Chapter Text
Its Christmas Eve and it has been snowing hard all day..ironically a young child's white Christmas will take the life of a young homeless teen. A 16 year old boy by the name of Jeon Jungkook is very close to taking his last breath. All the businesses in town are closed for the holidays so nobody is on the streets at this time except for him. He is all alone...with no hope of someone coming to his rescue.
It is the coldest winter this town has seen in 20 years. The young boy has no shelter and is only wearing a thin long sleeve shirt and a pair of sweatpants. He hasn't eaten more than a few bites in weeks, causing his ribs to be visible through his shirt. To make things worse he is quite dehydrated. Because of the frigid temperature, water has been very hard to come by. His lips are dry and cracked and his throat is so dry he can hardly swallow.
There are a few kind business owners who allow him to come in when it is not too busy to warm up. Occasionally they will give him something to eat or some water to drink. There is one elderly lady who once let him sleep in her coffee shop over night. The woman had unfortunately passed away a few months ago.
Jungkook knows it is dangerously cold and only getting more deadly for him by the minute, but he literally has nowhere to go...not even a single person on the streets that he can beg for help. He has been shivering for hours but as the sun sets and the temperature drops even more, he gradually stops. He knows that can't be good but he doesn't have the strength to get up and move to a less drafty area.
As the minutes pass his breaths quicken and his heart begins to race. He tries to slow his breathing but it seems to be out of his control. He continues to pant rapidly through slightly parted lips as his body struggles to continue to function. He can no longer feel his hands and feet at all...they are completely numb. He tries to curl up into a tighter ball, but his muscles will not cooperate and he falls over onto his side on the sidewalk. He clumsily tries to sit back up but is unable to do so. It is at this time, with his cheek pressed into the frigid snow, that he realizes he has reached the point of no return...he is going to freeze to death.
As more time passes his skin turns a ghastly white color and his lips turn a pale blue. He is quickly running out of time. A fog comes creeping over his mind, clouding his awareness and judgement. His breathing becomes very slow and shallow, but he is too far gone to get his body to follow his directions. His limbs twitch every so often as the lack of oxygen causes restlessness and spasm. He opens his mouth further to try and take in more air at a time. Eventually he is unable to move at all, his entire body going numb with cold. Each breath now takes tremendous effort and his lungs are congested as his kidneys fail and fluid builds up around them. Every inhale is very slow and shuddering and the exhale is a quick rush of air.
An uncomfortably warm sensation suddenly comes over his lower abdomen and thighs as his bladder releases its content. His pelvic muscles fully relax and his pupils dilate and fix onto the street lights across the way as his body shuts down. He knows death is moments away now...he doesn't even feel the cold anymore.
A man appears out of nowhere in his blurry vision as Jungkook's breaths become very difficult, the muscles used for breathing are also relaxing now. He is unable to talk, so he just lays there and gasps a few times a minute as the stranger kneels beside him with a genuine look of sadness on his face. He whispers softly into the dying boy's ear. "I have a...gift for you. I can give you more time but it comes with a cost...unfortunately I can't tell you what it is yet, nor can you refuse it anyway."
Jungkook strains to take a breath and whimpers as he exhales. His chest begins to ache as his final organs slowly shut down. The man gently positions the nearly frozen boy's head on his lap. "Unfortunately I am only a messenger and have orders not to interfere with your natural dying process.....but I can be here so you don't have to take your last breath alone."
Jungkook continues to pull air into his lungs but they are quickly losing the ability to function. He inhales painfully slow and exhales even slower. As the minutes pass by and death draws nearer and nearer, Jungkook's breathing becomes deeper yet slower. He strains noisily with every breath as he tries desperately to fight off death, but deep down he knows it is a losing battle. The pain in his chest grows as his lungs fail and asphyxiation worsens.
As Jungkook draws in his last breath, he knows it. He feels his chest muscles begin to rapidly relax as he inhales. His breath catches a couple times as he tries to force air in, but it is useless. All at once his lungs relax as well and he involuntarily releases a gentle exhale. He sighs softly as the air rushes past his completely relaxed vocal chords and out into the air. His heart beats progressively weaker and slows to a stop over the next couple minutes as the man speaks softly, murmuring words of comfort and encouragement. "Almost there Kookie. Once this is over we will talk more, I promise."
The man hums a soothing tune and brushes his fringe from his eyes. The ache in his chest spreads to his entire body and becomes so intense that he wants more than anything for it to just stop no matter what the cost. The man shushes the boy as he makes soft choking sounds and vomits bile into the snow. "I know it hurts...you have no idea how badly I want to make it stop.." Tears shimmer in the man's eyes as Jungkook convulses and chokes up more bile. He faintly hears the man begin to sing as his body again relaxes and death pulls him under.
Jungkook is not sure he understands what the man is offering him...maybe he is only hallucinating as the final stage of hypothermia comes over his body and mind...or maybe the man with the boxy smile and angelic voice really did just offer to take him into some kind of afterlife...
He runs out of time to ponder on the idea as his skin turns grey and his eyes become glazed over. The look of pain finally leaving his eyes as the moment of death arrives. The young boy's heart flutters for several seconds and then goes still in his chest. The man gently pushes Jungkook's eyes shut as the clock tower strikes 12 o'clock midnight, announcing the arrival of Christmas day....and the final moment of a young life at the same time.