Yoongi had never been one to be afraid of the dark before. Whenever there was a chance that there was something in the dark that terrified him, he contented himself with the fact that the darkness was only temporary; that the sun would come around eventually to break it all apart. This darkness that he now found himself in was different though. This darkness was suffocating.

With his hands tied down by his sides, Yoongi couldn't do much besides twist side-to-side a bit. It ultimately didn't do much in fixing the situation that he was in. The darkness was consuming him along with the terror that continued to build in his chest.

As he tried to reason with himself to stay calm, Yoongi felt pinpricks of doubt and fear start to worm their way into his mind. In ways, it was reminiscent of thoughts he had had when he felt like he was an inadequate hunter. His continual disbelief in his family's livelihood had caused his family to constantly tell him that his doubts came from his inability to be a successful hunter.

'You don't believe because you're never going to achieve,' said his family to him in such a way that it was as if they aspired to become a children's book author that crushed someone's dreams instead of uplifting them.

"You're going to be fine..." Yoongi said out loud to the stale darkness, trying to take slow and measured breaths even though it didn't really matter since he was a vampire. Being buried alive wouldn't kill him. It would just make his existence miserable if no one ended up finding him. He had to believe that someone would find him eventually though.

Unlike all of the previous times in his life that he had felt alone and trapped, this time he wasn't alone. Surely Jungkook was looking for him now. They had had their differences, but they had surely made amends. The only thing that would stop Jungkook from finding him would be if those vampires got to him first.

Yoongi knew that he couldn't risk entertaining such thoughts though. He had to hold tight to his sanity. It was the only thing that he had left to lose while he waited in this suffocating darkness.

- - -

Surely Yoongi hadn't gotten far. That was what Jungkook kept telling himself as he walked further and further into the forest as the sun rose higher in the cloudless sky; the vampire village growing smaller and smaller behind him. Jungkook knew that he would be able to track Yoongi down easier if he assumed his other form, but he didn't want to unless he had to for fear that he wouldn't be able to turn back being on his own.

"Come on. You have some tracking skills without relying on your counterpart," Jungkook tried to tell himself, even though he realized he spent more of his life as a beast than anything else.

Jungkook let his eyes scan the tree branches directly in front of him before looking further into the forest at the branches that seemed to obscure everything from view; fully embracing the shadows with their skeletal limbs. As his eyes tracked downwards, Jungkook noticed some tracks that seemed to be imprinted in the dirt. He was skeptical about their appearance though, especially because they were so easy to follow. It was almost as if someone had carefully laid them out so that he would be tempted to follow them. No doubt it could be a trap. Jungkook couldn't forget those three vampires that seemed to have a vendetta against the two of them. He was beginning to suspect that Yoongi was missing because of them.

Casting his eyes upwards, Jungkook looked at the mixture of thin and thick trunked trees that surrounded him. The branches were so leafless that it would be relatively easy to tell if the vampire trio was waiting for him up among the boughs. As his gaze came back down to look at the tracks, he noticed that they were completely out in the open. If it was a trap, he should have enough of an advance warning to counter whatever they had planned for him. For a flickering second as he stood there and debated what to do about the tell-tale tracks, Jungkook knew that he had no choice but to follow them. This had been the one and only sign of Yoongi's possible whereabouts.

"I have to do this, even if it's a trap," said Jungkook out loud to himself. "I need to find Yoongi."

Taking a deep breath to quell the fears and uncertainty that wanted to bubble out of him, Jungkook moved to follow the tracks. It seemed that the footsteps became more and more visible the deeper he got into the forest. The more Jungkook followed these obvious footprints, the closer he got to a strong and delicious smell that scented the air. It was a smell that was familiar and yet not; stirring the feral beast inside him into an excited state. The smell got so strong at one point that Jungkook had to pause near a tree; clawing his fingers into the bark as he screwed his eyes shut. The beast in him wanted to come out and devour whatever was causing the scent. It grew with power within his core so much so that it was seeming to become stronger than his will power.

"Keep it together," Jungkook said through gritted teeth; a small tremble of a growl proceeding his words.

It was as if whatever was making that smell was making him delirious. Savagely so. It was overriding his logic; his humanity.

Trying to shove the feeling down deep inside him, Jungkook pressed on into the forest. Within another minute or so, the tracks led him straight towards what was causing that smell. Dangling from a noose in a tree directly in front of him was a rabbit carcass. Blood was splattered all over the carcass in such a way that it dripped onto the ground beneath it; soaking the dirt until it turned a brownish black color. The smell caused a growl to pass his lips that he hadn't given permission to leave. His logic was becoming completely clouded by this point; as if lost in the thickest fog imaginable.

Jungkook sank to his knees on the ground in front of the rabbit, screwing his eyes shut. As he pressed his hands into the ground to try to keep the change at bay, he ended up coating his fingertips in the blood that soaked the ground. Opening his eyes, he brought his trembling fingers up to look at his stained fingertips. He was disgusted by the urge he had building inside him to lean forward and taste it. However, he found himself in a state where he was unable to fight the urge. He figured that one taste - one lick - couldn't hurt anything.

If only he realized how wrong he was.