FEAR | stray kids

IX - left in the depths

Jisung opened his eyes. Surprisingly, he felt fine. Like he'd never been hurt at all. Not even his arm was in pain; it didn't even feel broken. It was as if none of that had ever happened.

"What the fuck...?" He groaned, rolling over on the forest floor.

"Jisung?" Chan was at his side in an instant. "How are you feeling?"

"Fine, weirdly. What happened?"

"Asphodel flowers. They have pretty strong healing effects on us."

"That sounds fake, but I'll take your word for it. I definitely feel better."

"Oh, good for you, then." Hyunjin said. He sat against a tree, clutching his abdomen. "I feel so hungry I could quite literally kill someone. Cause the magic flower doesn't heal an empty stomach."

Jisung looked back at Chan, who, although he was better at concealing it, didn't look much better than Hyunjin. Both of their faces were gaunt, bones jutting out just a little more than they should be. 

"Hang on..." He murmured, finally getting his bearings. "Where are the others?"

"Safe, hopefully." Chan answered. "They caught onto the whole idea of hawthorn, and managed to stop Hyunjin from... doing anything."

"I told them to go home." Hyunjin explained. "Because despite the pain distracting me from the hunger, it's not a permanent solution. We're still dangerous in this state."

Jisung swallowed, the memory of what had happened when they woke up flashing in his mind. "Yeah."

All of their heads turned at the sound of footsteps. The crunching of leaves and twigs beneath someone's feet. Walking in their general direction was a middle-aged man carrying a deer carcass over his shoulder. The pungent smell of fresh blood filled the air, it tugged on their senses, beckoning enticingly.

"Hey..." Jisung mumbled. "Can we drink animal blood?"

"I've tried it before and it's disgusting." Chan replied. "But it kept me alive."

"Do you think we can convince that guy to give it to us, or...?"

"A gentle knock on the head won't hurt him, right?" Hyunjin whispered.

It was a solution to their problem, at least.

A couple of minutes later, the man was propped up against a tree, unconscious, and the three of them had found a meal. Chan was right - it was disgusting and almost made Jisung want to throw up as much as he did when eating normal food, but he managed to keep it down. And there was a bitter satisfaction to it.

There was a long silence after they'd finished, until Hyunjin voiced a question.

"What now?" He said quietly.

"We should get back to the others." Chan said after a while of pacing. "They probably went home, so we should go home too, and... figure out how the hell we're explaining everything to the police."

"I'm a very good liar," Jisung said, "But I'm assuming you don't want us to necessarily lie?"

"Half truths." Chan nodded. "We need to be as honest as possible without actually telling the truth about what we are."

"That's gonna take a lot of rehearsing." Hyunjin mumbled. "And everyone will need to be on the same page."

"Yup. So, we should head back so we can get started."

-

"Fuck this..." Minho muttered as he watched paramedics swarm around his body. "Absolutely fuck this..."

Nothing cemented the reality of detached souls than being one yourself. Nothing was quite as jarring as seeing your own body from a third person perspective. Also it was hilarious that they'd called an ambulance over him supposedly fainting. 

"Well," He hummed, "This'll be a fun story to tell the others, if I could."

He paused for a second, thinking of his members back at the dorm and how they might be doing. And he remembered a certain person with soul-seeing abilities.

"But I can tell them." He whispered, grinning.

The dorms weren't far from the police station, and it didn't take long to get there, especially with his homesick heart urging him to go faster.

"OI! Jeongin!" He yelled as he floated through the front door.

Jeongin looked up from where he sat at the kitchen table, and uttered a very eloquent, "Huh?"

"Hi there, I'm a floaty soul and I don't know how!" Minho said cheerfully. "But of all the ways to avoid confrontation this sure seems to be at the top of the list!"

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Jeongin pinched his nose between his fingers. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" Minho grinned bitterly. "But my body is now being taken to hospital because they think I passed out!"

"Oh great..."

"Jeongin, who are you talking to?" Seungmin asked as he walked in.

"Minho. He is, in his own words, a floaty soul."

"Hello." Minho waved. "But you can't see me, can you?"

Seungmin - completely ignoring Minho - looked doubtful for a second, before sighing. "It smells like Febreze in here," He grumbled, "So I kind of believe you. Do we have any clue why... this happened?"

Jeongin shook his head. "I mean, who'd want to take his lifespan? He's a normal human. Unless there's something you want to share, Minho?" He said jokingly.

Minho held up his hands defensively. "Nope! Normal human here. Blood tastes disgusting."

"You're a normal human." Jeongin repeated, suddenly looking thoughtful. "Wait a minute... You're not..." His brow furrowed, as his expression shifted to concern.

"Yeah. What's... what's uh, going on up there? In your little head? Care to share?"

"You're just a normal human, Minho. You're not half-dead or half-alive. You can only be one or the other." Jeongin said slowly.

"What are you saying?" Minho knew exactly what Jeongin was saying. He felt the fear creep inside of him, everything feeling cold, and wrong.

"Your body can't survive without a soul. And we can't reattach it. If your soul is detached... you'd have to be dead."

"Dead?" Seungmin whispered in disbelief, his voice shaking. "But how?"

"Oh..." Minho murmured. "I'm an idiot..."

The glass of water. Officer Choi practically dangled the bait in front of him.

"The bastard fucking poisoned me."