𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐄.

𝓢𝓮𝓿𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓮𝓷

"Natha—."

"Hello?" The female voice hesitated on the other line, causing Emily to pause. "Who is this?" The unknown woman went on to ask.

"This is Emily Forbes. Who is exactly on my brother's phone?" She puzzled, trying to find any familiarity in the feminine voice. "This is officer Roberts from Springford Police Station. This phone was found near the National Nature Reserve last night. Can you give any information about your brother and his activities in the last few days? We believe that he may have been injured and--."

"Wait—w-what do you mean injured?" Emily couldn't help but interrupt as she found the sinister scenarios of what could have happened to Nathaniel stampede through her mind. "Well, blood was found on the phone as well as the scene around it. Now, what can you tell me about your brother? The information you may have can be crucial in finding the whereabouts of your brother."

Emily informed the buzzing voice of the deficit of information she knew. Narrating the story of him leaving to go back to work in the next town over from Springford, erasing the factor of the curse that had become intertwined in both of their lives.

As the officer simply speculated over kidnap and blackmail, Emily could already sense what had taken her brother into the void of this world rather than a who.

The original cursed.

Emily and her brother had ceased to make themselves discrete to the hell-sent animal. Not after it had assailed their father as if he were nothing but an animal himself. That night full of crimson, she already knew it wouldn't be the concluding scene with the beast, for it had initiated an expedition of cleansing itself with Forbes blood.

And it would not cease in its barbaric rampage until her blood painted its hands a sinful ruby.

━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━

Jihee sighed as she looked at her son who continued to examine his food, performing an autopsy on the bright vegetation. Not a single bite taken. Only nurturing a growing anxiety to send her cutlery down into the surface of the table.

"Jungkook, you haven't eaten anything. Are you feeling sick?" Her voice came out through a soft, yet concerned composition. "No, I'm not sick. I'm just not h-hungry." He mumbled back as he let the verdant meal rain back onto the china.

"Are you positive? I mean... you haven't really been eating anything I've been giving you recently and I'm sorry Jungkook, but if you're going to keep starving yourself like this, you will eventually get sick." Jihee couldn't help but let her maternal lecturing flood the room, only receiving Jungkook's frustrated groans. "I'm not starving myself." He interrupted.

He wished he could eat the words back up, yet it was too late, for they had already liberated themselves in the small dining room. His mother solemnly taking in his words.

"If you're not starving yourself then what are you eating and when are you eating?" She began to interrogate. All Jungkook wanted to do was escape the ever edging walls. Feeling the contents of oxygen in the room decrease as she continued to rant. "Are you going to answer me or am I going to have to get your father on the ph--."

"I'm eating meat. Okay? I couldn't take eating this green shit for any longer." He finally cut in through a huff, observing her previously calm expression transform into one of something distantly related to disgust. "Jeon Jungkook! I did not raise you to have such a filthy mouth and more importantly, I did not raise you to indulge yourself on the suffering of animals." The same lecture echoed through his senses.

She abandoned her seat on the opposing edge of the table, trying to rehabilitate her composure. Defeated in recognising Jungkook's struggle against himself.