Good Night | Dreamcatcher [COMPLETED]

40 - Hakyeon

Hakyeon awoke to darkness.

He groaned, aware of a terrible pain flooding his body as he lay still. His skin felt like it was on fire and agony coursed through his bones. He blinked a few times to clear his blurry vision, and immediately wished he hadn't.

For the dark, musty room was covered in blood.

Patches of congealed blood coated the walls, and fresher scarlet drops dripped from the ceiling. He struggled, but his body betrayed him. He felt the rough manacles locked around his wrists and ankles, preventing him from moving. He thrashed and fought again and again and again, but the handcuffs held firm.

Taking a deep, shuddering breath, he lay quietly, trying to think. How had he ended up here? He'd been in another room with the others, and they'd drunk that strange liquid...

His heart stopped. Where were his friends?

Desperation clawed at him as he imagined them in his situation. If something had happened to them... he'd never forgive himself.

But he didn't get the chance to dwell on it any longer as his flesh was ripped open.

Hakyeon screamed, his muscles going taut with fear and agony as something invisible tore at him. He felt blood running down his arms in hot streams of crimson and gritted his teeth, breathing heavily.

'You're a brave one, aren't you?'

The voice sent a cold wind down the back of his neck, something about it that was right, that wasn't human.

'Where are my friends?' he choked out, the metallic tang of blood burning his tongue. 'I don't care what you do to me, but if you hurt them, I swear—'

As an answer, the thing sent another invisible blade slicing across his stomach. Hakyeon coughed and gasped, but he didn't let another scream escape his body. Once he'd managed to stop choking on his own blood, he lifted his head up and looked into the darkness, into wherever this inhuman thing was.

'Where. are. my. friends.' It wasn't a question, it was a demand. But the creature — it had to be a creature, Hakyeon decided — just laughed. A cold, mirthless laugh.

'Would you like to see?'

No. No. No.

'Show me.'

The images appeared before his eyes as ghostly projections, and something caught in his throat as he saw them: Sanghyuk, trembling and frightened, speaking to something; Jaehwan ripping at throats and sobbing in pools of blood; Wonsik being tormented by spiritual horrors; and Taekwoon fading away...

Panic seized him, and suddenly the gouges in his flesh became ten times more painful. He had to leave, he had to help them—

He screamed as spectral claws raked down his face, cutting right down to the bone. Sobs wracked his body, and he thrashed and screamed, chains clanging against the metal table he lay on.

'You deserve this, Hakyeon. You deserve every bit of pain in your body. You gave in to Temptation, you led your friends to their doom.'

Tears rolled down his face, mingling with the blood, but anger flashed inside him.

'W-What about Hongbin?' he spat through clenched teeth. He could've sworn he felt the thing smile.

'Why don't you see for yourself?'

A smoky, skeletal hand materialised holding a syringe. There was a black liquid inside it, and it seemed to writhe and struggle as if it were alive.