Jimin's feet disappeared into the tall grass outside the house, and he was met with a dark, star-filled sky.

The prince had successfully escaped Sejin's house by untying his leash and crawling out of an open window, but he knew his time was limited before his absence would be noticed.

Run.

"Be quiet," Jimin hissed. "You know I can't simply flee."

Jimin glanced at the window and saw the sleeping figures of his masters again.

You choose to save your friends even though it might end up harming you. Such bravery for men who doubt you.

Jimin crouched down to the ground,  making a run through the sleeping village and maneuvering past the cottages and broken down homes to get to the town's square.

"Save your energy," he mumbled, pressing his back against the outside of a shed as he shuffled closer and closer to his target. "Your poisonous words won't work on me when it comes to them. Not my friends."

The prince's lips curled when he saw the king's sleeping figure lying on the middle of the town's square, his chest steadily rising and falling as he lay defeated under the light of the pale stars.

The focused look in Jimin's eyes softened, and he ran towards his dear friend to fall on his knees before him.

"Yoongi!" He whisper-shouted, carefully nudging the man's wounded shoulder.

The ravenhaired king's complexion was white as snow, his chapped lips breaking apart when he fluttered his eyes open.

"J-Jimin?"

The king captured his friend into a tight hug, threading his fingers into Jimin's dark hair as he pressed him close against his chest.

The men stayed like that for a while, locked into each other's embrace and silently sniffing for their shared pain and hardships.

"I'm so... so sorry," Jimin whispered, shaking his head as tears streamed down his face. "This- this is all my fault..."

Yoongi pulled away from the prince and grabbed his hand. "Don't believe that. The only people who deserve to pay for treating us this way are those savages, Jimin. Believe me, they are the only ones I harbor any hate for."

Jimin nodded quickly, showing a fleeting smile. "I promise you, they will all suffer for what they've done. They will die the most gruesome of deaths Yoongi. We will make it slow... we will make it excruciating, and we will watch them burn and squirm and cry out to the gods as they beg for mercy that they will never recei-"

"Jimin..."

The prince catched his lower lip between his teeth when the king of The Styx gave him a worrisome look.

"A-anyway," he stuttered. "I came to meet you to come up with plan, Yoongi. I managed to crawl through a window without being seen but I don't know how much time I have. We need to find a way to get out of this place before we are traded."

Yoongi pursed his lips in deep thought. "I had been trying to come up with a plan as well," he said. "But seeing as I am wounded and chained up every night, there isn't much I am capable of doing. That bastard Sejin is the one who checks my chains every morning... so that leads me to believe he must have the keys to these locks."

Jimin nodded with a determined look in his eyes. "Then I will find a way to get them."

"Good. That could work, but be careful. What about Taehyung?" Yoongi asked, his tone becoming graver. "Is he forced to be a house slave like you?"

Jimin swallowed thickly. "No," he said, his voice wavering. "But I know where he is being held..."

Yoongi hummed. "Alright, then the plan is simple. Get the keys and come back out here tomorrow night. We will pick Taehyung up together and get the fuck out of this cursed village."

Jimin nibbled on his lower lip, hesitating before he spoke the words. "What of.... what of the demigod?"

Yoongi seemed surprised when Jimin asked about the half-god.

"Jimin... that boy must be dead by now. And if not, by tomorrow evening he most definitely will be. A normal man would barely be able survive for two hours being buried under the soil. I know he is a demigod, but three days? We don't even know where they hid him."

"I know," Jimin said, looking down at his fumbling hands. "Perhaps he is indeed dead by now... but can't we- can't we at least check before we abandon him and this mission?"

Yoongi sighed, already shaking his head. "Jimin, it's dangerous. Once we are free we can not linger to dig up a corpse."

Jimin bit the inside of his lips. "But-"

"It's reckless, Jimin. We can not risk it."

A moment of silence slithered into the conversation, crickets forming a steady background along with the calm wind.

"If it were Taehyung... you would've turned this entire village upside down..." Jimin mumbled.

Yoongi tried to meet Jimin's eyes with a serious expression.

"And if it were you as well, Jimin. But this boy... this demigod... I'm sorry, but if am forced to choose between him and getting you and Taehyung to safety..."

Jimin clenched his jaw and nodded reluctantly. He began to rise to his feet, preparing to leave again before his absence would be noticed.

"Jimin..."

Yoongi looked up at the prince. "I know you liked the kid, but we can't-"

"It's not about like. I told you he is our only chance of ending this darkness... and yet you are fine leaving him to die."

The skin around Jimin's eyes tightened as he remembered his father's whispers. "You don't truly believe me, do you? You think I just made this all up to escape my life of being an insignificant character in someone else's story..."

"Jimin think clearly now, it is simply too perilous, we need to-"

"Think clearly..." Jimin repeated softly. "As if I hadn't been all this time... as if I somehow fabricated this whole thing..."

The King of the Styx stared up at Jimin, his expression unreadable to the prince.

He doesn't trust your muddled mind, boy. Hasn't he made it obvious?

"I have to go," Jimin said, swallowing thickly when he realised how tense his body had become, his hands formed into tight fists and his muscles flexed, ready for an attack.

Yoongi stayed quiet for a while before he spoke. "Yes.. you should. Try to sleep, Jimin. I know things have been difficult, but we must stick together if we want to surv-"

Jimin did not allow Yoongi to finish his sentence, anger bubbling up inside of like water starting to boil. He sped off, away from the townsquare and into the maze of cottages.

What will you do?

Jimin rolled his eyes and kept running.

"What do you mean what will I do?" He panted. "We made a plan... I will follow it."

And allow these savages to get away with what they've done?

Jimin sighed when he reached the house of his masters, and he was just about to open his mouth and tell his father to shut it, when a dark figure appeared in the peripheral of his vision.

The prince turned his head, his lips breaking apart when it was the dark rider he had seen before in the woods, the black knight that seemed like a nightmare in the shape of a warrior.

It was standing at the edge of the village, staring directly at Jimin without moving a muscle as though it was waiting on the prince's instructions.

Jimin furrowed his brows, moving slowly as he climbed back inside the house with his eyes fixed on the creature.

It wasn't planning on attacking him, the prince could sense it. It was tame like a domesticated pet, and for a moment Jimin wondered if this was truly the creature that had killed a nymph a few nights ago.

The prince glued his back against the wall once he'd entered the house and sighed in relief, only for his body to freeze and his throat to close up when he came face to face with none other than Sejin's wife.

His stomach tightened.

The woman was standing in the middle of the room, glaring at him with her arms crossed.

Jimin glanced at Sejin's sleeping body, and quickly drew the conclusion that the woman had not told her husband about his absence.

"Sit," she ordered, grabbing the prince's leash.

Jimin did as he was told, holding his breath as Lisa secured his leash back to  the wall with a strong knot.

"Welcome back, predator," she whispered, glancing at him with a small smirk.

Jimin blinked at her as he watched her return to her husband's side, the wretched woman suddenly seeming a little less horrible, and maybe even a little more kind.

_________________

The morning had arrived, and Jimin's alarm was rythmic clapping, feet clicking against the wooden floor, and a wonderful flute melody, spinning through the room at a lively tempo.

Jimin sat in his corner as usual, watching the children dance as their father sat on a stool and tapped his foot while he played the flute. Lisa clapped with a smile on her face, before getting up to join her children, beginning to dance and sing though she was charmingly bad at it.

The prince couldn't remember the last time he had been this careless himself.

He had always simply accepted the fact that royals would never experience true liveliness. They all had to resort to alcohol, whoring or plain sadistic behavior to fill up the holes in their lives. Love was dangerous, at least for someone with power, and Jimin's brows furrowed as he began to realise that perhaps that was exactly why his father had never allowed anyone other than their mother into his cold, frozen heart.

The prince was shaken out of his thoughts when two tiny hands latched onto his own small ones, and his eyes blew wide when he saw Sejin's daughter dance before him with a bright smile.

"Come prince! Dance with me!"

Jimin frantically shook his head, glancing at his masters in fear of being mutilated for simply sitting in silence.

But Sejin and his wife gave him a curt nod that only seemed to mean one thing, and before Jimin knew it, he had already been dragged onto his feet, his lips breaking apart while the little girl giggled.

She tugged his arms left to right as she 'danced' with him, her energetic movements complety out of sync with the music and yet oddly endearing.

"Are you sure you're not a Stick, slave?" Lisa laughed. "A rock has more spirit than you!"

Jimin pursed his lips as he allowed the son to repeatedly beat him with a wooden toy sword, and suffered in silence as the daughter nearly dislocated his arms.

His heart, it tried to twirl again in his chest at seeing the children and their happy faces. It faltered however, as it usually did, and the prince could only perk the corner of his lips with stoic eyes.

So this was what happiness looked like, he thought as he looked around.

The prince looked around at the family of four and nodded as he understood.

Then what a shame it was that these people didn't deserve it.

"Alright, that was the last song children."

Sejin groaned as he got up from his wooden stool and tapped his wife's ass before grabbing a small metal key that hung on the wall of the cramped livingroom.

It had been there in front of him all this time... Jimin thought, glaring at the man as he slipped the key into his pocket and kissed the tops of his children's heads.

"Have a good day dear," Lisa said right before her husband left the house, waving at him with a smitten look in her eyes.

Jimin began to nibble on the inside of his lips, his heart beating quicker underneath his chest.

You know what you must do...

Jimin nodded slowly.

Rage.