After the initial shock wore off and your legs regained their feeling, you cradled your hand to your chest, protecting it as you swiftly moved through the afternoon crowds to the closest subway station. There, you grew more apprehensive once the underground train hurtled its way across the grid to where you needed to be the most. After departing the subway, you walked as fast as your legs would carry you to the little shop at the very end of an alleyway, opening the door and listening to the bell above it chime in your arrival.

The store owner lifted his glasses further up the bridge of his nose in curiosity, only to sigh when he saw you there. Yoongi then narrowed his gaze at your evidently anxious state and stood up. “Are you alright, Y/N?”

“It finally happened, Yoongi!”

“What did?”

“The ring!” you cried, ing your hand out at the man as you approached the counter, looking at him for a cure. You were beyond reason now and your best friend merely contemplated the situation before him and then scrunched up his face in disbelief.

“Are you… high?”

“Oh my god, really?!” you breathed with frustration and Yoongi grimaced.

“Well, put yourself in my shoes right now. You sound really crazy.”

“Maybe I will go crazy. She always said it would test everything about me.”

Yoongi slumped back down on the stool behind the counter, though he didn’t shift his concerned gaze from your face. “Your grandmother? Didn’t she give you that ring when you were ten?”

So he did remember. Nodding with relief, you placed your hand down on top of the glass countertop, the overhead lights now illuminating your hand brightly. The tarnished silver reflected the light, the gaping hole in the center of the ring only further emphasised. Your best friend leaned in and inspected the wounded piece of jewellery.

“Maybe the stone fell out because this ring is ancient,” he offered but you shook your head adamantly. The ring was old, but it was strong. You had once tried to remove the stone yourself. It was wedged in there for good.

Or so you had thought.

“Do you remember what my grandmother used to say?”

“A whole lot of gibberish?” Yoongi stated with a wry smile and then shrugged. “I dunno, Y/N. I used to go to her house with you so I could get some sleep. Her couch was the comfiest…”

“Because she had put a spell on it for those who had tired bones could rest well,” you murmured and Yoongi snapped his dark gaze up to your face with surprise. You were equally astonished. “Please don’t tell me you never once noticed she was a witch, Yoongi.”

“I just thought she was kooky like some old women can be,” he sheepishly responded, scratching at the back of his head. “Really? She was a witch?”

“I wish she had taught me more than I know now. It was all good to warn me, but what am I meant to do without her powers?”

“What did she used to say?” Yoongi asked, pulling out a pen and paper from beside the cashier.

“That the stone in this ring wasn’t from here, and one day it would return to its world. She told me when that happened I’d have to be ready for a test that will challenge me in every way possible.”

“I feel like I just stepped into Lord of The Rings,” Yoongi muttered and you cocked your head to the side to give him an unimpressed look. “Look, hobbits aside, the information she gave you isn’t very specific. Where was the stone from?”

“She couldn’t tell me, just not from a human race.”

Yoongi visibly swallowed before continuing. “Okay, what about why? Why with its return to the world it came from does this affect you?”

“Because I wear the ring?” you guessed and Yoongi groaned, pointing at you incredulously.

“Yes! Why did you wear something so god damn dangerous for?! You could have said, no thank you grandmother, I want to live a normal life, instead of taking on the ring of Mordor and I don’t know, tainting us all with this quest of yours that you’re now on!”

Rolling your eyes at Yoongi, you shook your head. “Just because you run a comic bookstore doesn’t mean we live in a world where…”

You trailed off with the pointed look Yoongi gave you as he folded his arms over his chest. You let out a huff in defeat.

“So you wore this ring since you were ten,” Yoongi refocused. “And now today the stone disappears. Do you feel different?”

“Well, apart from the stress from losing it, no. But today isn’t just any day, Yoongi.”

You implored him to think and his mouth fell ajar, nodding softly. “It’s been a year since your mother…”

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence the stone left this world exactly a year after my mother did,” you managed to say, blinking rapidly and looking up at Yoongi through an increasing veil of tears. “If anything, I would connect the two.”

“I hate that your words sound logical to me right now,” he admitted with a heavy sigh. “So we have no knowledge of what to do next, why this is happening, or anything really. How is this being prepared?”

You wondered the same thing.

 

---

 

Namjoon hadn’t stopped staring at the bloodstone since he first saw it. He had simply sat back down at his desk and cast his gaze upon it for an immeasurable while.

Whilst his body was completely still, his mind was anything but. Warnings of his father from the past flooded his mind, holding him back from the temptation of reaching out to inspect the stone closely. He had looked at it from almost every angle now, fascinated by the perfectly structured gem. He had never seen such beauty before and he had played a part in sending some of the rarest of stones to earth over the years. The red was not dark like a garnet and yet not nearly as bright as a ruby either. It was rich and full, enticing him to continue his examination. He wondered if the stone would be as warm to touch as it was to look upon. Blinking away his hazy thoughts, Namjoon clamped his hands to the base of his seat, pushing back the desire mounting within him.

He wouldn’t touch this stone.

But after another length of time and an equally strong longing to just pick it up once and then put it back down, Namjoon knew he had to put space between him and the bloodstone.

“You’re luring me in, aren’t you?” he murmured at the wicked thing, getting up and walking over to the farthest spot in his studio. However, he couldn’t train his gaze to stay away from the stone, chewing on his bottom lip in deliberation.

Was it really that bad? He had been told not to do many things in his life and found out later it was out of fear something bad could have happened. He had survived through them all. And where had the stone even come from? Could it have fallen from the Heavens? Travelled from Earth? Either place, Namjoon yearned to travel to. Especially after the loss of his father all those years ago.

He wished the man was here now to guide him away from the very stone he had warned him countless times to never get involved with.

“I won’t do it,” he concluded, nodding weakly at his decision. Turning to switch off the lights in the room so he could head into the main house he shared with his sister, Namjoon gave a final look at the red glow around the room and shut the door.

Only to re-enter mere moments later with haste. “I need to hide you in case Marian finds you.”

The fear of his sister touching what had been forbidden by his father made Namjoon dash around the studio, looking for a box and something to gently guide the stone into it. And, because he was so focused on doing just this, he wasn’t as aware of his actual surroundings, tripping over the leg of his stool as he hurried over to the desk.

It all happened too fast to prevent calamity. The tools he held dropped from his hands as he fell onto the desk, his chest being the first part of him to connect with the gem. An image of a human woman appeared in his mind right as he felt the stone absorb him entirely.

The studio was now empty of both the bloodstone and its keeper.