The Madman and the Dragon [3/3]
Title: The Madman and the Dragon [3/3]
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Summary: Wealthy business man, Byun Baekhyun is kidnapped by a crazed, lost farm boy who doesn't know his name and claims that he didn't kidnap Baekhyun at all. But now Baekhyun had returned to civilisation and he cannot forget...
Part Three: Set in an iron forest
The Warden had let them through after he learned that Baekhyun was the one abducted by the man who was to hang at noon. They were lead into a series of sinister passages, left in total darkness to emerge into an open area engulfed by natural light. The weather, reflected Baekhyun’s dread with clouds but showed Jongdae’s satisfaction and pride in Baekhyun with the warmth of the sun. The hanging platform was open for all the prisoners and the skies to see. The two dragons of the booming industrial age were taken through a final two iron gates until Baekhyun had spotted the lean back that he had missed.
Byun whispered his name and at first there was no reply. The figure was facing the back wall on his knees and most likely in prayer with his head bowed.
‘Chanyeol?’ Baekhyun whispered once more and this time, pointed ears twitched towards his direction. Then the entire form followed.
Baekhyun did not know what would happen then. He did not expect, his former companion in the wilderness to take his collar, pulling him against the iron bars to whisper; ‘Mr Chau is looking for you!’
Bewildered, Baekhyun said nothing. He was still absorbing Chanyeol as he was now. Hair shaved and eyes sleepless. His grey uniform was still in better condition than the farmer’s rags he wore in the mountains. His charming ruggedness was replaced with the figure of a prisoner experiencing the price of poverty. A figure that was neither glorious nor handsome but dried and absorbed into the hateful world.
It saddened Baekhyun that he concluded that Chanyeol wasn’t handsome. Chanyeol was ugly. This was Chanyeol when Baekhyun was not mystified and fascinated with his life in the forest. Without his halo of golden locks, he wasn’t impressive. He was poor, dirty and looked much like a famished elf. Overall, Baekhyun was disappointed.
He could see that Jongdae was also.
‘See Mr Chau after I die, okay?’ Chanyeol requested with crazed eyes, violently shaking Baekhyun’s shoulders.
The prison guard tore them apart and Baekhyun took a step back, brushing the dirt from his coat.
‘See him!’ Chanyeol insisted, grabbing to the iron bars, pressing his face against them so that he became an image of great deformity. ‘Promise me!’
Baekhyun could not reply. He was too sad. He looked to the prison guard who began to open his mouth but was interrupted by Chanyeol screaming.
‘Promise me! Promise me! PROMISE! He really wants to see you!’
‘What happened to him?’ Baekhyun heard Jongdae whisper to the prison guard while he engaged Chanyeol’s deranged eyes.
‘He been like this since he came in. Always telling the guards things as they walk by. On his knees most of the time. When we asked a priest to speak to him - yer know, check for possession - they said he were a holy man. A good, honest young man. Crazy old fool. Look at this guy!’
They all looked to young man in the cell, whose eyes were only on Baekhyun. They were begging him. They were the eyes of a child or a puppy. And so he complied with a nod and then Chanyeol leaned back, satisfied.
The officer then took his leave to attend to another prisoner who was shouting things. Jongdae took Baekhyun’s shoulder.
‘Sorry. My dreams have fooled you.’
‘They were real, weren’t they?’
‘Of course!’ Jongdae screeched. ‘You must believe that. He looked so much more beautiful in my dreams than he does now. Of course, it is just a dream. A silly dream that we shouldn’t have believed in. Why did I even think that it was a vision o-’
‘No matter,’ Baekhyun sighed, adjusting his top hat purposefully. ‘We’re here now. As his friends.’
They both looked down at Chanyeol who was now sitting in front of the bars, but his neck was craned to the ceiling. His legs were outstretched awkwardly. In his mind, Jongdae denied knowing him at all and therefore couldn’t be his friend.
The officer returned. Baekhyun immediately asked him to be dismissed and for him to return before Chanyeol is taken to hang. Jongdae immediately protested.
‘But Baekhyun-’
‘So you’re Baekhyun eh?’
‘Please. I need to speak to him. Even if he can’t hear me or won’t listen. As you say, Jongdae, forgiveness is for the sinner.’
‘Well, he’s ‘een muttern’ your name a lot lately, so be ‘areful.’
Then the officer warned that there would only be five or so minutes until Chanyeol had to be taken away. Baekhyun accepted this and was left with his old captor. He stood there, at a safe distance from the iron bars, looking down at the lost Chanyeol. He did not know how to begin. So he began it like he would a business meeting; with a compliment.
‘I like seeing your ears.’
Chanyeol had slid onto his back was the staring at something interesting on the roof.
‘I missed you.’
The thing on the roof had supposedly moved to the left wall and so there was the mad man’s attention.
‘How does it feel to know you’re going…to die?’
The wall seemed most entertaining to Chanyeol, who’s saliva was now accumulating on the sides of his mouth.
‘I’m sorry I called you mad. You weren’t mad…from what I saw.’
Chanyeol stayed still.
‘I miss your company…’
The saliva spilled unto the concrete floor.
‘Remember that mountain - hill - with the boulders?’
Chanyeol merely blinked at the wall.
‘Remember all those trees you wrote your name on so you would remember your name in this language?’
There was a clatter from the open area behind him. The setting up of the death contraption.
‘Chanyeol, please speak to me.’
The saliva had formed a large pool.
‘Remember all the trees you wrote your name on?’
Chanyeol’s attention was once again on the roof.
‘Remember?’
Silence.
‘You even wrote on bark! Remember?’
‘The mountain with the boulders and the pool at the top?!’
‘I’m sorry I made you do things you didn’t want to, Chanyeol!’
‘I miss you! Understand?! I was seeing this whore and she had your hair and your height…’
Baekhyun found himself on his knees, clinging unto the bars - desperate to get the words out.
‘I really wanted to take you that night but you didn’t want me and I didn’t understand! I really wanted you Chanyeol! I really thought you loved me because you cared for me! Despite myself, I fell for it.’
Silence.
‘I’m just a little desperate, Chanyeol. Jongdae is my friend. Minseok is my friend. Kyungsoo is just my friend! But you!? You looked at me with kindness and compassion and unmerited favour that took me years to earn from any of my friends and yet can still not match!’
Jongdae can hear Baekhyun shouting from several meters away but he doesn’t approach.
‘No one loves Jongdae! Not without his business! He’s living off Kyungsoo! He is just like me! Admiring a man we long for from afar because he cannot whip the courage to speak to him but I am speaking to you now!’
‘I just needed some acceptance…You offered that to me, Chanyeol.’
‘I’m sorry I tried to take you.’ He quietened now. ‘I’m sorry if I ever hurt you. I just need someone to love me. Truly and properly.’
Silence and then the use of a sandpaper voice…
‘You know, Byun Baekhyun-’
Chanyeol lay on his back, looking up at the kneeling boy; the thing on the wall and the saliva pool forgotten. He lifted his chin to see Baekhyun better and it made his Adams apple well defined. Hearing his voice, despite how dry it sounded, gave Baek the sense of relief. This was the voice he missed; layered with undeserving affection for him.
He waited for Chanyeol to say more but he didn’t. It was a pause of only a fraction of a second but seemed so eternal. Chanyeol just lay there, as unattractive as he had been this entire conversation but at least now, Baekhyun knew, the Chanyeol he knew was alive. Baekhyun yearned to hear him speak. His mouth opened a crack to almost encourage him but then came the boom of the officer’s voice and jangling of keys and chains.
‘Time’s up, sir!’
‘Wait! He has merely a few more words to say!-’
‘Sorry sir. Five or so minutes! He’s got to go, and now so do you.’
Despite a courageous battle, Baekhyun was then taken roughly by both arms and dragged by other officers away from Chanyeol’s cell. He had kicked and yelled demanding some more time. His coat was grabbed on and he had ripped himself from it to run back to the Chanyeol’s cell, wrapping his arms around the iron gates. He had only begun to make progress with this Chanyeol. He was so close to his closure. The officers began pulling at him but Baekhyun linked himself into the bars and the officers were now trying to unpick him. Baekhyun demanded a minute. It was all a minute he needed. This minute was not given with the appearance of Kyungsoo, who ordered the officers back.
All the while, the bald young man was unresponsive and once again drooling on the floor.
‘Baekhyun. You’ve spoken to him,’ Kyungsoo began with a deep sigh, dressed in his finest dark clothing. Large eyes emotionless but perfectly dressed for a funeral. ‘Let him be. You have occupied all his remaining minutes and have not let me nor Jongdae speak to him. Don’t be selfish and let him go.’
Baekhyun was untangled. He could not help himself but obey Kyungsoo. His fellow dragon brought him to the viewing platform on the balcony above the open area. Perfectly situated so that the hanging was viewed face on. He was surprised to find Minseok also there, standing beside Jongdae. Kyungsoo helped Baekhyun put on his coat and top hat - restoring him to his sophisticated appearance. In his wild attack, his hair had become a nest for untamed birds and his shirt sleeves torn and the stitching on his fine coat has come loose. His top hat had been squashed and dirtied. But Kyungsoo managed to make him look presentable once more. Restoring him.
All four dragons stood there, side by side, watching the young man named Chanyeol come down the steps in chains and then stand on the wooden platform as the noose was wrapped around his neck and the priest began to read out from a book. His words were barely audible to the four watching from above.
‘I feel embarrassed for you,’ Kyungsoo said in a low voice. Byun noticed Minseok ignoring and Jongdae merely swallowing but unresponsive. ‘Look,’ Do encouraged, gesturing with the slightest motion of his head towards the boy about to die. ‘You actually threw a tantrum to want to speak to that. He’s dead, Baekhyun. He has been for a long time. No one knows who he is. Not even him. The eternal part of him - memories, the reputation - is gone.’ He sighed deeply. Baekhyun could see Kyungsoo’s intention was to help him but his advice seemed wrong. Shallow. Temporary.
‘No one earns treasure by not doing hard work,’ Kyungsoo finished. ‘Work hard and earn your riches, my friend. Feed thousands and yourself.’
There was quiet and only the priest could be distantly heard but Kyungsoo was not finished. The priest was just reading his final sentence when Kyungsoo lifted his chin and his voice was louder, clearer.
‘You do not want anyone to confuse you with a degenerate now. Do you, Byun Baekhyun?’
Hearing the threat, neither Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Minseok or Jongdae heard the priest ask Chanyeol for his final words. It came as a startle when they heard Chanyeol yelling from bellow.
‘I LOVE YOU BYUN BAEKHYUN!’
And Chanyeol was smiling, very broadly. Most unnaturally. And Baekhyun loved it. The words paled in comparison to the smile. It was beautiful - like how all of Chanyeol was very beautiful this moment before death. Jongdae made a sudden intake of breath when he saw that the man in his dream was every inch as radiant in the flesh.
Then that smile was hidden in a sack - that was not required but was used.
‘AND SO DO MANY OTHERS! DO NOT FORGET PEOPLE LOVE YOU.’ Chanyeol finished, voice muffled, still screaming to the balcony.
Baek’s mouth had parted to reply but the platform doors gave way under Chanyeol and he fell through. The noose tightened and the body twitched and twitched once more before it gave up on life and it went limp.
Baekhyun did not cry but Jongdae did. He mourned the loss of a great young man with a brilliant smile and infinite knowledge of the forest. Kyungsoo remained respectfully quiet, occasionally saying things like ‘What a shame’ and ‘He’ll be missed by someone, I’m sure’. The words were practiced.
While they waited in the reception of the jail, Baekhyun traced Chanyeol’s name on the brick walls with his fingers. And he was completely silent.
They had been waiting for some considerable time. Minseok had grown impatient but found that it was best he said nothing. Baekhyun gave no indication of leaving, since he simply sat against the wall, moving his fingers in the characters of Chanyeol’s name and Kyungsoo was impatiently pacing. Jongdae had a little less shame and asked Kyungsoo if he could leave.
‘Of course! Leave. Please, now,’ Kyungsoo almost insisted, complete with hand gestures of encouragement. ‘Minseok, go. You too Baekhyun. You need some rest.’
Baekhyun said nothing.
And Jongdae did leave but Minseok stayed - much to Kyungsoo’s annoyance. Once again, in that polite manner which was Kyungsoo’s, he asked Minseok to leave and take Baekhyun with him. He promised to take care of everything. Minseok was about to agree the fourth time he asked when an officer arrived, looking pale and dishevelled with his fingers shaking. Kyungsoo straightened at once.
He approached the officer who tried to whisper things into his ear. The young man really tried but his lips and hands were trembling and no words could form in his mouth. Kyungsoo ordered him to speak up. He tried this also. His breathing had begun to come out of his control along with an incredible twitching of his lips. In a sudden burst on unexpected impatience, Kyungsoo ordered him to speak up. And the young man did, shouting.
‘The head’s gone, sir!’
Baekhyun began to listen.
‘What?’
‘G-g-g-g-gone.’ The officer then clutched his mouth as if he had said the foulest word imaginable.
‘Gone?’
The officer nodded, clutching to his mouth for dear life.
‘How could it be gone?’ Kyungsoo hissed. ‘I was promised-’
‘We know!’ The officer shouted through his teeth. ‘Officer Candon and me…’ He took several deep breaths and recalled what he had seen without thinking.
According to the young officer, they had brought Chanyeol’s body into the cremation room. It was decided that it would have been more economical to burn his body than to bury it since he had no family to visit. When the hired undertaker removed the sack from Chanyeol’s head, so that he may extract it for Kyungsoo, there was none! The bag was merely full of auburn-golden locks which no one had ever seen before. The base of the neck was non-existent and it were as if there was no place made for a head at all! There was merely a body but no trace of a connection to a possible head. The undertaker had ran out, screaming it were demonic activity and that the young officer and Candon should run also. But Candon insisted there were no demons about. The air was warm and welcoming. Candon decided they would call another undertaker - and that was the cause for the first hour long delay.
After discovering that he was a mad man, bids had come for Chanyeol’s head. Just his head. Many biologists, physicians and scientists wanted to conduct a study on the mind of the mad, but there was only one man who was able to afford outbidding everyone for the prize. The young man was beginning his next sentence when Kyungsoo struck him across the head, silencing him.
‘You wanted Chanyeol’s brain?’ Baekhyun whispered, toneless.
‘That’s heartless, Kyungsoo,’ Minseok added. ‘He just died. He was Baekhyun’s friend.’
‘You’re monstrous and lack respect, Kyungsoo,’ Baekhyun gritted, rising to his feet.
‘Well you want his dick,’ Kyungsoo replied coolly, taking the terrified officer by the collar without looking, steadying his gaze at Baekhyun. ‘That body is mine now and perhaps I will have it cut off for you as a gift.’
Minseok had stepped forward to perhaps strike the forever arrogant and disrespectful Kyungsoo that was behind all the polite formalities but the young officer interrupted again, shaking.
‘YOU CAN’T DO THAT!’ The volume was hysterical. ‘YOU CAN’T! YOU CAN’T! CAN’T.’
‘Well why the bloody hell can’t I?’ Kyungsoo replied.
The young man didn’t answer. He fainted. Kyungsoo kicked him aside and took a step towards the door which he came. Minseok leapt forward and took him by the shoulders.
‘I never liked you,’ Kyungsoo said coolly before Minseok even began. ‘You’re not very intelligent nor as handsome as some give you credit, and you wouldn’t value the opportunity to study the brain of the mentally ill, whereas I do. Do not misunderstand m-’
Minseok broke Kyungsoo’s jaw, and several of his own fingers before walking out of the reception of the jail, dragging a crying Baekhyun with him.
Kyungsoo could not keep his promise.
The word had gotten out that a prisoner escaped death. The story varied between newspapers but it was the general assumption that the madman had escaped death replacing himself with a body he had mutilated. The name Mad Hacker was coined, assuming that Chanyeol had murdered people before he was taken into jail - which of course was not true. There was the other side of the public, which were completely fascinated with the notion of a convict magician escaping death. Mad Hacker was also a term for a brilliant magician who escaped death under the law, using an incredibly mutilated body from the morgue, which he had supposedly broken into every night whilst in captivity. Chanyeol was feared and praised depending on which street one was on and which newspaper they had most recently received.
Examinations - and by examination, it was merely removing all the clothes from the deformed body - revealed that it had no genitalia. Like the head, there were no scars or any evidence to prove that a penis had been on that body. Despite many protests by the scientific community, the Church took possession of the body and it was burnt. That, was the complete, untainted truth.
And so, Baekhyun received no horrid “gift” from Kyungsoo. Baekhyun was fine with that. He did not want to receive a parcel with a possibly shrivelling - but knowing Kyungsoo’s spitefulness, it would have been preserved - penis inside.
Baekhyun was fascinated with the amount of talk Chanyeol was instigating, but it caused him great pain to hear criticisms and horrible things which were nothing like Chanyeol at all. No one really knew him but Baekhyun and Jongdae and Mr Chau, but the latter, only through dreams.
Despite his growing general happiness accredited to his charity, which was not only limited to Chau’s household, Jongdae and Minsoek could always see in the quiet moments that Baekhyun’s smile would fade. He would sigh deeply to himself and look to the roof and mouth what seemed like ‘I miss you’ and ‘how are you?’ It was usually then that a little one would come, offering Baekhyun a token or gift. His smile would come alive once more and it was not insincere at all. To Jongdae and Minsoek he always seemed to be sparkling, even with a closed but radiating smile. The only time they would not see him was when he disappeared into his study to do work during the day and they knew not if he wept when he was alone. They didn’t believe he did though.
One afternoon, Byun Baekhyun, an industrial giant, instead of working, finally decided clear the wooden desk in his study. It had become a pile of papers and scrolls to the point that the paper weights were buried in some unknown place within and the wooden table top was not seen at all. He hadn’t taken the time to clear it since the day of Chanyeol’s hanging. He hadn’t cleaned it purely out of laziness - or so he convinced himself.
He began at the bottom, illogically and merely jerked out several distinct pieces of the pile, jutting out from underneath until the entire mount fell apart and the papers littered the floor. He found his wolf paw paper-weights, his large metallic star paperweight - which Minseok had given him for Christmas one year, a stone which appeared to be once sharp, a small statue of a left hand made of marble, a crystal orb which had been cut in half, his favourite quill from an owl which was now broken, yet another rough and dirty stone which was once sharp and another and another and another and another.
All of the sudden, Baekhyun was filled with an excitement and lightness of the heart. The blunted stones and paperweights fell from his hands. He made blind grabs at the remaining papers on his desk and pushed and pulled them away from the table. His fingers graced the surface of many more blunted stones and some hurt as they hit his hand. Byun didn’t mind. His mind was in a frenzy and it didn’t calm until he had snatched the final bank statement and let it fall on the floor, to reveal possibly hundreds of markings on the table. The table was graced with carvings, etches and lazy engravings of the characters of the name which Baekhyun had written in his own heart, as the one person who was able to find his way inside; as his kidnapper, his guide, his love and finally, as his friend.
Only then did Baekhyun cry.
But he was smiling; so Chanyeol was not upset when he watched this from a place unseen to both Baekhyun and you and me.
Not at all.
Part One
Part Two
A/N: AND IT IS DONE! good bye. Thank you for reading if you did! c: Have a good day. I can't believe i didn't upload it until now.
This was so self-indulgent...
A/N II:
For those who I’ve confused (I am so sorry)…
Basically, Chanyeol is an angel. His job was to somehow improve or change Baekhyun's outlook on life. His purpose and motives were to befriend and love him as a friend but not as a lover (but that's up to interpretation).
"Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” - Hebrews 13:1
For those not really in the EXO fandom…
Hope that clears some things up! Thank you so much for reading!
Anymore questions, just ask! :D
Pairing: Baekhyun/Chanyeol
Summary: Wealthy business man, Byun Baekhyun is kidnapped by a crazed, lost farm boy who doesn't know his name and claims that he didn't kidnap Baekhyun at all. But now Baekhyun had returned to civilisation and he cannot forget...
Part Three: Set in an iron forest
The Warden had let them through after he learned that Baekhyun was the one abducted by the man who was to hang at noon. They were lead into a series of sinister passages, left in total darkness to emerge into an open area engulfed by natural light. The weather, reflected Baekhyun’s dread with clouds but showed Jongdae’s satisfaction and pride in Baekhyun with the warmth of the sun. The hanging platform was open for all the prisoners and the skies to see. The two dragons of the booming industrial age were taken through a final two iron gates until Baekhyun had spotted the lean back that he had missed.
Byun whispered his name and at first there was no reply. The figure was facing the back wall on his knees and most likely in prayer with his head bowed.
‘Chanyeol?’ Baekhyun whispered once more and this time, pointed ears twitched towards his direction. Then the entire form followed.
Baekhyun did not know what would happen then. He did not expect, his former companion in the wilderness to take his collar, pulling him against the iron bars to whisper; ‘Mr Chau is looking for you!’
Bewildered, Baekhyun said nothing. He was still absorbing Chanyeol as he was now. Hair shaved and eyes sleepless. His grey uniform was still in better condition than the farmer’s rags he wore in the mountains. His charming ruggedness was replaced with the figure of a prisoner experiencing the price of poverty. A figure that was neither glorious nor handsome but dried and absorbed into the hateful world.
It saddened Baekhyun that he concluded that Chanyeol wasn’t handsome. Chanyeol was ugly. This was Chanyeol when Baekhyun was not mystified and fascinated with his life in the forest. Without his halo of golden locks, he wasn’t impressive. He was poor, dirty and looked much like a famished elf. Overall, Baekhyun was disappointed.
He could see that Jongdae was also.
‘See Mr Chau after I die, okay?’ Chanyeol requested with crazed eyes, violently shaking Baekhyun’s shoulders.
The prison guard tore them apart and Baekhyun took a step back, brushing the dirt from his coat.
‘See him!’ Chanyeol insisted, grabbing to the iron bars, pressing his face against them so that he became an image of great deformity. ‘Promise me!’
Baekhyun could not reply. He was too sad. He looked to the prison guard who began to open his mouth but was interrupted by Chanyeol screaming.
‘Promise me! Promise me! PROMISE! He really wants to see you!’
‘What happened to him?’ Baekhyun heard Jongdae whisper to the prison guard while he engaged Chanyeol’s deranged eyes.
‘He been like this since he came in. Always telling the guards things as they walk by. On his knees most of the time. When we asked a priest to speak to him - yer know, check for possession - they said he were a holy man. A good, honest young man. Crazy old fool. Look at this guy!’
They all looked to young man in the cell, whose eyes were only on Baekhyun. They were begging him. They were the eyes of a child or a puppy. And so he complied with a nod and then Chanyeol leaned back, satisfied.
The officer then took his leave to attend to another prisoner who was shouting things. Jongdae took Baekhyun’s shoulder.
‘Sorry. My dreams have fooled you.’
‘They were real, weren’t they?’
‘Of course!’ Jongdae screeched. ‘You must believe that. He looked so much more beautiful in my dreams than he does now. Of course, it is just a dream. A silly dream that we shouldn’t have believed in. Why did I even think that it was a vision o-’
‘No matter,’ Baekhyun sighed, adjusting his top hat purposefully. ‘We’re here now. As his friends.’
They both looked down at Chanyeol who was now sitting in front of the bars, but his neck was craned to the ceiling. His legs were outstretched awkwardly. In his mind, Jongdae denied knowing him at all and therefore couldn’t be his friend.
The officer returned. Baekhyun immediately asked him to be dismissed and for him to return before Chanyeol is taken to hang. Jongdae immediately protested.
‘But Baekhyun-’
‘So you’re Baekhyun eh?’
‘Please. I need to speak to him. Even if he can’t hear me or won’t listen. As you say, Jongdae, forgiveness is for the sinner.’
‘Well, he’s ‘een muttern’ your name a lot lately, so be ‘areful.’
Then the officer warned that there would only be five or so minutes until Chanyeol had to be taken away. Baekhyun accepted this and was left with his old captor. He stood there, at a safe distance from the iron bars, looking down at the lost Chanyeol. He did not know how to begin. So he began it like he would a business meeting; with a compliment.
‘I like seeing your ears.’
Chanyeol had slid onto his back was the staring at something interesting on the roof.
‘I missed you.’
The thing on the roof had supposedly moved to the left wall and so there was the mad man’s attention.
‘How does it feel to know you’re going…to die?’
The wall seemed most entertaining to Chanyeol, who’s saliva was now accumulating on the sides of his mouth.
‘I’m sorry I called you mad. You weren’t mad…from what I saw.’
Chanyeol stayed still.
‘I miss your company…’
The saliva spilled unto the concrete floor.
‘Remember that mountain - hill - with the boulders?’
Chanyeol merely blinked at the wall.
‘Remember all those trees you wrote your name on so you would remember your name in this language?’
There was a clatter from the open area behind him. The setting up of the death contraption.
‘Chanyeol, please speak to me.’
The saliva had formed a large pool.
‘Remember all the trees you wrote your name on?’
Chanyeol’s attention was once again on the roof.
‘Remember?’
Silence.
‘You even wrote on bark! Remember?’
‘The mountain with the boulders and the pool at the top?!’
‘I’m sorry I made you do things you didn’t want to, Chanyeol!’
‘I miss you! Understand?! I was seeing this whore and she had your hair and your height…’
Baekhyun found himself on his knees, clinging unto the bars - desperate to get the words out.
‘I really wanted to take you that night but you didn’t want me and I didn’t understand! I really wanted you Chanyeol! I really thought you loved me because you cared for me! Despite myself, I fell for it.’
Silence.
‘I’m just a little desperate, Chanyeol. Jongdae is my friend. Minseok is my friend. Kyungsoo is just my friend! But you!? You looked at me with kindness and compassion and unmerited favour that took me years to earn from any of my friends and yet can still not match!’
Jongdae can hear Baekhyun shouting from several meters away but he doesn’t approach.
‘No one loves Jongdae! Not without his business! He’s living off Kyungsoo! He is just like me! Admiring a man we long for from afar because he cannot whip the courage to speak to him but I am speaking to you now!’
‘I just needed some acceptance…You offered that to me, Chanyeol.’
‘I’m sorry I tried to take you.’ He quietened now. ‘I’m sorry if I ever hurt you. I just need someone to love me. Truly and properly.’
Silence and then the use of a sandpaper voice…
‘You know, Byun Baekhyun-’
Chanyeol lay on his back, looking up at the kneeling boy; the thing on the wall and the saliva pool forgotten. He lifted his chin to see Baekhyun better and it made his Adams apple well defined. Hearing his voice, despite how dry it sounded, gave Baek the sense of relief. This was the voice he missed; layered with undeserving affection for him.
He waited for Chanyeol to say more but he didn’t. It was a pause of only a fraction of a second but seemed so eternal. Chanyeol just lay there, as unattractive as he had been this entire conversation but at least now, Baekhyun knew, the Chanyeol he knew was alive. Baekhyun yearned to hear him speak. His mouth opened a crack to almost encourage him but then came the boom of the officer’s voice and jangling of keys and chains.
‘Time’s up, sir!’
‘Wait! He has merely a few more words to say!-’
‘Sorry sir. Five or so minutes! He’s got to go, and now so do you.’
Despite a courageous battle, Baekhyun was then taken roughly by both arms and dragged by other officers away from Chanyeol’s cell. He had kicked and yelled demanding some more time. His coat was grabbed on and he had ripped himself from it to run back to the Chanyeol’s cell, wrapping his arms around the iron gates. He had only begun to make progress with this Chanyeol. He was so close to his closure. The officers began pulling at him but Baekhyun linked himself into the bars and the officers were now trying to unpick him. Baekhyun demanded a minute. It was all a minute he needed. This minute was not given with the appearance of Kyungsoo, who ordered the officers back.
All the while, the bald young man was unresponsive and once again drooling on the floor.
‘Baekhyun. You’ve spoken to him,’ Kyungsoo began with a deep sigh, dressed in his finest dark clothing. Large eyes emotionless but perfectly dressed for a funeral. ‘Let him be. You have occupied all his remaining minutes and have not let me nor Jongdae speak to him. Don’t be selfish and let him go.’
Baekhyun was untangled. He could not help himself but obey Kyungsoo. His fellow dragon brought him to the viewing platform on the balcony above the open area. Perfectly situated so that the hanging was viewed face on. He was surprised to find Minseok also there, standing beside Jongdae. Kyungsoo helped Baekhyun put on his coat and top hat - restoring him to his sophisticated appearance. In his wild attack, his hair had become a nest for untamed birds and his shirt sleeves torn and the stitching on his fine coat has come loose. His top hat had been squashed and dirtied. But Kyungsoo managed to make him look presentable once more. Restoring him.
All four dragons stood there, side by side, watching the young man named Chanyeol come down the steps in chains and then stand on the wooden platform as the noose was wrapped around his neck and the priest began to read out from a book. His words were barely audible to the four watching from above.
‘I feel embarrassed for you,’ Kyungsoo said in a low voice. Byun noticed Minseok ignoring and Jongdae merely swallowing but unresponsive. ‘Look,’ Do encouraged, gesturing with the slightest motion of his head towards the boy about to die. ‘You actually threw a tantrum to want to speak to that. He’s dead, Baekhyun. He has been for a long time. No one knows who he is. Not even him. The eternal part of him - memories, the reputation - is gone.’ He sighed deeply. Baekhyun could see Kyungsoo’s intention was to help him but his advice seemed wrong. Shallow. Temporary.
‘No one earns treasure by not doing hard work,’ Kyungsoo finished. ‘Work hard and earn your riches, my friend. Feed thousands and yourself.’
There was quiet and only the priest could be distantly heard but Kyungsoo was not finished. The priest was just reading his final sentence when Kyungsoo lifted his chin and his voice was louder, clearer.
‘You do not want anyone to confuse you with a degenerate now. Do you, Byun Baekhyun?’
Hearing the threat, neither Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, Minseok or Jongdae heard the priest ask Chanyeol for his final words. It came as a startle when they heard Chanyeol yelling from bellow.
‘I LOVE YOU BYUN BAEKHYUN!’
And Chanyeol was smiling, very broadly. Most unnaturally. And Baekhyun loved it. The words paled in comparison to the smile. It was beautiful - like how all of Chanyeol was very beautiful this moment before death. Jongdae made a sudden intake of breath when he saw that the man in his dream was every inch as radiant in the flesh.
Then that smile was hidden in a sack - that was not required but was used.
‘AND SO DO MANY OTHERS! DO NOT FORGET PEOPLE LOVE YOU.’ Chanyeol finished, voice muffled, still screaming to the balcony.
Baek’s mouth had parted to reply but the platform doors gave way under Chanyeol and he fell through. The noose tightened and the body twitched and twitched once more before it gave up on life and it went limp.
Baekhyun did not cry but Jongdae did. He mourned the loss of a great young man with a brilliant smile and infinite knowledge of the forest. Kyungsoo remained respectfully quiet, occasionally saying things like ‘What a shame’ and ‘He’ll be missed by someone, I’m sure’. The words were practiced.
While they waited in the reception of the jail, Baekhyun traced Chanyeol’s name on the brick walls with his fingers. And he was completely silent.
They had been waiting for some considerable time. Minseok had grown impatient but found that it was best he said nothing. Baekhyun gave no indication of leaving, since he simply sat against the wall, moving his fingers in the characters of Chanyeol’s name and Kyungsoo was impatiently pacing. Jongdae had a little less shame and asked Kyungsoo if he could leave.
‘Of course! Leave. Please, now,’ Kyungsoo almost insisted, complete with hand gestures of encouragement. ‘Minseok, go. You too Baekhyun. You need some rest.’
Baekhyun said nothing.
And Jongdae did leave but Minseok stayed - much to Kyungsoo’s annoyance. Once again, in that polite manner which was Kyungsoo’s, he asked Minseok to leave and take Baekhyun with him. He promised to take care of everything. Minseok was about to agree the fourth time he asked when an officer arrived, looking pale and dishevelled with his fingers shaking. Kyungsoo straightened at once.
He approached the officer who tried to whisper things into his ear. The young man really tried but his lips and hands were trembling and no words could form in his mouth. Kyungsoo ordered him to speak up. He tried this also. His breathing had begun to come out of his control along with an incredible twitching of his lips. In a sudden burst on unexpected impatience, Kyungsoo ordered him to speak up. And the young man did, shouting.
‘The head’s gone, sir!’
Baekhyun began to listen.
‘What?’
‘G-g-g-g-gone.’ The officer then clutched his mouth as if he had said the foulest word imaginable.
‘Gone?’
The officer nodded, clutching to his mouth for dear life.
‘How could it be gone?’ Kyungsoo hissed. ‘I was promised-’
‘We know!’ The officer shouted through his teeth. ‘Officer Candon and me…’ He took several deep breaths and recalled what he had seen without thinking.
According to the young officer, they had brought Chanyeol’s body into the cremation room. It was decided that it would have been more economical to burn his body than to bury it since he had no family to visit. When the hired undertaker removed the sack from Chanyeol’s head, so that he may extract it for Kyungsoo, there was none! The bag was merely full of auburn-golden locks which no one had ever seen before. The base of the neck was non-existent and it were as if there was no place made for a head at all! There was merely a body but no trace of a connection to a possible head. The undertaker had ran out, screaming it were demonic activity and that the young officer and Candon should run also. But Candon insisted there were no demons about. The air was warm and welcoming. Candon decided they would call another undertaker - and that was the cause for the first hour long delay.
After discovering that he was a mad man, bids had come for Chanyeol’s head. Just his head. Many biologists, physicians and scientists wanted to conduct a study on the mind of the mad, but there was only one man who was able to afford outbidding everyone for the prize. The young man was beginning his next sentence when Kyungsoo struck him across the head, silencing him.
‘You wanted Chanyeol’s brain?’ Baekhyun whispered, toneless.
‘That’s heartless, Kyungsoo,’ Minseok added. ‘He just died. He was Baekhyun’s friend.’
‘You’re monstrous and lack respect, Kyungsoo,’ Baekhyun gritted, rising to his feet.
‘Well you want his dick,’ Kyungsoo replied coolly, taking the terrified officer by the collar without looking, steadying his gaze at Baekhyun. ‘That body is mine now and perhaps I will have it cut off for you as a gift.’
Minseok had stepped forward to perhaps strike the forever arrogant and disrespectful Kyungsoo that was behind all the polite formalities but the young officer interrupted again, shaking.
‘YOU CAN’T DO THAT!’ The volume was hysterical. ‘YOU CAN’T! YOU CAN’T! CAN’T.’
‘Well why the bloody hell can’t I?’ Kyungsoo replied.
The young man didn’t answer. He fainted. Kyungsoo kicked him aside and took a step towards the door which he came. Minseok leapt forward and took him by the shoulders.
‘I never liked you,’ Kyungsoo said coolly before Minseok even began. ‘You’re not very intelligent nor as handsome as some give you credit, and you wouldn’t value the opportunity to study the brain of the mentally ill, whereas I do. Do not misunderstand m-’
Minseok broke Kyungsoo’s jaw, and several of his own fingers before walking out of the reception of the jail, dragging a crying Baekhyun with him.
Kyungsoo could not keep his promise.
The word had gotten out that a prisoner escaped death. The story varied between newspapers but it was the general assumption that the madman had escaped death replacing himself with a body he had mutilated. The name Mad Hacker was coined, assuming that Chanyeol had murdered people before he was taken into jail - which of course was not true. There was the other side of the public, which were completely fascinated with the notion of a convict magician escaping death. Mad Hacker was also a term for a brilliant magician who escaped death under the law, using an incredibly mutilated body from the morgue, which he had supposedly broken into every night whilst in captivity. Chanyeol was feared and praised depending on which street one was on and which newspaper they had most recently received.
Examinations - and by examination, it was merely removing all the clothes from the deformed body - revealed that it had no genitalia. Like the head, there were no scars or any evidence to prove that a penis had been on that body. Despite many protests by the scientific community, the Church took possession of the body and it was burnt. That, was the complete, untainted truth.
And so, Baekhyun received no horrid “gift” from Kyungsoo. Baekhyun was fine with that. He did not want to receive a parcel with a possibly shrivelling - but knowing Kyungsoo’s spitefulness, it would have been preserved - penis inside.
Baekhyun was fascinated with the amount of talk Chanyeol was instigating, but it caused him great pain to hear criticisms and horrible things which were nothing like Chanyeol at all. No one really knew him but Baekhyun and Jongdae and Mr Chau, but the latter, only through dreams.
Despite his growing general happiness accredited to his charity, which was not only limited to Chau’s household, Jongdae and Minsoek could always see in the quiet moments that Baekhyun’s smile would fade. He would sigh deeply to himself and look to the roof and mouth what seemed like ‘I miss you’ and ‘how are you?’ It was usually then that a little one would come, offering Baekhyun a token or gift. His smile would come alive once more and it was not insincere at all. To Jongdae and Minsoek he always seemed to be sparkling, even with a closed but radiating smile. The only time they would not see him was when he disappeared into his study to do work during the day and they knew not if he wept when he was alone. They didn’t believe he did though.
One afternoon, Byun Baekhyun, an industrial giant, instead of working, finally decided clear the wooden desk in his study. It had become a pile of papers and scrolls to the point that the paper weights were buried in some unknown place within and the wooden table top was not seen at all. He hadn’t taken the time to clear it since the day of Chanyeol’s hanging. He hadn’t cleaned it purely out of laziness - or so he convinced himself.
He began at the bottom, illogically and merely jerked out several distinct pieces of the pile, jutting out from underneath until the entire mount fell apart and the papers littered the floor. He found his wolf paw paper-weights, his large metallic star paperweight - which Minseok had given him for Christmas one year, a stone which appeared to be once sharp, a small statue of a left hand made of marble, a crystal orb which had been cut in half, his favourite quill from an owl which was now broken, yet another rough and dirty stone which was once sharp and another and another and another and another.
All of the sudden, Baekhyun was filled with an excitement and lightness of the heart. The blunted stones and paperweights fell from his hands. He made blind grabs at the remaining papers on his desk and pushed and pulled them away from the table. His fingers graced the surface of many more blunted stones and some hurt as they hit his hand. Byun didn’t mind. His mind was in a frenzy and it didn’t calm until he had snatched the final bank statement and let it fall on the floor, to reveal possibly hundreds of markings on the table. The table was graced with carvings, etches and lazy engravings of the characters of the name which Baekhyun had written in his own heart, as the one person who was able to find his way inside; as his kidnapper, his guide, his love and finally, as his friend.
Only then did Baekhyun cry.
But he was smiling; so Chanyeol was not upset when he watched this from a place unseen to both Baekhyun and you and me.
Not at all.
Part One
Part Two
A/N: AND IT IS DONE! good bye. Thank you for reading if you did! c: Have a good day. I can't believe i didn't upload it until now.
This was so self-indulgent...
A/N II:
For those who I’ve confused (I am so sorry)…
Basically, Chanyeol is an angel. His job was to somehow improve or change Baekhyun's outlook on life. His purpose and motives were to befriend and love him as a friend but not as a lover (but that's up to interpretation).
- The big 'family feud' Chanyeol mentioned and his elder brother arguing with his father is Lucifer's fall out with God
- Chanyeol kidnaps Baekhyun and puts him in a tree. Somewhere high up. How did he ge there?
- Angels don't have genitalia (that's why he didn't have a member and why he was so flat when Baekhyun tried to seduce him)
- Biblically, angels speak to people in dreams (like Chanyeol to Chen) and in person (like Chanyeol to Baekhyun). Typically, angels always have to warn the human who they speak to “Do not be afraid” as Chanyeol did with Chen.
- I included that Chen was going to church to kind of suggest a religious link
- Chanyeol glows and looks radiant a lot. Suggestions made with the halo.
- Chen foreshadows things about “angels at [ones] door”. This links back to an old Victorian belief that one had to be kind to strangers from;
"Keep on loving each other as brothers. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.” - Hebrews 13:1
- Chanyeol had golden curls (even though his hair is black now) to represent a halo
- Chanyeol prays a lot and it was mentioned once that he was 'talking to his Father'
- Chanyeol doesn't like cursing or lying because it's wrong to him, as if disrespecting the father
- Chanyeol is uncomfortable with talking about human men or women in a sexual manner because he's not attracted to them because he's not human himself (this is too subtle maybe)
- When in prison, the priest who inspected Chanyeol said he was a holy man
- Chanyeol looks at the night sky “wistfully, longingly, as if missing home” which alludes to his home being above; heaven.
For those not really in the EXO fandom…
- Chen = Jongdae
- Xiumin = Minseok
- D.O = Kyungsoo
Hope that clears some things up! Thank you so much for reading!
Anymore questions, just ask! :D