Phoenix | SuperM

49 / Desperacy

A heavy body and a glass case both lying heavy on his body. That wasn't the last thing Mark expected from that day but it was something he would rather do without.

With the strength his body could muster, Mark managed to push Kai and the glass case off his body. It sent a wave of relief over like an unexpected gust of cool wind on a hot summer's day.

Kai was knocked out cold. Upon checking if he was alright, Mark took notice of the thin black vines traveling beneath the first few layers of his skin, intoxicating and darkening his exposed abdomen. The process was slow and stopped its movement after twenty seconds. His right arm was also painted crimson and swollen.

Mark watched in concern and curiosity, getting quick and forgettable memory flashes within that twenty-second period. He wrecked his head, trying to hold onto that very memory that couldn't help but slip away.

It was useless. It was buried deep within his memories. Most probably the group of those which Ten could not recover. And to make things worse, his headache worsened.

Mark tapped his ear only to hear a scramble. Great. Coms weren't an option.

He patted himself down and sighed in relief to feel his phone in his hoodie pocket. He had managed to grab a few things while on Kai's back; where he got the strength, he did not know. He pulled it out and called the first person who came to mind.

"WHERE ARE YOU–"

Mark winced at the exclamation bursting into his ear. A bit of fumbling and distant voices filled the short silence before the yells subsided.

"Sorry about that Mark," He sighed in relief to hear Taemin's calmer voice. "Taeyong's a bit agitated–"

"AGITATED?!"

Louder fumbling noises followed, then Taeyong's frustrated yells were muffled by what Mark believed to be a hand.

"Alright! Mark, I'm back," Taemin briskly announced; light rushed footsteps following his almost incomprehensible words. "What was I going to say? Oh, right. YOU BETTER SEND US YOUR LOCATION OR TAEYONG IS GOING TO KILL ME–"

"Taemin," Mark sighed. It was going to be a lot coming in for him. He didn't know if he'd be able to say anything other than that.

"I don't know where I am. I'm on the roof of some building on the outskirts, I have a barely healing wound on my chest, Kai has some unusual foreign entity in his abdomen which is apparently designed to kill him should he be out of range from the creator and is currently knocked out cold, and the glass case we collected went missing–"

"Woah, woah, slow down," Taemin interrupted. "You have what?"

"Big bruise, but we have bigger issues in our hands here!"

A small groan caught Mark's ear. He put his phone down next to him, ignoring Taemin's never-ending questions, and slowly glanced down to Kai. He expected something bad but what he saw looked far worse.

His body was pale and dampened with sweat, and his veins etched his skin, darker than the black of the darkest night; similar to the situation on his abdomen. This was just worse. The blackened veins slowly traveled up from his fingertips and momentarily stopped near his elbows. From his suppressed writhes, it was only fair to assume it was incredibly painful.

The crystal was attacking multiple parts of Kai's body at once so that the kill would strike at a vital organ, undisturbed by the rest of his body fighting against it. Which one it was, Mark didn't know. His best assumption was either his heart or brain.