DMBI - Love is a Hybrid of Friendship and Lust

Chapter Eight

2020

"Nick, do the space thing! D-Disappear or something!!" Namjoon splutters as the hunter elbows him in the face. He tastes iron and chokes on his own blood. He composes himself, regaining his balance, and lunges. Before he can even react, the hunter has twisted his arm behind his back, pushing him to the floor. Nick needs to get out of here. Namjoon is human, the hunter isn't after him. He won't care enough to kill him, he'll just leave him on the sandy road and hide from the scene. But, Nick doesn't listen to his friend, instead, he clicks his fingers, mustering up only enough magic to flick the knife over the cliff-edge. Smirking, the hunter reaches into his pocket and pulls out another, slightly smaller blade. As he presses down, Namjoon feels his tendons grating against each other. Something snaps, but he doesn't know what. He's in too much overall pain to distinguish a particular type.

Namjoon crawls with only one working arm and a sprained ankle, tears making clear streaks down his sand-covered face. He doesn't reach Nick in time. Hot, red liquid spurts fly from his friend's skin as the blade is pulled away. Namjoon can't breathe. He claws at his throat but there's nothing blocking his airways to clear away. Nick turns, eyes glassy and vacant. "Namjoon. Wake up."

The warlock gasps, air flooding his lungs once more. He coughs and rolls onto his front, resting his forehead against his sheets. They are damp with sweat and he quickly realises that most of them are ripped apart. Gaping, he turns around, wondering how the hell he managed to do that in his sleep.

Shin nibbles at her bottom lip before nervously attempting an explanation. "I was awake anyway and I could hear your heartbeat all the way from my house... I was going to ignore it but I couldn't hear you breathing so I thought I should check it out. When I got here, you'd twisted so much that you were strangling yourself in your sheets... I panicked so... Sorry..." She looks down, unsure of what else to say. "I-I'll be going now, then..." She turns away but Namjoon grabs her wrist, clinging onto it as though she is his last lifeline.

"Or you could stay..." As she turns back, he searches her eyes for some form of emotion. Anything.

"Why should I? What use would that have?" Shin frowns, confused.

"I-... I think you were right... It's always been haunting me because I never told anyone about it." He licks his lips nervously. "I want to tell you. If you'll listen..."

After a few taken aback blinks, Shin nods slowly, sitting cross-legged in front of him on the bed. "Of course, Joon. I'll always listen."

Namjoon ignores what connotations that sentence might hold, and closes his eyes, taking a deep breath. "When I was fourteen, I found out that my best friend was a demon. He fell off a cliff and when I finally found him, all he had wrong with him was a dislocated shoulder and a couple of scratches. He fixed himself up and then teleported us back to the road because I'd sprained my ankle in my rush down to find him. He also told me all about supernatural beings and it was a lot to take in but the main thing I took out of it was that it was my fault. Not me personally, of course, but my species. Growing up, I was always told stories about mythical creatures who tortured the lands of humans, but in reality, it was us who were the monsters. We hunted down innocent people until they became so afraid of us that they lived their entire lives in hiding. They brought up their children and told them to hide who they were. Then, within minutes, Nick... My best friend... I saw him killed by a hunter. The hunter tried to kill me too because, in his opinion, I was a disgrace. He would have managed it if it weren't for Yoongi's father swooping in at the last second. Literally, swooping..." Namjoon chuckles slightly but his smile falls immediately. Nothing about this story is funny no matter how hard he tries to mask the hidiousy with humour. "I met Yoongi and he told me more about magic. That's when I decided that I would master it to protect people like Nick. That's why I do what I do every day... I never forgot about it, but I coped. I figured that I'd helped so many people, I was succeeding in my promise to Nick. But then seeing him again, the man who killed him, and knowing that some Mackly worker is out there right now saving his ass... It made me think about all the people that one man has been killing while I've been trying to protect them. I haven't succeeded. I've probably barely cancelled out the horror that he's caused. I-"