ALL BARK NO BITE | SADISTIC BEAUTY SPINOFF

Chapter 35

~ 320 F, La Grande Maison, Haenan Acropolis: Apartment Complex, Itaewon-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Wookyung was back in Mideum manor, his childhood home. He subconsciously clutched his head in pain as he felt the sheets suffocate him. He had been tossing for hours now. His mind was sinking into the worst parts of his subconscious. It was happening all over again.

The walls looked tall again as he gleefully dragged his hand along them, chasing somebody running far ahead of him, the sounds of their footsteps echoing along the corridor "You can't catch me!" a familiar, raspy, voice shouted out and Wookyung only chased him down harder, unwilling to lose their little game.

Everything around him was back to its older state. "Mideum", in all its sprawling grandeur, looked harmless again. When he was happy, too young to fight with his father every day when Ryeo was his part-time teacher and storyteller and his mother looked much healthier. It was a place people visited with good intentions.

Wookyung felt exhausted. After running laps yet being unable to catch up to the voice, he realised he was running in circles. He paused, sweating profusely "I can't run any longer!" he announced, putting his hands on his knees. He wasn't in his house anymore. Where were they?

"Hyung?" he called out, slightly scared of the new, unfamiliar place. He felt bramble crunch under his little shoes and he looked around in fear, his shiny, neatly parted hair growing askew in the eerie draft. Everything looked darker, stranger, and dead. "H-Hyung... I'm scared" Wookyung called out, waiting for an answer.

"Wookyung, do you love me?" a whispery, fluttery voice asked in the distance and Wookyung quickly turned towards the voice, feeling relieved "Yes I love you Hyung! Please help me!!" he called for him. "And you promised to find me wherever I was... didn't you?" came the reply.

"Home??" the voice laughed thinly "I brought you to our playground Wookyung" he heard a rustle in the distance, seeing the smokey outline of a hideous tree, a small, frail figure peeking at him from the side "Come with me" the figure reached out with a white hand with pale fingers.

Wookyung immediately stood up, feeling his shorts getting ripped on the rough branches, running as fast as he could towards his Hyung, more out of fear than anything "Wait for me!" he shouted despite getting more and more hurt as the ground sunk under him, the thorns growing higher and sharper.

"Come to me!" he heard him and felt more determined, fighting the ghostly hands that had started reaching out to him from the mist, the vines were starting to wrap around his legs tighter "No!!! I can't! it hurts too much..." he struggled, reaching closer and closer to the tree "I don't want to hurt!!" tears warmed his little face.

"So you think you're hurting?" the voice twisted menacingly, sounding like rusted nails in a box "Do you know who's hurting more? Who's always hurting more? Even after all this while?" he sounded mad, angry, even... aroused. Wookyung had finally come closer despite the hindrances.

The moment he put a hand out on the trunk of the tree he felt his body grow cold, only his eyes following the streak cracking out from behind the tree, blasting out at him from the side like a jack-in-the-box. His eyes widened in fear and his throat closed. Everything was happening so fast.

Like a burning monster in the darkness, a disfigured body jumped out at him. Burning scraps of cloth flapping away from a vaguely human-looking body, large bulbous eyes, knife slit mouth, and ashy, flowing hair. "YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY YOU HURT!!! I HURT MORE THAN YOU!! DO YOU KNOW THAT?"

"I WILL ALWAYS HURT MORE!!!!" he howled and Wookyung's eyes glistened as he could only stare back at the horror unfolding before him. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't move, his legs were soldered to the ground and his mouth opened in what seemed like a frozen scream.