This chapter is inspired by an event that happened in this book I'm reading. It's called "ember in the ashes" if you want to check it out!

XV: Taehyung 

The dunes seemed to go on for miles on end, their sand covered slopes shining as if struck by starlight. The moon peeked out from behind the angry gray clouds, the only light in this whole uninhabited desert. The salt-white flatness stretched on for hundreds of miles, marked by nothing but black cracks and the occasional gnarled Jack tree.

The Atacama desert.

Why I was here I didn't know. Deserts are a rare thing in the vampire world, and the eerie stillness of this place sent shivers down my spine. A breeze curls around me, and for a second, I think I smell smoke and death. Then the smell fades, but it still leaves me uneasy. Was this all a dream?

Then I heard it. A voice.

A voice carried by the wind, soft at first, but gets closer, clearer. It doesn't come from any particular direction, just swirls around me like an unrelenting chorus. A chorus of elements: sand, air, earth, and darkness. Lots of darkness.

"Taehyung."

I practically leap out of my skin, the stillness around me shattered by just this one word. My dagger is at the throat of the speaker before I can think, but I nearly drop it in surprise.

The little revenant.

She stares at me through her one eye, almost as if challenging me to make the decision. As if daring me to swipe that knife across her neck. But that can't be right. She's dead. She shouldn't be here. But then, where was here?

I drop my arm and back away. Impossible. This must be a dream. It has to be. I pinch myself hard, wanting to wake up from this nightmare. Nothing. The revenant tilts her head. I take my dagger and cut it deep into my palm. Blood drips to the ground, the only sound in the otherwise still air.

I can't wake up.

"This―this isn't right. You're dead." I say in a hushed whisper. She looks at me, eye flashing. "Yes. But you're not. Not yet." I don't know what to say, so I simply nod.

"Come." She beckons me with her hand, climbing a low hill which rises before us. When she realizes I'm not following, she looks back. "Starlight is fading. We must move." I hurriedly climb after her, my large feet having considerably more trouble in the soft sand. The revenant walks to the top of the sliding sand, not even leaving any footprints behind. She waits for me, moonlight glinting off her hair and turning it into a silver waterfall.

When I reach the top, the night air seems to curdle, bringing with it the unmistakable stench of war. A battlefield stretches out below me, countless bodies lying motionless in the sand. There's no moaning, no groaning, no one yelling in pain. Nobody moves a muscle. Everyone's dead. I'm not a stranger to death, but this type of still carnage I have never seen before. There are always at least a few survivors holding on to the fleeting hope of life. And yet... Why would two armies have a fight in a desert? What could there possibly be to gain?

The revenant starts to walk down the hill towards the dead, but I stay where I am. I don't want to go. I've seen enough slaughter in my life. There's no need to see more. But she turns back and clamps a surprisingly chill hand on my arm, dragging me towards the battlefield with force I never knew she had.

As we wind our way through the first of the bodies, I look down. A sick feeling of recognition seeps through me at their faces.

I would know these people anywhere. I killed every one of these men.

Their dead eyes seem to follow me as I make my way through them, cursing at me for taking away the life they held up until that fateful moment. Some are human, while others are vampires. There's no line separating the two. All are the same in death. All killed by my hand. I want to stop, to run away, but the revenant urges me forward.

"We are not done," she says. "There are more."

I shake my head. I know exactly how many people I've killed. Even in my state of rage, I still remembered those faces. There was never a day when they wouldn't haunt my memories. But there are far more than 456 men on this battlefield. A thousand to say the least. I couldn't have been the cause of their death for all of them.

But as we keep walking, we start to pass faces that I don't recognize. People I haven't killed. And that's a kind of relief, knowing that this was probably part of someone else's nightmare. Someone else's sins.

"Your kills," the revenant interrupts my thoughts. "They're all yours. The past. The future. All here. This is your destiny."

My hands start to sweat, and I feel lightheaded. "I―I don't..." There are too many. Too many people for just one vampire. I couldn't have done all of this. There was just no way. I look down. There's a silver-headed figure slumped down on my left, and my stomach sinks down to my toes, because I know this vampire. Jimin.

"No." I bend down to shake him. "Jimin. Wake up. Get up. You shouldn't be here."

"He can't hear you," the revenant says. "He's gone."

Beside Jimin lies Yoongi, blood staining his jet black hair, trickling down his nose and off his chin. And a few feet away, I spot a mane of white hair, a powerful body. Grandfather? Just next to Grandfather is a man with green eyes, his intricately carved mask shining with light. His face is contorted in a permanent sneer, as if he died snarling in the face of death.

"No. No!" There isn't another word to describe what I'm seeing. It's something so terrible that it shouldn't be allowed to exist. Even the sight of Lucius couldn't make me feel any sort of victory. He was one foe against a battlefield full of the bodies of my friends. And that wasn't even the worst of it. My breath constricts in my throat as I see my next victim fallen lifeless on the war ground.

Jungkook.

I run and bend next to him, bringing his head into my arms. Tears blur my vision, but I can clearly see the raw red line which cuts across his throat. The killing blow. His hair is a mess, snaking out every which way, and I kiss it, willing him to come back to life. "No... no my love! Don't leave me like this!" My pleas seem futile as he doesn't move a muscle. His eyes are open, their brilliant golden brown faded into the color of a dead sun. I think of his intoxicating scent, his smile, his laughing eyes, and I can't take it anymore. I turn on the revenant, fury in my eyes.

"These are my friends, family, my soulmate. People I know. I would never hurt them." I spit the words like fire, still cradling Jungkook's head to my chest.

"Your kills," the girl insists, and the terror grows in me at the sureness in her voice. Is this what I will become? Will the past repeat itself like this again? I couldn't bear the thought.

"Please," my voice cracks. "How do I make it stop? I have to make it stop."

Something flickers in the revenant's eyes. But her voice is as steady as ever. "It's already done. This is your destiny―it is written."

"No!" I carefully pick up Jungkook's body bridal style and push past her. "I won't let it happen. I can't."

"You can't stop it." she says, and I pause mid-step. "The monster will take over eventually, and you will lose everything you love. You by yourself will never be able to conquer it. What comes from blood will always return to blood. That is your fate."

"Then why?" I scream at her, anger tainting my vision red. "Then why show me all of this if I can't even prevent it?"

But the revenant was already fading, the wind blowing away the last wisps of her form. Your destiny, her disembodied whisper brushes against my ear. The whole battlefield seemed to be shrinking, each body bursting away in a gust of smoke until it was no more than the size of a soccer field. Looking down at Jungkook, I saw that he too was disappearing, his body becoming fainter and fainter until I could see the ground right through him. Then he was gone, vanishing from my arms like everything else.

My scream seemed to echo through the dunes, touching the night sky with each note. It was a scream full of despair, hopelessness, and confusion.

Suddenly, the ground cracks open at my feet, devouring me whole as I dropped like a deadweight. But I couldn't care less. If I was going to die, at least some good would come out of it. Maybe I could even see Jungkook in heaven. I close my eyes, silently awaiting my fate.

The first sign which told me I wasn't dead was the velvet sheets beneath me, and the pillow propped behind my back. Hesitantly opening my eyes, I saw that I was back in my own bedroom, faint light starting to seep in through the thick curtains. I laid on my bed motionless for a minute, the grotesque images of the battlefield engraved into memory. My vision swam, and my throat felt hoarse. Jimin. Yoongi. Jungkook. All dead. All dead on that nightmare of a battlefield. But maybe it was all a dream. Maybe none of it was real.

I reached a hand out to touch my cheek, only to feel something rough on my skin. Holding my hand up to my face, I draw in a sharp breath. My palm, which I had cut with a knife in my dream, had a long scar over it, white, but still visible.

"No." I mutter, staring at it as if it was the sole reason for my problems. Everything had been real. My hope disappeared, and my confidence wavered. Gods, no.

A soft knock sounded on my door, and I jerked my head up. "Taehyung?" A voice called, and I almost cried at the sound of Jimin's voice. So lively, so alive. "Taehyung? Can I come in?"

"Y-yes." I murmured, frantically trying to cover the wound. The door swung open, revealing a smiling Jimin. His eyes immediately narrowed in concern as he looked at me. "Taehyung! Are you alright? You look horrible." He winced at his own words. "I mean, not horrible, but really tired out. You have bags underneath your eyes... and is that sand in your hair? And why are you staring at me like you're afraid I'm going to die?" I flinched. His guess came too close to the truth.

"I-I'm fine," I said, swinging my feet off the bed. Having something to do would take my mind off all the death and carnage. Hopefully, Jimin had a task he wanted me to do. "Is there a reason you're here so early in the morning?"

He laughed. "It's not early Tae! It's nearly 10 am. Jungkook asked me to come get you. Something about going to London?"

Jungkook. Another person dead by my hands. One that I vowed to protect at all costs. And now, I was breaking that vow even before anything happened. I was a failure of a soulmate.

"Tae?" Jimin waved a hand in front of my face. I blinked. "You just blanked out for a bit there. Are you sure you're okay?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" I gave a false laugh, and Jimin frowned. He knew me well enough to know that I was hiding something. But he didn't try to push it.

"Okay. Well, I'll be downstairs I guess. Call me if you need anything." His gaze sharpened. "Anything." I nodded, and Jimin gave me a small smile. He walked out, shutting the door with a soft click.

I sighed, walking over to my closet, and inspecting what human clothes I had. I tried to concentrate, but my mind was still plagued with the eyes of the dead, all staring at me accusingly. I imagined this castle with half the laughter silenced. Half my friends dead. For that is what would happen if I couldn't control myself and my anger. A feeling of dread overcame me, so hard that my knees buckled. I buried my face in a shirt, clenching my hands in the fabric. And for the first time in 200 years, I cried. 

Sorry 🥺 👉👈