Seven Deadly Sins || OT7

Chapter Twenty Eight

~ trigger warning: mentions of sexual abuse ~

I woke up in a haze in the middle of the night and realized my arms were no longer wrapped around Jimin's form. It took a few moments for my eyes to adjust to the darkness and when they did I could see that Jimin was still next to me in bed, except he wasn't lying down anymore, he was sitting bolt upright and staring at his bedroom door with a horrified expression.

"Jimin...", my voice was raspy with sleep as I reached to pull on his arm, "What's the matter?"

The moment he shied away from my touch was when I heard the doorknob rattling in its place. I straightened up to glance in direction of the entrance to see that someone must have been trying to get the locked door open from the other side. For a few seconds I could only breathe and watch it happen until Jimin started trembling next to me.

"He- oh no- he's g-gonna- oh no", Jimin choked out in a panic as his chest rose and fell at a rapid pace. He was spiraling into hysteria again.

"Jimin, it's going to be alright, the door is locked, he can't get in", I tried to convey in a calm tone, "I'm right here for you too, okay?"

He didn't even spare me a glance and I was unsure how aware Jimin was of his surroundings as his only focus lay on that door across the room. I thought for sure he was going to start screaming and crying, but as the rattling persisted his breathing didn't become more uneven. In fact, the opposite seemed to happen as he stilled and suddenly barely let out any breath. I would have been relieved if I hadn't taken a look at his face, it was completely expressionless and blank.

"J-Jimin?", I spoke unsurely and lifted my hand to cautiously place it against his arm. I was surprised when he remained motionless and didn't even look at me. It was as if he had become catatonic. The horrifying thought that this might be the state Jimin was put in when that man would... violate him made me feel like hurling.

The sound of the door ceasing to rattle is what drew me from that horrid place in my mind and I was able to make out heavy footsteps withdrawing down the hallway. If I hadn't locked that door earlier in the day I didn't know what would have happened. I thanked heavens that my gut feeling had told me to do so.

It was silent for a while before Jimin started scratching at one of his arms. It was light scratching at first, nothing more than to satisfy an itch, but his hands kept moving and the next thing I knew his skin was turning bright pink at the surface. I reached to pull one of his hands away, yet the other rubbed more frantically then. He was murmuring under his breath, his eyes unfocused and distant as the word "dirty" spilled from his lips like a mantra.

"Jimin, you're not dirty, you're not", I croaked with my eyebrows knitted together, but I knew it was no use.

I decided the only thing I could do at this point was help him do what he had always done to calm himself. Getting out of bed and carefully guiding him towards the bathroom, I bent over the bathtub to let it fill with water. A feeling of embarrassed hesitation bubbled in my chest when I turned back towards Jimin who was staring blankly at the running tap, but I quickly pushed it away because that was not what was important at the moment.

"Jimin, I'm going to help you bathe, okay?", I spoke softly, but couldn't help the slight tremor in my voice as I stood in front of him.

There was no reply, although I had wished he could give me a sign that he was okay with this. The last thing I wanted to do was make him uncomfortable, do something he didn't want me to do. But I didn't know what else I could do in order to help him.