Sound of Winter || Taegyu

Chapter Twenty Six

Shivers find their way down Beomgyu's skin as the sound of a creaking rusted gate hits his ears. He finds himself standing in front of a home, one that he recognizes from somewhere. He's surrounded by nothing but darkness in every direction. There's no trees, no roads, nothing. Only him and the house that stands before him.

He can feel the frigid air on the back of his neck, and he knows he should leave, to put as much distance between himself and this cursed home as he can. Common sense screams at him to run, but his feet are rooted to their spots on the ground.

This house... he's been here before, but when?

He finds himself walking up to the front door, heart pounding in his ears and breaths coming in ragged gasps. The wind howls with an uncanny humanlike sorrow, its mournful cries echoing through the darkness.

His hands shake as he brings them up to knock on the door, but it swings open before he gets the chance, almost as if encouraging him to walk in. He doesn't give himself a chance to consider it before stepping inside.

Fragments of memories rush back to him all at once, and before he even has a chance to react, the door is slamming shut behind him with a resounding thud. The house is shrouded in an eerie darkness, punctuated only by faint flickers of moonlight that lead down a corridor. He freezes at the faint sound of someone crying, soft and desperate.

He remembers this place – Seiji's home, but it looks different now, almost abandoned. The house brings back a multitude of memories, a prison that haunts his waking nightmares constantly.

As he reaches the end of the corridor, the crying grows louder and more intense.

His heart drops in his chest as he stumbles down the narrow staircase leading to the basement. The lone light bulb hanging from the ceiling still flickers weakly, casting grotesque shadows on the grimy floor. The smell is horrendous, and he quickly covers his nose with his shirt sleeve before he gags.

Then his eyes land on it – his own lifeless body, sprawled out on a blood stained mattress.

The stench of iron fills the air and a wave of nausea washes over him, and before he knows it, he's vomiting uncontrollably onto the floor. Tears stream down his face as he struggles to breathe, body wracked with sobs.

Fear and shock paralyze him as he stares down at his own cadaver. As if in slow motion, he sinks to the ground, sliding down the wall until he's sitting on the cold, hard floor, unable to take his eyes off the corpse in front of him.

The bulb flickers two more times before turning off, leaving him alone in the darkness.

Beomgyu's heart pounds relentlessly against his chest, like a wild stallion desperate to break out of its reins, body trembling uncontrollably under the weight of terror lingering in the air. And in the breathless moment, suffocation cruelly engulfs him, leaving him gasping for air.

He sits up in the bed, the soft moonlight shining in through the curtains, coating the room in a soft glow. The warm duvet falls to his lap, exposing his arms to the cool air in the room. It feels refreshing, a nice contrast to the burning sensation coursing through his body.

With every desperate gasp, his lungs ache, their capacity diminished by the relentless grip of fear. He can still feel Seiji's hands on his body, his invisible hand encasing his throat, constricting it with an iron grip, squeezing his very breath away.

The world feels like it's blurring into fragmented shards, his vision clouded with darkness. Panic courses through his veins, its fiery touch igniting an inferno of dread inside of him. His biggest fear is being stuck inside of that house with Seiji again – that god awful house that constantly creeps into the back of his mind, taunting him every day.