Getting into the Ghost ship wasn't the hardest part. It could be seen from the distance itself, the vessel stretching to at least four hundred metres.
Rusted and old.
Never came to the dock.
Of course. The people inside the ship, the people who were keeping Jimin's parents prisoned had already seen their about three hundred and eighty meters long ship heading towards them from a good distance. There was no way their presence could be overlooked.
But still, getting into the ship wasn't the hardest part. A few distractions of guns shooting at each other's crew and Jimin, Yoongi, Jin and Namjoon had snuck into the ghost shipment.
Okay, maybe it wasn't that easy. To dodge and escape from bullets while keeping track of his three mates. Jimin's heart was thrumming with anxiety but maybe that was the most normal thing happening around this deck.
The shipment was still, nearing a triangle where the water was as dark as it could be in the night. Darker than the sky itself.
It was hard. To jump to the other ship by connecting the sterns. Because beneath them, was endless water.
Still, it wasn't the hardest part.
Because they weren't ready for what was awaiting them at the ghost ship. Their goal was to reach inside the cabin. But what blocked them was a crew of fully armed men. Some shooting at their ship and some, at them.
How hard would it even be to kill four people? Two of which, were barely skilled.
The plan was clear, for him and Namjoon to shoot until they saw Jimin and Yoongi entering the superstructure of the ship and then hiding. Hide as soon as they could. And if Yoongi and Jimin die, let them. Save themselves first.
Jin was the first one to load and aim his M16A4, hands shaking as they wrapped around the handle and pulled the trigger at a man.
But that was the thing, he couldn't stop.
There was no time to. Fighters that looked infinite in number were shooting and running towards them to kill. Jimin was rolling on the ground and shooting as relentlessly as he could. Hiding behind cargo vessels. It didn't even feel real.
For a moment, he stopped, breathing too hard, lungs squeezing harder than they should when he breathed out each time, making him feel like he'd never breathe in again. The bullets were shot at the vessel he was behind and he had to get out of there before it pierced the metal.
Jin had already killed and it didn't feel real.
Jimin looked to the side to see the man. Purple hair full of dust, hands still shaking around the gun as he shot without even thinking, but there was a cut on his cheekbone and tears streaming down his eyes.
He looked fine. Namjoon too.
And Yoongi.
Yoongi was somewhere beside him, maybe pressed against the next vessel, shooting. They had to get inside the superstructure.
Jimin looked around frantically, trying to find something, anything.
Jin would be fine. Jin was killing so ruthlessly like he'd never stop. Shit, Jimin triggered him. He did.
Jimin reached out to fish Yoongi's hand in his, grabbing his attention. When he succeeded in doing so, he pointed at the series of vessels placed opposite to them.
"We'll run there." He said. "That will get us closer to the cabin."
Yoongi pressed his lips and nodded. The both of them got up and started running, and it felt oddly familiar. They had done this before. Running from a thousand bullets together while saving Jungkook. Anytime. Anytime a bullet could hit their back and that would be it.
But as far as Jimin could see they were still running and Yoongi was fine and there was no blood on him and Jimin's nightmares weren't coming true.
The both of them leapt when they were a foot closer to the vessels lined up on the ship, hiding behind them. They looked loaded with oil. Crouched, they started running once again u til they reached the back wall of the superstructure, leaning against it.
Jimin squeezed his eyes shut and somewhere in the back of his head, he knew he was shaking very hard, squeezing Yoongi's hand even tighter. He didn't want to let go.
He saw Yoongi reloading his gun. Jimin let out another shaky breath and handed his gun to Yoongi as well. Confused, the elder looked up at him.
"Your bullets are less. Take my gun, I'll work with the knife."
"What– no!"
"Yoongi." He panted, resting his head on the wall as his eyes rolled back. "I work better with a knife."
He didn't give the elder any time to argue. They didn't have time for that. He needed to do this quickly and he had no idea how. But Jin and Namjoon weren't trained as these men were so they couldn't hold them out for long.
Jimin pushed open the door of the superstructure with his shoulder, rushing down the stairs as he saw two unarmed men approach them in the narrow hallway. Jimin ram forward, hitting a man's chin with his elbow and stabbing the knife right in his eye and then his throat. He didn't have time to prolong killing either. When the man fell down, he saw the other one laying on the floor too, a pool of blood under him. Yoongi had already shot him.
The wood was painted with blood.
Once again, they started running, taking a right when the small lane ended. But then they heard footsteps from behind, and Yoongi turned just in time to see at least twenty men rushing towards them.
Yoongi wasted no time, starting to fire relentlessly towards them and they were falling to the ground like they weren't humans but ants. Yoongi killed like they weren't human but ants. Too easily and too many at too little time.
The gun fired non-stop as Yoongi yelled, "Jimin fucking go! Find them!"
So Jimin did. He ran, meeting a few more fighters, one of which almost succeeded to get him. So Jimin had his upper arm slit open and too much blood flowing out till he reached the old cabin.
The door didn't take any force to break open, old and the wood swelled with water. The whole ship was weak like it just needed to face another storm and it'll drown like it was never there.
Jimin was looking around frantically and his eyes stopped, heart thrumming and throat choking on air. He wanted to cry. He had never wanted to cry so badly.
The whole cabin was broken and empty, the mirrors were shattered and the floor had cracked. Stone walls were turning white due to water and Jimin wondered just how many times the water had seeped into this room.
The room was empty. And at the very corner, there were two figures. Jimin was pretty sure about who they were, he just couldn't believe it. He couldn't see the faces, lying down with an old rag on top of them.
It smelled so bad in here. A pungent smell of the sea water, like it had been compressed with dead animals.
Were they dead?
Jimin took a step closer and the floor creaked loudly, making one of the prisoners flinch and look at the man.
Jimin stopped.
He wanted to cry.
It was a lady.
It was his mom.
The woman made a scared rumble deep in her throat, bloodshot eyes blown wide as she scurried back to press against the wall.
Jimin was scaring her.
The man had woken up too, had the same look of horror plastered on his face. It was Jimin's dad, for all he could believe.
"I'm– I–" Jimin tried to speak, throat dry and voice cracking. "I'm not guh– gonna hurt you."
Both the prisoners didn't say anything in return. Jimin looked at their condition, their clothes weren't clothes anymore, and their faces were covered with layers of dirt until it became their very skin. There were marks of torture on their skin too. Not new but old. Like someone had tried to torture them but then had considered it useless and gave up on it.
There was nothing. No bed, nothing. Just a bucket of water. Maybe for them to drink. Their ankles were cuffed with chains. They could only walk limitedly.
"I'm not gonna hurt you." Jimin tried once again, taking another step closer. "I'm– yuh– your son. I'm Jimin. That's my name."
At that, the old couple's eyes widened. Like they had heard this name after years but had thought of it every single day.
"What d-did you say?" The woman's voice was lighter, squeaky even.
Jimin's eyes welled up with tears and he hated them because they made everything blurry and Jimin wanted to see their faces. He wanted to see and learn–
"I'm Jimin, your son. You're my mother. I've come to get you out of here."
"J-Jimin?" The woman stuttered out, voice shaking along with her whole body. She started to stand up from her place, almost slipping in her hasty actions as she almost ran towards the young man that claimed to be her son. "My Jimin?"
Jimin felt his lower lip tremble as he nodded.
"Y-You're my Jimin?"
Jimin sniffed. "Yes. The one that they took away from you."
Jimin noticed that the woman's eyes were too red, and her hair was a tangled mess. She was the complete contrast to Jimin. Although he could see a few similarities, they were two completely opposite people.
She looked completely drained of blood.
And Jimin had lived a disgustingly lavish life even in his prison.
"H-Honey..." She whispered, still looking at Jimin. But she wasn't calling him, she was calling her husband. Jimin couldn't even wrap his head around how easily she had believed him like she'd cling onto anything now. Any hope, any sign of Jimin.
Her legs wobbled as she turned around and ran towards her husband, slipping on the ground and hitting her knees as she sat down and shook him. "Honey see...it's J-Jimin. Our Jimin..."
She started to cry loudly. Jimin's Father looked at him and started crying as well, but silently. She stood up and once again ran towards her son, almost jumping in his arms as she sobbed harder than before.
Jimin had to sit down because she couldn't carry herself on her legs for much longer, her face was buried in his chest and she was gripping Jimin's arm tightly, where his skin had been cut open. It hurt like hell but he couldn't give two fucks about it.
Jimin's Father crawled towards them and very lightly grazed Jimin's hair with his hands.
In that little moment, Jimin thought...
When his mother's rough, dirty hands were caressing his face. The way her dainty face was full of wrinkles and blemishes. Her skin was tanned and so, so dirty. The way his father's skin looked like it would break when his face contorted and he cried sorrow while looking at him.
In that little moment, Jimin thought he had everything.
His chest was filled with so much air and he wanted to reach out and just– just–
It was a mere second. It happened so fast. One moment his parents were letting out tears of joy and the next their eyes had bulged out and they had dropped down right onto Jimin's lap.
He didn't even get the time to flinch.
He just knew something was wrong. His heart had stopped and the silence was so loud it was choking him, he could hear a faint and continuous line of beeping in his ears, getting louder and louder as he stared at his parents.
He stayed like that, eyes blown wide and not breathing. There was something warm on his hands and– and his clothes. Something was wrong but he couldn't breathe, nor could he move an inch.
It wasn't until he dared to shift and her mother's head turned a little bit that he saw that his brain was completely burst out. He could see– he could see blood and her brain sticking out of her skull, smashed open like that.
Jimin started screaming, scurrying away from the horrific sight and backwards. The voices his throat was making were inhuman, raw and guttural like he'd rip his voice box open. His face contoured in anguish as he looked at his parents' dead bodies in pure, vivid horror.
They were just alive. They were just–
"Ah, had to get rid of these rats for a long, long time."
Jimin looked at the voice.
Shit.
He had seen this face before, hadn't he?
His eyes blew even wider than possible and he started shaking, taking heavy breaths. He didn't understand anything. What the fuck was happening?
He lifted his hand to point a finger at the man standing in front of him.
"You– yuh– you–"
The man had his gun pointed in the direction where the two dead bodies– his parents laid, a pool of blood forming under them and choking Jimin with the disgusting, overwhelming metallic scent.
Then the man averted his gaze from Jimin's parents and fixed his eyes on the boy himself. Jimin had never felt so fucking scared in his life, he was shaking like a leaf and just couldn't comprehend whatever was going on around him.
The man sighed and dropped his arm that was holding the gun, resting it beside his thigh.
"Yes, me."
Jimin's entire body felt like he was burning alive. He just wanted to remember his name, he needed to remember this man's name. If just remembered it, he'd lunge forward and rip his throat out with his bare hands...
Fuck, he knew.
He knew this man's name, it wasn't that hard. He just couldn't dare to say it.
The man sighed, toying with his gun as he looked down at Jimin with fake pity in his eyes.
"Ah, let your boyfriend come. Then I'll tell you the whole story."
Maybe Yoongi had heard the way Jimin had screamed a few moments ago that he came running in right after with a shout of his name, stopping right behind him as he saw the man standing a foot away from where Jimin was sitting in horridness.
"Hoseok?!"
Yes. There was that name. The name that made a shiver wrack through Jimin's entire body as he stood up and cling onto Yoongi.
God, the elder looked so confused and scared. It made Jimin cry. Then Yoongi saw the two dead bodies, killed so disgustingly, and his eyes blew wider than they had ever before. Yoongi stumbled a step backward.
Looking at Jimin, then Hoseok and then the bodies.
"W-What's happening?! Hoseok?! How are you here?!"
"Oh, you still don't get it?" The man laughed, amused. "I shot your boyfriend's parents in the head right after he met them."
Yoongi took in such a sharp breath that it looked like it was hard for him to let the air out of his lungs again. He was choking.
"What's happening...?" He asked again.
"God, you're such an idiot. I killed them."
Yoongi shook his head. Like he wasn't believing a single word Hoseok was saying. Jimin wanted to do something. But he felt like he was tied.
"Why? Hobi, what's happening?!"
Hoseok rolled his eyes, like it was all a stupid game for him. Then he say down on the floor and looked at the both of them, humming.
He had never looked so haunting before.
Jimin didn't dare move. Something in his expressions told him that he had already crossed limits.
"I killed Jihyun." He finally said. "I made your fighters kill him. I own this ship too. I owned these rats too." He pointed at the two dead bodies Jimin didn't want to look at.
Hoseok cracked his neck to the side.
"All along." He snickered.
"Why?!" Yoongi voice was loud, so loud it echoes in the empty cabinet. He looked heart broken. More betrayed than he'd been when he thought Jimin had killed his brother.
The man in front of them raised an eyebrow.
"Why did you do this?! He was good to you! He wuh– he gave you everything! Everything!"
"Everything." Hoseok scoffed, dropping his gun beside him. "Everything except for what I wanted the most."
"What did you want?! What did you want so much that it was the cost of my brother's life?!"
At that, Hoseok looked up, his eyes so fierce they were enough to kill. He had never looked so twisted before. So evil and wicked.
"Clarice."
Jimin's eyes widened as his mouth fell open. His heart should've been hammering in his rib-cage but if anything it slowed down like it wanted to stop. A nasty feeling started to curl around his chest as Jimin's face contoured in agony.
"What...?" He heard Yoongi ask, voice dead.
"I fuh– fuck!" Hoseok suddenly screeched, pulling at his hair. "I asked nicely!"
"I fucking asked nicely! To give her to me. And– it wuh– wasn't even forever. I just wanted her for a quick fuck! I told Jihyun I'd fuck the bitch once and give her back." His words contrasted his expression. He looked so frustrated, like he truly believed what he had done was something sane. "But he refused! Said he'd feed my flesh to dogs if I ever touched a strand of her hair. Insulted for a cunt like her. Crushed my fucking ego for a– a whore?!"
Jimin couldn't even look at Yoongi, but Hoseok did and by the sneer that took over his lips, he knew Yoongi was fucking confused.
"You didn't know that, did you?" Hoseok scoffed, laughing hysterically. "She was a whore before he picked her up from the streets." He analysed his gun, turning it around in his hand and then suddenly Jimin was too aware. He had killed his parents with the same gun moments ago and they lying at his feet with their brains gushing out of their skulls. And he could already taste the blood on his tongue and if he were to look down, he'd see it too. Jimin started shaking.
"Had so much pride in that little body of hers. So I ruined her. Killed that bastard and fooled you– oh, that was the easiest. Got his own fighters against him and shit." He pointed his gun at Jimin. "Got this bitch involved, too."
He leaned back on his palms, spreading his legs wider.
"Now." He sighed. "I'm gonna go back to Incheon and fuck her till the child in her womb rips out of her fucking stomach."
And then it was chaos once again.
Yoongi was above Hoseok in three leaps, the man being knocked back on the ground and his gun tossed away. Yoongi's shoe prints were of blood as his hands wrapped around the Hoseok's throat.
"What did you do?! You fucking monster! What did you do to her?!"
And at that moment, Hoseok laughed, even though he was choking on his own blood, he laughed like he had no guilt or fear. Like he had no sanity left within him, enjoying the terror on his best friend's face.
"You bastard! I'll kill you! I'll fucking–"
Yoongi groaned deep in his chest, adding more pressure onto the man's throat till he was wheezing and tears were forming in his eyes. Hoseok was shaking under him and then a voice called him.
A wretched feeling started curling around his chest as he cried because of the voice. Scarring him more than Hoseok ever did and ever could.
His own voice. Saying,
"How does it feel to love someone so much that you kill them?"
"How does it feel to kill your best friend?"
A sob wracked through Yoongi's body as he remembered Clarice. Dead or alive? Raped or safe? And his anger surged like an inferno.
But–
But the man dying beneath him had a face that had been a personification of comfort and now– now Hoseok was already dead.
His Hoseok was already dead.
His body still and lips blue. Cheeks still wet with tears as Yoongi broke down and fell on top of him. He had never hugged anyone tighter.
"I'm sorry– suh– I'm sorry!" Yoongi shook from the sobs as he realised that his body was as warm as it had been the night his brother had died and he had comforted him. And a part of him still knew that Hoseok was the one who killed his brother.
Jimin finally found the courage to walk past the two dead bodies and make him way towards Yoongi, trying to pull him off of the dead body with a grimace on his lips.
"Huh– he's dead! I killed him!" Yoongi wailed, holding onto Hoseok's body for dear life.
"He was dead way before, Yoongi. Your Hoseok was dead way before you wrapped your hands around his throat." Jimin whispered, making Yoongi sit up and pressing him against himself. Yoongi shook till he couldn't breath and held onto Jimin till his nails dig into his back, but the younger stayed silent.
"You didn't kill him, Yoongi. He killed himself."