Moonlight: Yoonmin

Moonlight

Jimin knows he's dying. He can feel a wetness on his belly, laid open to the world like a book, as his body is drained of blood. He can feel the ache of where they bit him all over.

The demons.

The air around him has stopped blowing and he feels himself grow cold all the way down to his fingertips.

Dying isn't what he imagined.

He thought he'd be more afraid, but there's a strange sort of calmness settling within him. His mind forgets that he's lying mauled in the middle of the night in the winter forest, and he's taken back to his childhood.

He plays with his brother outside their home.

He helps his father in his bakery.

He cooks dinner with his mother.

That's what he thinks about. Those precious memories that have sustained him for so long, ever since the sickness took them. He's happy now because he knows he'll join them. Much sooner than he'd anticipated, but at least he'll be home again.

He smiles when he sees an angel has come for him to take him to Heaven with his family. The angel looks at him and frowns but before Jimin can ask what's wrong, everything goes dark.

🥀🥀🥀

The night had been uncharacteristically bright as the moon shone proudly in the sky when Yoongi left his home. It's been months since he's fed and his senses were weakened which is why he didn't notice the others immediately. It was only when he smelled it, the scent of fresh human blood hitting him like a cannon. All of his instincts had waged war against his mind and won. Like a feral newborn, he'd been dragged by the mouthwatering scent to where his prey lay, ripped apart and ready for him, but as soon as he saw who it was, reason took over entirely. His fangs retracted and he rushed to the side of the young man he recognized as a baker in town.

He kneels beside him now, looking at the wreckage left behind by who he now assumes was a nomadic coven. Sniffing the air, he can tell there are only two or three of them and they're still close by. He looks down at the young man, Park Jimin, and inspects his neck. Sure enough, there are multiple bites across his skin. Yoongi curses under his breath as his mind whirls. Nature would dictate that he just let this poor boy die and let the townsfolk find him and bury him. Unfortunately, they don't know that the horror stories they're told as children about evil creatures lurking in darkness and hunting humans are true and if they find Jimin like this, with these bite marks everywhere, they'll have no explanation for it. The last time this happened, Yoongi and his brothers were hunted until they were forced to relocate to a different province.

Jimin stirs suddenly, eyes fluttering open as Yoongi looks down at him. It only takes him a split second to decide what to do. He takes off his traveler's cloak and wraps it around Jimin before picking him up and racing back home. His brothers will be home in a few days from their hunt which gives Yoongi time to see if he can save the human.

It'll be his final act of penance, a sacrament for absolution. He will save Jimin if it's the last thing he does.

🥀🥀🥀

Jimin can feel gentle hands on him as he slips in and out of consciousness. In his dreams, there are voices he doesn't recognize; some laugh and mock him, but there's one, soft and deep like a rippling tide, that coaxes him out of his slumber. It's the angel he saw, he's sure of it. He fights his dreams, full of blood and pain and those laughing faces like demons in the dark. He wants to go to the voice and the gentle touch but his pain is too much and death feels more and more like a welcome relief.