[Ren’s PoV]

I sat nervously between the beds where the twins laid unconscious, Jonghyun was awfully pale and Minhyun was a sickening purple color, through the past three days the color had darkened and spread across his skin, consuming the pale skin and replacing it with a slightly distorted layer of skin.

“What is happening to him?” questioned Baekho in worry, forcing himself to look away from Minhyun and peer at me in concern.

“I don’t know…” I whispered in response, “Really, I wish I knew that myself…however, surely JR know and will inform us as to what is going on when he gets up.”

“Whenever that’ll be…” responded Miyoung in worry.

Youngmin stood beside his own twin, his arm over the youngers’ shoulders as he whispered, “His condition is getting worse….his breathing is getting shallower…”

My attention snapped from Jonghyun to Minhyun, my frown deepening as my brows furrowed in worry. My eyes were glued onto the man’s chest, watching as it rose and fell a little too slowly – making more worry arise within me.

“Is he dying?” whispered Kwangmin in concern.

“It appears as though he is,” responded Youngmin without too much emotion to it, however, he did not know the male too well so it was a bit understandable.

“But is he?”

Youngmin shrugged.

My eyes lingered on Minhyun’s lifeless form before turning back towards JR, who had groaned and writhed in pain. I jumped out of my chair and raced to his side, helping him sit as his eyes fluttered open, slowly sitting him up to permit him to adjust to his surroundings.

“JR?” I whispered in concern, watching as his eyes cautiously and groggily scanned the area.

He closed his eyes before opening them again, squinting at me in slight agitation – he was clearly in pain as he finally made eye contact with me before letting his eyes drift towards Minhyun’s prone form, “How is he?”

“He’s slowly progressively growing words,” I whispered, “Especially the past couple of days you two have been out – more so now than ever.”

JR frowned, his eyebrows furrowing in sorrow as he whispered, “That’s what I was fearing…”

“What’s happening to him?” I questioned, “Is there anything we can do for him?”

“Upon entering this area a seed of the void was placed in him, as you all know – a seed of the tear,” stated Jonghyun, we all nodded, he was clearly fighting off the exhaustion that threatened him, “Well, upon entering the tear with my uncle – under my uncle’s control – the seed began to bloom, permitting the darkness’ tendrils to grow and allowing my uncle’s control over him to grow even stronger than it already is…”

“Which is how your uncle possessed him, right?”

He nodded, humming, “Each time he was possessed, darkness entered him – it began to spread throughout him as tendrils, but now it’s beginning to consume him…his body is unable to handle the amount of shadows that had entered him.”

“And this happened…”

JR nodded, “Sadly, yes.”

“Is there anything we can do to help him?” whispered Miyoung, feeling a bit nauseous because of the color the younger’s skin was turning.

“The only thing we can do for him is close the tear, but even then we don’t know if it’ll help him,” responded JR.

“We need to try,” I responded.

“There is no time to do so Ren,” whispered Jonghyun in distress, looking into my eyes to show his sorrow and slight panic.

“He’s your brother Jonghyun, you can’t just give up on him,” responded Miyoung, “If we can do something, we should.”

Jonghyun teared up, shocking us as he whispered in a broken voice, “Don’t you understand what I’m saying? Don’t you understand that this is difficult for me to say? I want to help him, I really do, but we can’t do anything because we aren’t ready to do anything. We aren’t prepared to face my uncle – we aren’t ready to face whatever shadows reside in the void, the beasts awaiting us…I want to help him, I really do…but…my duty to protect you all is greater.”

“I understand,” I whispered, wrapping my arms around his shoulders, hugging him close, “Now, calm down Jonghyun-ah.”

He jolted slightly, finally realizing the sweltering heat in the room that he was producing from his anger and guilt, ect. As soon as he knew what he had done, he bowed his head in apology.

“Supposedly that is my fate as well, unless we can find a way to seal the void once and for all,” whispered Jonghyun, his voice muffled from where he had his head buried into my chest as I patted his back.

“You don’t know that…”

“But I do…”

“Jonghyun-ah,” stated Youngmin, “Calm down…you’ll be fine – we’ll make sure of it!”

“Yeah, we’ll find a way to end this once and for all,” stated Kwangmin, “We’ll make sure no one else will have to go through this…ever again.”

Jonghyun bit his lip, “I wish I could do this now…so he wouldn’t have to go through all this…”

I bit my lip, wishing the same exact thing, not wanting someone else to die in this war we now had the means of stopping. I felt Jonghyun’s tears soaking my shirt before I even noticed he had begun to cry – he was probably upset over the fact that he was unable to help his younger brother, upset over the fact he had to watch as he passed away despite having a good idea of how to help him – on how to heal him.

“Guys, could you give me some time alone with Jonghyun?” I questioned, as soon as the words left my lips they were leaving the room without question, reminding me that I was a prince. I hesitated slightly before speaking up again, “Jonghyun-ah.”

As I tried to pull away from him he wrapped his arms around my waist and kept me in place, not letting me see his face as he spoke up, his voice muffled, “Let’s stay like this for a little bit longer…”

“Could you roll over onto your side at least? That way we both can be comfortable?” I questioned, he hummed and rolled over, pulling me down as he did so.  We laid facing each other on the bed, his head still buried in my chest and his arms still wound around my waist tightly.  Looking over his head – which had finally moved from my chest to the crook of my neck, I saw that he had rolled over so that his back was facing his dying brother, “What happened out there to make you like this Jonghyun?”

Jonghyun shook his head, adjusting himself again so that his head was buried even farther into the crook of my neck. I could feel the moisture of my tears on his cheeks against the skin of my neck. It felt as though he had stopped crying, but I was not completely positive because he would not let me see his face.

“Seriously, what happened? Don’t make me order you to tell me,” I whispered.

He sighed and his warm breath caressed the skin of my neck, leaving goose bumps in its wake, after that he continued on to tell me all about what had happened during his and Minhyun’s confrontation with their uncle, he added all the information he had come to learn and it really shocked me.

“The guardians are your ancestors…” I whispered in shock, he nodded.

“Some of them are probably yours,” responded JR, “If the seed of the void was planted within them.”

“It’s odd isn’t it?” I questioned, “Your family swore to protect my family, but in a way, they’re the reason we need to be protected.”

“It is,” he replied, smiling slightly – or so it felt like he had, “However, that’s going to be different once we’re done.”

I smiled and nodded, “Definitely…the tear will never be opened again once we’re done.”

He hummed, sounding exhausted as he did so.

“Don’t worry anymore Jonghyun-ah, I’ll keep an eye on Minhyun,” I whispered, getting the feeling that he trusted me the most out of our little group. I ran my fingers through his jet black locks, messaging the crown of his head as I hugged him in response, knowing that he needed that comfort at the moment, “Go to sleep…you need it for what’s to come. Sleep will make you feel better, trust me. Also, you can’t go on like this anymore – you can’t go on physically and mentally exhausted anymore.”

He smiled and muttered something, however, I was unsure of what he had said, seeing as how it had been whispered against my shoulder, causing the words to be muffled. However, I was pretty sure it was something along the lines of thank you.

Seconds later, I found that Jonghyun had fallen asleep in my arms. 

Hopefully this wasn't too bad...However, I hope you all enjoyed it as much as that is possible. Sorry for not updating in forever...I've been consumed by school work. Anyhow, I hope you like the story so far.