— invincible doesn't mean
undefeated.

OCTOBER 21:
JUNG HOSEOK

==

it's been less than twenty or so minutes since hoseok arrived at the parking garage, and seokjin has paced up and down the stretch of the floor nervously for every second of it.

"seokjin, would you quit it?" haewon snaps, wrapping a torn piece of hoseok's shirt a bit too tightly around his arm. when he winces in response, she mutters a quiet apology. "all you can do right  now is have faith that namjoon and jimin are okay and away from harm."

seokjin sighs. "i know, but—"

"we can't risk going outside. not yet, at least. didn't namjoon tell you to look out for yourselves first?" she gestures to hoseok, who sits tiredly with the back of his head against an old car door. "besides, hoseok is hurt. it's not like he'd be able to move with us."

"look, i'm just worried, okay?"

"and we are, too. but have a little faith in your friends, alright? they've survived this much, they can survive it again."

it's not that easy, hoseok wants to say, remembering the crazed look abraxas carried (he didn't even think it was possible for that monster to actually reflect expressions). it's not that simple to get out of the woods alive; the only reason he had a chance of escaping is because of jimin. and right now, jimin could be being chased by that insane demon, injured even worse than hoseok is.

or even dead, a voice in the back of his head whispers, but hoseok refuses to listen to it.

suddenly, a familiar, low rumble resounds from the lowest level. it's an engine: namjoon's truck engine, to be exact. hoseok knows from the rhythmic sputter of the gas after every few stretches of seconds. he scrambles to his feet, ignoring the numb pain pounding in his legs, and rushes to the center of the level pathway. "listen, they're—" but before he can finish his response, haewon is roughly grabbing his arm and pulling them to the side, gesturing for seokjin to follow.

"we can't be for sure that's them," she whispers, ignoring hoseok's incredulous stare. "what if it's abraxas?"

"when the hell has abraxas growled like a truck engine?" hoseok says, exasperated.

"well, you never know, just think about all the stuff it's done before—"

a pair of bright, blinding headlights flood into the dim floor, causing hoseok to subconsciously raise a hand over his squinted eyes. before he can turn to haewon and give his famous impish smile, maybe a sarcastic "i told you so", both doors to the truck open. when the lights dim, he notices, to his relief, it's jimin and namjoon. except—

"holy shit, jimin!" seokjin rushes forward, eyes wide and face contorted in shock. hoseok feels as if his gut has plummeted three stories; jimin is beaten to hell. his clothes are torn and smeared with a nauseating combination of soil and blood, and there are gashes across his limbs that hoseok can't even bear to look at. "oh—oh god, what the hell happened out there? w-what—"

"i'm fine," interrupts jimin, then exchanges a brief glance with namjoon. "let's just get out of here quickly. abraxas is still back there in the woods—"

"what—don't just shrug this off, jimin, we were worried to death about you! and you too, namjoon, we were so—"

"he's already heard the lecture from me," namjoon says, voice quiet. "jimin's right, we've got to get out of here quickly. don't push it, please."

haewon tries to protest, but jimin cuts her off with a harsh jab. "i'm alive, aren't i? i might have gotten beat up but i'm still here." he stops, realizing his tone. "i'm...i'm sorry. i didn't...let's just go back and fix up hoseok and all the rest of us. okay?"

with a final, brief pause of silence, hoseok offers a reluctant nod. something went down out there: something that wasn't just between abraxas and jimin. and clearly, it's hurt him. one by one, they file into the truck (it's hard, considering they have to enter through the front seats to go to the back; if only they had haewon's car with them too, but it's still back in the woods). right as seokjin manages to enter the truck, something howls distantly.

hoseok turns his head. "was that...abraxas?"

"can you all hurry your asses up? we're—"

the wall crashes next to them, and pieces of concrete bound off the nearby cars with metallic clangs. and when hoseok turns, haewon frozen in shock next to him, he sees abraxas, its long appendages writhing slowly from its back.

"you have to be fucking kidding me," seokjin hisses. and then everything goes haywire.

as namjoon backs up his truck desperately, tires screeching in protest, hoseok and haewon sprint in the opposite direction. his lungs burn from the exertion his injuries place on him, but there isn't any time right now to be slowed by them. one wrong turn, one wrong move, one wrong breath and hoseok is dead. if only we were seconds quicker, hoseok thinks bitterly. if everything hadn't reaffirmed his shit luck before, this sure does now.

he stops near the run down staircase and catches his breath, darting his eyes around the floor. abraxas seems to have followed the truck instead. almost immediately, hoseok finds his heartbeat quickening, his hands shaking, his eyes widening, and fuck, they're so screwed, he's so screwed, if only he had been quicker—

"you are not going to freak out on me, kid," haewon says, grabbing his shoulders—gentle enough not to hurt his wounds, but hard enough to knock him to his senses. "alright? we are going to find them and get out of here. we can do this. do you trust me?"

hoseok nods frantically. he can't think straight; it pains him to feel so numb, so vulnerable to fear, to abraxas who isn't even chasing them right now. but he can't help it. he can't help it and he hates that. "alright. listen, we're going to go back down there, okay?"

"what?" hoseok hisses. "no, no, do you want us to die? a-abraxas is there, it's—"

"if we want to get out of here quickly, that's our only option. climbing higher floors is just going to corner us. there won't be a way to escape abraxas if we reach the top level. if we go lower, we can try entering the truck, or at least going back into the woods."

"i-i can't. i can't, i can't—" hoseok's is rambling, looking at his trembling hands. he knows haewon is right. everything she said makes complete sense, gives them the better chance of survival, yet hoseok can't bring himself to stick to her words.

he's terrified.

"hoseok, you can do this."

"i can't, haewon, i—"

"you ran all the way to the parking garage even after being thrown against a tree. you found the society, even amidst all the turmoil and confusion. and you never gave up on taehyung." haewon narrows her eyes. "so don't give up on yourself, either. because you can do this, jung hoseok. you can get out of here alive."

hoseok takes a shaky, deep breath. he thinks about the others, about taehyung and jeongguk and yoongi, about mrs. kim and jae, about his sister and his parents, about his detective internship and his dreams of becoming an investigator: he doesn't want to lose that. he doesn't want that all to go to waste.

"...let's go."

minutes later, they're crouched behind a concrete pole on floor two, straining to hear some sort of indication where the others or abraxas might be. they hear a loud engine from below, coming from all sides, as if the truck is driving in circles continuously through the level. hoseok winces when he hears a loud, piercing shriek from abraxas below them.

suddenly, the blinding headlights of namjoon's truck cut through the darkness again. they're entering with dangerous velocity, and from the way the truck is so callously handled and maneuvered, hoseok knows the driver is just as panicked as he is. they approach hoseok and haewon, speeding along the pathway—

and then they pass them.

"shit, they didn't see us!" haewon yells over the roar of the engine, turning to hoseok with frantic eyes. "we gotta catch up to them!"

just as she finishes her sentence, a low, guttural growl emits from behind them. abraxas stands in the gateway to floor one, its talons circulating menacingly around it. hoseok feels the lump in his throat grow larger. "we gotta go, hoseok, c'mon!"

hoseok quickly nods and stumbles over his feet, sprinting behind haewon as they trail the truck, screaming at the top of their lungs. the truck continues to speed on, navigating recklessly through the concrete pathways, and hoseok feels his hope depleting by the second.

they're going too fast, and the engine is too loud for them to hear us. hoseok squints towards the truck, and then he yells to haewon, "the side mirror! we're—we're directly behind the truck, they can't see us in the mirror!"

haewon understands and quickly swerves to the side with hoseok, each waving their arms frantically, desperate for those in the truck to notice. when hoseok risks a glance back, he sees abraxas, at least forty meters closer now. how the hell is it so fast?

suddenly, jimin pokes his head out of the truck, shouting something at namjoon that hoseok can't quite distinguish. he tries to run faster, but the burning his legs is growing too overwhelming, and the bruises on his neck and shoulders feels like they're going to split his skin in two. haewon notices and screams, her voice breaking, "keep going, hoseok! we're almost there!"

namjoon manages to somewhat halt the truck—slow enough for haewon and hoseok to reach them, but fast enough to not completely stop the truck, clearly to make it easier to escape the garage quicker. the distance grows slimmer, and slimmer, and hoseok's feet are burning and haewon is almost there but hoseok isn't—

his legs suddenly collapse, and it takes all his effort to keep himself upright. no, no, he's only a few meters away, he has to keep going!

hoseok sputters a weak cough. when he turns around, abraxas raises one of its appendages, sharp and talon-like, and projects it in his direction.

haewon turns around and looks at hoseok with wide eyes, yelling something undecipherable. she grabs his arm, running with strength that hoseok can't even comprehend as possible—and then she pushes him, hard. so hard he propels several feet, and he reaches the truck with the breath completely knocked out of him. jimin wastes no time and pulls hoseok into the truck roughly, peering back out and beckoning haewon with a sore voice.

haewon does reach the truck. and she's the barest millimeters away from jimin's hand when a talon pierces her shoulder.

she stops. collapses to the ground and coughs. looks at her shoulder, now oozing blood onto her billowing navy shirt. hoseok screams as he watches from the back window, yelling at namjoon to "stop the car, stop the fucking car, she's hurt, go back! go back, dammit!"

namjoon swivels the truck around just as abraxas reaches haewon and sinks its clawed hand into her leg. she grits her teeth, refusing to express her agony. but the fury on her face is evident in the way she glares at abraxas with all the venom she can express.

"abraxas has her," namjoon croaks as he stops the truck. "it—it has her, we can't...there isn't a way to get her without getting close to abraxas!"

"then fucking get close to it!" hoseok shouts. "we have to save her!"

"she told me..." seokjin shakily exhales. "haewon told me if she was in danger, that she would want us to get out of here without her. to not wait for her. she wants to protect us to the very end."

blood trickles down the side of haewon's mouth. she turns to the unmoving truck and mouths "go" clearly, face contorted in pain and anger.

"you can't possibly be okay with this!" roars hoseok. "do you even hear what you're saying? are you okay with haewon dying like this?!"

abraxas shrieks in absolute malice. it's taking its time with haewon, clearly enjoying her agony.

seokjin closes his eyes and shakes his head. "no. no, i'm not. not at all."

"i'm not either in the slightest," says namjoon, quietly. "but how are we going to—"

"the tree trunk," jimin suddenly whispers.

namjoon turns. "what?"

"the tree trunk!" jimin turns to namjoon, wide-eyed. "it's—it's affected by attacks, you need to attack it! quickly! run your truck—"

"jimin, what the hell—"

"abraxas is afflicted," jimin breathes. "it isn't injured by attacks, but it's at least affected by them. abraxas is still afflicted."

before namjoon can do a thing, jimin is scrambling over his seat. "you need to run haewon's leg over," he hurriedly commands. "that's where abraxas has her with its talons. you'll break abraxas's hold on her that way."

"are you insane, jimin?! you want me to run over her—"

"it's the only way," jimin yells, and he slams namjoons leg down on the gas pedal. as hoseok peers out the window fearfully, jimin clumsily maneuvers the steering wheel, and he cuts a straight line through abraxas and haewon—right over her leg.

before haewon can even comprehend what has happened, namjoon pulls her quickly up into the car as they speed by, and she collapses in the backseat. outside the truck, abraxas is growling lowly, almost like it's irritated, as it stumbles drunkenly along the concrete pathway. namjoon wastes no time in collecting his senses. he slams the pedal and speeds down the floors, past floor one, breaking through the discolored meters, out of the garage, over the thin grass and into the woods. abraxas stands eerily in the second level, appendages slowly entering its back again. hoseok isn't sure why it isn't following them. he supposes they're just too difficult to catch. the thought makes him swell with pride.

the car is a jumbled mess of racing heartbeats and injuries before haewon cuts the silence.

"shit, guys!" she roars, clutching her calf in pain. "i get that abraxas was there but christ, what the hell!"

and, amidst everything, hoseok laughs. it's a quiet chuckle at first that has haewon looking at him incredulously, but he can't help it. "why are you laughing?" she shouts, but she herself can't help but crack a weak smile. it's a good question; why is he laughing? why is she smiling? why has seokjin joined into the laughter, and namjoon is grinning in the mirror, and jimin is closing his eyes with a smile so relieved, hoseok feels it too? they're all injured, all bleeding, all bruised, all in pain: haewon probably has a broken shin right now, for christ's sakes. so why are they laughing?

"because we're alive," hoseok says, and it hits home. "and i'm happy we are."

as they drive back down the road, slowly going back into the city, they continue to laugh. at moments, it's to forget the way abraxas pursued them with swinging talons, chasing them relentlessly. at moments, it's to drive away the tears that threaten to fall from their lashes. at moments, it's to distract from the pain that threatens to overwhelm their senses.

they're far from a normal group of people, but at that moment, hoseok knows they'll be okay. and he hasn't felt that in a long time.

==

this went from apocalyptic warfare to anime tears wow get a chapter that can do both
folks this was the longest chain of action this whole freakig SINGULAR night of October Twenty-First took a whole deadass eight (8) chapters!!!
anyway stay tuned for whats comin next again ;)) ADIÓS