4.6 | Dark Ages ✓

- 0 2 : 0 5

– 0 2 : 0 5

THERE'S A GUN pressed to his head.

Fear grips him, but he forces himself to stay calm. Darkness has enveloped him, as opposed to the sunlight he'd seen seconds ago, and he senses someone several feet away. He doesn't dare to turn. His fingers close around his own gun. But before he can make a move, the person breaks the silence.

"Who the fuck are you?"

He opens his mouth to respond with his name, then thinks the better of it. "Well, who the fuck are you?" he asks instead.

The person clearly doesn't appreciate his snark, because the gun presses harder into his head. "I'll give you five seconds before I blow your head off. I've already killed three today to get here. I have no qualms killing you too."

Taehyung clenches his jaw and hisses out a low, annoyed breath. His fingers itch to disarm the man. He has a gut feeling that he can. But he pushes the instinct down and tries to speak as calmly as he can. "Don't you think that there's already enough death around?" he asks. "It's bad enough that we're in the Dark Ages having to kill things that are already dead, without having to kill things that are still alive too."

The pause that follows is so lengthy that he begins to doubt.

"...we are in the Dark Ages, aren't we?"

"Of course we're in the Dark Ages," the person says, an edge of impatience in his voice. "Where the hell else would we be?" There's a sharp click that makes him freeze in place, only to realize that the man's probably locked the safety catch on the gun. The pressure of the barrel against his head lifts, and the man steps into his line of vision. "Now, state your name and identification tag. If you're under my precinct, you'll be under my protection. If not, you can fuck right back off where you came from."

Under the faltering streetlight, he notices that the man's decked in the same uniform that Jungkook had been wearing, only with more badges. Higher rank, then. A higher rank probably meant that this man had been a longer fight, which kind of explained the mildly unstable look in his eyes.

He sets his jaw. "I don't have an identification tag."

The man stiffens, then his gun comes back up. "What do you mean—no identification tag?" The narrowed-eyed look of suspicion eases a fraction, and he asks, "Were you wiped?"

"I don't understand."

The man frowns, but a distant scream stops them both. Taehyung can't suppress a shudder, but the man lifts his rifle and aims it down the street. It's empty, but it's also dark, and there's no telling how many monsters lurk in the shadows. Taehyung turns to the familiar house across the street.

"We should head inside before they get here," he says at last.

The man stares at him like he's just pronounced himself one of the undead. "What? That house is warded, you can't just trespass anywhere you want."

Logically, he can't. But he can't help thinking that it's all he's been doing these past few days. He's been shoved into circumstance after circumstance, without knowing the who or the how or the why, and he trusts his instinct enough to believe that this house is his 0, 0, 0.

All roads lead back to this.

He shrugs. "I'm heading in. You can follow, if you want. It's your funeral if you don't."

Without waiting for the other man, he shifts his own gun over his shoulder and starts for the house. But he's barely taken three steps when a hand closes around his wrist—or, rather, the watch around his wrist—and he's hauled right back.

"Where is she?" the man hisses, eyes flashing with wild fury. "Where have you taken her?"

Taehyung freezes. "What?"

A brisk movement, a sharp click, and he sees the barrel of the gun staring him in the face again. There's a flash of déjà vu, he's struck by the memory of having done the exact thing to Jungkook when he'd tried to find her. Is this what the Dark Ages have done to them?

Have we all become monsters ourselves?

"That watch on your wrist," the man snarls. "I gave it to her, I am here because of her, and I won't rest until I find her. So, for the last time—" The man curls his fingers around the trigger and looks him dead in the eye. "—where is she?"