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DOOMSDAY
Opening the door to the roof, Taehyung took a deep, shaky breath in as the cool evening air hit him.
She looked as beautiful as ever, lounged over one of the bricked over chimney's, the bottom of her red dress rippling in the breeze. Taehyung's heart, if it was in the midst of splintering, would have warmed at the sight of her looking so at peace.
He dragged his feet over to Diana, stopping behind her as she shivered so sweetly. The view of New York would have been enough to distract him in most circumstances, but not anymore.
"It's stunning, isn't it?" She called out to him, still keeping her eyes on the city.
He couldn't answer, he didn't know how. There was a point where he wasn't even sure if he'd be able to speak again. His throat felt as if it was holding a bomb, his saliva was like acid, and his tongue was the sharpest point in the knife rack.
Confused by his lack of response, Diana turned to face him with a small smile.
"What's up with you, huh? Park got you down?"
Jimin was once the only thing he had to worry about - oh how things had changed.
She was trying to do what she did best and lighten the mood, but it wasn't working. Not when he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. It hurt, the way she looked so glorious despite everything.
How do people live with sin so beautifully?
"What is it?" Her face dropped at his lack
of subtlety. "Why do you look like someone's just died?"
Ha.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Taehyung finally came out and said it. He was too far gone to care. His eyes glazed over and his body hung limp as his confession lingered in the air between them.
"Did you know that I fell so deeply in love with you that I decided I would follow you anywhere?" His smile reflected everything but happiness. "If you had told me twenty minutes ago that you were moving to the other side of the world, I would have booked a plane ticket and had the taxi waiting. I would have had the taxi waiting with the biggest grin on my face, Di."
Diana's rosebud lips were left agape as tears began to fall from her lovers' brown eyes, the ones that entranced her all those months ago. There was a warmth in her heart, one she had been searching for what felt like eternity.
Love, she thought, thinking about the word and what it meant. She had heard it so many times before but somehow it seemed cleaner, crisper and more meaningful coming out of his mouth. The man she loved, loved her back. So why did he seem so upset?
"I- I love you too. So, so much," she breathed out, finally feeling it's infamous effects. She walked forward to be held in his embrace, but was met with a coldness that never came hand in hand with Taehyung - at least not with her. "Hey? I know it's going to be hard but Satine will understand. She'll want us to be happy."
She knew that wasn't the truth. It would actually be the complete opposite. Satine's heart would break into a thousand million pieces but Diana didn't care, she didn't care because she was giving her a taste of her own medicine. She was so ready to be happy and live for herself.
"Why are you not saying anything?" She shook Taehyung, who was now just staring weakly into her eyes.
He just needed a moment to savour the memories, to look past her wickedness and see the girl he fell in love with.
"Everything's changed. How has everything changed in twenty minutes?" His voice was slow and slurred.
"What are you talking about? What's happened?"
"Who are you?" He asked as if he didn't already know the answer.
Clasping her cheeks between his hands,Taehyung dragged his thumb across her painted lips, smearing her red lipstick. He was always thrown off by the mask.
"What do you mean, who are you? I'm Diana Monroe, I'm a writer, I'm in love with you. That's who I am!" She tried to laugh to lighten the mood, not knowing that his next words would eventually stun her into silence.
"You're lying, Dakota." After he said it, his suspicions were confirmed instantly by her casual response.
"I'm not lying silly-" her soft voice lulled into nothingness after fully processing what he said. It wasn't long before her eyes widened slightly, not enough for her to look overly shocked, but enough for him to notice and suspect her heart rate had increased as well. "Wh-What did you just call me?"
"I should have known you were too good to be true. Well done for keeping up the act, most people would have slipped up. You could have at least changed the first letter of your names though..." His mocking tone was harsh and spiteful. It held a level of hatred so sheer that Diana couldn't believe the he was the same man she had fallen in love with. He was always so calm and collected - so sweet with her.
"How-" she croaked out, stumbling back as he interrupted her.
"How did I find out that you've been lying to me? Hmm, maybe you should ask your friend Berry downstairs. The one who seems to think you killed an... Austin Martinez, is it? All the way over in Louisiana, not even Boston. Can you believe that?"
The words were out, the words he was dreading. He was hoping it was all just a big misunderstanding.
Diana froze, trying to piece together what he said.
"Killed?" She shook her head in disbelief. "What? He's dead? Why's Berry here?" There were so many empty questions. "Wait, you really think I'm capable of killing someone?"
"I wasn't too sure to begin with. I kept telling myself, no, the woman I'm in love with wouldn't even hurt a fly, but then I noticed the correlation."
At that moment, the roof door swung open and Satine waltzed out into the space, spinning wildly in her black couture gown.
"Hello!" She sang, giggling away to herself. "I've had a little too much to drink, Jimin's fault of course, but I thought I'd come and see where you two had run off to without me!" Her laughter soon subsided as she latched on to the mood. "Woah, why so serious?" She teased, awkwardly looking between her best friend and her crow.
Taehyung completely ignored her and picked up where they left off. "Surely you must be able to recognise the parallels, Dakota."
Satine's face dropped the moment she heard her friend's real name.
Diana turned to glance at her with a weakness to her features. She couldn't keep them upright; they had fallen into a desolate frown.
"One of my best friends died in a very similar way to this Austin Martinez. Almost too similar for it to be a coincidence. There was a reason that coroner couldn't make sense of his death. It's because it wasn't a suicide, was it?"
Diana gulped, trying to hold back her tears. Things truly had changed in twenty minutes.
"You, you think I killed Yoongi?"
She was always the greatest actor, the quiet ones always are.
"No, I know you killed Yoongi, there's a difference."
The images flashed through his mind. He had recited the reports every day since, and woken up with nightmares of his friends swollen, deformed face.
A body has been found in Newtown Creek with a bullet hole to the temple. Body found in Newtown Creek has been ruled a suicide. Body found in Newtown Creek has been identified as twenty-six-year-old Yoongi Min. According to a friend, Mr Min had been suffering with a long-term battle with depression and substance abuse.
"You were the only one that knew he was depressed." It was Taehyung's biggest regret, not knowing his friend well enough to notice the signs. "You blew his fucking brains out and then used his illness as a coverup. How sick can you be?"
"Tae-" Satine tried to stop him, not being able to conceal her disapproval as he spoke so insensitively about their friend.
"Where were you that night, huh? Where were you the night he was fucking killed? Because come to think of it, you're the only one without a fucking supported alibi. All those fucking late nights at work, I never questioned you for second. God, you really had me fooled."
A small gasp left Satine's mouth.
"If I look it up right now, will that guy from downstairs be telling the truth? Will I see the same report on this Austin Martinez?"
Diana was left speechless. She didn't know what to say or do because there was no coming back from it all, regardless.
"Dotty? Please tell me it isn't true?"
Diana stuck her tongue into her cheek and turned to her friend.
"Leave it out, Star-"
"Look at me!" Taehyung bellowed. "Answer the God-damn question."
Dragging her eyes away from Satine, she only nodded. "Yes, you will probably find the same report. Not that I would know anything about it, I only just found out he was dead."
Satine was shaking now and her satin gloves were doing a terrible job at keeping her warm. She would have told her friend about Austin's death, but she seemed like she had moved on, that she was genuinely happy now.
"You're lying, Di. Ever since you arrived, everything around me has crumbled." There was a crazed look in Taehyung's eyes, one that was truly frightening. "How didn't I see it sooner?"
"No," Diana broke down again as he spoke. "Don't say that. It wasn't all bad!" She reached forward and tried to clasp his cheeks, but he forcefully pushed her away, making her trip and fall.
Even though the same nausea from the night she caught them together coated her throat, Satine couldn't help but run forward to try and help her friend. She didn't make it far though before she was blocked by Taehyung's arm.
"Stay out of this, Red!" He couldn't give a damn if his affair was about to be exposed, this went deeper than just one secret. There was a whole load of lies buried underneath her good-girl image.
With her short brown hair covering her face, Diana whimpered, holding her bruised elbow.
"What about the handgun I found in your hold-all?"
He should have checked it, the first thing he should have done was check that stupid gun and how many bullets were left. But he was so enamoured by the woman he had come to know, so completely blinded by the person he wanted her to be and who his mother begged him to find.
"It's just for self-defence if I ever need it!"
"I gave it to her..." Satine squeaked. "Back home there had been a lot of assaults, I just wanted her to feel safe."
It was true. Satine had to witness countless guys hit on her friend, sometimes with the worst intentions. She knew first-hand what they were capable of and wouldn't sit around knowing her friend was unarmed with her attacker running around town.
"Why did you have a gun?"
For the same reasons.
"My papa owned a shooting range."
That was also true.
"Your dad owned a what?" that was the first piece of information Taehyung ever found out about Satine's past. "Never mind- I need you to give me a good enough reason not to call the cops right now, Dian-shit-Dakota." Taehyung's heart was breaking as he watched the girl he loved stutter over her words. He wanted, more than anything, for her to have the cleanest alibi but the truth was that she didn't have one.
He had been sleeping with his friend's killer. He had given her an empty alibi out of love.
"I didn't kill Yoongi."
"You're the reason I'm alone... You're the reason I don't have anyone left!"
"I was destroyed by Yoongi's death too!"
Bullshit.
"He was my friend first! Now I find out that I let his murderer comfort me, let her into my bed, into my heart..." Taehyung's voice trailed off once he saw Satine clutch her chest. As much as he wanted to apologise, it was past the point of return. He wanted the truth."
"Don't look at her like that, she already knows." Diana rolled her eyes at her friend before staring back up at him. "I didn't kill him, Tae."
The stakes were too high. The risk of losing him was too high.
"If you didn't kill him, then who did?" He yelled back into her face, breaking down from the emotion in his roar. "Huh, who fucking killed him then, Dakota?"
"Let me expl-"
Diana's heart began to pound at an increasingly rapid pace, he wouldn't let her speak. He wouldn't let here worm her way out of it and it was maddening.
"Fucking who?"
Sweaty palms, flickering eyes, unsteady breath.
"Fucking, tell me!" He repeated it over and over again, towering over her curled up form. She held her hands to her ears, slowly being driven insane by his utter hatred.
She was bound to snap.
Diana closed her eyes and let the anger bubbling away in her gut overflow. It all stemmed from her. She always got her happy ending. She always stole the men she loved. She was responsible for it all.
Fumbling with the inside of her clutch, Diana pulled out her handgun and pointed it at her best friend.
"She did!"
Out of shock, Satine screamed and fell back onto a pile of loose bricks. "What the hell are you doing?"
"It's all her," Diana's finger was trembling over the trigger. "Everything, I just know it!"
Taehyung shook his head in disbelief at just how far she was going to protect herself. The only reason he never suspected Satine was because he was her alibi.
"Satine may be absolutely psychotic in many ways, but she's no killer."
Backhanded compliment, but she appreciated his defensiveness nonetheless.
"You didn't think I was capable either until a couple of minutes ago! She's not who you think she is. She's not who I thought she was either!" There was a level of pure loathing bubbling beneath Diana's words as she watched her friend trying to stand up from the pile of rubble.
"What on earth are you talking about?" Satine cried, looking nervously at the gun in her friend's hand. "I haven't killed anyone!"
"I don't know how you did it, but I know you're fucking guilty because of what you fucking did to me!"
"I've done nothing but love and support you your whole life! I would have given up everything for you! I would never fucking betray you in any way shape or form."
"Twenty-fifth of October, ninety-six."
Satine knew that date all too well. That was the night she left town.
"Did you know I never left that day?" A sardonic smile sat in the middle of Diana's face as she watched Satine's eyebrows furrow and her dark eyes glisten with tears in the moonlight. "Oh no, sweetie. I was going to, don't get me wrong, but I didn't."
"You came back?" Satine choked on her words.
"Yes, I came back. I came back to my best friend's house so she could comfort me after my boyfriend fucking assaulted me. However, when I pulled up your front door opened and out comes Austin." She was shaking with fury. "You know, I always knew you were a fucking whore, I just never pegged you to be a traitor as well... Especially when it came down to me."
Diana was half laughing, half crying as her friend put two and two together.
"You think we slept together..." Satine whispered, bringing her hand to her mouth. It would explain everything, the difference in her personality, the fact that shy little Dotty went after her man.
"Oh, I know you fucked him. I know you fucked him because that's all you ever seem to do! You fuck everyone, don't you Satine?"
Not knowing what to do, Taehyung reached out and tried to snatch the gun off of her. He succeeded, but not without her firing a bullet into the air.
Satine shrieked, covering her head.
Taehyung had never fired a gun before, even though his dad owned more than he cared to admit. He never understood the obsession. He promised himself after his father that he would never touch one. Even the sight of it inside Diana's duffle was enough to set him on edge.
"Tae?" Diana whimpered as he pointed the gun down at her.
"You just admitted you had a motive. You were mad and felt betrayed, so you killed him in the same way you killed Yoongi."
"No, I wanted to, but I stopped myself. I would never kill anyone, please believe me. Yoongi was my friend!" Diana begged, tears pouring from her hazel eyes. "You have to believe me, I love you!"
"You ruined everything!" He bellowed, making her cower beneath his tall stature. "You've driven everybody I've ever loved away. You took everything from me!"
She was shaking violently for such a small girl.
"Can't you see she's manipulating you!" Diana blared, pointing to the redhead curled up with her knees pressed to her chest. She couldn't bare the thought of Satine winning again.
Taehyung didn't even look up for he had already made his decision. She was never going to admit it, no matter how guilty she was.
"You killed innocent people, people that didn't deserve to die. What was it that Yoongi did? I bet he found out who you were. He was always a good judge of character. I'm guessing you killed him to shut him up. You wanted to live your life as Diana without a hiccup from your past. I lost Hobi because of you. Come to think of it, you're probably behind JK leaving town too. Why can't you just admit it? Don't you see what you did was fucking wrong?"
Standing up and grabbing hold of his arm with a deranged look in her eye, Diana pressed the canon firmly against her head. "Go on, do it then. If you truly believe that after everything I could do something like that, then do it."
She had severely misinterpreted the extent to his feelings. She was a master manipulator.
Finally looking up from her knees Satine gasped at the scene unfolding. "What the fuck are you doing?" She jumped up to run to her best friend. "Tae, put the gun down!"
"No," he was trembling now, his finger wanting so badly to squeeze the trigger. The images of Yoongi being murdered so brutally circled his mind like a reoccurring nightmare.
"She can't get away with it."
"What are you talking about? We can sort this out, Tae!" Satine cried.
"Do it," Diana whispered. She trusted him with every fibre of her being. They had built too much.
"No, you can't take the law into your own hands! Don't be ridiculous, we can talk about this!"
"She has to go."
"She's my best friend, Tae, don't!"
"I can't let her get away with it!"
"Shoot me."
"NO! Tae, we can figure something out!"
"Do it!
"Taehyung, don't!"
"This is for everything."
"I love you."
The bullet shattered the crisp air.
The ringing was deafening, but the shock was what truly disabled them both.
Stood with her hands clasped over her mouth, Satine let out a bloodcurdling cry.
A muffled scream of a banshee.
Agony. That's all she felt as Diana's body lay so perfectly frozen in time, the blood seeping from her head fashioning a matching veil for her scarlet dress.
"What did you do?" Satine howled, dropping to her knees and dragging herself over to her friend. She shook her, multiple times, resting her ear against Diana's chest to be met with silence. "She's dead," she whispered it at first, using it as an opening statement. The realisation of what it truly meant approached quickly after that. "She's dead!"
With trails of mascara distorting her once perfect face, she stared up at Taehyung watching her rock her friend back and forth. He couldn't take his eyes off of the blanket of thick blood coating the floor.
"She killed him," the way he spoke was slow and slurred, "she killed Yoongi, she killed Austin. I had no choice."
There was nothing behind his glassy eyes, the ones that used to hold a level of passion Satine could only dream of beholding now.
"Everything from the beginning - it was all her."
It would come to be one of the hardest days Satine ever had to live through. It was the day she had to choose between her best friend and the love of her life.
But there was only one obvious answer. The other had seeped through her fingers like sand.
She was shaking, uncontrollably, shivering in the icy air.
"Okay, we need to calm down." Those words were more for her, but he needed to hear them too.
Taehyung let out a strained cry and dropped to his knees in front of them. The reality of the situation had finally caught up with him - which only set Satine off again.
"No, no, no. I've got to go; I can't stay here!" Satine sobbed, dragging herself up. "I can't be here; I can't be here when they find her." Witnessing a death was enough to send her spiralling, but the blood on her hands was what determined her state.
"What?" Taehyung's voice came out small but panicked. He was getting ready to beg her to stay, but as he watched the redhead staggering in fear, he knew he had to let her go.
He had let Diana worm her way into his brain because of some fucked up vendetta she had against his girl - his Satine. He should have protected her, he should have stuck by her side and known that the devil always wears a disguise.
Satine froze after hearing the waver in his tone. How could she have been so selfish? How could she have even considered leaving him for a single second?
"Go," he reluctantly said.
"No." She snapped, turning back with mascara-stained cheeks and a smile that didn't meet her eyes. He was reminded then of the girl he had first met in the bathroom at Dynaco.
Red.
Satine wasn't sure what she was supposed to do, because she knew her crow and he was supposed to beg her to stay, not leave. They were supposed to end up together.
That's how their story was supposed to conclude.
"What do you mean, go?"
He weakly laughed as he heard the sirens in the distance. Fucking Berry.
"I mean go right now, catch a taxi, a train, fucking hell I don't know? Go to the airport and board the next plane to the other side of the fucking world! Do anything but stay here. I mean it, Red."
Was she supposed to listen? She was just testing his loyalty before; she wasn't actually going to leave without him.
"You're supposed to beg me to stay... You're supposed to beg me to stay because you love me," her voice came out soft and barely there.
He did love her, but she wouldn't have believed him. Not after everything, she would feel like second choice. Satine and the word second never belonged together, and Taehyung knew that now.
"I'm doing this for you, Satine, now fucking go before we both go down for something I fucking did. I deserve to go to jail, you don't."
She didn't budge.
"Go for fuck sake!" He started hitting the floor with his fist, still feeling the splinters of his broken heart puncture every single working organ in his body. The sirens were too close. "Satine, you've got to go right now! I swear to God."
"I can't just leave you! She took you from me and now you're trying to leave me again!" She had dropped in front of him, holding his cheeks between her palms. "I love you too much, don't you understand that? I would fucking do anything for you!"
But he didn't want her to. He couldn't bear to live knowing she went down for his crime.
"Please, I'm begging you. I promise I'll find you one day. I promise, please just listen to me."
There was silence after Satine heard the desperation in his voice. That's when the penny dropped. Through it all, no matter how many times he broke her heart, he was still set on protecting it. Protecting it from the pain Diana would inevitably bring.
In his own fucked up way, everything he did was for Satine's happiness.
"I can't live without you," her voice broke, "I've not stopped trying to win you back."
The scene was immaculate - his grand gesture, the setting, the costumes. It was like a movie. It's what Satine had dreamt of every night; that Hollywood finale.
"Did you mean it?" Taehyung asked, looking behind at the door. He was scared that any minute now the cops would appear and take him away. "Did you mean it when you said you would do anything for me?"
The question was obvious, blatant, already answered.
Shaking violently with tears already pouring down her face, she nodded. "Anything, Tae."
"Okay, then if you love me, you'll go."
She couldn't argue. It was as if he stunned her into submission again.
"I love you Satine, and not because she's dead, and not because you were ever second choice, but because I'm a fool. I'm a fool that didn't realise what he had until it was too late. This is my apology, take it with you. Promise me."
Satine's lips moved to try and form a word but she couldn't at first. It was too much too quickly; this was supposed to be their happily ever after.
"Promise me, Red."
"I promise."
"Love me and go."
She climbed up on her feet, gasping for air as she backed towards the door. The worst part was, there was no way she could have continued living in New York even if she wanted to. If she stayed, Taehyung would be walking out of jail to a Mrs Satine Park.
If she stayed, she wouldn't be able to resist Jimin.
"I love you," she cried out, refusing to take her eyes off of him until the very last second.
"I'll find you. I'll find you, Red." Taehyung repeated those words over and over again as the clinking of Satine's gold heels echoed into silence. He repeated them as he screamed over Diana's body. When the police burst through the roof door, when he was pinned against the floor being handcuffed.
He repeated them everyday throughout court and in jail.
Whenever things got too tough, that's when he focused on the thought of finding her.
And God save anyone that wedged themselves between them again.
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A/N
Sorry, I know I said final chapter but it was so long I had to slice them into two🧐
I need to start getting into the writing mindset again. I'm disappointed in myself, I love feeling excited to post a chapter. Haven't had that feeling since Satine got jiggy with Jimin😡
Anyway
So Diana's dead :D how do you guys feel?
Any questions? If I don't answer it means they will be answered in the coming chapters!
If this chapter didn't hit as hard as you were expecting, thank god it's not the end of the story!
Haha, I'm so cheeky, almost as cheeky as-