Mark

Jinyoung's scream echoed through the room, making it last for what felt like forever. Maybe my perception of time had just drastically changed. Didn't people say when something bad happens time slows down? It was that just about a trick of memory? Wether either were right, I definitely felt time was moving sickeningly slow. As if whatever God was out there looked down, seeing this terrifying moment, and decided to make us suffer longer. To make us feel sick to our stomach, not from the blood, but from the pain. It wasn't like we had never seen someone did, everyone in this room had killed someone. But it made all the difference to see BamBam's eyes go wide, to hear a gasp escape his lips in the ringing silence, to feel, physically feel his body hit the ground.

Jb spent no time waiting for BamBam to die, he had pushed the needle in the cut deeper than he planned, I could tell by how fast he left the scene. Instead he decided to push Jinyoung backwards when he tried to run towards his friend,"No, no, no! Get off me! Get the hell off of me!" Jinyoung moved faster than the eye could see as he used his grieve to fight against the man who had caused it. Jinyoung's fist slammed into Jb's stomach ruthlessly, grabbing at his hair and pushing his head to the ground where a loud crack was heard,"Get the hell away from me!" Abandoning Jb's body Jinyoung practically slid across the ground to where BamBam laid in a pool of blood.

    "Bam-" Jinyoung's fingers trembled above his friends body as he went to hold him but hesitated, his voice caving into itself,"Bam you can't leave me." You can't leave me you selfish fool! BamBam's last words to Yugyeom's dead body flashed in my mind, the two scenes painfully similar. But here, Jinyoung wasn't upset, or angry, he was broken. And I couldn't help but think he may have reacted differently if this was the first person he lost, but it wasn't, not even close,"I'm okay." BamBam's voice was shockingly steady, Jinyoung wasn't paying close enough attention to notice such a small thing,"That is such bullshit."

BamBam gave Jinyoung a bittersweet smile. The lids of his eyes shining under the light as his tears created a natural sparkle,"Don't worry. There's not much left, for me." Jinyoung's lips turned upside down in an almost angry frown. I had realized he deals with grief differently than most expect, and this was one of the first times I had seen him get so emotional. Maybe it was because he had finally snapped, finally had enough, not wanting to bottle up pain any longer. From Yugyeom, to the entire camp, to Hansol. People around us were dying left and right. And I was only feeling a quarter of the pain that Jinyoung was feeling, he knew all of these bandits personally. Had grown up with them or trained with them or gone on a rage with them. Whatever it was I couldn't begin to imagine how a bandit we didn't live with's death. But someone as close to Jinyoung as BamBam, is a whole other level of pain.

What was I suppose to do? I wanted to comfort him so badly, but I knew he needed to be alone with BamBam in his last moments. I felt so helpless, was this the end of everything? Jb was still on the ground, unmoving from what I could see through my blurred vision. Youngjae was still gone, I didn't want to even try and think of why he isn't back yet. Everything seemed to be falling apart right at the end. Similar to a book with an incomplete conclusion. You can't leave me with this. What am I suppose to do?

This book however, was written with blood as the ink. Cursive letters scribbled on the pages, barely readable, yet somehow made more sense than anything else ever written. Because it was the truth. Not sugar coated or modified to fit some view society had or to be put in a box labeled 'realistic fiction', it wasn't realistic fiction, it was non-fiction that people thought was too cruel to be true. The world is a midnight sky where there are no stars and the moonlight isn't enough to help you see. So you stumble with every step and eventually hit a rock on the way down, and this time you don't get up.

That's what this moment felt like. Everyone around me had just hit the ground, and there I stood, looking down at them wondering if I should join them. By the time I was done thinking I was already there, meeting their eyes but not moving to save them from this terrible place. Because I couldn't get up, I couldn't move. Jinyoung shouted at BamBam's figure,"What about me, and Mark? Jackson could still be alive!" I flinched at the word "could". This whole thing was surreal and made me just want to curl in a ball and sleep until I've forgotten every last detail. BamBam sighed, his body bouncing up for a slight moment, blood beginning to drip from his lips,"He can-" A deep breath, his chest visibly shook as he struggled to find air,"-take his time." BamBam reached out for Jinyoung, hand resting on his arm. He let it stay there.

  "Jinyoung, I want to go home."

  Home? Where is that? Was he talking about the village? The place he was born, the place his family lived. It was also the place that caused him and all bandits so much pain. In a way his family had sent him to his death, for whatever reason, though definitely unjustified. Anything BamBam has done was nothing worth such a tragic and painful death. And then he longs for home in his last moments. Perhaps his mothers arms on a cold winter night, or a fathers laugh as he told his first joke. Maybe home was with Jinyoung and Yugyeom in the small cottage a few miles away from civilization. The smell of breakfast at seven a.m topped with love and affection that you could get no where else. Or finally beating Yugyeom at a card game, and ending up with his hair a mess as Yugyeom attacked him out of disbelief thinking he had cheated. Most likely, home was beyond all of that. Though all incredible things, home was not in the present but the future. Something you look forward to in your times of need and suffering. A place you know you will feel safe under any circumstance. For BamBam, home is heaven, or whatever afterlife there is. I could see in his eyes the want to just simply move on. Not moving on from the people, but the world. It was not for him, and I could find the pieces of longing in his features, for his best friend, and his soulmate, both who had left without him. BamBam may have been dead all along, since the day Jackson left, his body just needed time to catch up. Now it was, and I could tell he wasn't sad about his pain, he was thankful.

Jinyoung choked on his words, not sure what to say, what would be the right thing to say,"Bam..." He sobbed, unable to say his friends name. A small movement on the floor appeared in the corner of my eye. I had almost thought I imagined Jb's body moving until it moved again. A slight bounce of his chest. Then he was sitting up, hand on his head, rubbing circles. Not the time. Pulling my eyes away from Jb I made it just in time to see BamBam's hand drop, his lips trembling as he let out his final breath, with one last message,"I'm glad- I got to be your brother."

   I hadn't realized that my knees were now touching the floor, and I was stuck to the ground, glued by fear and shock. BamBam is gone, truly gone, forever. Not much time was given to grieve, because seconds later the sound of feet skidding on the floor entered the room, filling the silence. And there in the door way stood Youngjae, a figure directly behind him. A figure I almost didn't recognize with his burned and beaten up clothing, skin covered in dirt. When I did recognize him I couldn't help but gasp.

"Jackson?"

And suddenly a dark figure swiftly appeared in my vision, and a sharp, agonizing pain shot up my shoulder and neck. The ringing in my ears blocked out all the noise, but a faint screaming could be heard, and I knew right away it was mine.

——————/-

Yo yo yo don't kill me pls

Love y'all believe me I do!

IVE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS SINCE CHAP 1 K

The book has been leading up to this moment BOIS and now its here