Apocalypse ✦ Nomin

66

"Are you sure about this?" Jeno asks for the third time as he stands over Jaemin, whom is lying on the bed facing up at the ceiling.

"Yes, just get it over with, already," Jaemin pressures him to hurry.

"Okay, okay," Jeno responds before placing his hand on Jaemin's forehead.

He hesitates a moment, taking a deep breath as he finds himself dreading the mere thought of Jaemin being in pain. Unfortunately, he was all too aware that it was the only way of getting his memories back. As much as he hated it, he knew it was for the best.

Jeno begins to murmur out the words to an incantation which he memorized a long while back. Jaemin's eyes squeeze shut as his face scrunches in pain. His jaw clenches, and he takes heavy breaths. He balls his fists so tightly that his knuckles begin to turn white. He makes a few grunting sounds as he tries to bear the pain, but it only gets worse as Jeno repeats the incantation.

"Agh! Jeno!" Jaemin cries out, but the man doesn't stop. He knows he has to keep going. He has no other choice.

Jeno continues, causing Jaemin's pain to increase exponentially. His grunts turn into screams, and it tears Jeno's heart to shreds at the sound.

"Jeno! Please! Stop!" he barely manages to get out before his shrieks grow louder and more intense.

Jeno feels tears prick his eyes, and it takes everything in him not to stop right then and there. He wants so badly to cease what he's doing, but he knows that stopping now would only make things worse for Jaemin later. If they were to try this again at a later time, he would have to experience the same intensity of pain which they leave off at. He would surely suffer even worse than now, and although it hurts Jeno to see Jaemin this way, he keeps on in hopes he could handle the pain for just a little longer.

Jaemin begins to scream shrilly in a manner which turns Jeno's blood to ice in his veins. Jaemin was in complete and total agony, and Jeno was the cause of it. Tears begin to fall from Jeno's eyes, feeling in his soul that he's so close to being finished but not close enough. It takes every ounce of willpower in his entire body to persist and to force himself to listen to the heart shattering screams of the love of his life.

Jeno feels his stomach drop at the realization that Jaemin's shrieks quickly grow quieter and more drained. Jeno recites the incantation one last time before finally stopping and retracting his hand from Jaemin's forehead.

"Baby, I'm so sorry," he speaks through tears as he sits on his knees beside Jaemin on the bed.

Unfortunately, Jaemin does not respond. Though he tries to look at him, Jeno watches as his eyes roll to the back of his head, and his eyelids shut once more.

"Jaemin?" Jeno whimpers as he pulls his limp body into his arms.

Tears begin to flood down Jeno's face as he buries his face into Jaemin's shoulder. He utters muffled apologies to him over and over again as he feels guilt weighing heavy on his heart.

"What the fuck happen-"

Jeno lifts his head to see Donghyuck and Mark standing in the doorway to his room with wide eyes as they stare at him.

"What did you do to him?" Donghyuck asks in an accusatory manner, but Jeno ignores him. He instead remains silent as he forced himself to stop crying and reluctantly settles Jaemin back down on the bed to rest.

Jeno sluggishly climbs off his bed, taking one last glance at Jaemin before shuffling towards the two men that block the doorway out of his room.

"If we want to summon Xiao, we need to hurry up and do it," Jeno stated in a flat voice with a vacant expression.

"What? Why?" Donghyuck asks.

"You changed your mind?" Mark follows up immediately.

Jeno shakes his head, not wanting to answer a million questions at the current moment.

"The faster we work things out with Xiao, the faster we can get him out of here before Jaemin wakes," he murmurs, "Let's get this over with."