Dark (Jungkook - BTS)

Chapter 14

Crash.

A second loud explosion shook the apartment. The floor shuddered under my feet, and my hand shot out to the kitchen table to steady myself. What was going on? This was the second one, and despite the fact that it was Hell, Hell didn't explode very often. Was everything okay?

With a start, I realized that Jungkook was still outside.

Oh my God.

I hadn't been panicking before, but the thought that Jungkook was outside and still hadn't come back sent my brain into paranoid mode. I was like a mother who had just let her teenage daughter go to her first party. Worry was taking over me. Was the Underworld under attack? Was he safe? Fighting down a wave of panic, I rolled back my shoulders and twitched my wings nervously. Over the past few weeks, they had mostly solidified, though I hadn't tried flying yet. If I had to fly to Jungkook, could I?

He'll be fine, I thought. He's a demon, after all. What can a half angel do to save a demon?

Okay, so Jungkook was probably safe. He was safe. He was safe. He was safe. Deep breaths. But what about me? I was no demon, and I barely had a grasp on my extremely diluted angelic abilities. Could I fend off an attacker with a kitchen knife? Hopefully, I wouldn't have to find out.

The front door burst open, and I screamed and snatched up the knife in a nanosecond, my instincts immediately kicking in.

"Whoa, Scarlet, it's just me!" Jungkook held up his hands quickly without hesitation. I sighed with relief and set the knife back down carefully, almost chuckling at the fact that I had found out if I could use the knife.

"What's happening?" I asked. "There've been multiple explosions in the last five minutes... And you're... What happened to you?"

My eyes swept over his body. His black clothes had burns everywhere, and there were small rips and holes peppered in his jacket, as if he had been hit with shrapnel. There was a tiny graze over his cheekbone, but he seemed to be otherwise unharmed.

"We need to leave," he stated, grasping my hand firmly. "We have to leave right now."

As I was pulled towards the balcony door, my mind raced. Things were happening that I didn't comprehend. "But what's going on?" I pressed. "Are you okay?"

"We're under attack," Jungkook explained rapidly, flinging open the door. The Underworld was plagued with blazing figures soaring in the air. Flashes of light penetrated my retinas, and I gasped in recognition. I knew that light. A memory from the prison resurfaced. The smiling faces of three angels as they tried charming me into letting them go. "The angels are here."

"A-Angels?" I recognized their light, but I had hoped that they weren't here on violent terms. My father's people were attacking the Underworld? I swallowed a few hundred gibberish questions, and I almost passed out because I was so overwhelmed. "I..."

"Scarlet, you're staying with me," Jungkook growled, turning his black eyes on me. They were determined and filled with hard passion. "They might be the same race as you, but they don't love you like I do."

"I know..." I gulped and squeezed his hand anxiously. "I won't leave you. Never in my life."

"Good." Jungkook stared at the scene before us blankly. How did he feel, watching his home being attacked? I suddenly had the urge to wrap my arms around him and tell him how much I loved him, but I refrained from doing so. There wasn't time for that. "Can you fly?"

"Uh..." I unfurled my now-opaque white wings from my back. They slid out easily from the slits in the back of my shirt. "I haven't tried, but they're pretty solid now."

"Then let's go." His grip on my hand tightened, and he jumped, pulling me along with him. We vaulted over the railing of the balcony, and I screamed as we fell. Jungkook easily caught the wind with his wings and steadied us, but I fought to move mine. I watched the way Jungkook's wings flowed, and I tried to mimic the action. It took a lot of concentration and a decent amount of time, I could support myself, though I didn't release Jungkook's hand. I still needed my training wheels.

"Where are we going?" I asked as soon as I got the hang of flying, the wind whistling in my ears.

"We're getting the hell out of the Underworld before they can catch you," Jungkook replied, his eyes trained at the misty sky. I widened my eyes in surprise.

"We're... leaving?"

"I can't let them get to you," he muttered. "They'll take you away and turn you against me. I can't have that."

"I-"

"But I can't have the demon son of Hades and a half-angel escaping. You understand, right?" Three bright silhouettes soared from below and intercepted us. After my eyes adjusted to their light, I saw familiar faces.

"And what the hell are you doing out of prison?" Jungkook snarled. The one in the middle smiled innocently.

"I did say that we're important angels," he said. I remembered that he was Jin. Of course. How could I forget a face like that? "We can't be away from our homeland for long without people noticing."

"You're not taking Scarlet," Jungkook said firmly. Jin raised an eyebrow.

"That's not your call," stated Jimin. "She's one of us. Don't you want to go home, Scarlet?"

I stared at him in disbelief. I was suddenly aware of how tight Jungkook's grip on my hand was. He wasn't letting me go anytime soon. Despite the grim situation, I smiled. He loved me.

"Your home isn't mine," I answered coldly, wiping the expression off my face as quickly as I could manage. "Don't do this."

"You heard the angel," Jungkook murmured, his grip loosening. "She doesn't want to go to Heaven."

J-Hope shrugged. "It's our duty to take back the lost," he said. "We're taking her back to her own people, and you're coming along as a prisoner of war. You won't want to miss your trial. She can speak at it, if you want."

Jungkook let go of my hand and shouted, a feral noise that even startled me. Immediately, tendrils of shadows exploded from his hands. They wrapped around the three angels, encasing their light with darkness blacker than ink. They made startled noises, but J-Hope quickly recovered.

"Did you not remember when I said that we were important?" he asked quietly, cocking his head to the side.

"Too important for death?" Jungkook spat.

"No," ventured J-Hope, "but important enough for bodyguards."

Before I could process what he had said, I saw the gleam of white gold. A white gold sword. It was swinging in a downwards arc towards Jungkook. I opened my mouth to scream, but no noise came out. The hilt of the sword slammed into Jungkook's head, and he immediately started plummeting downwards. The angel that had hit him quickly flew after him and caught him before he hit the ground. He came back up, toting Jungkook's unconscious body with him. Jin, J-Hope, and Jimin, now freed, were surrounded by other burly angels.

"We have such a big welcome home party waiting for you!" cooed J-Hope, grinning.