Haunting

Episode III - Mourning

Warning: This story contains themes of death, mild gore, a car accident and other intense situations.

Seokjin cautiously left the bedroom and worked his way to the stairs. Despite telling himself it was dumb to be scared, he hugged the walls and peered around the corners. The further he went, the more at ease he became. He convinced himself that whoever was in the house was now gone. Nothing was broken or vandalized. Feeling bolder with each step he found his way to the study. He could tell some papers had been shifted on the desk. A ghost certainly wouldn't be interested in papers on a desk. He picked some up and thought about the possible motives of the intruder. If they were interested in this, they probably weren't there to hurt him. He shook off his anxiety and sighed.

"How ridiculous!" He derided himself. "Did I actually hide in the bedroom? Did I actually think there was a ghost?" Seokjin laughed at himself and decided that there must have been a real person who had the keys to the house that he didn't know about. Likely someone who worked for the company that he was renting from. He searched his pockets for the company's card with the address and phone number written on it. Not finding it, he wondered where he would have put it. He must have lost it, so he couldn't call them and ask about this. He shrugged it off and decided to start searching through the toys upstairs.

Back at the room where he slept the night before, Seokjin got to work pulling out bins of toys and laying them on the floor. He sat down with the bins surrounding him and opened them all. With the expected impatience of a child, they were thrown in haphazardly. He decided to start by dividing them by type. The boy had a variety of tastes, card games, cars, action figures and stuffed toys. Books about animals, fishing, and places around the world. After sorting them into categories, he inspected them one at a time. He started with the stuffed toys. Some were pristine, others were well worn. There was an alien in a space suit, a white animal that was fluffy like a cloud and a pink rabbit that felt to Seokjin like it was out of place from the others. It was particularly worn. He moved his fingers delicately across it. In fact, each item he examined with care. Hours passed before he looked up and saw the time. It was dark outside. He got up slowly, stiff from sitting in one position for so long. "That's enough for one day," he thought with a yawn.

THUD!! A loud noise came from downstairs that shocked him. He whispered, "What was that?" A phone rang, then stopped and a woman's voice could be heard. "Why would anyone be here at this time of night?" Seokjin pondered, then tried to talk himself out of his anxiety. "Don't be afraid. There must be an explanation. Go find out. Be brave, Seokjin, be brave." He moved quietly to the stairs.

Walking past a mirror in the hall, he catches a glimpse of something odd. In the mirror he looks shorter and his left side...is bleeding. He closed his eyes tightly and when he reopened them the scene was gone. "What trick is my mind playing with me?" His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of whimpering downstairs. He turned to the sound of it. Somehow this time he wasn't afraid. It sounded sad and...familiar.

He moved without a sound down the stairs and into the study. He found a woman crying at the shelves in front of the family portrait. He stepped behind her and looked over her shoulder. It was the portrait that he had noticed earlier. There was a mother, a father and two sons. The mother was this woman here crying and no wonder. Her husband and sons were just in a terrible car crash and the older son, well. Seokjin noticed something else he hadn't before. The father looked like the older man from the convenience store and the younger boy looked like a child version of his son, Jungkook, who drove him here. They were even dressed in the same clothes that they were at the store. With a sense of dread he looked at the picture of the older son. A tear rolled down his cheek. It was him...Seokjin himself...wearing the same clothes he was wearing now, a red flannel over a t-shirt. Then he remembered.

He was in the back seat of the car with his younger brother sitting to his right, who was making fun of him. "Why didn't you go at the rest stop like I did?" Jungkook asked bemusedly.

Seokjin whined. He hated it when his younger brother acted more mature than him. But he still tried to defend himself. "Because I was afraid of the loud toilets flushing. Aren't you afraid sometimes?"

Jungkook laughed with a smirk, "I'm not afraid of anything."

And then it happened. The squeal of tires and the sight of another car coming straight for him. Then the sound of the crash and the feeling of uncontrolled movement. It all happened so quickly. Then there was the sound. The chime that repeated again and again. The sound was coming from the broken car. Through a fog he heard his father's voice. "Are you okay?" Hoseok asked. When he didn't get a response he cried out, "Hey! Talk to me!"

Seokjin wearily opened his eyes and saw his father, looking more worried than he had ever seen him in his life. "Are you okay, son?" Hoseok asked in a softer tone.

Seokjin didn't know. He tried to answer the best he could. "My...left arm...I can't...lift...my arm...my...left..."

Hoseok tried to project calm. "It'll be okay. Hold on and we'll get you taken care of." The chime continued relentlessly and Seokjin remembered that he had to pee.

"I have to go to the bathroom." He told his father. More than anything he wanted out of there. Out of the car. Relief from whatever was bothering him and that sound. He couldn't move.

He looked over at his little brother. Why did he look so small? His eyes were wide looking back at Jin. He looked...afraid. "Jungkook...look at me!" their father barked. Seokjin saw Jungkook turn to look at Hoseok and then he let go.

Seokjin found himself back at his home, standing behind his mother who was sobbing over the family picture. Acceptance washed over him. What happened couldn't be undone and he didn't want his mother to cry anymore. He spoke to her, "Mom...it's gonna be okay..." His own voice sounded older but also far away.

His mother paused, "Seokjin?" She turned around but the room was empty. Seokjin had gone.

The end.