Gone To Hell | Seventeen

XXIII.

My brain couldn't comprehend what was happening. I viewed a few of the male members, DK and Minghao, carrying him into the barn. His wrists were tied, so they were safe, but I just couldn't believe it. I sat in the passenger seat of one of the three trucks, sneering through the windshield at the closed barn doors. Tears fell, yes, but I didn't care enough to clear them away. It was pointless. I wasn't going to stop crying anytime soon.

He lied to me, multiple times. He made a big deal, and I hated that I couldn't be in the barn to see as his rotter form was sat down and put out of its misery. I hated that I didn't stop it, and mostly, I hated that I knew something was wrong and still didn't help.

I was angry that Jeonghan lied about his state of mind, but I wasn't angry at him. He was tired, and his emotions took over. Of course, I was aggressively upset that he would go through like this, but I wasn't angry at him.

My eyes flung themselves open as I heard the sound of a terror-filled scream filling the entire area. Without thinking, or putting on my shoes, or even a coat, I jumped to my feet and rushed out of the room, coming out to the parking lot. Hoshi was quickly behind me, holding his knife in hand. The children were awake now, but stayed in the room due to Hoshi's demands.

I looked around the camp, wondering where the scream came from, and more importantly, who it came from. As I looked around, I saw all the other members where exiting their rooms in fear and surprise as well. The only members not out of their rooms were DK and Jeonghan, so the scream had to be one of the two, unless it was an outsider.

Looking around in more detail, I saw DK running toward us with a horrified gaze on his face. Instantly, I started running toward where he came from. As I passed him, he grabbed my arm, yelling. "Hoshi, hold her back! She can't see him like this."

Hoshi was behind me within seconds, his arms wrapped around me from behind, preventing me from moving anywhere. Everyone else came storming forward, following DK to whatever happened. I assumed from his words that it wasn't good. And 'him'?

The crowd gathered around the situation, seeing what was going on. Through the hustle and bustle of everyone shoving to get a good view, there was a small enough clearing for me to see what they were looking at. It was a body, with a rope around its neck, scratching toward those close enough to it. It was a rotter, and the face I saw when it got to its feet, was Yoon Jeonghan. Jeonghan was a rotter.

I looked around me, poking myself a couple times. Part of me really thought I was in another one of my realistic nightmares, maybe a lucid dream. I tried to imagine him alive again to change what was going on, but nothing. This wasn't a nightmare.

"R-Raejin..." Hoshi begged, "Please don't go toward him. I don't think you should see him in this state."

"And everyone else can? How is that fair?" I grumbled, "Jeonghan was my best friend!"

"I'm trying to-" Before he could get out the whole sentence, I managed to force myself out of his arms and ran forward, charging toward the hellish version of the boy I knew since childhood.

I reached the crowd that was still gathered around, now tying the rotter's wrists together so he couldn't grab any of us. Shoving through, I managed to come face to face with him, and saw that his eyes were now milk white, not brown like before. His skin, it was a grey tone, some sort of nasty green mixed in. There wasn't a single bite mark on him, just the rope around his neck that ended his life.

"Jeonghan..." I whispered, my voice cracking at what I was looking at. "You promised me."

I began to weep, making no attempt to even stop. The rotter continued trying to grab me, its fingers grazing my arms multiple times. Everyone around us stared and watched, likely unsure what to do about this scenario.