Avenoir || BTS

42

I'm not sure whether he hears the raw vulnerability in my voice. He must have since he merely smiles somberly at me.

"We won't."

It's around 8:30 a.m. when a door loudly slams shut downstairs. It doesn't sound good. Jungkook and I had just decided to go back home. He called Yoongi to discuss our decision, but he didn't seem to be picking up. My father appears to be frantic downstairs, pacing across the living room. 

"What's wrong?" I ask him. 

"A man just ran out of Cynthia's house. I've never seen him around. I tried calling him, but he sprinted into the woods. I knocked on her door and she's not opening it. She could just be at work... I'm not sure."

"Why don't we try checking out her place, if you don't mind?" Jungkook asks. 

Maybe we didn't like Cynthia, but we weren't completely heartless. 

"Uh, sure, I guess. Here's a spare key she gave us in case of emergencies, but we never used it."

Dad hands me a key and I nod, assuring him that Cynthia is fine and probably just left the house for a while. 

"Why are we doing this?" I ask Jungkook as we leave the house. 

"I don't have a good feeling about all of it. A random man just leaving her house, Yoongi not answering his phone, just the very strange feeling I got from Cynthia," he replies. 

He tries calling Jin next but to no avail. Both of us are attacked by a flurry of smells as we near Cynthia's house. The scent of perfume goes hard, almost like an antique perfume store exploded within the house, but there's a rotting undertone to it all. 

"If I were still human, I would be sick right now," I mutter. 

"You wouldn't have been able to smell it from here, but- oh my god- a dead body. It smells like something died in there, literally."

Although I'd like to barge in after Jungkook's sheer concern, I still choose to knock on the door, just in case Cynthia is still inside and was just taking a shower when my dad had knocked. There's absolutely no sound within the house. 

I unlock the door with the key and go in first. There's something very still about her house, a thin layer of dust coating most surfaces. 

"Upstairs," Jungkook says. 

I follow him up the stairs, and he throws open the door to a bedroom two doors down the hallway. 

The stench is unbearable, and in the bed is Cynthia, but she's dead.

 And it seems she's been dead for a few days. Her skin is rotting, peeling away, and all sorts of insects swarm her body. I wish I can throw up, or faint, or give any sort of response that's suitable to what I'm seeing. 

The only thing I can do is scream and grab onto Jungkook. I'd like to teleport out of there, but I hold my ground because I need answers. I saw Cynthia last night during dinner, when she dropped by after her shift. She couldn't be decaying this quickly even if she'd passed away in her sleep. 

Jungkook pressed my face into his arm, forcing my eyes away from the poor, dead woman. 

"How did this happen?" I ask. 

Jungkook shuts the door, and we go down the stairs before I have to sit on the couch. I should be feeling dizzy now and it's strange that I don't. 

"We would have noticed if we knew who Cynthia was before she died. We would have noticed a difference in her. Either she has a twin who's pretending to be her or it's something otherworldly."

"Something from our world?" I ask, "Oh god, what do we have in our world, anyway? Shape-shifters?"

"Of course we do. They're all over the place. Usually, they used to be able to shift to only an animal form, and only one species of animal. They've evolved over the years. Most of the time, they are peaceful, but I don't think this one is."

"What kills a shape-shifter?" 

"Whatever kills the form they are in. If they are in the form of a human, we can shoot them in the head and they'd die. They can't imitate supernatural beings, as far as I know. Why'd you ask?"

"Just in case we confront this creature again," I mutter in disgust, "Can we get out of here? There's a dead body right above us and we might have to call the police so they can handle it."

"We can't. How will we explain the Cynthia that was with us all this time? We can lie about it, but not your parents."

"We can't just let her body rot up there forever."

I get up and walk out of the doorway, but freeze as I see a tiny glimpse of the future. 

There's dark red blood on my shaky hands. 

"Jungkook!" 

On the grassy floor is Jungkook, face-down, a silver knife gleaming in his back. 

"I will kill you," I warn him. 

He tries to near me, but I pull away, stepping out of the house. He chooses to give me space, standing still where he is. 

"What? You won't, Y/N. I won't let you harm me, or yourself."

"My visions aren't false!" 

"I didn't say they were. I'm saying I can protect myself if you try to attack me in whatever situation," he explains calmly. 

He manages to grab my hand, shutting the door behind him. 

"Trust me, okay? I can take care of myself," he reassures me. 

"Alright, fine. But you have to run at the first sign of danger."

"No."

"What do you mean by no?"

"Y/N," he breathes in deeply, "I am sticking with you no matter what. We have a lot on our hands now. This shape-shifter had been visiting your parents regularly. We don't know what it was targeting. We don't know who that man is, the one your father said he saw leaving this house. We don't know whether your parents are the ones in danger."

"Right," I agree, "The man went into the woods. Could it be the shape-shifter? Maybe it took the form of a random man and escaped?"

"It's possible. It obviously had some sort of objective with your parents, so it will come back. We should take it down before it comes back."

"What if it was after us?" 

"Then we should still take it down," he replies. 

"Fine. But we can't go empty-handed. And without telling my parents we'll be gone for a while."

Oddly, it's thrilling to think of a hunt. Not for blood, but merely for the chase. I thought I would be scared, but it's almost like I can't wait to run into the forest after that thing. It simply did not matter what I got my hands on, I would tear it apart. 

"I feel sorry for the shape-shifter," Jungkook mutters after seeing my face, "You need to keep calm, okay? There are a lot of variables in this equation. We don't even know what killed Cynthia."