Demon in Disguise

Phantasm

*Some cussing in here*

As the leaves fell from the trees, the air grew colder and wind blew harder.

Qiang steps outside of her car and inhales the cool mid-November air. "Autumn has arrived."

The cold air gives her a sudden nostalgic feeling. The sunrise of BiYu's death, the sirens and the neighbors surrounding Mr. Wang's house.

She opens her eyes and exhales heavily. The time before Chen revealed his true self.

BiYu's death also reminded her of her dream last night. The stranger whom she bumped into. She crinkles her brow, trying hard to recall her memory of both the dream and the actual event.

"Who was he?" She inquires as she walks into the house.

As Qiang eats and feeds Ai Hui she thinks about the stranger. It was an annoying nagging thought at the back of her mind. She tossed and she turned as she dreamed about him, he would suddenly take out a knife hidden in a secret compartment in his sweater and cut her throat or stab her heart. She would feel the beginning of the pain before waking up, never fully experiencing the torture.

"...her throat sliced, blood everywhere." Chen's voice echoes.

Qiang jerks awake, cold sweat drenching her body. "Oh god..."

She takes a shaky breath in and releases an equally shaky one out. The shadows made from the moon through her window seems to be the frightening stranger hiding, waiting for her to turn her back so he could attack. Qiang suspects him now, to be the murderer of BiYu. She knew almost everybody in this lonely town, and all their silhouettes, their walking style. She didn't recognize him. She reaches for her lamp and pulls the string, illuminating the room in an orange glow.

"What the heck Qiang, pull yourself together. It was just a dream, he isn't going to come back and kill you. You don't even know if he's the murderer of BiYu." She repeated it like a mantra, forcing herself to believe it and forcing her racing pulse to calm down. An aching feeling in her chest arises, she really wishes Chen was there with her right now. He was probably having fun in America, dancing at night clubs with pretty women. She hasn't attempted to call him since the day after he left. A feeling of loneliness sweeps over her, the same feeling as when her father died. It felt the whole world was shunning her, like there was nobody left in the world who cared for her.

That must have been how Mr. Wang felt... Mr. Wang! He was always there for her when she was lonely and she there for him. Qiang grabs her phone, peeking at the clock on the nightstand as she rummages in her drawer for some sweats and a sweatshirt.

5:00 am.

The chills from her nightmare still hadn't dissipate and she bites her lip nervously, looking from the sidewalk to her car. Should she drive? Or should she walk? She shakes her head, "It was just some crazy nightmare. You're walking to Mr. Wang's house, my papa ain't raise no lil bitch."

Satisfied, Qiang looks at the sidewalk with a determined expression and takes the path to Mr. Wang's house. She jumps at almost every noise, going automatically to defense position. "Why hell did I not wear a hood that time, that murderer saw my face." She feels like clawing her eyeballs out with all the pent up irritation and tension inside of her.

Qiang sighs in relief as she spots her old friend's humble abode. Qiang jogs to his house, just seeing his house felt like an answer to all her prayers. All of a sudden her face is looking at the ground and there is a sharp pain on her palms and her knees.

"What the-" Her shoelaces had become untied, in the midst of her happiness she stepped on one of the laces. Qiang groans and pushes herself into a sitting position, miserably tying her shoelaces. "Thank god no one was there to see it." The water on the sidewalk from rain early that morning soaking her butt.

A shadow stops in front of her, blocking the light from the street lamp, covering her in darkness. Her nightmare races through her mind, the hair on the back of her neck stands on end, goosebumps taking over her arms, cold sweat all over her back. She slowly looks up, a man stands before her. A dark sweater adorns his torso and broad shoulders, the hood covering his features, the rising sun allowed her to be able to decipher some of them. The shape of his eyes, the curve of nose and his lips.

Qiang feels her hands tremble as she stares at the male, her breath caught in her throat. He looks exactly like the stranger whom she had bumped into and exactly like the phantom who has been haunting her in her dreams.

Is this it?

Is he going to pull out a knife like how she always dreamed?

Would today be the day she dies?

"Fuck..." Was all she could muster, even that was inaudible to her own ears.

"Qiang?"

Confusion takes over her mind and body as the male pulls back his hood to reveal...

"Junmyeon?"

"Qiang what are you doing here?" The handsome man who she had gotten to know over the past year leans down beside her to inspect her hands and the dark patches on the knees of her thin sweatpants. "Are you okay? Why is there blood?"

All she could do was stare at him, stare at the crease of his lids as he looks down to tie her laces for her, the way his high cheekbones stand out elegantly, the dimple on his right cheek. She looks down at her numb hands as he takes them in his larger ones, slim and manly. She could see his defined shoulders and upper back muscles through his black hoodie as he moves. She had become paralyzed with shock.

Is this the man who has been haunting this town?