Monster
Title: Monster
Pairing: Onew/Taemin (Taeyeon)
Rating: R for sexual implications and violence
Prompt from: littlecat / linnhe! Yeah… this is probably not what you were thinking about at all lmfao idek where this came from… sorry!
Summary: Shut the lights out, hide til it’s bright out, oh just another lonely night… are you willing to sacrifice your life?
Song: Listened to Kanye West’s “Monster” on repeat.
--
The news was doing various spreads, stories, eye-catching articles about how people were being discovered, dead people, maimed and disfigured beyond recognition. The news was saying that there was a killer among them, a sociopath, a cold-blooded murderer with no agenda. The news wasn’t trying to cover it up, they were causing a panic; people were bringing in their children early, no one traveled alone for any reason, and a curfew was put on the town for nine o’clock, sun down during these summer months.
Jinki stared at the television screen, figuring he was doomed. He didn’t have many friends. He had a cousin that lived in the city, but that was a good two hour drive and Jinki had a good job here as a postal worker, he didn’t need to move to another city to feel safe right? He had a job, a roof over his head, a car…
He shut off the television, his mind going in different directions as he lay back in bed and stared up at the ceiling.
There had been a killing every day for the past two weeks. And they seemed random; the cops couldn’t get a specific lead on any of them. Business men, homeless men, housewives, teenagers, men, women, everyone was a victim, no one was left out.
As he lay back on his bed and got comfortable, he stared up at his ceiling, feeling an odd sense of foreboding settle over him heavier than the thick blanket he spread over himself to keep the cold out.
--
It was too much of a thrill.
These pitiful people were worthless, they were gutless, spineless, faithless… they deserved to die.
The glint of a blade flashed in the moonlight, a pink tongue coming out to lave at the blood dripping from the sharp edge. Glossed lips pulled into a smirk, painted pink from faded blood, and blue eyes glimmered as the blade was dropped, purposely, to clatter next to the lifeless body that had just been drained of the last bits of its soul.
She was full, brimming with the life energy of these piteous humans…
She was a monster.
--
Jinki was given the paper route on Sunday morning. That meant walking door-to-door, starting at 3am, and trying to deliver all the papers before 5am. The neighborhood was sixteen blocks by twenty blocks so it would be easy, he could even take his time. And it was summer, so the warm weather kept him from getting chilled, kept him in high spirits because he didn’t need to layer up, unlike in the winter when he had to trudge through two feet of snow.
The moon was full and there hadn’t been a murder in three days. The news wondered: did the killer stop? Did they move on? Was one of the victims the killer himself?
Jinki didn’t wonder.
His chest still felt suffocated at night when he laid down to sleep, he still felt like his esophagus couldn’t open up enough to let in the required amount of air, but he moved on. He kept walking, kept his head held high because why should he have to worry about that?
He was one of those ‘it could never happen to me’ people and he was alright with that.
As he walked down the sidewalk and up to front doors, laying the paper neatly on stranger’s door steps, he felt a chill go down his spine.
Tonight… maybe tonight he should go out and have some fun.
--
She watched him, that night, eyes flashing as he walked into the bar with his two close friends.
She was a monster, and he was… perfect.
--
Somewhere along the way Minho and Key had left Jinki to walk home by himself. He didn’t mind, it was still fairly early, ten p.m. - after curfew, but no big deal. He just figured he’d walk down the back streets where cops didn’t patrol so he could get home alright, without any trouble.
Leaning against one of those back streets walls was a girl, a beautiful girl. Her hair was blonde and barely touched her shoulders, and she didn’t look foreign but her eyes… her eyes were a stunning blue and as Jinki passed he found his feet slowing down without his consent. He came to a stop in front of her and she looked at him with coy, hooded eyes, her bottom lip pulled up as her pretty white teeth nibbled on the flesh.
“Hi,” Jinki breathed, and he wasn’t known to be the most eloquent with words.
She seemed not to mind.
“Hi,” she smiled, then, releasing her lip from the canine prison as she pushed off of the wall. “Need company tonight?”
Jinki found himself nodding without his consent, and wondered when his body became so traitorous.
She went home with him that night, he fucked her in his bed that night, and she was gone before the sun was up…
The weight on Jinki’s chest, as he slept, disappeared.
--
Jinki met the girl every night. She was thin and she was lithe, with minimal curves but flawless looks. Her lips were plump and even plumper when Jinki kissed them, her eyes were wet and even wetter when he touched her, her voice was beautiful and even more perfect when he fucked her.
If he missed a night with this girl, the weight on his chest reappeared, sinking down, crushing his ribs, making him choke for breath whenever he woke up from obscure, abstract dreams.
The murders stopped.
Jinki missed a night.
The weight returned and he woke up from a dead sleep, cold sweat on his face, soaking his body and his sheets and the clothes he was wearing, flashes of red darting in and out of his mind’s eye. He rubbed the heel of his palms into his eyes and closed them, shuddering in a breath and trying to collect himself; what had he been dreaming about?
There had been blood; was it his?
His eyes opened and he glanced down at himself, and let out a panicked cry as he scrambled up to his headboard.
His usually pristine white sheets were covered in blood, his clothes were soaked, ripped, shredded to pieces and there was blood everywhere, staining everything, he could taste it in his mouth and he could feel it beating in his heart, whose blood was this?
He heard her laughter in the shadows and he jumped out of bed, trying not to trip over the blankets as he made his way out of his bedroom door and into his living room.
He slept on his blood-stained couch that night, because her voice was muffled behind his bedroom door.
--
Jinki quit his job. Every time he walked the streets delivering papers he wanted to go to that back alley where he knew she would be waiting for him. With her blonde hair and endless legs, that smirk and those oceanic eyes.
The weight on his chest crushed him at night.
The further he stayed away from her, the longer he went without her touch, the more his sanity slipped, the more he dreamt of her. There was always blood. He was always doing laundry.
He bought an entirely new wardrobe, one day.
Everything was stained beyond repair.
--
She came to him one night.
She slipped in through his window and looked down at his sleeping form, watched as he tried to push the weight off of his chest. But it was unmovable; she watched as Jonghyun hovered over Jinki, legs straddling the human, mouths dangerously close as Jonghyun tried to suck his soul out.
“You won’t succeed,” Taeyeon said, leaning against the wall.
Jonghyun wasn’t even surprised to see her as he shot her a lazy, but irritated glance.
“And you will?”
She smirked as she moved over to Jonghyun, steps slow and deliberate. Jinki’s hands were pushing at Jonghyun’s chest, going right through it, fingers grasping at what they couldn’t hold onto.
“I won’t.”
Taeyeon reached out and shoved Jonghyun off of Jinki’s body, and Jinki’s chest heaved so huge, the breath he took gasped so loudly. The demon caught himself and stood on the other side of the bed, sneering at the blonde, straightening his jacket and wiping his blood-stained lips.
“Why can’t you succeed?” Jonghyun would never succeed at stealing Jinki’s soul, because he was a demon, and Jinki was an angel.
“Because,” Taeyeon said, leaning down and brushing some hair out of Jinki’s face; he reached for her, once again trying to find purchase on something intangible. “I’m a monster.”
--
In the morning there was no weight on Jinki’s chest. Usually it got on him when he fell asleep, and wouldn’t shake until he reached consciousness the following morning.
He still didn’t go see her.
The murders started again.
--
She kept Jonghyun away from Jinki, for the most part.
It didn’t help that Jonghyun’s human counterpart worked at the grocery store Jinki frequented.
So she was there, disguising herself as a young boy, a courtesy clerk, always working Jonghyun’s check stand, always offering to help Jinki take his groceries to his car.
Jinki would always give her this look like he knew her, but the absence of breasts and long flowing hair threw him off, so he would only smile awkwardly and bow out, bidding Jonghyun’s human counterpart goodbye.
She wanted to kill Jonghyun.
But she couldn’t.
Because Jonghyun was a demon, because Jinki was an angel, and because she was just a monster.
A monster with no place on Earth, no place in Heaven, and no place in Hell.
--
“Why are you out here?”
Jinki returned, but he returned with questions, when before they had never exchanged more than a greeting.
“I need the money,” she replied, shrugging as she put her delicate hands into the pockets of the sweater she was wearing.
Summer was turning into fall and on some nights, they could see their breaths. This was a warmer night, but Jinki was wearing a heavy jacket and she was wearing a sweater, for reasons neither of them knew.
“You’re better than this,” Jinki said, frowning.
And she just smiled, shrugging.
“This is all I know.”
--
The next day, Jinki returned with flowers.
He didn’t know why he had a change of heart. The nightmares stopped, and the weight on his chest only happened occasionally. She was sweet. He liked her smile. He wanted to help her out of this mess.
“Fairy tale endings only happen in movies, Jinki,” she told him that day, when he told her she could live with him and that she didn’t have to do this anymore.
The way she sounded, the way she worded her response, sounded like she was cast out, like he really didn’t have anywhere to go, like she was stuck in whatever place she was in.
He couldn’t help but feeling that as much as he wanted to rescue her, bring her into his life, he couldn’t.
She seemed to be on an entirely different level.
--
One night, Jinki made love to Taeyeon. He didn’t fuck her, he didn’t leave bruises. He slid into her easily, he kissed all over her body, he let his hands explore her almost too-thin body, and he whispered sweet words into her ear. She clutched onto him like she had never felt anything like it before, she held onto him like she didn’t want to lose him.
They came together, they kissed, and he wrapped an arm tightly around her waist as they drifted off to sleep, because he was sure he wanted to wake up next to her.
He woke up alone.
--
The murders were nonstop. They were more gruesome, more random; it was like this person was killing out of rage than tact, anymore.
Jonghyun walked up to Taeyeon as she pulled her lips from the gaping wound in some random man’s chest, the blue life light swimming on her lips before being sucked into her lungs. She stood, drunk on this man’s strong soul, turning around and to see Jonghyun leaning against a lamp post.
“You’re going to get caught,” he said casually, picking at his nails.
“Human’s can’t catch what they can’t see,” Taeyeon said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing the blood.
“Monsters always get caged in the end,” Jonghyun said with a smirk, pushing off of the lamp post and walking up to Taeyeon, who was frozen with those words. He was close to her now, their chests almost touching, his lips hovering by her ear. “You’re meant to be caught, you were created to wreak havoc and then get destroyed in the end.”
She stayed silent, closing her eyes and sucking in a breath as his tongue swiped over the shell of her ear, hot air washing over her flesh.
“I would love to destroy you,” Jonghyun murmured lowly, his hands gripping at her tiny waist, fingers digging into her flesh. “I bet you look so good covered in your own blood.” He licked a stripe down her neck, and her small hands gripped at his biceps, fingers pressing into his muscles.
“You can’t destroy me,” she said, her voice weak, frail. “That’s his job.”
Jonghyun halted his movements, as if contemplating her words, and then pulled away with a snarl, fangs glinting in the light, claws ripping Taeyeon’s shirt as he moved away from her and stalked away a few paces.
“Then he better hurry up.”
The wind blew and Jonghyun caught its back, swooping up into the air and disappearing into the black night.
Taeyeon collapsed to the ground, wrapping her fingers around her own throat, trying to ignore the feeling of Jonghyun’s fingers pressed into her body, trying to ignore the goosebumps that his breath left behind. She closed her eyes that were brimming with tears, and she too caught the wind’s back, leaving the corpse behind, a corpse with no soul to retreat to heaven.
--
Jinki woke up with Taeyeon in his arms.
He smiled, not even bothering to question how she got into his bed in the middle of the night.
He had woken up next to her, her blue eyes shining at him as she smiled and gave a soft “good morning”, and he knew that this was what he wanted.
“I’ll take you away from it all,” he said, pressing a soft, gentle, loving kiss to her lips. “You won’t have to deal with that hell anymore.”
Taeyeon stayed quiet and only buried herself into his chest, and he felt like he could breathe ten times easier.
A breeze caught his hair, though he was sure his window was closed, and he shut his eyes and wrapped his arms around Taeyeon’s small body, keeping her safe.
--
The murders stopped altogether. Since Taeyeon had moved in with Jinki she went to bed with him, she woke up with him, they lived in peace. Jinki had found another job as an office assistant and for a month their routine was pleasant, lovely, and Jinki was sure he had found the one.
He proposed, on a snowy winter day.
White flakes were falling from the sky and getting caught in her blonde hair, and no matter how beautiful the snow was the sparkle of nature was nothing compared to the glimmer in her eyes when he showed her the little box with the simple, but beautiful ring.
She accepted.
That night the weight on Jinki’s chest was evident again as Taeyeon fell asleep in his arms, her left hand curled against her chest, the light from the moon outside catching on the diamond and making it shine - but it didn’t shine as beautifully as the small smile etched on her lips.
--
Jinki awoke still feeling heavy.
His arms felt weighed down, too, not just his chest; but Taeyeon was still curled against him, in the same position as she had fallen asleep in, and Jinki smiled softly, reaching up to brush his fingers through her hair.
He froze.
Her skin wasn’t warm. Her hair was faded from the straw-blonde to a dull, lifeless hue. There was no rosy tint in her cheeks like there usually was in the mornings, from Jinki’s body heat overheating her small frame.
Tears filled his eyes.
He shook her shoulder gently, rubbed his hand up and down her cold arm, rested his forehead against hers as tears slid down his cheeks.
She was finally his.
And she was gone.
--
The funeral was simple, because Jinki didn’t know if she had family. He stood over her grave, staring at the head stone, hands in his pockets. The doctor said her organs failed in the night time and that she went peacefully.
He closed his eyes; all he could see were his blood soaked bed sheets, warred with crimson as if a massacre had soiled them. He could feel that weight on his chest and he opened his eyes, glancing to the side to see a handsome young man approaching the grave with a bouquet of white lilies.
Jinki frowned a bit, watching as the man set the flowers down and then kissed his fingertips, placing the digits on the head stone before he stood, turning to Jinki.
“Did you know her?” Jinki asked.
The man smiled, the action slightly roguish. “I did. I knew her very well.”
Jinki lowered his gaze to the head stone again, looking at her name - only her first name - and the date she died, the date of her birth absent.
“You loved her?” the man asked, causing Jinki to look back up.
“I did,” Jinki admitted. “With all my heart.”
“Sometimes,” the man said, shrugging his shoulders to adjust the black jacket on his body. “Sometimes love can be the strongest persons’ Achilles heel.”
Jinki frowned, and the other man moved forward to curl his fingers around Jinki’s upper arm.
“Do you want to get a drink with me?”
The snow around them fell heavy, the crunch of their boots the only thing falling on their ears as they walked away from Taeyeon’s grave.
They got in the man’s car and Jinki glanced at the graveyard one more time, before turning and giving a thankful smile to the stranger, which was returned by the man, though his smile seemed a bit feral, with his slightly sharpened incisors.
“I’m Jonghyun, by the way.”
“Jinki.”
“We’ll get some drinks in you, Jinki. I bet you’re feeling pretty heavy,” Jonghyun said, starting the engine and heading down the road, the smirk on his lips going unnoticed by Jinki, who was rubbing his chest and looking out the window.
“Yeah… you wouldn’t even know.”
[ Demon]
Pairing: Onew/Taemin (Taeyeon)
Rating: R for sexual implications and violence
Prompt from: littlecat / linnhe! Yeah… this is probably not what you were thinking about at all lmfao idek where this came from… sorry!
Summary: Shut the lights out, hide til it’s bright out, oh just another lonely night… are you willing to sacrifice your life?
Song: Listened to Kanye West’s “Monster” on repeat.
--
The news was doing various spreads, stories, eye-catching articles about how people were being discovered, dead people, maimed and disfigured beyond recognition. The news was saying that there was a killer among them, a sociopath, a cold-blooded murderer with no agenda. The news wasn’t trying to cover it up, they were causing a panic; people were bringing in their children early, no one traveled alone for any reason, and a curfew was put on the town for nine o’clock, sun down during these summer months.
Jinki stared at the television screen, figuring he was doomed. He didn’t have many friends. He had a cousin that lived in the city, but that was a good two hour drive and Jinki had a good job here as a postal worker, he didn’t need to move to another city to feel safe right? He had a job, a roof over his head, a car…
He shut off the television, his mind going in different directions as he lay back in bed and stared up at the ceiling.
There had been a killing every day for the past two weeks. And they seemed random; the cops couldn’t get a specific lead on any of them. Business men, homeless men, housewives, teenagers, men, women, everyone was a victim, no one was left out.
As he lay back on his bed and got comfortable, he stared up at his ceiling, feeling an odd sense of foreboding settle over him heavier than the thick blanket he spread over himself to keep the cold out.
--
It was too much of a thrill.
These pitiful people were worthless, they were gutless, spineless, faithless… they deserved to die.
The glint of a blade flashed in the moonlight, a pink tongue coming out to lave at the blood dripping from the sharp edge. Glossed lips pulled into a smirk, painted pink from faded blood, and blue eyes glimmered as the blade was dropped, purposely, to clatter next to the lifeless body that had just been drained of the last bits of its soul.
She was full, brimming with the life energy of these piteous humans…
She was a monster.
--
Jinki was given the paper route on Sunday morning. That meant walking door-to-door, starting at 3am, and trying to deliver all the papers before 5am. The neighborhood was sixteen blocks by twenty blocks so it would be easy, he could even take his time. And it was summer, so the warm weather kept him from getting chilled, kept him in high spirits because he didn’t need to layer up, unlike in the winter when he had to trudge through two feet of snow.
The moon was full and there hadn’t been a murder in three days. The news wondered: did the killer stop? Did they move on? Was one of the victims the killer himself?
Jinki didn’t wonder.
His chest still felt suffocated at night when he laid down to sleep, he still felt like his esophagus couldn’t open up enough to let in the required amount of air, but he moved on. He kept walking, kept his head held high because why should he have to worry about that?
He was one of those ‘it could never happen to me’ people and he was alright with that.
As he walked down the sidewalk and up to front doors, laying the paper neatly on stranger’s door steps, he felt a chill go down his spine.
Tonight… maybe tonight he should go out and have some fun.
--
She watched him, that night, eyes flashing as he walked into the bar with his two close friends.
She was a monster, and he was… perfect.
--
Somewhere along the way Minho and Key had left Jinki to walk home by himself. He didn’t mind, it was still fairly early, ten p.m. - after curfew, but no big deal. He just figured he’d walk down the back streets where cops didn’t patrol so he could get home alright, without any trouble.
Leaning against one of those back streets walls was a girl, a beautiful girl. Her hair was blonde and barely touched her shoulders, and she didn’t look foreign but her eyes… her eyes were a stunning blue and as Jinki passed he found his feet slowing down without his consent. He came to a stop in front of her and she looked at him with coy, hooded eyes, her bottom lip pulled up as her pretty white teeth nibbled on the flesh.
“Hi,” Jinki breathed, and he wasn’t known to be the most eloquent with words.
She seemed not to mind.
“Hi,” she smiled, then, releasing her lip from the canine prison as she pushed off of the wall. “Need company tonight?”
Jinki found himself nodding without his consent, and wondered when his body became so traitorous.
She went home with him that night, he fucked her in his bed that night, and she was gone before the sun was up…
The weight on Jinki’s chest, as he slept, disappeared.
--
Jinki met the girl every night. She was thin and she was lithe, with minimal curves but flawless looks. Her lips were plump and even plumper when Jinki kissed them, her eyes were wet and even wetter when he touched her, her voice was beautiful and even more perfect when he fucked her.
If he missed a night with this girl, the weight on his chest reappeared, sinking down, crushing his ribs, making him choke for breath whenever he woke up from obscure, abstract dreams.
The murders stopped.
Jinki missed a night.
The weight returned and he woke up from a dead sleep, cold sweat on his face, soaking his body and his sheets and the clothes he was wearing, flashes of red darting in and out of his mind’s eye. He rubbed the heel of his palms into his eyes and closed them, shuddering in a breath and trying to collect himself; what had he been dreaming about?
There had been blood; was it his?
His eyes opened and he glanced down at himself, and let out a panicked cry as he scrambled up to his headboard.
His usually pristine white sheets were covered in blood, his clothes were soaked, ripped, shredded to pieces and there was blood everywhere, staining everything, he could taste it in his mouth and he could feel it beating in his heart, whose blood was this?
He heard her laughter in the shadows and he jumped out of bed, trying not to trip over the blankets as he made his way out of his bedroom door and into his living room.
He slept on his blood-stained couch that night, because her voice was muffled behind his bedroom door.
--
Jinki quit his job. Every time he walked the streets delivering papers he wanted to go to that back alley where he knew she would be waiting for him. With her blonde hair and endless legs, that smirk and those oceanic eyes.
The weight on his chest crushed him at night.
The further he stayed away from her, the longer he went without her touch, the more his sanity slipped, the more he dreamt of her. There was always blood. He was always doing laundry.
He bought an entirely new wardrobe, one day.
Everything was stained beyond repair.
--
She came to him one night.
She slipped in through his window and looked down at his sleeping form, watched as he tried to push the weight off of his chest. But it was unmovable; she watched as Jonghyun hovered over Jinki, legs straddling the human, mouths dangerously close as Jonghyun tried to suck his soul out.
“You won’t succeed,” Taeyeon said, leaning against the wall.
Jonghyun wasn’t even surprised to see her as he shot her a lazy, but irritated glance.
“And you will?”
She smirked as she moved over to Jonghyun, steps slow and deliberate. Jinki’s hands were pushing at Jonghyun’s chest, going right through it, fingers grasping at what they couldn’t hold onto.
“I won’t.”
Taeyeon reached out and shoved Jonghyun off of Jinki’s body, and Jinki’s chest heaved so huge, the breath he took gasped so loudly. The demon caught himself and stood on the other side of the bed, sneering at the blonde, straightening his jacket and wiping his blood-stained lips.
“Why can’t you succeed?” Jonghyun would never succeed at stealing Jinki’s soul, because he was a demon, and Jinki was an angel.
“Because,” Taeyeon said, leaning down and brushing some hair out of Jinki’s face; he reached for her, once again trying to find purchase on something intangible. “I’m a monster.”
--
In the morning there was no weight on Jinki’s chest. Usually it got on him when he fell asleep, and wouldn’t shake until he reached consciousness the following morning.
He still didn’t go see her.
The murders started again.
--
She kept Jonghyun away from Jinki, for the most part.
It didn’t help that Jonghyun’s human counterpart worked at the grocery store Jinki frequented.
So she was there, disguising herself as a young boy, a courtesy clerk, always working Jonghyun’s check stand, always offering to help Jinki take his groceries to his car.
Jinki would always give her this look like he knew her, but the absence of breasts and long flowing hair threw him off, so he would only smile awkwardly and bow out, bidding Jonghyun’s human counterpart goodbye.
She wanted to kill Jonghyun.
But she couldn’t.
Because Jonghyun was a demon, because Jinki was an angel, and because she was just a monster.
A monster with no place on Earth, no place in Heaven, and no place in Hell.
--
“Why are you out here?”
Jinki returned, but he returned with questions, when before they had never exchanged more than a greeting.
“I need the money,” she replied, shrugging as she put her delicate hands into the pockets of the sweater she was wearing.
Summer was turning into fall and on some nights, they could see their breaths. This was a warmer night, but Jinki was wearing a heavy jacket and she was wearing a sweater, for reasons neither of them knew.
“You’re better than this,” Jinki said, frowning.
And she just smiled, shrugging.
“This is all I know.”
--
The next day, Jinki returned with flowers.
He didn’t know why he had a change of heart. The nightmares stopped, and the weight on his chest only happened occasionally. She was sweet. He liked her smile. He wanted to help her out of this mess.
“Fairy tale endings only happen in movies, Jinki,” she told him that day, when he told her she could live with him and that she didn’t have to do this anymore.
The way she sounded, the way she worded her response, sounded like she was cast out, like he really didn’t have anywhere to go, like she was stuck in whatever place she was in.
He couldn’t help but feeling that as much as he wanted to rescue her, bring her into his life, he couldn’t.
She seemed to be on an entirely different level.
--
One night, Jinki made love to Taeyeon. He didn’t fuck her, he didn’t leave bruises. He slid into her easily, he kissed all over her body, he let his hands explore her almost too-thin body, and he whispered sweet words into her ear. She clutched onto him like she had never felt anything like it before, she held onto him like she didn’t want to lose him.
They came together, they kissed, and he wrapped an arm tightly around her waist as they drifted off to sleep, because he was sure he wanted to wake up next to her.
He woke up alone.
--
The murders were nonstop. They were more gruesome, more random; it was like this person was killing out of rage than tact, anymore.
Jonghyun walked up to Taeyeon as she pulled her lips from the gaping wound in some random man’s chest, the blue life light swimming on her lips before being sucked into her lungs. She stood, drunk on this man’s strong soul, turning around and to see Jonghyun leaning against a lamp post.
“You’re going to get caught,” he said casually, picking at his nails.
“Human’s can’t catch what they can’t see,” Taeyeon said, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand, smearing the blood.
“Monsters always get caged in the end,” Jonghyun said with a smirk, pushing off of the lamp post and walking up to Taeyeon, who was frozen with those words. He was close to her now, their chests almost touching, his lips hovering by her ear. “You’re meant to be caught, you were created to wreak havoc and then get destroyed in the end.”
She stayed silent, closing her eyes and sucking in a breath as his tongue swiped over the shell of her ear, hot air washing over her flesh.
“I would love to destroy you,” Jonghyun murmured lowly, his hands gripping at her tiny waist, fingers digging into her flesh. “I bet you look so good covered in your own blood.” He licked a stripe down her neck, and her small hands gripped at his biceps, fingers pressing into his muscles.
“You can’t destroy me,” she said, her voice weak, frail. “That’s his job.”
Jonghyun halted his movements, as if contemplating her words, and then pulled away with a snarl, fangs glinting in the light, claws ripping Taeyeon’s shirt as he moved away from her and stalked away a few paces.
“Then he better hurry up.”
The wind blew and Jonghyun caught its back, swooping up into the air and disappearing into the black night.
Taeyeon collapsed to the ground, wrapping her fingers around her own throat, trying to ignore the feeling of Jonghyun’s fingers pressed into her body, trying to ignore the goosebumps that his breath left behind. She closed her eyes that were brimming with tears, and she too caught the wind’s back, leaving the corpse behind, a corpse with no soul to retreat to heaven.
--
Jinki woke up with Taeyeon in his arms.
He smiled, not even bothering to question how she got into his bed in the middle of the night.
He had woken up next to her, her blue eyes shining at him as she smiled and gave a soft “good morning”, and he knew that this was what he wanted.
“I’ll take you away from it all,” he said, pressing a soft, gentle, loving kiss to her lips. “You won’t have to deal with that hell anymore.”
Taeyeon stayed quiet and only buried herself into his chest, and he felt like he could breathe ten times easier.
A breeze caught his hair, though he was sure his window was closed, and he shut his eyes and wrapped his arms around Taeyeon’s small body, keeping her safe.
--
The murders stopped altogether. Since Taeyeon had moved in with Jinki she went to bed with him, she woke up with him, they lived in peace. Jinki had found another job as an office assistant and for a month their routine was pleasant, lovely, and Jinki was sure he had found the one.
He proposed, on a snowy winter day.
White flakes were falling from the sky and getting caught in her blonde hair, and no matter how beautiful the snow was the sparkle of nature was nothing compared to the glimmer in her eyes when he showed her the little box with the simple, but beautiful ring.
She accepted.
That night the weight on Jinki’s chest was evident again as Taeyeon fell asleep in his arms, her left hand curled against her chest, the light from the moon outside catching on the diamond and making it shine - but it didn’t shine as beautifully as the small smile etched on her lips.
--
Jinki awoke still feeling heavy.
His arms felt weighed down, too, not just his chest; but Taeyeon was still curled against him, in the same position as she had fallen asleep in, and Jinki smiled softly, reaching up to brush his fingers through her hair.
He froze.
Her skin wasn’t warm. Her hair was faded from the straw-blonde to a dull, lifeless hue. There was no rosy tint in her cheeks like there usually was in the mornings, from Jinki’s body heat overheating her small frame.
Tears filled his eyes.
He shook her shoulder gently, rubbed his hand up and down her cold arm, rested his forehead against hers as tears slid down his cheeks.
She was finally his.
And she was gone.
--
The funeral was simple, because Jinki didn’t know if she had family. He stood over her grave, staring at the head stone, hands in his pockets. The doctor said her organs failed in the night time and that she went peacefully.
He closed his eyes; all he could see were his blood soaked bed sheets, warred with crimson as if a massacre had soiled them. He could feel that weight on his chest and he opened his eyes, glancing to the side to see a handsome young man approaching the grave with a bouquet of white lilies.
Jinki frowned a bit, watching as the man set the flowers down and then kissed his fingertips, placing the digits on the head stone before he stood, turning to Jinki.
“Did you know her?” Jinki asked.
The man smiled, the action slightly roguish. “I did. I knew her very well.”
Jinki lowered his gaze to the head stone again, looking at her name - only her first name - and the date she died, the date of her birth absent.
“You loved her?” the man asked, causing Jinki to look back up.
“I did,” Jinki admitted. “With all my heart.”
“Sometimes,” the man said, shrugging his shoulders to adjust the black jacket on his body. “Sometimes love can be the strongest persons’ Achilles heel.”
Jinki frowned, and the other man moved forward to curl his fingers around Jinki’s upper arm.
“Do you want to get a drink with me?”
The snow around them fell heavy, the crunch of their boots the only thing falling on their ears as they walked away from Taeyeon’s grave.
They got in the man’s car and Jinki glanced at the graveyard one more time, before turning and giving a thankful smile to the stranger, which was returned by the man, though his smile seemed a bit feral, with his slightly sharpened incisors.
“I’m Jonghyun, by the way.”
“Jinki.”
“We’ll get some drinks in you, Jinki. I bet you’re feeling pretty heavy,” Jonghyun said, starting the engine and heading down the road, the smirk on his lips going unnoticed by Jinki, who was rubbing his chest and looking out the window.
“Yeah… you wouldn’t even know.”
[ Demon]