Put A Spell On Me (a verkwan fic)

Chapter Twenty: Unexplainable Thaumaturgy

A/N: spoiler/warning: a <slightly>violent scene with a few mentions of blood this chapter, but never too intense or graphic, you can skip over the scene in between the two dashes (-) if necessary  !

He was lost again.

This was becoming a recurring thing, and at this point, it was a bit laughable. It wasn't even like this was a century old town with hidden routes and dangerous shortcuts; if anything, it was the opposite, with its perfectly branching streets and perfectly aligned homes. But somehow, Seungkwan always found himself making a wrong turn when he wasn't paying enough attention on his way home from the convenience store, and somehow, it was always too dark or late at night for him to figure out where he was.

Tonight's venue was another quiet byway, the back walls of a row of townhouses on his left and a fenced off road to his right. He could vaguely tell this was somewhere downtown. He was probably close enough to Hansol's shop that he could project himself there if he wanted to, but he had a feeling Hansol wouldn't have appreciated that. Not right now.

He wondered if Hansol missed him as much as he missed Hansol. It was a rather embarrassing thought, especially when he knew he was the one that had made things awkward between them. His friends had told him that Hansol would be alright if he would just say something to the other, but that whole experience would have been terrible to endure, and he didn't know if it was worth it (but that small voice at the back of his head, if he was listening, would have told him that Hansol was always worth it).

He continued down the alley, his hands clumsily pulling his jacket tighter against him. Since getting lost wasn't part of the original plan, he hadn't thought to put on something warmer, and was now regretting that decision.

Occasionally a cloud would pass above him, floating by the waning moon, and he would have to walk a little faster until he was under the next streetlamp so he wouldn't feel vulnerable in the dark spaces in between. He couldn't ever remember being this afraid of the dark; that wasn't really his thing.

There was a sudden rustle in a nearby corner that caused him to flinch violently and turn to see what it was. For a moment, all he saw was the exposed brick wall, and a light in a tiny window a few stories up flickered on, but nothing else. He shivered and turned away.

As he passed under another streetlight, he heard a second noise. Turning around carefully, he saw the source: a black cat striding out of the shadows, staring at him with its sharp eyes. He wondered for a moment if it was Kiki, but it couldn't have been, not with the way it looked at him.

He watched as the cat turned and walked back into the dark corner, watching him from the corner of its eyes right before it disappeared again. Definitely not Kiki.

His phone suddenly vibrated from the inside of his pocket, reminding him it was there. Maybe he could have called someone to pick him up, but he had no way of knowing his exact location anyway ("Help, I'm lost! No, I don't know where I am!). He slipped his hand into his jacket pocket anyway and pulled out his phone. It buzzed through his fingers again and the screen lit up, revealing a bubble that read 14 unread messages from Seungcheol accompanied by a handful more from his other friends.

Before he could even wonder why his phone didn't notify him of all of them or why they would even send him so many texts, he felt an unexpected sharp and heavy blow to the back of his head, and his phone slipped through his fingers and fell to the pavement at almost the same time as he did.