Inanima - English version

2.4 Heirs

Soobin squeezed into his sweatshirt as he slowly walked down the stairs in the dark.

The phone's flashlight illuminated the space around him, making the atmosphere spooky. Soobin shivered, walking near the wall. He jumped, hearing a noise coming from outside the house, holding a scream by pressing a hand on his mouth. He remained motionless for a few moments, listening to possible other noises, while his heart beat hard in the ribcage, almost painfully.

He recognized only at that moment the hiss of the wind against the tiles of the porch. Soobin released his restrained breath, forcing himself to calm down. He mentally cursed Yeonjun's decision to watch a horror movie before going to bed. Soobin didn't agree, aware that he wouldn't be able to fall asleep, but the archaeologist had insisted so much that in the end he had to give in. He found himself sitting on the couch in front of the worst horror movie Yeonjun could choose, too busy hiding behind the blanket to hear the other guy giggle, amused by his behavior.

When they had separated to go to sleep, Soobin had pretended to have the situation under control and not to be really scared, even if in reality he just wanted to hide under the blankets of the bed and erase from his mind images of the film that kept tormenting him. Yeonjun had greeted him with a smile, as usual, proving to be perfectly calm. Left alone, Soobin had quickly closed the door to his room behind him, turning on the light and scanning every inch of the room to make sure no demonic beings hid there to trap him. At that point, feeling more calm and even vaguely ridiculous, he had decided that it was time to go to sleep and leave that terrible horror film behind.

He had slipped into bed, turning off the light and forcing himself to think only of beautiful and funny things, which kept his mind busy. However, after only a few moments, he had again op ened his eyes wide, staring at the ceiling. He couldn't fall asleep in any way, he was still too scared to fall asleep so easily. Soobin sighed for a long time, surrendering to turn on the light and pick up the phone. After an hour spent on social media, he snorted bored. He couldn't calm down and get distracted, always seeing the frames of the film slide before his eyes.

The only thing that could possibly help him was to drink some water, it would surely calm him down. Unfortunately, however, this meant going down to the kitchen and facing the stairs surrounded by the darkness of the night. Soobin had imposed himself to get out of bed and be brave, because he had to somehow defeat that absurd fear that he was experiencing and that prevented him from sleeping.

And so, he found himself along the stairs, frightened by the sound of the wind. Soobin shook his head, going to the kitchen and opening the refrigerator. He recovered a bottle of water and closed it quickly, looking around, suspicious. The kitchen was quiet and, above all, empty. Soobin sighed, almost giggling at himself. He slowly walked up the stairs, feeling more comfortable. After all, it was only a film, it certainly didn't correspond to reality. Soobin opened the bottle of water, drinking a sip. As he passed by Yeonjun's room, however, he noticed the light on. He stopped at the door, frowning. How come not even the boy was sleeping? Maybe he had felt sick?

Soobin, without thinking too much, opened the door. Yeonjun snapped his head, choking a scream, muffled only by the blanket that enveloped his entire body. Soobin stood on the doorstep, raising an amused eyebrow. "What the hell are you doing," he chuckled, pointing to the white blanket around the boy. Yeonjun blurted out "What are you doing! Do you think it's normal to break into other people's bedrooms like this?". Soobin smiled, closing the door behind him so as not to wake the other people living in the house.

"Let me guess- he said advancing towards the bed- you couldn't sleep due to the horror movie you wanted to see?". Yeonjun frowned, avoiding answering, thus confirming the other boy's story. "Let's say I didn't want to sleep," he replied, squeezing into the blanket. "Sure, I guess," Soobin replied, sitting next to the boy. He looked over the mattress, noticing Damyang's map with post-it notes on it. "Were you working?" he asked, impressed. He had spent an entire hour on social media to fight insomnia, evidently unlike the archaeologist who was much more productive than him. Yeonjun shrugged "I just tried to use time differently".