deep desires, part one
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⠀⠀⠀⤖ 「 Day 23 」 : witch
pairing — ghost!taehyung & ghost!jimin x witch!reader summary — Taehyung is in need of supernatural help after he lost contact with his soulmate Jimin. He stumbles across a witch that doesn't seem to be that interested in helping him. genre — supernatural, fluff (if you squint), (poor atempt at) humor rate — sfw word count — 2.4k warnings — talking to a ghost (?), oc unhappy with life, mention of death with euphemism, encouter with spirits, cursing. author's note — thanks again to my friend Carol for the idea of ghost!taehyung. love you, hun <3 — part two —
“Listen,” I started, already annoyed by his superiority complex. It’s so Taehyung to think he can just barge into my room and start random conversations with me “Just because you’re a ghost, doesn’t mean I don’t deserve privacy, okay?”
He rolled his eyes. It’s been a minute since he last visited me. Taehyung has been going back and forth between reality and the spirit realm for a while now. First, waiting for his soulmate Jimin to join him in eternity and now looking for him, since he got lost on the trip.
Since the day we met, he has made almost 30 trips. I’m pretty sure he annoyed many guides along the way, so of course he had to come looking for me, the only witch he knew.
“I know that, silly” he said, sitting down on the floor in front of my bed “But I’m worried about Jimin” he whined “And you promised we could go find the Portal. Aren’t you curious at all?”
“Why can’t you just go by yourself?” I retorted, laying in my bed again to continue to read my book. “You can literally walk in anywhere.”
“I just want some company, is that so bad?”
I fucking hate seeing ghosts. They always have to come to me with their problems. Hadn’t he realized that Jimin could’ve just followed his scent after getting released into eternity? Did he really need to guide him every step of the way? The process was instinctual, after all. Or so I’ve been told.
I hesitated, pretending to read my book. Why did I have to be the only witch in generations to have this ability? Why was there no one to help me with these things? There was very little literature on it too.
I wasn’t ready to admit out loud how much I hated this part of my heritage. I didn’t want people to catch me talking to a literal ghost. They would hospitalize me, that’s for one. I also didn’t want the constant reminder that I was alone in this. Yeah, my family is supportive as much as they can, all the women in my family are witches after all, but it’s still not the same.
“Can’t you just butt off and find another ghost to play with?” I asked rudely.
“You know I can’t and don’t tell me how to live my life” he said, with a strange mix of hurt and sarcasm in his voice.
“You have no life” I pointed out “First, you’re a ghost, that means you’re dead. Second, you’re still here, annoying me. Just further proof.”
“I wish I’d bumped into someone less mean to talk to”.
Tell me about it. It was oh, so nice to meet him at a witches library of all places.
It was a rainy day, but I decided to leave the house anyway. I was in dire need of some fun outside my backyard. Spring would come in a few months, and I was excited for all the herbs and flowers I could collect this season.
I entered the library and started to look for some new books to read, preparing to strengthen my potion making abilities. There was a witches meeting at the back corner, and they greeted me warmly. I recognized one of my mom’s mentors there, and I promised to pass the greetings to her and my grandma.
I exhaled in relief as I reached the shelf I would be spending my afternoon looking through.
“Can anyone here see me?” a man screamed, and my head looked in his direction immediately.
He was wearing an all black outfit. A turtleneck, what looked like linen pants and a coat that reached his knees. His black hair and clothes weren’t wet from the rain, but he didn’t carry an umbrella. His expression was scared and relieved as we locked eyes. His irises were charcoal black. They were deep and felt hollow as you looked at him.
I cringed and hissed with terror, and in a second he was by my side. His eyes stared down at me and he tried to touch my shoulder, but his hand never touched me. I could feel the eyes of the other witches on my back.
“Can you see me?” he frowned. I nodded and he exhaled in relief. In a rush, he tried to hug me, but all I could feel was a whoosh of air. Oh, fabulous. I groaned and tsked my tongue. I was not looking forward to meeting ghosts today.
“Y/N, what’s happening? Are you okay?” Ms. Deja asked. She was walking towards me, the other members flanking her heels.
“Yeah, I think so,” I responded, unsure.
“Oh, it’s fine. I’m just a friendly ghost. My name is Taehyung,” The man smiled widely at our company, but they didn’t pay any attention, they were still worried about me.
“I’m fine, really” I reassured her “Is there anything that you need help with?” I said, looking at the strange man. He really did come to the best place for this.
“Who are you talking to?” Ms. Deja asked again “I didn’t feel any presence enter”
Nooooooooo. I groaned internally as every witch in the vicinity agreed.
“Are you going to help me, or are you going to be a pain in the ass?” Taehyung asked
“The exit door is always open.” I teased, pulling back from my memories. He snorted. I went back to brooding. What the hell would I do now? If I went to my mom and grandma to try to shoo him away, he would get his heart broken. Or something similar.
“I’ll bargain with you” He said suddenly, his presence right next to me. “Whatever you want, if it’s in my power, it’s yours…” he offered, waiting for a response that he wouldn’t receive. “And in return you go with me find the Portal”
“Look, I know this is something really important to you, and even though I am curious, I’m not messing with that Portal. I don’t want to be on Hades' hit list, okay?”
“Hades doesn’t have a hit list, and he’s a pretty chill dude. He’s just misunderstood.” he countered with his soft voice. I rolled my eyes.
“Why can’t you go get help from your bestie Hades, then? If he’s so friendly-”
“Because I’m stuck on this realm of frequency” he groaned impatiently “I thought we’d gone through this already” He finished, and I finally looked up to meet his eyes. I’m still unsure how dead and hollow eyes can hold so much emotion. There was pain, concern, worry. Curiosity was there but faint, he was really preoccupied with this Jimin guy.
Was his worry for his soulmate the reason why he wasn’t paying that much attention to the keys of frequencies, and inevitably got stuck? But why didn’t he use this puss in boots technique with his other guides this far? “Don’t you want anything?” he asked suddenly, remembering me of his earlier offer.
What did I want? I wanted freedom. I wanted to sit in my room without seeing things. I wanted... to be normal. I didn’t want to have this job. I don’t want to be the chosen one, or whatever. I can barely take care of myself, let alone mediate the needs of all supernatural creatures.
Because, of course, with Mr. Taehyung going around making friends left and right, word spread of a new witch with the mediator gene. With that, came a bunch of random requests that I had to learn — alone — how to make it work. Fuck my life.
“I don’t think you can give me what I want” I whispered, sighing in defeat.
“Maybe the Portal can. It grants all wishes…” he used his persuasive voice now. It was so tempting to meet a being that could, at the very least, understand where my anguish was coming from. I was giving in and by his expression, he knew it.
“Fine…” I sighed and Taehyung squealed. “Let me go grab my things.”
“This place is giving me some weird nostalgia,” Taehyung said, looking around our library with grateful eyes. The last time he was here, it was the day we met.
“Say your goodbyes, then. If you’re lucky, this is probably the last time you’ll be here.” I said, closing the door behind me. I felt strangely safe with the door closed. Even though I wasn’t the only one here, I felt warm and welcomed. The same way I felt alone at home.
“Hello, Y/N” Ms. Deja greeted me at the reception, with a sweet smile as always. “How are you?”
“Same as always, just helping some ghosts” I responded, with a clipped tone. It was becoming harder to hide my acid tone.
“Who is it this time?” It was sweet of her to help me as best as she could. There wasn’t much she could do. Her help finding the books I needed, and helping me write the stories of my tasks for future generations was more help than I could dream of.
“Another task for Taehyung,” I answered, incredulity clear in my voice. Her face was understanding then.
“You know you’ll miss me,” Taehyung said to my left. I just ignored him.
“How can I help you both?” said Ms. Deja, chuckling.
“We need to find the Wishes Portal…” I trailed off, inclining closer to her. It didn’t matter, everyone heard me and the room went silent.
“Big task you got, eh?” she asked, with apprehensive eyes. I just nodded, suppressing a shudder. I can’t even believe I actually said those words. What the hell did I just agree to?
The Portal wasn’t an appropriate place for mediators of any level, witches, wizards or even ghosts trying to find their soulmates. It wasn’t prohibited, and it’s indestructible... but it was a sacred place to the bigger forces of the Universe that reigned over all realms. It was a door, the direct link to God, if that’s what’s on the other side. The being that makes all the decisions. This task was close to blasphemy.
“You can go to aisle 5 to acquire this knowledge. I’ll guide you” she said after a minute.
“This place is so tense,” Taehyung whispered to me. As if all these people staring in our direction could even hear or see him.
“I wonder why,” I responded, using sarcasm to suppress this strange tinge of agony. As if it wasn’t enough that I was the only one who could see ghosts. Now I was the only one with the audacity to bother the higher spirits.
We stopped at the edge of aisle 5, Ms. Deja was pulling a thick book off the shelf. I’d never seen it before in my library explorations.
It wasn’t like anything I’d expected. It wasn’t an old, used and abused book. Has nobody searched for this book before? The cover was sharp and defined, very different from the other ancient books. Maybe it wasn’t ancient. The cover also wasn’t brown like all the other books here. It was mint green and it glowed, a thin golden film all around it. It had an aura.
I then realized that the book was alive. The shimmer of its aura was independent from ambient light and wind. It did not breathe, blink or speak, but this library was its home, maybe it’s place of birth. It was certainly where it hid itself from outside danger.
Ms. Deja opened the book for us. The pages were pristine white, nothing was written on it. It didn’t have any kind of bookmark. All the pages were perfectly aligned. I stared at the blank page, unsure if I should be feeling dizzy. It felt like staring at the sun, my whole body was close to shaking, my instincts telling me to close my eyes, but I couldn’t find my eyelids anywhere in my body to make them obey.
“Get out of the trance” Taehyung said to my ear, his hands whooshing past my shoulders, trying to shake me off, even though he couldn’t. I blinked suddenly, the room spinning around my head.
I looked at Ms. Deja, but she wasn’t there anymore. In her place, was a slender and tall being, dressed in a deep green cloak. I blinked again and stepped back in fear.
“She’s fine” the being told me, with a soprano musical tone as a voice “I’m just here to assist your first riddle.”
The being held the book against its body, but now the pages weren’t blank anymore. I could see ink slowly appearing at the center of the page. At the same time, the green cloak started to get embellished with winter red camellias, its stems made of silver. It enveloped the being completely like a silver fabric with red camellias as ornaments.
Suddenly there was no being anymore, just a robust tree, its trunk was entirely made of camellias and silver stems. But the book was still held up. A drawing of stems and flowers, identical to the tree, adorned the entire page on an oval shape, and inked on the center were the words:
𝒯𝒽ℯ 𝒷ℴℴ𝓀 𝒶𝓈𝓀𝓈 𝓎ℴ𝓊: 𝓌𝒽ℴ 𝒶𝓂 ℐ?
Was the book having an existential crisis or something? What type of riddle is this?
“I have to say, this is very magic forest themed” Taehyung said, brushing his index finger on his chin “It sends a message…”
“Can you please pay attention to…” I started to say, annoyed with his distraction. But my irritation faded as I replayed his words in my head.
Theme. Message. It was so obvious.
“Oh, wow” I whispered, getting Taehyung’s attention at once. “You’re the Wishes Portal” I answered, my eyes glued to the book.
Instantly, the library shelves weren’t around us anymore. We were still in front of the silver and flowered tree, but the scenery changed. I looked around, mesmerized. It felt like a poorly dimmed room, but I could still see things clearly. The silver tree — the Wishes Portal — was at the center of an oval clearing, without the book. All around us were a dozen trees, all with distinct aesthetics and personalities.
But something was wrong. Not wrong, just out of place, standing out. A man I didn’t know was sitting in front of us, side by side with the Portal.
“Jimin!?” asked Taehyung. The relief and love of his voice was so thick it lit up the room.
The Portal lit up its golden aura. An eerie chill set itself on fire down my spine.
