Tyranny

Chapter-13: New Found Hope

The previous day replayed as Hyunjin was, as usual, still asleep at noon. The chamber maid from the day before once again went to wake him, the bottles of wine scattered everywhere, like a storm had brought them all back again.

She sighed hopelessly, as she cleared up the bottles once more. The king worried her, as did her jumbled thoughts. Pity kept her going, serving as motivation.

She hoped this Seungmin boy would help their king recover, heal him for if the king was well, so was the kingdom.

𝚂𝚌𝚎𝚗𝚎 𝙸𝚅

"Hyung. . . I'm hungry. . .", the boy whined, his throat dry as he clutched his stomach.

"I know, Innie I know...", Minho said, sadness visible. He looked at the youngers with pity, and guilt as he couldn't do anything for them.

Once they were separated from Seungmin, they were sent to the place where they kept all the failed jesters: A spacious cave with multiple guards all over. The place reeked of the smell of corpses, old and new. Bugs and all types of disgusting insects filled every hole and occupied each dead body. Rotten chains everywhere, and the only light being the faint sunlight from the entrance and the rest being lit up fire.

The place was– to say the least,  depressing. Hope seemed to have skipped this place, and left without even sparing it a glance.

Two meals a day, if you would even call them meals. But who were they to complain as the chefs were already doing this behind the king's back.

Our trio sat at a corner they cleaned, Jeongin hugging Minho as he cried, while Felix remained silent.

Their companions were... quite less in number than you would imagine. Maybe the soldiers cleaned out some corpses?

No one was in the mood for making friends, and beside the crying of their youngest, the cave was dead quiet.

'Is this how we are going to die? All these years of scraping through, and yet we die in this disgraceful way. No proper food, or drink.. or even sunlight. Why are we still here... just to suffer..?'

Minho was hazy, his thoughts hardly making sense. His mouth was dry and he felt so weak, that his bones felt as if they would break with the smallest pressure.

He shushed Jeongin as he didn't want him to be dehydrated. Slowly his eyes reached Felix who was just silent. He knew... he saw he wanted to cry too.

When their eyes met they didn't bother to reassure themselves or fake it,  they knew each other too well to fool the other.

Jeongin slowly quietened down, but didn't leave Minho's chest. Slowly, his breathing became even as he fell asleep.

"Minho-hyung...", a groggy voice called. The mentioned thief looked at Felix, whose face remained blank.

Minho hummed tiredly, in a questioning tone.

'Are we ever going to live happily again? Is there even hope? Is this the end? Was the before our last time to see Seungmin? Our last time together?'

Felix wanted to tell all his thoughts to Minho, heck he wanted to scream away his frustrations but, he was weak.  Tears slowly started to flow down his face, over his freckles that his friends adored to his chin and falling to the ground.

Quickly he wiped them away, but Minho caught his arm, stopping him from the harsh wiping. He then opened his other arm for Felix to rest in, who although hesitant, did so.

Minho quickly kissed Felix's head, and rubbed his back. Felix hummed tiredly and fell asleep, Minho following not long after.

A sweet voice singing a lullaby awoke Jeongin.

"Let your sufferings end,
Your chains break,
Come to me, my son,
For in the end,
Living, in itself, is fake.
To the everlasting happiness, the land
as bright as the sun,
May your soul have peace, forevermore."

He saw a person, glowing with a light filled with purity and calamity singing to one of the other jesters. He remembered, that jester had been mistaken as a dead body due to his stillness the first time they came.

Right for Jeongin to see, the jester slowly regained his muscles and color, like he had regained his youth, and slowly sat up in front of the glowing light you could only think of as an angel.

The jester looked at his hands, hugging himself at having being healed. He jumped around, happiness visible in his actions, while the 'angel' stared at him with fondness.

Jeongin could only stay silent and watch as the supernatural thing happening in front of him, his mouth slightly gaped open.

Slowly, the angel looked his way and their eyes met his. The angel smiled, the light glowing more but what Jeongin didn't miss, was the angel looking at him, mouthing what he deciphered as 'You'll find your saviour soon' and them looking Felix's and Minho's way, before speaking with their honey-filled voice, 'Whatever is going to come your way, endure it, don't give up. Peace is coming your way to reward you'.

Jeongin could only nod as the light gradually became blinding and he hid his face with his arms. His eyes shot open.

He was, once more, in Minho's hold, both him and Felix sleeping. He sat upright, and looked the way of the jester he just saw being healed, dead. No more fighting for breath, but instead, at peace.

Maybe that was a dream, maybe it wasn't. The reassurance he got from the angel however put him at ease, and now, he strongly believed– no, he knew everything will get better. He just had to not give up.

He thought about his newfound friends who were already so close to him, one would never have the thought that they used to be rivals.

Used to be... But.. the truce...

He suddenly got disheartened by the reminder of how they were 'working together only while they were suffering together'. Would they stop being together once this was over? Was this friendship.. a lie?

An act just because they pitied the boy? No.. it couldn't be..

"Yang Jeongin do not let your monster think for you. Your monster is filled with sins and a black heart. Let the angel's words motivate you instead, for having hope is your only choice", he told himself. He wasn't going to give up that motivation he found just minutes ago, not at all.

He decided that more rest was what he needed, as there really was nothing awaiting for him to do.

Giggling softly, he went back to nuzzle on Minho's chest, and hugged the man's waist.

Better than a feather filler pillow...

And with that he drifted off to sleep once more.

𝔱𝔬 𝔟𝔢 𝔠𝔬𝔫𝔱𝔦𝔫𝔲𝔢𝔡. . .

𝑌𝑜𝑢, 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑏𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑎𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡𝑒𝑑, 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑠𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟 𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑑𝑠
𝑌𝑜𝑢 𝑎𝑙𝑤𝑎𝑦𝑠 𝑠𝑎𝑦 "𝐼'𝑚 𝑜𝑘𝑎𝑦" 𝑏𝑢𝑡 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐻𝑜𝑤 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡 𝑠𝑜𝑏𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑦𝑜𝑢'𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑒

soo we finally got a chapter about the three muske-meows and fox. :]