White Noise - Part 22
Notes | Prologue | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14
15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31
32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | Epilogue
Years Ago
The suitcase that Jonghyun dragged behind him on the sidewalk contained all that was left of his belongings. A couple of outfits, a toothbrush, and an mp3 player that was sure to run dead after a few uses and never be played again, since the charger was gone.
It was after midnight, before sunrise, and Jonghyun couldn't sleep because he had nowhere to do it. Even if he was ready to accept his fate as a homeless person, Jonghyun was much too aware of the things that happened when the sun went down to feel comfortable enough to pass out in a cardboard box. Not without alcohol. He wished he had alcohol.
He walked with the intention of finding him, Onew, the vampire who's simultaneously ruined and saved his life. Onew, he thought, was all he really had now. He had Onew, and Onew had him. He was becoming okay with that. The more he tried to push away, the more Onew tried to push away, the more they seemed to understand that they needed each other.
"I wondered if you'd come." his vampire said, when Jonghyun reached the alleyway where they first met. Jonghyun had stumbled away from a nightclub, dizzy drunk, when Onew had decided to drink from him for the first time. He stopped too soon, and their bond was created, and Jonghyun once cringed at the memory. Now, he didn't mind it so much, as he gazed around the darkened spot and finally found his vampire sitting on some dirty crate - looking ever so handsome and out of place in his expensive threads. Jonghyun was a homeless nobody who belonged here. Onew was from another world.
"Yeah." Jonghyun dropped his suitcase, "I'm out of options anyway. Congrats, I'm your responsibility."
Onew frowned.
Jonghyun tried to smile, "I'm kidding. You know I won't let you take care of me or anything. I just, you know, couldn't think of anywhere else to go right now."
"You know that they're going to take you if you're not with me." Onew said.
Jonghyun grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Yeah, well... least then I wouldn't be scared to sleep, am I right?"
"You know I won't let them take you." Onew said, his face scrunching up in that angry way that it did.
"Yeah." Jonghyun said, shrugging and stepping closer to Onew. "I know."
Onew stood up, kicking the crate he'd sat on. It slammed into the wall behind him and cracked, and Jonghyun froze, wide eyed. "You mad?" he asked, blinking.
Onew stalked towards Jonghyun, and Jonghyun was too shocked to move even though he knew what was coming. He could feel Onew's intentions all too clearly. Just like that, his vampire's fist collided with his jaw and he fell back on the ground.
"You're going to kill me?" Jonghyun asked, surprisingly far from scared. "That's your plan?"
Onew dropped down on top of Jonghyun, putting a hand against his cheek and holding his head to the ground. "I can't protect you." he said.
"You can't do this." Jonghyun said. "You like yourself too much to hurt yourself so bad." Then, he whimpered, as Onew's hand pushed down hard, so hard he wondered if his head would break under the pressure. Then, predictably, the pressure eased up and he sighed. "Onew, calm down.."
Onew shook, and Jonghyun could feel the conflict with in him. "Please, Onew.." he continued to urge, "Don't."
If he could just press down hard enough, Onew told himself, then Jonghyun's head would crack. Just like that, and it'd be over. His biggest weakness would be gone. But that made him feel sick and horrible, and he teared up imagining Jonghyun in such a state. Then he thought of how much worse older vampires could do...
Jonghyun could feel the shift in Onew, and again, he felt his intentions all too clearly. Onew's hand moved off of his face, so he could turn his head and look into his vampire's eyes. "Why?"
Onew scowled and gripped Jonghyun's hair, pulling him up an inch or so off the ground. Then, he sunk his fangs into his bonded's neck. He could end this, this way. The way that he started... Jonghyun sobbed in his ear, and it was too good of a sound, he thought - yet it was a horrible sound as well, a sound that he could feel the pain behind. Soon it was over though. Jonghyun's eyes closed, and he was unmoving, and Onew pulled back off of him fast. He'd stopped too soon again, but he could hear how slowly his heart was beating and it made him sick.
He fled the alleyway, panicked and hurting.
It didn't seem like long after when it truly was over, and all cliche aside, it literally felt like someone reached into his chest and pulled out his heart. He was left empty, more alone than he knew he could be, just aching in a way that made any physical torture he'd ever endured pale in comparison. It damaged not his body, but his soul. Jonghyun was gone. He hadn't known how much he'd cared for him until that moment.
Now
Onew dropped to his knees, silent but broken. Water was left running, where he'd been scrubbing blood off of his hand before he left to visit his human, who he now knew was no longer his. Maybe no longer even here. "Why?" it was all he could think, and he said it out loud. Why, all of a sudden? There had been nothing before. Minho was back to school, and things were going to be as normal as they could be for him, Onew knew too well that it was all Minho wanted. Why would that be taken from him? Just like that?
The first time Onew lost a bonded, he thought of his his loss. He cried for himself, and felt bad for himself. Now he thought only of Minho, and how he'd been the cause of this, how he'd ruined Minho's life, and now all too likely ended it, and the short time they'd had together - no matter what it meant to Onew - he knew that Minho would trade it quickly for a longer life, more time with his family, more time just doing homework.
It didn't just damage his soul to lose Minho. It tore it in two. That's when he knew, he hadn't just been bonded to Minho.
He'd loved him.
Next