Don't Come Inside • Jungkook

xx.

--warning: graphic violence--

Jimin
missed video chat
now

Jungkook felt his heart stop for a moment before he snatched up the phone, quickly calling back even as his hands shook.

Jungkook
Jungkook wants to video chat

"You're late," she said, her voice cold. Angry. He wondered if she knew that he'd called the police.

"I'm sorry," he said, swallowing. "I'm sorry, I left the room for a minute to go to the bathroom and-"

"Liar," she interrupted before falling silent, just staring at the camera. Not that he could see her eyes. Due to her placement, he couldn't see if the chair behind her was empty or not. "The game has changed," she continued.

Jungkook stared at the screen, his eyes struggling to focus on her lips.

"I wanted it to be fair. But then your friends came in and ruined everything." She took a moment to run her tongue over her bottom lip. "I'm growing impatient. I can't wait for three guesses anymore. You get one guess for each of the filthy men who broke into my home. That leaves you with four guesses, Jungkook."

He flinched, knowing the use of his full name to be a sign of her anger, of her displeasure. "F-Four?" he asked after a moment, running the math through his head. "But- shouldn't there be five?"

"Four," she repeated harshly before pausing a moment. "There was an accident with the one."

"An a-accident?" Jungkook asked, feeling his stomach sink as horror welled up from within. His eyes crawled toward the box on the table, waiting to be opened. Suddenly, the math made sense.

"He was going to let Jimin go," she pleaded, her tone suddenly changing to become more like the personality Jungkook recognized, the sweet girl who didn't want to be scolded by the object her her infatuation. "I couldn't let him do that, Kookie. Or it would ruin the game. And I know it wasn't fair but he was cheating too, okay?"

Jungkook's eyes wandered from the screen to the box on the table, not Jimin's but the one waiting to be opened. "Is that- is that him?" he asked, his voice turning up painfully.

She nodded, her face dipping for a moment. "Of course I still sent you a present, Kookie. I wouldn't forget about you."

"Is he...dead? Are they both dead?" he asked, his voice sounding strange to his own ears, as though it hadn't been his lips to utter the words. It echoed in his mind. Dead. It was an odd word. It sounded hollow, in a way. Empty. Such a small word, such a simple word. Seemingly inconsequential.

"Now for tonight's guess!" she announced, ignoring his question as she clapped her hands, a smile gracing her lips as she slid off to the side of the screen, revealing-

"Taehyung," Jungkook mumbled, staring with pained eyes at the boy in the chair. His eyes were glassy, wet with tears that were trapped inside his eyes. His whole body was shaking, and he was breathing in and out rather heavily, his chest pumping up and down with each inhalation and exhalation. He looked like a scared animal, ready to bolt at any second if only he weren't bound. He'd never seen Taehyung looking so vulnerable, so fragile. The sight alone hurt.

"Since I'm nice, I'll give you a hint," she said, her voice lilting and melodic. Jungkook still couldn't comprehend how she could charade as something beautiful, as a creature of innocence. "Did you open your new present?"

Jungkook bit his lip, his eyes still on Taehyung's face. He could still see Jimin sitting there in that chair, his eyes scared but hopeful, back when they hadn't known how bad it was going to get, back when he still thought that someone was going to save him. Taehyung's eyes had the fear but none of the hope. He knew that nobody was coming for him. He knew that he was probably going to die tonight, and he knew that his hand would end up on Jungkook's table with the rest.