This is a messy one so...description of rape, violence, abuse, possible suicidal thoughts, character death...you know the rest. Don't read if it makes you uncomfortable. The ending is a happy one, maybe a bit bittersweet.
You made bad decisions.
Fucking horrible ones.
But you didn't expect that moving to this town was a mistake, it looked so nice, the people seemed so friendly here, yet you were wrong.
Finishing your double shift at the dinner at midnight was shitty enough, but now this asshole that was supposed to come work tonight was two hours late.
It was even past 2 AM when you finally packed your stuff and made your way home.
The guy didn't even seem sorry for his ugly behavior, tho it's not like anyone ever gave a shit about you.
Walking down the road, the street's were pretty empty, a car driving by here and there and that one homeless man in front of the book store was sitting there as he would usually.
You took the sandwich you always made at work when you were going home so late at night, and placed the bag down next to the sleeping man.
One good deed at a time will get you somewhere.
Continuing your walk, you slipped into the alley to get to your small apartment complex when two shadows started walking towards you from the other side.
The cold sweat that suddenly started to gather on your skin was suffocating.
You kept repeating for yourself "They are nice people, nothing really bad happens in this place."
They were coming closer and closer, your lungs starting to burn with the breath you held in, your fingers holding the straps of your backpack harder than ever.
It was two guys, both in dark clothing with hoodies over their heads and they passed by you.
The breath you were holding was finally let out, your legs no longer feeling like they were glued in place.
"Fucking, paranoid..." you moved to unlock the building door, your heartbeat still beating loudly in your ears.
You would have missed it if you kept concentrating just on the pulsing in your ears.
But the other thumps were out of sync, getting louder and louder until you were slammed into the door, head getting smashed through the glass panel, making you dizzy and with horrible eyesight for a while.
You could feel it happening, but you could no longer control your limbs.
The hit to your head just made you barely conscious and uncoordinated.
You could feel two hands holding you up against the wall, other two ripping at your clothes, yanking your jeans off and lifting your legs off the ground.
You couldn't hear anything over the ringing in your head, couldn't see, something was dripping into your eyes, you couldn't speak, the hand over your mouth wasn't letting you.
You could just feel it all, but you wish you couldn't.
You wish you couldn't feel the burning sting between your legs, that you couldn't feel your wrists going numb from the tight grip they were in.
You wished that the other pair of hands on your hips wren't breaking your skin with their nails, it just all hurt too much.
And it lasted too long.
And you thought you were safe, that it wouldn't happen, but they caught you when you finally relaxed, when you weren't ready to run or fight back.
This was a pretty town.
The people here were nice.
This shouldn't happen.
Everything started coming back to you by the second, one of your eyes was still partially blind from something dripping into it.
A bit later you realized it must be blood since you felt the sting of skin being cut open on your forehead.
Starting to finally gain consciousness back you began to struggle in the hands of these two men, slipping from their hands before one smashed your head back against the wall, almost knocking you out completely.
The ringing in your ears returned, you felt your head drop forward onto the mans shoulder, the one that was taking his sweet time with you until he was gone.
Just gone with a rush of wind in front of you.
The grip on your wrists loosened and then another strong blow right in front of you and that was also gone.
You looked up only to see a shadow standing above you, a tall male, taller than the other two.
His face was recognizable enough in the dark, even with your eye fucked up.
The other two were no where in sight, as if all of this never happened, but it did.
The pain was proof of it.
The tall male waved for you to get up and you shook your head.
It's not that you didn't want to, but you couldn't.
Your legs felt too frail, your jeans were still hanging around your knees.
So much shame came over you.
He must have sensed it, so he turned away, beginning his walk back to the main road.
You wanted to call him back, but it didn't make sense.
Bit by bit as you got up on your own two feet and redressed yourself the pain began to fade.
But the pain you were feeling in your heart drove you insane, you couldn't go back into that alley so you stepped out on the street, the man that saved you already gone.
It was 5 AM when you walked back into the diner, the man that came into his shift a few hours ago, ignoring you just like he did back then.
It hurt to be invisible to the world.
Seemed like you didn't matter wherever you went, you just weren't worth to look at.
You stayed there till sunrise, went out when people began coming in to have breakfast and never returned to that diner again.
Going to that same alley once again you saw the police there, looking over the scene and you were just about to push your way past the people blocking your path to the yellow tape when someone spoke besides you.
"Are you gonna tell them?" the whisper was barely there, but you heard it.
Turning to your side you saw him again, still in the same black hoodie, hands tucked in his pockets.
"I should..."
You didn't need to point out what you were both talking about.
"Are you in pain?"
"No. I'm okay now." it seemed only natural to answer all his questions, he has been nothing but nice to you.
"They won't believe you. You look fine." he told you and you glanced over at a car window seeing yourself in it for the first time since last night.
You swore you had a cut on your forehead, you even remembered your head being smashed through the glass of the buildings back door.
"I..." you didn't know what to do anymore.
He was right.
That guy.
You were fine, not a single scratch on you, nor were you in pain.
"I don't understand..."
"Yea...a lot of shit happens in this town. Nobody does anything about it." he told as he took steps away from you, going down the sidewalk.
You decided to go after him after a few seconds, deciding that it's best to just come back when no one was left.
It was once again late when you were back and you could see the broken glass on the door and a little bit to the side of the door a puddle of blood that the ground soaked in.
You must have had a bad blow to the head if the idea of time was so fucked up for you.
You swore that those two guys disappeared in a matter of seconds last night.
And so much blood was not easy to explain but you slowly began to connect the dots once you were in your apartment.
That guy, the one who saved you must have killed those men.
You were so out of it, dizzy and lost in time and space it just might happen.
That would explain why he didn't want you going to the police.
You were the only eyes witness that survived.
You sat on your windowsill, glancing down the empty street once again catching sight of the dark figure.
You didn't have a single light turned on in your room, there was no chance that he would be able to see you from so far away, but you could tell who it was in the streetlights.
Yet, a few seconds you were able to look at him before he turned straight to your window, staring at your figure as if it wasn't engulfed in darkness.
It sent a chill creeping up your spine before you closed the window and dropped on your bed.
Sleep didn't come to you easily that night.
You'd run into him every other day the following two weeks.
No matter how scared you were by his presence on it's own, talking to someone for once and not being ignored was a relief.
His name was Jungkook.
He said he was 23, not much older than you.
You couldn't help but enjoy the little bit of conversation the two of you would have when you ran into him on the street while walking aimlessly.
"Why do you keep showing up wherever I go?" you asked him once, earning yourself a smile from the always serious guy.
The sweet peace that came with Jungkook smiling at you was blissful.
It felt like ending a intense roller coaster ride and you needed to keep it around.
It felt like home.
You were walking to your apartment and his eyes looked over the still present, although faded outlines of the puddle of blood that used to be there.
"Did you kill them?" you asked, afraid to meet his eyes.
"What if I did? Would you be afraid?"
You could only stay silent.
You weren't sure yourself, would you run if he admitted it?
Would you still tell him to come upstairs?
Would you still be sitting on opposite ends of the worn down couch you had, like you were now?
"I never thanked you for it..." you said, inching a bit closer to him but it went unnoticed by Jungkook.
"I'm not even sure what happened, but I remember you and I remember you stopping the pain."
Your thoughts drifted back to the image of Jungkook retreating from the alley, the rush of wind that went after him was the same thing that seemed to blow away all the pain from your body.
"You..." her fingers trembled nervously as she held her hand up to run over the small scar on his cheek.
"You're like an angel." the finger pressed into his cheek, only to end up slipping through it, breaking skin somehow, but doing no actual damage.
Goosebumps prickled up your arms and a shiver brought your body back to reality.
Crawling away in shock you just stared at Jungkook in disbelief, as the male sat up in equal shock.
"W-what the..." you followed after him, trying to grasp his hoodie as he ran to the door, but much like earlier your hand could barely feel him underneath your fingers as you tore through a piece of the shadowy figure.
"Jungkook!" he was gone through the closed door in less than a second and when you pulled the door open he was no longer in sight.
"I'm going mad." you sunk back onto the couch, pulling your knees up to your chest.
The following night you could feel him there, right out your window, under that same streetlight he always stood under.
"Fucking...just leave, or get over here." you mumbled to which the figure retreated into a darker area before a knock on your door broke your focus to spot anything in the dark.
You went to open it, looking through the peephole, but not being able to see anyone outside.
You opened the door, a wind blew right through you, and you blamed the still open window for it.
Shutting the door you turned around to go shut the window when you say Jungkook leaning on the windowsill, making you stumble back and fall against the door.
"I need to talk to you."
"Are you a demon?"
"I might be one day." he wasn't making any sense.
"What do you want from me then?"
"Nothing particular...I just like hanging out with you." he shrugged his shoulders.
This was probably the most Jungkook has talked to you so far, usually he would just stick to listening to your stories and rants about life, and give curt replies.
"I have a chance at redemption, to avoid becoming a demon like you said."
"Well why aren't you redeeming yourself as a decent enough spirit to not become a demon?" your question seemed like dumb repetition.
"Cut me some slack, I'm trying. I need to do some shit before they let me pass on." he said, finally moving to the couch.
"Why can't you pass on exactly?"
"I killed a man."
"Oh."
You sat down besides him no longer knowing who the guy in front of you was, not that you knew him before.
"Why did you...why'd you do it?" you asked, not knowing how to avoid the tense atmosphere.
"It was in self defense. I'm not a killer." the words were holding a bit of anger which you didn't see him do so far when talking to you.
"Didn't seem to have an issue with it a while back."
"Anyways..." he glared at you.
"I need to save a lost soul to bring with me to the afterlife. It's kind of like a life for a life trade otherwise I'm stuck here, looming around dark corners." he said and you nodded.
"Well then...better go and look for a lost soul instead of slacking off by staying here."
His eyes didn't move from you.
"I can just stay here, wait for you to come around."
"So...haunt me till I die? I'd rather you not do that." you got up to the kitchen.
"I don't think it will take a long time...life never seemed to be treating you well." he sat at one of the bar stools in the kitchen.
"True, but I don't wanna give up, it might get better." you fought him.
"Then tell me when was the last time life felt good?" he asked you, arms crossed, as if he was waiting for something patiently.
"The last time?" you thought deeply, it wasn't a hard question at all.
"When I met you." you didn't even blush at the statement and Jungkook got up to stand closer to you and the feeling returned, no racing heart, no panic and butterflies.
It just felt like coming home, war, calming, nice and cozy.
"But think about it, were you really alive for that?" his palm came to rest on your cheek, the touch barely there, barely present on your skin.
It was like everything started to go backwards, a rewind of the past ever since the incident happened.
You should have known.
You should have known the second those wounds you remembered were no longer present on your skin.
People began to ignore you far more than they used to.
"Why didn't they call me back into work Jungkook?" you asked, thinking about the fact that you never returned back to the diner ever since that morning.
"Just keep thinking..."
When did you stop feeling hunger?
Why wasn't your heart racing when Jungkook was close?
Why were the police there that day?
Who's blood was spilled in that alley?
You ran away from Jungkook, running outside distracted.
So distracted that you didn't even notice that you slipped right through the closed door.
When Jungkook came down after you, you were kneeling besides the dried bloodstains.
"You didn't kill them...they killed me..." tears were running down your cheeks, but turning into mere bits of dust as soon as they dropped from your cheeks.
"The cops. They were here because my body was here. The yellow tape..." you couldn't even put your thoughts together.
Jungkook crouched down besides you, his arms now easily registered on your skin.
"How come I can touch you now?" he only chuckled at your question.
"You were always able to touch me, I just needed a way to push you in the right direction otherwise we'd be stuck here forever." he explained.
"Why don't you like this place?"
"Why do you like it?" he shot back.
"I don't know." your eyes looked past him at the sunshine breaking past the buildings.
"The sun's rising on the wrong side..." you commented making Jungkook look behind him.
"Ah...that's our cue. Are you ready to leave?" he got up, holding a hand out for you.
Your fingers reached out for his own hands that suddenly started to become warmer in this odd light.
You swore you could even feel a hint of your heartbeat as the light came closer.
"Don't leave me once we get there." you ordered playfully, but it was more like a hidden plea.
And the smile Jungkook gave was a hidden promise.
Okayyy give me feedback, how did you like this wannabe spooky story.