haunted, again // nct.dream [2]

{13}

Upon walking down to the first floor, I heard laughter erupt from one of the barn stalls that were renovated into a comfy seating area accompanied by carpet and couches. I poked my head around the corner to see G-Dragon there seated in the middle of a big huddle of people.

"-and then I told him, 'it's okay to be gay.'" His hand came down to give a nice slap to his knee. "I swear, this boy is as gay as me." G-Dragon shook his head back and forth slowly while his words sort of slurred together.

"You told who it's okay to be gay?" Johnny asked out of curiosity.

G-Dragon shot his head to us. His eyes were tinted red and his cheeks had a flushed look. He was obviously intoxicated. "Psh, I don't remember his name, but my man, Johnny! Come over here and join us for some drinks!" G-Dragon gave a sloppy smile while waving Johnny over and weakly lifting a big glass bottle.

Johnny glanced down at me, almost like he was asking for my consent. I shrugged my answer. It's up to him.

"Okay, just for a couple." Johnny gave in and squeezed into a spot next to G-Dragon. As I started to walk away from the renewed stall, I caught a glimpse of G-Dragon's arm gently curling over Johnny's shoulders and a dopey grin on his face.

I was nearing the homemade bathroom. First thing I noticed was a chair that was wedged underneath the handle, stabling the door in place.

"Jueun, Chenle?" I called to the other side.

"HYUNJI!" Jueun shouted. "OPEN THE DOOR!"

I yanked the chair back just as the door swung open and Jueun collapsed to the cool concrete floor. She started gasping for air while staying on hands and knees. "You're an angel," she managed to tell me.

My eyes moved towards Chenle, who was laughing, but his eyes said something different. Almost like he was laughing away disappointment. "Hey," he stated in between forced chuckles, "I'm not that bad to be stuck in a space with."

Jueun finally pulled herself to her feet. A reassuring hand fell onto Chenle's shoulder while also using him as something to prop herself up. "It's not your fault, I just can't deal with that tight of a space."

Chenle nodded in understandment. Jueun gave his shoulder one last squeeze before letting it finally fall. The thing is, I never knew Jueun to really be someone with claustrophobia.

"By the way," Jueun shot a confused look to my direction. "Why isn't Haechan with you?"

A grunt of irritation left me before I was able to answer. "Johnny was getting away from Ten and Taeyong, who came here together, and started dancing with me to act like he was over Ten. Haechan ended up finding us instead, so now he's mad at me again."

Chenle shook his head while Jueun sharply exhaled.

"Jeez, why is he being so dramatic?" Jueun asked under her breath.

A silence hung between us, except for the lingering sound of music seeping into the downstairs, and creaking above our head from all the dancing.

"I guess we should gather up the majority of our friends," I brought up. "What time is it anyway?"

"It's almost eleven," Chenle confirmed after checking his phone. Already? Jisung mentioned earlier that the party is supposed to end around one in the morning, so that means only two more hours to go. Although, I'm not sure how much longer I'll be able to put up.

"Let's go back up." Jueun started to take a couple steps forward, but jumped slightly, along with me and Chenle as well, to a flicker in the power. Every light and electronic Halloween decoration quickly turned off, then came back on. Even the speakers upstairs broke in and out, causing the band to stop right in the middle of a song.

It wasn't the kind of flicker that just happens when too much power is being used, or the kind of flicker that comes from a storm messing with electricity. It displayed a certain on and off that seemed tampered with.

"What the hell?" Someone's voice rang through the sudden stillness of the barn. Murmurs began to pick up, and people started to curiously filter to the downstairs area. I shifted my gaze between Jueun and Chenle, seeing their faces giving off a certain edge.

"Sorry, sorry!"

A guy stumbled out from a back room, almost tripping over himself. "I thought that was another bathroom."

A few people giggled in relief while some looked annoyed. I placed a hand over my beating heart. The way that everything cut dead has an eerie feel. At least the source came from a drunk guy who was just confused.

As footsteps began to make their way back up, the lights did it again. Everything. The same flickering in all the power. Heads spun back around to face the same guy that walked out of the back room just moments before.

But he wasn't even near that room anymore.

"Are you kidding me?" a rather large man with muscles growled.He came stomping down the stairs towards the guy. "What's your problem? We're just trying to have a good time!"

The smaller guy held up his hands in defense, his black bangs falling over his eyes. "I didn't do anything. I'm not even in that room anymore." He almost seemed to be shaking in fear. "I don't know how it happened."

The very muscular guy pushed the smaller one out of the way. All voices where hushed while we all watched this guy storm over to the back room. He peered through the open door with raging eyes.

However, the fire in his eyes was soon distinguished as they widened in shock. "What the fu-"

A scream erupted from behind me as the guy went falling back to the floor. He landed with a hard thud. Mr. Muscles gasped for air, probably from losing all that was in his lungs after hitting the concrete. The big man scrambled to get up.

"Get outside!" he demanded, rushing away from the door. Everyone was in panic mode now. Mr. Muscles made sure to get to the front as fast as possible. I pushed myself after the crowd, too shocked to cry and too shocked to scream. I raised myself to my toes so I could see over the crowd, but what an utter mistake on my part.

There was a hold up from the barn door being shut and latched. Mr. Muscles started pulling at the latch, but was struggling with his shaking hands. He cursed under his breath several times.

My eyes caught sight of a wobbling motion just above the door frame. A rusted hatchet was set on display just over his head, but seemed to be jiggling loose. Almost like it was pushed, or even thrown with a powerful force, the blade came falling down.