HUNTERS || ENHA/LSFM || - A K-pop Ghost Hunting Story

26. Waiting for a Delusion

He didn't know where he was going, but that didn't matter.
All he was focused on was saving the both of them.

He heard a voice in the distance.
"Niki? Sunghoon? Where are you?!?"

Niki turned.
He recognised that voice.

"Jungwon!!!" He shouted, trying to propel his voice as far as possible.

He waded through the trees, trampling over sticks and twigs and mud in his search for his comrade. They scratched and stung his arms, but he didn't care.
Niki pushed forwards, driven by the adrenaline in his veins.

"We're over here!!! Jungwon!"

The line of trees ended, and he stumbled onto pavement.

He heard Jungwon's voice again, coming from a small array of buildings in front of him, almost like a village of some sort. There was only one small road, which looked quite unused, almost to the point that it looked abandoned. Small clusters of gravel dust were even forming upon the sides of it.

He trampled on, his legs barely holding the weight of both himself and Sunghoon.

But then he stopped in his tracks.

Wasn't it all too perfect?
That Jungwon'd magically be here, at his time of distress. Especially this early in the morning.
It was barely past midnight.

Surely, he'd still be asleep.

He wouldn't have even woken up yet to see them both missing. Nobody there would've been awake apart from him and Sunghoon.

It was all too perfect.
Maybe it was fake.
An illusion.

So then, if the voice he was hearing would not be Jungwon, who was it?
Or even more, was someone actually calling out to him?

But, unfortunately for him. There was nobody there, for it was all the trick of his mind. It was playing with him, trying to cope with its past trauma which had now burst by being contained for all too long.

He was seeing things, hearing things that weren't there. Niki was trapped in his mind's game, an endless loop of taunting trama fragments. It got so bad to the point that he had to stop walking, as his legs were also giving up on him.

Were his surroundings real? What was he seeing?
He stood there, in the middle of the desert road, in a haze, his mind suddenly unable to think.

But then, a bone-curdling noise sent him back into reality. The sound of a very loud ring, yet not the one that he'd sense a spirit from. It was not from his surroundings either, but he felt it almost shaking the Earth around him. It pierced through his ears like a bullet.
There was a bright white flash that blinded his eyes.

His head felt very, very lightweight, and he felt like he was falling backwards into a white abyss, silent apart from the ringing in his ears. It was like he was descending down into nothing.
Yet it was all the trick of his mind.
Something was very wrong with him.
And he didn't know how to fix it.

It was a mind game he could escape, brought to him by the wounds of his past traumas.
He started hearing breaths of air, which then quickly turned into a cluster of whispers in his ears, an indistinguishable inaudible murmur, like each voice was speaking just bare fragments of words before being cut out by another.

At last, Niki's body gave up on him, and he fell into a state of unconsciousness.

...
-5 hours later; flashback end-
...

Time: 7:24, October 22

"If I were Niki, where would I go..." Chaewon mumbled to herself, pulling her hood far over her face as she walked through the early morning street.
It was a surprise to her that there was quite the amount of people, despite the early hours.

"Where would Sunghoon go, even? They left together, did they not?" Kazuha said, scratching her head in the same sort of confusion of Chaewon.

"He'd probably go in the trash... So keep your eyes peeled for any bins." Sakura blurted, in a somehow fully serious tone.

"You've got to be joking, right? There's no way you actually mean that... right, Sakura?" Kazuha asked, actually half concerned.

Sakura frowned.
"Does it look like I'm in the mood for any jokes, right now, Kazuha? That brat, Sunghoon... The moment we find him, I'll seriously-"

"Keep your voice down, Sakura, you'll draw attention. We need to get back on track." Chaewon said, cutting her off, and looking cautiously around them.

They continued on down the street, keeping to the side to avoid any bumps into any passerby. There were old couples going out for a nice morning walk, the average mom shopping with her stroller, and the occasional cluster of school children running for the busses.

Jay's team was covering them from above, onlooking from a rooftop just short of the end of the street, making sure to stay low-profile. What they were doing terribly made them look like robbers, even if it wasn't their real motive, strolling across people's apartment complex rooftops.

Heesung whispered to Jay in a quiet voice, peering over the small brick ledge, crouched on the roof next to Jake.
"Hey, Jay, do you really think Niki will be here? If I made a list of all the places he would ever run to, the streets is on the bottom of the list." he said, clearly not as keen on searching the crowded areas.

Jay let out a small puff, pursing his lips.
"I don't know. But we have to stay with the plan. If we veer off course now, without any of the other team's knowledge, what do you expect us to do? And what about Sakura's team? We can't just leave them." He said, dismissing Heesung's thoughts.

Heesung slowly nodded, retreating back to his stationary position along the ledge.
"Yeah... you're right." He mumbled.

Kazuha rubbed her hands together.
"Where could they be..." she questioned to herself.

"Niki and Sunghoon could be anywhere. They're uncontrollable kids. No telling where they could be. I wouldn't be surprised if they ran off over some petty thing, either." Sakura said, half rolling her eyes.

Kazuha shook her head, waving her hand in front of Sakura for the miscommunication.
"No, no, not that- I mean, also, I don't think they've got themselves into too much trouble, Sakura. But I mean where are they, Jay and the others. I haven't seen them, they really are hiding well..."

Chaewon raised her hood for just a moment before saying, "Over there. Third house on the right, you can see Heesung's hat just there, near the washing line."

Kazuha took a peak in the direction. Surely enough, she saw the little black dome of Heesung's hat over the small apartment roof ledge. They were only three blocks away, and had a really good view of their surroundings.

Heesung stood up slightly, making eye contact with Kazuha. He mouthed the words 'Do you see them?' to her.
She shook her head no in reply.
Neither team had caught a single trace of the two.

A small, disdained look appeared on Heesung's face. Then, just a little bit later he retreated back and his hat disappeared behind the ledge, out of sight.
He would stay with Jay and Jake for the meanwhile, just hoping that they'd find Niki or Sunghoon, one moment or another.

"Seems like it's going to be a long day... They can't see the two either, the group up there." Kazuha said, nodding to the rooftop.

Sakura let out a sigh.
"Honestly... how much trouble can those two cause us? It's giving me a headache just thinking about it..." she puffed, pulling her hood further down in frustration.

Chaewon also let out a small sigh, almost agreeing with Sakura on this one.
"Honestly... I wish Yunjin was here. She's much better at finding things than we are."

"That's just because you lose everything. It just happens so that Yunjin's always the one to find it again for you... before you lose it again." Kazuha scoffed.
She could sense the boredom in their voices. So she wanted to lighten the mood with just a little bit of friendly banter.

But it seemed that neither of the two others were feeling it at all, because there came no reply, just an angry grunt from Chaewon to warn Kazuha to keep her mouth shut.

So, the group continued on in silence, aimlessly scoping around for the two individuals they knew wouldn't come any time soon.
All they could do was sit and wait for something to happen.

...