ᴘᴀʀᴀɴᴏɪᴀ | ꜱᴋᴢ

It.

| Present Day |

Seungmin had woken up in his house to the smell of burnt food, wondering what exactly what it was, he went downstairs to be greeted by his friends. "How long did you put the cookies in for Jisung?" Asked Felix. "Well you see...um..I may have put it in for like 50 minutes or so..possibly more than needed." Replied Jisung who was a little embarrassed from basically making charcoal cookies that were harder than rocks.

"So that's what I was smelling- I'm surprised the entire house didn't burn down with Jisung in the kitchen." Seungmin said jokingly even though it seemed like Jisung took it a bit personally but knew it was just a joke.

"I don't cook that bad. Right Hyunjin..?" Hyunjin had walked into the kitchen and tried one of the cookies. "I'm sorry, but like not even my dog would eat this, don't even see how it would be possible." He said while getting water to get rid the burnt taste of the cookie.

"Y'know maybe it's just an opinion thing, charcoal cookies may not be for everyone, but that's alright because I could still definitely go on a cooking show and win!" Jisung replied enthusiastically. "Maybe someday in your dreams possibly you could win a cooking show!" Felix added. Hyunjin tried to hold in his laugh but carelessly failed as well as Seungmin.

As the two were laughing, Minho walked into the room looked drained of energy as if he got no sleep at all. " Why are there pieces of coal on a plate here...?" Minho asked sluggishly looking interested yet not at the same time.

Jisung dramatically cried at Minho's question pretending to be offended like someone had betrayed him dearly. "Oh, the betrayal! After all these years the one who I treated so wonderfully say my cookies are pieces of coal, so sad, truly sad." 

Hyunjin had noticed Minho's overly weary look and was a little concerned. "Hyung, are you feeling alright? You just look really tired.."

"Yeah don't worry I'll be fine. I just had a lot of bad dreams, nothing serious." Quickly replied Minho, trying to brush off the subject like it could be something more.

"Okay if you say so."

Minho didn't want to bring up the fact that he was constantly haunted in his dreams throughout the night just so the others wouldn't worry about him looking exhausted. Seungmin had also realized the way Minho was acting and looked, but it seemed familiar to him somehow, as if he understood what happened in his dreams. 

---Later in the day---

Minho was walking around the house looking for something to do, but everything seemed boring to him. He saw Hyunjin drawing in his room as he was walking by and went in to see what he was drawing.

As he was walking in the room he looked at all the elaborate and expressive original art Hyunjin had on his walls, there was even one of highly detailed cats which Minho seemed to love the most. As he looked over Hyunjin's shoulder to see what he was working on, a chill went through him. "H-Hyunjin, what's your inspiration for that curtain drawing.." He asked very concernedly, the words barely making sense to Hyunjin. "It's something I saw in my dreams. Why do you ask?" That sentence made Minho's thoughts completely stop for a while. 

The drawing was a familiar figure. Tall, dark, soulless eyes that looked to have only one thought: Death. For it was the being that had deeply haunted Minho all throughout the night. Minho could still remember the feeling of it staring at him, possibly planning to kill him gruesomely, or maybe even worse. But everytime he would look away for less than a second, The Figure would move closer. Wanting to run away but not being able to. Feeling like you'd forever be trapped in a limbo of sleep, reality, and hell.

The trauma the curtain dreams caused him seemed all too personal and real. The drawing was that very creature. "How many times have you seen this in your dreams-?" Hyunjin sighed deeply after the question. "More than a person should ever have to." 

This baffled Minho's mind, all these questions and thoughts were beyond him. 

How is it possible for than one person to have the same exact inescapable torture.

-----

Seungmin was in his room, but he heard loud commotion coming from Hyunjin's room, so he went to go check it out. When he walked in, he saw that Minho was feeling very light-headed and was dizzy. Hyunjin was helping him stand up so he wouldn't fall to the ground. Seungmin had helped Hyunjin hold up Minho and sit him down. Seungmin had caught a glance of his eyes, and his pupils were dilated, and his skin was growing paler by the minute.

 "Minho hyung, are you ok? Do you feel nauseous at all?" Seungmin tried to get any type of answer from him to know how he's feeling, but Minho could barely make a sentence at the moment. "Him. He's here.. he won't leave me alone." 

Both Hyunjin and Seungmin were in shock from what he had said. Not just because this was very unusual behavior for anyone, but because they knew what he meant by that.

"I can't move. Just let me die already. Take me." 

Felix and Jisung slightly overheard Minho's words since they were nearby, and also stepped in the room.

please.

"What's with him? Why's he saying these things?" Jisung was filled with fear, and couldn't believe the things Minho was saying. He held on to Felix's arm for comfort, but Felix was just as scared. 

"We don't know." Hyunjin told him even though him and Seungmin had the clearest idea of what was happening inside Minho's head.  "I think we should tell Chan, maybe he'll know what to do?" Jisung suggested while feeling the anxiety for him build up.

"I guess so. Help lift him so we can go to Chan." Nobody had ever been affected like this before.

"I don't want this pain."