Flashes of amber flying all over the place. Scream of pain shooting from everywhere. Immense heat surrounding the open space.

None of those made her world stop the way the image of Jungkook's flesh slashed and tore open did.

Chaeyoung's face was blanched with horror, a shrill yell rushed out of her as her eyes witnessed Jungkook falling to the ground with a loud thud and an agonizing grunt. His blood overflowing from his abdomen after the Newcomer beneath him dug his fingers and soon, hands into Jungkook's abdomen. Not even a few seconds passed, half a dozen of fiery spears came out of nowhere, falling toward him.

Everything was happening too fast. Things happened one after another, not even a second could be spent to take a breather, to think. Before she could move an inch, the spears had already attacked him fiercely. His own shield wasn't enough to protect himself. Chaeyoung's tears rapidly fell down her cheeks as she shrieked out his name, stumbling her way to him and falling hard on her knees as she cried beside his body.

She wished he would stop trying to save her when he was the one who needed saving. Even at his weakest point of his life, he tried to protect her from the men's torment over her. The pain she felt when the man yanked her head up could never be compared to what Jungkook was feeling.

His constant begs for her to run, for her to escape the place only made her feel like her world was crumbling down. The pool of dark red, shiny and fresh blood glistening on his abdomen and chest twisted her heart painfully. Her hands frantic as she tried to heal him, trembled uncontrollably even when she was pressing against his wounds. Her eyes were the blurriest they had ever been as the tears kept dropping like waterfall.

The song to heal was a mess in her head and she cursed herself, her sobs grew louder. Her breath quickened and Jimin's voice resounded in her mind, telling her to calm down. She tried. She tried her best. But she couldn't. She yelled Jimin's name in her mind, hoping he would suddenly appear.

A different figure caught her sight as he appeared instead of Jimin, causing her to gasp. His entire body was enveloped with angry flames. His eyes burned with a rage that she never knew existed within that man. And with a blink of an eye, the man dashed past her. Choking sounds made from behind her. Somehow, she could recognize to whom the sounds belong to. Hanbin and Jiwon.

A loud explosion made her heart almost leap out her chest, but she couldn't tear her eyes off Jungkook as she begged him to stay with her. Panic grew drastically inside of her when she realized that Jungkook had grown weaker and his eyes were heavy. His blood didn't stop escaping him.

"Come confidence, come," she sang aloud shakily, broken sobs that followed only became louder. If the song couldn't work inside her head, she hoped it would work if she sang it out loud. "Come live with us."

Her own hands, she realized, were coated with Jungkook's blood. She couldn't hear anything other than her own heart pounding crazily in her ears.

"Ta -take comfort along, live to - together with - it."

Jungkook's breath was slowing down. Chaeyoung bit her lip hard it bled.

"Go hesi -tance, go."

Jungkook was trying to inhale but something seemed to be blocking the way. His lips were trembling and Chaeyoung's stomach tightened that the next words she needed to sing came out in even more broken sobs.

"Go f-far away fr-om us."

When her eyes dragged toward his eyes, she felt her heart broke at what she was seeing. Her mind was screaming for him not to leave her. You can't leave me, Jungkook. Do not leave me!

"Take... t-take" she stuttered as she watched in terror as his eyes began to mirror anything but life. "Take our pain along," she forced them out quickly.

A shadow was looming over them before the owner of the shadow crouched beside Jungkook, opposite of Chaeyoung.

Jungkook's grandfather's clenched fists came into her view before quickly, he unclenched them and used one hand to cup Jungkook's neck.

She shook her head when his grandfather put a hand over hers that were pressing against his wound. "Take our pain along," she repeated and felt her heart began to beat less and less as Jungkook's breathing became weaker. "Die together with it," she finished the song.

The weak blue lights around her hands appeared but faded slowly and her world stopped, her heart stopped, her breath stopped as she watched Jungkook's chest made its last drop after it rose high, his head fell to the side.

*

A sweat, cold sweat trickled down Jimin's nape. His brows slowly drew together just after the glow of soft blue faded around him. He opened his eyes and felt the irregular way of his heart beating. An image of his sister flickered in his mind. Unease settled deep in his guts.

Why did she suddenly cross his thoughts?

Jimin blinked in confusion, recalling how he'd heard Chaeyoung's voice calling his name from a distant while he was singing in his head. His eyes narrowed slightly when he saw the wound of his patient untreated. He swallowed thickly, feeling anxious all of a sudden. The only few times he had ever actually failed to heal was when something terrible happened that involved his family members.

The patient looked down at his injured wrist. The look he shot Jimin next was of confusion. It wasn't his first time having Jimin attending to his wounds. The first time the patient, a Cultivator who was older than Jimin's father went to the Healing Sector was when he broke his hipbone for overworking himself. Jimin had done great, healing it in a short amount of time.

"What's wrong, son?" the older man asked curiously. "You seem distracted."

Jimin was pulled out of his thoughts. He breathed in calmly and bowed his head apologetically. "I apologize. Please, let me begin again."

The second try was a success. He managed to block away all other thoughts, but right after he was done with it, the worry began to gurgle inside of him, like water boiling inside a pot, waiting to flow out of it.

The Cultivator elder thanked him and squeezed his arm before he slowly walked out of the tent. Jimin's bottom hit his seat with a thud, his fingers uneasily tried to find the edge of the seat, trying to calm his racing heart. Someone else entered the tent, and if it was anyone else, Jimin would have told that person to get out but it was Taehyung. His friend appeared just when he needed him.

Taehyung was talking without a stop before realizing Jimin's quietness.

"Are you all right, Jimin?"

Jimin exhaled softly, shakily. He licked his lips. His eyes fixated on his own feet.

"You don't look well." Taehyung placed a hand on Jimin's shoulder. "Jimin, talk to me. What is the matter?"

When he let his eyes fall shut with his head down, he tried to breathe calmly and within just a couple seconds, his mind was blank of other thoughts before once again, a faint sound of cry echoed in his mind. It was once again, Chaeyoung's voice. She was in trouble.

*

Her hands quivering as they roamed about his body. His own blood painted over his face when she cupped his cheeks. Her keen shrill was the only thing that kept the atmosphere away from the sickening, deafening silence.

"No," she breathed. "No. No!" Her scream of despair echoed through the space.

She closed her eyes tight, let his face go and placed her palms over his torn-up flesh once more after clenching her fists. The words of the healing song were just at the tip of her tongue. Just as she was about to begin, Jungkook's grandfather held her hands firmly.

She looked up at him. His eyes were steady, yet she could see the solemn in them.

"You can't heal him," he said with a grave voice.

A pang of pain shot through her. It was as if a knife was stabbing her heart mercilessly even after it was destroyed.

"What do you -"

She couldn't even form a sentence as air left her forcefully along with her ability to speak. Her mouth opened as no sound came out, tears spilling from her eyes. Jungkook. Oh, Jungkook. It couldn't be, her mind repeated.

Her head slowly dropped. Body bent into a curl. Her fingers curled around the blood-soaked clothes of his, her forehead meeting his chest. Her body shook as every sob broke, grief taking control of her very soul as she mourned for him, his name fell from her lips in a desperate cry.

The warmth that had always been there with Jungkook was gone. His skin no longer warm. Her palm crawled to where his heart was, hoping for even the softest beat it could do. But she felt nothing. The only warmth she could feel was underneath her palm where his cloth was soaked with his blood. She pressed her ear against his chest, hoping to hear and feel it, but there was nothing.

"Child," Jungkook's grandfather held her arm, squeezing. He said nothing else for the next few moments and Chaeyoung only briefly watched as he pressed his thumb over Jungkook's pulse. He closed his eyes and when they opened, his brows furrowed, forehead forming deep creases.

"He's..." he swallowed hard and Chaeyoung wanted to scream, to mute anything he was about to say. She would never want to accept it. She could never let Jungkook go. Not in forever.

"He's still here."

Chaeyoung's head snapped toward the older man who was watching his grandson with sorrow in his eyes.

"But you can't heal him." He sighed and held his breath before he said, "Go home, child."

The air came back to her like a huge wave crashing violently against the shore. She inhaled sharply. "I can't– I can't leave. I can't leave him like this," she said, shaking her head and through broken sobs, she quietly said, "I can't live without him."

Jungkook's grandfather's jaws locked tight and he repeated the same thing, telling her that she couldn't heal him.

"If I can't, then... then he needs to go to the Healing Sec -"

"No," the old man cut her off, his expression grim.

Without another word, the old man pulled Jungkook's limp body up and lifted him on his back. Chaeyoung was not sure if she was allowed, but the farther Jungkook was from her, the emptier, the deader she felt inside.

She scrambled up to her feet and rushed toward Jungkook's grandfather who was stomping on the ground furiously. The old man paid her no mind as he continued to walk as though she didn't exist. A thought crossed her mind as she watched the elder made his way forward and without looking at his eyes, she could feel so clearly his wrath.

Looking around, Chaeyoung's eyes widened over the unmoving bodies of five men scattered on the ground. She felt her legs almost gave out at the sight of the bloodied mess around her. Her eyes glanced toward the elder Jeon. She didn't even want to think of the consequences if Jungkook's grandfather didn't come.

For the first time in her life, any feeling of pity that usually would surface within her failed to exist inside of her that time as her eyes settled on the bodies lying on the ground helplessly.

When they reached the Jeon's residence, his grandfather rushed to put Jungkook in his room. Chaeyoung's heart sank even more at how unresponsive Jungkook was as his body hit the bunk. The elder Jeon walked past her at the doorway and went into the kitchen immediately, trying to retrieve something as he rummaged through some baskets.

Jungkook's words about treating his wounds manually using herbs came to her mind. His words of how Newcomers weren't allowed in the Healing Sector no matter the condition orbited her brain. The things that she feared the most had happened. It was at that moment that Chaeyoung not only hate herself for her inability.

She despised the rules that exist for the Newcomers. She loathed her own community for abiding such rules as well. Newcomers or not, they were still part of the village community. They would be the ones to put themselves before any other if there would be an outside attack from the Duals, the most feared threat to them all.

She wished to heal him, to bring him back to conscious, to give him back his health.

To the skies, to the divine power, to the holy spirit of Healers, Chaeyoung begged for a miracle.

She would wish no more in her life, ever, after this.

To the skies, to the divine power, to the holy spirit of Healers, she wished nothing more but for him to live.

"Please..." Her voice broke, came out as a whisper and she cleared her throat after giving Jungkook one glance and quickly spun to face the old man who had already looked at her. "Please let me stay."

He didn't say anything. Only gave her a heavy gaze full of sorrow and hesitance as well. She took a deep breath.

"Please let me stay. Please let me help." Her bloodied hands– trembling– clasped together. With a heavy heart, she said, "I will leave once he wakes up."

Deep down, there was a part of her that questioned the same thing over and over again. It circled around her head, crowding her thoughts, overpowering her mind as her eyes settled on Jungkook. She wished nothing else but for the stupid voice to disappear.

And what if he doesn't wake up?

She shut her eyes tight, but the voice got louder.

What if he never wakes up?