Song: La Vie En Rose (Instrumental) - Paul Weston & Orchestra.
The moonlight shone through the window and splashed across the bed, Taehyung's body was drenched in cold sweat and his heart was beating ferociously out of his chest.
The twins were still asleep, he glanced at the clock through the darkness and squinted at the red numbers which shone 11:01pm.
Taehyung breathed deeply and rested against the headboard of the bed, slowly taking everything in and thoroughly sorting through his thoughts and the strange dream.
It could mean nothing, his mind reeled constantly, it doesn't have to mean anything, it probably doesn't mean anything.
Taegeuk wriggled beneath the blankets and slowly rose her head, yawning before opening her eyes, 'Mom?' She whispered in a tired daze.
'It's just me.' Taehyung whispered back as he rubbed her forehead.
Taegeuk mumbled before resting her head back down on the pillow, Taehyung exhaled and frowned before lowering his hand.
'You said her name,' Taekwon mumbled as he slowly regained his consciousness, 'you were calling out to her.' He continued with a tired voice before yawning.
'I did?' Taehyung asked.
'Yeah,' Taekwon answered as he sat up and rubbed his eyes and yawning once more, 'bad dream?'
Taehyung sighed, 'It started off nice,' he laughed a little before removing his legs from beneath the blankets and resting them on the floor, 'we should get going soon.'
Taekwon glanced over at the clock, 'We won't make the sunrise, we'll be too early.'
'We can just sit at the beach until it rises then.' Taegeuk mumbled with her face in the pillow.
'Only if you want to,' Taehyung stated, 'whatever you want to do.' He smiled at them and lightly squeezed their arms.
'Hmm, actually, give me one more hour.' Taegeuk mumbled.
Taehyung laughed quietly and laid back down, 'Alright, one more hour.' He sighed and rested his eyes on the ceiling once more.
An hour and a half passed by faster than they had realised, Taekwon had packed away the photographs in the truck and cleaned up around the house with Taehyung whilst Taegeuk continued to rest for the remainder of the time they were at the house.
With the sound of music beginning to drift into her ears, Taegeuk slowly began to awaken. Her eyes were blurred with a tired haze as she pulled the blankets off her body and re-introduced her feet to the floor once more. Fully rested from her slumber she walked down the hallway to find Taekwon and Taehyung sitting on the living room couch with the record player on. Taekwon laid on the couch with his legs over the arms, kicking gently to the beat of the song and waving his hands as if he were a conductor of an orchestra.
'She always loved this record player,' Taehyung began, 'amazing how she kept it all these years despite the constant technology upgrades.' He laughed.
'She is super old fashioned,' Taekwon laughed also, 'La vie en rose.' He said with a French accent and continued to move his hands in unison with the ups and downs of the song.
They hadn't noticed Taegeuk enter the room before she flopped onto the couch beside Taehyung.
'Good morning, sleepy head.' Taehyung smiled and gently squeezed her cheeks together, causing them to puff and her lips to imitate those of a fish.
'Morning.' She mumbled with her eyes closed, still in a tired haze.
'Are we ready to go?' Taehyung asked, 'do you want to bring anything else with you?'
Taekwon shook his head, 'I have all that I need, Taegeuk? You?'
'I don't need anything else.' She said with a faint smile.
'I guess we're all ready to go then, hmm?' Taehyung said as he rose from the couch and turned the record player off. Taekwon jumped up and began walking to the front door. Taehyung and Taegeuk followed behind and re-entered the outside world.
Everything on the front porch was mildly soaked from the rain water, Taehyung looked down at it and frowned. Someone had placed a new candle in front of a photograph of her, the rain had stopped a while back, giving the person a chance to light a candle.
The candles orange glow caused the damp wooden boards to look as if it were soaked in blood, imitating that of the scene in his dream then causing the hair over Taehyung's body to spike.
'Maybe we should clean this up before we leave.' Taehyung said with a tone of sadness in his voice as he exhaled.
Taekwon sighed and refused to look down at it, 'I just don't get why they did that,' he said as his voice grew louder,' well, I do but I don't. I just don't want to look at it.'
Taehyung sighed also and wrapped one arm around Taekwon, pulling him close and placing his other hand on his head, 'I know it must be hard seeing it, but like I said before, it's just how the people here are coping with what's been happening. Just because this is here doesn't mean she's gone for good, she's still here somewhere.'
'Yeah,' Taekwon whispered and wriggled out of Taehyung's grip, 'I know, it's just hard to look at. It's hard to face reality, we'll have to face it someday.'
Taekwon walked down the porch steps and towards the truck, Taehyung frowned once again and turned to lock the door of the house. To him, it seemed that Taekwon had given up hope at seeing his mother again, it's like he expected her to be gone forever.
Taegeuk cracked open the loose wooden plank in front of the door and smiled faintly at Taehyung, 'Just in case she comes back, she'll need the house key.' She whispered.
Taehyung nodded, also with a faint smile before slipping the key back into its hidden home. Taegeuk stomped it closed and began to walk slowly across the porch.
Taehyung then knelt on the porch and rearranged the items. Taegeuk watched as he did so, she sighed away a hint of sadness and lowered her head before picking up a pink rose, placing it in front of a portrait of her mother next to the glowing candle. Taehyung stood up from the porch and placed his hand on Taegeuk's back, rubbing it lightly before re-directing her down the stairs and onto the pathway towards the truck.
Taehyung slowed his pace and rose his eyes to the sky, the streetlights were dim allowing him to see the stars more clearly.
And there amongst many other stars, was the constellations of the hunter and his two loyal companions.
Two hours into the road trip and the twins were as awake as ever.
Laughter and talk of happiness filled the truck, smiles and words were exchanged with the constant feeling of complete bliss surrounding them.
Taehyung didn't speak of the series of strange dreams he had, he didn't want to upset the twins, he didn't want them to think anymore badly about the situation at hand.
Taegeuk laughed and passed a photograph to Taekwon, 'Here's a photo when we were like, three!'
Taekwon grabbed the photo from Taegeuk and cringed at, he was wearing an oversized pink shirt with a yellow smiley face on it and pink fuzzy socks, 'Why was I even wearing that...' He laughed, 'wanna bet grandmama got you and I mixed up?' He laughed once again, causing Taehyung and Taegeuk to fall into laughter also.
The laughter faded and Taekwon raised an eyebrow at an unknown figure in the photo.
'Who is that?' Taekwon asked as he pointed to a figure standing in the back of the photo, he couldn't see clearly enough to make out the face.
Taegeuk leaned over and attempted to look at the figure, although due to the low lighting in the truck she was unable to identify him.
Taehyung glanced over at the photo, as they passed under a streetlight it allowed Taehyung to see a quick flash of the face and almost immediately he had recognised the figure, flashes of the past shot through his mind and files of the familiar face scanned passed his mind trying to match the face to a name.
Taekwon shrugged and passed the photo back to Taegeuk who slotted it in its place in the photo album.
Taesung, Taehyung's mind began to reel, 'His name is Taesung, isn't it?'
'It must be,' Taekwon said as he leaned back in his seat and grabbed a handful of Pringles, 'I couldn't tell.' He laughed.
'Do you know him?' Taegeuk asked as she watched Taehyung's eyes in the rear view mirror.
Taehyung sighed, 'No, but your mother does,' he adjusted his grip on the steering wheel and leaned back, 'they've been friends for a long time.'
'Oh,' Taegeuk sighed and skimmed through more pages of the photo album before reaching into a bag of raspberry liquorice, 'we saw him before mom left, but after she went we didn't see him again either.'
Taehyung's mind scattered, 'Was it a usual thing for him to visit?'
Taekwon nodded, 'He was really nice, and really good to mom,' he sighed, 'we lived with him for most of our life, I thought he was our dad,' he admitted with a wary laugh, 'we would even call him dad as well. Mom said he also moved to the city she was in to study, but after she found out she was pregnant he decided to just work to earn money in order to care for her, and us.'
Taehyung tightened his grip on the steering wheel and clenched his jaw.
'He was always there for us,' Taekwon continued, 'but as we got older he stopped living with us and started visiting only every few days. We never knew why, but around that time mom told us he wasn't our real dad. And that was when I started running away, and sleepwalking. Not having a father, or a male figure around didn't make me feel...didn't make me feel whole.'
Taehyung frowned but held his anger.
'We didn't believe her at first, when she told us you were our real dad,' Taegeuk began, 'but after seeing the way she talked about you, and seeing all the photos you two had together we believed her. I think that's one of the reasons why Taesung stopped seeing mom, maybe he thought we were his children and was disappointed to find out we actually weren't.'
'He didn't hurt her, did he?' Taehyung said with growing anger.
'No,' Taekwon answered, 'but after they parted ways, he kept trying to contact her and I think that may have frightened her a bit.'
Taehyung's palms began to dampen and the pace of his heart jolted into a vast array of heavy thuds, 'You don't think that he-'
'I thought that myself,' Taekwon quickly cut in, 'but I don't know, and we can't just blame him without any evidence. Plus, he was there for us our whole lives, he never would have done anything to ever hurt her or us.'
Taehyung frowned, but his gut growled with anger. Vengeful anger. He didn't want to further the conversation topic due to the growing madness cultivating inside of him.
Taehyung drove ahead and as time passed by his anger cooled, but continued to remain.
The clock struck 4am and the laughter and conversation had silenced. The city close to the beach was nearing in the distance.
Taegeuk had grown tired due to sitting for so long, as did Taekwon who aimlessly stared at the stars in the sky for most of the trip.
'We're almost there,' Taehyung said in a deep and tired voice, 'we can park up by the beach and wait for the sun.' He said with a weak smile. He tried to remember how he felt with Alli when they had driven all night long, he tried to make the memory in his mind, but only causing the nightmare to repeat in his head.
Taegeuk and Taekwon grumbled in agreement before zoning out once more.
Another hour passed and finally they had made it to their destination, just before the sun had a chance to rise.
Taehyung parked in the parking lot in front of the beach and turned to the twins who were asleep. He sighed lightly and gently shook them awake.
'Taegeuk, Taekwon, we're here,' he began, 'we're at the beach.'
Taegeuk slowly regained her consciousness and began to sit up in her seat, 'Did the sun rise?' She managed to mumble.
'Not yet, but it will soon,' Taehyung answered before turning his attention to Taekwon, 'hey, wakey wakey Kwonnie.'
'Yeah?' Taekwon groaned and tilted his head to view Taehyung through a sleepy daze.
'We're at the beach.' Taehyung stated with a smile.
'Oh, cool.' Taekwon mumbled and reached for his seatbelt.
Taehyung got out of the truck and stretched before making his way to the boot of the truck and pulling out a few blankets for them, he walked back around to the front and opened their doors.
'Come on.' Taehyung gestured, the twins slowly pulled their bodies out of the truck and into the cool air.
Taehyung passed the twins a blanket each, they both quickly wrapped it around them and one by one Taehyung lifted them up onto the front of the truck. Taekwon leaned back on the windshield and sighed deeply as he looked over the still ocean, barely visible.
Taegeuk, curled in her blanket, laid down on the bonnet with her head resting on the blanket. Taehyung soon lifted himself onto the truck and leaned back against the windshield next to Taekwon, also with his right arm resting on Taegeuk's back.
The three of them sat in silence, awaiting the sun of the new day to rise.