The Blood Red Rose {Shin-ah x Reader}

Chapter 8- Free

Yona couldn't help but feel triumphant as (Y/N) motionlessly laid on the ground, appearing so helpless in her dormant state. Her hair was scattered haphazardly around her, creating a halo. Her limbs were slack and seemed almost too heavy to move.

The longer she looked at the girl, the more corpse-like she seemed. Color was draining from her cheeks, paling her complexion and making her face nearly as gaunt as a skeleton's. Her lips were dry and lacked luster as they too took on a bluish tint. Her entire lower half was stained red, a glorious shade of crimson which Yona had grown to love over the years. The gruesome slash was enough to make a couple of people wretch with disgust, and cover their noses as a sickeningly sweet metallic odor wafted through the confined space. It left Yona satisfied seeing her so powerless, and she couldn't tear her gaze away from the beautiful sight. 

"What happened?" Yun gasped, racing over to the girl's side without a moment of hesitation and dropping his satchel beside her. He set to work on helping immediately, pressing his index and middle finger on her throat to check her pulse. Everyone else hung back, not wanting to get involved with the situation if it meant approaching the distraught Blue Dragon waiting just inches away. 

"I'll tell you what happened!" The unmasked villager cried out, nearly on the verge of hysteria. "That monster lured the girl into his cave, and sliced her up when she arrived. It's too bad she didn't heed our warnings, because she's sure to die from infection! Now he's come out to cause a distraction, and murder the rest of us while we're busy tending to the foolish woman. Well I won't fall for it!" 

Seriyuu clenched his hands into fists, too anxious to respond to Ao's friendly attempts to nuzzle into his cheeks to comfort him. "Sh-she'll die?"

Yun scoffed as he yanked a roll of gauze out of his bag, along with some sanitizer, anti-bacterial creams, and herbs that Yona faintly recognized as pain relievers. "How far detached from the real world are you nutcases? This small scrape can be treated in no time, and with the right medication there won't be any infection. Now calm down before you put any more scary ideas into the Blue Dragon's mind. He clearly can't handle it." 

"He's going to turn us all to stone!" The one with the wolf mask shouted, shaking uncontrollably as he turned his back to alleged threat. "With his face bare like that... his eyes are an unsheathed sword. They're going to cut into us like that poor girl there! Help, someone please get us out of here!" He too began pounding on the walls desperately. 

Yona frowned at the panicking villagers, simply not understanding the source behind their unreasonable fears. She supposed she knew nothing about the curse they were so obsessed with, but his eyes were so breathtaking. They glittered almost sadly like abandoned golden ores in a lonely mine shaft- sparkling jewels trapped in an endless abyss of darkness. 

"I didn't mean to hurt her," came his withering reply. "She... she fell earlier. And she said that her leg was fine." He reached over to reclaim the mask resting on (Y/N's) face. His eyelashes fluttered shut, a silent promise, Yona believed, that he meant no hostility towards them. Without another word, he slipped the old wooden structure over his face, hiding himself from view. Yona yearned to set him free from this toxic environment where he could not stand to show himself in front of others. She was determined if she made it out alive, she would show him a world in which he could finally be happy. 

"There are more important things to worry about now. We'll all soon be dead if we don't figure out a way to get out of here," Yona chimed in. She wrinkled her nose as Yun gingerly rinsed the blood away from the injury. How selfish of (Y/N), to attract so much attention in such a sensitive time. They had just met, yet she was somehow already constantly getting in Yona's way and being an absolute pain. How infuriating! Perhaps it would be easier to escape if Yun just left her to die where she was laying.