Beastly Beauty ✓

28. The Unveiling

28 | THE UNVEILING

When it came to Hoseok, what I feared more than anything was him being harmed because of me. I thought there could be nothing worse than a repeat of what happened to Jimin, but staring into those spine-chilling eyes, that belief crumbled into shards of a greater terror.

Hoseok is The Hood.

My body trembled under the weight of such shock, but despite a thudding heart and a spinning head, I did not cower. Even as his chest swelled in size and his breaths deepened to rasps, I held my ground.

"It was you?" My teeth clenched, eyes stinging with tears. "You were the one doing this to me?"

He groaned and shut his eyes. "It's not... I'm not..."

I winced as the hand that was on my waist burned into my skin, then he slammed it onto the door at the other side of my face.

"You said you wouldn't hurt me," I gasped.

His bright eyes opened to seize mine. "I won't."

"I thought—" my voice cracked, "I was so sure I could trust you."

"Jangmi, please. It's not me. I'm not him!" He let out a deep growl, the sound eerily familiar to what I'd heard in one of my nightmares. Inhuman.

The more worked up he became, the more I panicked. My resolve started to slip as my heart accelerated and my vision blurred. My mind frantically sought a way to escape, but my thoughts kept reeling to the betrayal that pierced my gut.

Hoseok cried out as he hung his head toward the ground, and I took the chance to duck under his arm. His hand caught my elbow and drew me back to him before I could take three steps. He spoke by my ear but his words were hazy, waning under the strength of a second voice invading my head.

"Come to me."

Darkness edged into my sight, and my body burned with heat before collapsing.

He was waiting for me as I plunged into the prison he forged within my own mind. On my hands and knees, the floor beneath me turned to cold soil. The bottom of his cloak entered my vision as he stood in front of me.

"Please," I weakly let out, my arms shaking while I kept my gaze on the ground. The little strength left in me was tearing alongside my heart.

"Jangmi," he sang in his warped tone, "I thought you were brighter than this." Crouching down to my level, he caught my chin with a gloved hand, raising my head up to meet the void of his hooded face—no luminous orange to be found.

He was still. The control of his actions opposed everything Hoseok had been just seconds ago.

"Are you...really him?"

His grip on my chin tightened. "What do you think?"

Everything seemed to point toward Hoseok. The gloves, the eyes, the mood swings, hiding his features—

An idea took hold of me. While it was likely to fail, I had to try.

"I don't know." Gathering what little energy remained, I moved to stand. He followed, and I looked beyond his wide frame to the same forest we'd been in before, though the once lush trees were scorched and dead. There was no wind, no sound. It was desolate.

"I'm not Hoseok," he said.

"How am I supposed to trust anything you say? You hide your identity, so why would you be truthful about this?"