Sorry for the late update, but I'm hooked on this new book series, and it's great! It's called "The mortal instruments," if any of you have heard of it. 

BTW, if you read that series, you should know that I wholeheartedly love Alec Lightwood and Magnus Bane's relationship! :)

LIV: Jungkook

The monster's hand is uncharacteristically tight around mine as he leads us through the flower fields and grass all shining silver in the moonlight. The landscape is unassuming, deceptive, and somehow, that makes it scarier than before. I don't know what's going to happen.

"Do you remember this memory?" I ask him as we walk through a patch of purple flowers.

"I have my suspicions," The monster answers tonelessly. But I don't miss how his black wings ruffle themselves nervously. I inch closer to him, and he squeezes my hand.

Suddenly, the cracking and breaking of wood sounds from our left, and in an instant, the monster has pushed me behind him, his scimitar drawn. But the fiery red haze in the distance isn't from any kind of animal.

It's from a fire. The monster tenses, and as we draw closer, I can see that it's none other than a house on fire. It's so badly burnt that I can't make out the shape or design, but I know what this is. I know this memory. 

A beautiful red-haired vampire emerges from the burning house, with a young brown-haired girl holding her hand. Both are coughing, and soot covers their faces. I hear the monster take a sharp intake of breath beside me. I recognize the young girl: Lisa. Which meant that the red-head must be...

"Mother!" Lisa gasps, collapsing on the ground and gulping in mouthfuls of clean air. "Are you alright?"

The redhead nods, coughing her lungs out. Her hair is covered with flecks of ash and her dress is singed. As she looks around, I can tell she's searching for something. Or someone.

"Jaehwan!" The woman turns back to the burning wreckage, her face contorted in horror. "Your father, is he still inside?" When Lisa's eyes widen, the woman gets to her feet, intent on going back inside.

"Mother, no!" Lisa cries. "It's too dangerous. Taehyung will be back any minute now. Let's wait for him. He can try and subdue the flames. Fire is one of his powers, after all."

Her mother turns to look at her, and an expression of love and sadness crosses her face, along with something much deeper. She leans down and kisses Lisa on the head, hugging her for just a second. "Lisa," her voice is firm, but soft at the same time. "I can't have your brother risking his life to save us. You two are the light of our lives, and I absolutely forbid him going into danger. Let me do this. This is my task. You two will understand when you are older, the power of love." Despite Lisa's protests, the woman runs towards the house, wrenching the door open and disappearing inside. The door shuts behind her with an eerily final clang. Lisa sits in silence for a moment, staring at the door through which her mother entered. But she doesn't wait alone for long.

"LISA!" A new voice yells, and a figure runs into view, skidding to a stop in front of the burning house. Taehyung, still wearing his Bloodcrest uniform with about ten different weapons on his person, kneels next to his sister. His eyes are horrified as he gazes at her soot-covered face and singed tunic, and his wind-blown hair is mussed.

"Lisa?" Taehyung takes Lisa by the shoulders and shakes her. "How did this happen? Where is mother and father? Where are they?"

Lisa shakily points to the still burning house, her eyes hollow. "They're―they're still in there. Father was trapped, and mother―" She swallows. "Mother ran back to save him."

Shock registers on Taehyung's face as he swings his head back to look at the house. "Stay there," he tells Lisa, before running towards the inferno of flames rising high into the sky. He mutters a few words,waving his hands at the fire. It seems to slow the flames down, but they're still devouring the house at an extremely fast rate. Magic or not, there's no stopping them completely. Taehyung notices this too, because he concentrates all his power on clearing the way to the door. He rams his whole weight into the door, twisting the handle frantically.

But it's not budging.

Hissing in frustration, Taehyung rounds to the sides of the house. All the windows are now broken, and shattered grass crunches beneath his feet as he runs. The whole west wall of the house is completely burned, the wood turning black. Taehyung runs a hand along the wooden panels of the wall, not seeming to care that his hand is getting burnt. Stepping back, a large flame erupts in his palm, and he throws it at the wall. Unlike the red and orange flames, this flame is pure white, and latches onto the wooden wall like a leech. In seconds, it's spread through the whole section of wall, burning with a light so bright that even Taehyung has to shield his eyes. After an agonizing minute, the wall is completely disintegrated into ashes, giving Taehyung a look into the house, and a way inside. He gasps, and I soon see why.

His mother is in the room. Her arm is badly burnt, and her red hair wild, but when she looks at her son, she smiles. Their eyes lock from across the room, and his mother yells something at Taehyung that I can't hear. Taehyung moves to take a step inside, his hands reaching out to try and get to her quickly. His mother shakes her head, but before she can open her mouth, a quiet boom sounds.

And then the house explodes into flames.

Taehyung is thrown back onto the meadow, momentarily winded from the harsh impact. Lisa runs to him, and together, they watch as the flames rise impossibly high, feeding on the broken wood and stone. Their home, the home they grew up in, reduced to nothing but a pile of broken wood and ashes. As for their parents...

Lisa has tears streaming down her face, her mouth open in a silent cry. The tears wash the soot from her face, making clean lines appear on her cheeks. Taehyung seems to be in a state of shock, just staring at the wreckage. Something sparks in his hands, and his eyes are dull, the brilliant crimson faded into a muted red.

Lisa turns to look at her brother, then jumps back, her hands covering her mouth in horror. When I glance back at him, I understand why.

I've never seen anything like it. Taehyung is surrounded by a sort of shimmering black veil that engulfs him like a capsule. I see Lisa gasp as she stares at her brother, but when she extends her hand to try and touch him, the shadows repel her touch. She pulls her hand away as if burned. I hear her scream his name, but Taehyung doesn't seem to be able to hear her, red eyes staring into space with a hollow look that I know all too well.

Then those red eyes slowly start to turn black. At first it's gradual, the red turning darker and darker until it's the color of the darkest blood. But soon, the change is too much to ignore as the beautiful crimson color is completely taken over by the black shadows. Lisa sits frozen on the grass as she takes in the change that's occurring to her brother.

And then a guttural scream pierces the air. It takes me a moment to realize it's coming from Taehyung. He clutches at his head, shaking, stumbling backwards. The veil of shadow that surrounds him detaches themselves from his body, turning into a shadow sphere in midair which is hissing with energy. Before anyone can stop it, the sphere plunges itself into Taehyung's chest, right where his heart is. Lisa screams. Taehyung freezes, his features rigid, as the shadows work their way into his system. I'm reminded of what happened to Jimin, except these shadows aren't made to kill.

They're made to take over.

As I watch, Taehyung's wings unfold from his back, and his eyes go completely black, like the dark winter sky when there's no stars to shine through. Taehyung falls to his knees, shaking, and his wings curl around him as he clutches at his heart. With a gasp, I realize that I'm watching the birth of the monster. Taehyung, or better yet, the demon, slowly uncurls himself, and when he does, I see that his expression is different. More sinister, more loathing. He stares at his surroundings in muted surprise, his gaze lingering the longest on the burning house and Lisa.

And then he smiles.

A cold, chilling smile that makes my blood run cold.

His wings spread out, and he wastes no time in taking to the sky, the maniac expression still on his face. Lisa calls out to him below, but he seems to take no notice as he flies above the sky, circling it a few times before flying north. He is but a speck in the sky when Lisa sits on the grass, her expression in pure shock. If I didn't know that I would be invisible to her, I would have run straight to her and enveloped her in a hug. She had lost her parents and brother in a single day. That was too much to bear for anybody.

The monster was so quiet during this whole thing, that I had forgotten he was here. When I turn toward him now, I'm shocked by what I see. More than anything I had ever experienced in these memories.

Tears.

The monster is crying.

He catches me looking, and turns his head away, swiping at his face. But he only succeeds in smudging his tears on his tunic sleeve. My heart twinges involuntarily and catches me by surprise. This time, it's me who takes the monster's hand and leads him away from the burning house. To his credit, he doesn't try and resist, though his steps are heavier than usual. We stop at a nearby pond, a distance away enough that I can still see the burning house, but enough to put a distance between us and the wreckage. Even though I don't hear the monster's sobs, I know he's still crying, because I can hear the tears drip onto the grass. I turn back to him.

I surprise even myself when I reach a hand up to wipe his tears away. The monster's eyes betray his shock, but he lets me remove the tears from his face with my thumb. His mask feels cool to the touch, and the silver ripples like water when I touch it. He remains stone still as my hand touches his face, as if the smallest movement might scare me off.

"I've never seen you cry before," I murmur, as the last tear leaves his face.

"Me neither," he says, "The sensation's completely new." As my hand leaves his face, he catches it, and without warning, an arm snakes around my waist. I let out a small gasp as I'm pulled towards him, until our chests are touching. I hesitate, battling the need to pull away, but the monster's voice stops me.

"Please," I've never heard him so... vulnerable. "Just stay like this for a while. I won't try and do anything."

I nod, and he pulls me closer to him, wrapping his arms around my waist. I don't pull back. A chilling night breeze blows through the air, but I barely feel it through my cloak and the monster's embrace. His head comes down to rest on my shoulder, and in that moment, he's not the cruel, heartless person who killed Yoongi and Jimin. He's different from the one who ordered those people to be burned at stake. He is a broken demon, hardened by the years of misery and despair that had made him who he was. Who couldn't see any good in the world because no one had bothered to show him. I can't help but think of Taehyung in the earlier memory, the young vampire with his surly scowl and feelings buried deep beneath in fear that someone would exploit them as weakness. He too, must have felt the same pain. He too, had been like the monster once.

"You can change you know," I tell him, after some time has passed. "Taehyung managed to do it. You don't have to go back to being the heartless person you were before."

The monster looks away from me, shaking his head. "You want me to change, I know. But I'm not sure if I can anymore. Once you've lived for hundreds of years, your personality starts to petrify, like fossils turn into stones. I'm shaped and molded by darkness. You saw how I was born, through the pain and death of my loved ones. I feed off suffering and misery. I'm not sure I can do anything else." His gaze is... not sad, but regretful. The way one might look back on a painful memory that they don't want to be real.

"You were able to change for me," I say, and he looks down at me, surprised. "Throughout these memories, you haven't tried to kill me once. You even saved me when I fell off the cliff. You've been almost... caring. Would the past you have done that?"

The monster stares at me for a long time, considering. "No, I suppose not. But you... you're different. Perhaps it's because of the soulmate bond, but you're different from everyone else I've met. I can't bring myself to hurt you. But you cannot expect me to treat everyone the same way I treat you. I... don't know if I can. If I even want to."

A silence falls upon us. He doesn't say anything, only looking back at the now burning wreckage that was once his home. His hold on me grows unconsciously tighter, and I turn my head so that I can see the home. Lisa is gone, I don't know where she went, but I know that she'll be okay. From what Taehyung told me, she went back to the Sirius clan and became queen for a time. As for Taehyung... he became the man standing before me. A shadow demon. No, I correct myself, he became the bloodthirsty and killer version of the person whose hands are currently hugging me. This person was different.

"Let's go back," I finally say, and the monster nods, making a cutting motion with his hand. His hands loosen on my body, a silent invitation to pull away if I wanted to.

I consider it.

But as the mist starts to swirl around us, as my surroundings grow blurry and undefined, I don't pull away from his arms. I don't want to.

And as we're pulled back into reality, the monster doesn't let go either.