hiding, lurking » pentagon

EPILOGUE

❝ E P I L O G U E ❞

"It appears that the three had gotten into some kind of fight and resorted to physical violence. A gun was pulled, but the fingerprints found belonged to the boy that suffered the bullet wound. The other two appeared to have died from extreme physical trauma," the news reporter was saying.

It had taken around a week for the news to spread, and Hongseok had been mourning in isolation all seven days. His family forced him to watch the report on the news as some kind of closure, but there was only one thing that could give him that closure, that could truly lay the dead to peaceful rest. He had been kicking the idea around for a couple days but the sheer implication of it always stopped him in his tracks.

He didn't know if he'd be strong enough. He didn't know if he would be accepted, if things would still be the same, if they could go back to how they were. A couple days ago, Wooseok had come back home. He'd been hiding in the woods, starving, taking food from the McDonald's dumpster at night when desperate. All this was relayed to Hongseok via their parents. Hongseok had been too hesitant to talk to Wooseok; he assumed the other boy knew that everyone else was dead but he didn't think that he'd be able to give him the news if he didn't know. He also didn't know if he'd be forgiven.

But he had to try. With shaking fingers, he called Wooseok, unable to even finish hoping that he'd pick up before he actually did.

"Hongseok?" Came Wooseok's voice, painted with disbelief and mistrust but also a hint of joy.

"Wooseok," Hongseok breathed. "Can we talk? Back of McDonald's?"

"Sure."

Hongseok arrived early and paced the grassy area behind the fast food place. He wasn't quite sure what he'd do when Wooseok came, how he'd react.

A couple minutes later, Wooseok arrived. He walked over and they stood awkwardly for a second, staring at each other. They both had lost weight and looked gaunt, looked like people who had just gone through something because they had; Hongseok still woke up screaming from nightmares and hated when people stood behind him where he couldn't see. Whenever Wooseok heard footsteps approaching, he always whirled around immediately, unable to calm his racing heart until he identified where they were coming from. The flashbacks of Kino's house with Jinho were the worst.

Then Wooseok whispered, "Is it gone?"

And Hongseok nodded. "But so is everyone else."

And then they were hugging fiercely, angrily, falling onto the grass and crying, shaking in each other's arms and gripping on tight like they were going to be swept away on stormy waves. They held onto each other like their lives depended on it, knowing that no one else understood what they had gone through except each other.

"Wooseok, I'm so sorry," Hongseok said. "I'm so sorry. I'll always be there for you."

"I'm so glad I have my friends back," Wooseok said, voice cracking. "I missed you all."

They separated, and Wooseok's eyes were closed, picturing Yuto, Yanan, Shinwon, Jinho, Kino, Changgu, Hui, and Hyojong.

"So what exactly happened while I was exiled?" Wooseok asked, and Hongseok launched into the story of how they tried to banish the demon with their stupid WikiHow articles and salt and how the chants worked, but Hyojong's sacrifice had been what killed the demon. Hongseok didn't tell him that Hyojong had accidentally summoned it; he didn't want to divide his friends again even in death.

He hoped that, despite the different worlds he and his friends now occupied, they would always be together. So every year after they became adults, he and Wooseok held a small memorial for their friends in the safety of their shared apartment. They would never forget what had happened to them, though in later years they began to forget the sounds of their friends' voices and even what some of their features had looked like. The grief was like waves, coming in unexpectedly and stopping their breath while they struggled in its clutches again before it rolled out and it became easier. And when that happened, they had each other to rely on.

But of course, Hongseok and Wooseok would never truly fill the hole the death of their friends had carved into their hearts.

I MIGHR CRY THIS IS THE END. THIS IS IT. IVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS STORY FOR OVER A YEAR NOW AND I WAS SO EXCITED FOR IT WHEN I STARTED THAT DESPITE THE BREAKS IT SUFFERED IT PULLED THROUGH.

writing this has been a challenge and an eye-opened AND so much fun and i want to thank all of you for reading and commenting and sticking with this fic even through its rough patches. i know its not perfect, nothing i write will ever be because thats the beauty of writing, but it is the fic im most proud of on this account and i am so proud of myself for finishing it. this is a bittersweet moment for me, because while a "full-length" horror story was an ambitious and tough process for me, it was also really fun and i'll really miss this fucked up world i created and these versions of the pentagon members, especially hyojong, my unstable and angsty queen.

anyway, im so glad to see the completion of this,which also marks the completion of all my works. i will not be writing anything new, and i'll make a long-ass (probably) post on my message board about that later, so keep an eye out. it's important!

thank you all so so much, i had so much fun scaring you all and reading your comments and basking in your love. i'm returning it tenfold!!! love you ♡

♡ ♡ ♡
- anna