Cut the strings and set me free

Part 4- if the strings snap will you let me float away?

I freeze when my fingers don't find her heartbeat, can't hear the sound of the sweet sound that would tell us she was still fighting, still going.

"Tae...Tae I can't feel her pulse. She's not breathing Tae." I gasp out when I spot the unnatural stillness to her body, no rise and fall as she breathes- not even a wisp of air in her.

Mind screaming, pleading, sobbing that this can't be the way this goes. It can't end like this.

And selfishly I wish I could turn back time, that I could clutch at her, hold her close towards me, meld us together in my desperation to stay with her, to have her close and murmur to her over and over, until I lost breath in my lungs, until my heart ceased beating that I loved her so much. That I couldn't live without her.

Please (Y/N) not like this.

Don't leave me.

Don't leave us.

Don't go.

TAE POV:

My hands that had been shaking her, voice pleading her, murmuring brokenly how much we needed her, suddenly still- hands falling away and scrabbling over me in haste.

My head shakes in disbelief. No. He's lying. She can't be...gone.

"She can't be. Minnie she can't just leave." I gasp out, voice strangled and hoarse.

And still my hands move, fervently brushing over my body, pulling the lapels of my jacket open, hands hurriedly unbuttoning and tearing some in haste as my hands rove over my chest, desperately feeling along my fitted clothes- heart shuttering when I can't find what I'm looking for. My hands move down to impatiently tug at the leg of his breeches, drawing out a sheathed dagger. One I'd never gone without. Practice. Habit. Duty. Call it what you willed but right now it held more purpose, more significance than it ever had.

"Tae what..." Jiminie asks, voice ragged.

And my hands shake as I bring the dagger close to her chest, taking the fabric that gathered at her cleavage and tugged it upwards, slightly away from her skin before the dagger was slicing through sheer lace and countless other fabrics, cutting the bodice of her dress layers. I tug downwards, the fabric ripping under the force as I try get the dress of her. and when I see the hard boned structure of her corset, plastered against her skin, melded with it, I find anger searing through me- hot, white rage that seeps into my veins at her having been tied in so restrictively, no doubt having added to cutting off her air quicker and once the dagger has made a small cut at the top tie, I put it to the side, fisting around the tear and yanking downwards. The sound of the ties ripping, the fabric of the corset tearing as I pull downwards rings in my ears.

And as the fabric comes away, an icy cold bites into my palm, hand falling away to reveal the metal heart pendant sans chain falling away. The metal heart lies open, the miniatures soaked with water, the sight of her in the centre blurred and features distorted and seeping away and I see it lie in my palm, open, the content of it damaged.

And the moment I can see the still soft curves of her breasts, outlined through the soaked flimsy camisole I stop, breathing hard.

"Tae do something. Please. (Y/N)...honey open your eyes." Jiminie begs, sobbing as he clutches at her, looking at me with wide pain-filled eyes and I see the tsunami of grief swimming in them, drowning him.

And tear my eyes away. Because if I continue to look then I'll be consumed too. And the little desperate chance I was going on would fade too.

"Jimin-ah set her down. Flat." I manage to get out, voice trembling and shaking.