#nct 127 horror

[hwxnghyynjin]

Bad Blood

Pairing: nct 127 x reader, jaehyun x reader Genre: horror, angst, slight fluff, suggestive Warnings: horror themes, character death, injury detail, gore (if you're sensitive to stuff like this, please don't read if you're uncomfortable <3) Words: 6,163

Jaehyun has been running for god knows how long. All of his friends are dead, and they were all murdered by him. Someone he thought to be his best friend. All he knows is that he needs to get away from him as far as possible. 

The sound of leaves crumpled under his feet as he ran through the woods, his breathing becoming heavier as each minute passed. The pain in his shoulder and chest started to get worse, but he didn’t think about that. All he could think about was getting away. “You can’t get away from me”, he said, getting closer to Jaehyun.

Who knew someone you used to call your best friend could turn into a psychotic killer?

About 48 hours ago

Jaehyun woke up to the sound of his alarm blaring in his ear, moving his arm to turn it off. He sat up and ran his hand through his hair, before getting out of bed to get ready for the day. He walked into the bathroom and did his usual morning routine, and then went to get dressed. He decided to wear black ripped jeans, black boots and a grey hoodie. Once he was dressed, he grabbed his phone, wallet and keys, and left the house towards his car. 

The drive to the coffee shop wasn’t long, only a 10 minute drive. Once he arrived, he got out of his car, locked it and went inside. The sound of the door opening alerted the barista behind the counter, who is a friend of Jaehyun’s. “Hey Johnny”, Jaehyun greeted him. “Hey Jae. The usual?”, Johnny asked, to which Jaehyun nodded. As Johnny was making the drink, he suddenly spoke up. “Did you hear on the news this morning?”, Johnny said, making Jaehyun confused. “No, what happened?”

“Another body was found in the woods last night. They said there were multiple axe wounds on the body”, Johnny said, and shivers went down Jaehyun’s spine. “Shit”, Jaehyun exclaimed, and collected his drink from Johnny. “That’s the fifth one this month”, Jaehyun said before taking a sip of his drink. Suddenly, the sound of the door opening again got both of their attention, and Yuta walked in. As soon as he walked in, Johnny and Jaehyun both stared at his face. 

“What the fuck happened to you?”, Johnny asked, noticing the black eye. “Me and Areum had another fight last night and, uh, she hit me. So I ended it with her”, Yuta explained. “I’m gonna be honest with you. I didn't like her to begin with. She seemed too… obsessive and pushy”, Jaehyun said, earning a glare from Yuta but he agreed with him. 

The coffee shop started to get more crowded as more people entered. Suddenly, a flustered y/n came running through the door, startling others in the coffee shop. “I’m sorry I’m late, I overslept”, she explained to Johnny, and ran to the back to get ready for her shift. Jaehyun’s eyes didn’t leave her once, until he felt someone flicking his forehead, making him yelp. 

“Dude, you’re making it so obvious that you’re in love with her”, Yuta said, chuckling. “So what if I am?”, Jaehyun said, sipping on his coffee and making Yuta choke on his. “Did you really just admit you’re in love with y/n?”, Yuta asked and Jaehyun realised what he said, making his eyes go wide. Yuta chuckled at seeing his wide eyes and changed the topic of the conversation. 

All of a sudden, the sound of Jaehyun’s phone got his attention and he checked it to see what it was. It was a message from Taeyong.

Taeyong: yo, where you at?

Jaehyun: I’m at the coffee shop where Johnny works, I’m with Yuta if you want to join :)

He replied back, waiting to see what Taeyong says. Not even a minute later, Taeyong replies back saying he'll be at the coffee shop soon. “Who was that?”, Yuta asked. “Just Taeyong asking where I am. He’ll be joining us soon”, Jaehyun answered. 

10 minutes had passed and Taeyong entered the coffee shop, his eye bags darker than usual. He saw Jaehyun and Yuta in the corner and went over to them. “Hey guys”, Taeyong said. “You look like shit. Have you not been sleeping?”, Jaehyun asked, worried for his friend. “Not really. Had trouble sleeping last night. Think I fell asleep around 3am”, Taeyong explained. He sat down opposite Jaehyun and they all continued on with their conversation.

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A couple of hours had passed and when they decided that they should leave, Taeyong spoke up. “Hey, this is going to sound really weird but, I was wondering if you guys wanted to check out this abandoned building I found in the woods”, Taeyong said, which made Jaehyun and Yuta look at him suspiciously, but they agreed anyway. I mean, it’s not like they were going to get murdered. Right?

Yuta and Taeyong left the coffee shop, whilst Jaehyun decided to stay, wanting to be there for when y/n finishes her shift. He scrolled through his phone to pass time and checked the news about the body found.

Body found in woods early this morning with numerous wounds on the body which was suspected to be inflicted by an axe. When the body was found, the temperature of it was cold, so the time of death must have been around midnight.

As Jaehyun was scrolling through his phone, he didn’t notice someone walking up to him. “You’re still here?”, y/n asked him, making him jump and causing her to laugh. “Yeah, I wanted to stay here until your shift finishes. I mean, if that’s ok”, he said, making y/n smile. “If you want to stay here for a few more hours, go ahead. Why don’t I get you something to eat while I’m here”, she said, Jaehyun noticing a twinkle in her eye as she spoke to him. “Now that you mentioned it, I am kind of hungry. I’ll just have a slice of cake”, Jaehyun said and y/n nodded, walking back to behind the counter and Jaehyun looked out the window. 

y/n came back with a slice of cake and gave it to Jaehyun, thanking her. Before she was about to turn back around, Jaehyun lightly grabbed her wrist. “Uhm, this is going to sound strange but, Taeyong mentioned about going to this abandoned place in the woods tomorrow and I was hoping you’d come with me because I ain’t going to lie, I’m scared. Especially with these murders that’s been going on and…”, Jaehyun continued to babble on so y/n held his cheek to get him to stop, which startled him. “Don’t worry, I’ll come with you if you’re that scared. I’ll be your knight in shining armour”, she smiled, causing Jaehyun to chuckle, and he unconsciously nuzzled his face into her hand. y/n saw that and it caused her smile to grow and she rubbed her thumb along his cheek. “Right, I’ll leave you to eat your cake in peace”, she said before turning back around and heading back behind the counter. 

Jaehyun ate his cake while scrolling through his phone (also accidentally getting crumbs down his t-shirt) and once he finished it, he placed the fork down on the plate. He continued to scroll through his phone and his mind kept wandering back to the body that was found, and what Taeyong said when he first arrived.

“Had trouble sleeping last night. Think I fell asleep around 3am”

No, it had to be a coincidence. Taeyong would never.

A few more hours had passed and y/n’s shift had ended, and she collected her stuff from the back and left with Jaehyun. “They found another body in the woods?”, y/n asked, her voice full of fear. Jaehyun nodded and a shiver went down y/n’s spine. They arrived at y/n’s car and Jaehyun hugged her goodbye, y/n returning the hug, melting into him. She could smell his cologne, the smell of vanilla, and along with the chocolate cake he ate and the coffee. To some, that wouldn’t appeal to them but to y/n, she loved it, she did work in a coffee shop after all. As Jaehyun pulled away and turned around to leave, y/n put her hand on his arm. Jaehyun faced her again and wondered why she stopped him.

“You know, you’re not very good at hiding things”, she said, making Jaehyun confused. “What do you mean?”, he asked, causing y/n to laugh. “For the record”, she got closer to his face, “I’m in love with you too”, and at that, she placed a kiss on his lips. It was soft and sweet, she could taste the coffee and chocolate on his lips. Jaehyun moved forward and y/n’s back was pressed up against her car, Jaehyun’s hands on her hips as their lips moulded together. Little did they know, someone was watching them. He sat in his car, watching the two of them kiss, a frown on his face. He wanted Jaehyun all to himself, but he saw that he’s in love with someone else. 

“I’ll get you all to myself Jaehyun. You’ll see”, he said with a smirk on his face. 

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Jaehyun and y/n arrive at the abandoned place in the woods, which they come to find out is an abandoned mental asylum, mid morning. Jaehyun thought instead of both of them going separately, he picked up y/n on his way. They saw Taeyong, Yuta and Johnny there, along with others. The other people there were Haechan, Mark, Taeil, Doyoung and Jungwoo. “Ah, I see you two finally showed up”, Taeyong said when he saw Jaehyun and y/n. His focus went to their hands, he saw they were holding hands. “Wait, are you two together now?”, he asked, making Jaehyun and y/n look at their hands. “I guess we are”, y/n replied, kissing Jaehyun’s cheek, making him smile. 

Taeyong took a deep breath and carried on talking. “Ok, let’s check out inside, shall we? Unless you guys are cowards”, he said jokingly. Everyone looked at each other and hesitated, but they all went inside eventually, Jaehyun and y/n the last ones to enter. 

“Ok, why are we here again?”, Doyoung asked, kinda annoyed that he’s awake at this hour. “Just wanted you guys to explore with me, that’s all”, Taeyong said, everyone getting suspicious about why he wanted them to go ‘just exploring’ with him. “Ok then, let’s split up then”, y/n suggested, everyone looking at her. “Since there’s 10 of us, why don’t we go in 2’s to explore”, Jaehyun suggested and everyone agreed. The pairs were Jaehyun and y/n, Mark and Haechan, Johnny and Taeil, Yuta and Jungwoo, and Taeyong and Doyoung. Once the pairs were decided, they all split up and went their separate ways to explore. 

Little did they know what was going to happen. 

Mark and Haechan walked around and checked in rooms, making sure nothing popped out to scare them. Suddenly, Haechan stopped and Mark looked at him confused. “Mark, something doesn’t feel right”, Haechan said, fear evident in his voice. “Why, what’s wrong?”, Mark asked. “I don’t know, I just know something bad is going to happen”, Haechan started to get anxious and Mark tried to calm him down. “Hey, hyuck, look at me. We’re in an abandoned mental asylum, remember? Thousands of people have probably died here from when this asylum was open. Maybe that’s why you’re feeling anxious so, just try not to stress, ok?”, Mark tried to reassure him, which seemed to work as Haechan nodded and continued to explore. 

Yuta and Jungwoo were joking around while walking, trying to lighten the atmosphere around them. “Hey, Yuta?”, Jungwoo asked out of nowhere. “Yeah?”, Jungwoo replied. “Since we are inside an abandoned mental asylum, do you think a lot of people, you know, died in here?”, Jungwoo asked out of curiosity. Yuta stopped and thought about it. “I think so, yeah. I think some people were tortured, some died due to suicide and I don’t know, some were probably just too ill and died from natural causes”, Yuta replied, the whole atmosphere around them becoming more depressing from that conversation. “Well, whatever happened to them, I hope they’re in a better place”, Jungwoo said. Jungwoo has always been a sweetheart and wanted the best for everyone, he never wants people to be in pain or distress.

Johnny and Taeil were also looking around, checking rooms, when they came across something that spooked them. An axe. With blood on it. “Uhm, why is that there?”, Taeil asked. “Didn’t you say that the body found in the woods had wounds from an axe?”, Taeil asked again, Johnny nodding. A shiver went down both of their spines, both of them now regretting coming here. 

Jaehyun and y/n walked hand in hand, talking about whatever came to their mind. y/n was looking at the graffiti on the wall when all of a sudden, she felt herself being pushed into one of the rooms and the door closed. It was only until she realised it was only Jaehyun that she relaxed. “What are you doing? You freaked me out, you butthead”, y/n said making Jaehyun chuckle. He pushed her up against a wall and put one hand against the wall by her head and the other hand on her waist. “Would it be weird of us if we made out in an abandoned mental asylum?”, Jaehyun asked y/n, making her gasp. “Unless you want to walk through this creepy ass asylum back to the car to make out”, Jaehyun said while chuckling, y/n lightly hitting his chest. 

Before they knew it, their lips were against each other, moving in sync. Both of Jaehyun’s hands are now on y/n’s waist while her hands were in his hair. One of Jaehyun’s hands moved from her waist down to her thigh, and wrapped her leg around him to push her further into the wall and the kiss got more intense. Jaehyun bit y/n’s bottom lip, making her gasp, which gave him the opportunity to stick his tongue in her mouth. A moan left her mouth and she tugged on Jaehyun’s hair, causing him to grunt and the grip on her thigh and hip tightened. Jaehyun pulled away which made y/n whine, but he started trailing hot, open mouthed kissed down her jaw and neck, sucking and biting, eliciting a loud moan from her. He sucked purple spots onto her neck, happy with his work as he placed kisses over them.

The hand that was on her hip travelled under her t-shirt and y/n felt his hand on her stomach, the skin burning. Jaehyun then proceeded to take her t-shirt off and threw it on the floor and attached his lips back on hers. He grabbed both of her thighs and picked her up, placing her on a table on a table near the wall beside them. He spread her legs and situated himself between them, his hands playing with the waistband of her sweatpants, his hand going inside her pants ever so slowly she didn’t realise it until she felt Jaehyun’s hand cupping her clothed core, causing her to gasp into his mouth, feeling his smirk against her. 

Taeyong and Doyoung were looking in a random room but when Doyoung went to turn around to talk to him, Taeyong was nowhere to be seen. “Taeyong?”, Doyoung called out, hoping to get an answer. He turned around again when suddenly, someone whacked him over the head, causing him to fall to the floor. 

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When Doyoung woke up, he saw that he was in a weird room, which had no windows. He noticed that the door was locked and he was panicking. “Well, well, well. I see you’re awake”, someone said. “What are you doing? Why are you doing this?”, Doyoung asked him. “Because, you see, I don’t like that Jaehyun has other friends. And I want him to myself so, I’m sorry”, he said, and he got a knife out, and Doyoung tried to get away but it was too late. Doyoung screamed before the knife slit his throat, blood dripping onto the floor. 

Everyone heard Deyoung's scream which caused them to stop. “Was that Doyoung?”, Yuta asked, and starting running to where the sound came from, Jungwoo following after him. They managed to find where the scream came from, the others arrived not long after. Jaehyun and y/n were the last ones to arrive, both of them straightening out their clothes. “Did you….. Di you guys fucking makeout?”, Johnny asked them, making both of them flustered. Yuta opened the door, and the scene in front of him made him scream. Doyoung’s lifeless body on the ground, surrounded by his own blood. Everyone started to cry at seeing their friends dead body. But there was someone missing. 

“Hey, where’s Taeyong?”, Jungwoo asked. Suddenly, Taeyong showed up out of nowhere, and when he saw Doyoung’s body, he also screamed. “What the fuck happened?”, he yelled to no one in particular. “He was obviously murdered. Someone slit his throat”, Yuta said, noticing the slit along his throat. '`Taeyong?”, Yuta asked him, making Taeyong look at him. “Yeah?”, Taeyong replied.

“Where were you around the time Doyoung was murdered?”, Yuta suddenly asked, wanting to know as the others aren’t likely to be near as they arrived at the scene after him and Jungwoo. “Wait, you’re not thinking that I did this, are you? Cause that’s absolute bullshit”, Taeyong retorted, sounding annoyed that he’s being accused. “Who else could it have been? There’s no one else here”, Yuta yelled, about to hit Taeyong burn Johnny stopped him. “Yuta, stop. There might be someone else here with us for all we know. Don’t just assume it was taeyong just because he wasn’t here when all of us arrived”, Johnny exclaimed, Yuta sighing and nodding his head.

No one saw the smirk on Taeyong’s face as he looked down. But they did hear the low chuckle from him.

“Why the fuck are you laughing? This is not fucking funny you ass”, Yuta yelled, making Taeyong look up. “Oh, I’m laughing because you guys are so stupid. You guys honestly agreed to come here without giving it a second thought? Wow”, Taeyong said and his laughing got more manic, scaring Mark and Haechan. Taeyong suddenly walked off into the darkness and everyone else realised.

Taeyong murdered Doyoung. But why?

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!”, Yuta started shouting and Johnny tried to calm him down but nothing seemed to work. Out of the corner of his eye, Jaehyun saw y/n shaking from fear. He turned to her and hugged her, her melting into him while more tears flowed down her cheeks. 

“I knew something bad was going to happen”, Haechan said to no one in particular. “I thought maybe it was because we’re in an abandoned mental asylum where thousands of people had died but, no. Oh god, Doyoung is dead”, Haechan said and he started hyperventilating, realising what’s just happened. Mark tried to calm him down by holding him. 

Suddenly, Yuta stopped yelling and started walking in the direction Taeyong went. “Where are you going?”, Johnny said, alarmed by Yuta’s sudden movements. “I’m going to find Taeyong and beat the shit out of him. Don’t even think about following me. If things go south and something happens to me, get the fuck out of here, all of you”, Yuta said, making everyone worried about how reckless he’s acting. “Yuta, are you sure that’s a good idea?”, Mark asked, now managing to calm Haechan down. “He murdered Doyoung, what else do you expect me to do? Nothing?”, Yuta said, sounding pissed. He then turned around and went to find Taeyong. “Not to sound pessimistic but”, Taeil said, “this isn’t going to end well”, to which some nodded and others just stayed silent, not knowing what to say.

Yuta looked everywhere, trying to find Taeyong, but it seemed like he’s nowhere to be seen. “Taeyong, show yourself, you fucking coward”, Yuta yelled, hoping to get his attention. Out of nowhere, Taeyong showed up, startling Yuta, But what startled him even more is what Taeyong is holding: a gun. Yuta stood his ground, trying to show that he isn’t afraid when, in fact, he was terrified. But he didn’t want Taeyong to know that. “You know, that’s not very polite”, Taeyong said, pointing the gun at Yuta, aiming the gun at his chest. “Why are you doing this? Yesterday, you seemed…. Not psychotic. What changed?”, Yuta asked calmly, trying not to anger Taeyong even more. Taeyong just laughed and cocked the gun, making Yuta jump. “You see, I don’t like that Jaehyun has all you guys when I’m supposed to be his best friend. I enjoyed being his only best friend before you showed up”, Taeyong said and Yuta scoffed. “I see, so you’re just jealous. How pathetic”, Yuta soon regretted saying that as he felt a sharp pain in his side: Taeyong shot him. He fell to the ground, screaming in pain and held his side where the blood was coming out. Taeyong dropped the gun and straddled Yuta, punching him. “Guys, run! Get the fuck out of here”, Yuta shouted to the others, hoping they could hear him. Taeyong’s hands then went to Yuta’s neck and wrapped his hands around it, gripping it in his hold. Yuta struggled against the grip, trying to get Taeyong to let go but unfortunately, his fate turned bad as Taeyong grabbed the sides of his head, and twisted it to the side, snapping his neck. “I’m so sorry it had to come to this, Yuta”, Taeyong said, stroking Yuta’s cheek. He got off his lifeless body and just stared at the body.

Everyone turned their heads in the direction where Yuta went when they suddenly heard him scream. The shock soon turned into horror when they heard a snapping noise. “Oh shit, no, I’m out of here”, Taeil said, running towards the exit to get out. Everyone else followed Taeil but, since the abandoned asylum is so big, it’s like a maze so they were afraid they would end up lost. 

Taeil was the only one who managed to get out, running out the exit and through the woods. He turned around to see if anyone followed him but he saw no one. He stopped and seemed confused. “Hello?”, he asked, wondering why he was the only one out. He started walking back, until he felt something sharp clamp around his ankle. He screamed in pain, falling backwards. He saw what was on his ankle, when he saw a bear trap. Blood was pooling out of his ankle, making Taeil feel a little lightheaded.“What the fuck!?”, he yelled. Suddenly, Taeyong popped up in front of him. “You stupid, stupid guy. You really thought you could escape?”, Taeyong said, smirking down at Taeil, tears rolling down Taeil’s cheeks. Taeyong walked towards Taeil and Taeil tried to move backwards, but unsuccessful as Taeyong grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and dragged him towards a tree, and sat him in front of it. Taeil was shaking with fear, wondering what Taeyong was going to do to him, when he saw Taeyong reach into his pocket.

“You really shouldn’t have agreed to come here. I knew you guys were too naive”, Taeyong said as he held what looked like silver wire in his hands. “W-what’s that for?”, Taeil asked, not knowing why he asked that, and Taeyong chuckedl. “Guess we’re going to find out”, he said as he grabbed the piece of wire and wrapped it around Taeil’s neck several times, making sure it dug into the skin of his neck, and tied it behind the tree. Taeil struggled to breathe as the wire dug into his neck, nearly cutting off the circulation. Taeyong smirked at Taeil struggling and decided to make him suffer even more by pulling the wire, making it go further into his neck. Blood started trickling down his neck, and the colour in his face started turning blue in colour. Suddenly, Taeil stopped breathing and his whole body went limp. 

y/n was running and she looked around her, realising she’s lost. “Jaehyun? Johnny? Guys?”, she yelled, hoping anyone would answer. She arrived at a flight of stairs, and she decided to walk up them, wondering if any of the guys were up there. But, to her dismay, she became even more lost, causing her to shake. She turned around at the sound of someone calling her name. “Jaehyun?”, she called out, getting a response back. “y/n?! Where are you?”, he asked. “Stay there, I’m coming to you”, y/n responded and went to walk down the stairs when, suddenly, she felt someone push her from behind and she fell with a scream. She tumbled to the ground and hit her head, knocking her unconscious. “Y/N!”, Jaehyun called and ran to her, and that’s when he saw Taeyong at the top of the stairs. “You fucker, just leave us alone”, Jaehyun yelled at him, making Taeyong walk down the stairs. “That’s not how you talk to your best friend, is it?”, Taeyong said, causing Jaehyun to scoff. “Best friends don’t murder people”, he said, and Taeyong raised his arm when suddenly, Jaehyun was knocked over the head and then he saw black.

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When Jaehyun woke up, he felt his whole body in pain. He touched the back of his head and he felt something warm and sticky, so he looked at his hand and saw there was blood. He noticed that y/n is nowhere to be seen and he got worried, hoping something bad hasn’t happened to her. He got up and went to find the others. He stood up and stumbled, but managed to get his balance and tried to run, but opted for walking fast instead due to the pain. “Johnny? Mark? Anyone?”, he called out when suddenly, he ran into someone, scaring both himself and the other person. He soon realised that it was only Haechan, but he then realised that he was shaking in fear and crying. “Haechan? What happened?!”, Jaehyun asked and Haechan tried to form a sentence, but couldn’t so Jaehyun told him to breathe.

Once he was able to form a sentence, he spoke. “It’s Mark. He.... he’s dead”, Haechan said and the colour from Jaehyun’s face drained. Haechan left and Jaehyun followed him. And that’s when he saw Mark: hanging from the ceiling, a noose around his neck. Haechan fell to the floor, crying his eyes out and continued shaking of fear. Johnny and Jungwoo suddenly showed up and saw Mark’s lifeless body hanging from the ceiling. “Oh shit. Oh god, why is this fucking happening?”, Johnny said, tugging at his hair out of frustration and anger. “Wait, where’s Taeil?”, Jaehyun asked. “I saw him heading for the exit so I’m assuming he left. I hope he got out so he can, maybe, get some help or something for us”, Johnny said. 

“Sorry to burst your bubble but, poor Taeil is dead too”, Taeyong said, making everyone look at where the sound of his voice came from. “For fucks sake, just leave us the fuck alone, you bastard”, Jaehyun yelled. “Sorry, no can do. Not until I have you all to myself Jae”, Taeyong said and everyone just scream in both terror and frustration and Jungwoo and Haechan ran in the same direction whilst Johnny and Jaehyun ran in the opposite direction, wanting to get far away from Taeyong as possible. 

Haechan and Jungwoo ran upstairs to try and hide from Taeyong, hoping to find a safe hiding place. They ran and suddenly stopped when they looked through a window, and saw Taeil tied to a tree. His neck was covered in blood and his skin pale. His head nearly severed off from his body from the wire tied around his neck. Jungwoo suddenly started feeling sick at the scene in front of him and Haechan screamed. 

“I see you found Taeil, then”, Taeyong said out of nowhere, Jungwoo and Haechan turned around and saw him standing there, and they saw he was holding an axe: a bloody axe. “Why the fuck do you just keep popping up out of nowhere? It doesn’t make any fucking sense. You literally turn up where we are and I don’t like it”, Haechan said, trying to sound brave. “Poor little Haechanie, are you scared? Well, I’ll get rid of your fear for you”, Taeyong said and Haechan was confused about what he was going to do, when suddenly, Haechan felt himself being thrown out of a window and landing on something sharp. “Haechan!”, Jungwoo called, and he saw that Haechan landed on a sharp piece of wood, piercing through his chest. Haechan started coughing and blood came out of his mouth and his chest, the blood staining his shirt. His body suddenly went limp and he stopped moving. 

Jungwoo turned around and went to hit Taeyong, but Taeyong was faster, and he striked Jungwoo with the axe. The axe hit his shoulder, making him cry out in pain. Taeyong pulled the axe out of his shoulder and struck again, this time in Jungwoo’s chest. He pulled the axe out of his chest and dropped Jungwoo’s body to the floor, leaving him there to bleed to death. “One more person to go, and then you’re mine forever Jaehyun”, Taeyong said to himself, smirking.

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Jaehyun and Johnny ran towards the exit, hoping to at least get out of here uninjured and alive. They both managed to escape and saw that it’s now darker outside, and started running through the woods, when they saw Taeil’s lifeless body. “Oh, my god, oh Taeil”, Jaehyun said with tears rolling down his face when he felt Johnny patting his shoulder. “J-jaehyun?”, Johnny said, his voice wavering. Jaehyun looked at where Johnny was pointing to, and saw Haechan’s body, also lifeless, on a sharp piece of wood. His face pale with blood dripping from his nose, mouth and seeping through his chest. They were both crying at this point, just wanting to leave and go home. 

They both started running again when Johnny suddenly fell, his ankle caught in something. “What the…?”, he said when he felt himself being pulled. “Jaehyun, help!”, he called and Jaehyun tried to help him but he wasn’t quick enough. Johnny found himself being lifted into the air and saw that his ankle was tied to some rope. “Oh, look what we caught. A Johnny”, Taeyong said when he saw Johnny in the air, Jaehyun's body froze in fear. “I’m sorry it has to end this way for you”, Taeyong said to Johnny and, suddenly, a bunch of arrows aimed for Johnny and they struck him. Some struck him in the chest, some through his head and one in his neck. Blood started trickling from his chest, neck and head onto the floor and that’s when Jaehyun unfroze and started running again.

Present

“Just fuck off and leave me alone Taeyong”, Jaehyun yelled, still running from him. He heard laughter behind him getting closer, and he tried to run faster. Until he tripped and fell. He tried to crawl away as Taeyong got closer, now walking this time, and Jaehyun backed up into a tree. “If I can’t have you, then no one can”, Taeyong said, and raised his arm. Jaehyun closed his eyes, tears flowing down his cheeks, while he waited for impact. But, out of nowhere, someone whacked Taeyong over the head, knocking him to the ground. Jaehyun opened his eyes and that’s when he saw the person he loves with his entire heart: y/n. “y/n? I thought you were dead, oh my god”, Jaehyun said and got up and kissed her hard, her kissing back. When they pulled away, Jaehyun hugged her and cried into her neck. “Hey, sshh, I’m here”, she stroked his hair as she tried to calm him down. “They’re all dead and I couldn’t do anything”, he cried even harder and y/n cried with him. They both pulled away when they heard someone behind them moving. That’s when they noticed Taeyong had gotten up.

“You fucking bitch, I should have killed you when I had the chance”, Taeyong spat, and y/n and Jaehyun started running again, hand in hand, through the woods. They came across a little cabin as they were running and decided to knock, hoping someone inside would help them. “Hello? Please help us”, y/n called out. Suddenly, an old man opened the door and saw them. “What are you two kids doing out here? Oh no, what happened to you?”, the old man asked, and that’s when they heard shouting in the distance. 

“You can’t hide from me, you bastards”, Taeyong shouted, and the old man looked confused. “How is that even possible?”, the old man asked, making y/n and Jaehyun confused. “What do you mean sir?”, y/n asked. “That young boy who’s chasing you?”, he asked them, both of them nodding. “Yeah, his name is Taeyong and he murdered all of our friends”, Jaehyun said and the old man's eyes went wide. “Lee Taeyong? But…. he died last month. He was murdered in that abandoned asylum in these woods. He was strangled to death”, the old man said and that’s when it clicked for them. No wonder he was able to move around so quickly in there. “And your friends who were murdered by him? I’m pretty sure that they’re stuck here too, their souls I mean, from what I heard from this myth”, the old man explained. 

Jaehyun and y/n were confused about that so the old man explained that if you get murdered in a certain place, your soul is stuck there forever. Suddenly, the old man saw Taeyong getting closer so he went back inside his cabin and came back with a shotgun. “You two kids better move”, and both y/n and Jaehyun did. As Taeyong started charging at them, the old man pulled the trigger of the shotgun and it hit Taeyong, making him disappear. “What was that?”, Jaehyun asked. “Rock salt. Helps get rid of spirits”, the old man said. “Now, you kids better get out of here”, and they both hugged the old man as a thank you and they ran out of the woods, and back to Jaehyun’s car and got inside. Jaehyun started the car and they both got as far away as possible. 

-------------------------------

Jaehyun drove for about 20 minutes, before he pulled into an empty parking lot. He stopped the car and looked at y/n. “Come here”, he motioned for y/n to straddle him so she unbuckled her seatbelt and went to straddle Jaehyun, him helping her. Once she situated herself on him, he held her hips and admired her face. Some cuts and cruises on her from when she was pushed down the stairs, but apart from that, she looks fine and Jaehyun is relieved. “Are you hurt anywhere?”, he suddenly asked, making y/n shake her head. “Thankfully, no. What about you? Are you hurt?”, she asked him. “I’m pretty sure I have some bruises on my chest and there’s still a slight pain in my shoulder but apart from that, I’m fine, he said. y/n leaned in and hugged him, placing her head in the crook of his neck and Jaehyun suddenly felt tears on his neck. Sniffles escaped y/n as she cried into his neck, Jaehyun rubbed his hand up and down her back as he comforted her. y/n stopped crying after a few minutes and she moved her head to look at Jaehyun. Jaehyun wiped the tears from her face and stroked her cheek. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Jaehyun leaned in and kissed y/n softly. 

The kiss was sweet yet passionate, full of emotion. Jaehyun parted, looking into your eyes and gently kissed the top of your head. “Let’s go home, shall we?”, he said and y/n got back in her seat, buckling her seatbelt. Jaehyun started the car and drove away, the image of the abandoned asylum in the rearview mirror getting smaller the further he drove away.

They are really horrified and upset with what’s happened to their friends, but they’re glad they still have each other. Yeah, they feel guilty for just leaving their friends dead bodies in the woods, but they were too afraid to stay there. Hopefully they’ll carry on with their lives and start afresh, now that Taeyong isn’t coming back for Jaehyun.

Right?

#nct imagines #nct scenarios #nct horror #nct angst #nct x reader #nct #nct 127 imagines #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 horror #nct 127 angst #nct 127 x reader #nct 127 #jaehyun imagines #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun angst #jaehyun horror #jaehyun x reader #jaehyun

[yunogf]

movie posters for NCT 127s gothic horror film “Favorite”

10.25.2021

#nctinc #nct 127 #gfx #mine*works #mine*gfx #i tried . #i didnt have a plot in mind when i made these so i dont totally love them but the mv is v uninspiring so #the 4th one is v twilight breaking dawn-ish hopefully the tumblrinas like that <3 #first one isnt giving vampire so much as 90s action romance movie oh well #pretend theyre all horror movie-esque #also the lyrics r so dramatic lmao

[candiesz]

psycho killer... better run run run run run away

#ivyween #spooky season #moodboard #nct 127 #nct #taeil #kpop #icons #edgy #messy #horror #halloween #dark #terror #ivyween the event

[raatopaikka]

Jaehyun - 3/4 February 127 Neos (2024)

#he looks kinda lowkey terrified right? shocked? :'''D #like someone from an old horror movie lol :''D a beautiful young man in a creepy old mansion who hears an ominous creak!! #nctzenart #nctinc #itsnctsworld #nct fanart #nctcreations #jaehyun fanart #nct #jaehyun #nct127 fanart #nct 127 #nct dojaejung #2024 #kpop fanart #febneos #hand drawn #this is so lq 😔 #edit: upated with the lil moles on his face cause i got too lazy when i was finishing the drawing and just didnt draw them then lol #edit: lol i absolutely halfarsed the moles yesterday so edited them a bit further! #they still look unnatural ugh fuuuuuuuuck i gotta come back to this one day 🙈🙈🙈

[princesstaeille]

Heatwave

summary: it’s the hottest day of the year and haechan wants to find something to do.

genre(s): body horror

warning(s): blood/gore, character death, graphic descriptions of decaying(?) bodies (pls let me know if there are more)

wc: 900

notes: if you enjoyed reading, pls like/reblog and comment! thank you xxx

It was the hottest day of the year.

It was the type of heat that Haechan could see rippling in the air. A heat that made the atmosphere feel heavier, a leaden weight that slugged down his legs. A heat that suffocated him when he opened his mouth, sweltering to the point where panting like a dog only caused more harm than good. If he held out his palm, he could feel it coat his sweaty fingers in an uncomfortable thickness.

Although turned on its highest setting, the fan didn't do much except blow hot air into his face. It didn't help that the AC happened to be broken, but Haechan figured it wouldn't be any different from the fan, except maybe louder.

He stared outside the open window, watching blankly as the buildings wiggled and wobbled in the distance. It was the only thing he could do. He couldn't go outside, or he'd probably melt. Scrolling mindlessly on his phone wasn't an option either; the heat was affecting the Wi-Fi and causing everything to overheat.

Haechan sighed and tried blinking away the glaze in his eyes. He could hear the fluid squelch under his lids. Even doing that was exhausting. 

"There's gotta be something around here that I can do..." he muttered, swiveling lazily in his chair. He scanned the hazy room, eyes glossing over the blank TV, the discarded magazines on the couch, and the dead Nintendo Switch sitting on the coffee table until they landed on some puzzle boxes underneath the coffee table. 

When did we ever buy those? Haechan thought as he dragged himself over to the table. He pulled out the first box, which was coated in a healthy layer of dust. After wiping it away, the cover revealed a nook of a lush forest. At its center stood a rushing waterfall that filtered into a ready stream below, surrounded by smooth gray rocks and vibrant green pines. Though he was sure it was a painting, it looked so much like a photograph. He could almost hear the water rush and rumble, the millions of drops joining together in one crystal pool. Cool drips would sprinkle onto his cheeks while the towering trees shade him from the sun's rays, leaves swaying in the chill breeze. Haechan would give anything to shed the unbearable heat that clung to him like a second skin and lounge underneath the blue cascades all day.

Unfortunately, the closest he would get to that was putting the puzzle together.

Haechan forced himself to his feet and sighed. He studied the puzzle cover once more before deciding to try it. It'd be a nice distraction, he told himself as he walked across the living room. He knocked on Mark's bedroom door, which had been closed longer than Haechan could remember. He wasn't sure if Mark had left his room at all today.

"Hey Mark, wanna complete this puzzle with me?" The words clawed their way out of his throat, and Haechan began to wish for a cold glass of water. When no reply came, he twisted the doorknob, which almost slipped out of his sweaty grasp, and cracked the door a bit to peek inside.

The back of the black leather gaming chair at Mark's desk faced the door. Instead of being tucked into the underside of the desk, the chair sat parallel to it, facing the wall. 

Haechan glanced around the rest of the room but spotted no other presence. "Mark?" He called out once more as he took a step inside.

He approached the leather chair, wondering if the insufferable warmth lulled his roommate into an afternoon nap. The thought dismissed itself as the scent of metal wafted into his nose. 

Haechan grabbed the edge of the chair and cringed at the contact his hand made with the leather. He felt like the skin on his palm was sizzling away with each passing second it stayed touching the burning material. Quickly, he swiveled the chair around to face him.

Mark sat in the chair, slouching to one side while his neck craned in the opposite direction. But he wasn't napping. His eyes were wide open; one had tumbled from the socket and slid down the thick, bloody sludge that coated his shirt. The other pointed down and off to the side, staring into nothingness. Thick globs of tender skin and flesh sloughed off his bones and settled onto the floor with unsettling plops before disintegrating into the stained carpet.

Mark wasn't ignoring him; he had no mouth to respond. What Haechan assumed to be his lips slid down his chin, skin peeling and flaking, sinking into the bloody mass below. In their place was a bony grimace stretching from ear to ear, pearly whites stained in crimson that oozed from the crevices and dribbled down his chin. His skin sagged, dark hair lost in the rising flood that bubbled up, overflowed, and crept down his forehead, pooling into his sockets, coating a glassy, vacant eye.

The stench grew with each passing second, intensified by a warmth so great that Mark's blood boiled. 

Haechan felt his begin to as well. Beads of sweat raced down his back. Though his throat was incredibly dry, he felt his stomach churn and the burning sensation of bile rising up. 

Haechan dropped the puzzle box. The smell made his head spin. He stumbled out of the room but couldn't tear his gaze away from Mark's. The puzzle could wait. 

thank you so much for reading! please leave a like and a comment. reblogs are appreciated too!

#nct #nct fanfic #nct scenarios #nct fiction #nct fic #nct drabbles #nct 127 #nct horror #horror #fanfic #writers on tumblr #writing #nct imagines #haechan #nct haechan #lee donghyuck #mark lee #nct mark scenarios #nct mark #haechan scenarios #kpop drabbles #kpop boys #kpop fanfic #markhyuck #mahae #nct dream #nct reactions #nct dream scenarios

[ellamacman]

HI WANNA VIBE DM LETS VIBE IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN HOOKUP SERVICE AM FREE AM

#outfit inspiration #mua #naruto #natural hair #nature #nct dream #music #1950s #nct 127 #nasa #sexy content #sexy titts #seventeen #sexy pose #sexy tease #maka albarn #soul eater #sexy breast #trans am #crona #hony #hot nude #house md #niall horan #welcome home #hazbin hotel #so hot 🔥🔥🔥 #hot as fuck #horror #the owl house

[pearl-neo]

Paranoia

Pairing ⬩ Reader + Johnny

Genre ⬩ psychological thriller \ suspense \ mystery \ angst

Length ⬩ 13k — one shot

Plot ⬩ After a year spent living as a shut-in, you finally agree to go on a drive with your sister. When a storm steers your plan off course, you find yourselves brought closer to two charming strangers—but an unsettling tension lingers in your mind.

Warnings ⬩ anxiety; agoraphobia; implications of depression; ongoing feelings of helplessness, general discomfort, self-doubt; mental breakdown; minor violence; character death

‹ Note › The feelings/mannerisms that come as a consequence of (mild?) agoraphobia in this story all come from a personal place. I don’t mean to make light of anyone’s experience with mental illness.

Disclaimer! I don’t know any of the nct members personally, and would never claim this is how they behave/think in real life. They only inspire me to write these stories, and I think of them as a cast of actors like in a drama or movie. It’s never my intention to project on or disrespect any of the people mentioned.

A sliver of light escaped through the window blinds as your fingers pulled at one of the blades. Despite the clear and sunny sky outside, it was dim in your apartment. It often was. Your eyes rejected the foreign light for a brief moment before they readjusted.

Outside, a pale pink Cadillac convertible was parked in front of the building’s entrance. The kind where the back just above the tail lights rose in a theatrical peak on either side. The roof was down, revealing the velvet white interior. You liked the velvet, it was comfortable; you could almost remember what it felt like.

Although, right now, it only served to remind you of how much time had passed since you were last in it. Maybe a year, maybe a little longer than that… Right before your driver’s license got revoked and you gave up entirely.

“Are you gonna keep staring at it, or are we gonna go get in?” Your sister quipped from behind you, resting her chin on your shoulder. “Not that this isn’t a killer view.”

Even though you appreciated her keeping up a humorous air for your sake, you could still feel the tension. She had been trying to get you to go outside for at least an entire year. Yet you still always managed to back out at the last second.

“We’re absolutely not going to get out of the car?” You asked, probably for the tenth time now. For the whole duration of this past month, you would ask and she would reassure. Over and over again, that it would’ve made anyone else sick of you by now.

She squeezed your shoulders. “Nope, just drive around. Eat something nice. Drive back home before sunset. We’ll get on the coastal highway so there won’t even be that many cars.”

Opening the front door wasn’t a problem—online shopping was basically your lifeline. The slight nausea began only after you stepped out for the first time. Autumn was coming to an end, with the beginnings of a fierce winter approaching eagerly on its heels. The cold wind bit at your flushed cheeks, and you closed your eyes to take it in before willing yourself forward.

It almost didn’t feel real. That somehow made it easier.

The sky was so blue, the trees so green, you couldn’t quite stop staring as everything sped past you. The sun breathed life into the colors of its surroundings in a way that it could never fully achieve inside your apartment. Even having the sun directly on your skin felt foreign. Car roof down, the chilly wind engulfed you in waves.

Soon, you were on a curving highway by the sea. The road was flat and stretched as long as you could see, with only the odd car here and there. What you could only describe as psychedelic pop music played in a pleasant volume in the background.

The drive would be four hours long, two to the end of the coastal road and two back, but you took that as an excuse to stop by three different drive-throughs to assemble what was surely going to be a magnificent spread. A car picnic was part of how your sister had managed to entice you, after you saw some characters on a TV show do it. She even let you pick all of the food.

Breaking the trance-like silence, you said, “I don’t know if I can stand the smell of that food much longer…”

“Same,” she said, “we’re almost there, you see that?”

She nudged her head at a square brown building in the distance. It looked like one of those rest stops that would have a shabby family pool up front. You felt a sense of relief that you wouldn’t have to go in. Maybe you would get the courage to venture out of the car next time. Or maybe the time after that. You let your mind wander as you got closer and closer.

There was one other car already parked there, a jet black Brabus G Wagon. It was a monster of a car, so big and square you thought it almost looked like an armored hearse. When your car pulled over a few spaces away from it, it still managed to dwarf you by comparison.

The music kept playing as the pair of you laid out all of your food, placing it on a checkered picnic blanket that you had covering the trunk of your car, and pushed the front seats as far as they could go for you to stretch your legs out on.

Thankfully, the food was still hot when you took it out of the thermal containers. You had yourself to thank for that idea, so you mentally patted yourself on the back.

“The chicken is all limp,” your sister whined after she picked one up. Just as you reached out for a strip yourself, a drop of cool water landed on the back of your hand and slid off to the side. The colors had grown faded, and the air felt different.

“Oh no.”

And just like that, in under a minute, a few stray drops turned into one of the quickest downpours you had ever experienced. A strong wind came and blew some of the smaller containers off, while you both rushed to hold down whatever you could.

“This doesn’t look very partly cloudy,” your sister laughed. You admired her ability to laugh it off while you panicked and scrambled around dramatically, making a mental note to never trust the weather forecast again.

“Go on, you bring up the car roof and I’ll take care of these,” she called to you over the wind that was continuously growing louder.

The moment you let go of what you’ve been holding down, they slid away from you but mostly held their place (for now). The retracted roof only budged by the tiniest margin despite your incessant pulling. All this rain must’ve done something to it…

At that moment, the door of the black SUV opened and a young man with soft facial features half-jogged to your car. Fighting your instinct to recoil, you found yourself avoiding his eyes instead. You really weren’t ready to talk to anyone. Not to mention, you didn’t get a chance to do any mental preparation for it.

He, on the other hand, had an effortless smile on as he approached, and you almost rolled your eyes at yourself for noticing his dimples right now. But you didn’t, your brows furrowing instead.

“Hi,” he called, “let me help you.” Smoothly, he joined you in pulling the roof up. You could only manage a small “sorry” but your sister added a friendly “thank you!”

He was only wearing blue jeans and a lightweight white sweater. The expensive kind of fabric you wouldn’t want to get wet. So you glanced at him with guilt as it got wetter and wetter.

“It’s like it’s nailed down,” he laughed, eyes squinted in what looked like embarrassment.

“Oh!” he added, looking behind you. You turned to see one more young man coming out of the rest stop this time. It was a bigger guy dressed all in black. Despite his tall and muscular build, something about him was gracefully cat-like.

“Johnny! Could you give us a hand?” The dimpled guy beckoned him over, although he was already on his way to you.

“What’s up? Ah.”

Soon, it was all three of you yanking at it together. Ridiculous. For some reason, it didn’t feel any different than when you were pulling on it by yourself. You prayed that it would be over as soon as possible. You could already feel your breath constricting—even looking their way was difficult. Like they were radioactive.

“Okay, I don’t think this is working out. We might actually damage it if we keep this up,” Johnny said, looking between the three of you, “you’re better off coming inside for now. At least until this storm is over.”

You looked over at your sister, who had just successfully put away all she could save from the food, which was now stacked in a corner in the back seat, getting pitifully hammered by the rain.

Her smile was stretched from ear to ear. You tried to catch her eyes and somehow telepathically communicate to her how uncomfortable you felt, but she had already moved on to observing the dimpled guy’s physique.

Under other circumstances, you would’ve found it funny that you could see the exact moment she snapped out of it. But you were sad to admit that over the past year you rarely found anything funny anymore. A few moments later, her eyes found yours, apologetic.

“Actually, we really need to get going,” she turned to them. “Thanks for your help, though!”

Owing to the storm, it had gotten darker much earlier than anticipated. A glance at the road ahead only discouraged you further when you saw just how thick the fog had gotten—even with the roof up, driving in this weather would certainly be a questionable choice… You would never forgive yourself if you were the reason your sister got into an accident.

Frozen with your hands clenched by your sides, you mentally talked yourself into it. Just one night. Clearing your throat, you gave a hesitant “okay. Let’s go in.”

Her eyebrows shot up in response. “You sure?” Even though she was offering otherwise, you could see how tired she already was. You could also feel the eyes of the two men on you, although you didn’t look up to confirm it.

“Yeah. It’s too dark. We’ll leave as soon as the sun comes up, okay?” Although your words were directed at her, part of it was also said to yourself for reassurance. You continued in a low voice, forcing yourself to look up at them, “uh, thank you so much for trying to help.”

“No worries,” the dimpled guy smiled at the both of you.

If your sister had a tail, she would’ve been wagging it. It was hard not to see that she had a type. The dimpled man, who had a laid-back demeanor and a twinkle in his smiling eyes, was exactly the type she always gravitated towards. The type that looked like he would never hurt you.

A stagger in your step, you found your body resisting the walk inside. Something felt very wrong in your gut, twisting a knot into your stomach. Sharp feelings of regret started to find their way into your mind at having offered to stay. Today wasn’t supposed to go this way. You weren’t supposed to run into anyone.

It could’ve been your imagination, but you felt Johnny’s stare linger on you as you finally followed everyone inside.

*

You were wrong about there being a pool by the entrance of the rest stop. That was probably for the best, because everything else looked fairly uncared for, and the rain only exaggerated all the dirtier aspects.

Past the small courtyard covered in dead (and now, wet) leaves, and a lone vending machine with a few snacks covered in a thick layer of dust, the four of you walked through a smaller door leading to the lobby.

It was just as shabby on the inside as it looked on the outside. Dim, warm-toned light-bulbs provided less-than-ideal lighting so that you could only just make out your surroundings. A musty smell wafted your way almost as soon as you stepped in.

“I’m Jaehyun, by the way,” the dimpled guy’s voice made you turn, and you saw that he still had a relaxed smile on. You and your sister introduced yourselves as Johnny went ahead to the front desk, which was manned by an old woman and her cat. The cat sat with its front paws tucked into its chest, unfazed by the new guests.

“Are you guys staying here, too?” Johnny called back to the two of you.

“Go on,” your sister encouraged. You shot her a look, and she returned it with two thumbs up, miming you can do it.

Keeping any further signs of discomfort to yourself, you agreed that you were in dire need of practice. Given that you hadn’t spoken to anyone other than your sister for the past year, even the thought of a brief exchange with a clerk was enough to set you on edge. You approached the counter with heavy feet.

“Good afternoon,” you started, but the woman spoke right away in a sharp tone. “No vacancy. Under repair, dear.”

“Oh. Well… We’ll just wait in the lobby then, if you don’t mind.”

Your sister had moved on with Jaehyun, the pair of them talking by the entrance. Sopping wet and looking giddy, their laughter and voices were drowned out by the storm outside.

Johnny looked down at you then back to Jaehyun across the lobby before offering “you guys can crash at our room if you want.”

His smile was cat-like to boot, and he was even bigger up close. Absurdly attractive, too. Something about that almost made you queasy, but you passed it off as your nerves building up. How long was the storm going to last?

“We couldn’t. Thank you for your offer, though.” You managed to return a small smile, but by then there was something else in his eyes that you couldn’t decipher. Interest? Amusement?

It must’ve been something you didn’t like, after all, because you hurried away and hooked your arm through your sister’s. She took her time before finally turning away from Jaehyun and back to you.

Deciding it was best to speak away from Jaehyun’s ears, you dragged her farther away. Just in case he felt charitable enough to repeat the same offer—at this point, you weren’t so sure she’d turn it down.

“No vacancies. We can just wait in the lobby for now,” you relayed, steering her towards the waiting area. At least you would get it to yourself.

There were only two shabby couches facing each other, with peeling wooden legs and faded out green fabric. With a start, you noticed for the first time that it wasn’t empty after all.

There was someone sleeping with his legs stretched out on the floor in front of him, ankles crossed. His head slumped forward so that his red hoodie obscured his face, his arms folded against his chest. He was only as big as you or maybe a little taller. Strange. You hadn’t noticed any other cars parked outside.

“Is he with you?” Your sister whispered to Jaehyun, who had followed the pair of you and was suddenly looking around the lobby awkwardly, brows slightly furrowed. He shook his head no.

There was still water dripping from the ends of his hair. He must’ve noticed you unconsciously stare, because he said “I’ll go get us some towels” and went up a narrow set of stairs to their room. Johnny glanced up at him only for a second, before going back to playing with the cat on the counter. The cat squeezed itself past his hands and stalked away into the shadows somewhere.

Why was Jaehyun sitting in the car, if they already had a room with their things in it?

“She doesn’t like us very much,” Johnny said to himself, his tone light. You don’t know why your heart did a little jump. He was talking about the cat. Not you. Right?

That was a non-ideal time for him to look straight at you. But nevertheless he approached, and his quiet walk reminded you of the cat he had just been petting. When he got close enough that it made your body tense up, you were relieved that he didn’t stop and instead kept walking past you.

“Forgot something in the car,” he said to no one, and left the lobby.

A pang of guilt sounded in your chest. You knew you were coming off as stand-offish, but you had your set limits. Especially today.

Your sister had her back turned to you, and was observing a large, muted painting of a tall ship sailing through turbulent waters. There was an ornate but faded golden frame around it.

Reaching out for her hand, you opened your mouth to say something, and—

“Towels?” A smooth voice spoke up behind you, and you spun around so quickly that you almost twisted your neck.

“Aww, thanks!” Your sister took one and let it fall over your head before taking another for herself. That made Jaehyun laugh, twinkles in his eyes. Everything seemed to make him smile or laugh, like he didn’t have a care in the world.

You grabbed the towel off of your head and absentmindedly held it out to your sister until she took it, then you turned to follow Johnny out into the rain.

A cold hand gripped your arm, stopping you. Turning around, you saw Jaehyun’s pale face staring back at you. “You’re gonna catch a cold if you go out there again. Do you need me to get you something? Your roof is open anyway, so I don’t need your keys.”

Next to him, your sister was looking at you with a puzzled expression. You hoped your voice wouldn’t crack, and said “uh, no… No, nevermind, it’s nothing.”

“You okay?” Your sister put her arms around you. “Long day, huh,” she said, rubbing your back.

“Yeah.”

When Johnny came back, you noticed he didn’t have anything in his hands.

What did you forget in the car? You wanted to ask him. But you knew better than to share what was on your mind, with everyone around.

You cursed under your breath at Jaehyun, who was still buttering up to your sister. The curse wasn’t only for how stuck to her he was, or how taken she was with him. It was also for how despite that, he still wouldn’t let you follow Johnny outside.

Although you supposed you had yourself to blame for that, too. It’s not like he forced anything on you. But somehow, when he told you not to go, you felt rooted in place and could no longer do anything other than what he told you to do. Somehow, your body was under other people’s control more than it was under your own.

The whole past year, you had felt yourself slowly slipping—you had been at a war with yourself that went on for so long it left you only as a ghost of who you once were. A silent shadow etched onto the pavement you once sat on.

All the new activity must’ve been noisy, because the sleeping man (boy?) took a deep breath in, sat up, and stretched his arms out in front of him. When he looked up at the three of you and his big eyes caught the light, you decided it would be more accurate to call him “boy” rather than “man.” Wide, circular glasses framed his youthful but angular face.

He immediately looked away and awkwardly drummed his hands on his knees. His clothes were wet, but his hair was dry underneath his hoodie, so you guessed that he must’ve ran in just before your group did. Probably while you were all struggling with pulling the roof up.

“Hi there, storm messed with your plans, too?” Your sister scrunched her nose at him playfully. “Sorry if we woke you, by the way.” She was still rubbing your back.

“No, not at all! Um, I wasn’t actually sleeping or anything. I just ran in a few minutes ago, actually,” he said, “that storm really came out of nowhere! And there was nowhere else to stop… so, yeah.” he paused, then added “I’m Mark.”

You introduced yourselves, and Jaehyun asked if Mark wanted him to check the front desk for a towel for him.

“No, I’m okay, thank you,” he pulled his hood back and shook out his hair, running a hand down its front to calm it down. Something made you instinctively look to your side, and you caught Johnny quietly staring at Mark. His eyes looked different when he wasn’t smiling. He glanced back at you, and that blank expression disappeared just as quickly.

Johnny took that as a chance to address you. “Hey, could I talk to you for a second?” When you nodded, his hand brushed gently against your wrist and led you to a more private space.

“I’m really sorry if I made you uncomfortable earlier.” He leaned into you, his voice soft. “It wasn’t my intention…”

“Don’t worry about it,” was all you could scrape together. You’d be lying if you said this hadn’t caught you off-guard. That being said, you still kept your defenses up. You were a naturally wary person. To be honest, you weren’t even sure what he was apologizing for.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, so…” You trailed off. You used to be so much better at talking.

“Didn’t I? Asking you to share a room with a stranger you barely just met,” he gave a soft laugh, and you could feel his warm breath on your face. Peppermint. Was it just you or was he closer now than when the conversation started?

Feeling the heat rising to your cheeks, you realized you needed to end this exchange soon—you weren’t ready for whatever this is. Willing yourself to continue, you said “you were just being considerate. I can understand that.”

“Is that so? Well, we’re in room two if you change your mind,” he countered, only half-joking, a glint of whatever you caught in his eyes earlier still there.

“But hey,” he said, as he reached to take his jacket off, “it’s chilly out here, so at least let me give you this.” He draped it over your shoulders and walked away, letting his reiterated offer hang without rejection.

* *

The rain outside was relentless. The gaps in the wood of the windows had the cold wind whistling through them, and rattled the glass rhythmically. It made your bones feel damp. Your sister had you wrapped in a tight hug both for her warmth and yours.

Quite the opposite from how you were feeling, these circumstances had her vibrating with excitement at all the possibilities. She adored movies where a random ensemble of characters were stuck together and had to find ways to get along.

Much to your sister’s disappointment (and your relief) Jaehyun and Johnny had went up to their room soon after that encounter. Thanks to the lack of Wi-Fi, she had spent her time so far pestering Mark out of boredom. As the conversation went on, he had loosened up and politely entertained her with whatever random topic she sprang on him.

It was just like your sister to quickly get people to open up to her wherever she went. But soon enough, even she was running out of things to talk about with Mark.

The pause in the conversation left enough room for your sister’s ears to perk up, picking up on the noise coming from down the hall. Considering the fairly small size of the rest stop, and the fact that you watched the two men walk into the room right across from the few steps leading up to the corridor, you could somewhat see their door from here if you strained your eyes hard enough at the dark.

The gap between the door and the floor told you that their lights were still on, and seeing the shadows moving around was the final push your sister needed to bounce up and practically skip there, dodging your desperate hands that clambered to pull her back down.

“Shh, I’m bored, I’ll just go see what they’re up to, that’s all!” She giggled. Your heart just threw itself against your ribcage miserably, in slow but heavy thumps. All the will in your legs escaping, you accepted that you probably wouldn’t be able to get yourself to stand up and follow her. You were under an invisible binding spell. So you and Mark watched her disappear down the short corridor.

She knocked a musical tone on the wood of their door, and it opened in no time, unleashing the light from their room and illuminating their silhouettes. Judging by the size of it, you guessed that it was Johnny. His head bobbed, going along with whatever she was saying to him.

He stepped aside, and your body tensed even more when you saw her go in. From here, it was hard to make out his features as he stood still, facing you. Was he looking your way? He held that position for a little longer before finally closing the door and drowning the corridor back in shadows, making it seem darker than it was before.

You couldn’t tear your eyes away from the corridor. It was as though everything stood still as you watched that door. Almost like all your surroundings shifted, steadily bringing you and that door closer, everything else around you disappearing.

Mark cleared his throat, asking “are you okay?”

That made you snap out of your hyper-focused state, sparing him a glace before returning it to the corridor. “I think so. Sorry.”

“Um… Do you wanna, like, go after her?”

You nodded, almost as though you were given validation to move. Just as you braced yourself to get up, the door opened again. The sight of Johnny stalking down the corridor and coming towards you made you stop, confused.

He sank down into the space next to you, casually flashing you a smile. “Hi again.”

You gave him a curt nod in reply, before impulsively shifting your gaze away. When your eyes found him again, through a great deal of effort on your part, they lingered this time. At that, his eyebrows went up inquisitively.

“Is everything okay?” He finally asked.

Before you could answer, you jumped at the sight of your sister already approaching you with Jaehyun on her tail. You really must’ve been out of it staring at Johnny…

As they maneuvered to find an empty spot to sit, the pair had ditzy smiles across their faces, and you could even see a hint of childish mischievousness.

“You won’t believe what Jaehyun here had in his suitcase,” your sister teased, both of her hands holding something behind her back. “Which was immaculately organized, by the way. But…” She pulled out a long rectangular box, and it took you a moment before you recognized that it was a Jenga tower. “Who the hell travels around with this thing?”

All four of them laughed at your sister’s presentation, and you felt like the odd one out for not having it in you to laugh along with them. Your sister plopped down in the space between Jaehyun and Mark, and began setting up the tower on the short coffee table that stood between the two couches.

“We might as well make use of it, right? You’re all playing,” she said. After that, it was mostly quiet as she finished working on it. It wasn’t plain wood like what you usually saw on TV, but instead with blocks tinted red and green.

“How about you go first?” You found your sister pointing at you excitedly. Now that she was guaranteed time spent together with everyone for at least the duration of one game, she was practically bouncing in her seat. And you knew perfectly well that she didn’t plan on letting it end after only one round.

“Let’s go!” Mark clapped, saying your name to hype you up.

You reached out and plucked an easy red block towards the top of the tower, which you were eager to set back on the very top to get everyone’s eyes off of you.

“Not so fast,” your sister said, finger twirling playfully in the air, urging you to pick the block back up. When you did, you noticed a line of small print on the underside of the block:

Whisper one of your deepest, darkest secrets to the person on your left.

Truth or dare. You never thought it was something that you would have to come across again as an adult. When participating was unavoidable, you had always defaulted to truths. But looking at it now, you concluded that the green blocks must be truth and the red ones must be dare. Although this one felt awfully a lot like both.

“Well?” She pushed, “read it aloud!”

“Whisper one of your deepest, darkest secrets to the person on your left,” you read, and Johnny perked up as he held his long hand up to his ear. Pathetically, your own hand shook as you leaned forward to set the block back.

“The darker the better,” Johnny winked at you.

“Oh. Well…” For starters, telling him anything personal was out of the question. What was something believable you could come up with on a whim? Finally, you leaned into him as close as you could get yourself to go (which wasn’t very close at all) and whispered “I cheated on my college final.”

“That’s all you got?” He feigned an expression of disbelief.

“That’s all I got.” You said, deflecting.

“You’re welcome to give us a dark secret of your own then, mister the darker the better,” your sister teased, earning a playful nudge from Jaehyun, who seemed to be enjoying driving Johnny into a corner.

“Oh, trust me, I have plenty,” Johnny’s tone was lighthearted, but your eyes met his and you caught that same look from before, lurking just beneath the surface. He didn’t look away, almost like he was pausing to savor your discomfort, so you broke eye contact first and cleared your throat.

“Mark, your turn.”

When you glanced up at Mark, you caught his eyes darting from you to Johnny. Too caught up in whatever was going on between you two, you had failed to notice that Mark was somehow under the same blanket of tension. Or at the very least, he was an observer. Had Johnny noticed?

Mark mirrored you in clearing his throat, then pushed a finger into a block towards the middle of the tower. A green one stuck out on the other side, and he reached around to take it. Truth.

“What is the most childish thing you still do?” He read.

“And try to limit it to one, kid,” Johnny stared ahead at Mark, his calculated smile delayed.

So he had noticed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mark said, although he was visibly trying to keep his tone light. Meanwhile, a laid-back Jaehyun still had his amused smile on as he watched Johnny. When Johnny didn’t comment, Mark moved past it and gave a half-baked answer to his prompt.

“Finally!” Your sister gave an exaggerated sigh, probably relieved to have the focus shifted away from Mark and Johnny’s strange tension. She went straight for a red block, picking out a dare. “Hm, dance with no music for one minute… See, no, that’s no way to treat the game master.”

“Game master?” Jaehyun echoed, grinning.

“Yep. You may be the landlord for packing the Jenga, but I dug the thing out, so I hereby officially declare myself game master. Everyone kneel—or actually, I’ll settle for some singing this time.”

Johnny held a conceding palm out to Jaehyun, who pondered for a moment before slipping into smooth singing. You weren’t surprised by how it sounded just as rich and smooth as his speaking voice did.

“I fall in love too easily,” he sang extra slowly, earning a smack on his shoulder from your sister for picking a ballad, followed by some passionate head-banging as she pretended to dance at a rock concert.

“I fall in love too fast,”—his voice broke at ‘fast’ as he held back his laughter—“I fall in love too terribly hard,”—it was getting harder for him to maintain his composure when Mark and Johnny didn’t share his reservations, with Mark clapping like a seal right next to him—”for love to ever last... Okay, okay, I think the minute is up. You’re gonna dislocate something.”

Out of breath, she flopped back down onto the couch, hands busy fixing her wild hair. “Your turn,” she panted to Jaehyun, “And don’t be lame. Dares only.”

“Okay, dare it is,” he laughed. Then proceeded to laugh even harder when he read out his dare. “Serenade the person of your choosing.”

Needless to say, of course your sister was serenaded twice in one night.

The game went on for a while, with Johnny, Jaehyun, and your sister routinely picking dares. The group would eventually get loud enough to warrant an occasional scowl from the old lady at the front desk, until it was late enough for her to call it a day and disappear into a door tucked away behind the counter.

Meanwhile, you and Mark had mostly stuck to truths, as the Jenga tower grew more and more unstable. It was Mark’s turn again when he picked yet another green block.

“Name one thing you’d do if you knew there would be zero consequences.” He read in a drowsy voice, going on to give a quick answer. “I don’t know, I guess I’d knock some snacks out of that vending machine. I don’t know why I said that, I wouldn’t actually do that. I really am getting kinda hungry, though…”

“Your mind went straight to burglary? You guys better watch your bags tonight,” Johnny said, and what you assumed was supposed to be a humorous jab came across a little too sharp-tongued. Everyone’s energy levels had been depleting over the past couple of hours spent on the lobby’s less than ideal couches.

“I’m sorry, do you have some kind of problem with me?” Mark retorted.

“I don’t know, should I?” Johnny said.

“Dude, if you have something to say to me, just say it.”

Your sister pushed herself off the couch. “Well, I’ll go use the bathroom until you guys figure this out like big boys.”

“Nice and condescending, yeah?” Johnny said, not bothering to look up at her as she retreated to their room.

Jaehyun hid his evident enjoyment long enough to hold both of his hands up and say “okay, guys, how about we take a break?”

“Nah, I’m good.” Johnny shot back, his face anything but. His demeanor was scarily calm throughout the entire exchange.

That cold atmosphere went on for the next few rounds. You hadn’t forgotten that you were merely attempting to get along with strangers you knew nothing about. Johnny with his two sides, all calculated smiles and concealed stares. Jaehyun with his eerily laid-back demeanor and strange enjoyment of the conflict. And Mark. You didn’t know what to think of him yet.

With the added tension, you stopped trying to look up at any of them.

Before you knew it, it was your turn again. Would this cursed game ever end? So far, you had exclusively picked truths and lied your way through all of them. Your eyes scanned the tower over several times, before you gave up finding a green block that was stable enough. You picked your second dare of the night, this time voluntarily.

Let the group look through your phone for one minute.

A whole host of reasons rushed through your mind at how bad of an idea that was. At the very least, they would know that the only contact on your phone was your sister. You had virtually no pictures, and no apps. Everything pointed to your ghost-like life, so empty and unremarkable that it was practically a burner phone.

“Well?” Jaehyun said.

“I don’t want to do this one.”

“It can’t be that bad, can it?” Johnny asked.

“She just told you she’s not comfortable with whatever it is, though.” Mark spoke up, having mostly kept his silence for the past few rounds.

Johnny reached for the block in your hand, and your body flinched involuntarily, the block flying out of your hand and skidding across the floor.

“Whoa,” Johnny hung back, “I’m sorry. I wasn’t gonna do anything.”

“I think you’re scaring her, Johnny.” Jaehyun said, his voice ominously quiet. Was there a hint of a smile in his voice? Were you imagining things?

“Am I?”

No one said anything for what felt like a long moment, until finally, as if on queue, your sister was back in the lobby.

“What did I miss?” She said, entirely missing the atmosphere of the room.

Johnny reached forward and tugged one of the legs the tower was supporting itself on. The entire thing came crashing down.

“Oh.” She stopped midway, hovering awkwardly next to them. “Okay then.”

“Good night.” Johnny said, getting up and giving you a brief pat on the head, before slowly making his way back to their room. Your scalp felt like pop rocks as you watched him walk away.

* * *

It was past midnight. Now it was just the two of you again, along with Mark. Your sister was sleeping soundly next to you, her head on your shoulder.

Mark was still awake on the couch across from you, but he was back to sitting quietly in the corner and avoiding eye contact. Save for the occasional accidental eye contact with you, which he responded to by sending a small smile your way before going back to aimlessly staring away.

His hands were curled around the warm thermos your sister had given him earlier. He set it down when the owner’s cat sauntered towards him, and patted his lap for it to come up. It deliberated for a moment, then jumped and curled up on him as he stroked it.

Your mind couldn’t help but go back to your interaction with Johnny, running it over in your head again and again until you had positively squeezed the life out of it. One minute he was cold and calculated, and the next he was the gentlemanly romantic lead. Or at least he knew how to make people perceive him that way.

You shivered—the weather was getting colder.

“Mm?” Your sister looked up at you, eyes barely able to open.

“It’s nothing, go to sleep,” you reassured her, then took the chance to get up now that her head was no longer resting on you.

The front desk was empty now, but you attempted to ring the bell on the counter anyway. A while of waiting made you accept that no one was coming. It was probably safe to assume the old lady ran this place by herself, and was most likely asleep by now.

You needed to go to the bathroom. A quick look around led you to a door with a sheet of paper taped to it, reading “Staff Only.” You twisted the doorknob, your guilt a second priority right now. Locked.

It might have been the hope of almost finding a bathroom, but suddenly your mild need for it turned into a more urgent one. You looked around some more, before cursing under your breath and going up the narrow staircase that led up to the rooms.

To your surprise, the hallway was very short. It was even darker than the lobby, so you gave your eyes some time to adjust. There were only three doors, the one in the center had a brass number 2 on it, and was right across from the staircase.

We’re in room two, if you change your mind, Johnny’s captivating voice played in your mind for what felt like the hundredth time. Feeling your heartbeat speed up again, you took deep breaths and willed yourself to calm down. The other rooms were under repair, but maybe their bathrooms weren’t.

First, you attempted to open the door with the brass 1 on it, but it didn’t budge. Then the one with the brass 3, but that one wouldn’t open either.

You clenched your fists and cursed your terrible luck. Would they even be awake?

After a lengthy struggle, consisting of an internal argument about whether you’d rather ask them for help or go out into the nearby wilderness in the middle of a storm, you knocked on the door of the second room.

As you waited, you glanced back down the stairs behind you, your eyes searching for your sister. She was now lying down on the couch, breathing deeply…

The door springing open made you jump, and Jaehyun was positively beaming in the center of the door frame. Following a quick scan, his smile faltered when he realized your sister wasn’t in tow.

He looked like he had just showered, his hair damp again, and his skin glowing. Johnny was stretched out on the bed behind him, awake.

“Welcome,” Jaehyun said, picking his spirit back up. “Did you change your mind?”

“No, but would you mind if I use your bathroom?” You died a little on the inside.

“Of course not, come in,” he made way for you, and you abandoned your last remaining shred of dignity as you sprinted to what you assumed was the bathroom. Jaehyun giggled behind you before you closed the door and finally got some privacy.

Despite being done, you stalled going back out, probably out of dread. You supposed it was in your favor that the bathroom was by far the cleanest place in the entirety of this pit stop. A quick look around told you that Johnny and Jaehyun were comfortably settled in. An electric shaver was strewn on the counter, and a travel-sized toothpaste tube lay feebly next to the sink, almost all used up. Peppermint.

Finally, you took a deep breath and opened the door. You were immediately met with Johnny, who was leaning on the wall by the bathroom, not even an arm’s length away. Behind him, Jaehyun was nowhere to be seen, and the door leading out of the room was closed.

Momentarily dizzied from the blood rushing to your head, you took a step back to create some distance.

He smiled sweetly, “the storm sure is taking a while to settle down. Where were you two on your way to, again?”

“Just a short trip. They’re expecting us back at work tomorrow.” You lied, knowing full well there was no one there who would notice your absence, save for your sister.

“Oh, you two work together? Jaehyun and I work together too, actually.”

His eyes watched you patiently as you flipped imaginary pages in your head, scrambling for something normal to say next. You felt like it would be the polite thing to do to continue the conversation, but your heart was beating too fast for that, which made you that much more nervous and jittery. Johnny seemed to be enjoying your visible anxiety. You weren’t sure if it was your imagination that his smile was getting wider. Something about it wasn’t so sweet anymore.

“I should get back. To the lobby, I mean. Thanks again.” He didn’t lock the door, did he? The nausea was creeping back up.

You speed-walked to the door like you used to do when you were little, when you were alone in the dark and scared of whatever thing that might snatch you and drag you away before you reached the light. You could only feel fear. Fear of how powerless you felt about everything.

It felt much longer than it should’ve but you reached the door. The hair on your neck stood and your breath quickened. You turned the knob, and it swung open.

In a hasty moment, you tripped at the first step of the stairs, and a big arm grabbed you around your waist. You could see Johnny’s profile in your peripheral vision, curling down for his cheek to meet the side of your head, slow breaths against your ear. His chest rose and fell gently against your back; he was holding on so tightly.

He felt like a solid wall, and you knew it was impossible for you to get away unless he was the one who chose to let go of you. He alone should’ve been able to pull up the car roof with ease.

“Back when we were playing that game,” he said, his voice so low you could barely hear it, “did you feel like I was gonna hurt you?”

What was he saying? You left his words unanswered as you were still engulfed by your silence.

From here, you could see that your sister was still sleeping peacefully, and Mark had his head turned away. Nevertheless, just having your sister in your sight helped soothe your nerves. That feeling was fleeting as Johnny spoke his next sentence.

“Are you scared of me?”

Trapped in what felt like an iron embrace, you opened your mouth but you still couldn’t make any noise come out. Some hunch or instinct, or maybe just pure chance, must’ve been what made Mark’s head turn your way out of nowhere.

He was staring for a while with an expression that told you he wasn’t quite sure what he was looking at. His eyes must’ve finally adjusted to the darkness of the hallway, because he suddenly got up, making the cat on his lap scuttle away offended.

“Dude, what are you doing?”

The entire building let out a groan, and whatever dim lights were there all blinked out simultaneously, plunging you into complete darkness. Johnny held on for a few more seconds before finally letting go. You ran down the steps without looking back.

Mark called your name, his voice alarmed, “is everything alright?”

Your throat was still squeezed shut, as you walked into something and stumbled in the dark until you felt your way to the couch your sister was on. Your hands found her sleeping from, and you shook her awake.

“Get up, we’re leaving,” finally finding your voice, you spoke sternly. She was still in a daze and clearly confused.

“Wha- what? What?”

“We’re leaving. I’m gonna call us a ride, I just need you to be awake with me,” you stammered. Your sister sat upright, most likely still processing.

Mark’s voice spoke up. “It’s pitch black outside, the roads around here aren’t lit very well. Did something happen? Are you okay?”

You couldn’t put it into words. The familiar dread that built up in your gut.

At this point, you just wanted to go home and shut yourself in again.

You ignored Mark, and ruffled through your bag for your phone. You went through every corner of it four times, your heart sinking deeper with each try. “My phone is gone. Where’s my phone?”

Without waiting for a reply, you tossed your bag aside and felt around for your sister’s this time. Also gone.

“Wait, mine’s not there either? That’s weird…” Your sister went through hers again for good measure, her voice thick with sleep. “Do you think we left them in the car?”

“No, I always have mine on me.” Something suddenly occurred to you. “I was awake the whole time, wasn’t I?”

You felt your sister shrug next to you. Hesitantly, Mark answered instead, saying “I don’t know, you both kinda drifted off at some point.”

“And you? You were awake?” You pushed.

“I was, yeah. I went to check on my Vespa for a second.” You couldn’t quite grasp what it was, but something was off about Mark’s voice.

Paranoia now had you firmly in its grip. You decided it was best to watch your words until you could see again. But you couldn’t stop a wave of helplessness from washing over you, making your limbs go cold.

“Could we borrow your phone, maybe?” You asked Mark. One final attempt.

“Oh, man, I sent it for repairs this weekend,” Mark said, apologetic. Why did his voice sound like that?

“Let’s go.” Resolute, you grabbed your sister’s arm and attempted to head towards the exit.

“Just give me a minute!” She said, releasing her hand from yours. “You go on and get the car started, okay?”

You hesitated, before making up your mind and following the only source of light, out into the storm.

The rain immediately battered down on you, and if you thought it was cold in the lobby then this was absolutely freezing. You could only barely make out the silhouettes of the parked cars.

If you just turned on the headlights all the way, the two of you could probably drive through the dark. And if you kept moving, the rain wouldn’t bother you. You had the keys ready in your hands, and you were grateful that at least they were still in your sister’s bag. Maybe you really did forget your phones in the car, after all.

But something was squirming in your gut, making your stomach do desperate flips as you jumped into the driver’s seat, slamming the door behind you.

You slid the key in the ignition and turned. Nothing. Not even the sound of the engine trying to start. The sounds of the howling wind and heavy rain carried on.

Reaching for the glove compartment, your hands found the flashlight, and a weak beam of light pierced its way through the darkness. You stepped out of the car, wrapping your other arm around yourself to stop from shaking. When the hood of your car was open and you shined the light at its interior, you doubted your eyes.

The battery was gone.

You were just silent. Your own worse fears coming into realization right before your eyes. After what felt like a second and an eternity of staring down at the empty spot in the hood, you felt a light touch on your arm when your sister joined you by your side. She looked exhausted, her breathing heavy. Calling over the storm, she said, “should we ask them if they can do something about this?”

Your head snapped to her in bewilderment. Could you be wrong? You doubted yourself for a second, but then got a grip back. There was no other explanation. You were stuck here, and it was too late to speak up. The words collided into themselves and were left mangled somewhere in your throat. But you had to say something, anything.

“Listen,” you started, and she looked at you attentively, concern clouding her face, “I think—”

“Is something wrong?” A voice spoke up from behind you. Jaehyun. Again.

“We were just talking about you!” Your sister chimed. “Take a look at this. Think someone stole it?”

You were dumbfounded as he leaned in between the two of you to take a closer look at the car’s contents.

“Mmm,” he didn’t look very surprised. He turned to your sister and said “we can give you a ride tomorrow morning. You might need to get it towed.”

“Okay... I can barely hear you. Let’s go inside?” She turned to you. Your face must’ve looked terrible because she did a slight double take and put her hand on your shoulder. “Come on.”

Shining the flashlight ahead, the three of you walked back to the rest stop.

When you were back inside, Mark was gone.

* * * *

At least an hour must’ve went by until Johnny was back. He didn’t acknowledge anyone as he came in, just silently sauntering past the lobby. He was completely soaked again from head to toe. Drops of dark water trailed behind him as he made his way back to their room.

You resolved that you would find a way to take your sister and leave any way you could. Maybe you would find a way to take their car. They were only human, they had to sleep sometime.

For now, Jaehyun was still in the lobby with the both of you.

“You don’t think he took our car battery and our phones, do you?” She was talking about Mark. Your sister was sitting next to Jaehyun and mostly addressed him, since she hadn’t gotten a word out of you after you failed to leave. Having Jaehyun hovering around took away any of your will to speak up.

“He didn’t seem like the type…” She trailed off, still thinking about Mark.

The night felt longer, probably because of the changing seasons, but it might as well still have been midnight. You lost track of how much time was going by and doubted yourself when you remembered that this has all been just one long day. The power was still out. You had the flashlight off to conserve its battery.

Down the hall, you heard the room open, and after a minute you felt the cushions next to you gently sink with a familiar weight.

“I found some candles and lit them in our room,” Johnny’s voice spoke up. You could only see his outline and features like a hazy dream. You avoided looking at his face. You were too tired.

There was a soft, dancing reddish light coming from their room now. Gently, Johnny spoke again. “It’s too dark out here, isn’t it? Let’s go inside.”

Your sister shifted, and you noticed for the first time how close she had been sitting to Jaehyun. Were they holding hands? You didn’t know if your mind was playing tricks on you. She got up before your eyes could decide what they were looking at.

“I need to wash up,” she said, sounding just as tired as you felt. Getting up, you followed her to their room. You couldn’t care less if you looked completely unhinged, sitting on the floor right in front of the bathroom door after she closed it.

“You two are so close,” Johnny spoke though the dark, face hidden in the shadows cast by the candle light. You still refused to look up at him, but you could hear the tone of amity. The candles on the night stand behind him exaggerated the size of his shadow and made it dance over you.

“You look tired,” his voice was gentle, surreal, “get some rest.”

You hugged your knees closer to your chest, fighting to keep your eyes open. The sound of the water running in the bathroom was steady. Your eyes kept rolling back into your head, and you kept dragging them back into focus…

But they were so unfocused…

And the steady stream of the shower ran…

And everything swayed in the candle light…

Everything swam…

and the water ran…

and ran…

You dreamed that Johnny was carrying you and wading through a crimson sea. Gently. Gently.

You were floating in crimson.

Or was he the one floating?

Daylight. Your body woke up with a jolt, eyes snapping open. The first thing that screamed out at you was how incredibly sore your body was. It must’ve been from all the tension that you had built up. You were curled up on your side, holding your own body close.

Small mountains of white sheets were piled up around you, and strips of sunlight draped over the bed and made their way to your skin. It was so silent; last night’s storm almost felt like a distant dream.

Moving excruciatingly slow, you lifted your head and looked around. Your heart hammering in your chest when you saw that Johnny was sleeping over in the other bed, his large frame rising and falling slowly with each breath.

The bathroom door was open, and you could see from here that it was empty, too. It was only the two of you in this room.

Logically, you knew that there was still a possibility that Jaehyun and your sister chose to sleep on the couches outside. But there was a pit in your stomach that crippled you. It made it hard to move. Hard to think.

As quietly as you had it in you to move, you left the bed. The cold floor against your feet made you notice for the first time that you were barefoot. Good. With quiet footsteps, you made your way to the bathroom to double-check. The floor was wet under your feet, like someone had walked in from the lobby straight to the bathroom not that long ago.

But just like you suspected, it was empty. The curtains drawn shut over the bathtub caught your eyes, but one look at the material told you that it would be too noisy to try and move it right now. It was too quiet for anyone to be sleeping there, anyway.

You turned back towards the bedroom door, taking glances behind you to make sure Johnny was still asleep. You didn’t take your eyes off of him as your hand gripped the doorknob and turned it. It opened without resistance, and you peeked outside at the lobby past the staircase. Empty.

Trying to slow your breaths and breathe more quietly only proved to make things worse for you. It was as though you were running out of air. Before you could give your brain more time to panic, despite your overwhelming instinct to just run out and start calling for your sister, you walked back towards Johnny, who looked so peaceful in his sleep that your own panicked state was almost laughable.

At this point, you must’ve gone out of your mind, because suddenly you found yourself fighting the urge to laugh. You were hysterical. You had to stop and put your hands over your face, as your body shook with silent laughter, but tears started to stream down your face.

Thoughts of your sister were racing through your mind. Maybe she really was cuddling up to Jaehyun last night. Maybe they went somewhere together. Maybe she thought she’d be back before you woke up.

But you knew deep down that she wouldn’t leave you behind. You were so convinced of that, that any what ifs you tried to feed to your worry, to keep it from consuming you, just felt forced.

You knew she wouldn’t leave you because she knew how fragile you were after what happened last year. You were so fragile, you saw everything through the lens of a horror movie. With your own little cast of strangers.

Something caught the light just outside of your line of vision, halting your chaotic train of thought. Your hands wiped away any tears that lingered on your eyelashes so you could see more clearly. There, carelessly tossed away on the nightstand by his bed, a set of keys were reflecting the sunlight. Among them was a car key.

Well, if you really were crazy, then you might as well see where it led you.

The closer you came to Johnny, the harder it was to breathe. Until you couldn’t bear to do anything but hold your breath. Finally, when the keys were within your reach, your hand closed around them. There was only the slightest sound of scraping against the wood of the nightstand.

With no time for you to worry about the sound the keys had just produced, Johnny’s hand shot up and grabbed your wrist. But it didn’t stop. His grip got tighter and tighter until the ends of his fingers yellowed, and your hand shook and dropped the keys with a clatter. Even so, he didn’t release his grip.

“Where were you gonna go?” He spoke slowly.

“It depends—where’s my sister?” You shot back, voice shaking.

He laughed quietly. He had a gentle laugh. Finally letting go of your wrist, his hand instead brushed through his hair. “I told her you might get worried. You must’ve gotten a scare… Sorry about that.”

You turned to him with an inquisitive look, hanging onto his words. He looked sleepy and relaxed, his hair tousled. Not like someone who almost broke your wrist less than a minute ago.

“Jaehyun told me about all our phones going missing, and your car battery. That Mark might’ve made away with them or something. He and your sister went to pick up a new one.” He explained. And as you listened, your heart sank.

“Okay. Please take me to her, then.”

“You know, I think they wouldn’t have minded some time alone, too,” he chuckled, “but sure, if you’re so worried. I’ll take you.”

Passing through the lobby, you noticed the old lady was back at the front desk. Were you brave enough to finally say something? Everything in your body screamed at you not to, straining your muscles into place.

Your heartbeat quickened, and you used any strength you had left and turned to approach her. Before you could go on, you felt Johnny’s hand hold onto your upper arm and pull you closer, wrapping you into a hug by his side.

“Let’s not waste any time,” he whispered, and held on as he led you all the way out of the rest stop. He only let go of you when you were in the shadow cast by his giant car.

The day you stopped for the car picnic, you had parked farther away on the left side of it, but as you approached the other side of his car this time, you saw what had been obscured by the SUV. A turquoise Vespa came into view.

Mark’s.

Seeing it sent goosebumps down your back and up your neck, but you dragged yourself away. You couldn’t afford to comment on it right now, not to Johnny. You would talk to your sister when you saw her…

A sting creeping into your eyes warned you of incoming tears, but you blinked them away rapidly, not ready to face a possible reality. When you saw your sister, you would tell her everything you had on your mind and you wouldn’t care who might be listening in.

Johnny was making his way to the driver’s side when you spoke up abruptly, before you could help yourself. “One more thing?”

“What is it?”

“I just want to get something from the car. My sister’s car.”

“Go ahead,” he leaned an arm over the car roof as he waited for you.

In the trunk, a few thermos flasks were stacked neatly to the side, with small labels taped to them, reading “12” and “24” and “48.” Your sister had always been meticulous when it came to packing. This would be all you had of her with your right now. You found the one labeled with the number twelve, and hugged it close to your chest. Twelve would do.

For now, you walked with your own two feet right to what felt like your doom, and hoisted yourself up into his car. A second after you got in, all the locks snapped shut.

* * * * *

He drove with the two of you in silence for a while, his eyes focused on the road, one hand on the steering wheel. You were getting farther and farther away from the rest stop, in a stranger’s car, your sister nowhere in sight.

Reality finally crashed into your chest like an icy wave. The tears you were holding back fell down your cheeks, making your chest heave in small, irregular breaths.

Incoherent thoughts raced through your head, and you started hyperventilating, your seemingly never-ending tears threatening to choke you.

“Hey, hey,” Johnny reached his other hand out, the one that wasn’t on the steering wheel, and brushed his long fingers against your face, lulling you, “deep breaths. In… out… that’s right. Just like that. In… out…”

Your rattled breathing slowed, your mind halted.

He didn’t turn your way once, his cold stare on the road, face expressionless. But his voice was gentle. Effortlessly soothing. If you looked hard enough at his face, maybe you could find something you wanted to find. Maybe it wasn’t cold. Maybe he was just tired.

“What are you so afraid of? You’re safe. Everything’s going to be okay.”

He sounded so reassuring that for a long moment you doubted that anything out of the ordinary had happened today. Maybe you were just imagining everything. Maybe your isolation had finally gotten to you.

You were glad someone kind like Johnny was here to look after you.

Taking his outstretched hand into your own, you nestled your face into his palm and closed your eyes.

“Good girl,” he said.

That was the last thing he said for a while.

Hours must have passed by the time you realized you had fallen asleep out of exhaustion. Orange hues now stretched across the sky in broad strokes, clouds almost dissipated. Next to you, Johnny was still silently driving, soaked in the orange light. Everything was so saturated, it looked like a painting.

“How did Jaehyun leave without his car?” You asked, your voice coming out small.

“This is my car,” Johnny said. “But we came with two. I told you, we work together.”

“Oh.” Somehow, the more time you spent with them, the more you didn’t have it in you to know more about them. Ask about their life or what they did for a living.

“You know, I had this car modified. It’s sound proof. And bullet proof, even.”

“Hm.”

The silence was strangely comfortable now. You closed your eyes and leaned your head back on the headrest.

“You cold?” He asked.

“No.” You said, your hands unconsciously pulling in his jacket tighter around your frame. “I never thanked you for giving me your jacket… Here. I want you to have this,” you handed him the warm thermos. The last thing you had of your sister’s.

Somehow, you felt like everything would be okay. Just like he said it would be. He gave a grateful smile and took slow mouthfuls from the flask, as you watched the sun outline him through his window.

The trees that were scattered more sparsely before now gathered into denser bunches the farther along the road he drove. Before you knew it, you were driving into the middle of a forest thick with pine trees. The car rocked left and right underneath you as the ground grew wilder. At some point, all directions started looking identical.

Eventually, the car slowed into a stop and he cut the engine. You were surrounded by nothing but trees, in what seemed like the middle of nowhere. “Get out,” Johnny said, not looking your way.

The silent bubble you were in was broken by a rush of cold wind when he opened his own door, stepping out. Following him out into the forest, the smell of pine twined with the cold air seeped into your lungs. The silence was only broken by the sound of Johnny’s and your shoes against the vegetation.

Your body felt so heavy with sleep, it only exaggerated your dream-like state of mind. The orange light of the sunset warmed you to your core. You were the calmest you’ve been in a very long time, as you followed him deeper and deeper into the forest.

“Where are we?” Your own voice sounded jarring against the silence.

“Jaehyun likes it here. It’s quiet, and there are no eyes around. I’m just making a guess that they made a stop here.”

The trees parted and the sea revealed itself for the first time. It had been years since you were this close to it, and the air coming through over the water felt nice on your face.

Johnny had stopped walking ahead of you, and you were now the one in the lead. You stopped as soon as you got to the edge of the water, staring down at the crimson ripples.

There was a trail in the sand that looked awfully a lot like something heavy had been dragged away, back towards the thick of the trees.

“Why are we here, Johnny?”

Johnny’s arms reached around from behind you, slowly, wrapping you into a snake-like embrace, his broad hands curling around your frame. His movement was tentative, like he was giving you a chance to pull away.

It was quiet for a while before either of you said anything.

“Back when we were playing that game,” he repeated, before stopping to recollect his thoughts, and starting again, “look, I know I haven’t known you for long. But this whole time, I was watching you, you know.”

“It’s just… Something about you seems off,” he continued, “You’re scared of everything. And there’s the way you walk all folded into yourself… I wasn’t sure at first. I thought maybe you were just having a bad day. Then I thought maybe that guy Mark was bothering you or something. Until you flinched at me like I was gonna hurt you.”

For the first time, nerves were evident in his voice, “like… I don’t know, like that’s something you’re used to. Like you’re in trouble… Or you’re trying to hide from it.” He paused to take a shaky breath, his words dripping with uncertainty, his voice odd. Just like Mark’s had been.

“You seemed like you’ve been trying to say something these past couple of days. No one is around here right now, you can talk to me. Whatever is going on with you, I think I can help.”

You kept your eyes ahead of you, watching the sea. There was nothing you could say or do now. You understood now that last year’s events had their claws on you too deep to shake off. You were a haunted house.

Like how he had been holding you back at the corridor, his embrace lingered. But this time, he let it linger indefinitely. It was comfortable.

You don’t know how long the two of you just stood there in silence. Over time, his grip loosened just a little but kept hold. Then it loosened more, until it completely slipped away from you. There was a loud thud behind you when he hit the ground, but you didn’t turn around. Caught on watching the crimson ripples for a moment longer.

You still had twelve hours.

That would be enough.

When you finally turned around to face his slumped body, your eyes didn’t go up to scan the forest. Instead, you trained all of your focus on Johnny, because you knew everything counted on these next coming moments. Because you couldn’t let things end like they did last time.

Getting down on your knees, you pushed his heavy body until he was flat on his back. Then you put your hands around his neck and squeezed.

You knew how hard you needed to do it to cut off someone’s air supply. How long you needed to keep it cut off until it was too late. So you knew your limits perfectly well, and how to do it just enough to be convincing. Just enough not to really hurt him.

And when your hands finally withdrew from his neck, you stayed perfectly frozen in place, not moving a muscle or making a sound until you could make sure that he was drawing the shallowest of breaths again.

Finally, your hands roamed his pockets until you found his car key. Your grip wrapped around it tightly.

A rustle and the crunching of leaves told you that your spectator had finally come out of hiding. The crunching stopped as your sister walked onto the sand of the small beach. She was scanning your face carefully. In her hand, a long metallic baseball bat.

“I almost thought you wouldn’t be able to do it.” She said, proud.

“You told me I would develop a taste for it sooner or later.”

“And I guess I was right, huh,” she teased, nothing different from the usual way she spoke. She didn’t let go of the baseball bat as she raced towards you and drew you into a big hug. “I’m so proud of you. I can’t believe it’s finally happening! We’ll be so good together!”

Your body tensed up, and she withdrew to look at your face. “Something wrong?”

“No! No. I’m just… tired.” You pulled her back into the hug, spinning your bodies ever so subtly. Shifting her view away from Johnny.

“You’re acting weird. Are you mad at me?” She said.

“Why would I be mad at you?”

“You could barely stand looking at me after last time.”

You mustered up everything in you to stop your voice from wavering. “Because it was my first time ever seeing anything like that. There was… so much blood. There was so much blood on you, I would see it again in my mind every time I looked at you.”

She drew away from you again to give you an understanding look, before saying “Well, now you can do things your own way. No blood. Right?”

“Right.”

“We’re in this together, right?” She beamed at you. You nodded in a silent reply.

“You’re avoiding my eyes again,” her face dropped into a cold stare almost instantly.

“I’m not… I told you, I’m just tired. I wanna go home.”

“I know I promised we wouldn’t do anything this time… But you know I can’t keep doing this alone. It just doesn’t feel the same. We’ve always done everything else together, and I wanted you to finally accept this side of me.

"You accept it now, don’t you? You just did it, too. You just killed someone! We’re the same now,” her eyes were shining as she kept filling the silence. “How did it feel?”

“It felt… It- it felt,” you stuttered, “I was the most scared I’ve ever been in my life. I want to go home now. Please?” You felt the urge to throw up, which you held down by swallowing your bitter saliva repeatedly.

Thoughts of Jaehyun and Mark weighed heavy on your mind, and thoughts of what she would do if she noticed Johnny’s shallow breaths made your body start shaking out of your control.

“Wow, you’re really taking this hard. Shhh,” she held you to her side, supporting you back into the woods, “it’s okay. It’s okay…”

“Is Jaehyun here? Is he somewhere in this forest?”

“He is.” Her reply was curt.

“And Mark?”

“Poor baby…” she cooed like she was talking about a wounded puppy, “he followed me right out into the storm. So eager to help. After I was done with him, he had to spend the night out in the rain. I had to lay his body in the bathtub the morning after, early enough while you were all sleeping.”

“Oh.” Bathtub… Bathtub…

You left her with him. Why did you leave?

“Anyway, we’ll need to actually go get a battery now. I don’t think the one I took out is usable anymore.”

“Hm.”

“Which car do you wanna take back? I got Jaehyun’s keys. It’s a pretty nice car. He had good taste in music, too.”

Had… You were the one who agreed to stay at the rest stop.

And it cost two people their lives. 

Your step faltered. “Johnny’s.”

She side-eyed you, “you’re talkative. Okay then, lead the way.”

It felt as though your blood had entirely escaped your body by the time you were back by the car. The keys were clutched so tightly in your hand that you wouldn’t have been surprised if they drew blood. You doubted that you would’ve felt it right now.

“Can I drive?” You asked.

“Ooh. Are you sure?”

“I think so.”

She gave you a proud look once again, and she threw the baseball bat into the car before she finally got into the passenger seat. You, on the other hand, had been pretending to circle around to the driver’s side after having used the remote control key to activate the locks. Ten more seconds before deadlock would be activated.

Nine… You walked as slowly as you could, but not slow enough to draw any suspicion.

Eight… What would happen to her if you turned her in?

Seven… What would happen to Johnny if you didn’t? And every other person after?

Six… She said she wanted you two to be together. You would be. You were just as guilty.

Five… You were positive that these were the longest ten seconds of your life. Everything seemed to move in slow motion.

Four… Your eyes betrayed you as they stole a worried glance at her.

Three… She held your eyes for a moment, before you watched a slow change in her expression.

Two… Her eyes went wide, realization dawning on her face. She lunged at the door, and—

One.

You couldn’t hear her screams as she thrashed at the door handle, shouting something at you. Then, all at once, she stopped. There was a crazed expression on her face as she pulled out her baseball bat. She waved at you before pointing at it, giving you a wild smile.

Your heart sank. Your knees weakened under you and made you slump to the ground like a rag doll, using your arms to brace yourself against the soil of the forest.

It was over.

You had ruined everything.

Of course it wouldn’t have worked.

You betrayed her.

What were you thinking?

She swung the bat at the window by the passenger’s seat, and you couldn’t do anything but watch in stunned silence as she bounced right against the glass. Coming back for a more charged swing than the one before it, she bounced back as harshly as she had swung.

And then you remembered why you couldn’t hear her screams one bit from out here. Johnny had modified the car. It was soundproof. Bulletproof.

You scampered away from the car, your legs still refusing to carry you. She wasn’t giving up, baseball bat bouncing off the glass over and over again. When she finally stopped, staring into your eyes like an animal whose leg got caught in a bear trap, your heart hammered so loudly that it was all you could hear.

Please, she mouthed at you.

She was bargaining.

You weren’t sure which stage weighed heavier on you, this or the anger from earlier. She dropped the bat and splayed both of her hands against the glass.

Her eyes were so wide, so scared, that you had to fight the urge to run back to her and unlock the door. She was all you had. Your sister, your best friend. You only had each other.

But you knew that more than anything you could give her, she needed help. And you needed help. If you went on living like this for any longer, you were sure you would only lose your mind more and more. That was if you hadn’t already lost it.

You took a deep breath and looked her squarely in the eyes, then you shook your head no.

Her face broke down into a silent sob as she slapped her hands at the unmoving glass. Crying for the freedom she knew she had just lost. Grieving for it.

Then you were reminded that the stages of grief weren’t always linear. Because just as quickly, she was back to anger, and your hand went up over your mouth as you watched her bang her head against the glass.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Bang.

Maybe she was hoping you would let her out before she hurt herself too much. And then it dawned on you that this wasn’t anger. This was really just her final bargain.

You couldn’t do anything but sob quietly to yourself as you watched your sister. Before long, she grew sloppier and swayed against the glass until she finally gave out and collapsed.

Turning away, you walked back to where you had left Johnny, and followed the trail you had spotted earlier in the sand. Where it looked like someone had been dragged away.

Surely enough, Jaehyun was at the end of that trail, propped up under one of the thicker trees. His face was pale and peaceful, his back leaning against the tree as though he were sleeping. Your movements stuttered as you approached him.

Getting a grip on either side of his face, you pulled him forward. One look at the back of his head was enough to tell you that it was too late for him. You cried for the lives ruined and lost because of one reckless decision.

The more your adrenaline tapered off, the more your muscles reminded you of how sore you were, and the more the hammering of your headache increased. What now?

Call the police? None of you had your phones.

Drive back to the rest stop and do it from there? Your sister had the keys to Jaehyun’s car. The thought of unlocking the car and attempting to get the keys from her unconscious body spiked a horrible fear in you that you couldn’t possibly face right now.

Getting on your knees next to Johnny, you lied down on the sand and watched him as he slept.

You wondered if his neck would bruise, and whether he would be as sore as you were when he woke up.

You wondered how many hours were left until the sedative from the flask weakened in his system.

You wondered what he would do when he finally woke up.

You wondered about what kind of person he was, and whether he would still help you after he found out how much trouble you were really in.

When you noticed the first signs of his understanding, you were nothing short of terrified. The past year felt incredibly lonely. But the thought of someone finding out about the burden you carried was frightening.

You had never taken a life, but you were there when your sister did—and you were too damaged to say anything about it. All you had in you to do was shut yourself away from the world and live the life of someone who had died a year ago.

And as you wondered many things, your eyelids grew heavy. From here, it almost looked like Johnny was floating on the surface of the crimson sea. So you watched him and watched him until you couldn’t anymore.

copyright 2022 - 2025 © pearl-neo all rights reserved.

This work is fictional and for entertainment purposes only, but is licensed and protected under a creative commons attribution-noncommercial-noderivatives 4.0 international license. Any instances of plagiarism will be dealt with accordingly. Do not re-post or translate without my permission.

#nct #nct 127 #nct x reader #sfw #johnny suh #johnny x reader #johnny fic #nct fanfic #nct scenarios #nct imagines #nct thriller #nct horror #nct angst #johnny scenarios #johnny imagines #johnny suh angst #my first fanfic #new to tumblr

[thesafecafe]

You’ll Always Be Mine, Baby

Request: here

CW: Stalking, possessive behavior, lies, manipulation, invasion of privacy, alcohol, toxic ex-boyfriend Jungwoo, slight yandere themes, obsessive & possessive themes, black fem reader, she/her pronouns, 18+, minors dni, enjoy,

Disclaimer: I do not condone any of this behavior in real life, nor do I think any of the members of NCT would act this way in real life. It is a fictional depiction for entertainment purposes and should not be taken as a guide to the idol’s personality or actions in real life. If anyone in your life is acting like this towards you or someone you know, please contact the proper authorities as soon as possible. Stay safe!!

Jungwoo was always good at acting. It was a special talent of his, and he was so good at it, that he was in several of his university’s productions. You’d been studying in Korea for a while now, and double majored in theatre and film production. You received a recommendation from your counselor to take an acting class as an elective, and you happened to take the last spot in the same class as Jungwoo. In a course that only took twenty five students per semester, you’d gotten very lucky. It was only natural for you to be a source of interest for inquiring minds, namely Jungwoo. He’d met you during the third week of class, although you already knew who he was. You wound up being paired with him for a class project, and your relationship blossomed from there.

Jungwoo was amazing. He got to know you during the semester, and would show you around the campus. He was curious about you, and often asked questions about your life in the country you came from before. He found you to be the most interesting person he’d encountered in a long time. He felt at ease with you, and fell for you quickly. He felt relaxed in your presence; he didn’t have to act with you. It helped that you were so sweet, and it didn’t take long for you two to start dating. Everyone knew you two were close, so it came as no surprise when people found out that you were dating.

At first, it was a happy, healthy relationship. Your boyfriend was very caring loving, and attentive, always by your side. But, as your relationship progressed to new levels, you found yourself becoming insecure about something: your age. Granted, while you were only two years apart, sometimes you could feel the age gap around some of his younger friends. You’d also been in college a bit longer than he had, and for some reason, it just bothered you. It may seem like a small issue, or silly to some, but it gnawed at you frequently, especially hanging out around his friends. 

They were really nice, welcoming you into their circle with ease. They were usually polite to you, but some often made jokes about your age gap, which at first you nor Jungwoo would bat an eye at. But slowly, as your age insecurities started to grow, the jokes seemed more and more like an attack. The final straw though, was seeing your boyfriend chat with a waitress around his age, both doing some new hand gesture that had gotten popular recently. You didn't have time to keep up with the trends, which made you feel left out, and even further separated from your man. Too far into your feelings, and fed up with feeling ostracized, you did the one thing Jungwoo never saw coming: you broke up with him. You explained to him how you felt, and that your relationship should take a break, until he “had more experience with people his age.�� 

“Y/N, that’s unfair! I’ve had more than one girlfriend my age, and I’m sure the only one I want to be with is you. You’re not even that much older than me, be serious!” Jungwoo ran his hands through his hair, frustrated. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. It wasn’t playing out how he thought it would. He found your reasoning completely stupid. Were you going to let some silly insecurity throw away what you both had? “Jungwoo please, I’m serious! Just, let’s take a break for a while. Okay?” Before he could respond, you were already walking out the door, right out of his life. Jungwoo screamed, punching the wall in anger. How could you let anything, or anyone, come between you? After he’d gotten comfortable with you? He bared his heart and soul to you!  He loved you! You were his everything. You were perfect for him, his perfect little angel. You’d only dated for a year, but Jungwoo was ready to spend the rest of his life with you. You couldn’t leave him that easily. And you wouldn’t either.

For the next few weeks, you couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that you were being watched. Every time you left your apartment, you felt like someone was trying to see into the innermost parts of your being. At first you thought you were being paranoid, until you noticed something. You were seeing a lot more of your ex than usual. You’d see him in more of your classes, when you only had two together. You’d see him in the cafeteria, the corner store by your apartment, etc. What made it worse though, was the staring. He never made it a secret that he was staring you down, watching you like a hawk. Had his gaze always been so intense? And how did he always seem to know where you were? You couldn’t just blame it on coincidence, when he looked at you like you were the last meal in the world. 

You wanted to confront him, and ask what was his issue, but you couldn’t really do that with Jungwoo’s reputation on campus. Not only was he the star actor in theatre productions, but he was well known around campus for being a huge sweetheart. He was charming, polite, and respectful, and people thought he was harmless. Who would suspect, or worse, accuse everyone’s favorite golden boy of stalking his ex-girlfriend? You knew this, and so did Jungwoo. You couldn’t shake him, for weeks. A trip out meant you’d see him, and you couldn’t just not leave your apartment if you wanted to pass your classes. You thought the situation was hopeless... until you found the camera.

You still slept with the same teddy bear that Jungwoo had won for you at the fair. You squeezed the bear’s head to your chest, cuddling it until your fingers grazed a particularly hard lump. You sat up, turning on your lamp to get a better look at it. It seemed as if the bear had been cut open and poorly sewn back together in the back, not easily noticeable on the medium sized bear. Grabbing scissors from your drawer, you make quick work of the poorly sewn patchwork. Digging your fingers past the stuffing, you quickly find out exactly how your ex has been able to figure out where you’ve been. A small camera blinks red light at you, and you sit there, horrified for a moment, before anger takes you over.

“How fucking dare he?!” You were beyond pissed, immediately grabbing your phone. You messaged him, telling him to meet you the next day at the café that you both frequented. You turned off the camera, not knowing that Jungwoo was panicking on the other side. He’d been watching the whole thing on his end, and not knowing what you were planning was driving him up a wall. He doesn’t know what to do when he arrives  to the café first, fidgeting with his hands. He was nervous. You arrived shortly after him, your stony expression enough to send Jungwoo towards the edge of a panic attack. But Jungwoo has always been good at acting. He schools his face into a neutral expression, as he invites you to sit down. 

“I got your text, you said it was urgent. Is something wrong Y/n?” You scoffed, cutting right to the chase. “I know about the camera Jungwoo. In the stuffed bear, seriously?” Before he could say anything, you reached in your purse, setting the evidence before him. “Look Y/N, I can explain, alright?” Jungwoo paused waiting to see if you’d interrupt him, but you just raised your eyebrows, a cue for him to continue. “Okay, it was right before we broke up. One of my friends had installed a camera in his girlfriend’s apartment, because some thieves broke in. You remember Hae-rin?” You blinked at him, unmoved. “What does that situation have to do with this one? You installed a camera without telling me, you’ve been stalking me-”

Jungwoo shushed you, looking around the establishment. “Will you stop saying that? I didn’t stalk you! I’ve been looking out for you! There’ been a series of break ins around here for months, especially in your neighborhood, and I wanted to tell you after I did it, but we broke up!” Jungwoo frowned at you, hid voice having dropped down to a an aggressive whisper. “I did it to protect you, and I’m not stalking you! You still share your location with my phone, so I just wanted to make sure you were alright. We used to go everywhere together, so it wasn’t that different.” You looked at him in shock. You forgot that your phone was linked to his, and you felt half bad for accusing him, but there was still no good excuse to follow you around like a creep. “Look, I appreciate you wanting to look out for me, but I can’t ignore the fact that you following me around is creepy.”

Jungwoo ran a hand through his hair, nodding. “I understand Y/N, and I’m truly sorry about freaking you out, and being kind of creepy these past few weeks, it was a total invasion of privacy. I know you said we were on a break, but I’ll understand if you don’t wanna get back together after this. I truly am sorry Y/N.” Jungwoo apologized, never once breaking eye contact with you. You could sense that his words were genuine, and you sighed, hating that he could make you cave so quickly. “Look Jungwoo, I think I’ll need some more time, in light of recent events. But, I won’t say I’m totally against getting back together? But I need space, seriously Jungwoo, you have to stop following me, okay?” 

Jungwoo nodded, trying to hide his excitement So you till loved him after all. “I promise Y/N. I’ll stay out of your hair, pinky swear!” He held out his pinky, and you laughed at his accidental, yet adorable rhyming. You paid for your drinks, and said your goodbyes. As you left the café, you turned, waving to Jungwoo. He waved back, until you were almost out of sight, before turning to his phone. “Ahh, Y/N. Such a forgetful little thing.” He smiled as your location popped up, not far from him. He’d have to be more careful from now on. He had to make sure you believed him, that his promises were true, otherwise you’d slip right through his fingers. And Jungwoo couldn’t have that. No one else could have you. You’d always be his. Forever. And you believed him for now, which was enough for him. He’d always been a good actor.

#jungwoo x reader #nct jungwoo #kim jungwoo #nct x black reader #nct x female reader #kpop x poc reader #x poc reader #jungwoo imagines #jungwoo x black reader #NCT 127 #nct imagines #yandere nct #black writers #yandere x black reader #nct angst #kpop angst #horror #thesafecafe

[kokobopam]

kokobopam's horror fics

It's finally spooky season which means time for shameless self promo!

Here's a list with all of kokobopam's horror and horror adjacent fics that you can read this month:

† A Chimera's Dream exo - cosmic horror, theater, dissociation

† Under the Blood Moon exo - found footage, myths and folklore

† Deliverance exo - religion, demons

† the belly of the beast tvxq - caves, monsterfucking, vore

† And we'll all dance along super junior - puppets, thriller

† Awake wayv/nct 127 - rituals

† Puncture Wound tvxq - vampires, inmortality, murder

† Hall of Mirrors exo - carnival, doppelgangers

† What lies beneath wayv/nct 127 - camping, ghosts

#exo #tvxq #super junior #wayv #nct 127 #fic #fics #fanfiction #kokobopamfics #horror

[whiteteadreams]

Talking to Death

Pairing: Newly-Dead!Jeong Jaehyun x Female Reader

Preview: Missing someone who's dead? Talk to them now!

Is there someone who has passed away that you miss dearly? Well, you can talk to them now! Call the number below!

xxx-xxx-xxxx 

Just remember to interact with friends and family outside of speaking with your departure and don’t crowd and overwhelm your departure as they adapt to their new surroundings. This stage is new for everyone. 

Word Count: 6.8k

Genre: Tim Burton-esque (?), Fantasy, Non-Idol AU, Horror

Warnings: Jaehyun’s dead from the start, fluff, angst, mentions of self-harm (but can be easily missed), mentions of suicide (also can be easily missed), passing out/fainting, blood, cleaning a wound, main character death, suicide (this one isn’t easy to miss), not 100% proofread.

a/n- This idea randomly came to me in a dream, but I hope you enjoy this little twisted reality. Also, sorry that the last two fics have ended with death and not really happy endings, the next couple of fics I have planned out do have happy endings. And there is unfortunately repetition of some words, like I just used those words too often, but I hope it isn’t too bad.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"My condolences". You didn't know who he was, but he was here for Jaehyun. You didn't know any of these people except for his close family and friends. But it didn’t matter whether you did or didn't know them, every single one came up to you expressing their sorrow.

The service was lovely, the walls of the funeral home were between the color of oatmeal and bone white, and the flowers were roses, even though they symbolize love, and not death, Jaehyun claimed that he loved them. Every single pew in the entire room was filled, even with people standing in the back, and there were still people in random places of the home.

At the front of the room to the left, people surrounded a table that held several photos of him, and each photo had a paragraph that explained what that specific part of his life was about, and there were even more people to the right of the table, which is where he was. It was obvious that he was loved by many, yet he chose to love you and only you.

You hadn’t realized that everyone had sat down in their designated seat until Jaehyun’s mom came to your side. “Y/n, honey, it’s time for us to sit down. There’s an open seat next to me for you.” You let her take your arm to lead you to said seat.

The warmth of Jaehyun’s mother’s hand on your arm didn’t last long, because as soon as she sat you down, she went up to the podium that was between the table that showed the timeline of her son’s life, and her son himself.

He looked so peaceful; you would've thought he was asleep if it weren't for the current circumstances. It was an open casket; you don’t know if you’re glad it was or if you wish it was closed. With it being closed, you wouldn’t be able to see him at all, but with being able to see him, it’s just proof that he’s truly gone. You’ll never be able to see him, kiss him, hold him, or talk to him after today.

“Thank you everyone for coming. Jaehyun would’ve be glad that you all came.” As soon as she used Jaehyun’s name in the past tense is when she started crying. You didn’t notice that that was the end of her eulogy until she stepped down from the podium and came back to her seat next to you. “It’s your turn sweetie.” She gave you a small smile and nodded her head slightly to the podium.

With legs you thought were going to buckle at any moment, you got up and slowly made your way to the podium. You knew that there were a lot of people there, but it wasn’t until you finally looked up and out into the room to see all the people looking at you. Normally, whenever you had to give speeches in front of a lot of people, Jaehyun was always somewhere in the front, smiling from ear to ear, showing off his dimples, and giving you two thumbs up. But Jaehyun was next to you now, though he wasn’t smiling or whispering to the person next to him saying “that’s the love of my life”, while proudly pointing at you.

You didn’t want to look at him because you knew that if you looked for too long, all you could do was start crying, however, you couldn’t tear your eyes off of him. “Jung Jaehyun was the love of my life. And I’m not sure what else to say, he was and still is, in simple terms, everything to me. He was my boyfriend and my best friend all in one. I wanted to grow old with him, we talked about it, all the time. Getting married, having kids, living our lives with the other by our side. I can’t even think about what I’m going to do now that he’s gone.” Your words were no longer audible, muted by sniffles and sobs.

“Hey Y/n, let’s go sit down, yeah? Or we can go outside and get some fresh air if you would like to. Whatever you want.” Johnny, one of Jaehyun’s best friends had gotten up from his seat to try and coax you off the podium. “I want Jae.” Johnny just sighed and took your arm, much like Jaehyun’s mother had done, and led you out of the room.

Your cries got louder, and you started to lose the ability to breath. You were gasping for air, the feeling of drowning taking over your body, leading you to the ground. Johnny hadn’t gone back in, scared to leave your side, he sat down next to you. He lightly rubbed your back as you stained his suit jacket with drops of watered-down mascara.

 You couldn’t decide if the day drug on or flew by. Maybe both if that was possible. It seemed as if the day itself flew by, but the minutes seemed to never end. With time not seeming to work right, all the crying, and everyone coming to talk to you, a headache formed, and you just wanted Jaehyun back.

 Normally when you had a headache, Jaehyun would rub your temples and to help you fall asleep, he would lightly trace your facial features, your eyelids, nose, lips, and that always seemed to work because the next thing you knew was that you were walking up the next day.

 Before you knew it, you heard Johnny getting up beside you. “I have to go help carry Jaehyun, the burial is about to start, I’ll come stand by you during it, but Jae’s mom is going to come walk with you.”

 Johnny went back inside but Jaehyun’s mom quickly filled the now empty space beside you. Without saying anything she helped you stand up and caught up with the group that started to head over to the empty hole in the ground.

 “I don’t want them to put him in there. They need to leave him alone. I don’t want him to be gone.” You rested your head on Jaehyun’s mother’s shoulder and quietly blubbered in her ear. “I know Y/n, I know.” She pulled you even more into her embraced and placed her chin on your shoulder. For a while you two just held each other while crying. But you completely broke down when you saw Jaehyun’s coffin being carried towards where the group was gathered.

 Johnny and Taeyong were in front, then Doyoung and Mark, Yuta and Haechan, and in the back was Jeno and Taeil. Following them was Jungwoo carrying a bouquet of roses. They all were crying, some better at hiding it than others, but all of them had tears cascading down their cheeks. They walked up the pathway that was made by the group dividing, the rest of Jaehyun’s friends on one side and his family and you on the other. The men carrying the coffin placed it on the lowering device and walked to the side where the rest of his friends were. Jungwoo placed the roses on the coffin, wiped his tears and joined the rest of Jaehyun’s friends.

 Johnny said a parting word to Taeyong and Mark, who he was standing between and joined your side that Jaehyun’s mom wasn’t occupying. You should’ve paid more attention but all you could stare at was the part of the coffin where Jaehyun’s head would be. But then the coffin started lowering and both Johnny and Jaehyun’s mom tighten their grips on you. Your crying turned into screaming and you started thrashing to get out of their grips.

 In any other situation you would’ve been embarrassed but as you watched the coffin disappear into the ground, all you could see was the future you’d be forced to live without Jaehyun with you.  “No, no, no. Jaehyun! You can’t take him from me!” Johnny pulled you into his chest and him and Jaehyun’s mother tried to calm you down by rubbing up and down your back and quietly shushing you. “I don’t want him to leave! I need him!”

 When you first found out that Jaehyun had died, it was in the middle of the night. The police had shown up at your door at 2:42 AM to deliver the news to you. At first, you were in shock, not being able to believe it, your face just paled, and you were unable to speak.

 But seeing his coffin being lowered into the ground snapped everything into place for you. The box that the love of your life was in, was never going to see the light of day again. You’d never be able to have your Jaehyun again. He was now, officially gone.

 After the funeral and burial, you booked an Uber to take you home by yourself with your spiraling headache following close behind.  You could barely see straight, and any noise that was made just caused your headache to get even worse. It felt like the world was spinning, and your vision had gone spotty.

You were waiting on the sidewalk outside of the funeral home when a car pulled up. “Uber for Y/n?” You just nodded and quickly got into the back seat before you your legs gave out. Sitting down and feeling the AC blow cool air onto you helped your headache ease a little bit.  

 The silence was broken when the Uber driver turned down the radio and spoke up. “I’m sorry for your loss, Ms.” You nodded even though he was looking forward. “Thank you.” Neither of you said anything after that but it wasn’t awkward.

 Feeling the coldness of the window on your forehead from leaning on the glass helped calm your headache even more. It was now just a dull ache that matched the ache in your chest. You watched as the city you had explored with Jaehyun passed your eyes as the Uber driver drove you to your house. Or your neighbor’s house a couple doors down.

 Not wanting to say that he’s a few houses down, you just paid the driver and got out of the car. Your neighbor was out on his porch, smoking as always. He was a grumpy old man and Jaehyun said that if he ever got like that when he was old that you had permission to put him in a nursing home.

 You got your phone out of the dress pocket and went to rate the Uber driver before you forgot but your neighbor started speaking out loud, making you look up from phone and at him.

 "Hey kid, you young people are always on your phones these days, how about you pick up a newspaper for once and learn something." The man tossed the newspaper that was lying in his yard at you. It fell a few feet away, but you stepped closer to crouch down and grab it.

 The man said something under his breath and flicked his cigarette to the ground, stomping it out after mouthing some words at you. The last breath of smoke came flowing out of his nose as he turned to walk back up his porch and into his house. 

 Another neighbor had come out of her house and tried to start up a conversation but with the way the wind was blowing your hair in your face, your headache was starting to make its return, and the eerie feeling the man gave you, you needed to leave. Immediately. You needed to go lie down after drinking some water.

Speed walking to your house with only tripping on a sidewalk crack once, you made your way to your shared home with Jaehyun. As soon as you opened the door, his aroma hit your nostrils and you closed your eyes, you could just imagine him welcoming you home. But when you opened your eyes, you were alone in your dark entryway. No Jaehyun asking how your day was, no Jaehyun dragging you to either the couch to watch TV or the bedroom depending on what type of day he had, no burning smell coming from the kitchen from Jaehyun cooking. No Jaehyun. You didn’t have Jaehyun anymore.

 Not wanting to scream and cry anymore today, you took a shaky breath and tossed the newspaper on the ottoman that sat in front of the couch. You swallowed, but realized that there wasn’t anything to swallow, your mouth was dry, causing you to remember the water you’ve been wanting. Trying to just look straight ahead in hopes of not thinking of Jaehyun, you headed to the kitchen. But of course, everything reminded you of him. His chair at the dining room table for one, it was like you could see him smiling up at you with only love and adoration in his eyes.

 Once you turned the corner from the living room to the kitchen you tensed up, waiting for Jaehyun to pop out and scare you like he always did but the scare never came. When you opened the cabinet that held the glasses and cups that Jaehyun came along to help you pick out, well you picked them out, he acted like a child and complained when you said he couldn’t go to the vinyl section just yet, you saw the mug he reluctantly picked out because he thought it was nice. Slightly moving to the left, ready for his arm to reach over your right shoulder to grab the mug for his drink, but again his arm never came.

 So used to him leaning on the cabinet next to you, you were expecting his face to be revealed once you close the cabinet door. When you looked to your left, there wasn’t anyone there, just the dining room table and behind that, the large windows that showed the backyard, as well as the street.

 Jaehyun always talked about wanting to see your kids grow up and play in that backyard, thinking of that just made everything come crashing down. The glass of water, falling from your hand and shattering as soon as it hit the floor. You fell also, your knees giving out, using your hands to catch yourself, you hissed in pain.

 Lifting your hand off the ground, and turning your palm up, you saw several little cuts and red indents from the glass that had just broke. Not giving a fuck anymore you used your right hand to sweep the small slivers of glass out of your way as your left hand held up your almost entirely limp body. Once most of the glass what out of your way for now, you just laid down. Crying in your kitchen, in the fetal position, with glass shards around you and blood dripping from your palms, you whispered his name before blacking out.

It wasn’t the sun that woke you up, the kitchen island covered you from the sun light that poured through the open blinds, but the ring of your phone. Blindly searching around for your phone, you just felt the pieces of glass that surrounded you. But you were too upset and tired to care enough to get up and actually look for your phone. The ringing would stop soon anyway.

 The ringing did stop soon, and instead of the ringing, frantic knocking on your front door replaced the sound. Then, yelling added to the frantic knocking. “Y/n! Open the door! It’s me, Johnny!” Slowly, you picked yourself up and wiped your hands on the tights you wore underneath the black dress that you forgot to change out of. The wiping only caused the pieces of glass that managed to stay in your palms through your tossing and turning during the night to shift. Johnny started knocking again but before he could yell, you made your way to the door and opened it just a bit.

The man sighed in relief, instantly feeling a invisible weight lift off of his shoulders when he saw that you were there. “Oh good, you’re still here.” Johnny smiled a bit at you. “Of course, I’d be here, I live here.” He just shook his head and under his breath he said, “That’s not exactly what I meant.” Understanding, you just looked down and nodded.

 “Are you bleeding?” Johnny’s voice was still calm but laced with concern and confusion. Based on the situation, of course he thought the worse, but you spoke up before he could ask any more questions, “I dropped a glass and passed out when I got home.” Immediately offering to clean up the mess for you, Johnny just squeezed through the crack between the door and door frame and led himself to the center of the living room. “Alright, where is the mess?” You just pointed to the kitchen and Johnny, silently started picking up the bigger shards.

“Hey Y/n, while I pick up the rest of the glass, how about you go wash your hands, try to remove as much as the glass as you can with tweezers and then I’ll come help you. Is your broom and dust pan still in the closet over here?” “Uh-huh”, you left Johnny in the kitchen to go follow his instructions with removing the glass in the bathroom.

Finding the tweezers and first aid kit wasn’t hard since Jaehyun always insisted that it was important to keep it in reach and keep everything in there full. Grabbing the kit and tweezers and setting it on the vanity, you rinsed the dried blood from your palms so you could see the cuts easier. The glass was embedded into your skin, and it would hurt to take out, but stiches wouldn’t be needed.

“Y/n, I finished cleaning the glass, I’ll come help you in a moment.” Taking a closer look at your palm, you started to remove the glass yourself. Wincing, whenever you had to dig a bit deep to retrieve the shard, but soon your palm was clear of any glass. Losing folding your hand so you could run along the welts with your fingertips caused you to hiss.

Just as you were about to trade the tweezers to your other hand, Johnny came in and took them out of your hold. Without saying anything he held out his other hand. Giving him the hand that still had glass pieces sticking out, he quickly started to remove the bits. Looking at the reelection the mirror showed you saw how messed up you truly looked.  Wrinkled clothes from yesterday, slightly bloody hands with blood on your arms, chapped lips, and streaks of mascara along your cheeks. Even though the sight of yourself was alarming enough, it was when you saw a familiar head of hair peeking out behind Johnny.

The owner of the hair slowly appeared, his eyes were glossed over, the iris and pupils were no longer visible, only the lens of his eyes which were a cloudy opaque white. His nose was crooked and had dried blood coming out of both nostrils. Shards of glass were stuck in all different parts of his face, there was a bump on one of his temples, and the thing that really made your breath hitch besides just seeing him, was the fact that his neck was limp. Jaehyun had died on impact, his neck immediately breaking when the car driving on the wrong side of the road hit him head on. His mouth was turned into a slight smile, the one thing no one had changed from the moment he died to the moment he was buried. They cleaned the blood off of him, they put him suit, propped his neck up, did all the regular things people do to get a dead person ready for burial, but no one, touch the slight smile that was on his face.

He was there, looking over Johnny’s shoulder at the scene that was playing out in front of him. You hadn’t turned around yet, but that didn’t stop you from saying “Johnny, you need to leave.” “What? Y/n, I was just trying to help, did I do something wrong.” His eyes and voice were laced with panic and concerned. “It doesn’t matter you need to leave. Now. Get out of my house.” Johnny softly apologized and told you that you could call him whenever. He turned around and walked right through Jaehyun.

You still haven’t turned around, but Jaehyun faded out when Johnny walked where he was standing but quickly reappeared. His head tilted a bit and the sickeningly sweet smile stayed, with those emotionless gray eyes still staring straight into your soul. “Jaehyun?” You slowly turned your body, but when you were completely turned around, Jaehyun was gone. You whipped your head back to the mirror, but he wasn’t there anymore either.

“Jaehyun?” You asked yourself out loud while walking out of bathroom and into the hallway. He wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Continuing to look for him was a lost cause, he was gone. But of course, you refused to believe that.

Jaehyun never appeared again, with every little breeze that chilled your bones and brought goosebumps to your skin, there wasn’t a blurry Jaehyun passing by.

The next week passed slowly, no waking up to Jaehyun kissing your face, no Jaehyun standing in the bathroom mirror, getting ready for the day, no Jaehyun laughing, no Jaehyun smiling, no Jaehyun.

You just spent your days running on nothing, no food, no sleep, you couldn’t even remember the last time you changed your clothes. Roaming around you and Jaehyun’s was what you did every day, all day. Turning the corner into the living room for what felt like the 50th time that day, and it probably was, you saw the old newspaper that has been in the back of your mind.

Staring down the newspaper and slowly approaching the couch, Jaehyun’s cologne trapped you as soon as you sat down. Just going for it and ripping off the Band-Aid, you opened the newspaper. Something wasn't right though, the date on it, wasn't today's. Well, it was today’s, but not this year’s, or last year’s or even next year’s.

May 31, 1972

Today, but 50 years ago. All the content of the newspaper was normal, politics, town news, advice columns, ads, and even a recipe or two. But one thing about the ads was none of them seemed real.

Want to know where your dreams come from? Meet the person who pick them out!

Remember that childhood imaginary friend? Revisit them today!

Missing someone who's dead? Talk to them now!

Curious about who is watching over you? Everyone has their very own guardian angel, meet yours!

Are you lonely? Order your very own partner!

This has to be a hoax; some teenagers probably threw this is the man's yard wanting to prank and confuse him. But of course, this was the day he threw it at you. Not caring enough to think about the what’s and why’s for too much longer and in dire need of a good chuckle, you looked at the ad about calling the dead.

Missing someone who's dead? Talk to them now!

Is there someone who has passed away that you miss dearly? Well, you can talk to them now! Call the number below!

xxx-xxx-xxxx

Just remember to interact with friends and family outside of speaking with your departure and don’t crowd and overwhelm your departure as they adapt to their new surroundings. This stage is new for everyone.

What a piece of shit.

There were more words under the short paragraph, in much smaller print, but already being skeptical, you didn’t care enough to strain your eyes.

. But with not having anything else to do, you grabbed your phone and punched in each of the digits and pressed the dial button.

"Hello, I'm Steven with Talking to Death! Is there someone you've been missing recently that has died? If so, please state their name, your name, your relation to the person, their death date, and cause of death. If not, I'm not sure why you called this number, but how may I help you anyways?"

"Is this some sort of prank?" You were skeptical with the whole thing. "I understand why you would think that, but we have been a respected company since 1897. Unfortunately, to be able to speak to your loved one, you must believe that you'll be able to talk to them." Steven responded through the phone, seemingly tired of this question but still replying with a joyful customer service type voice.

"Okay, but why haven't I heard of this before?" "Well, it is obviously a king of odd and not everyone goes around telling people about this in fear of sounding crazy, is there someone you would actually like to speak to?"

"Um, yeah, my boyfriend, Jeong Jaehyun died a week ago, so May 24. He died in a car accident." You slightly stuttered through your words, not expecting someone to actually be serious. 

"Okay, and now I just need your name." "Y/n L/n." "Alrighty, Ms. L/n, he checked in five days ago and has had time to settle. I will put the call through to his line and he will pick up when he is ready. One thing to remember though, make sure not to get too attached because he isn't in your world anymore, please use with caution. Thank you for calling us and have a good rest of your day."

Steven transferred the call over and as you were waiting, some peaceful jazz music played. It wasn't annoying like elevator music; it was nice and put you in a calm and relaxed state.

The music lasted for a couple minutes, and with each minute that passed, you started to lose hope a bit more but then, the relaxed aura that now surrounded you vanished when you heard him.

“Hello?” It’s him. “Jaehyun?” “Y/n?” “Oh my god! It’s really you, is it? Really you?” You could hear him chuckle from the other side of the line. It was deep and hearty, something you had started to deeply miss.

“Yes Y/n, it is really me. Jaehyun.” “My Jaehyun.” “My Y/n.” You couldn’t help yourself and all the tears started running down your cheeks all at once.  

The absurdity of it all caught up with you, even with the tears and the silent sobs trying to force their way out of your body, you couldn’t help but laugh. Hysterically. You were talking to your dead boyfriend.

“I don’t even know what to say. How are you? What was dying like? Are you okay?” Having about a million questions running through head was making the room spin. “Well, I’m doing okay. Nothing hurts, I feel, almost weightless. Dying wasn’t anything like people said it was. My head hit the steering wheel and I woke up in this lobby, or a waiting room. And there was no Jesus, bright light, or stairway that led to the gates of heaven.”

Just wanting to hear Jaehyun talk more, you stayed silent so you could cherish the moment you were given. “Anyways, this world, or whatever, is pretty similar to ours in a sense, for now, I’m just in this hotel room until my house is created. Enough about me though, I’ve missed you, how are you?”

A dry chuckle left your throat, “A fucking trainwreck. I told myself that I’d never be dependent on a man, but here I am, an absolute dumpster fire. Johnny came by to check on me and when I didn’t answer my phone or the door right away he thought I had killed myself. I screamed and kicked at your funeral like a toddler throwing a tantrum. Johnny and your mom even had to hold me down so I wouldn’t jump in your grave when they lowered your casket.” Recalling the events, you felt your stomach twist. Not out of embarrassment, but of how you felt, even just looking back, you felt like puking.

“I’m sorry you had to go through that Y/n.” It was obvious that Jaehyun didn’t know what to say in this situation. However, you were sure that the conversations would go back to almost normal with time.

Clearing his throat in hopes of getting rid of the awkwardness, Jaehyun spoke up after minutes of silence. “Well, I have to go, Y/n. I love you, so much.” Wait.

“What? Jaehyun, we just started talking again? Did I say something wrong? We’re always open with each other? What’s going on?”

Taking a deep breath, Jaehyun was able to calm you like he always did. “You can call me tomorrow, it’ll be okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.” But he had already hung up before your brain and body allowed you to get the words out. Staring down at your phone’s keypad, you were alone again.

You were climbing up the walls for the rest of the day, not being able to think about anything but calling Jaehyun, your body just couldn’t stop shaking. Too buzzed on the thought of speaking to him again, no matter what you did, you couldn’t just calm down.

No matter how slow time seemed to go by, tomorrow did eventually come. You decided to call Jaehyun around noon.

Having already saved the number in your phone, you clicked it and pressed call.

"Hello, I'm Steven with Talking to Death! Is there someone you've been missing recently that has died? If so, please state their name, your name, your relation to the person, their death date, and cause of death. If not, I'm not sure why you called this number, but how may I help you anyways?"

“Hello Steven! It’s Y/n, Jeong Jaehyun’s girlfriend, may I please speak to him.” Your response to the man was much for cheerful this time around than your first greeting. “Ah, Y/n. Now that your number is in our system and Mr. Jeong is aware that you can call him, whenever you call him from now on, you will just be automatically transferred to his line. But, I cannot stress this enough, make sure you do not overwhelm him and please seek communication and other forms of social life in your own world.”

“Okay Steven, just transfer my call to Jae.” With only a sigh of dispute, Steven respected your wishes and soon the jazz music that quickly became familiar, welcomed you.

“Hey Y/n. How are you today?” He didn’t sound excited or in the very least, content that you were calling, even with him telling you it was okay to call today. “I’m doing okay, but how are you, you’re the one that sounds upset.” He just claimed that he was fine, and honestly, the sound of his distaste towards talking to you, broke you inside.

The conversation ended up being just like the one that occurred the day before. It was full of awkward silence, passive aggressive comments, and annoyance. You didn’t know what you were doing wrong, you didn’t think you had said something wrong, but Jaehyun was acting like you were the one who killed him, and you had no idea why.

Even if he seemed more and more upset, you never stopped calling.

“Hey Jae?” He just hummed. “Did I do something wrong?” He huffed and just responded with a simple, “No”. “Well, then why are you acting like this? I saw you in the mirror the day after the funeral, I thought you’d want to talk to me.”

You sniffled and that’s when he finally said something again, “Y/n, I never appeared in a mirror, that was your imagination. And it’s not like I don’t want to talk to you, it’s just going to be harder for you to let go and move on.”

You didn’t get why he thought you’d want to let him go and move on, he was your everything, you didn’t care how many times you’d have to say it, but you simply couldn’t stress it enough, you love him.

“You’re just tired Jaehyun. You need to get more sleep; I’ll call you tomorrow. I love you.”

“I love you too, Y/n.”

The call ended and you could feel your eye twitch a bit. Were you actually going crazy? You hadn’t left your house in weeks, you hadn’t had a normal sleep, shower, or eating schedule since Jaehyun died.

Walking to the bathroom to just wash your face of the tears you hadn’t know that fell. You turned towards the sink and placed your palms on the cold marble. A slight sting spread throughout your palms, so you pulled them from the counter, and you saw eight crescent moons made from blood.

Happening without your notice, your hands had clenched into fists so hard that your nails had made small indents into your palms.

Going ahead and washing your hands before your face, you looked at yourself in the mirror for the first time in a long time and you could hardly recognize the sight in front of you. The dark circles under your eyes, your skin wasn’t as vibrant, and you had lost a significant amount of weight. What happened?

That question made you giggle to yourself a bit. It was pretty funny in your opinion, it did cause you to laugh for the first time in weeks, or maybe you’re just delusional at this point. The little question was easy to answer, you lost your entire world, there wasn’t much else to say.

You kept your word to Jaehyun, you did call the next day. The only thing is, he didn’t answer.

It was now your fourth time calling Jaehyun for the day, however, there was still no answer. He shouldn’t be busy; he was supposed to be expecting your call. You were about to redial the number for the fifth time until a knock on your door was heard. You put your phone down, your hand slightly shaky as you did so. Slowly, you walked towards your front door and looked through the peephole, only to see Johnny.

You sighed as your unlocked the door, pulling it open to see Johnny smile sheepishly at you. “Y/n! How are you doing?” Did he find out that he could talk to Jaehyun too? Was that the reason Jaehyun had started to answer less and less.

Raising your right eyebrow you said, “Hello Johnny, I’m fine. How are you?”

“Y/n, no one has seen or even heard from you since the funeral, and I haven’t seen or heard from you since the day after. Are you sure you’re doing alright everyone’s worried about you, me, Jae’s mom, and the rest of the boys.”

Already irritated and only being able to think about calling Jaehyun, you started to close the door, “Yes, I said I’m fine and I would really like to be alone now.” Your voice got louder as you continued to speak. “Please leave me alone and tell everyone to stop calling. I need the line free.” Finally slamming the door and locking it, you rushed back to where you had set your phone down.

Was it possible for Jaehyun to call you? You doubted it, but just in case it was possible, you needed to make sure that your phone was always free.

Running back to your phone once you made sure Johnny had left, you couldn’t stop shaking. It had been only a couple minutes since you last tried calling but you didn’t care. He was yours; you were allowed to talk to him.

It took a few tries because you kept accidently hitting the wrong number because of how bad you were actually shaking. But finally, you tapped the last number and hit call.

It rung for a bit before you heard the groggily and almost annoyed, “Hello Y/n.”

“Why didn’t you answer?” Jaehyun sighed on the other side of the line, and you could imagine him rubbing his temples. “Y/n. I really think we need to stop doing this. We’re both in really different places right now.” You felt your breathing picking up. You had just got him back and now he was leaving you again.

“No, no, no, I need you! Don’t you understand? I can’t go on without you and I just got you back!” Tears were starting to run down your cheeks and Jaehyun just went silent for a bit. But after listening to you mumble barely audible sentences about him leaving and you needing him, he spoke up. “It would be different if we were together again Y/n, and that’s not really possible.” But it is.

It was your turn to go silent and now Jaehyun could see the gears turning in your head. “Y/n please, don’t do it. You still have your entire life ahead of you. I’m gone, but that doesn’t mean you need to follow me. Please, please, please, do not do it. Take a deep breath, we can still call as long as you don’t do anything you’ll regret.” Jaehyun was now the one who was breathing heavily and speaking quickly. But you, you on the other hand had gone eerily silent.

 “How could I ever regret something that’ll let me see you again? And what’s the point of living the rest of my life if you’re not right beside me? We could be happy again Jae.”

 “No, Y/n, you don’t understand what this means. There’s no going back, please don-" “I do understand, I love you more than anything, I can’t live without you, and I don’t want to either. I love you, so, so much. We’ll be together again soon Jaehyun.”

Hanging up before Jaehyun could say anything else to you, you pushed the end call button with your thumb. Crazed by the idea of being with Jaehyun again and being overcome with adrenaline, you started walking to the garage.

 After making sure the garage door was fully shut, you sat in you and Jaehyun’s shared car. The cool temperature of the leather on your burning skin, along with the scent of Jaehyun, you were intoxicated. Putting the key in the ignition and turning, while holding your foot on the break, the car came to life. Turning on the air conditioner, so you could be comfortably cold and leaning back, letting yourself sink into the seat.

 What you didn’t know was that Jaehyun had left his room in the hotel and sprinted down all the stairs and to the lobby, without being able to run out of breath, his question came out clearly and urgently. “Can we call someone from the world we came from?” The man with the name tag that read Steven, looked slightly down, and shook his head. “I’m afraid not, these calls are only one-way calls, meaning only one side can call, and that side is the living world.”

 About to start crying, Jaehyun tried to argue. “You don’t understand. This is an emergency. I need to call my girlfriend; I have to convince her not to do anything irrational.” Jaehyun’s eyes were wide with crazy hidden behind them.

 “I am really sorry Mr. Jeong, but there is nothing, and I mean nothing, that I can possibly do to help you reach her.”

 Finally, letting the tears slip, he sunk to his knees in the middle of the lobby of the hotel. There were quite a few newcomers that night, many of them being new to the environment, stared. Regular residents of hotel could imagine what was happening. The dead doesn’t have too much to worry about anymore, some though still held feelings and emotions for past loved ones.

 Jaehyun was asked to return to his room, as he was starting to scare the newly-deads. With puffy eyes and tousled hair from pulling at it, he curled up on his bed with the one item he was allowed to choose and bring to his new life with him, the ring he was going to propose with. That’s actually the reason he was going to be home late the night he had died. Although, if he hadn’t gone to the jeweler’s that night to buy the ring, he would be cuddling with you on your guys’ couch right now. He still doesn’t regret going to buy the ring, he loved you and wanted to spend the rest of his life with you, and even though it wasn’t like he planned, he still got to live his life with you by his side.

 Thinking about that, he started to remember what caused these thoughts.

 Time passed differently in both worlds, Jaehyun’s seconds were slower than yours. So, what was two hours for him, was actually around four hours for you.

 With four hours passing, you were starting to fall asleep, it was harder to think straight and remember everything, but you could still remember Jaehyun. Before you couldn’t think about anything anymore, all your favorite memories replayed in your mind, there were a few that didn’t involve Jaehyun, but he still was the main star in your movie of life. The last thing you thought of wasn’t even a memory. It was what you had imagined your future with Jaehyun to be like.

Allowing one final tear to slide down your cheek, your eyes fluttered shut.

#jung jaehyun #jaehyun x reader #nct #nct 127 #female reader #fluff #angst #non idol au #kpop #fantasy #tim burton #horror #jeong jaehyun

[yellowsbuttercup]

| 00:45 |

(warnings: yandere/psycho au, mentions of blood, possible murder, restraint, let me know if i missed out on anything!)

apov.

Her feet led her to absolutely no destination in mind but she hoped she'd end up anywhere out of this hell of a mansion. She ran in a blistering speed in this endless hallway as her sweat dripped down the side of her face to leave droplets on the floor and her breath ragged. She takes a glance behind her and she saw no one, but her steps never stopped nor slowed down.

She looks down on her hands that were still restrained by the tight wraps of a thick rope. Too tight to see indents on her skin and the visible sign of her disrupted blood flow as her hands turned quite numb and paler than the rest of her.

There, a door was in sight which gave her a glimpse of hope until she had fallen over. Eyes closed as an instinct to open to her tied hands covered in glistening crimson blood. Fresh as it was to reveal a puddle of it. Heart beating rapidly, eyes widening in disgust and disbelief, suppressing a shriek to have herself still escape unannounced.

"Well, I see you've seen some evidences of my last victim. I told them to clean it up!" She gasps to herself upon hearing the voice. Left with no choice, she turns her head to attend to the owner of the voice who she despised him so much. But for him, it was a different story.

"What do you think you're doing, anyway? Escape? Oh that'd be absurd, my love!" He laughed but it soon went quiet when he calmed down. Oh but this silence, it was eerie and suffocating.

With the strength she had left, she stands up ashamed especially with how much she struggled to do so with her hands still tied up together. Her clothes were drenched in blood, the metallic scent taking over her system and it almost caused her to faint.

"Oh, stop with the bullshit Taeyong and let me go!" She cried, shoving her hands right in front of her face but he remained unfazed. Still recovering from the run she just had, her sweat drips to mix with a tear drop that fell to mix with the red puddle beneath her.

"And why would I do that?" He pouted mockingly, leaning down to her eye's level as he stepped closer, tilting his head as well for the cherry on top.

"You psycho-"

"Psycho? Oh baby, I'm no psycho." Taeyong scoffed as he rolled his eyes. He met eyes with his victim, grinning before bringing his hand up. From the past events that she had seen his hand up like that, she flinched and instantly turned the other way. Feeling a soft caress on her cheek, delicate yet there was no romance felt. Only terror. Soft yet could cut like a knife and scar her forever.

"I just...love you so much. But indeed, you do drive me crazy."

#°︎☆︎•︎𝄈︎·︎․︎·︎yebu #nct 127 imagines #nct angst #nct yandere #nct imagines #nct u imagines #nct fanfiction #nct horror #nct psycho au #lee taeyong #taeyong imagines #lee taeyong imagines #taeying imagine #taeyong blurb #taeyong timestamp #nct timestamps

[weishenbwi]

“I can’t believe I’m lost.” One unfortunate bump in the road because Mark just had to have his tea. Green tea of all things, he chides himself! And now he’s walking through the leaves in a dimly lit forest, lost, looking like a lumberjack thanks to Johnny’s insistence that he wear flannel, and that just makes him hate green tea even more. A bump in the road, no signal, and lost. Isn’t that how all horror movies start out? Mark thinks to himself with a shudder.

Something off in the distance grabs his attention. It’s bright. A fire? A UFO? He chuckles to himself halfheartedly, the shiver still present.  

It's too far away to distinguish.

He walks closer.  An hour passes. 

It’s getting darker but the object is more visible. A ring of fire in the shape of a circle, something tall and erect standing in the middle. Unmoving.

He walks closer.

How long has it been? 15 minutes? 30 minutes? Another hour? He’s already so tired. Why did you get off the main road? Because the local map said this was a shortcut. Why didn’t you just use your phone, Mark? Because I’m trying to conserve battery. His legs keep moving because that's all there’s left to do and he can’t remember what time it said when he looked at his phone last or what time it is now, but it doesn’t matter because something’s tied to a piece of wood in the center of the fire. It takes a few moments for it to register... “Something is tied to a piece of wood. Someone tied… Someone lit the fire.” 

He wasn’t alone.

“No Mark. Keep your calm. Keep cool. You’re fine. It’s fine.” Mark wasn’t known for being illogical. He’s an INFJ after all, something he secretly took pride in. The rare type, he thought, without allowing too much pride to take root in his heart. After all, he was a good Christian. And something-something Jesus’ example.

Now don’t be a fool, Mark. This is the middle of nowhere. NOTHING should be out here and you know it. The cold gripped him more closely, caressing his fear with a void and amplifying it.

“Unless… unless we’re much closer to civilization than I thought.” Mark attempts to calm himself. That’s all, he thinks positively. He tries to think back on the map, the sky not providing enough light to see it clearly and his flashlight having gone dead. It was unbelievable, really. He knows he’d charged it before he left AND packed a spare but nothing was working here.

“Isn’t that odd?” A voice quips.

Ignoring whatever he thought he heard, Mark walks closer. It could be onset delirium. Stay calm.

“Delirium? It’s only been a few hours. DON'T ignore me.”

Just stay calm, Mark. If there’s someone out here, he needs to be quiet. And actually, it’s a blessing that his flashlight stopped working because he would have used it and alerted anyone lurking of his presence.

He walks closer. More timidly now.

You shouldn't go further. Turn back now. An inner voice urges. Turn back before it's too late.

He walks closer, more quietly now, peering deeply as he hides behind a tree. To Mark’s horror, the piece of wood isn’t just a piece of wood erected. It’s a cross. Massive in height and heinously thick. Someone or some ones… because how could one person manage to construct a thing so freakishly large alone? No, not a thing. A cross burning in the middle of the woods and oh God, what is that?! “Oh God. Oh no…”

Mark’s careful whispers trail off. It wasn’t just a cross. There, burning in the middle of that abhorrent monstrosity, was a body. Its outstretched limbs strapped down, the creature thrashing against the wood and heat of the fire.

The smell of searing flesh reaching his senses. He feels like he's going to be sick.

“No…” He covers his ears and turns away. He’s not hearing anything. It’s no one. It’s no one. I’m just tired, only tired. He tries to breathe calmly. Don’t panic. He pinches himself. He can feel it. No, not a dream. Just tired.

And that’s when he hears them. Sounds coming from the fire. Chanting of some kind. But it’s no language he's ever heard. The sound… guttural rasping like something long since dead awakened, unable to use its voice. Learning how to use its voice. The unknown language and sinister whispers surrounding him, penetrating his mind and soul. This isn’t a dream. It’s a nightmare.

He looks back, toward the scene, like someone who keeps watching a horror movie when every instinct is telling them to look away, turn away. He tries to move but he can’t. Something is holding him in place. It knows, he thinks. It knows I’m here.

And that’s when he sees them. Someone is taking a vessel to each… person? Oh god… he’s not even sure they’re people. No, they CAN’T be people. They’re too tall, too thin. Wisps of fleshy tendrils under cloaks. Some as tall as the cross. Their lengths reaching nearly to the trees. Fleshly and yet... as if they're made of smoke devoured and expelled from the fire. They're all suspended above the circle, quiet and seemingly unaware of his presence. Thank you, Lord, he prays to anyone and no one at all.

Don't forget the body. Mark, open your eyes. It’s still burning. Are you going to leave it to die alone?

It’s not possible, Mark thinks, body dropping against the length of an aged red pine. He drops his head between his knees and shivers, praying more earnestly than he’d ever prayed in his life. Without a word. Without a whisper. No whisper in case they hear him. Can they hear? Do they sense vibrations? Can they hear my heart beating? It sounds so loud. W-what if they can hear my thoughts… He tries not to think of anything but his mind is racing as fast as his heart is beating.

He rocks his body to wake up from this hellish nightmare but it’s no use. And it's as if they do hear this thought because the next assault to his senses is the sound of weeping and groaning. It’s not from the forms at the fire or the burning body somehow still thrashing against its binds but a quiet echo at his ear. Mark buries his face into his legs, lips pressed to knees. He doesn’t want to look, doesn’t want to open his eyes.

The weeping comes closer. It’s no longer at his ear. It’s seeped inside him, sweet and sickly, bleeding out like maple from a tree. Mark shakes his head no as his eyes are forced open and his body is made to move forward, to the site where they gather.

They drink it willingly. You’ll drink too.

Mark sees the body still struggling, arms still stretched to the brink. But it isn’t making noise and he doesn’t question how. "It's only a silent struggle." Mark thinks, his legs carrying him further. Closer. His mind barely whispering for him to turn back.

He takes his place in the fire not questioning why it doesn’t hurt.

The vessel bearer finishes serving each of the forms before finally stopping at Mark. It bends low, low to the ground. It’s presence, cold and eerie. 

The creature struggles less now. Its body barely jerking in intervals giving up or out of energy. It doesn't matter, Mark reasons. The vessel bearer doesn't say anything, only motions for Mark to drink and Mark understands without a word to drink what's left.

As he drinks, Mark doesn't wonder what kind of substance it is. Water, tea, blood, or something else entirely. It doesn’t matter. He doesn't wonder anything at all. His mind has long ceased its chatter, withdrawing to distant recesses within.

Mark notices a strangely metallic taste as the creature struggles in its final moments, tethered to the wooden cross, flesh charred and reeking. The vessel bearer stands before Mark, its appendage reaching out to the now motionless creature, cutting off a piece of its flesh, and offering it as a gift to all in the circle.

Mark swallows everything he's given.

#mark lee #cosmic horror #eldritch horror #lovecraftian #nct #nct 127 #nct dream #mark lee fic #mark lee fanfic #nct fic #nct fanfic #nct dream fic #nct dream fanfic #nct 127 fic #nct 127 fanfic #mark x reader #if the reader is a eldritch being #mark x you #if you're a cosmic horror #horror fic #heretic

[no-onexoxo]

(Updated version!<3)

I'm looking for Roleplay partners if you're interested continue to read on.

I'm a minor I don't like overly sexual, suggestive is ok but I'm just not comfortable with hardcore smut.

I'm down for anything. I'm okie with Horror, Angst, Fluff and such<3.

If you want to start just DM me and tell me what you're comfortable/ uncomfortable with.

Have a good day/night<3

#kpop rp #mystic messenger rp #roleplay #ateez #ateez roleplay #ateez scenarios #mystic messenger #nct #nct 127 #nct roleplay #nct dream #nct scenarios #Straykids roleplay #straykids scenarios #stray kids #stray kids angst #Angst #fluff #horror roleplay #active rp

[princesstaeille]

Seeds

summary: donghyuck gets distracted while picking strawberries, so doyoung goes to find him.

genre(s): farm!au, horror

warning(s): gore, food as horror, mentions of dead animals (pls let me know if there are more)

wc: 636

notes: inspired by this post. if you enjoyed reading, pls like/reblog and comment! thank you xxx

"Donghyuck, supper's ready!"

Doyoung trudges through the tall, yellowing grass and searches for the boy in the vast field.

A calm wind blows in from the west and sends the wheat dancing, swaying gently. The delicate smell of strawberries weaves through the field and leads Doyoung to where the wheat becomes sparse, and the sea of golden grain mingles with bright green leaves until it's no longer. Now, before him, lies rows of strawberry plants that house hundreds of small jewels, which glisten when the sunlight kisses them.

There, he finds Donghyuck, who, in the company of Daegal, plucks a ruby from its stem and drops it into his mouth. Occasionally, he tosses one into the tan and worn wicker basket beside him.

Doyoung wipes the sweat from his brow and sighs. "You know you're supposed to pick the strawberries, not eat them all before everyone else, right?" He lightly glowers, but the brunet pays no mind.

Donghyuck brings another strawberry to his lips; this one is big and plump and succulent, such a stunning red that it almost resembles the heart. He takes a big bite and savors the sweetness that floods his tongue and overtakes his senses. Juice seeps from the corners of his mouth and dribbles down his chin, staining the collar and cuffs of his shirt bright pink.

Doyoung watches as Donghyuck swipes another strawberry from its stem and notices that his fingertips are painted the same color. The juice makes a home underneath each nail and spreads thin when any pressure is applied, only to coalesce once more in a translucent pink thread.

Donghyuck uses Daegal as a napkin and rubs his sticky hands into her fur, turning the pristine white to pale red. Then, he picks up the wicker basket at his knee and holds it up. "Oh, come on, hyung. You see I picked all of these right here, don't you? This is plenty. I was just having a small snack." He smiles cheekily and tilts his head. "A reward for all my hard work."

Doyoung wants to roll his eyes at the comment but freezes at seeing Donghyuck's smile.

His lips are dyed the same red as his fingertips, and the color trickles down his neck, but he makes no move to wipe the mess from his mouth. Skin and flesh stick to his gums and sink into the crevices; the juice coats his tongue and teeth and drips from his canines. Seeds are caught between the gaps, and his tongue tries to push them free. Like trapped golden beetles, they crawl and squirm, only to be crushed by their enamel cages.

Doyoung recoils with a scowl. "Make sure to wash up before supper. You'll scare away everyone's appetite if you show up like that."

A slight pout supplants the grimace that once rested on Donghyuck's face. His tongue, hidden by pursed lips, wiggles around his mouth some before he spits a wad of seed and saliva out into the grass. He wipes his mouth with a sleeved hand for good measure.

"This year's harvest seems extra ripe." Donghyuck hoists the basket up and holds it on his hip, staring proudly at the picked strawberries. "And we probably have enough to sell. Make a nice cake or something with them, maybe a lemonade since it's getting warmer."

Doyoung peers into the basket and studies them. They are ripe, and full of juice, too. Bursting with it, almost. The strawberries bloat and bulge, skin stretched thin and transparent. The juice courses throughout like blood. A basketful of tiny hearts, thrumming with life. "Mhm," he replies half-heartedly.

Donghyuck chirps at Daegal. "Come on, girl," he bids, and the dog rises from its place in the grass where it rested so peacefully it almost looked dead, pristine white fur tainted red.

thank you so much for reading! please leave a like and a comment. reblogs are appreciated too!

#nct #nct 127 #kpop boys #nct fanfic #fanfic #horror #nct dream #nct horror #nct scenarios #nct doyoung #haechan #nct imagines #kpop drabbles #kpop scenarios #kpop imagines #nct drabbles #writers on tumblr #writing #nct haechan #lee donghyuck #kim doyoung #doyoung #nct dream imagines #nct dream scenarios #nct 127 scenarios #nct 127 imagines

[smileyneos]

Hello everyone!

So I finally decided to create a blog for my kpop writings. Quick notes about me:

-Name's Dani

-23 (my birthday is Nov. 1st)

-Multistan but I ult NCT

That's it for my little intro. Now to the fun stuff...

I started this blog because I have a horror themed fiction that I've been working on, but I'll write for almost any genre/scenario. While I am open to writing smut, I won’t be writing that content as much as others.

I hope y'all enjoy the works I put out, and I hope to see y'all soon!

#kpop fanfic #nct 127 x reader #nct dream x reader #wayv x reader #nct x reader #ateez x reader #kpop fluff #kpop horror #kpop horror au #ateez scenarios #nct scenarios #nct 127 scenarios #nct dream scenarios #wayv scenarios

[mostlykind]

STOP writing sex related y/n insert fanfics with real life people ✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼✋🏼 firstly you can’t write and secondly it’s just fuckin weird man

#i follow the nct 127 tag and I just got a JOHNNY AND JAEHYUN fanfic w a horrifyingly written sex scene #what is wrong with some of y’all 😭 #imagine it if u want but don’t subject me to the horrors of ur fantasies #I’m a hater first and foremost so idc how hot kpop boys are I don’t wanna read shit like this pls #rahma’s rambles