The Devil's Weakness (PJM)

Chapter 9

Elena felt so warm and comfortable. She was lying on something soft and there was a wonderful source of heat touching her on her right side. She snuggled closer to the source, which in return
pulled her in and wrapped around her.

"Hmm," Elena hummed happily, smiling in her half-conscious state. She felt something nuzzle her face and it tickled. She giggled and slowly opened her eyes, confused when she found herself staring at black fabric. She lifted her head back a bit in confusion, and her eyes widened when she realized that fabric belonged to Jimin's shirt.

She tried to scramble away but Jimin held her close.
"Morning," he whispered into her hair.
"J-Jimin ? What are you doing here? W-where am I?" Elena shifted through her still sleepy thoughts, gradually remembering the events of the previous day. She started to panic a little, but Jimin cut her off before she got too out of sorts.

"Shhh, don't worry. Everything's ok, I promise. Just let me explain, ok?"
Elena slowly shook her head yes. Even after all that had happened, she couldn't distrust him. Even if he might be bad, she could still feel good in him. He had always strove to make her happy and she had never sensed anything but good intentions from him. Why would that have changed?
She tried to push her worries aside.

Jimin looked into Elena's pretty eyes. They were wary, but trusting. He took an internal breath of relief that he hadn't completely scared her away. He wanted nothing more than to continue where they left off yesterday, but there were more pressing matters to take care of. He decided to compromise with himself as he leaned forward and placed his forehead on hers.

He completed the movement by just barely touching his nose to hers. Elena remained frozen in place. For some reason she couldn't quite place, her whole body seemed to want to shut down whenever Jimin got close. Something swirled in her stomach and she hoped he couldn't hear her heart hammering in her chest.

"Elena, I'm going to try something, ok?" Jimin paused, and Elena's heart nearly leapt out of her chest. He took a deep breath, silently hoping what he was about to do would work. "This isn't the first time we have met. When we were children, we lived together at the same orphanage."

Elena blinked. "Wait, what? We knew each other?" Elena's face scrunched up in worry, and the butterflies in her stomach flitted away and were replaced by a feeling of guilt. "I feel awful! I can't remember it at all!"
"No, don't be. It's not your fault. Someone locked your memories away, but I'm going to try to make it so you can remember again. All I need you to do is relax and close your eyes okay?"

Elena complied, still trying to think back to her time at the orphanage. Her memories of that time had always been blurry, but she'd never thought much about it and had attributed it to how most people can't remember very much before a certain age.

Jimin moved his hand to hold the back of Elena's head, trying to ignore how damn soft her hair felt slipping through his fingers. He took a deep breath and pressed his forehead a little harder into hers and focused his mind on his memories of them at the orphanage.

His consciousness merged slightly with hers and he tried to find her memories. Usually he could easily find the mind's gate and push it open, allowing him access and control over people's emotions, thoughts, memories, and even actions.
But he couldn't even find Elena's gate.

Trying to access her mind was like wandering through an endless white cloud. Everything twist and turn looked the same, no matter what he tried.
"Shit," Jimin hissed in frustration. He pulled back out of her mind's cloud, trying to discern why he couldn't find her memories. It was vexing. For some reason, she seemed to be immune to all his powers regarding the mind.

The only other beings that had that sort of immunity were angels, but that didn't make any sense. Besides for this one phenomenon, she was completely human...
"W-what's wrong?" Elena opened her eyes and looked at him, concerned about the obvious
displeasure on his face.
"Ah, sorry." Jimin retreated from his thoughts and refocused on Elena.
"For some reason it's
not working." Jimin leaned back, thinking about what to do. "What's not working?" Elena asked.
"I can usually access people's minds very easily. But for some reason, I can't with yours."
"Ah, I'm so sorry." Elena hung her head sadly.
"Don't worry, it's no big deal, ok? How about I just project my memories? It'll be just like watching a movie." Jimin smiled at her.

He wanted her to be able to remember for herself so that she would believe him, but this would have to do.
"Ok," she replied. Elena began to notice discomfort in the back of her head. She reached back and ran her hand over the place that felt odd. She didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, but the discomfort began to evolve into a distinct throbbing pain.

She began to feel dizzy and shut her eyes, clutching the sheets between her fingers.
Jimin noticed her sudden change in behaviour. "Elena, are you ok?" Jimin asked worriedly.
Elena nodded and opened her eyes slowly, but they flew the rest of the way open as she saw smoke billowing up from the floor in front of the bed.
"Jimin ! There's a fire!" She exclaimed.
The smoke thickened and became opaque, suddenly parting to reveal a man stepping forward.

Jimin grimaced and shook his head in frustration. Why now, of all times? "What the fuck,
Sparrow? You have the worst timing."
Sparrow bowed deeply. "My lord. And you, my lady. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

Elena avoided looking at him and stiffly returned the bow, unsure of what else to do. The pain in her head grew stronger with each passing moment, but she did her best to hide her discomfort.
"Why are you here?" Jimin snapped, his attention turned completely on the man who had just appeared in the room. Sparrow straightened from his bow and tipped his hat.

"I have information that I thought might interest you and the lady."
"Well spit it out before I fucking ki-" Jimin caught himself, remembering Elena was in the room.
Sparrow sensed the danger in Jimin's voice and temporarily lost his usual cool demeanor.

He hurriedly started explaining. "Ah, well, I looked in the Omniscience, and found something very interesting." Sparrow's face regained its usual arrogant indifference. Elena looked at the strange newcomer, starting with his feet and traveling up his strangely dressed body. Her eyes landed on his face, and suddenly the feeling in her head multiplied tenfold and she whimpered in pain.

The noise caused Sparrow to look over at her, and when his eyes met Elena's, a shooting pain resonated from her head echoing throughout her entire body. Elena fell on the floor, clutching her head. The world was spinning and her head was pounding like mad. Sharp pains resonated through her skull, making her scream in agony.
"Elena!" The last thing Elena saw was Jimin's worried face rushing towards her before she
blacked out from the pain.