The smoke clears, revealing the three to be in a dimly lit room with only a singular candle at Xiao's feet. He finally lets go of Jeno and leans down to pick it up. He holds it up to his face and blows at the flame. Rather than extinguish it, this causes a wave of flames to flow from it as if he were a fire-breathing dragon.
The flames expand and trail around the area, revealing what Jeno presumed to be a room to actually be a sort of expansive, cave-like dwelling. Across the way, Jeno spots a sort of human-sized bird cage with thick black bars encaging what appeared to be a person lying on their side, curled into a fetal position. The figure moves, and Jeno spots faded pink hair. This causes a spark to set off inside him, giving him a surge of energy to race straight for the cage.
"Jaemin!" he screams, taking off to be beside his love.
To Jeno's surprise, Xiao does not stop him. No, he allows him to go forth and approach the cage without so much as an attempt at preventing him from doing so. Still, Jeno does not care. He reaches the cage and grabs ahold of the bars, rattling them aggressively as he realizes the body has not moved.
"Jaemin! It's me! I'm here!" he cries out before looking down and taking a good look at the body.
Jeno's heart sinks in such a hasty fashion that it feels more like a moderate drop.
The body lying in the cage was in fact Jaemin, but his his frail, emaciated body is covered from head to toe in gashes upon gashes and splotches of the variant shades of purple, yellow, and blue. He shivers so terribly despite the burning fires around him, and whimpers escape him despite his tightened jaw. His left eye is swollen shut, clearly too injured to have the proper capacity to open up and look at his distraught lover standing above him.
"Jaemin," he utters in a broken whisper as he drops to his knees, his lip quivering ever so slightly.
Jeno reaches inside, placing a gentle hand on Jaemin's back. Jaemin shrieks in such a loud, shrill manner that it startles Jeno at first. Jaemin begins screaming 'no' as he uses his forearms to pull himself away with the only energy he has left inside him.
"Jaemin...please...it's me...it's Jeno," he attempts to speak, but Jaemin is barely responsive to this. He only calms down to whimpers when he manages to pull himself to the other side of the cage, away from Jeno. He uses the bars to pull himself up and to help turn him around as to allow his back to sit against the cage. He faces Jeno, lightly sobbing despite his one good eye being able to view him perfectly.
"Please...don't hurt me," he pleads in a weak croaking voice.
"Baby...I would never hurt you," Jeno whispers, his heart shattering like glass into a billion tiny pieces.
"Stop using him to hurt me," Jaemin whimpers as a teardrop falls from his eye, "I can't...I can't..."
Jeno's brow furrows as his jaw slowly opens as Jaemin's words sink in.
Suddenly, two sets of slim fingers creep their way onto Jeno's shoulders, digging into him harshly. Without so much as a quick glance of confirmation, Jeno spins on his heel and swings his fist, coming into contact with Xiao's jaw with a loud 'pop'.
"You fucking son of a bitch!" Jeno bellows, causing Jaemin to flinch and curl his legs into his chest, "What did you do to him?"
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Angel ✦ Nomin
قصص الهواة"We have to save him!" "Jisung, we have to be cautious about this. We can't just-" "No! You didn't care when you had to protect Jaemin! We're going to get him and that's final!" {sequel to Spawn; please read that fic first before proceeding to this...
