under him and he stumbled briefly.

"Just leave me alone," Jimin managed finally.

Suddenly beginning to move closer, Taehyung started laughing louder— maniacal. Jimin could see him now... Him, his bat, and those eyes... They used to be so soft, but now they were wide— sharp.

He clumsily took back out his own weapon.

"Leave you alone, Jiminie? Ha... You're so vulnerable though..."

The last sentence was said in a low, lustful voice. Taehyung normally had a one track mind, and it always ended in violence.

"You're sick..." Jimin slurred. "We were friends... I've spared you so many times."

He heard the familiar pop of a bubble as Taehyung chewed away at a piece of gum.

"Yeah?"

Jimin didn't even bother replying— he just tried preparing himself despite the ever shifting world beneath his feet. It felt like his mind was spinning and even his own movements seemed too fast for his lagging brain. Worst of all, he could barely raise his sword as he stumbled forward.

It was in that moment, that all Jimin could remember was seeing a flash of a smile before the world suddenly slipped away.