The barn shed was made of rundown wood, mold growing in some places. Some places the rickety boards looked one second away from collapsing. The smelled inside reeked and made me want to gag. Not a sound could be heard. We were in a rural area, only dry fields stretching either direction.
Another thing I noticed was the deep dread seemed to only increase in my mind the further in I ventured until I was almost shaking in irrational fear. I was starting to doubt that it was me who was afraid anymore.
There was something, almost like some dark presence, that was shooting this deep-rooted fear through me.
The doors of the entrance to the barn were slightly open, and I slowly pulled them back, slipping in.
Inside, it was dim and looked just as abandoned inside as it did outside. Confusion flickered through me. Where was the supposed gang inside?
As I continued into the shed I began to hear voices. I followed the sound until I found myself at the far back of the barn. An empty horse stall was there, and my eyes landed on a small doorway.
Light flickered through it, and the voices were coming from there.
Of course, I thought to myself. They'd have a hideout in a hideout.
I quickly slipped through the doorway and followed a few steps downwards. The air grew colder and damper as the small stairway opened up to several rooms underneath the barn.
One of the rooms had pale light pouring out from it, and that's what the voices were coming from.
I paused at the base of the stairs.
Uh, so what now?
Why did Taehyung send me in here?
Maybe to just further scout out the area undercover? Maybe so when the reinforcements came we'd be able to find the location perfectly fine and stampeded the area instantly?
I stifled a small sigh and turned around to head back upstairs.
A shadow stood right behind me.
"AAAGHH!" I shrieked in surprise, staggering back, tripping, and falling to the ground hard. "Good baby llamas what the hell??"
The man had come from nowhere! He'd been standing inches behind me for who knew how freaking long like Slenderman 2.0.
"So you finally came," the man's voice was deep. But not rich like Taehyung. Instead it grated like rusty metal against rusty metal.
A brand new flood of irrational terror flooded through me.
"You can see me," I said slowly.
"Yes. I can." The man stepped forward so dim light fell across his face. For some reason he looked eerily familiar though I swore I'd never met him before. "After all this time."
Okay then. I stood up cautiously. Things were slowly clicking together here and there and I was beginning to have a strong hypothesis of who this man before me truly was. "You're that Genie Dexter summoned aren't you?" I asked quietly.
"Congratulations, so smart of you," the genie chuckled taking another step forward. His aura was a mixture with all sorts of colors I had no clue meant. But all the colors were dark, sinister. This guy was bad news.
"Thank you," I tried to keep my voice light as I desperately tried to find some way to escape.
It made sense though. This fear that was coursing through me was partly my own, but the black dread that had been haunting me ever since the night at the hotel had been caused by the presence of this evil Genie and his close proximity.
"Since I got an A on the "Guess Who? Game" can I leave now?"
"Ah, so naïve," the evil Genie chuckled. I was starting to think he was a Shadow Genie to be exact as well taking in the darkness around us. "I'm not quite ready to let you go that soon."
"Hey man, you can't touch me, you and I both know this. Genie Fundamentals 101. So let's spare this weird, freaky cryptic talk and let me skedaddle out a here? Deal?" I was beginning to grow desperate as there seemed no exit anywhere.
If I could just get into sunlight the Shadow Genie would have such a rough time following me and by then I'd be in the car with Jungkook speeding off at the usual 200 MPH without a dumb police officer to even realize traffic laws were being butchered.
"You don't know me, do you?" the man, Evil Genie, tilted his head a little. "You don't recognize me do you?"
Again the familiarity flickered through me but I still couldn't recall anything. I just shook my head. "I mean, I've met lots of guys in my life before, and I suck at names too, so if I remember a guy's name, that in itself is a miracle."
"Does Tyson ring a bell?"
"Uh, nope."
Crap! How the heck was I going to get out of here, think Y/N, think!
"Well, then, it's just as well," the evil Genie sighed. "I remember our past. But you don't."
Hold on, our?
Evil Genie Tykon paused beside one of the rooms and gestured. "I suggest we go in here and catch up, Y/N."
"I suggest you should let me go so we can both go our separate ways again and mind our own business," I was trying gauge the distance it would take me to sprint past the guy, up the stairs, and to Jungkook before disaster struck.
"Right, so you can get back to that new toy you have right?"
"Toy?"
Typson snorted a little. "As if men could be nothing more than toys to you," he said bitterly.
"What?"
Tuscan exhaled impatiently. "Either sit down and let's chat while I'm still asking nicely, or I'll make you sit down. And trust me, with the unlimited powers I have with me, I can do a lot to you that wouldn't really count as harming another Genie whatever the rules say."
Well damn then.
I uncertainly entered the room that Titson motioned for. It was just as dimly lit as everything else. There was only one table and two uncomfortable chairs inside.
I slowly sat, swallowing hard. The chances to escape seemed to wink out as Tickson shut the door securely behind us and sat down across from me.
The dark dread became next to stifling as I was suddenly trapped in one room with the him right before me. He quietly observed me, folding his hands before him.
"You haven't changed one bit it seems since I last saw you," he mused.
"I'm still very befuddled here, care to enlighten me?" I tried to control the threat of panic attack within me and maintain a certain amount of serenity on the inside.
Why were my powers so useless? This was the exact reason why I'd wanted to avoid the evil genie from the start.
"No memory at all from me," he leaned back against the chair. "I shouldn't expect anything more from you should I?"
The words sounded so familiar. Where had I heard them before?
And then shock slammed into me. The laser tag. The black fear rushing through me as it was just Jungkook, me, and ...
"The Terminator!" I gasped. "You. You're the kid named Terminator!"
It was him. The Terminator had been more youthful than the man before me, but with Shadow Genies illusion and face replication was probably just another power they had. It made sense too how he was there, it was pitch black in there.
"Glad you remember that," Terminator scoffed softly in disgust. "But not the right memory. Let's see if these words trigger the proper memories that are buried deep in you."
He leaned forward and his next words chilled me to the bone.
"For you, my princess," he crooned.
Oh.
My.
God.
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