Reflection

Fourteen

It was when their eyes had locked that very first time that he knew it had happened, that he was suddenly bound to the caged being in front of him, and Taehyung had never hated himself more than in that very moment. Images of the past were burned into his mind, things he would never forget, and as he took his leave during the small mercy that Namjoon had afforded him, he was brought back now to a time that he would rather have forgotten...

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With trembling hands, Taehyung clutched onto his baby sister in the depths of his parents closet, trying desperately to shush her whimpering cries. Eonjin had her little hands balled into the fabric of his shirt and he trembled in fear as the sounds of their parents cries grew louder. "Please Eonjin," He whispered into her ear and rocked her in order to get her to be silent, "Please," His tears fell onto her forehead as he begged her to be silent, "We have to be quiet," There was the sound of heavy footfalls coming into the room and he sunk deeper within the corner of the closet. He could no longer hear any cries from downstairs so he clutched onto Eonjin tightly to his small chest, eyes wide with tear stained cheeks and trembling hands. His teeth were biting through his lower lip in order to stifle his own crying as the baby in his arms gave another squeal of discontent, his sister not understanding the type of danger they were in.

Beside him, his little brother Jeonggyu clutched onto his arm tightly, burying his small face into his side as he trembled and babbled, more afraid of the darkness of the closet rather than the creature within their home. Taehyung didn't know what he was going to do. He knew why they were here, why his parents were fighting for not only their lives but for them as well. It was because of what Taehyung and Eonjin were. It had managed to skip Jeonggyu, the human genes of their father making the toddler more like him rather than like their mother, but... Taehyung was different. He had always been different. He was a phoenix when he wasn't supposed to be. Only girls were supposed to be phoenix's. It was why they were after him, just as his parents had always feared.
Jungwoo and his men were coming for him...

The footfalls were now louder as they approached the closet door, his heart clenching in fear as his mind wandered into dark places as to the reason for the sudden silence in the home. Wrapping his little arms around his siblings, Taehyung pressed himself as close to them as he could within the corner of the closet. His head was pressed to theirs and he muttered apologies under his breath for not being able to protect them.

Taehyung froze, body unable to move as the door was ripped off it hinges and a scream bubbled up his throat but refused to escape as he stared at the skeletal monstrosity before him. Jeonggyu shrieked and Eonjin continued to cry, the toddler and baby not understanding what was happening as a stroke of courage filled their older brother's trembling body and he pushed them behind him. Standing up, he spread his arms and legs as a barrier between him and the monster, tears falling freely down his face as he whimpered, forcing his voice to come out of his mouth as he tried to scare the beast, "Stay back," He sounded pathetic and small even to his own ears, "I'm-" The monster took a step towards him and he shrunk before righting himself once more, "I'm warning you." He summoned a useless ball of blue flame into his palms, trying to remember what his mother had been teaching him but in the face of the blood stained creature in front of him he was terrified.

A warmth trickled down his thigh and more tears fell from his eyes as a puddle began to form on the ground, a dark stain forming in the fabric of his pajama pants as he tried to hold his ground against the slowly approaching creature. "Not them," The words were hiccuped out of his mouth before he even realized what he was doing and he was falling to the floor on his knees, "Please not them. I'll-" He had to force the words to come out as the monster drew closer, "I'll do what ever you want. I'll go with you. Just-"

The monster stopped, it stopped moving towards him altogether, and just stared. It's solid black slits staring at him. It reached out a clawed hand and Taehyung shrank back in fear as it wiped the tears from his eyes before turning around and leaving back to where it came. Heart lodged into his chest, Taehyung collapsed fully onto the ground, arms wrapped protectively around himself as he heaved violently and threw up all over the ground. Tears cascading down his face as sobs ripped from deep within his chest.

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What was his siblings going to say?

What was everyone going to say?

There was a reason that he hadn't even dared to speak about the imprint out loud to even himself...

Everyone knew what Namjoon had been ordered to do to his family, they knew that he had spared Taehyung, Jeonggyu and Eonjin's lives that night. They even know that it was because of the similarities between what had happened to him and Kyungmin, but what were they going to say....

Taehyung was bound to his parent's murderer...

Imprints didn't break for his kind like they did for others, it was a one and done deal for him. There was no escaping this fate...

Looking at the shared looks of horror on Yoongi's and Jimin's faces his heart clenched tightly in his chest as he wrapped his arms tightly around himself, gave out a heavy sob, tears falling as he rushed towards the exit of the cave, intending to force himself through in order to get away when two arms wrapped around him from behind and he allowed the comforting presence of the human to comfort him as he wept.

He was in love with the person who destroyed his family...

The person who had destroyed his home and taken away everything from him... and he had never felt like more of a monster and failure then in that moment....