Mask || BTS Demon!AU

~21~

"One of us ought to look and see who just walked into our dorm, though..." Namjoon mumbled.

Three harsh knocks on the door made them both scream out, holding onto each other in surprise. If Namjoon hadn't grabbed Jimin, the boy surely would've fallen as his knees buckled.

The door opened, slowly... creaking with the most awful sound that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand on end.

Yoongi.

Fuck, but Yoongi with yellow eyes. Dangerous eyes that seemed to glow even in the terrible light of Namjoon's bedroom.

The two boys stared with frightened eyes, neither of them saying a word or moving a muscle.

The demon rolled its eyes. "I can hear what you're saying, idiot humans. Do not despair, I will leave you alone for tonight. As long as you behave..."

It wasn't using Yoongi's voice. Was it scaring them on purpose? Was there another reason it wasn't using Yoongi's? 

Namjoon tried to ignore the questions running through his mind and nodded quickly.

"Good," the demon said. "No need for any more missing friends, right?"

Namjoon gulped and shook his head.

"Schedule for tomorrow?" the demon cocked up an eyebrow.

"F-Free," Namjoon stuttered, already fearing how it would respond to this. "The agency knows T-Tae is missing. They cleared our schedule."

The demon squinted its eyes into a vicious glare. "You blabbed already?" it hissed at Namjoon.

Namjoon gulped again, mustering up some courage. "Well, we obviously want him back. We had to tell someone, right? Besides, they would've found out tomorrow anyway. Or can you suddenly duplicate yourself too?"

The demon shot forward in a blur, grabbing Namjoon by the throat. He pulled him from the chair and slammed him against the wall while Jimin yelped and screamed Namjoon's name.

"You're playing a dangerous game, Kim Namjoon," the demon hissed in his face.

Namjoon gasped for breath, unable to reply.

"Please, please let him go! Please, you're hurting him!" Jimin begged.

The demon looked at him with a look that Jimin wouldn't easily forget. His hyung's face... Yoongi's face... looking him with such disgust... as if here were pathetic.

"You can try all you want," the demon said, ignoring Jimin and turning his head to face Namjoon again, "but there's no way you'll find Taehyung without looking up and down the entire city. You won't get rid of me this easily."

It was over as quickly as it started. Namjoon's throat was released and he sank to his knees, coughing and gasping for air. The demon was out of the room in the blink of an eye, in less time than it took Jimin to reach Namjoon. Jimin started patting his back softly, unsure how he could help.

"I-It's okay hyung, you can breathe again, you're okay," he said. To Namjoon it sounded more like he was reassuring himself that his hyung wasn't going to die.

"I'm al- alright Jimin-ah," Namjoon breathed out, moving to get up on his feet.

"Let me help you," Jimin said quickly, grabbing his arm and supporting him while he rose to stand up. Namjoon felt lightheaded. The fear he had felt – the fear that was still running through him – had been different than before. A fear of dying. A fear of having to leave Jimin and the other members behind. A fear of abandoning Taehyung and Yoongi.

Fuck, it was a hundred times worse than his... his more 'general' fear of the demon...

"Are you okay?" Jimin asked, concern all over his face as he tried to make eye contact with Namjoon.

Namjoon was still breathing hard, but it was getting better. His mind was running a hundred miles an hour. He had caught onto something, somehow, while the demon had forced his airway shut.

"He gave us a hint," Namjoon whispered as softly as he could.

Jimin heard it, thank god he did, because Namjoon wasn't sure if he could whisper any louder without the demon hearing them.

"What?" Jimin whispered back.

"He said we wouldn't find Tae without looking up and down the entire city," Namjoon replied, sitting down behind his desk again and grabbing a paper, writing down the sentence. "His tongue slipped, I'm certain. No one talks like that. Up and down the city? Usually, you would say 'turn the whole city upside down' or 'search the entire city' or maybe even 'look up and down every street', or-"

"Your point, hyung," Jimin urged.

Namjoon looked at Jimin. "We would have to look up and down. He's keeping them below ground."

"How can you be sure?" Jimin whispered, his eyes wide.

Namjoon grimaced. "I can't be a hundred percent sure, of course. But my gut tells me this means something."

Jimin nodded. "I trust you. We tell the others tomorrow."

Maybe he was entirely wrong about this, but every bad guy made a mistake at some point. It wasn't a clear clue, and it definitely wasn't obvious, but the demon's choice of words had triggered something in his brain and everything told him he was right about this.

Namjoon nodded. "Tomorrow."