Shadow Dancing | K.TH

Friends and Family

The explosion deafens my ears, drowning out the scream twisting itself up my throat. My knees collapse underneath my weight, and darkness flashes in and out as one moment I find myself looking at the face of my dead father and the next feeling the cold ground against the side of my head.

Something is inside me— I can feel it, cold and painful. But the agonizing sparks have receded, leaving only a numb feeling. Like I wasn't supposed to be here, but somewhere completely different.

Like this was a dream, another world, another reality.

I hear a strange ringing noise in my right ear as I try to focus on the blurring wall in front of me. Somewhere a million miles away, somebody curses— the voice deep and familiar.

I'd recognize that voice anywhere.

But what was the point if I couldn't move even the tiniest parts of my body? What was the point if I couldn't even turn my head to look?

Lord, I'd missed that voice so much, and now I was never going to see it again.

Another loud cursing sounds distantly, the terrible noise following short after. An involuntary shiver runs up my unresponsive spine as I hear a strangled scream, blade against blade and fist against skin.

Then something soft and warm wraps around my form, lifting me up from the hard concrete and pulling me into a gentle cushion. My shivering body instinctively curls into the lovely warmth as my cheek brushes against cloth.

I'd give anything for this to last.

"Hold on, Tzuyu." Someone says, urgent and panicked. When my vision
clears enough, I recognize V— his eyes bloodshot and his face deathly pale as he continues to murmur the same sentence over and over again.

"Hoseok hyung!" He yells, his frantic gaze fixed at something to the far right.

Wait.

My fingers weakly fold over his sleeve, sending flashes of pain running up and down my arm. When I tug at his shirt, he looks at me— and he looks as closest to tears than I'd ever seen him. The corners of his eyes are red and watery, and I detect rapid stutters in his words as he hyperventilates violently.

"W-what's wrong? Do y-you need something?"

Wait.

The thick clouds in my mind gradually retreat as I pull at his shirt again. Now I remember. Now I can see. Even though the ceiling had completely been obliterated, the door out is still intact.

"The cures.."

"I could care less about t-the damn cure, T-Tzuyu. You need help. Right now."

Swallowing urgently, my tugging gets a bit more rougher as I shake my head forcefully.

"Cures..."

He realizes that I'm not just talking about him— and in that split second, I can see the internal conflict inside his mind. In his view, it was to get me help right now or risk a few more minutes of my heavy bleeding to get the cures for both of us. We both knew that if we passed up this chance, we'd never get back in here.

And I'd just realized that my right foot was completely faded, along with my left arm.

Permanently.

And from the horrified look on his face, he'd just noticed it as well.

"Do you know where it is?"

The stuttering is gone, although his face is flushed and his breathing seems to have grown faster somehow. Holding onto his arm, I give a slight nod— which is all the answer he needs as he rushes out the door.

"Third door on the right." I cough as he presses my body closer to his chest. The warmth and the softness just makes me want to curl up and spend eternity just sleeping.

"Nothing."

"No—" I gasp, recognizing the familiar patch of wall that had slid open. "There's a hidden compartment."

"I see it." He quickly says as he slides his nails into the tiny slits, forcing the fake wall to slide open. Inside is the safe with the six digit code— and V's eyes dart to the hallways outside as the sound of rushed footsteps get closer.

"061499."

Then a violent seizure travels from the top of my head to the tips of my toes, telling me that I didn't have much time left. I can feel the fade spreading— invading. I don't even need to look to know that it has made its way up to my thigh.

V's fingers fly as they enter in the code, and I hear the familiar click as the door swings open to reveal the arranged cures. His eyes scan through them, searching for his and mine.

Not even a second has passed when he plucks two vials out and runs out of the room that reeks of my blood and Jungkook's. The red stains against the far wall were definitely from me— the day before.

"Don't leave me."

He sounds so vulnerable as he glances down on me, his arms tightening protectively. Like if he didn't let me go, I would be okay. Like if he held onto me, everything would turn out to be well.

"I won't."

His feet barely makes a sound as he finds his way out of the smoke-filling building. There's heat and smoke everywhere— the results of Jin's creations taking effect.

I accidentally breathe some in, and burst into a violent fit of coughing. The motion sends sparks of pain exploding in my chest, the red expanding as I bury my face into V's shirt in attempt to block the gas out.

Then soft fingers turn my head and hook a rough strap over my ear. V presses a mask like object onto my lips, clasping the ends around my jaw and securing it so I could breathe normally.

A gas mask?

He wrestles with a similar object into his own lips as he gives me a meaningful look.

Hold on.

The warm flow of the blood pouring out of me doesn't seem to matter much anymore.

Within just a minute or two, V escapes the maze like compound and out into the open. The others are nowhere to be seen, and I worry that they've somehow been caught up in the destructive chaos inside.

As if he read my mind, V pushes down his mask and gives me a light kiss on my forehead.

"They're all safe. I just need to get you out of here— and yes, Jungkook will be waiting for me to return you safe and in one piece."

I smile at him, but the blood loss is taking its hold on me. My body feels weighed down, more weaker. Every single second that more blood pours out of my wound, the more I feel closer to death.

Darkness crowds at the corners of my eyes, and uncontrollable fear clutches me on all sides as I realize that I'm going to faint any moment. Fainting meant losing consciousness. Losing consciousness might mean never waking up again.

"Almost there." V gasps, his illness obviously showing its effects on him as well. He looked like he was going to collapse soon— and his breathing hadn't slowed ever since he'd first picked me up from that compound.

But his pace never slows, only becoming faster and faster. Even the guards eventually lose us in the darkening night— V was moving too fast for them to catch up.

I must've dozed off somewhere along the way, or lost my grip on reality, because the next thing I see when I open my eyes is my friends and family surrounding me on all sides.

My brothers— the ones I'd come to care for like the family I'd never had. My best friends who saved me when I'd been wasting away into nothing, the ones that had taken me in when I had nowhere except for hell to go back to.