Chapter 44: Every Mark, Etched in Skin ⚠️

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His face is twisted.
His eyes-wild.

His fists-trembling from how hard they're clenched.

His fury is suffocating.
It's alive.
It's screaming for war.

I sob.
Because I feel it too.

I want them dead.
I want to erase them from existence.

"I don't know how I survived," Taehyung admits.

His voice is distant.
"I really thought I was going to die."

Yoongi is crying now.

Not just angry.
Not just furious.
But wrecked.

His tears drip onto his lap.
Silent.
Unrelenting.

His face twisted in agony.

His shoulders shake as he grips his knees.
He looks-
Lost.

Like he doesn't know what to do.

Like he doesn't know how to hold all this pain inside him without bursting apart.

Like he doesn't know how to fix something that should have never been broken.

And me?
I just hold Taehyung tighter.

Because I don't know how to fix it either.

"One of his staff helped me."
Taehyung's voice is barely there.
Small.
Shaky.

Like he almost doesn't believe it himself.
"I think she was the cook."

Yoongi and I still.
The air tightens around us, wrapped in something too fragile to breathe in.

"She took pity on me one night," he murmurs.

His fingers flex over the teddy bear, gripping just enough to keep himself together.

"While my aunt and uncle were sleeping... she helped me escape."
He swallows thickly.

"I asked her why she was doing this."
A beat.
A pause.

"She said they never liked them anyway."
His voice wavers.

"And that it was about time she left, too."
Taehyung's eyes shimmer with something I can't name.

"She took me to the hospital."
His voice trembles.

"I was unconscious for days."

Yoongi grips his arm.
Tight.

Like if he doesn't, Taehyung might disappear right in front of him.

"Tae."
The way he says it-
Broken.
Reverent.
Desperate.

It splinters something inside me.

Tears spill from Taehyung's eyes.
His lips tremble.

"I wanted to live."
His voice breaks.

And we sob.

"The entire time," he whispers, voice so wrecked, so raw, it shatters something inside me.

"I just wanted to see the both of you."

My breath hitches.
My heart aches inside my chest.

"All I wanted," he breathes, voice trembling, "was to go home to you guys."

And that's when we lose it.
Completely.

Yoongi lets out a sound.
Broken.
Wounded.

A strangled sob that tears its way out of his throat.

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