Jisung's eyes opened and he was met with an overwhelming darkness. Blinking several times, it took him a moment to realize that he was staring at the off-white ceiling above his bed. He frowned, groaning a bit as he turned to looked at the digital clock resting on the bedside table next to him.
2:46 am.
Jisung let out a harsh breath and fumbled a bit, his hands slipping out from under the covers to run over his face, brushing away a bit of the lingering sleep. He was tired, and his room was quiet and peaceful, the window open and letting the soothing crash of waves calm him. So why the hell was he awake?
Suddenly a crash sounded from downstairs, and Jisung felt his heart leap in his chest. Was someone awake? Is that what had woken him?
The young and disoriented author felt that undeniable weird feeling crawl slowly down his spin like a spider picking it's way across it's web, it's spindly legs slow and careful not to misstep. He felt his stomach begin to twist a little as he sat up, his heart pounding against his chest as it heaved for breath, mind already spinning with theories. His brown eyes trained on his closed doorway and he let out a harsh puff of breath as another unmistakable crash sounded from downstairs.
A minute passed after that and there were no other sounds, Jisung feeling himself get a bit worried. What if someone had gotten hurt? It wouldn't hurt to check, would it?
Throwing the covers off of his body, his bare feet touched the carpeted floor and Jisung quickly reached for his phone, scanning through the list of rules that he had typed out in his notes app. It didn't look like he was breaking any rules by going out this late, only if he had heard knocking at his door would he be breaking any rules. But he didn't, so he was okay.
Placing his phone back down on his bedside table, Jisung crossed his room and carefully pulled open the door, wincing at the loudness of the creaking hinges. It seemed so deafening in the otherwise silent house. But, after pausing for a moment, it didn't seem as though anyone else had woken up and Jisung stepped out into the hallway.
He had been at the house for a little more than week now, and he had yet to wake up through the night, much less wandering through the dark and silent interior. Now, staring down the dark hallway lit by one gas lantern at the end of the hallway, Jisung swallowed thickly, unease creeping over his body.
He took a step down the hallway and felt himself falter at the darkness stretching out in front of him. He almost wanted to laugh at himself for his cowardess.
Still, Jisung felt himself think as he stopped next to the mirror and look in the reflective glass to see himself staring back, It isn't too late to go back into my room and go back to sleep.
But Jisung stared himself in his eyes, his face worried with lines of anxiety, and held his hand up next to his face. He snapped once and blinked in surprise as the lantern next to the mirror flickered and waned, casting strange shadows across his face. The dark and light distorted his facial features and the longer he stared, the longer his face didn't look like his own.
Jisung snapped a second time and he froze, his eyes become watery and wide with nighttime paranoia as he heard noises down the hall in the direction of where he had come from. A loud creaking sounded and Jisung jumped as a loud slam ensued, ripping his eyes away from the mirror to look in the direction of his room. His door had slammed closed.
Looking back to the mirror, Jisung hand trembled slightly but he had to finish, he had to. Something bad would happen if he didn't. A chill -- a draft -- possibly from an open window, blew past him ever so slightly and Jisung stared at himself in the mirror, the side of his face moving as he clenched and unclenched his jaw.
Snapping his fingers the third time, Jisung's chest heaved up and down and his sharp exhales through his nose were the only sound in the quiet corridor. Swallowing again, Jisung looked to his right and began to walk towards the steps, the lantern flame no longer waving wildly but rather still in an unsettling contrast.
Jisung's hand touched the cool banister and he carefully placed each foot on the consecutive steps, feeling more comforted when the wood didn't creak underneath his footsteps. Stepping into the foyer, the moonlight from outside provided scarce comfort than it had earlier when he had been talking to Jeno.
Glancing around briefly, Jisung felt himself grow weary. He didn't know exactly from where the sound had originated, and since he had heard the last one in his room, he hadn't heard any since. Creeping into the parlor, Jisung looked around, his eyes just barely glimpsing out the bay window to see the ocean. He wandered back into the kitchen but found nothing that could have caused the clatter, not even a left out pan.
Feeling a bit foolish for working himself up so much, Jisung wandered back to stand by the fish bowl, looking around at the dark house and rubbing the back of his head to calm down his frayed nerves.
Then a clatter sounded from behind the stairs and Jisung started, flinching as his body tensed up. What was it? A-a book? But it sounded more metallic and Jisung peered around the staircase, his eyes falling on the hallway that stretched on behind the steps, just remembering that both Jaemin and Donghyuck lived on the first floor.
Taking hesitant steps towards the hallway, Jisung quickly ran through what he could remember of the list of rules, making sure that he didn't accidentally break one while exploring this new part of the house. None immediately jumped out at him save for the fact that he couldn't use the downstairs bathroom. But, given the circumstances, Jisung didn't really have the urge to use the bathroom.
Wandering down the hallway carefully, Jisung passed by said bathroom, and then Jaemin's room which was clearly marked as such with a name tag. Walking a bit farther, Jisung felt something twist in his stomach and his gut instinct was to turn back around and leave. To go back up the stairs to the second floor and curl up in his bed and never walk out.
His eyes then caught on an old wooden door, painted white but some of the paint beginning to chip away. Rust corroded the metal hinges and Jisung felt as though he wanted to cry while looking at the door, which just so happened to be bolted up with five very different looking locks.
All of which were unlocked.
Against his pure instinct to run, Jisung wandered carefully towards the door with trembling hands. He looked over the closed door with curiosity, wondering why on earth this door was giving him such malicious vibrations. Then it clicked. The basement.
Rule #1: Don't go into the basement.
And yet, Jisung found his hand outstretched in front of him, reaching straight for the main doorknob. There was an unimageable pull in his chest, his fingers ghosting the golden metal and clamping around the object of horrible desire.
"What do you think you're doing?" a vicious snarl sounded from his right and Jisung jumped, his hand snapping away from the basement's doorknob as his head whirled to the side.
And there was Donghyuck, standing in the center of the hallway with the most violent and malintentful stare that Jisung had ever seen on a person's face. His shoulders were hunched over in an almost overwhelmingly intimidating way and the stare, oh god the stare, that was contorting Donghyuck's face into what could have only been demonic was so terrifying and fixated.
"I-I-" Jisung tried to get out but it was as if his throat had closed and no matter how hard he tried he couldn't get anything out. Donghyuck's body, half-shrouded in darkness, stepped towards him and his gaze remained on Jisung's face, so utterly commanding that Jisung couldn't tear his gaze away.
"Don't make me repeat myself Jisung," Donghyuck's voice was low and unwelcoming, the opposite of what it had been when he had first met Jisung in the kitchen, the boy previously so docile and tired and calming that Jisung was distraught by the aggressive tone. "What the hell are you doing? Don't you know the rules? Don't you know what would happen if you broke one of the rules?"
"N-No, I-I mean, I'm-," Jisung was shaking, his gut sinking with the feeling of having disappointed another resident of the house so early in his stay, "-I'm sorry, I didn't...I just heard a clatter, that's all. I'll-I'll go to bed."
And then Jisung spun on his heel and practically flew back down the hallway, panting as he raced up the stairs and only paused, ever so briefly, to snap three times in the mirror before racing back down the second floor hallway until his bedroom door was shut firmly behind him and he was lying in bed with the covers pulled over his head.
And he didn't go back to bed until an hour later, when the digital clock turned exactly to four.
__________________________
A/N: So sorry for the long wait on this chapter, I'll try my best to update more frequently <3 <3
- Hannah