Warning - The scenes described here might not be apt for some readers. Please read at your own discretion.

His head had become obscure, like those times when alcohol took him into an unfathomable oblivion. But, he hadn't drunk a drop. It was as though every eye-lash weighed more than it should have and gravity had been turned up ten-fold. In moments he acquiesced and laid on the messy floor, brain checking out as he tried slithering into an instant REM.

"Thank god, there are no cases today," he mumbled, rolling onto his back. "Yesterday was just exhausting." The echo of the quondam night, kept his eyes open for a while more than necessary.

A child, of nine or so, lay before him on the unblemished plush mattress, a white shroud covering her body. Her skin had turned pallid, her lips chapped and pasty. They had lost the vigor in them and the mere sight of the child, solicited an exaggerated response of agony.

Jungkook stopped abruptly. The air moving through his bronchioles felt like a eldritch music, unique to the hollow he felt within him. His breaths haggard, his muscles straining to get the last bit of air, his mind had become fuzzy in the promise of a new exposition that had caught him in a frenzy.

Beathing had never felt like such a drudgery. A chore. He reached for his inhaler and took a puff, holding it in for a count of four, before slowly expelling the air that tasted of chemicals. It was marginally bitter, really. But after so long with it, he had come to terms with it, with the facile breathing; and so in an uncanny sort of way, he liked it.

The bleached shroud was slowly peeled off, the girl's chest slowly coming into view. The deep lines that ran across her guileless skin had induced in him, a state of melancholia. No child should've ever had to bear all that pain.

He could imagine tight whips being flipped onto her, for reasons that remained incognito, disguised into the dark clouds of anonymity. "Shit," he had mumbled.

A case of a kidnap, that had been. The reports suggested so, and the adverse effects on the child's body had been innumerable. Her body seemed to have been rained on upon, by the shower of mortifying crimson naevus that morphed into its later stages of colors - green, blue, purple.

Cleansing and embalming such a body would never have given anyone a peace of mind, let alone Jungkook. It had been a misery that he put himself on.

The career had been justified for him, regardless. It started with the little black cat that he'd adopted during his early days of juvenescence. It unfurled into something he didn't even realize until he'd stepped foot into it. The least one could do for a limp, mortal body was to appreciate the years it had endured in the draconian world. And that had been his belief.

Wrenching his mind away from the muddled thoughts, he let his eyes shut down for a bit, relishing the blanket of tenebrosity that embraced him. But before he could pass on to a dreamless slumber, the ringing sound of his phone caught him awake.

"Yes?" he answered, his voice hollow and laboured.

"Jungkook... Thank God, you're still awake." The voice on the other side called out. "You will probably need to come down here for a while."

"I just came back from there three hours ago, Saem," Jungkook muttered. His hands were already reaching down to lift himself from the floor, getting ready to leave.

"I'm aware, Jungkook. With Ms. Shin on maternity leave, you're the only option," Saem remarked, a sigh escaping his open mouth.

"Fine, I'm coming," Jungkook sighed, rubbing his eyes.

There was a certain level of tiredness that equated to insanity; and that was when he'd like to dislocate his spirit from his body. Regardless, he tried to let his drowsiness wither away, as he got dressed to leave.

____________________

❝ When you are doing something that is right, you just do it and take care... Someone has to do this. ❞

- Alice Nkom