Everything had happened so quickly.
Chan had woken up, immediately attacked Jeongin, before being pulled off by Jisung. Jeongin couldn't have said what happened next in detail; the two of them had fought in blurs of motion, ending with Jisung pinning Chan to the ground.
Jisung must have been trying to persuade Chan to come to his senses. They'd had a brief conversation, and since the situation had been under control, Jeongin had tuned out of it.
His attention had focused on Hyunjin, who had started to stir. And then suddenly his eyes had been open.
"He's woken up!" Minho called out to the others.
"RUN AWAY!" Cried Chan's voice. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"
Changbin came running towards where the rest of them were. "Do as he says!" He said, his tone leaving no room for argument.
They began running. Jeongin didn't dare look back, although he could hear the sounds of more fighting. All he could do right now was beg that his legs could get him away, as his body was pumped with adrenaline and fear.
Having to run again not so long after their first escape from the police was excruciating. Jeongin could feel his stamina running out, sharp pain in his chest as he wheezed out in an attempt to keep breathing. He saw the others in front of him, the distance between them getting slightly larger, and he tried to keep up.
They were no longer on a path, they were running through the overgrown forest, tripping over tree roots and getting tangled in the shrubbery. Branches would spring into their faces, nettles would sting their ankles, but they didn't stop.
He could hear footsteps behind him growing closer, like someone sprinting. He didn't look back, focusing on going forward and getting through the obstacles before him.
He pushed a tree branch out of his way, it swung back, and there was a loud hiss behind him. He looked over his shoulder to see Hyunjin standing still, holding a hand over his eye. His fangs were still bared, but he was no longer chasing them.
"What happened?" Minho whispered, as all of them came to a stop as well(a good distance away from where Hyunjin stood, of course).
"It was that tree." Jeongin murmured.
Hyunjin seemed to pick up on Jeongin's words, and he ducked underneath the branch, walking forwards. This time he approached them slowly, clearly in pain.
"You smell... good..." He rasped. His visible eye was wide and bloodshot, staring so unblinkingly. And then he lowered his hand to reveal the other.
The skin around it looked burnt, it was an angry red. And there was blood seeping out of a scratch across the eyeball, pooling at the bottom of the socket. It spilled out, a red droplet running down his face, eventually mixing with tears that began flowing too.
"I know that you don't want to hurt us, Hyunjin." Jeongin said softly, hoping to dissuade him. Although if they couldn't outrun him, then what could possibly override his instincts?
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Felix move. Ever so slowly, he was approaching the tree that had hurt Hyunjin. Jeongin's eyes widened in understanding, and he realised he had to keep talking, stall for as long as possible.
"You can control it, I know you can. You're stronger than this."
Hyunjin didn't slow down, but his face tensed. "Make it stop..." He whispered.
"We can make it stop. But not here. And not by hurting us."
There was a loud snap as Felix tore off a branch from the tree, and held it out like a makeshift sword. Hyunjin turned around at the noise, and began walking towards him.
"That's right, over here." Felix said, his voice unwavering but his expression barely held together.
There was a flash of motion as Hyunjin ran forward, a pained cry as Felix swung the branch, hitting him square in the chest. Hyunjin fell to the ground, shaking.
He seemed to come back to his senses. It was as if the pain acted as some kind of brutal wake up call. He looked up at them, guilt and apologies written all of his face.
"I'm sorry." Hyunjin said. "I didn't want to hurt any of you."
"We know." Felix replied, lowering the tree branch.
"What... what is that?"
"I remember reading about it, I think it's hawthorn." Minho answered. "Sorry. It must hurt."
Hyunjin shook his head. "It's better than the hunger. Nothing compares to that pain. I... shit, where are Chan and Jisung?"
"We left them back there, Chan told us to run away. You guys were all fighting." Minho explained. "I don't know if they still are."
Hyunjin was quiet for a moment, as if remembering something. "Jisung... he collapsed. Shit, I think he fell right on a hawthorn tree."
"We have to go back and help him." Felix said worriedly. "And you, you're hurt, and he could be hurt just as badly..."
Hyunjin shook his head. "You guys need to go. Right now the hawthorn hurts more than the hunger, but I don't know how long it will take for it to change. For the sake of your safety, you have to leave me here."
"Only if you find Chan and Jisung." Changbin said quietly in response. "Find them. And you three, you'll be- you'll be safe together. You'll be alright."
Hyunjin nodded. "Yeah. We'll be alright in the end. I promise."
"I'll hold you to that." Minho said, his face unnaturally solemn.
They began walking, not running, leaving Hyunjin behind. No one spoke for a while, the tense silence impenetrable. The entire world seemed to be crashing down right now, and going up in flames. It was almost laughable to think of their lives as idols, where they had performed on stage. It was so distant and far away now.
"Where do we go?" Jeongin finally asked the question he wasn't sure anyone could answer. "We can't run away... I don't think we should..."
"Let's go home." Minho said. He looked so much older right now, his face weary. "We'll go home. The police will be there, and they'll ask questions, but we don't have to answer them. We don't have to say anything at all. They can't make us talk."
"The implications of our silence will be questionable." Seungmin said.
"Yeah, but it can't be as bad as the truth, can it?" Minho's smile was shaky and broken.
-
"Hawthorn, hawthorn, hawthorn..." Chan mumbled to himself as he slowly dragged Jisung further into the woods. His charred fingers were in agony, but still he was careful of Jisung's wound on his back, careful not to irritate it. He wasn't entirely sure why he was moving; maybe to find a cure, or find Hyunjin before he found the others. Although for the latter it could be too late now. He could only hope there was still time for the first.
He'd spent countless nights researching the biology of vampires, and he'd read about hawthorn in that time. He'd read about how it burned, how the skin shrivelled up and died, like acid slowly eating away at you. Like your very body was on fire. It was so fatal that for centuries vampires had never survived contact with it, and humans had nearly wiped them all out by using hawthorn stakes.
He'd read about a cure. But he couldn't remember what it was. In this vital moment, the memory eluded him, he was grabbing at straws to try to remember it.
"Hawthorn," He continued mumbling, "The cure for hawthorn..."
It was a plant that grew nearby. Like stinging nettles and dock leaves, only this was far more life threatening. If he could find it, see it, maybe he would remember. That was why he kept moving, slowly, through the trees.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a white flower, its petals shaped like a star. It stood out stark within the darkness of the forest, tilting in a light breeze that passed through.
"Asphodel..." He murmured as his mind finally caught up.
He laid Jisung down on his front and plucked the flower from the ground. As soon as his fingers touched it a soothing cold relief began seeping through them, and the burns looked less irritated, like they had been left to heal for several days, slowing developing into scars.
Lifting up Jisung's shirt, he placed the flower on the blistered skin on his back, and watched with bated breath as the wounds slowly began fading. It was a long and gruesome process, but he gave it as much time as he could, wanting Jisung to be in as little pain as possible when he woke up. Chan couldn't even imagine the agony he must be in, and could only be glad he was lessening it now.
"Chan." A quiet voice said his name behind him, and he turned around to see Hyunjin. He looked worse for wear, but the main thing that drew his attention was the scrape across his eye, bleeding and blistered, as if it had been touched by hawthorn as well.
"Are you okay?" He breathed, getting to his feet. "Hyunjin, your eye-"
"It's okay, it stopped me from hurting anyone. Is Jisung okay?"
Chan nodded. "He'll be okay. It just takes time. When his wounds are fully closed up I'll give the asphodel to you, yeah? You're in pain..."
Hyunjin shook his head. "I don't need it, Jisung does. I'm fine."
Chan sighed, giving him a stern look. "I'm not going to argue with you. Where are the others?"
"I'm not sure but I think they might go home."
"But the police-"
"I don't know, okay. But whatever they decide I trust them."
"Me too." Chan put a hand on Hyunjin's shoulder. "I'm just worried... I don't know how we can even begin to explain everything that's happened."
-
Officer Choi was back and hounding them with irritating questions that clearly no one wanted to answer.
"We found you near a warehouse that contains numerous bodies of missing persons. What were you doing there?"
Minho busied himself with studying the interrogation room's metal table. It was clean and shiny, and there was a metal bar that presumably was used for attaching handcuffs to. He wasn't sure how long he would remain out of cuffs himself, because exercising his right to remain silent only went so far in such a situation.
Officer Choi sighed at his silence. "Okay, then. Where is your group member Han Jisung? As far as your manager is aware, he was last seen with you when you spoke to him on the phone."
Minho breathed out slowly, puffing out his lips. He could probably sit here all day and not speak a word. Perhaps he should start playing one of those memory games with himself.
"Did you take it upon yourself to try to investigate your missing members?"
The police officer went to the shop and bought an apple, Minho thought to himself. The police officer went to the shop and bought an apple, and a box of cereal. The police officer-
"Did you steal or assist in stealing Bang Chan's laptop from the evidence room at the police station?"
Oh, the amount of willpower it took to not laugh and call out how shit their security was. The amount of willpower it took not to spit in Officer Choi's face.
"Do you in any way blame yourself for your members' disappearance?"
Minho raised an eyebrow, making eye contact with Choi. He was trying to evoke an emotional response now, but Minho wasn't going to fall for it.
"As the currently eldest member you must feel a lot of responsibility. You probably want to protect your members. And whilst you do have the right to remain silent, I really would encourage you to speak, Minho. Otherwise we can only assume the worst."
Minho yawned. He had long since resigned himself to this response. Whatever the consequences would be, he'd take them in order to protect his family.
"Is that really it, then? You're not going to say anything?" A long stretch of silence. "Okay. You can go back to waiting outside this room then, please."
Outside the interrogation room was a hallway lined with chairs. Minho sat down on one of them, next to his members. As agreed, no one had spoken a word at all. Minho had been the first one interrogated, and they looked at him expectantly. He grimaced in response, shrugging.
Time ticked by slowly as the rest of them were interrogated in turn. Officer Choi became increasingly frustrated at the silence, and looked positively livid once all of them had been interrogated.
"I do not know what it is you are hiding, or why you do not trust the police with the information. But trust me, I will find out." Officer Choi announced. "Lee Minho, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here at the station. The rest of your members may return home, but under no circumstances are you allowed to go anywhere else. I'm also going to ask all of you to hand over your phones."
Minho sighed, dragging his phone out of his pocket and dropping it into the box Officer Choi was holding out. The others did the same, their faces apprehensive and scared. But it said a lot about their trust in Minho that still, no one spoke.
He was left alone after they went. Hooray, singled out as the ringleader of whatever Officer Choi thought they'd done.
Back in the interrogation room again. He was alone in there this time, staring at his own warped reflection in the mirrored glass. He looked... tired as hell. Well, he sure felt like it so he couldn't exactly complain. If he wasn't under questioning in a police station he'd probably just lay his head on the table and sleep. But unfortunately that was the environment he was stuck in.
He hummed, looking around as he waited in silence, and getting increasingly more bored. There was a glass of water on the table; very pointedly it was on Officer Choi's side, practically about to fall off the table. Minho felt his parched throat so very suddenly, as well as the incoming headache from dehydration. He hadn't really thought about it until now, but now that he was faced with the remedy he realised how incredibly thirsty he was.
Officer Choi was probably watching on the other side of the glass. Looking straight at the mirror with a smile, Minho reached over and downed the glass of water, trying to say fuck you with his eyes as much as possible.
It probably wouldn't do much good in the long run, but Minho felt an urge to be as much of an asshole as possible while he was here. He smirked, unable to help feeling smug. Officer Choi wouldn't find anything out unless he spoke, which he wasn't going to do.
He must've been left in the room on his own for about an hour, finding himself becoming increasingly bored. He tried to entertain himself by thinking of his cats, and then eventually ended up just feeling sad that he couldn't see them. When would he next see them? Would he see them at all? Was this whole mess going to ruin his life forever?
Boredom was a difficult foe to counter, but Minho was a petty bitch, so he kept his lips tightly sealed. He would find a way out of this, he just had to focus on staying quiet right now.
The door opened with a bang and Officer Choi strode in. "Ready to talk yet, Minho?"
Minho groaned. Honestly he had to give it to them, his lips felt looser after being isolated for so long. He really, really just wanted to shout at the officer, give him a piece of his mind, but he couldn't. He had to hold out and be as stubborn as possible.
"Look," Officer Choi said, "You're making this harder than it needs to be, but I'll be upfront. The longest we can keep you here is 48 hours, and if you can go that long without saying anything then consider my respect earned. But I don't trust you, and I don't trust whatever it is you're not saying. Right now the case is technically focused on your now three missing members, but whilst nothing ties you to the first disappearances, you were the last person known to be with Han Jisung. That is enough of a reason to investigate you specifically, under suspicion of aiding in the disappearance."
Tell me something I don't already know, Minho thought bitterly. As far as he could tell, the interrogation method really did seem to be to bore him to the brink of death.
He closed his eyes, sitting still. Breathing slowly, he began to tune out of what Officer Choi was saying. He was so tired, he could practically nod off. After all, you couldn't slip up and say something if you were asleep, right? There was a buzzing feeling in his chest, it somehow felt relaxing. He felt as if he could just drift away in that moment...
With a horrible lurching feeling, he opened his eyes again. To look down upon his own body, unconscious and on the ground.
Detached souls... Oh hell.