Dog Days Are Over ◆ JeonJungkook /ON HOLD/

8 - One Slippery Case

"I think I'm gonna throw up." Jimin pressed his hand against his lips, staring at the debauched bodies of two of our groups members.

"How was I supposed to know that there's a prowler hiding in the ceiling?" I panted, leaning my head back against the corridor wall.

It was yet another room with trist stone walls and artificial white light, emitting from neon tubes. The lack of windows gave us reason to assume that we were still somewhere underground, the dry heat of the corridor somehow reminding me of something like the staff area of a hotel.

"Prowler??" Jimin echoed, not yet having heard me using that name. I didn't even bother defending myself, for once, way to preoccupied with both catching my breath and grasping the fact that we were now down to two people only. So much for I will get you out of here alive.

Jimin tightened his grip around the gun he had taken from the guard earlier, "Do you think they put the thing in here on purpose? Like a security system."

"That would mean that you can somehow turn it off- how else would the guard have gotten in here?" I stared down the long corridor, which had looked so inviting but ended up being a death trap; The prowler had reached through the grid on the ceiling, like a kraken, piercing through two of our poor companions.

"I mean, I could try shooting it?"

"Worth a shot." I mused.

"This isn't the time for gun puns."

I grimaced, "Boring."

It was silent for a moment, the only sounds down here being our harsh breaths and the occasional ominous clacking emitting from the ceiling.

"Do you have any idea why we got captured here?" I turned my head towards the blond, looking at him expectantly.

Jimin shrugged, "If it weren't for the- you know- apocalypse and all, I would've guessed human trafficking, but why would they deal with humans when there are barely any to go around?"

"I mean, I can see some sick, rich survivors getting bored alone in their secure little bunkers. On the other hand, why would anyone still take money from them? Capitalism is dead."

"I hope all those rich fucks transformed as well." Jimin sighed, "Something about karma or whatever." He turned his head slightly, "If we make it out, do you have a place to go to?"

I smiled fondly, probably with stars in my eyes as well, "Not a place, but yeah, I do."

"Hm. I'll probably go back to the shrine. You could come with me, you know?"

"Shrine?"

"Ah... Shinto shrines. I used to work at one and keep it intact and all. Somehow, those "prowlers" as you call them never come up there. It's a safe place."

I stored that information away silently, nodding along, "That sounds nice. I'll think about it." It got silent again. Both of us busy with our own thoughts - I imagined how Jimin was reminiscing his past of working at that shrine. I, for my part, tried to come up with something to get us out of here. Alive, preferably.

There weren't any hints about how this "security system" was to be turned off, the corridor ahead of us entirely blank and uninformative. Maybe Jimin's idea of just shooting the thing wasn't that bad.

"Oh, shit, Y/N-" Jimin hit my shoulder to get my attention, "Look."

The prowler about which I'd been wracking my brain was going into motion again, tentacle like limbs reaching down to our dead companions again, gradually curling around the corpses to finally pull them up.