𝙡𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨

[twenty-one] a maze of cold stone

taehyung's focus

the dark room had no lights, a blood red sun was beginning to erupt from the barred windows and the atmosphere was very still, so silent, you could hear a pin drop

taehyung's eyes shot open. he was lying, slung across the floor in an extremely uncomfortable position. he started to breathe heavily, where was he? where was jungkook? had he been kidnapped?

a bead of cold sweat trickled down his forehead as taehyung felt panic churn his insides

the unpainted walls caved into taehyung's mind, he curled into a tight ball and rocked back and forth. his breaths were shallow and his eyes fleeted from every corner of the dark and empty cell

"you're awake" croaked a voice as if he hadn't spoken for years

"where am I" taehyung forced himself to appear more solid and confident even though he was dying inside

"hell" the male voice grunted. the dark shadow rose up and walked towards taehyung from the other end of the cell. "you've been kidnapped as leverage haven't you?"

taehyung coughed, the ground was covered in dust, dirt and to taehyung's disgust; dried blood

"I h-have no idea" taehyung stuttered, racking his brain from any knowledge of why he was here

"I've been here for two years. never really got the full answer why I was kidnapped, but it seemed as though my wife was an assassin, she murdered one of them, and they took me instead. I was leverage, I was kidnapped to lure her into this trap." the middle aged man met eyes with taehyung. he noticed the faint wrinkles on his forehead, matted mouse brown hair covering his left eye. his eyes were a warm brown and his thick eyebrows hooded his eyes.

"she never came back" the man turned his head. "and I've been here ever since."

"haven't you—" taehyung furrowed his eyebrows, "haven't you tried to escape?"

"of course I have, been caught every time." the man sighed. "this place is guarded with armed men at every corner. day and night. it's almost impossible to leave"

"what is this place? who are they?" curiosity lingered in taehyung's dark eyes

"it a prison, where they keep their prisoners. this is the headquarters for san beomseok's gang"

"san beomseok" taehyung stared deep in thought

"yes, he's the leader of the gang. he rules everything, he would have commanded one of his guards to kidnap you. he's the reason you're here." the man told taehyung

"jungkook" taehyung whispered more to himself than anyone else. his eyes went livid. recalling memories from the kidnapping

was he dead?

his mind was racing with thoughts of jungkook, where was he, was he even alive? taehyung gulped, he needed to get out of here and help jungkook dead or alive

"I need to escape" taehyung rose to his feet "can you help me?"

"look, there's guards swarming the place, but yeah, I'll come, it'd be nice to be free again." the man scratched the back of his neck nervously. "I'm jung dongmin, nice to meet you"

dongmin gave taehyung a pleasant smile, as if they hadn't just met in a prison cell. taehyung shook his hand and felt a tight grasp from dongmin's grip. "k-kim taehyung" he gave than man a façade smile and glanced at the lock on the door.

faking his confidence, taehyung strode over to the lock stopping the prisoners from escaping and examined it carefully. how was he going to pick this lock? it's not like everybody carries bobby pins with them all the time. taehyung thought long and hard, until he finally decided to try and pick the lock with his earring

"right, d-dongmin" he looked over his shoulder to see the older man study taehyung. "I'm gonna go for it with this" taehyung gestured his earring, waving it in the air slightly. waiting for dongmin's approval, he nodded, crossing his arms over his chest

after what seemed an hour, taehyung, to dongmin's surprise, managed to succeed in picking the stubborn lock, without drawing attention to themselves.

taehyung let out a long, shuddering sigh he didn't even realise he was holding in, and gave dongmin a hopeful smile.

"after you" dongmin whispered, gesturing to the cell door that swung open, creaking on its hinges

taehyung nervously raked a hand through his hair, panic rose again in his throat

I need to do this. for jungkook. he kept telling himself, he had to get out of here

taehyung stepped out, checking the oddly deserted, dimly-lit corridor for any movement

"come on" taehyung pulled the middle aged man by his elbow, forcing him through the door

his eyes were alert, any sound his ears would pick up on, taehyung instantly pushed himself onto the wall only to discover it was mice, scuttling through the cell bars. taehyung's heartbeat increased rapidly as they crept down the corridor, praying not to be seen, as two, unarmed men lurking the corridors unaccompanied by a guard was definitely a death sentence, according to dongmin

the castle, house or whatever it was, seemed absolutely massive. at every end of most corridors there'd be a corner and then two more hallways directing completely different ways. there was dead ends and every corridor leading to different rooms looked exactly the same. it was a maze

their footsteps became hurriedly ruthless, and the two mens breathing had increased as they ran through the weirdly empty maze of cold stone

there was yet another dead end. taehyung had no time to waste, he wheeled around on his heels, but then dongmin's hand stopped him

"what!" taehyung has lost his patience

"...look" dongmin's eyes were fixed on the garnet coloured curtain in front on them. he stepped forward and opened the heavy velvety curtains with a snap revealing a large glossy black door. in the middle shone a highly polished brass doorknob in shape of an octagon

"open it." taehyung ordered

dongmin gave taehyung a worried expression, but obeyed even so

he twisted the handle feebly and turned back to taehyung giving him a I-told-you-so look

"move" taehyung barged passed dongmin, and turned the doorknob with little more force than was needed, and to taehyung's surprise, he heard the soft click, indicating that the door was unlocked. taehyung looked back at dongmin with a very unamused frown, clearly annoyed by the elder's weak attempt at opening an unlocked door

the heavy black door opened with ease and bright sunlight came flooding in which stung their eyes causing the two boys to grimace.

where the fuck is this place? taehyung through as he stepped through the door frame, pulling dongmin along with him and walked across the perfectly cut lawn fearlessly

"glad you could join us" a cold voice sneered.

— – -
{sorry it's a late update, I've been quite busy lately but I'll try to update as soon as I can
-e.sofia💘}