𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 𝟯𝟰┃𝗦𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 (𝗗𝗜𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗡𝗨𝗘𝗗)

𝕮Ⴙ@ᎮꝈé𝛤 17

Wonwoo and Mingyu walked side by side down the hallway to practice room 22. In front of them, Vernon and Jihoon were whispering to each other and giggling like a bunch of high school girls. Every once in a while, they'd turn around and look at the two boys behind them before laughing again, earning weird looks from Wonwoo and Mingyu. As they opened the door to the room, they were met with a bright light. The hallway lights didn't turn on until 7 pm, an hour from now to save electricity so it was pretty dim outside in the hallway. Closing the door behind them, Vernon and Mingyu greeted Mr Park before heading towards their individual lockers. 10 minutes later, everyone except Chan, who was still in the hospital, had arrived and class started. They practised the same dance as last week under Mr Park's guidance, perfecting every move. After around an hour of dancing, they finally took a break.

As Mr Park stepped out of the room to take a call from his husband, Minghao and Jun thought it was the perfect time to tell the others that they were dating. "Guys, we have something to say," Jun said, pulling Minghao up from his seating position. "We are dating," Jun said, sharing a look with Minghao. The 10 of them took around 5 seconds to process this information before they jumped up and started congratulating the two. It was so noisy Mr Park had to put his call on hold just to come in and ask them to shut up. Not that it worked though, they still congratulated the two loudly while some grumbled about losing a bet.

Finally, Mr Park ended the call, partly because he couldn't hear his husband over the noise they were making. They continued their class until 9.00 before Mr Park had to leave, mumbling something about his husband. The 12 of them stretched for a while before leaving as a group, talking about what they were going to do tomorrow after school.

"Hey guys, do you see that red dot blinking there?" Seuncheol called out to them, pointing at the end of the hallway. The lights there didn't work well at the end of the hallway, so the red light was very obvious, flashing in the dark. All 12 of them squint their eyes, trying to see why it was blinking. No one moved until Wonwoo started walking down the hallway towards the red light. Slowly, the other 11 followed him, squeezing together. Finally, after what seemed like forever, all 12 of them were standing in front of practice room 34's door. The light was gone now and a few of them wanted to go back. But Wonwoo reached out and turned the doorknob.

Pushing open the door, he was met with a cold gust of wind. The 12 of them timidly stepped into the room. Jeonghan felt around the wall for a while before finding the light switch. "I found the light switch," Jeonghan said, breaking the silence. He flicked it on, but nothing happened. He flicked it again but no lights turned on. "No light. It's broken." Jeonghan stated, sighing. "We should just go. I mean, it's late and we should all go home." Seokmin started rambling. Seungcheol made a move to put his arm around Seokmin but was cut off by Joshua's arm instead, rubbing Seokmin's shoulder to comfort him. Seungcheol glared at Joshua, who just smirked.

Guys, what's that?" Minghao suddenly piped up, pointing at the corner furthest from them. Standing there, was a shadow of a man, around Wonwoo's height, and he was holding what looked like a knife. Something was dripping off the knife, making small splashing sounds when it hit the floor. [ Is it too much to ask that he was just washing his plastic knife?] Mingyu thought to himself as he stood in front of Wonwoo, who was trembling slightly. Mingyu himself was scared, but he wouldn't admit it. As the 12 stood there, the shadow slowly tilted its head, and turned towards the mirror, before vanishing completely. A few seconds later, the lights flickered on. "Guys..." Seungkwan said slowly, pointing at the mirror. On it, were words that looked like they were written in blood. Soonyoung read it out slowly,

People get drawn to the red light,

Like moths are drawn to a flame.And just like moths,They die in vain.Behind their reflection,Something much worse stands.Because as the saying goes,Curiosity killed the cat.People go missing in this room,One by one.And don't forget there are 15 more to go,Before the ghost of practice room 34 will finally be gone.

Silence lingered after the last word was read out. "I think we should leave," Vernon stated, everyone agreed immediately. They rushed out quickly, only for Mingyu to trip on a stack of books that were lying in the middle of nowhere. Standing up and chuckling slightly to cover his embarrassment, Mingyu followed the others out, not noticing something drop.

They ran out of the centre hurriedly, most of them cursing under their breath. "Well, that was exciting, I can't wait to go to bed tonight," Jihoon said sarcastically. They stayed there for a while, catching their breath before leaving their separate ways.

~...~

Jeonghan slowly walked up the steps to his house, head still thinking about the words written in the mirror. "Mum, I'm home," Jeonghan shouted as took off his shoes. "Mum?" Jeonghan called again. He heard shuffling from his mother's bedroom and made his way towards it. "Mum? What are you doing in... your room?" Jeonghan's eyes started getting watery as he saw his mother, face down on the bed with a knife in her back. Blood was stained all over the room and from the mess of the room it looked like she had been trying to defend herself but to no avail. Her phone was on and it showed an undialed number.

"Mum?" Jeonghan called softly. He shakily picked up his mother's phone and called the police before calling Soonyoung and Minghao, asking them to come over immediately. The whole time, Jeonghan couldn't stop the tears from flowing, worrying both Soonyoung and Minghao.

Not more than 5 minutes later, the police were looking around the scene while the medics were trying to save Jeonghan's mother. Soonyoung and Minghao were sitting next to Jeonghan, trying to calm the broken boy down while Jun, who had accompanied his boyfriend over talked with the police. Just as Jeonghan finally calmed down, the medics came over.

"I'm sorry. We are unable to save her."

Those 8 words were enough to make Jeonghan break down again, crying even harder this time. His mother had left him forever, she had left him alone in this cruel world by himself. He couldn't accept that. That day, a heartbreaking cry could have been heard from Jeonghan's house as he watched his beloved mother be carried away in a body bag, abandoning him forever.

~...~

It took me like one hour to come up with the "poem" My brain cells are all dead at this point and it's not even that good.

Always remember that someone in this world will love you no matter what, so keep fighting for yourself and them.  💜

Author 💎