"Steal it." Jisung smirked. "Fuck it, why not? I have super-speed, or some kind of upgraded athleticism, it'll be a piece of cake!"
"It's in police custody! It will not be a piece of cake."
"Okay, then we'll make it a piece of cake. Maybe we should get a map of the police station? We can make a plan from there, in true criminal fashion."
Changbin's face seemed to go through several emotions within the span of a second. Shock, disappointment, a tad of frustration, a strange mix of proudness and mischievousness. He then seemed to settle for the 'god help me' expression of resignation.
"Alright. Can't believe I'm agreeing to this, but it's not as if I can stop you."
"I mean, personally, I think breaking the law under these circumstances is reasonable." Jisung continued, if only to get more of those expressions. "There are aspects of the situation the police don't know about, and god knows what conclusions they'd draw if they saw the deep web vampire shit. They'd probably think Chan got dragged into a cult. Which actually is still an alarming thing, but-"
"You don't need to explain yourself." Changbin sighed. "I'm with you."
"Deep web vampire shit?" Minho stood in the doorway, feigning disinterest as he picked at his nails. "Is that why there's been bags of blood in our fridge for three years?"
"God fucking damnit." Jisung wanted to bang his head against the wall. He'd seen them? And never questioned it until now?
"I mean, I don't want to jump to conclusions here." Minho smiled sweetly. Okay, clearly until now he'd thought there was weird cult shit going on, jesus christ.
"Has anyone else been eavesdropping on our conversation?" Jisung said through gritted teeth, teetering on the edge of losing it for the millionth time this week.
"Oh, they're all trying to listen through the wall but I've long since given up on that. It's too muffled, and you didn't notice me until I literally was in the room."
"Yeah, sorry, I was a bit caught up about Jisung wanting to break the law." Changbin replied, looking unsurprised but disappointed. He'd been acting a bit more like a Responsible Adult since Chan had been gone, probably since Minho didn't despite being older.
"Okay, well answer me this: what in the bloody hell is going on?"
"An apt description." Jisung muttered, unable to hold himself back.
"He's a vampire." Changbin said matter of factly. "So are Hyunjin and Chan. We think that's why they went missing, and that Chan was trying to tell us his laptop password in that security footage, because there might be evidence on there as to where he is right now. It's in police custody, so Jisung proposed we steal it. That pretty much covers everything."
Minho stood still for a moment, expressionless. Then his eyebrows furrowed, as if he was thinking really hard. He walked over to the fridge, opened it, and took out a blood bag, looking at it scrutinisingly.
"Could you maybe put that away?" Jisung winced. "I'm running low on those things as it is."
That was a lie. He was avoiding them like a plague. But there was a danger of them eventually running out, so it seemed better to save them and ignore the aching hunger within his body.
Minho put the blood bag away, and turned to face the two of them. "Okay. Seems legit." He nodded. "What's the game plan?"
"Just like that?" Jisung questioned, feeling just as confused as he had when Changbin had confronted him. "You believe us?"
"I mean, why else would there be blood bags in the fridge?" Minho gestured around sarcastically, his eyebrows raised in amusement. "It's not as if we've got anything else to go on to find our members, so fuck yeah, may as well steal Chan's laptop and look at this 'deep web vampire shit'. Maybe it'll give us some fucking answers."
"Okay. You make a good point." Jisung took a deep breath. "So, the plan is exactly what we need to figure out right now. Any chance we could convince Officer Sympathy to give us a map of the police station without it looking really suspicious?"
Changbin rolled his eyes. "No. But maybe if we found an excuse to be in there..."
"What, like making up shit and pretending it's evidence?" Minho suggested.
"That could work, but if we do that it'll fuck up the police's investigation. The responsibility of finding them would fall solely on our shoulders, and might I remind you none of us are trained detectives?"
"Well I think we're doing pretty well so far." Jisung said. "Or rather, I am, since I figured it out."
"Or it's not even his password and we went on a wild goose chase."
"Shut up, you."
"A wild goose chase is better than doing nothing." Minho said. "Either way, we're still gonna do it. So who volunteers as the thief?"
Jisung groaned. "Why are you looking at me?"
The next day, he found himself lingering in the police station whilst Changbin and Minho went to 'look at the security footage again'. Somehow the excuse was bought, but the bigger issue was how Jisung would sneak into the evidence room undetected by literal detectives. It was their job to detect.
There was the whole super-speed thing. That's what he'd said he'd do anyway, whilst they'd planned this. But he also needed an alibi. Especially since there were security cameras all over the building.
He held an empty laptop bag with him, so no one would question him leaving with something he hadn't had when he walked inside. All he needed to do now was...
Spotting a young, unintelligent looking officer, he went and approached, asking where the bathroom was. The officer kindly pointed him in the right direction, saying "it's just past the evidence room".
Well at least that part was made easy now.
Jisung slowly walked down as he assessed the walls for cameras. There was one facing the door of the evidence room. He manoeuvred himself to be in what he hoped was its blind spot.
Standing on the tips of his toes and reaching up, he tilted the camera away. There. That wasn't so hard. One down.
He walked(super-speedily) over to the door of the evidence room, opened it, and slipped inside.
Looking around inside, there didn't seem to be any security cameras, unless... Yes, above the door. He reached and tilted it upwards, hoping it hadn't caught him walking in.
As he glanced around, he saw there were shelves and shelves full of boxes, and if he went through them individually it would take a millennia. There had to be some sort of filing system, with labels.
Eventually he found the 'Missing Persons' section, and found a box labelled with his members names. Sure enough, inside of it lay Chan's laptop. Carefully, Jisung lifted it out and put it in his bag.
Okay. That was done. Now all he had to do was get out undetected.
He slipped out the door, and began walking back, completely pretending that he had just gone to the bathroom.
"Ah, there he is!" Minho said, standing in the lobby with Changbin and Jisung's least favourite person. Why were they out early?
"Why did you take so long in the bathroom?" Officer Sympathy asked, seemingly pleasant, but with suspicion in his eyes.
"Oh, um, that's..." Jisung felt his face grow hot. Shit. He was gonna be caught, wasn't he?
"He was crying, Officer." Changbin said, looking at Jisung as if to say play along. "He does that a lot now. He's very upset, you know, about our members missing, but he doesn't like talking about it."
Jisung's face grew hotter out of frustration. "Can we go now?" He said quietly.
"That's perfectly understandable. Know that there are plenty of people to contact who can help you if you need." Jisung didn't meet his gaze, but he could tell Officer Dipshit(a more suitable name, he'd decided) was looking at him with that condescending look again. "I'll update you all when there's more progress on the case."
Huh. And then he walked away. They'd actually succeeded? He'd bought the bullshit?
"I hate you." Jisung hissed at Changbin as they left.
"Shut up, I just saved your ass."
"Yeah, and now he'll be looking at me with those pity eyes even more. As if any of us wanted his damn sympathy."
"Did you get it?" Minho intervened.
"Yeah." Jisung breathed. "Let's get home, and maybe we'll get some answers."
Back at the dorm, the only room with a lock on the door was the bathroom, so... well if it looked odd, none of the other members had said anything. The three of them sat on the floor, laptop in front of them.
Jisung reached for the keyboard, and typed in the password. A loading icon appeared above it.
He held his breath as the laptop opened, luckily still with everything still open. The first thing was a page that looked like some sort of deep web reddit.
"Motherfucker..." Minho muttered as they all read the title. "I am going to kill Chan when we find him."
-
Chan wondered if he was dead.
This was because there was a body in front of him. It was his body. It looked pale - more so than usual. It looked dead.
He held up his hands and looked at them. They were flickering and translucent, as if only on the cusp of being corporeal. He reached out to touch the body, but his hands passed through it.
He'd had to bend down to reach, and upon drawing closer, he heard the faint thrumming of a heartbeat.
He was alive, then. He just wasn't... there.
It was as if the last puzzle piece of a mystery haunting him for weeks had fallen clumsily into place. He didn't fully understand, but he was getting the big picture.
Vampires had been disappearing over the past few weeks. The online forums were buzzing with questions of why or how, and fear of being the next victim.
All anyone knew was that someone was kidnapping vampires with no explanation. The implications of this were far worse than the usual targeted killing of vampire hunters. Because every single one of the victims had been taken alive.
Chan had seen the rumours, read through witness accounts of kidnapping. He couldn't hide his own fear, and the overwhelming stress that settled over him like a looming shadow.
He hadn't really been in his right mind. He'd seen what had been happening to Jisung, but hadn't acted on it. He made excuses when Hyunjin confronted him about it. And worst of all, he pushed Jisung away and avoided him, even though he must've been scared out of his mind and desperate for answers about everything.
Chan hadn't known he was going to be taken (if he had, he would've helped Jisung more). He'd had the fear about it, and that fear had skyrocketed when he'd heard footsteps behind him on his way back to the dorms. Panic set in, and his immediate worry was about the blood orders for the others. He'd faced the security camera in the stairwell and used his fingers to indicate his laptop password, in the hopes that Hyunjin would be able to continue ordering.
But perhaps he shouldn't have bothered, he thought as he took in his surroundings finally. He was in a large warehouse, scattered with bodies and identical ghost-like spirits hovering over them, just like he was.
Next to his own body lay Hyunjin's. But there was no spirit hovering over it.
"Hyunjin..." Chan mumbled. "Hyunjin, where are you?" He called out, his voice echoing through the warehouse.
There was no response.
"Hyunjin!" He yelled, feeling himself begin to fall into panic. He had to be here somewhere, right? Chan would find him, it would be okay, as long as they were together.
"You looking for the guy who was next to you?" One of the other spirits asked.
"Yeah," Chan said, "Yeah, he's my friend," his brother, "Have you seen him?"
"The guy was barely here for a second before he took off. Must've been panicking a lot. I suppose he thought he was dead, and that's why he was so afraid."
"That's the conclusion I made at first as well." Chan murmured. "Do you know what direction he went in?"
"Sorry, he was really fast, it was like a blur of motion, I couldn't see the direction."
"That's fine. Thank you. Maybe he'll come back..." Chan wanted to search for Hyunjin, but he also didn't want to leave their bodies behind, for fear of not being able to find them again.
He didn't really know how any of this worked. Was his spirit attached to his body in some way, or could he move as he liked? If there was only so far to go without hitting a boundary, then Hyunjin couldn't have gone far. But whilst Chan felt something tugging at him to stay where he was, it wasn't stopping him from leaving.
So thinking of it from that point of view, Hyunjin could literally be anywhere. Chan didn't even know where to begin with searching for him.
Another thought struck him, as his wits only now seemed to be catching up to him. If Chan and Hyunjin had both been taken here, who was to say Jisung hadn't been as well?
Chan began floating - yes, floating - around the warehouse, looking at the bodies and their identical spirits, searching for that familiar face. He went round twice and didn't see it.
That meant Jisung was safe. Hopefully. But fuck, he was all alone now, he didn't know about the danger he was in, he didn't know a single thing because Chan had been an asshole and hadn't told him. There was no point making excuses now, the damage was done.
He returned to his own body, and it was still jarring seeing himself from a third person perspective. He didn't know what had been done to everyone in here, nor what was going to happen next. But even without Hyunjin, he wasn't alone.
He was surrounded by people just as confused and scared as he was, so it wouldn't hurt to ask around and try to piece together some answers.
-
Jeongin hadn't expected to go crazy this early on. He'd been clinging onto his sanity with such desperation, that he was surprised it slipped away from him.
Changbin, Minho, and Jisung were in the bathroom with the door locked - definitely up to something suspicious. Jeongin didn't know what it was, but he would find out eventually, considering the short lifespan of secrets within the group.
Felix and Seungmin had invited him to play games with them in the living room, but he'd declined, wanting some time to himself. When your thoughts are running at a million miles an hour, sometimes you need time to stop and breathe.
He entered his room, saw Hyunjin standing inside, and promptly screamed.
"Hyunjin?" He yelled.
"Holy fuck, you can see me?" Hyunjin yelled back.
"Oh my god, I missed you so much, Hyunjin-" Jeongin reached out to hug him, but his arms met air. "What?" He said, turning around to see Hyunjin behind him. "The hell?"
Hyunjin smiled, not happily, but with a strong bitterness. "I'm sorry. I... I'm not really here. Not properly."
"What do you mean?" Jeongin breathed.
"I..." Hyunjin's eyes shimmered with tears. "I think I'm dead."
"So what, you're a fucking ghost?" Jeongin spat. "Ghosts aren't real."
The bitter smile remained. Jeongin reached out to touch Hyunjin, but again, his hand fell through. What in the fucking shit-
"Ah..." He whispered to himself. "I see what's happening. I've gone insane and I'm hallucinating."
This wasn't good. People didn't hallucinate for no reason, usually there was something very wrong. Jeongin wondered what had fucked up his brain that badly. Maybe he'd accidentally inhaled the smoke-that-definitely-wasn't-cigarettes from their neighbours below.
"No, you're not hallucinating." Hallucination-Hyunjin said. "Jeongin, please listen to me-"
"No. You're not real." Jeongin muttered. Had he hit his head somewhere?
"I am, I'm here, please Jeongin-"
"Leave me alone!" Jeongin cried. "This is some fucked up way to cope with this, it's so fucking wrong. I don't know what the hell my brain is doing, but you are not here. You are out there, and we are going to find you. Both of my friends are alive, and they are going to come home. So leave me alone."
Hallucination-Hyunjin was silent. Maybe if Jeongin shut his eyes he'd go away. Maybe he needed to see a therapist. Maybe he needed to just whack his head really hard.
Inching his eyes open, he saw Hallucination-Hyunjin was still there, watching him. He closed them again, muttering to himself that it wasn't real.
-
Hyunjin had taken one look at his own dead body and bolted. Everything came crashing down upon him, it felt like he couldn't breathe - of course he couldn't because he was dead. Emotions remained lingering like vultures and all he could do was run and try to escape from them.
Naturally, his feet led him back home.
In the dorm, he saw his members. They didn't know he was dead. They looked sad, but not as sad as they'd look if they knew. He stood in front of them but no one saw him. Whatever he was, a ghost or something, they couldn't see him.
Except Jeongin. And fuck, maybe Hyunjin should've explained before he tried to hug him. He too, had craved that touch, and for a moment had believed it was possible until he passed through.
"You're not real." Jeongin kept repeating like a mantra with his eyes squeezed shut.
"Where's Chan?" Hyunjin asked, knowing it had been too long their leader hadn't been in the dorm.
"He's missing too- No, I'm not even answering you, cause you're not real."
"Missing?" Hyunjin echoed. No, no, no. If Chan was gone then he might be dead too, no, no, this was bad. Chan couldn't be dead, it wasn't fair for Chan to be dead, the members needed him.
Had he been in the same place Hyunjin woke up in? Had Hyunjin abandoned him just because he was a stupid coward? He was so afraid of death, and now that he was dead he was afraid of himself. So fucking afraid.
He prayed to every single god or whatever being ruled the universe that Chan was alive. He prayed that he hadn't abandoned him in that horrible place.
"I need to find him." Hyunjin mumbled. "Jeongin, I don't want to leave you-"
"Please do. Please go away."
Hyunjin sighed. "Okay. I'll come back."
"No, you won't!" Jeongin replied as Hyunjin floated out of the room, absentmindedly going through the wall. Cause that was a thing now.
Unfortunately, he had no memory of how to get back to that place. He'd been running with his eyes half closed, not paying attention at all.
But well, if he'd gotten to the dorm without even thinking, then maybe it worked in reverse. Maybe if he just ran, he would end up back there.
It was worth a shot, so he began sprinting down the streets. At first he darted around people but then remembered that he could pass through them. So he fully shut his eyes and relied on instinct to guide him.
When he opened them, he was approaching a creepy looking warehouse. A strangely appropriate place for a dead body, so he decided to look inside.
He nearly screamed when he saw the rows and rows of more bodies. More people, who were dead and had ghosts hovering above them.
His eyes scanned the crowd, and landed upon a familiar face.
"Chan!" He yelled, running to hug him.
"Oh my god, Hyunjin, I thought you wouldn't come back." Chan cried, wrapping his arms around him.
"I'm sorry," Hyunjin sniffled, "I was just really scared and I didn't know what to do. I... I don't want to be dead."
"Hyunjin..."
"And it's not fair that you're dead too, either, I don't want you to be dead!"
"Hyunjin, we're not dead."
"What?" Hyunjin gaped.
"We're alive. Listen to your body, there's breathing and a heartbeat."
Hyunjin swallowed back nausea as he bent down, and sure enough, he heard the thud thud of his heart and the faint breaths escaping his lips.
"Oh." He said dumbly.
"I've been talking to the other people here, and I think our souls have been detached from our bodies."
"Oh. That's not good, is it?"
"No. I'm not sure why, but the guy who took us - everyone here is calling him 'The Stealer'. He's specifically targeting vampires, and I don't think he has good intentions."
"I should probably tell Jeongin I'm alive." Hyunjin shivered. Somehow this seemed worse than being dead. It was a weird limbo between life and death, and right now they both seemed inescapably stuck within it.
-
"I'm back!" Hyunjin reappeared.
"No. Go away." Jeongin replied.
"Okay, so I've got good news and bad news. The good news is I found Chan," Their leader's head poked through the wall, and he gave a wave, "And turns out neither of us are dead. The bad news is our souls have been detached from our bodies for god knows what reason, and it probably isn't a good one."
Jeongin took a deep breath. "Right. Okay. What the fuck was the counsellor's phone number again."
"Jeonginnie," Chan began, and goddamnit Jeongin missed his voice, "I know you're probably really scared and confused right now. It's probably more confusing that you're the only one who can see us. I don't know why that is, but we need to make use of it. You could help the police actually find us, we can give you directions to the place our bodies are-"
"How would I even explain how I knew?"
"An actual response. That's progress." Hyunjin hummed.
"Doesn't mean I think you're real." Jeongin huffed. "Even if you were real and telling the truth, how the fuck would I be able to help without looking like a madman? I can't. No one would believe me. You know why? Because you aren't real."
"How can we prove that we are?" Hyunjin asked.
Jeongin hummed. "Get someone else to see you." That was impossible, and it gave him satisfaction to say it. No one else could see the figments of his own mind.
"Okay. Fine. We will." Hyunjin looked determined.
"You won't." Jeongin muttered under his breath. He hated the part of himself that wanted this to be real, that missed his members so much that he'd even accept hallucinations, anything just to see them.
The logical side of his brain was stronger than that, though. He knew it wasn't real, it was too cruel to be real. Floating souls was just not within the realms of possibility.