Interwoven ✔️

60~ Alive

I'm running through the halls of the base again.

I don't remember how I even got here.

Blood covers the walls, the ceiling, the floor. I slip several times but I don't fall. I refuse to fall. Not with so many bodies all around me. Not when every body carries a face of a person whom I loved. No. I would not fall. I would not... would not....

Shadows sweep across the floor. Screams haunt me, following me. Screaming my name. To rescue them. To help them. I run the other way. I can't rescue them. I can't help them. I'm a coward. A scared coward.

Gunshots. Pain. Hate. Grief. A veil of all things hideous and monstrous envelop me. Drowning me.

I slip. I fall.

Nausea rises as I become covered in blood. My hands are coated with the blood of all those people I killed, with all those people I couldn't save.

I finally begin to see the bodies around me. Yoongi lies a few feet away, sightless eyes staring up at the ceiling. I see Irene, limbs splayed. Yuta, his russet orange Marks extinguished forever. Wonwoo, face twisted in terror of his last moments. Jimin— wait.

My lungs deflate. I can't breathe. No. No no no. Why is Jimin here? No he isn't dead. He can't be. He—

"JIYEON!"

Someone shook me awake and I almost started screaming if it weren't for the familiar face hovering inches from mine. Soft glowing silver Marks— glowing, not extinguished— wrapped around his neck and bare torso, spiraling and interweaving down his arms as he gripped my shoulders tightly.

"Just a dream," he was saying over and over as the roar of my blood slowly died from my ears and I could hear properly. "It was just a dream. A nightmare."

I realized I was panting, gasping for breath. Shaking. Without another word I wrapped my arms around him tightly and buried my nose into his chest. Alive. He was alive. Breathing. Warm.

Just a dream. A nightmare.

It was becoming a more common occurrence. The nightmares, the insomnia, the night terrors, the vomiting.

"It's going to be okay, partner," he murmured, rubbing soothing little circles on my neck. "Breathe. Deep breaths. I'm here now, don't worry."

"You were dead," I whispered against his skin. The words tumbled out of my mouth like an unstoppable waterfall. "Everyone was dead around me. You were dead. Covered in blood. You died. You—"

I was cut off by warm lips.

He cradled my face in one hand, though I could feel the tautness in his muscles as if he was restraining himself and forcing to keep his touches soft like a delicate petal. His mouth moved against mine, slowly.

He finally pulled back a little, eyes hooded and burning with dark intensity down at me. "I'm alive," he said. "I'm not dead. I'm alive."

As if to further prove his words he guided my hand to his chest, right where I could feel the faintest thud of his heart underneath his skin. Steadily beating. Alive.

I let loose a long breath and fell back against the pillows.

He slowly laid down next to me, keeping his arms around me. "Is there anything that might help you?"

"You."

The word slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it. When it did slip out, though, I felt no regret. I felt him tense a little beside me and I turned to face him.