My eyes widened and all at once everything around me disappeared. Choppy visions shot across my vision, ones that were far too bright for my eyes to handle yet did not bother me in the slightest. The computer pad of a gas station beeped several times in my ears and a car sped off suddenly; graffiti covered the wall in front of me; two strong arms pinned me down against a car with police sirens going off loudly; I turned and saw a blurry face but he was smirking; a figure fell into a body of water, creating a big splash as the figure sank far below the surface, seemingly unconscious, but then he started moving, squirming, then failing around painfully. Hyung… The figure slowly turned toward me. Hyung, you have to wake up! Soon I could see the figure’s face clearly. It was Taehyung, staring at me with a weak but adamant look in his eyes. Wake up! Before it’s too late! Gradually his voice grew louder in my ears. Hyung! He’s going to make you disappear! Wake up!!

I blinked and gasped loudly, realizing I was now laying on my back and Namjoon was right over me, face inches away from mine. There was a dark glow in his eyes and I even though I could see a pair of dark, shadowy wings above his back. Now only worrying about my well-being, my knee jumped up and crashed right into his lower abdomen. His gaze widened and he let out a loud cry of pain. I quickly pushed him off and backed away, cursing silently when my back hit the other side of the small, cramped room. My widened gaze remained on him as I tried to calm down. The dark shadowy wings I thought I saw above his shoulders had gradually faded away as he kneeled on his arms and knees. I didn’t move a muscle until he slowly straightened up and stared down at the floor with nothing but shame in his eyes.

“…are you okay now?” I asked very quietly.

He didn’t respond right away nor look at me. He just stared down at his open hands and started shaking a little.

“God damn it I’m such a failure.” He mumbled, his eyes filled with bitter hatred.

“H-hey come on, what are you saying..?” I asked quietly, although I didn’t exactly like the idea of almost “disappearing” like Taehyung said because of Namjoon…whatever he was doing to me.

“I let it happen again…and almost lost you again…” He turned his head away.

“Let what happen?”

“It knows I’m here…and wants to take over me…”

“Who?”

“Abraxas.”

My eyes widened. “W-what? Abraxas is here too?”

“Sure. Abraxas can be anywhere. Wherever it wants to be.”

Pausing for just a moment, I straightened up and stood up. “You don’t have to stay here anymore.”

“Yes, I do.”

“No, you don’t!” I raised my voice a little. “I’m asking you to leave this place with me! Why wouldn’t you want to do that?!”

“I deserve this.”

“H-how!?” I looked at him incredulously. “You didn’t do anything!”

“I did.” He started trailing his fingers across the floor. “I messed up.”

I let out a soft sigh, realizing I wasn’t going to get anywhere with him unless I talked to him first. “What happened then?”

Namjoon was quiet for a very long time before his gaze slowly moved straight ahead. “...It’s incredible the things someone hides in order to deceive their friends. You go through every moment no realizing they’re actually dying. Why do we even do that…?”

“I don’t know. Just…human instinct I guess.” I replied.

“But then there’s that one friend that you never think would ever be anything but happy and cheerful, only to find out their awful secret but of course not until it’s too late…” His voice started to falter a little. “Then they disappear…and then you think…why bother living anymore, you know…? That friend was literally your life. Your best friend. And now they’re gone. And you can never see them again.” His head lowered as his voice died out.

I swallowed and walked closer to him, gently placing my hands on either side of his sullen shoulders. “That’s not true. You can see him again.”

“No.” He shook his head weakly, not looking at me.

“You can. And you can say whatever you need to say.”

Suddenly, the sound of a telephone ringing rang in my ears, and Namjoon could apparently hear it too as his head slowly rose up again, looking at something behind me. He slowly stood up and I took the opportunity to turn around. There was a sudden hallway there that I didn’t see before as Namjoon slowly made his way into it. I followed behind him closely as the telephone continued to ring and echo throughout the hallway. Then Namjoon broke out into a run, causing me to do the same thing. Soon we made it out of the hallway and into a dark area with the only light shining down on a glass-encased phone booth. Several large chains were wrapped around the glass with a single lock keeping it all together in the front. The phone continued to ring from inside as Namjoon approached the lock, staring into the glass at the telephone desperately. He pulled at the lock and banged on the glass, becoming more and more upset as the phone rang and he couldn’t pick it up. Then the ringing stopped and there was no other sound in the area. Namjoon stared at the phone in silence until his head lowered and he turned around to rest his back against the glass.

“I’m too late…” He whispered as he closed his eyes tightly and pressed his open palms against his face.

I walked up to him once more. “No, you’re not.” I said gently, reaching out to carefully pull his hands away from his eyes so I could look into them. “If you come with me now, you can talk to him. I promise.”

Namjoon stared at me for a very long time before his eyes became wet again and his fingers slowly coiled around mine. “That’s all I want right now.”

I nodded. “Then come with me.”

Namjoon slowly glanced behind him, staring at the silent phone again.

“And please don’t beat yourself up.” I added. “It’s not like you to do that.”

Namjoon looked back at me. There seemed to be a subtle change in his gaze that caused his entire expression to lighten up just a little bit. Then my vision gave out. I was surrounded by darkness once more and my body was floating in zero gravity…