Level And Life | KTH ✓

17. The Painting

A/N:

Art certainly influences us. Usually, it causes a surge of thoughts and emotions running through our brains, bringing us to tears or laughter. It's hard to say if it's because some paintings are just so heinous that they just make people miserable, or there's a vicious past attached to them.

                                                 ...

It was a peculiar landscape painting. Although it represented a starry night conducive to reverie, some of the elements of the landscape illustrated sharp features and contrasting colors. The dazzling, aspirating light of the moon drawn at the top right corner did nothing to illuminate the dark night. Many stars with the different blues of the night making the scene both grandiose and terrifying. The intense, thick black branches of the cypress adding an eerie touch to the general atmosphere of the painting. Behind the rocks, there seemed to be a sort of hidden face, contributive to anxiety, and boredom. It was indeed giving a dramatic outcome.

Taehyung picked up the painting, analyzing it.

"Doesn't it look strange?" Moon stared at it in bewilderment.

All of a sudden, multiple golden streaks of energy emerged out from the painting and engulfed Taehyung and Moon along with it.

While all the others were just remained standing there with their eyes open wide as saucers, their jaws dropped to the ground as they couldn't comprehend what their irises showed them. 

Their minds couldn't process anything at the moment and the painting devoured their two beloved friends right in front of their bare eyes.

"Taehyung!! Moon!!"

They all began to search for them, shaking the painting, checking it upside down at every possible angle, shouting their lungs out.

"N-no way...t-that can't be!!! Taehyung, Moon!!" Bee screamed at the top of her voice as big tears started to well up in her eyes.

"Where are you??!" Jungkook couldn't hold it anymore and broke down as the salty liquid splattered down his cheeks. 

"Why did you took that painting, Taehyung-ah? You shouldn't have done that!" Hoseok stuttered through his quivering voice which was full of disbelief.

A single tear squeezed out of Yoongi's eyes as he mumbled incoherent things through his trembling hands.

Namjoon tumbled down as his legs gave out followed by his fist meeting the nearby stone.

"This fuckin' painting swallowed them right in front of our damn eyes and we couldn't do anything!" Jimin shrieked, his hands pulling out his blonde hair frustratedly. His eyes were brimmed with tears, threatening to spill anytime. 

Jin stormed off in a fury and fetched the painting from his hands and slammed it on the ground as he growled some unintelligible words.

But that couldn't help in anything. That couldn't bring their friends back to them. They wished they could pause or rewind what happened in a matter of few seconds. But they couldn't. That was the bitter truth that could not be denied.  

They all had powers yet they felt powerless.

Soon the entire atmosphere that seemed to be pleasant turned into the one with all muffled sobs and shedding tears.

When Jimin lifted up his face which was buried in between his knees in despair, his gaze fell on a crumpled piece of paper lying nearby.

There was something scribbled on it in red bold letters as he grabbed it.