- You leapt from crumbling bridges watching cityscapes turn to dust -
Hoseok was telling the truth after all. I was half-certain it was some kind of prank, but this girl is very dead, and it is clearly not a joke. I'm suddenly glad I'm not alone. Taehyung observes the scene from behind me and his presence in my back is comforting.
She's laying on her back, skin tight and ashen, eyes wide open and staring at the ceiling emptily. One of her pupils seems blown, red invading the white. She's half-naked, her skirt riding up and her jeans shirt open on a white bra, chest covered in nail scratches and red bruises. Her neck is a deep burgundy color and swollen, fingers imprinted in her skin, her lips pale and inflamed, ears bleeding.
"Looks like someone choked her to death," observes Taehyung and I nod, crossing my arms on my chest and incapable of looking away.
Luckily, I don't know this girl, but I still feel a shiver of horror running up my spine as I peer at the tangled blonde hair displayed around her head and her stillness so impassible, she looks like a wax statue.
Downstairs, the front door suddenly opens, and I turn around, amazed that the police arrived so fast.
"Hello?" someone chimes from below, and I can tell it's not the police at all.
"Jungkook?" yells Taehyung.
"Yeah, where is everybody?"
Taehyung turns around, calmly walking down the stairs and I follow him, entering the living room to find Jungkook, awkwardly standing on the entrance carpet, his gym bag on one shoulder and his hair still wet from his training.
Jungkook. Another familiar face from my past and that tragic day on the train tracks that changed everything. He's probably the one who has changed the least since. His features are still delicate and boyish-like, with soft wide doe eyes and supple lips, but he's far from being as lanky as he was, now all lean muscles and hard chest; the body of a swimmer.
"Hello Sage," he greets when he sees me, but he narrows his eyes, clearly reluctant, and turns to Taehyung, "What happened? What is she doing here?"
I cross my arms on my chest.
"Nice to see you too," I sneer.
He's the sinister one. Brilliant student, rich, wonderful athlete, the perfect golden boy, really, except he's kind of hostile and rude and straight-up ominous. He broke someone's arm once in the middle of the cafeteria because the guy was looking at him weirdly. He got suspended, but everyone applauded when he came back to school a week later. He doesn't smile, doesn't laugh, never had a girlfriend or friends outside of Taehyung, Yoongi, and Jimin. Something about him is bone-chilling and unpredictable.
And now he's looking at me with those dark eyes and It feels like thousands of ice needles are poking through my skin. Again, he turns to Taehyung and decides to ignore me.
"Is it true her dad is a necrophiliac and fucks cadavers?"
"Jungkook," Taehyung growls.
I just don't know how to respond to such an accusation and I suddenly feel my throat getting dry. I try to think of a good comeback, but then we all turn around when we hear some noise coming from the kitchen, and a second later, Yoongi and Jimin run into the room, covered in dirt and laughing, clearly arriving from the tunnel downstairs.
"Hey, Kook! How was practice? And where is everybody?" Jimin asks, taking a random beer bottle from the dining table to take a sip, "Did they leave to go skinny dipping without me? Because that would be mean."
He's excited, eyes gleaming and licking his lips when he sees me, sharp jaw, almond eyes, and plumped lips directed to my face. His gaze then goes down my body and takes in my black t-shirt and jeans.
"I see someone brought the entertainment," he asserts.
"There is a dead girl upstairs," Taehyung states, quite exasperated and Jimin spits his beer on the carpet laughing.
"What?" he exclaims, wiping his mouth with his hand and smiling widely.
Yoongi approaches behind him, Cheshire smile and triangle eyes peering at me, then at Taehyung.
"Sage. Isn't this a surprise."
"Well... there is a corpse in the house. It would be peculiar if she wasn't here," says Jimin, tilting his head to the side.
Jungkook drops his bag to the floor.
"Is it me or I'm having the biggest of flashbacks right now..."
"Yeah," continues Yoongi, "The four of us, Sage and a dead body... sounds familiar, right?"
I suddenly feel small in front of them and I unconsciously step back, until I feel Taehyung's hard body flush against my shoulder blades. His breath hitches.
"Who's dead this time?" asks Jimin, "And when is the police coming?"
"Random university cheerleader and maybe five minutes?" answers Taehyung.
"Five minutes is plenty of time, I want to see," decides Yoongi, already walking towards the stairs, but I block his way with my body.
"You don't meddle with a murder scene."
"Wait, the girl was murdered," he replies with a chilling expression, "that's even better."
Jungkook looks at his watch and then at Yoongi.
"Unfortunately, we need to leave now if we want to be gone when the police arrive."
"He's right. They might want to send me to jail this time if they find me here," Taehyung mumbles in my back.
"Let's go by the tunnel," suggests Jimin, "No one knows it's there except for us and Nathan, who's too much of a pussy to tell on us. He wouldn't even know where it leads anyway and if we close it properly, they won't be able to find it."
"Yeah, but she knows," says Jungkook, crossing his arms on his chest and suddenly, the four of them are looking at me.
"Let's just take her with us then," concludes Yoongi, "I know a few things that could make her shut her mouth."
"I'm right here! Stop talking to me like I don't exist!"
Taehyung takes a step forward, pushing me out of the way.
"No."
"No?" I exclaim, cocking an eyebrow.
"No, she's not coming with us. She's gonna stay right here and welcome her boyfriend's daddy when he arrives."
Jimin chuckles and Yoongi beams.
"That's actually brilliant. The first person found on the scene controls the narrative," thinks Jungkook aloud, taking back his gym bag on his shoulder, "Okay, let's go."
I can suddenly hear the distant sound of a blaring police car, and the four boys walk to the kitchen to get to the basement without a look back.
"Wait what? You're just going to leave me here all alone?"
"That's exactly what we're gonna do," agrees Taehyung, jumping down the stairs, "Just please, act like we were never here."
"And why would I do that!" I yell, and suddenly I'm not having fun anymore.
The basement seems even darker than before after the brightness of the living room and I blink, trying to see through the thick obscurity.
"You owe us," Jimin states, as I follow them down the stairs.
"I owe you fuck all!" I yell, but already Yoongi and him are crawling in the tunnel without a look back.
I'm pretty sure he's referring again to the events of the train tracks, and I can't believe he still holds me responsible for everything that happened that day. Jungkook turns around to look at me before he goes in, blankly staring.
"You're 16. You're a child, play the victim and everything will be alright. You don't know anything, just tell them the names of the people who were at the party and omit ours."
Taehyung is the last one to leave and he suddenly hesitates. He searches for my eyes, but I'm pissed that he's leaving without me, so I look down at my feet.
"Thank you," he finally whispers before crawling in beside Jungkook.
I didn't see it the first time I was here, but there is some kind of door hiding the entrance of the tunnel, a big plate of cement that fits perfectly in the hole. The thing must weigh a ton, but Taehyung easily puts it back in place from the inside and soon, I'm completely alone in the basement. Someone knocks at the door upstairs and I take a deep breath.
"Police! Open up."
I don't even know why I'm covering for them at this point, but I run my hand over the cement plate on the wall, making sure it doesn't stick out.
I hear some knocks again on the door, loud and insistent, and I run upstairs, blinking and breathing fast in an effort to look overwhelmed. I was always a good actor and manage to make myself look quite emotional before I reach the front door and open it up widely.
"Mr. Jung! I'm so glad you're here!"
"Sage?" he asks, incredulous.
I then burst into tears worthy of an Oscar nomination.
"Someone got killed!"