Bloodline ✦ Nomin

56

Renjun tries to catch his breath, but there's no rest in sight for him as a door just down the hall slowly creaks open.

"Fuck me," he mutters as he approaches the door reluctantly. He enters inside to find a relatively barren room with wooden floorboards and a pentagram drawn in the center. "Jeno, where the hell are you?"

He steps into the pentagram and stands there for a moment as he tries to see through the darkness. A faint tap on his shoulder causes Renjun to inhale sharply and turn on his heel. But there was no one there. Only a large, oval shaped mirror the size of him now placed where a person should have been. His reflection is illuminated in a silvery moonlight, but the person he sees in the mirror is not himself. It's Jeno with pitch black eyes, sunken in cheeks with sharp cheekbones that form an inhuman edge to them, and pitch black hands with slender fingers and blacken talons as sharp as knives. They are akin to the ones his father had the night he killed Renjun.

Renjun reaches up and touches his face, finding that Jeno does as well. He inhales sharply and takes a step back, causing Jeno to do the same. But Renjun notices something when he opens his mouth slightly that startled him further. He opens his mouth wide with his teeth on full display. As Jeno does it, Renjun steps closer to see it much clearer. His teeth are sharpened and bloodied. The deep crimson liquid drips down his chin, and the frown that was mimicking the one Renjun displays quickly shifts into a wicked grin.

"Your mother's half was never strong enough to contain your true self. Accept it. Make yourself whole again. Feed me. Give me the flesh and blood of the angel who tried to kill me," his voice hisses inhumanly and snakelike, just like his father.

"You're not real!" Renjun spats despite the fear that shakes him to his core.

"I'm not real? Look inward and you'll see..." he starts before abruptly lurching forward and grabbing Renjun by the collar of his shirt, "I've always been there. I'm the truest form of you that you've been rejecting for. Too. Long."

He suddenly pulls Renjun through the mirror, dragging him through a portal into a place much different than the room he was in. He feels the hands release him just as he tumbles into a room that much resembles the one Jaemin lived in most of his life. As he gets a grip on his surroundings he hears breathy moans coming from the bed mere feet from him. He freezes at the sound, feeling himself stop breathing entirely as he mentally tries to tell himself not to look. Whatever indecent scene going on beside him was one he wasn't sure he was prepared to witness.

"Renjunnie," Jaemin's voice comes out faint and gentle, "I love you."

Renjun's stomach drops, realizing exactly what was happening in that moment.

"I l-love you too," his own voice eerily reaches his ears.

He dare not look.  It was the last thing he needed to do in that moment. Of course his own desires would be utilized against Jeno. This was his personal Hell. A labyrinth of fears, triggers of anger and pain, and manifestations of his own guilt. His jealousy was being used as a means of hurting him; wounding him until he lost his way and succumbed to the torment his father put in place to keep him contained there.

Renjun looks towards the door and crawls towards it as quickly as he could. Upon making it out, he climbs to his feet and slams the door shut.  Though this does nothing about the indecent sounds which seem to echo from inside the closed bedroom.

"Stay focused. He's gotta be here somewhere," he whispers to himself as his eyes dart around a long, extensive corridor with light illuminating each door along it. One in particular stands out to him considering it's faint blue hue. Not thinking twice, he pursues the only lead he's got.

Renjun thrashes the door open, finding nothing but a barren room that's barely lit by red light stemming from an indiscernible source. It simply radiates throughout the room, revealing the faint outline of a person curled up in a ball in the corner of the room with their back turned to Renjun.

"Jeno?" he squints his eyes to view the individual, but to no avail. It helps none.

What he hears in response is not the sound of Jeno's voice. Instead, a noise resembling metal nails on a chalkboard screeches through, penetrating Renjun's eardrums like hot needles. He covers his ears with his hands, but all it does is lessen the volume at which the sound was bringing him borderline physical pain. He squeezes his eyes shut instinctively, praying for the noise to cease. Then, as suddenly as it begins, the screeching goes silent. Renjun slowly opens his eyes and jumps back in sheer horror. A figure stands before him, but it was far from human. The body is pale and near skin and bones with sharp edges protruding from every joint. The eyes are stitched shut with blood trickled down from the wounds.  Various cuts, gashes, and keloids take up most space on the skin, leaving hardly a centimeter on it unaffected. It was noticeably glistening with blood from every wound, and it makes Renjun wince. The fingers were long with needle-like talons which extend from the skin. Despite the dangerous nails adorning the monster, it holds a familiar knife in its clutches. One with a wavy blade he's seen at least once before. It takes the blade and slashes at him with the swiftness of a fox. It manages to slice across his chest in a diagonal line, ripping his shirt and instantly soaking the area in red. Renjun cries out in pain as he clutches at the wound, but he refused to let it stop him. He turns for the exit, intending to leave, but before he's able to, the creature grabs ahold of his forearm and yanks him, clawing at the skin. Renjun screams, but the pain was not over. As he tries to pull away, the thing drives the blade into the crook of his elbow and carves downward to the palm of his hand. Renjun drops to the ground as the agony overwhelms him. He shrieks at the top of his lungs, hearing his voice crack as tears begin to stream down his cheeks. The monster releases him, but Renjun can only find it in himself to pathetically crawl away in the midst of the blinding pain. As if this wasn't enough torture, Renjun feels it suddenly begin slicing wildly into his back with vicious swings of its talons. It was all too much for Renjun. He loses all ability to move, and lies helplessly on the cold ground, succumbing to the wrath being brought upon him.

As he feels the slashing stop, a faint whisper echoes in his ears from no one and nowhere.

You deserve this.

Renjun closes his eyes and weakly utters, "No...you don't."

He takes several moments to regain his strength, feeling surprised he has yet to be attacked again. Once he does, he notices the monster is gone, and he is no longer in the room he once was in. He sees a bright blue light emitting from something at his feet, and with the last bit of energy he can harness within himself, he drags himself towards the source: a pool of water with Jeno submerged within. He's very clearly unconscious, and his ankle is bound by a chain which has him linked to the bottom, several feet below him.

Renjun reaches into the water, his blood flowing into it in murky clouds. Still, he focuses on Jeno and only Jeno. The blood and his own pain become irrelevant as he tries desperately to reach for his hand. He nearly falls in, himself as his fingers manage to make contact with Jeno's. But alas, it's not enough. He rolls in with a splash and swims down to his ankles. He touches the keyhole around the iron cuff, but before he can do so much as begin considering where to find a key for it, it breaks away and sinks slowly into the depths. Not wasting any time questioning why it happened, Renjun swims up and clings to Jeno with his arms wrapping tightly around his waist.

I've got you, Jeno.

He persists through the weakness overwhelming his fragile body and brings them both to the surface. He manages to pull himself and Jeno out of the water before lying helplessly on the ground once more. He holds Jeno's hand firmly in his own whilst breathing heavily.

"Xiao...I...I found him...He's...safe..."