Blood Ink ✔️

54: Scream

You, Jungkook, and Yoongi would be dead right now if he hadn't.

Smoke is hanging in a thick cloud over the rest of the house, obscuring the living room and anyone in it from your vision.

You stand up shakily and stumble toward Hoseok, debris crunching under your feet. Some glass pokes up through your sock, but you keep going toward he man who was closest to the blast.

When you get to him, Hoseok stares up at you for a moment, confused. He shakes his head.

"Are you okay?" you ask. Even your own voice is a far-away imitation to your throbbing ears.

You extend a hand and Hoseok takes it, letting you lean back to counter-balance his weight as he heaves himself off the ground.

A gaping hole shows you the side of the house next door, outlined in a rough-hewn jigsaw puzzle of precariously hanging bricks and insulation. You huff out a breath and turn your back on it, helping Hoseok limp toward the now upright Jungkook and the living room door.

Jungkook takes your face in his hands when you near, wordlessly checking you for injuries. There's a cut on your cheek.

He touches it with gentle fingers and shudders with the thought of what could have been.

The living room is a smoke-saturated show of chaotic scrambling when you enter it. The blast didn't do much damage in here, small random chucks of wall and window scattered throughout the room.

As the three of you emerge through the doorway, a soot covered Jimin bears down on you with all the force of a tiny charging rhinoceros.

He crashes into you, his arms spreading wide to encompass all three of you in a hug tight enough to steal your breath.

Jimin can't speak for the dry sobs heaving through his chest and throat. They echo foreignly in your hearing that's becoming clearer with every passing moment.

Hobi only pats Jimin on the back before pushing out of his arms. For the first time, he speaks. "We need to go. Come on."

Namjoon and Yoongi are already gathering things together, Jin herding the rest of you out the door.

Outside in the driverway, which has taken little damage from the small explosion that obviously only took out about a third of the house, the oldest stops. He pushes Hoseok back a little and squats down, checking the leg that seems to be injured.

"I'm fine, hyung," Hoseok says in a hoarse voice. "A chunk of brick hit me when the bomb went off. It's just a bad bruise."

Bomb.

The word makes you turn and vomit into the grass.

Jungkook sloughs through the debris to rub your back and hold your hair, a comforting presence.

"What's this?" Jimin asks. He seems to have regained his composure, voice still shaky but on the mend. As Namjoon and Yoongi emerge from the smoky ruins of the house, backpacks of supplies gathered together, Jimin plucks something small and white from the windshield wipers of the dented SUV.

It's an envelope, thick and high quality, with scrawling cursive in black ink across the front.

"Y/N," Jimin mumbles. "It's addressed to you."

No.

You can't move. You don't want to move.

Jimin holds it out to you, but you can only stare at the envelope like it's another explosive waiting to send you reeling into outer space in bits and pieces.

Jungkook takes instead, flipping open the flap and sliding out a piece of paper from inside.

"'Dear Ms. Song and the members of Bangtan'," he reads, voice raspy with smoke inhalation. "'You are formally invited to attend a celebration of the families. No weapons will be permitted in the location. We hope you will attend.' Then there's an address and a date."

Oh heck.

You've just been officially invited to the same party you were planning to crash. A queasy feeling still sits in your stomach, but the confusion is even more powerful.

"Why are they inviting us?" Jin asks in a hushed voice. "I don't get it. What's their play?"

You don't get it either. Stupefied, you watch the dim light of the sun beginning to set ricochet off the angles of a dent in the side of the car.

This makes no sense. What do they have to gain from-

"Wait," Jimin croaks suddenly. "Where's Taehyung?"

No.

The silence is deafening.

Again. "Where's Taehyung? Where is he?"

No.

No.

No.

No one can breathe but Jimin, who's vainly searching for some sign of his best friend among the rubble and damage.

Because indeed, there are only seven of you standing here amid the ruins of the safe house.

Only seven.

Jimin screams. "Where's Taehyung?"

Jimin screams a curse, and curses in a scream, and screams in a scream.

All he can do is scream.

Your ears and your heart are bleeding with it.

Jungkook flips over the invitation.

And there, in elegant cursive, is Taehyung.

'We are honored by the attendance of our special guest, Kim Taehyung. Your reunion is most anticipated.'

~ Min Seoungmin

You turn silently, and once again vomit into the grass.

[A/N]
Unedited
Surprise! Double update!
❤️PB