Y/N

Ignition.

Blazing.

The fire roared like a beast unchained, licked the air with wild famish. It hadn't reached him yet, the monster who wore my husband's name, but it was close.

Tears streaked down my cheeks, only for it to immerse into vapor the moment they met the heat.

"Jungkook..." I whimpered, the name split on my tongue like dried blood. My voice was hoarse, blazed out by screams I hadn't even realized I had let out.

Every breath seared my lungs.

Every step forward felt like walking into my own grave.

I should have listened. I should have listened to my Jungkook, just once. Maybe then, I wouldn't have gone chasing after the truth. Maybe then, I wouldn't have torn apart everything he tried so hard to hold together.

He carried the pain alone, all of it. Just to keep a smile on my face.

And what did I do?

I kept digging, kept pushing. I thought I was doing the right thing, but all I did was destroy the one person who would have given his life for mine.

If I had just stayed,

Maybe he would be still be alive.

Maybe he would have saved Ian all by himself like he always did.

Maybe, I would have married him again.

We could have had the kind of kids that looked just like him, dark doe eyes, alluring smile, and that ignition in their heart.

But now,

It's all gone.

Gone.

Gone.

Every single dream I had with him, shattered. Scattered like ashes in the wind.

I don't want anyone to save me this time.

Not anymore.

Let them leave me here, right where every memory of him still lingers. Let the silence take me. Let the guilt eat me whole. Because I don't deserve to walk away from this.

Not when he is gone.

I hoisted my foot, one trembling, broken step toward the flames. Toward my ending.

And then,

CRASH.

A thunderous shriek of destruction tore through the house. From my left, a sleek, black Rolls Royce shattered through the wall like a phantom summoned by death . The thunderous collision sent the bricks, wood, and ash flying in every direction. The fire was smothered in seconds as debris rained like hellfire, silencing the fire.

I screamed and threw my arm up over my face. The blow of the crash threw me skidding across the floor, my bones thudded against wood. My ears rang with a violent, high pitched buzzing, drowned out even my sobs. For a second, I couldn't breathe.

The smoke. The dust.

I coughed and clawed at the air.

I fucking knew this imbecile Jimin would show up here.

Of course, he would.

Right on cue.

To save my pathetic ass.

Again.

I swear to God, I am going to thrash his ass for this, for stepping into the fire when I begged him to stay the hell away.

He should have been with Freya.

He should have taken Ian and left.

That was the plan. That was my one damn condition.

But no.

Jimin and his goddamn hero complex.

"I told you to stay away," I yelped through clenched teeth, not even turning around. My voice ruptured, more hate . "I told you to fucking run, Jimin!. Why don't you just keep your fucking as out of this."

The car's engine fizzled, spitting out smoke that clouded the air like a choking phantom. My eyes burned, vision smeared with tears and fumes. I coughed, weakly trying to push myself up from the shattered glass and blood-stained ground.

The car door swung open with a slam, and heavy boots pounded against the dirt.

I knew that sound. I knew that beat.

"I told you to run," I fizzled through clenched teeth, not even turning around. My voice cracked, more hate than hurt. "I told you to fucking run, Jimin!"

The boots approached me desperately.

"F...Fuck, Jimin... why..why did you..." I sobbed, barely able to lift my head. My whole body trembled. The world tilted, swirled. "Please... I want to die. Let me go. Why won't you let me die..." My voice was crumbled. I curled in on myself on the floor, clutching my sides as though holding my soul inside.

"Please, Jimin... Get out..." I sobbed, trying to press myself against the wall, to disappear, to melt into it. I coughed again, my lungs ached. "I deserve to die like this!" I screamed, spinning around. "He is dead because of me! Everything's gone because of me, and you..." My breath cracked. "You weren't supposed to be here. Get out of this shithole and get Ian out!"

"I don't want this life..."I screamed and hit his chest.

Hard.

Again.

And again.

"Why the fuck would you come here?!"I screamed, my fists thudded against his body, solid, warm, painfully familiar.

" I want to be with my Jungk..." My worlds sliced off. Something was wrong. Something was right.

The texture beneath my fists wasn't foreign. The pecs, I knew them. The rhythm of his breathing, the way his skin twitched under my touch, the subtle scent of cedar and burnt steel clung to him, it wasn't Jimin.

It couldn't be.

The smoke from the busted engine swirled like a cloak, veiled his face. Blurred everything. And yet I could feel him, feel him, the way a heart knows its missing piece by instinct alone.

My voice dropped into a broken whisper.

"...Jimin?"

He didn't answer.

Instead, he grabbed my wrists mid swing, held tight and lowered them to his chest. His heartbeat thudded beneath my palms, rapid and terrified. I stared at the shadow of him through the fog, breath caught in my throat.

That wasn't Jimin's heartbeat.

That wasn't Jimin's silence.

That wasn't Jimin.

My hands trembled as I lifted them to his face, still cloaked by the fog. My fingers brushed up over the jawline I had memorized in a hundred dreams. Up to the scar beneath his left cheekbone. Up to the hairline he always let fall over his forehead. The tiny lips.

"Say something," I whispered.

I touched his tiny lips and it gazed at the lip piercing. M heart pounded to my ears. Through the haze of ash and dust, a tattooed arm pierced the fog like a blade through flesh. Slowly, it reached for me and his palm arched inward and clasped my face gently. He leaned down, and pressed his forehead against mine like he had in a memory I never stopped reliving.

And then, his voice sliced in, like a grave resurrected.

"Fuck, baby, You are shaking. I told you not to leave me."

My knees teetered.

My world split.

The smoke cleared just enough for my brain to register the details my heart already knew.

The jawline. The doe galaxy eyes. That tiny lips . The three moles at his right cheek like constellation of the stars. The mole below his lips. The arched eyebrows.

My heart slammed so hard I thought it would burst out of my chest. And the name tore from my lips like a prayer I had buried a moments ago.

"Jungkook "

And then I blinked again and touched his face.

Him.

The real him.

Or the ghost of him.

My blood turned to ice.

"No... no, no..." I gasped. My eyes widened, tears spilled. My body screamed to crawl away, but my heart, my traitorous, shattered heart, ached forward.

"Jungkook?"

The name slipped out like a curse, now

He didn't answer.

I touched his face. Again

My fingers grazed the curve of his cheek, slid down to his lips, the one I used to kiss like a vow. His skin was warm. Alive.

I flinched. Crawled back until my spine hit the side of the ruined car.

"No..." I whispered. "No, no, no..."

This wasn't real.

It couldn't be.

My breathing turned shallow, chest rising and falling like I was drowning in air. My palms shook violently, the taste of smoke still lingered on my tongue.

Was this it?

Was this Paradise?

Did I finally burn, and not even feel it?

Did I die so painlessly that my soul just slipped away and he came to carry me home?

Like Ian said... maybe Jungkook had forgiven me. Maybe that's why he was here, standing in front of me, like a dream peeled off the stars. His voice. His touch. His presence. It was all abundant.

I didn't know if it was salvation.

Or my final damnation.

"Baby... why won't you just listen to me..."

His voice broke.

His hands trembled, eyes glistened with tears that mirrored my own.

"Jungkook..." I gasped.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't think.

I reached for his face like someone starving for sunlight. My palms pressed to his cheeks, fingers shook as I held him. My thumbs brushed over his skin. Warm. Alive. Solid.

And then...

"Sunflower."

A whisper.

Low. Haunting. Familiar.

My chest stopped.

I froze.

He called me.

Just one word.

And I lost it.

It rolled off his tongue like poetry, like a prayer I had forgotten I ever said. It wasn't just the name, it was the way he said it. Soft. Full of Pain. Full of everything I had been starved for since the day I left him.

Because only he could say it like that.

Only my Jungkook.

My lips quivered. My body trembled. Every memory we ever had slammed into me like a thunderstorm, crashing against the hollow spaces in my chest. The nights he whispered that name in my ear. The mornings he murmured it against my neck, every time we made love. The wars he fought with that word carved in his heart.

It was his name for me.

No one else ever dared. No one else ever could.

I reached for him with shaking hands, needing to feel, that he wasn't a mirage conjured from grief and guilt, of mine. My palms arched inward his cheeks, my thumbs bristled against the rough edges of the life he had lived without me.

"Jungkook..." I choked out.

" I am here, baby," he whispered, and pressed his forehead to mine. "I am right here."

A sob tore out of my throat. My body collapsed forward and I wrapped my arms around him like I was trying to keep the universe from taking him again. I clutched on him like he was the only real thing in this godforsaken nightmare. His warmth, his scent, the weight of him, it was him. It was him. My Jungkook.

I kissed him before I could stop myself. My lips crashed into his like a scream. I engulfed his lips into my lips and concealed it with pain and hurt, with grief and guilt, with lost love. He caught me, kissed me back, holding me like I was air and he had been drowning. He immersed his lips into my mouth like he doesn't want to tear them apart. I didn't care about his lip piercing scratching and scraping my tongue , but just feeling his warm tongue against my tongue felt like paradise, more alluring than a cloud nine. I didn't let go of his lips but made sure he could breathe, because I missed him, I missed his lips over mine. I missed his scent, his warmness, his skin, his hold , his hands on me, his tongue entangle with mine,

Our mouth fluid drippled down our chin as we immersed in savoring each other's lips. I didn't let go , yet, but he tried to pull back to speak. and I know what he would speak.

Instead, I gave a gentle tug with my teeth to his lips and pulled back.

"Baby, what the fuck were you thinking you were doing?" he broke down in my arms, voice quivered between fury and heartbreak. His body shook against mine. I kissed him again. He pulled back just enough to see me, his eyes bloodshot and glistening.

"What the hell were you thinking?" he roared suddenly, and the sound of his voice cracked something inside me. His face flushed red with rage and grief as he grabbed my cheeks, cupping my face firmly, desperately. But ,no I didn't let him speak. I kissed him again. " baby, you could.." I swallowed his words , crashing my lips to his sucking them in harder.

"Just walking into death like that? Huh?" His eyes fell to my wound. He yanked off the hem of shirt into strips and pressed it against the bleeding flesh of mine at my abdomen with gentle hands but a shaking grip. "Fuck,baby.. you are hurt."

I winced, letting him press the fabric into my skin. He wrapped the strip around my waist.

"Y/N , baby, what did you do..."His voice broke. I crashed my lips again to his.

"Just fucking..." I kissed him again and pulled back. "....leave me behind and burn?" He spoke again, I kissed again.

He clenched his jaw, and his voice dropped to a whisper. I took in his lips again into mine. " Baby..just..." he spoke again. I cut him off, kissing him again.

I pressed frantic kisses across his face, trying to soothe the storm in him with every inch of my love.

His forehead.

His temple.

His wet eyelashes.

His nose.

His lips.

His chin.

His cheeks.

His ears.

"Are you insane, Y/N?" He whispered against my lips and gasped for air.

"I love you Jungkook. . I fucking love you so much.."His eyes were glued to my lips.

My hands clung to his black shirt, fingers twisted into the fabric like it was the only thing keeping me from slipping into madness. My forehead still pressed to his, breaths were coming out uneven, broken. His eyes that held oceans of pain, of longing, of love he never stopped giving me even when I didn't deserve it.

I felt it rising inside me like a scream I had swallowed for too long.

"I love you, Jungkook..."I whispered.

His breath hitched, like the words struck deeper than he could brace for. His lashes fluttered shut for a second, as if he was grounding himself in my voice, in that confession. When his eyes opened again, they were glossy, and blazed.

"Say it again..." he begged, his voice came out as a whisper. His eyes fixed on my lips" say that you love me.. again.. I need to hear it . please."

"I love you," I sobbed. "I love you, you stupid, reckless, beautiful fucking asshole.. I love you so much it hurts. I should have said it earlier. I should have screamed it. I should have never stopped saying it."

He crushed me into his arms like he wanted to crawl inside me and stay there forever. And maybe, maybe he was right all along.

We weren't some fairytale love story.

We were something far more cursed.

An abomination, stitched together by something dark and divine. Two heads. Four legs. Four arms. One heart beating like hell.

We were meant to suffer together. To burn. To bleed. To love in ways that tore us apart and pulled us back in.

And I am fucking furious at the Greek gods, for daring to separate us like we were ever meant to survive without each other.

Who the fuck gave them the right to slice us in half and call it fate?

Who the fuck told them we were better off apart?

Because I am not whole without him. I am just flesh walking around pretending I can breathe.

Hear me out God, Sew me back into him.

Let me be twisted. Ugly. Wrong.

As long as I am his.

He held me tight." Baby..". His lips thrashed on mine. His lips enclosed my lips and tangled his tongue with mine. He kissed me like he was claiming me back from death. Like he needed to feel every part of me to believe I was still his, still here. His hands clutched at my sides, trembling slightly, holding me like he was terrified I might disappear again.

I melted into him, my fingers tangled in his hair as I served my lips for him back, spilled every ounce of love, guilt, and aching into it. Tears slipped down my cheeks, blended into the kiss, but he didn't stop. He drank them in like they were part of me. He tilted his head, and a tear slipped down his cheek, falling free and unashamed. It met mine midair, our pain merged like it always did.

Our tears blended into our kisses, salty , desperate and real.

And I kissed him harder. I slurped it. I drank it.

Because that was his grief. His love. His everything.

And I wanted all of it.

Inside me. On me. Drowning me.

If loving him meant swallowing his sorrow, Then I would drink every last drop. And in that kiss, I could feel it all, the years we lost, the pain he buried, the love he never stopped carrying for me.

I was his.I had always been his.

But it wasn't enough.

It would never be enough.

I wanted to collapse right there, on my knees, on the dirt, on the broken pieces of everything we'd been through.

I want to kiss his feet.

Again. And again. And again.

I want to fall at them like they are sacred, because they are. He walked through hell to get to me.

And I am not ashamed of it.

Not even a little.

If loving him means breaking, crawling, begging, I will do it. He is worth every bruise, every ounce of pride I have got left. I would kiss the ground he walks on if it meant he would understand how sorry I am, how much I still belong to him.

We pulled back." I love you , I LOVE YOU, more than anything I have ever loved in this fucked up world. And I am sorry , I am so sorry..."

He swallowed my words this time by crashing his lips on mine again.

He pulled back and gazed at my lips again. "I should have listened to you. I should have trusted you. I should have held you tighter the night you begged me to stay. But I was stubborn and stupid and scared of the truth. I thought I was protecting myself, protecting you. But all I did was tear us apart. And..."

His lips tangled on mine again.

Tears spilled down my cheeks, but I didn't wipe them. I wanted to feel every ounce of this pain, because it was real. Because he was real.

I pulled back. His eyes fell on my lips again. "You carried the weight of the world just to keep me smiling. You endured hell and still found a way to love me, selflessly. And I was too blind to see it. Too busy chasing answers when all I ever needed was you."

His breath shortened and , his hands tightened on my waist and squeezed his fingers at my waist, but I pressed on.

"If I.."

He kissed me.

"If I..."

He kissed me again and again swallowing my words and grief. " Baby..please..let me just."

He didn't listen his lips found mine again. And I lost it, I kissed him back . Our teeth scrapped like they would erode completely. His tongue reached the back of my throat and scrapped my tongue with his lip piercing. The sound of smacking and thrashing of our lips thundered more than the fizzling of the engine and it resonated across the room. I could feel his tiny lips being swollen and crimson by repetitive thrashing of his lips to mine.

I pulled back and placed my finger at his lips, because he wont let me speak now but hold hostage of my lips to his.

"If I could go back, I would choose you over and over again. I wouldn't run. I wouldn't dig. I wouldn't leave. I would stay. I would fight for you like you fought for me every damn day." I leaned in until our foreheads touched, noses bristled, his warmth grounding me. His breath concealed my face.

"God... baby, I thought you were gone. I thought you burned, I thought I killed you!" His eyes fixed on my lips again and took a moment for him to speak.

" How could I die baby? when I knew you were still here. I kept holding on, for this. For you. I came back... I crawled through fire, through darkness, through hell, but I came back for you." His arms wrapped around me.

I pulled back, just enough to see his face. His eyes fell on my lips again. "I just wanted to die ,Jungkook. And tried tonight, Jungkook. I wanted to burn, to be with you... I didn't want to breathe in a world that didn't have you in it."

"No, don't say that," he said, voice was tight with pain. He pressed a kiss at my forehead . "Don't ever say that again. Don't you know what it would have done to me? I have lost you once. I can't..."

His breath trembled.

"I can't lose you again, Y/N. Not even in death."

I pulled him into kiss again.

"I am sorry, I am so sorry.." I choked, tears fell faster. My lips couldn't stop moving. But his eyes were still on my lips. "I didn't know you were alive, I thought I lost you. I thought I burned you with my own hands..I was going to end it all... I just wanted to be with you again. I am sorry. I am sorry. I am sorry. I pushed everything away, I gave up.."

He cut me off with another kiss and thrashing into me like he was drowning and I was his last breath.

"Jungkook..." I tried to speak, but he kissed me again.

"Baby... please..." I whimpered.

He kissed me again, deeper this time, like he needed to feel my soul through it. His hands slipped into my hair, holding me there like he was terrified I would slip away again. I melted into him, again, our breaths tangled. My hands fisted his shirt, tugging him closer, because I couldn't bear even a millimeter between us.

"I thought I would never feel you again," he whispered against my lips.

"I couldn't live in a world without you," I whispered back. "I didn't want to."

"I am right here now. We are here. And I am never letting you go again." He kissed me again, slower this time, full of trembling relief. "You are mine. I found you again."

I rested my forehead against his.

"Baby..."my voice shredded and eyes brimmed with tears. "I remember... everything."

His gaze dropped to my lips, softly.

"I remember it all....Why?" I slammed my fist against his chest. "Why, Jungkook?" I hit him again, and again, each word choked with pain and hurt. "Why didn't you tell me? Why didn't you just fucking tell me everything?!"

"Baby... please," he whimpered, leaning in, his lips brushed mine as if trying to quiet the storm. He kissed me, softly.

But I turned my head and shoved him back with trembling arms.

"No!" I screamed, tears rolled down uncontrollably.

"You could have told me everything. You could have trusted me. You didn't have to do it alone!" My voice broke into sobs.

"Why did you erase yourself from my head, Jungkook?"

"Why!" I hit his chest again, and he let me,he just let me.

His head dropped forward. "I didn't want you to remember those nights," he whispered. "Those terrifying nights, the blood, the screams, the fire... I couldn't let you carry that. Not after everything."

"I was already carrying it!" I cried, grabbing his shirt in both of my fists, rage hoisted up as if we didn't feast each other's lips like mammals , a few moments ago." I was carrying it every single night in my nightmares, in my bones, in my silence, I just didn't know it was you I was crying for."

I buried my face to his chest. "You took away my pain by taking away yourself. Do you know what that did to me?"

He loitered there. "Baby , I was .. I was protecting you."

"You were killing me," I whispered. "Every fucking time I close my eyes, its you what all I see.."

He held my face with his shaking hands. "I am sorry, baby. I was scared. I didn't think you would ever forgive me for what happened."

" NO! It was never your fault for anything happened to me ,baby, who would even love me like you do? I wouldn't have cared about any of it happened, I would have stayed with you through hell."

"You already did," he whispered, voice shivered with grief. "And I tried to burn your memory so you would never have to feel it again. But I never stopped loving you, not even for a second."

I looked at him. His eyes were still on my lips. And it was not due to urge to kiss me, but something else. Then, I looked into his eyes, and behind the guilt, behind the torment, I saw the same boy who held my hand under the cold night to protect me form monsters. I saw the man who fought every demon just to keep me breathing.

I collapsed into him, my head inclined against his shoulder, and I sobbed. "Next time, you don't get to make that choice for me."

"huh?" He lifted my chin with his trembling fingers and looked at me. "Next time, you don't get to make that choice for me." I repeated. His eyes found my lips again and squinted at it.

He clutched me tighter. "There won't be a next time. Never again." He nodded.

I pulled back.

"You have to get out... he might come for us again.." My voice came out in a whisper, barely making it past the tightness in my throat. My eyes flicked toward the wreckage, the blood stained floor, the shattered glass, the smoke still curling from the corners of the collapsed room.

Jungkook turned his head slowly, his eyes scanned the disaster behind us. His voice was steady, eerily calm. And all of a sudden it struck me, " Oh my God! Jungkook... Ian..Ian.. he is outside..at that.."

"Baby, you are leaving. Right now. Take my car. I will fix this." He turned to me.

"No!Jungkook,!" I said, louder this time. "I am not leaving you alone. Not again. Not after everything."

He looked at my lips again and spoke. "Please. You need to get away from here. I can't lose you."

"No." My eyes welled with tears as I shook my head violently. "I already lost you once. I am not going through that again."

But his attention kept shifting. He stood up ,peeked his eyes above the roof of the car and He turned to the other Jungkook, the one still pinned to the floor, wrists impaled by silver blades of knives. Blood soaked the floor beneath him, and his body twitched in agony. His wails tore through my ears, It was deafening, and they merged with the sickening squelch of his flesh ripping against the blades I had driven into him.

He was probably trying to wrench himself free, trying to thrash out from the knives that pinned him to the floor like a slaughtered animal.

Jungkook crouched to me again. "Sunflower," he whispered, " you have to go. He is trying to wake up."

"I am not leaving you!" I cried, and grabbed his hoodie, clinging to it like it was the only thing keeping me from collapsing. "Don't ask me to do that. Please."

He stood again, gaze darted back to me, brow furrowed.

"Baby... did you do that to him?" he asked, pointing toward the impaled living being on the blood floor.

I nodded quickly, and adrenaline still buzzed under my skin. "I fought him."

Without hesitation, Jungkook dropped to his knees before me. His hands rushed over my body, checking for more injuries. He searched me looking for any other wounds with wide eyes, however his shirt tugged at the wound on my side, already by him. "Fuck, sunflower....what the hell were you thinking?"

"Jungkook... he is not who you think. He is not Jake Carpenter , he is the other Jungkook. I mean his name is Aron Silver. Your parents..." I gasped, trying to hold still as the pain throbbed through my side. "They adopted him... renamed him Jungkook. They named him by your name, baby..The other Jungkook he didn't die in the prison, Maxwell adopted him..and gave him the name Jake Carpenter. his son"

He didn't respond.

I looked down at him, expecting shock or anger. But there was, nothing. His expression stayed blank. Focused. Still on my body, searching for any other bleeding.

"Jungkook,"I said again, softer this time.

He didn't even flinch.

"Jungkook?" I tried to pull his eyes back to mine. He didn't look up. Instead, he started examining my feet, my legs, checking for more wounds.

Terror seeped in slowly. Something wasn't right.

"Jungkook."My voice shredded.

Still nothing.

My heart pounded. "Jungkook." I said louder. "Why aren't you responding?"

Nothing.

Then, gently, he reached up and arched his palm inwards at my face. Finally. But his eyes didn't meet mine.

They locked onto my lips.

"What... what did he do to you?" he whispered, his voice was fragile, with abundance of horror. His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth, wiping away dried blood. He trailed his hand over my chopped hair like it physically hurt him to see it.

"Jungkook,"I whispered, growing colder by the second."Why won't you look at me?"

He turned to the side where the other Jungkook was lying on the floor." Jungkook"

He didn't twitch his head to me. His head was still affixed to the direction of the other Jungkook.

"Jungkook, Ian is outside, please go get him somewhere safe..."I whispered. He didn't even flinch when I mentioned Ian's name. He turned to me. "Baby, where is Jimin , huh? I told that asshole to stay close to you..."

He turned to the other Jungkook. again.

Not even a flinch, after I let out Ian's name.

Meanwhile the other Jungkook's wails roared through the air, It was animalistic, tangled with the sickening squelch of torn flesh and the wet gush of blood spilling onto the cold floor. The sound clawed at my ears.

He was probably slicing through his own wrist, the one I had pinned down with a knife.

Trying to free himself.

Tearing himself apart just to get to me and my Jungkook, to rip us apart again. But my Jungkook, he was in a panic turning his head to me and the other Jungkook.

"Baby, Ian is outside, he must be bleeding ,you have to help him, didn't you see him at the oak tree."

He didn't look at me. But when my eyes switched to the other Jungkook's wail, he followed my gaze.

I looked back at him. He just kept staring ahead, motionless... like my voice didn't exist anymore in his world.

Still, he watched my lips.

That's when I knew.

Something was wrong. Deeply wrong.

"Jungkook," I said, trying not to panic. "Baby... Ian's outside... he is bleeding. You have to help him. didn't you see him? Near the oak tree.." My voice broke halfway through the sentence, my breath caught in my chest. I placed the back of my wrist at my lips to mop off the blood tripped. I clutched Jungkook's arm, shaking slightly from the panic waving through me.

But something in his eyes made my blood turn cold.

He wasn't listening.

Not really.

He wasn't blinking fast or darting his gaze like someone taking in an emergency. He was staring, straight at my mouth. His brows were pulled together in perplexing, like he couldn't quite place what was happening. Then, slowly, he asked. "Baby... where is Ian, huh? Did you see him? Is he okay?"

I froze.

No.

He hadn't heard me.

He was just... guessing. Mimicking what he thought I might have said and resonating his own fear.

"What?" I breathed.

He wasn't reacting to the panic in my voice.

He didn't flinch at my tone or urgency. He was staring right at my lips. Like he was watching, trying to understand.

Not my eyes. Not my voice. Just my lips.

Something twisted deep in my stomach.

An ache. A knot of dread.

I leaned closer. My heart pounded like a war inside my chest. I pressed my mouth near his ear and whispered slowly. "I will take care of the other Jungkook... you go help Ian." My words should have ignite something in him, shock, anger, anything.

But he just looked at me. Confused. Unchanged. Void.

His hands gripped my shoulders. I felt them tremble.

"You saw him where, baby? Just say where you saw Ian.."

His voice was desperate now.

"Just say it again. Please... please just say it again."

His eyes were still locked to my lips. Not me. Not my voice. My chest tightened with something sharp, fear wrapped in glass.

He didn't hear me.

"What did I just say, Jungkook?" I asked, trying to keep my voice stable even though it was breaking apart.

He hesitated.

"You said... where Ian is. But baby, just... say it again. Please."

He was wrong. He was trying to read my mouth. guess my words.

It struck me like lightning bolt.

He wasn't just distracted. He wasn't exhausted.

He was reading my lips.

Because... he couldn't hear.

He couldn't hear anything.

I leaned in again, closer this time, my lips were almost against his skin. I whispered slower again, trying to test one more time, if he could hear me. "Go and save Ian... I will handle this bastard."

He blinked. His blink was uncertain and hesitant.

He took a gulp down. "Did Jimin take Ian with him?" he asked in bafflement lingering in his eyes and foraging for right answers in mine.

My breath caught. My vision blurred.

He didn't hear it.

He didn't hear a single word.

Oh my God.

I took a harsh gasp and hit my back to the wall. My hand covered my mouth. My heart slammed against my ribs.

And then,

A scream shattered the air behind us.

Not his.

The other Jungkook.

That scream was beastly ripped through the silence. Probably he might have successfully sliced his hands off the knife and floor.

My head turned towards him. But My Jungkook,the one next to me, didn't flinch.

Didn't wince.

Didn't react. At all.

" Baby, what is it huh?" He asked me and snapped his head to the other Jungkook, his eyes were going wide. I turned back to him, the panic turned into whole horror.

"Jungkook!" I screamed.

No response. His head was still at the direction of the other Jungkook's wails.

"Jungkook!!" I shouted again, louder, it tore my throat.

Still nothing.

I grabbed his shoulder and shook him, hard. "Why aren't you listening to me?! Say something! Baby, please, SAY SOMETHING!"

He just loitered there. Frozen. Trapped in stillness. I tried again, pressed close, and whispered to him with a ruptured sob. "Ian is at the oak tree. He is bleeding. Go and help him."

I pulled back and looked into his eyes.

"Tell me what I just said... please, baby...tell me what I said..."

He didn't speak.

Didn't move.

"Tell me!"

My voice wobbled.

"TELL ME NOW!"

I was shook him again, tears blinded me. "Baby, please say something. say anything you heard me.." My heart thundered to my head, exactly perceiving what was wrong with him.

"please, tell me!"

"Tell me"

"Tell me!!!!" I bellowed. "Why aren't you saying anything !!!!"

"Because I cant fucking hear you , Y/N.!!!!"He screamed back at me.

"HUH?" I let out a harsh gasp.

"I... I can't hear you, Y/N." He blinked like he was admitting something unbearable. "I can't hear this world." He whimpered. "I can't hear your voice, sunflower... I can't hear anything. It's all gone. The world has gone... quiet."

My heart crashed to my chest such that it would explode out and fall at his feet.

"What...?" I whispered, but even as I said it, even before he answered, I knew.

He took a breath, horror spread across his face. "After the fire... after that fall... I...I can't... "He clutched his ears, and shook his head. "I can't hear anymore, Y/N. I can't hear anything!"

I broke.

The tears came in a flood. My lips parted to speak, but the words clogged at my throat. I couldn't swallow them down to emit it out as the dismay was already was choking me. "No... no, no, no... oh God..."

I grabbed his hands clutched to his ears and, held them to my chest.

"It was the fire..." My breath trembled. My hands shuddered.. " no no. no ..it was the fire ,..It was...the...the explosion..."

"sunflower..." He whispered.

" no no..it was the fire. I pushed you into the fire. it was my fault. right ? I..."I gulped down , but air clogged at my throat.

He shook his head, more violently this time, not allowing me to speak, because he knew what I would say.

"No, sunflower. It's my fault. I should have held on. I should have kept you with me. I should have never let go...I should have never let go of your hand, I know how much it hurt you to let me go baby.. please"

"Don't," I choked.

"Don't say that. Don't you dare say that!"

I clutched his face, the tears streaming down my cheeks, splashed onto his.

"I remember," I whispered. "I remember everything. I hit you....I hit your hand with that wooden log. I made you let go. I did that. I hurt you...I did this.." I collected his hands into mine, my heart shattered by the sight of wound didn't heal at his forefingers where I thrashed that damn wooden log for him to let go and immerse into the flames.

My voice crumbled. "No, no, no... please, no..." I held him close, my hands clasped on either side of his face.

"Since the fire. Since that night.. I lost everything...I lost you, I lost my hearing. I didn't want you to know. I didn't want you to see me like this."

I sobbed." baby.."

The other Jungkook groaned on the floor, slicing off his arm completely to break free, but my Jungkook didn't react. He didn't even blink. But I know what is coming.

"I can't hear the world anymore, sunflower." He trembled, and pulled me close. He grooved his face into my neck. "The only thing I ever understood was you. Your lips. Your hands. Your eyes. Please don't take that away."

I sobbed against him. My world shattered and reassembled all at once.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered. My fingers trembled against this cheeks. I held him tighter, and for a moment, the chaos around us disappeared. There was only him, and me, and the truth we had both been hiding from.

But it wasn't over.

Not yet.

Because the other Jungkook was getting up.

"I can't hear anything you say, sunflower...I wish I could... I wish I could just feel your voice inside my head." His gaze dropped, tears fell fast. "I want to remember how it feels, baby," he whispered, and pressed his forehead to mine, "how your voice feels in me. Not just the words, but the way they used to wrap around me..soft... warm... But it's all fucking gone."

He pulled away just enough to look at me again.

"No, no, my baby..."I sobbed. "No... I did this to you." I cried. "It's because of me... You can't hear this world because of me. I should never have pushed you toward that fire. I should have...."

My voice scattered like splintering glass.

But then his hands, so gently, and trembling, came up to cradle my face, and he tilted my head until our foreheads met. Again

His lips moved, and though he couldn't hear the words himself, he gave them to me like a gift. "You think you took something from me, baby...But what you gave me...what you are to me...It's louder than any thing I have ever known, louder than fire... louder than pain."

My breath shortened. My chest caved in. His words felt like honey and grief melting together inside my ribs. His thumbs brushed away my tears, tenderly, like I wasn't made of guilt and ash. He touched the center of my chest, right where my heart threatened to tear through my bones. Right where he resides.

And then he took my hand and pressed it against his own heart.

"You live here, sunflower. And here...Even if I can't hear your voice, your heartbeat speaks to mine. Your silence...It's still beautiful to me."

I couldn't breathe.

"If I had to go deaf to hold you again...If I had to lose the world just to keep you breathing... I would choose this silence every time."

And when he wrapped his arms around me, pulling me gently into his chest, I collapsed into him like I belonged there. His voice, his words. were like prayers, , like something I never deserved but was somehow still allowed to hold. "You didn't push me into the fire, baby," he whispered against my hair. "You pulled me from it. Every second you exist...You save me."

I pulled back

My hands held his face, trembled uncontrollably as my thumbs stroked along his damp cheeks. I kissed the shell of his ear, the line of his jaw, his eyelids, every inch of his face like I was trying to breathe life back into him, like if I could just love him hard enough, he would come back whole.

His arms tightened around me like he was afraid I would vanish. "Y/N... baby, please," his voice broke into a sob. "Please leave. I am begging you."

I shook my head violently, tears cascading down my face."I am sorry," I whispered. "I am so, so sorry." My voice broke into pieces. I pressed my lips to his again, tasting our grief, tasting the silence between us.

"I did this to you... I wasn't there when you needed me. I didn't save you..."

His grip on my back trembled, but he didn't let go. He clung to me like I was the only real thing left in this nightmare.

"Sunflower..." he whispered, the word like a prayer torn from his soul. "Please..." His voice cracked and then fell into a soft whimper. That shattered me more than any scream ever could.

"I don't want to leave you," I sobbed against his lips. "Don't make me. Don't ask me to live in a world where I don't get to hold you like this."

His forehead dropped against mine. "I can't protect you if you stay," he murmured, almost inaudibly. "And I would rather burn with you than watch you bleed for me again."

I couldn't breathe.

There we were, two broken halves clutching each other while the world burned around us, while blood stained the floor, while the past crawled back to life behind us. And all I could do was hold his face in my hands and kiss the silence, kiss the pain, and hope he still felt it.

But it had short life span.

A sudden rumbling noise, the grind of bricks shifting and splintered wood creaking, blared through the air. My breath caught.

He was waking up. The other Jungkook, the one still pinned beneath the debris, he moved.

"No, no..."I whispered, barely got the words out. But before I could react, his leg shot out like a whip, and slammed into my Jungkook's shoulder, knocked him off balance.

"Jungkook!" I screamed.

He stumbled backward, crashed against the broken floorboard with a grunt, pain flashed in his face. The moment I saw his body fold with the blow, rage clawed through my veins like fire.

The other one,Aron, the imposter, the monster was crawled out from the wreckage like a reptile dragging itself from its skin, his eyes bloodshot, wild, his lips twisted into something that used to be a smirk and now looked more like agony.

"oh, look who is back..."He spat the blood. "You should have never crossed my path,.." he fizzled. " I was going to have her for myself. "

He guffawed.

"I am you....there is no you, without me. you stole my name and you are going to steal my girlfriend too.. she was supposed to be mine, My possession. I wanted her to be my slave serving on her knees at my home as wife and as whore in my bed."

My Jungkook groaned, he clutched one arm at his injured shoulder. He pushed himself upright with trembling strength. "Try to fucking touch her, I will fucking break every bones in your body ,slowly , not just break them but shatter them until you forget what it ever felt like to stand." He yelped gently." You think you are the monster," He growled." no I am!" He roared. "I will become every nightmare , every curse, every twisted thing you fear in the dark, if that's what it takes to protect her. I will burn in hell twice if it means she stays untouched, I will rip out my own soul if that's what keeps her safe. She is mine. My sunflower ,broken or breathing. and I will become the darkest Fucking monster this world has ever seen, for her."

But I could see the pain in his eyes, not just from the hit, but from everything. From the silence that kept him cut off. From the burden of the past. From seeing me hurt.

"Stay back!" I cried, and stepped in front of Jungkook protectively, even with blood still pouring from my wound. "You are not taking him from me."

The other Jungkook crawled closer, dragging his broken body like he couldn't feel pain. "You already lost him. Just like you lost everything."

My eyes dropped .And the breath snagged in my throat.

His wrist. It was mangled, flesh torn and dangled like in ribbons, blood poured in thick, dark rivulets that soaked the floor beneath him. He had done it to himself.

Sliced it. Sliced off his entire wrist just to ruin me and my man. Like pain was the only thing keeping him grounded. While his other wrist was wrapped in a torn strip of his shirt , soaked and was dripping crimson. But it wasn't just tied up like a makeshift bandage . It looked shredded , that he ripped himself off the knife. The skin was torn. The blood was all over the floor and his fingers twitched. My eyes then switched to the floor where I pinned him down with knife . The floor was slick and gliding with his blood but the knife. It was gone.

"You sick fuck..." I whispered. My voice was hollow. A breath more than a sentence. He offered me a sinister smile. His eyes were wide, wild and glinted with something beyond rage. It thrived in despair.

"I will crawl out of the dead," he fizzled with abundant venom. "if it means I get to destroy you both, sunflower..." He said my name like it was a curse. A promise.

His voice slithered through the air like smoke in a burning house and it suffocated me. "You can run. You can cry. But he is broken now," he snarled, and his eyes flicked toward my Jungkook, who lingered silent, trembling, in a world without sound.

"And I? I will be the only voice left in his head." My stomach knotted. My fists clenched. But my heart, it shredded, not for me but for the man I love. Because no matter how loud I screamed, He couldn't hear me.

I turned to my Jungkook, his eyes wide were he hadn't heard a word of what was said. But I saw the fear in his eyes, saw the way they flicked between me and the approaching threat. He didn't need to hear the words. He felt them. I dropped to my knees beside him and held his face again. "I am right here," I whispered. "We fight this. Together."

He looked at me, with perplexity .He couldn't hear, but he understood. I grabbed a shredded piece of the brick and seated perfectly in my palm, and turned my body in front of his.

If Aron wanted a war, I would burn the whole damn place down myself.I thought I lost him. Not just a man, My husband. The other half of my soul. The one who bled when I bled, who burned when I screamed. But the universe, The universe gave him back. Scarred. Silent. Shattered.But mine. And now, now I don't care what line I have to cross, or who I have to become. I won't lose him again.I won't. I will tear this world down and slaughter heaven itself if that's what it takes and I will kill every soul breathing on this cursed earth if they stand in my way.

"Baby, leave..." he panted, clutching his injured shoulder, sweat and soot streaked his jawline.

"No..." I began. But before I could even finish the word, Jungkook launched forward like a wild force of instinct and fury. With a roar that ripped from somewhere deep inside him, he tackled Aron ,with brutal, unhesitating strength. The two bodies collided midair, they crashed like thunder against the scorched floor.

They slammed into the wall, bricks crumbling beneath the force. Dust shot up in violent plumes as Aron grunted, clawing at Jungkook's face, nails scraped skin, but Jungkook didn't back down.

Fists flew.

Jungkook's elbow cracked into Aron's jaw, sending his head snapping to the side. But Aron retaliated with a knee to Jungkook's ribs, knocking the breath from his lungs.

"You took everything from me!" Aron screamed.

"Fucking listen, you motherfucker!" Jungkook's roar shattered the heavy silence.. His chest rose and fell, the veins in his neck throbbed with fury. "What the hell do you want? Huh?! You wanna destroy me? Destroy her? My sunflower?!" His voice broke. "Tell me...did she ever say she loved you, you sick fuck?!"

Aron's eyes narrowed, his smirk bled with bitterness.

"She would have, if you hadn't shown up. If you never came between us, she would have loved me." His voice rose, desperate, broken. "We were in love for three goddamn days! She was about to kiss me that night. But you...you ruined it!"

Jungkook shook his head in disbelief.

"For fuck's sake... She lied to you! She was trying to save you!she wanted to save you just because you were my brother.! She pitied you! And you believed it like a fucking child!"

He stepped closer.

"Tell me this, how did you come downstairs from Y/N's room at the exact moment you confessed your little love story?"

Aron faltered.

Jungkook didn't stop. "You were sent downstairs. Mrs. Rey and Paxton were fighting over documents, files Rey gave my dad. It was staged. All of it. You were a goddamn pawn!"

"Liar!" Aron screamed, fury boiled in his veins. "You are just covering her! You will say anything to protect your...."

"They are not even your parents, !"Jungkook bellowed. "You were born silver! They took you. You are a goddamn lie, built on blood and secrets!"

That stopped Aron for a second. His eyes flickered in confusion, and then rage. "Whoa, whoa." Aron tilted his head and snarled. "How many names do I have now? Jungkook, Jake Carpenter... and now Aron? Fucking pick one, will you?"

Jungkook's face twisted with disgust.

"Mrs. Rey and Paxton, they used you. Rey was abusing those kids in the basement. Paxson was fucking her and planning your parents' murder, because your dad already got a sniff of what Rey was doing in the basement. "Jungkook's voice dropped deadly. " You think you were pulling strings for Paxson and Clark for all these fucking ten years?, no! They made you their puppet. You weren't loved. You were used."

Blood still dripped from Jungkook's knuckles as he staggered back a step. His eyes were burning with the weight of memories too dark to name. His voice trembled when he spoke again. "The are not even your dad and mom...And they just..." he broke off, a whimper choked through his words. "They treated me and Ian like fucking animals. Tossed us into a dark, wet basement like we were disease. All because Ian... he was born crippled. Deformed. But my eomma..."his eyes flickered with pain, "she saved us. She hid us. Loved us. When no one else did."

Aron rolled his eyes, not even caring for a second to his bleeding wrists. "Yeah, right. That crippled thing was a curse. That's why my dad tried so many goddamn times to rip you apart from it, from Ian. Since birth. You two were fused together like some fucking freak show." His grin twisted. "But you kept holding on. So he discarded you both. Simple."

He laughed." He wanted a real son. A strong one. So he gave me your name. Jungkook. It was supposed to be my name. My life. My home. My family. And my girl." His gaze darkened as it landed on me. I took a step back. "Let me ask you something. Why were you even near my sunflower, huh? You were thrown into that goddamn cabin like trash. You and that freak. So why the fuck did you crawl back into my life and try to take her from me? You always wanted to fuck her don't you, ever since she turned into beautiful woman at age of fourteen." He gazed at me up and down like he wants to fest on me in split seconds.

Jungkook's entire body stiffened. He thrashed a punch to his face. For a moment, he said nothing. Then, he lifted his head slowly. His lips trembled. "Because she saved my life." His voice shredded. "When I was about to die...twenty years ago."

Aron blinked. I stopped breathing.

"We were bleeding. Me and Ian. Our flesh torn and mangled, and we were tossed outside the Jeons residence after unbearable humiliations like broken toys. We were dying. But she...." Jungkook looked at me, voice came out as a whisper, "....my sunflower... she held her tiny hand against my shirt. She held me. She didn't even know what I was. But she held me. That's the moment I lived. That's why I came back."

I gasped. My knees teetered, and I had to grip the edge of the wall to steady myself. He looked at me like I was still holding him, like that memory was the string that kept him tethered to this world.

"She gave me life when I didn't want it. She gave me love when I didn't deserve it. That's why I stepped back into her world."

Aron's face twisted in hurt, Envy, Hatred. Aron lost it.

He lunged at Jungkook, teeth bared, fists flew. Jungkook met him halfway. They crashed into the car, sending it tumbling. Window glass shattered. Aron slammed his fist into Jungkook's ribs.

"You took her from me!" Aron screamed.

"She was never yours!" Jungkook roared back, grabbing Aron by the collar and slamming him against the wall. "She never wanted you! She wanted to save you, for me. That's it."

Blood stained their hands, their teeth clenched. Aron managed to land a punch, splitting Jungkook's lip.

"You killed my parents!" he snarled. "You killed them because she chose you! Admit it!" He thrashed his filthy bandaged fist on Jungkook again. "NO!" I clutched Aron's shoulder to pull him back from my Jungkook." Fucking bitch!" he turned to me and landed a punch to my ribs exact spot where my wound was embedded. I stumbled back and tripped on the floor on my back. Jungkook shoved him back, and crash landed on the floor and affixed him to floor. " Touch her again, I swear, I will fucking crush every bone in your body."

He swung again, a solid right hook that shattered Aron's lip, blood splattered across the floor. Jungkook didn't wait. He pounced, slamming him to the floor, repeatedly, fists landed again and again. Aron howled as Jungkook's knuckles drove into his face, his ribs, his gut.

"You don't get to wear my name..."

A punch.

"You don't get to touch her..."

Another punch.

"You don't get to exist."

Aron let out a choking laugh, blood pooled in his mouth. "You think you can save her...How about I fuck her right in front of your eyes and show her how good fuck I am?" he snickered annoyingly.

That stopped him.

For a moment.

But only a moment.

Silence fell.

He didn't hesitated and snatched up the knife from his pocket and plunged it straight into my Jungkook's side. A scream tore from Jungkook's throat as the blade buried deep.

"No!"I cried out.

He stabbed him again, mercilessly, right above the hip.

"No...please!"

I scrambled, instantly, tapping my fingers across the debris strewn floor, searching and praying or the lighter I had dropped. My gaze darted to a faint glint under a broken slab of brick. There. The lighter .I lunged for it, snatched it up with shaking hands, and without a second thought, I rushed forward, throwing my arms around the Aron's neck as he crouched over my Jungkook, straddling him like a predator.

With every ounce of strength, I hauled him back, dragged him off my Jungkook.

But he was faster. With a savage grunt, he shoved me off with explosive force. My body went flying, slammed hard against the floor. My back hit the wood with a crack. The lighter flew from my grasp, skidded across the floor, lost again.

Before I could even breathe, he turned back.

He drove the blade into Jungkook's both wrists and pinned it to the floor, metal sliced through flesh and bone. Jungkook arched his back, his scream echoing through the broken room.

Then he stood up. 'That's how your wife pinned me.."

And began walking toward me.

My vision blurred as he walked to me. His lips turned into a snarl and a grin. I tried to crawl away, moving inch by inch.

But he tackled me.

Hard.

My head snapped back as he knocked the wind out of my lungs, and the next thing I knew, he was straddling me, affixed my arms beneath his knees. His hand reached up, me.

"Time to finish what I started," he whispered.

And all I could think was, not again. Not like this

"No, Y/N..." my Jungkook grunted, his voice hoarse from pain as he was trying to pull out the knife stuck to his wrist connected to the wooden floor. " Let her go!!!"

In a swift motion, with his filthy bandaged hand , he reached the collar of my dress. His filthy finger dug to the fabric and ripped them into shreds. "No!"" I screeched. His eyes dropped to my breasts though the were half concealed in the bra. " wow..." He snickered. " how many times did he fuck you huh? Well, now I get it, why Roy was so obsessed with your body and Enzo wanted all of it for himself..."

" get off her you moron!!!" My Jungkook wailed.

" Oh no. I really don't want to touch her , she disgusts me but watching you falling apart when I Touch her is so delightful.." he giggled.

" so tell me , sunflower.. how good was his dick hmm?" His filthy finger tip roamed to my breast. " NO..."I swallowed hard not to fall apart in front of him . I tilted my head in disgust but my eyes fell on my Jungkook ,crying and yowling in pain and not able to save me from the monster hovering over me. " Roy or this fucker, whose dick felt good inside you?" He snickered again.

I blinked. once.. Twice . and by the next blink I was in the room where Roy tortured me for fourteen nights. " Roy, no please!" I sobbed.

" whoa! Did you see that , you killed him buy the is still alive inside her head." His face flickered and flashed to Roy's countenance and focused back to him. His hand found my breast. " don't you think you want to replace Roy inside your head , sunflower? don't you wanna replace Roy and keep me inside you head forever.."

"NO, sunflower! look at me! I am here baby. its me. I am here ... " Jungkook's voice woke me up from the place I plunged in.

I gasped as my eyes perceived at the walls of the Paxton's residence again.

Aron's fingers dug to the skin of my breast. " tell me don't you want to replace Roy with my face inside your head. this face that your Jungkook thrashed" I writhed in disgust.

His hand then moved down to shred off the cloth that covered my private part. " stay still , I will be gentle.." My heart thrashed to my ribs. "NO! NO! NO!". Jungkook cried out .

He ignored my Jungkook and then his finger hooked to the waist band of my inner and then he moved his finger t o his belt." Fuck why did I slice off my wrist, shit. I couldn't unbuckle off my belt. "he rasped as his fingers were working on his belt.

"Please, no.." I mumbled in numbness.

"Please I am begging you please! let her go! Let her go! " Jungkook cried out trying to pull out the knife off his wrist.

His belt's buckle jingled and sliced my ears inviting panic and fear. " Wait. which foreplay would make your pussy wet ,sunflower..? huh? which one?" He giggled and groped my breast harder. I screamed. " how about breathe play? " He switched to my other breast and groped the flesh again. " shall we have a little breathe play, sunflower..?" I screeched again. His fingers found my throat and compressed until my breath fogged at my chest. The blood from his sliced off wrist poured on my chest.

My vision blurred as his fingers tightened around my throat, unyielding, ruthless. I clawed at his hands, but it was useless. My lungs begged for air, my body kicked in desperation, but nothing worked. The world around me began to fade. Sounds dulled. My heartbeat thundered in my ears, then slowed.

"No..." I whimpered, my voice barely a rasp.

His face hovered inches from mine.

"Do you feel that, sunflower?" he spat. "That pressure crushing your windpipe? That's how my mom felt when your precious Romeo crushed his fucking boots around her neck and choked the life out of her."

Tears streamed from my eyes, mixing with the blood smeared on my skin. My muscles trembled. My legs writhed, my hands fell limp. Every breath I couldn't take screamed louder in my brain.

The room dimmed, shadows crawled into the corners of my vision. My Jungkook's wails started to fade.

I am dying.

My body was giving up. My eyes fluttered. The light in the world started bleeding away, draining like water down a cracked sink.

"Jungkook... please..." Everything inside me whispered his name.

But the monster above me only squeezed harder. Just when the last shred of breath was slipping from my lungs, his hands suddenly let go. Air slammed into my throat like shattered glass, I gasped, choking, coughing violently, my chest hoisted and fell in broken rhythm. My nails clawed at the wooden floor as I tried to crawl away, but my limbs felt heavy, useless, like they no longer belonged to me.

I barely had time to blink before I heard it. The sharp, metallic clink of a belt buckle. My heart stuttered. His fingers were at his waist, fumbled with the leather strap, breath heaved with something far more twisted than rage.

"Let's put on a show for your husband," he hissed. He leaned closer.

"Let's see how much he still wants you... after I am done."

Terror rooted me in place. My throat burned, lungs still trembled from the near death. I tried to scream, but no sound came out,only a wheeze.

"Jungkook... please..."

But only the silence. The sound of that buckle again.

Suddenly, a low scrape, a grating crawl sounded above my head. It was slick. Uneven. Like something dragging across broken glass.

And then a roar.

"Let her go, you sick bastard!"

My breath caught. That voice..

"Ian!" I gasped. "No!" I whimpered in horror.

Aron snapped his head toward the sound, lips curled into a twisted smirk. "Well, look who decided to join us. Your brother-in-law."

"Ian, no! No! Go back!" I cried, my voice broke with panic.

"Ian, get the hell out of here!" my Jungkook barked through clenched teeth, blood still poured from his side. "fuck." He cried out." Bun..please what are you doing..?"

But Ian didn't stop.

He crawled, dragging himself across the floor with a differently abled leg and one differently abled arm, determination carved into every strained breath of his. "Let go of her ,right now.."

"Come on then," Aron mocked, not loosening his grip around my throat. "Come save your little sister-in-law." he snickered, his voice soaked in filth and a disgusting lust jotted all over his face. With a smirk plastered to his face he shoved down his hand into his boxers probably to pull out his filthy meat.

That's when it hit me. He already let go of my wrists . My hands were not latched to the floor by his knees. I wasn't pinned anymore.

I was just... lingering there, paralyzed and horrified to writhe and wilt off from his hold. My body trembled, but it was not in coordination with me. My mind screamed, but I was silent.

But none of it mattered. Because all I could see,Was Ian.

"Ian, no... go back,"I cried out. "Please... Ian, please go back."

But he didn't cease to crawl towards me nd the monster hovering above me. He dragged himself across the blood slicked floor, one crippled leg and one twisted arm pulling himself forward like a dying soldier on a battlefield. Each movement ripped him, leaving red, sticky trails behind him. agony clawed my chest.

My eyes fell on the glass shard, glinted and half buried to his flesh at his side abdomen. Clutched in his trembling hand.

My breath fogged at my throat. And before the monster above me could set forth his filthy act, Ian reached him.

Pandemonium. Commenced. With a roar , Ian pulled the glass shard embedded on his abdomen and drove it, clutched in his trembling fist ,straight into the Aron's chest. "Let my little flower go.." He whimpered.

A wet, grating grunt burst from his mouth as blood sprayed across my face, hot and metallic. Ian seized the moment. He growled alike beast, he ripped his own shirt, wrapped it around me , and yanked Aron back using just one arm. His good arm.

"Ian!" I sobbed and crawled backward, yanking my tattered clothes to cover myself. My lungs burned. He held Aron by his good arm and with a loud roar he uplifted his twisted arm and curled around his neck. Just to latch him to himself. He dragged Aron across the floor ,crying and whimpering as his twisted arm was tugged un force holding Aron's neck. It ripped my heart. He drew him back to the wall, using his body as an anchor, and pinned him down with his leg and wrapped his only twisted arm around his neck.

"Little flower..."Ian whispered in between his panting. "Get Kookie out of here." His crippled arm locked around Aron's neck, holding him in a death grip, refusing to let go. Blood spilled down his side but he didn't flinch. He didn't blink. He clasped him tight.

"No. Ian... no," I whimpered, slowly crawled toward him. "Please, don't do this. Don't..."

"Help Jungkook now!" he roared, his voice splintered like thunder through my chest.

I flinched.

Tears blurred my eyes as I looked at him. "Ian.."

"now!" His body shook violently. His grip on Aron was failing, but Ian clung tighter. I turned immediately to my Jungkook, crawling over to him, my hands trembled as I gripped the knife embedded in his wrist.

"Baby... it's going to hurt, okay?" I whispered. " I am so sorry.." I yanked one knife out. Jungkook screamed. His whole body shuddered.

But his eyes shot to Ian. I pulled the other knife too. "Ian!" Jungkook sat up wiht a loud grunt ripped through him..

Ian didn't look at him.

He grabbed the gasoline canister, the one left behind from earlier, and began pouring it over both himself and on Aron who was still breathing . The floor drenched. His hands moved with intention, as his eyes lingered only on me.

"No! Ian!" I cried out and crawled toward him.

"Dont! Y/N!!!" He bellowed . I quaked.

"bun, what the fuck are you doing ?"Jungkook sobbed in between his whimpers.

"Don't. Kookie..." Ian choked a sob. "Take her. Take Y/N and go. Now." My eyes darted to the window above. That's how he had gotten in, crawled through that window. That's how the glass shard might have stuck to his abdomen. Just to save me. Just to save me and Jungkook.

"If I leave him like this, he will come back," Ian whimpered gently. "He will crawl out of the fire. He will. He is like rot in the bones. If I just walk away.. he will survive it. And then he will find m. He will find you.." It struck me like wave, he bounced back the same words I dripped to him.

He hoisted up the lighter. His fingers curled around the lighter, the same one I had dropped. He must have picked it up while dragging the bastard to the wall. " He wont die. Not until he takes everything from you ,little flower." Tears rolled down from his eye. He flickered the lighter.

"No..Ian.."I sobbed. Jungkook broke into sobs.

"Eomma..." he whispered, eyes glistened as they found me. "She swallowed the flames to save me. Now I am doing the same... for you and kookie. " He switched his eyes to Jungkook." think, this is her doing it again.

"No... Ian, please," I begged, crawling forward on my hands and knees, tears streaming down my face.

"dont.. !!!" He roared. I halted and sat on my heels.

"Bun..." Jungkook voice trembled. "Give me the lighter. I will end this. Go. Take her. and leave..."

"Leave!." He trembled clasping Aron." Take your sunflower out of here..Kookie..I will end him..." His eyes softened. "Kookie... I promised you. I would save your sunflower."

He looked back at me.

"If the universe allows... if the stars are kind...if heaven hears me, I will be born again." He smiled at me. That smile broke me. "And I won't just find your husband this time, Eomma." His voice shredded. The moment he called me 'Eomma' I collapsed to floor and sobbed holding myself. Jungkook gently crawled to me with his bleeding hand and held me gently.

"I will find you too, Eomma. When I do , I will ask God , Just for one thing. That I am born as your son, not as his twin again. So that I can hold you, love you like a son would. and non one can take that away. So that you can raise me, hold me, teach me to laugh, and love me from the start. "I'll love you like I never got the chance to."

"Ian...please.."I sobbed.

"I will tell, our Eomma, that I saved you both" He let out a choked sob. "Live, little flower, live like I died hoping you would live happily with Jungkook." He sniffled. " Eomma.." He called me again. " This isn't sacrifice. This is love. This what sons do. Even if I was never truly yours, I wish I had been. And if I can keep this monster from ever touching you again, then I will do it. Even if means burning into the flames."

The flame flickered and dangled between me and him and my Jungkook. "Bun..please..Thats enough.." He stood and took a step forward, ready to snatch the lighter. I stood up slowly to do the same. Because I am not letting him die. "

"Ian...please..' I whimpered and set my feet firm and ready to throw myself over him and burn the monster. "I love you, Eomma. Sorry it took too long to say it.." His head inclined down with a sob tore through him.

Aron writhed suddenly, probably seizing the moment when Ian might have slackened his hold against him. "Cut the bullshit! Oh, let's meet again if the universe allows, sunflower, fuck that." Aron snarled, mocking Ian's final words with a twisted grin.

In a split second, as our eyes locked on Ian, on his trembling hand hoisting the lighter, Aron tore the glass shard from his own chest with a guttural scream and slammed it down into Ian's crippled thigh.

"IAN!"" I screamed, my voice ripped raw from my throat. And Aron precisely knew I would throw myself to get Ian which could lead Ian to drop the lighter . He did it to lure me.

And it happened. Ian wailed, a horrible, cracked sound that shattered through the air as he crumpled. Ian knew Aron did it to lure me to him, without even thinking a second he slipped the lighter from his fingers to blaze and kill Aron.

"No!" I didn't care about it and I launched forward, my heart crashing against my ribs. I was going to throw myself over Ian, to shield him, save him. But it was too late. The lighter clinked against the floor. The gasoline caught and the fire set forth to spread. It spread like fury unleashed, like hell itself had cracked open. The heat slammed into my skin before the flames even touched me. And just before the fire could consume me, Jungkook hooked his arm around my waist from behind and hurled me through the torn up wall, out into the open, that his car had already smashed part of the wall earlier. He burst through it again, shielding me ,through smoke and fire The force of the explosion, tossed and threw us outside.

We crashed outside. My lungs burned, my ears rang, but I could still feel him holding me. We fell hard on the back lawn, flames crackled behind us, roaring like the scream of the universe itself.

The house, our hell was engulfed by the flames. I heard only one scream, it was Aron's. It wasn't Ian's . He didn't scream, probably holding that sick monster.

"Ian! Ian!!" I cried out. My throat shattered by agony ."IAN!!!" I screamed into the air, my fists slammed the ground. "No..Ian!!!"I screamed, my throat shredded and useless, but I screamed anyway.

"NO! NO!DON'T LEAVE HIM!" I thrashed against Jungkook's arms, trying to crawl back toward the wall, and plunge into the fire. But he wouldn't let go.

"Let me go! Let me fucking go, Jungkook!" I cried, and clawed at his shirt. "He is still inside..he is still.."

My words shredded into sobs. The house was ablaze, the flames swallowed everything. Windows exploded. Flames licked the sky, furious and wild.

I buried my face into Jungkook's chest and screamed. Screamed until there was nothing left in my lungs. Until I thought my heart would give out. Until my soul begged the fire to take me too.

"No..no no no..baby, get up, get up, get up!" Jungkook's roared like thunder ,out of the blue as he grabbed me in his arms, hauling me off the lawn with a desperation I had never seen in his eyes. My body was limp, and half conscious, but he didn't stop. "Please. please. stay with me, baby, stay with me!" he pleaded breathlessly. He collected me firmly in his arms and hooped hard crashing through the splintered wooden gate that hung from one rusted hinge.

We crashed down onto the wet street, and rolled across gravel and dirt. My head spun from the impact. He didn't care about his pain. He wrapped himself around me like a human shield.

In one swift second, the house behind us exploded with a roar that tore my ears into half. A huge wave of heat chased us down the street, and the shockwave lifted my back off the ground for a second before slamming me back into his chest.

Glass shattered like rain. Wood splintered and soared. The gasoline at the car caused the flames grew bigger and to explode.

Jungkook's chest rose and fell in heaving gasps. His ears were ringing. Mine too. He covered me tighter, and pressed my head to his chest like he could still block the world from touching me. Multiple sobs rumbled at his chest. "Ian.." He whimpered, holding me tight.

I clutched his shirt, and trembled. Everything behind us was gone.

Ian was gone. But Jungkook was still here. And I was still in his arms. But it didn't feel like we survived. It felt like we crawled out of the ashes with nothing but each other left.

"He saved me... and I couldn't even save him back." I sobbed into his skin. Jungkook held me tighter, his chest hoisted against my face. but he said nothing.

Because we both knew.

Ian was still inside that fucking house, gripping Aron by the throat with his crippled arm. Still holding the bastard down because he knew we had to get out. He knew I would run to him. He knew Jungkook would hold me back. He knew Jungkook would never let me throw myself into the fire for him. He knew Jungkook wouldn't allow me to burn alive just to pull Ian out. And my Jungkook , He didn't even think for a fucking second. He didn't look back. He didn't hesitate. He only thought about me. He didn't run toward Ian. He didn't try to grab the lighter. He didn't scream for the flames to stop. He just looked at me. He saw the fire racing toward my feet. He saw my hand stretch toward Ian. And he wrapped me into his arm, like a promise to Ian.

We lingered there on the street and I sobbed into the man I had fought so hard to find, while losing the one who fought just as hard to save me.

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