Redemption (Midas x Reader)

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A warm breeze is blowing softly against my face, a wisp of hair gently tickling my cheek. I hear waves lapping rhythmically against the shore with soothing regularity. There is a seagull squawking loudly in the distance, as though someone or something has greatly offended it.

It's so peaceful here, I think to myself, digging my fingers into the cool sand.

I suddenly become aware of the feeling of wetness on my feet, as every incoming wave seems to creep further and further up my lower legs. I notice the sand pulling out from underneath my boots as each wave retreats. The boots are soaked through, and heavy.

I'm wearing combat boots. Something isn't right.

My eyes snap open, and my heart skips a beat as I try to jolt upright, immediately falling back to the sand as a sharp pain in my lower left abdomen prevents me from fully raising up.

The pain is excruciating. I press my hand onto the wound and pull it away, looking at the blood covering my palm. The smell of copper is suddenly overwhelming.

Shit. He got me worse than I thought.

I slowly press myself upwards into a sitting position and scoot away from the encroaching tide. A wave of fear washes over me as the realization hits that I was probably only moments away from being pulled out to sea, and either drowning, or being eaten by a shark. Probably both.

I must've passed out from the blood loss. I need to be more careful.

I hear footsteps above me on the pier. From the sounds of it, two people are walking side by side, laughing at some inside joke that only they understand. Maybe just coming from dinner, enjoying the last vestiges of light before the sun dips completely below the horizon. On a date. Happy.

The sunset was quite beautiful. I was trying to remember a time in my life when I might have enjoyed it.

Right now all I wanted was darkness. I cannot be seen. As a matter of fact, I was shocked to think that nobody had spotted me lying here yet. I had to have been here for at least a few hours since the sun was much higher in the sky when I first crawled under the pier.

I'm sure that my all black attire had helped to keep me unnoticed in the shadows at least to an extent. The long sleeve shirt, vest, boots, and long pants kept most of my skin from being visible. This same attire, though, was now both wet and sandy, and drenched in blood.

Just then a small dog came running up to me at full speed, trailing a leash behind it.

"Hey, little doggo, who do you belong to?" I croaked out, the hoarseness of my voice surprising me. I licked my lips, they tasted of salt.

The dog was intensely interested in my scent, and soon began licking the blood from my hand. I sat and watched it, mesmerized, until I looked up and noticed what could only be its owner jogging towards us.

I quickly pulled my hand away and tried to wipe the remaining blood into the sand. It occurred to me that there might be quite a bit of blood surrounding me, considering the severity of my abdominal wound and how long I had lain there bleeding out. Hopefully it was dark enough that he wouldn't be able to tell what it was.

"Lose something?" I asked as he approached, as coherently as possible, trying not to let my nerves show.

"Yeah, sorry," he replied, running a hand through his blonde hair. "I just got him, he doesn't listen very well yet."

I took note of his physique, he obviously spent a lot of time working out. His tank top and jogging shorts showed off quite a bit of muscle tone.

"Well maybe you should focus a bit more of that gym time on your grip strength," I quipped, nodding toward the dropped leash. If I'd had any tact to begin with, I'd lost all of it in my current situation. That, and the fact that I really just wanted him and his little dog to piss off.