Guardian Angel || A BTS Fanfic

1.1 : The Beginning

The grayish, dark enclosure of my dream was as silent as it was empty. No familiar faces, not a single shape or noise in the midst of the emptiness. The silence felt fragile and ominous. I was afraid to shatter it with my words. I pushed my fear aside and called out for anyone, anything, but I couldn't hear my voice. The silence remained, muffling and suffocating.

Suddenly, the figures of six familiar people appear in front of me, lined up in a V-formation. I recognized them immediately.

Jin. Namjoon. Yoongi. Hoseok. Jimin. Jungkook.

Five of them faced forward, their faces expressionless. Even cheerful Hoseok had a blank, cold look in his eyes. They looked like they had all died and would stare into the emptiness forever, their eyes wide with no hint of life in them.

Unlike the others, his eyes spoke thousands of emotions. I could only guess what he was feeling. He had a small, sad smile, and was frozen like the others. His clothes were tattered and blood was splattered across his dirty shirt. Thin cuts, some bloody, some healed, covered his arms and his neck. The exhaustion, fear, and sadness in his eyes hit me like a brutal punch.

They were still, so still that they almost looked two dimensional. It was as if they were all trapped in a photograph--a moment of time frozen forever.

I felt more and more uncomfortable as I stood in front of their unblinking eyes.

"Jungkook, what's wrong?" I asked, my mouth forming the words without any sound coming out.

Silence.

Drip, drip, drip.

Tears appeared and glistened in his brown eyes and fell into the darkness under him. I could feel his emotions growing stronger with each tear. To my surprise, he blinked. Before I could cry out, he turned into a hazy, gray silhouette and scattered into the vast emptiness.

Suddenly, I was able to move. I blinked and the scene changed in an instant. Now, I saw a small boy curled up, crying and gasping, with his face buried in his arms. He wore a striped, long-sleeved shirt and ripped blue jeans. His whole body quivered with sobs and I had the sudden urge to comfort him. I walked over to him and touched his shoulder gently. He turned around, but before I could see his face, I was falling backward.

Then everything went dark.

~ ~ ~ ~

I woke abruptly with the feeling of panic still coursing through me. My vision was so blurry I could barely make out my hand from my room's sand-colored walls. My head hurt as if a thousand needles were driven into my skull and I winced in pain. I fell back to my bed, listening to the noise outside to lessen the roar of pain in my head.

Rain tapped on the window gently and I heard cars driving by on the wet pavement. The walls in my apartment were so thin, I could hear bits and pieces conversations of the people passing by. 

The rain continued to tap methodically, calming me. A crow perched outside my window jerkily tilted its head. It stared through the glass before it cawed loudly and took off.

A crow out in the open in the rain? I thought. Weird.

My eyes had cleared up and I got out of bed, heading over to the bathroom. I looked at my reflection in the mirror and saw dark circles under my eyes and--to my surprise--a single black feather tattoo on my neck.

I leaned forward and inspected the new "tattoo". Is it fake? I thought, touching it lightly.

I turned the sink on and rubbed water on it, hard. The tattoo remained in the same shape as it was before. I tried to keep calm but couldn't help feeling a little panicky at the unknown tattoo. I tried washing it with soap, but the ink didn't even smear.