Are You There - Chapter 49: Chapter 49

It is not hard for Hoseok to tap into the lost soul of the incubus. In fact, it only takes him a few short minutes of deep concentration; this is easy enough with his two compatriots sitting in complete silence. Changkyun and Minhyuk alike were enamored by Hoseok's absolute calm when he began, neither dared to move and break that away. Changkyun can feel when Hoseok makes contact with the lost Kihyun. Or whatever the soul will be called now in its tenth life. It is an odd sensation that sweeps over he and the fae alike; almost like a surge of pain and sorrow that sweeps through their bodies preparing to wipe them out to sea.
Energy surges in and out in heavy waves, dragging Changkyun forward in an automatic response. His body needs to be closer to Hoseok's; he cannot control the urge, and goes as far as to slide from his place on the sofa. He can feel that Hoseok will need energy, and may very well need to steal it from Changkyun to continue this reach outwards. He slinks closer still.
Minhyuk watches the exchange with a slight envy. He knows that he and Hoseok now have a connection of their own, but it will never be as tight a bond as Hoseok's and Changkyun's. While Minhyuk now holds a piece of the fae's soul within him, Changkyun is trapped in Hoseok's mind for all of eternity. They are bonded by the forces of a vampire's bite, and nothing will interrupt that save for death.
Hoseok, with his eyes closed and his senses slowly departing from his own home, is lost to whatever happens around him. He cannot feel the air shift as Changkyun settles beside him, nor can he sense the dark glower Minhyuk fixes their pairing for a moment. His body may sit still atop his hard floor, oils and mixtures lining his sides in aid, but his mind is too far gone now to register any of that now.
As if traipsing through Changkyun's mind to retrieve old and new memories, Hoseok feels the sensation of strolling through a collection of dreams. Pieces are fragmented and stop altogether at times, thrown to him at rapid-fire. He takes one deep breath in, focusing all his energy on clearing up the pictures, sifting through the nonsense, and touching on the incubus' soul officially. Finding him was the easy part, Hoseok supposes. Actually grasping onto that soul now will be the challenge.
"He's scared," comes Changkyun's voice suddenly. Hoseok's body flinches away instantly, though his mind still wanders through the corridors of a hospital.
Minhyuk meets his eyes to Changkyun's, the question silent and awaiting an answer. Changkyun pushes his thoughts at Minhyuk, hoping the telepath will read him so the vampire will not need to speak again. Neither of them can run the risk of breaking Hoseok's concentration.
Kihyun is scared, he tells Minhyuk. I can feel him crying. He wants someone.
Minhyuk nods, having heard enough to get the gist. Of course, he does not find this news particularly special. Kihyun's soul should have bounded straight  into a newborn infant, it is nothing bold to assume that an infant would be crying and wanting for someone. Surely his mother, Minhyuk reasons silently, nodding to himself once more.
Hoseok's mental steps falter suddenly, and Changkyun can feel it as it happens. Hoseok's wall, one he has built up in the last few minutes, crumbles. It had not been very strong in the first place, Changkyun's bond allowing him entry with or without it, but it is a significant rift. The scenes playing out hit him full force, and Changkyun has to push his hand out to steady Hoseok as the fae sways in place.
Take it, Changkyun pushes the words into Hoseok's mind, urging the fae to take the vampire's energy. Take his strength. Take anything he needs and use it.
As if watching a film on a big screen at the theater, Changkyun and Hoseok make contact with Kihyun's lost soul together.
[ x ]
White walls. It is the first thing Changkyun recognizes as he is tugged further into the dreamlike trance. He can feel his hand grasped tightly in Hoseok's, though neither of their bodies are seen beneath their gazes. They are lost in the stiff air of the hospital, as if Changkyun had faded with Hoseok in his wake.
'Where is he?' Changkyun asks, though he cannot hear his own voice. He knows that Hoseok has heard him, for the force that holds them in place suddenly tugs them forward; room after room pass on either side of them until a nursery opens up on their right. The stretch of glass that blocks them from the squealing newborns on the other side does not hide the haunted soul they have come searching for.
'Which one is he?'
Changkyun reads over the names of each infant, blue and pink labels on the nameplate at the feet of each child. Changkyun does not really need to ask, it is obvious the moment his eyes find Kihyun crying off to the left of the lined babies. His face, pinched and red in sorrow, has an aura about it that calls out to Hoseok and Changkyun immediately.
The boy's soul, once a strong and colorful youth, is now pulsing in a deep crimson of loss and anger. 'His name is the same,' Hoseok points out to Changkyun's relief. He was scared Hoseok would not be able to hear him, but they must be able to speak with one another here.
The pair find it odd that his name has remained, but both decide not to question it as they push through the glass divide. The wails of the infants becomes louder within the room, as it should, and Changkyun's nerves begin to get the better of him. He cannot control what happens in here, Hoseok is leading them; he wishes he could let the fae go forward alone.
The pair both know that the boy's soul can be grasped and even molded, it is somehow a fact they have come to accept in this sort of trance. Neither are quite prepared for the force that knocks them back when Hoseok's hand reaches out towards the sobbing newborn. Kihyun's soul, the absolute definition of a demon at its most vulnerable, fights off the touch of a fae's own soul. In the confines of Hoseok's living room, Hoseok's hand grasps onto Changkyun's harder, his spirit's hand in the dream reaching out once more for Kihyun.
He can feel Kihyun's soul mold around his fingers this time, like wet clay seeping around what should be his touch before his eyes. He has no solid form, but both he and Changkyun can see the bend and drop of the red aura around Hoseok's invisible digits. It is beautiful.
As if on command, Hoseok and Changkyun receive memories. Too many memories. Memories of lives older than their own, young, ancient, terrifying lives of a demon too long a slave to this cycle. They sift through all nine of Kihyun's last lives, finding death and loss in each. Pain and fear in all.
Darkness and isolation.
'I could give him a good life in this one,' Hoseok tells Changkyun. The fae is deep in thought, interrupting the vampire's own wandering mind every few moments. 'I could give him an outlook for this life. Something beautiful.' Though they have found Kihyun here, and know what has happened over the last few centuries, they find it harder to capture the memories since this newborn's birth. An infant's memory is nearly nonexistent, yet there are flashes of a woman's anger, a nurse to coddle close, and this room.
Changkyun and Hoseok are pushed back as the same nurse wanders into the nursery, aimed straight for Kihyun's little nook. A short, knobby man follows close behind her with a clipboard held to his chest and a frown low on his brow.
'Is this the child?' The man's voice is a steep tenor, a large contrast to his rather burly features.
'Yes. His mother refused to see him, and wants a closed adoption. She gave up her parental rights immediately after the birth early this morning.' The nurse, with a voice that perfectly matches her gentle features, frowns down at the child. The man nods to himself, shuffling through the papers stacked into the clipboard. He hums every few seconds, reading over documents and checking signatures.
Changkyun is not entirely sure of what is happening, but Hoseok is quick to analyze the situation and make a decision. He does not want to meet Kihyun some day in the future just to read his memories and find another life of fear. Anger - a red devilish kind that could bring him nothing but harm - is not what Hoseok envisions for the man he's just lost.
Hoseok once knew Kihyun as a dear friend, before everything between he and Jooheon had happened long ago. He had come close to Kihyun again later, after the incubus has found Hyunwoo and realized what real love felt like. What happiness meant. What life could be. That is what Hoseok wants for the incubus this time around. In this, the tenth life of a man who will never cease in suffering, Hoseok knows what he can do.
[ x ]
Hoseok and Changkyun fall into a near comatose state on a late Friday eve, waking to a terror-stricken Minhyuk early Saturday. All three men, connected by their minds and abilities, know what will happen next. And they know how it will be done.
"Blood," is the first thing pushed past Hoseok's lips when he rouses with the sun.
Changkyun beside him groans, their backs stiff from a night spent against the den's hardwood floor. Minhyuk had not been strong enough to move them, and all he could do was shove pillows beneath their heads and tuck them each beneath a few blankets. It had not done much.
"You need blood?" Minhyuk asks the fae with a furrowed brow, trying his hardest to avoid the thoughts passing between Changkyun and Hoseok at near rapid-fire. Thoughts of Kihyun, of the infant he has become, of the life he has been pressed into. It is easier to ignore all that when Hoseok is making little sense.
The fae shakes his head up at Minhyuk, gesturing towards the groaning vampire beside him. The typically dark man is significantly paler, though he has fed in the last twelve hours. Neither he nor Hoseok had expected for the fae to drain him of so much energy, but it had taken a lot to maintain their contact with Kihyun for as long as they had.
"He needs blood before the sun comes up. Even in the house, it'll be agony for him."
Changkyun almost chokes on the sincere worry in Hoseok's voice, the first time he has heard his old friend speak of him in such a way since he had been turned. He knows that the fae cares for him, he has seen all the thoughts that have ever crossed Hoseok's mind, but it still warms him through to hear it firsthand. He feels alive again.
Though if he holds out like this much longer, he could once again find death upon him.
"Well what am I supposed to do about that?" Minhyuk's voice comes out stunted and frantic, his words choppy after a horrible sleep on Hoseok's sofa. He had woken every so often to check on the men, ensuring that they had not slipped into the grasp of death in their sleep. "I can't offer up a vein, I haven't eaten since yesterday afternoon-"
Hoseok sighs, rolling himself onto his side to face Changkyun. The vampire has begun to shiver beneath his mound of blankets, a clear sign that something is wrong. Tugging his own arm from beneath his covers, Hoseok extends his wrist towards the vampire's parted lips. Warm, bated breaths hit the fae's skin, goosebumps rising on the back of his arm the longer he holds it out for Changkyun.
"Stop it," Changkyun grumbles, attempting to turn away from Hoseok beneath all his blankets. He feels as if he has caught a fever he cannot sweat out, a heavy weight pinning his body to the floor and his eyes to the arm above him.
He can hear Hoseok's heartbeat, loud and calm. It does not waver; the fae has no fear that Changkyun will cause him harm. He trusts the vampire now, though he is not sure why it has taken him this long to do so. Why now, after only one traipse through the planes of existence? Nothing that happened last night proved that they were any more important to each other than they had been before; yet Hoseok feels now that their connection is solidified.
Through thick and thin, mud and water, Hoseok feels that Changkyun is one of the few to be trusted with his life. "Go ahead," he whispers across the distance, Changkyun's head shaking on instinct. Hoseok's arm is growing tired, his wrist accidentally knocking against Changkyun's lips with a rather brute force. "Just drink."
Minhyuk's brow has lowered significantly, his fear of the situation growing with each passing moment. "I'm sure I could find a stray cat outside or something-"
"Drink." Hoseok is no longer offering anything. He is demanding that Changkyun draw from him. Commanding attention, imploring now. The vampire will take his blood, no matter how strongly the younger refuses. Their bond ties them together in many ways, their mental connection the strongest of all.
Pressing with all his will, Hoseok shares his thoughts as hard as he can into Changkyun's own head. Drink, right now. I trust you. You won't hurt me.
Changkyun's head turns, Hoseok's wrist pressing into his cheek as he meet's the fae's dark eyes. They lie only two feet apart, Hoseok's natural warmth emanating out like wings against the cold wooden floor. It is refreshing to feel that warmth against his skin, life and vitality that Changkyun does not feel often. Though Hoseok may trust him with his life, Changkyun does not trust himself to keep from harming the fae.
In fact, his pulse is erratic throughout his pale body, his heart still despite the frantic pump of his blood. His life force, though weak, moves quick through his body in desperate need for repair. He gave too much of himself to Hoseok.
"Take my blood, Changkyun. We will not get through today if you don't."
The weight of his words is heavier than anticipated, and the memories of last night's escapades come crashing down on the vampire all at once. He knows what must be done today. Before tomorrow winds around and he has to reveal just what he can do to the Counsel.
He will not be able to live tomorrow if he does not live today.
Breaking past his barrier, shoveling his fear deep down, he turns his head forward again and parts his lips against the smooth surface of Hoseok's wrist. His teeth, the same as they had been while he was human, pierce the skin there, and that familiar sweet sensation of blood and sugar hits his palette.
Though he would never admit it aloud, Changkyun finds that there is nothing sweeter than the blood of a fae.