nightfall || minsung

Chapter 25

Minho shook his head quickly. "No, I don't mean — not for the blood. It just seems like it'd be easier."

"At least animals don't beg for mercy as you do it," Changbin sighed.

Felix elbowed him. "Enough talking, we're going in circles. Let's just get this show on the road, yeah, Minho?"

Minho gulped. "Yeah."

Felix ran into the trees, and the rest followed after. I took Minho's hand and kissed it.

"You'll be okay, my love," I said. "Follow me?"

He nodded.

I bolted into the forest, and he followed. He stopped every few seconds to climb over a fallen tree — he didn't trust himself airborne. I kept my ears on him, led him down the easiest route.

I caught up to our family at the edge of a river. Chan did a backflip over the harsh, running water, and Jeongin leapt so high that he melted into the grey clouds. Minho came skidding after me, a blur of arms and legs, and nearly went careening into the water. I grabbed his ankles and towed him back.

"Jesus Christ!" he yelped.

"There's a river."

"Yeah! I saw that!"

"Just take it slow, okay?"

I sprang forward, flew over the twenty yards of water, and landed on the other side.

Minho crossed his arms, marched back a few steps. And a couple more. He gauged how far he had to cover, fingers squared in front of his face like he was directing a movie.

He sprinted toward the river and leapt with all the strength in his body. It was more strength than he expected. He shot into the clouds, disappeared — the shout of a curse fading with him. A second later, he plummeted back down to earth, headfirst.

I ran into the woods, arms out. I couldn't hear him falling anymore.

"I'm up here."

I stopped and backed up. Minho was sitting on a tree branch forty feet up, shaking pine needles out of his hair.

"You okay?" I said.

He pushed himself off the branch and dropped to the ground. His landing didn't make a sound. He walked up and wound his arms around my neck.

"I handled that very well and you should be proud of me."

"I was already proud of you."

"Did you know there's a sun up there? It's just been behind the clouds this whole time."

"Never would've guessed." I kissed him.

"Guys, guys!" Felix shrieked, whipping through the trees. "We found a big one, follow me!"

He ran off, and we followed. We dropped down behind a rotting log, next to the other seven.

"Smell that?" Hyunjin said. I did. Warm blood, a lot of it. Carnivore. It was somewhere in the trees, skulking in the branches.

Minho wrinkled his nose. "That smells bad, though. What is it?"

"A mountain lion."

He sighed and closed his eyes. "Of course it is."

"You gonna go for it?" Jeongin asked.

"Isn't there anything smaller I could eat?"

"Trust us, you don't want smaller," said Seungmin.

"Have any of you ever heard of baby steps? Consider me the baby."

"No, Jeongin's the baby," Felix said.