July 2 | DAY 8
02 : 12 pm
Blood trickled down Taehyung's bare foot and dripped onto the floor as ruby droplets. Seokjin unconsciously tightened his grasp on Taehyung's hand. He looked at the drops of blood on the white floor, then lifted his eyes to meet Taehyung's trembling ones.
Seokjin kneeled do get closer to Taehyung's left foot, where there was supposedly an injury, a dangerous injury.
He slowly lifted the bottom part of Taehyung's pants, slightly drenched in blood. Seokjin prayed that it was not what he thought it was. It could be any other kind of injury, due to glass or anything sharp, but he didn't want it to be a wound caused by Jungkook. But against all hopes, he saw fingernail scratches on his ankle.
Seokjin slowly lifted his head to meet Taehyung's eyes again, this time he saw fear in them, but also something else. The same 'something' that he saw in Jimin's eyes, that he saw in Jungkook's eyes and Seokjin knew.
He knew that Taehyung's life was in danger too.
Seokjin stood up and held Taehyung by his shoulders, looked deep into eyes and tried to sound as comforting as he could.
"Taehyung... It's okay."
All of a sudden, Taehyung started shivering. His hands and his face went pale and cold. He staggered to the side losing his footing, but Seokjin caught him before he could fall.
"Sit down here...", Seokjin voiced.
He made Taehyung sit down slowly on the floor. Seokjin looked into his black pupils and then at the wound. His eyes were not grey and the blue veins had not appeared yet. He figured that Taehyung had time. At least, he hoped that Taehyung had time, that there was time to save Taehyung's life.
Seokjin quickly tore off a piece of cloth from his shirt, his shirt was merely a dirty mangled piece of fabric now, and tied it tightly above his left ankle. He wanted the blood around the wound to flow out so that the poison would leave his body along with it, but the scratches were small that only a few drops of blood were coming out. It was not enough, he had to make the wound bigger.
Taehyung sat on the cold floor, shivering and breathing heavily, but he was not crying, not even sobbing. His eyes were dry and completely blank, he just stared at the tiled floor with glazed eyes.
"Taehyung?", Seokjin snapped his fingers to get Taehyung's attention. Taehyung flinched at this action and looked at Seokjin.
"Taehyung, I'm gonna have to make a deeper cut near the wound, so that the poison can flow out. Do you understand me?", Seokjin emphasized on each and every word he said, nodding along with the clear syllables he pronounced.
At that moment, Taehyung looked scared. His facial expression flickered all of a sudden and his eyes started tearing up. He suddenly grabbed Seokjin's whole body into a hug and started crying into his chest.
"I'm scared Hyung... I can't... I don't..."
Seokjin hugged him back tightly and sighed. He tried to shush Taehyung's voice down, they were still in dangerous territories.
"I don't think... I'll make it...", Taehyung mumbled, letting out a sob or two.
"Everything will be okay... Just try to stay calm...", Seokjin said in a very low volume.
Taehyung slowly let go of his hold on Seokjin and wiped his eyes with the back of his hands. He had stopped crying but was still sobbing.
"Do you think I'll be able to see my mother again?"
Seokjin's heart shattered at this question. He looked back into Taehyung's glossy eyes.
"Yes, you will. Now try not to think about anything like that and... just stay calm..."
Saying this, Seokjin stood up and started looking around. What he wanted was a knife or a piece of glass to make an incision on Taehyung's leg. He had no idea whether this would work or not, but he had to try.
He kneeled back down to face Taehyung again.
"Hey, so I'm gonna go look for something sharp. Let's move you over to that aisle, okay... It's safer. Okay?"
Taehyung nodded his head and Seokjin pulled him up. Taehyung placed his left foot on the floor and suddenly stopped breathing.
"I can't feel my leg."
He looked at Seokjin.
"I can't... feel... my leg."
Seokjin held Taehyung more firmly as he slowly made Taehyung limp from their current position to the aisle.
"It's okay... It's because I tied the cloth too tightly.", he said as he looked into Taehyung's eyes to find that they were now slightly greyish. His breath hitched and words hesitated to come out of his mouth.
"Everything... will be okay."
He hoped everything would be okay.
After making sure that the aisle was safe, Seokjin cleared out an area in the middle of all the clutter and made Taehyung slowly sit down.
"I'll be right back. Just stay put...", Seokjin said as he stood up after making Taehyung comfortable on the floor.
"Okay...", Taehyung's voice trembled as he spoke.
Seokjin hummed in response to Taehyung's reply and sighed. He quickly took a look at the wound. He could see vague undertones of blue beneath the scarlet bloodstain.
Seokjin took off slowly, still alert of his surroundings, the creatures could be lurking around anywhere in the building, so he kept himself from making any kind of noise.
He made his way to the cutlery section of the supermarket and started searching for a knife. He found a sharp one immediately and started making his way back to Taehyung.
He suddenly realised that the knife had to be sanitized, or Taehyung could be at the risk of an infection. He didn't want what happened with Yoongi to repeat, so he found and grabbed an unbroken bottle of alcohol on his way.
Again, the perks of being stuck in a supermarket.
Seokjin quickly made his way back to Taehyung to see him passed out, leaning his back against the shelf. Seokjin feared whether something happened to Taehyung, so he quickly approached and tried to slowly wake him up.
On second thought, Seokjin realised that it'll be better if Taehyung was asleep while he makes the incision, so he stopped himself. Taehyung was still breathing and he looked alright, maybe those scratches were not dangerous after all, he thought.
He felt Taehyung's hand, it was cold but not too cold. Seokjin suddenly felt a feeling of warmth spread all over him, he believed that Taehyung was going to be okay. That's when he decided to take a look at the wound and the smothering feeling returned. The ugly blue veins had started spreading up and were almost at the shin of his left leg.
Seokjin grabbed the bottle that he had brought with him and opened it. He took the knife and washed it with the alcohol, using up almost half of the bottle in the process.
He then turned towards Taehyung's foot. He had no clue as to what he should do. Where should he put the incision? Should it be close to the wound or away from the wound? What if he accidentally cuts open an important vein or artery of his?
Millions of questions whizzed past through his mind, while he held the knife hovering above Taehyung's foot, not even close to knowing what to do.
~~~
Yup, small chapter, I know. I've been experiencing some sort of a writer's block, like I have the storyline but the words are just not coming out. What should I do? I'm almost done writing this book, I was talking bout my next one actually hehe 😏
Well anyhoo, next chapter out on 5 November, 2020.
OMG COMEBACK MONTH IS STARTING
Love,
PAPRIKA 💜