Monster under my bed ☆ Minsung ✔

07

The splitting headache was pounding on his temples, like someone punched him repeatedly. He kept staring at the clock on the wall in front of him, watching as the longer hand ticked away a second after second. Every little sound that was heard in his house was a threat. The furniture settling, the fridge's fan turning on and off, the noises from the TV – it all kept making him nervous, turning around himself. He was terrified of seeing the monster again, but there was also anger settling in his mind. He wanted to hide from that thing, but also kill it for what it has done to his family of two.

A knock on the front door made him jump, before he stood up to it, firstly looking through the peephole before swinging it open. "Seungmin, you're finally here!" He was sweating profusely as he let his friend in.

"I am not crazy, see?" he asked, pointing at the window. "That's where I keep seeing it. There is still a stain from when it touched it. And look, the monster pushed me!" He rolled up his jeans to reveal badly bruised knees.

"Hey, I believe you."

"I sound absolutely crazy, I know, and you probably don't belie-wait...what?"

Seungmin chuckled, holding up a book which was almost falling apart in his hold. "I didn't believe at first, but what you said kept bothering me, so I did some research. I think I found out what the monster thing that you're talking about is."

Minho sunk into the couch, getting lost in the fluffy pillows. "You did?" he asked in disbelief, feeling a huge burden fall off his shoulders.

"People nicknamed it 'Nightmare '. I read a lot about it and found out some interesting stuff."

"Tell me more."

Seungmin nodded, opening the book at what seemed like random page, but from Minho could see, there was a big title of the chapter called 'Nightmare's desires and needs'. He ran his finger across a few of the lines in the book while talking: "It takes a form of the person you love the most. It'll psychologically make you terrified of them, because that's its goal. To make you hate them, despise them, not want to be near them. It feeds off of those negative emotions. So, the second it succeeds with its plan..."

"It kills us," Minho finished.

"Yes. The feelings you have for Jisung? They are like a protective shield. It says, here in the book, that love, affection, kindness - it's all like a cross for a vampire, salt for a ghost. He can't actually kill you, at least it shouldn't be able to, I think. There is a page missing."

Minho bit his lower lip until he could feel the metal taste of blood in his mouth. He wanted to punch and scream, absolute despair sitting on his shoulders, causing for his whole body to feel heavy, as though someone twice his size tried to climb onto his back.

"What do I do, Seungmin," he whispered. "It could come at any second, I don't know how to fix this, how to make it leave."

Seungmin could only look at him in pure sympathy, heart feeling so heavy for his friend who used to be so bright, smile resting on his lips even if he had to face a stressful situation. That friend now had permanent dark circles under his eyes and mouth formed in a frown that never seemed to disappear these days. He wished he knew how to help, he really did.

"There is only one thing you can do now, hyung," he sighed, approaching the window staring at the black stains that were still on it. "Don't stop loving Jisung."

-

"Hm, it's you again," the nurse sighed and put down the documents she was holding as Minho approached her. It was the same nurse he had pushed away the other day. He now had the time to actually look at her, noticing that she had very kind eyes that were decorated with deep wrinkles that only signified she had smiled a lot in her life. She was hunched over a bit from the weight of years that she has lived and the boy found himself drowning in guilt from treating her so badly on their first encounter.

"I came to see my boyfriend," he simply said.

"I think he woke up few minutes ago actually, go ahead, he must be waiting for you." Though she regarded him with a judging stare when he came, her smile was now genuine.

"Actually, I have something I want to ask." Minho leaned against the counter, grabbing one of the pens that were put in a small ceramic cup, twirling it in his hand.

"What is it?" the nurse asked, putting all the documents away as though she expected him to tell her his whole life story. She actually reminded him a lot of his grandmother.

"When will Jisung be discharged? I feel like I am losing my mind without him by my side..."

The woman's shoulder sunk down as she sighed. "You saw the state he is in, sweetie. He almost died of suicide just few days ago. I think it's better if he stays here for a couple more days."

"I swear I can take care of him myself," Minho urged. "He needs to be home...Pills, empty white walls and cheap beds is all he knows at this point. I am sure he will get better when he can be with me."

She grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it fondly. "We'll see what we can do, okay?"

-

welp, I have so much to study </3

- Sani