Don't touch me // Minsung

0. 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘶𝘦

Two gunshots.

That was the last thing Minho heard when he jumped out of the window from his aunt's house. Tearing away the night's peace, the shots resonated deep in his heart with one lone message:

You're next.

He quickly picked up the huge bag he had thrown to the ground before him, and started running as fast as he could, not knowing if his aunt was still alive or dead. Not that he cared, he had always hated her. Whenever he looked at her, he could only see this huge vacuum whose only purpose was to suck out all the oxygen and life out of him. Completely stuck in a repetitive military-like routine, he just wanted to break free from her. Unable to choose what to do, barely allowed to have an opinion, forced to live a life he never wanted ... He could not help but loathe her.

He had actually planned to leave the house the very next day. Everything was ready, from his huge backpack alongside his train tickets to his admission papers to a new school. He was supposed to change his life tomorrow; to escape from her hands yes, but even more importantly, to escape from them too... However, tomorrow had turned into today, and today had turned into right now. They had come for him.

The suburban streets where his aunt lived were completely empty as people were most probably sleeping or watching TV, so Minho sprinting in the middle of the road despite his heavy backpack did not disturb anyone in the slightest. Only dressed in black and engulfed in a large hoodie to hide his face, he had no other option but to run, he could never turn back now. Despite the darkness of the sky, streetlamps bathed the streets in light and he suddenly felt vulnerable. They could find him in mere seconds, and then they would catch him just like they caught his aunt, and then – Well, he did not want to think about that...

He quickly found the way to the nearest forest, exiting the light and embracing the night. He instantly hid behind a tree, panting and trying to recover his breath. That was when he felt it in his pocket, the last thing his aunt had given him, this little piece of paper, with nothing but coordinates on it. They had been written so hurriedly that it was hard to even decipher them. But he had somehow managed to do it.

He did not know much more, she had not said anything about it, about what to do or what to find there. Minho only thought this was one of her numerous schemes to use him for her own benefits, to protect herself maybe. And he knew this never meant anything good for him.

A tree branch suddenly cracked a few meters away from him, startling him as he looked around, hoping it was just the wind and not them. And fortunately, he was still alone, but that did not soothe his nerves. He typed on his phone with trembling fingers, searching for the coordinates but not really caring about what to find there, he did not expect anything from his aunt anyways... But when he finally found out the location, his heart sank. He knew exactly the place, he even knew the way to go as it was not so far away. Another branch cracked in the night, making his anxiety rise up again. His legs moved before his brain as he ran towards the coordinates. It did not matter if it would result in a fifteen-minute sprint, he had to get there before they could find him.

He just had to...

That place Minho was running to was a small house standing a few miles away from the suburbs and the capital, on the edge of a village. It was an old house, well, not that old, but as it had been left abandoned, it felt like it could be at least a hundred years old by now. Nature had taken hold of every cracked wall and shattered window, plants had grown everywhere and animals had found shelters in the different rooms, sleeping on beds and nesting on furniture.

It is known to all that every village, every town, no matter how big or small, carries a secret. Most irrelevant, but some horrifying. Well, it was said that this particular town had the worst secret of all the villages in the area. A true horrible story that had happened in that old abandoned house. The situation there was as simple as this fact: nobody in the village ever came inside or near the house.