"I regret this so much." Emily spoke out, feeling the urge to bite into her nails shoot through her body as Bella and her drew into the police station. "You should. Curiosity killed the cat." Jungkook commented, the girl sighing as she was reminded of his presence.
"I'll probably be able to get you five minutes, probably less so, just take some photos and get out of there." Bella directed, Emily's heart continuing to free fall as her reflection flared back at her from the transparent doors.
Taking a breath in, the trio entered the station. A quiet buzz of conversation with the occasional shrill of a landline being the only things that greeted them. A dancing whisper of directions were passed from Bella, soon slipping further into the cavity of the station.
"Let's get this over with." Jungkook announced, trailing into the records room with no hesitation in his stride. Emily whimpered, eyes scanning the foreign environment, meeting with a deficit of figures. Not a single camera insight.
It seemed as if anyone could have walked in here without leaving a trace.
"I still don't understand why you're here." She began as she followed the boy into the dimly lit room, shelves of cardboard boxes littered with stray files."You're big enough to look after yourself now." Emily continued, running her fingers over the alphabetically arranged files.
"What? Can't I be helpful?" He mimicked a sad tone. "I know I'm a burden to you... I just thought coming along could make me less of one." He shrugged, his lips falling into a small pout. She sacrificed him a single, solemn glance before returning to the 'F' labelled slim files. "I've dealt with this scenario before... y-you can't help that you're this way." She let go in a hush, failing to sense him eliminating the space between them.
"You know... you haven't told me a lot about your Dad." Jungkook quizzed. "What exactly happ—."
She left him no time to conclude as she ripped the file from its slot, no hesitation as he unfolded it to liberate its letters. "Found it."
The opening page only consisted of a light profile of information. Date of birth. Date of death. Address amongst other pieces of information Emily grew ignorant to as she searched for the autopsy.
A thin slither of paper appeared in the slender profile of the girl. The autopsy.
Stumbling over the words, she tore the next page into view, running quickly over the words.
"So... what does it say?" Jungkook puzzled, peering over her shoulders as he tried to make sense of the symbols.
A laboured laugh was forced out of her lips as she slammed the file back into its place, turning to face the boy who's eyes were bathed in her image.
"Sofia—they...they—they didn't even do an autopsy." She regurgitated the words as his expression grew more lost.
"Sofia's body was never even found."
━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━
Everything comes at a price.
That's how Emily found herself in the school's grand hall, eyes forcefully directed to the golden, yellow lit stage. Time killing talk saturating the atmosphere as her mind revised what she had read.
A date of death, and yet no body or autopsy to account that for.
What the hell is going on?
"Why exactly are we here again, to see... Romeo and Juliet?" Jimin suddenly peered in, hauling her out of her thoughts once again. She sighed. "Because I promised Bella that I would come after she helped me with Sofia's file. Now it's time for my question. Why did you want to come with me?"
His silence formed more of an answer than his words ever could.
"Jimin—." She began to groan.
"I can't help that I don't like being alone... especially after that n-night." He confessed, a bashful burn slipping into his cheeks as he attempted to distract himself with the programme.
Pushing her head from side to side, her eyes found themselves landing on the small leaflet in Jimin's hands. Bella's portrait gleaming brightly as others surrounded her. "Who's playing Romeo then?" Emily asked, trying to find another path of conversation to follow.
Jimin swiftly scanned the cast before answering.
"Jung Hoseok."
"Of course it would be him, wouldn't it? Being the thespian he is and all." She pronounced as she let her eyes spring back to the stage where music was now leaking from the red curtains.
The cheap satin was towed to the side to expose the stage, characters soon swamping the stage, reciting the language that had lost initial understanding. Bella soon appeared on the stage, ornamenting the character of Juliet in what Emily saw as flawless.
In the edge of her visional landscape, her eyes were caught on the image of Jimin, body lurching forward as his eyes swam with her golden image. He was entranced.
Observing the boy slowly falling wasn't enough to blind her from the new character striding onto the stage, confusion riddling her body as they started to address him as Romeo.
Yet, he wasn't Hoseok.
It was the understudy.
The thespian had appeared in her memory, his image slipping from behind the scenes prior to the curtains ascending. He was here, and he was fine.
So why was the understudy preaching his lines?
Coasting out of the audience, Jimin failing to notice her missing presence as she wandered into the shadow masked corridors. The chill of the uninhabited hallways nipping at her exposed skin.
A crash's origin echoed from behind her, making the lockers tremble in reaction. Low growls running through the enclosed walls as she turned, only to meet with bleeding crimson eyes.
The beast's eyes stitched to her figure, the glare it had on her told her that she was its prey as it displayed its impaling canines.
Desperation already accelerating her breath, she slowly started to retract, the barbaric, raven furred beast synchronised with her steps.
Suddenly, it charged.
Emily's hesitant steps evolved into a desperate dash, the ocean blur surrounding her as she became blind by her hunter's claws colliding with the solid floor.
She knew she couldn't outrun it. It was impossible.
Meeting with another wall populated with the metallic boxes, she forced herself against the frost material, watching the beast charge up to her.
She only had one choice.
Patiently, she awaited for the beast to remove the distance between them. Jaws swiftly becoming agape, ready to tear her skin.
At the very last moment, the girl dove aside, colliding with the floor as the beast crashed into the metal. The now indented metal absorbing its momentum as it recoiled to the floor.
Fatigued growls rolled out from the beast as she placed her bruised legs straight, allowing her to stand.
The dusk pigment evaporated, leaving a warm beige behind.
Body collapsing in on itself as retracted to a smaller size.
Claws slithering back into its skin. Slender fingers emerging as the full portrait of the human was illustrated, the final product only feeding her anxiety into an even larger monster than it already was.
"E-Emily?" Hoseok puzzled, the trail of saline tears tracing his face.
━━━━━━━ ☆ ━━━━━━━
The fear still slithered in his eyes. Transparently terrified of himself as he narrated the events that Emily had predicted.
"I came to school early that morning... I needed to talk over some things with my partner, s-since we had our assessment that day and I-I wanted to get it perfect. B-but... but I-I never got to that point... that-that thing hunted me down." He told, Emily and Jimin tranquil as they listened.
She didn't want to know if it was true. Yet, she had to ask.
She no longer had a choice in this cruel game of destiny.
"Hoseok—." She hesitated, intertwining her hands in attempt to prevent their constant tremor.
"Who was your partner?" She questioned.
"Sofia." He answered.
(A/N)
Sofia was up to some stuff before she died ;) oof
I hope you enjoyed another chapter of Carnivore and don't worry more will be coming out soon since I've planned out the chapters but not fully
Thank you for the votes and comments I really appreciate them <33