Schizophrenic//Chanlix

Dangerous Hauntings

Song of the Chapter: "Heartbreak" by Christian Leave

Potentially triggering topics. Read at your own risk.

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Felix finished his classes relatively quickly and easily, his mind no longer on the leaves that were present all around him in every classroom that he walked into.

He did take time to note no one else could alter what he was seeing.

That couldn't be right, Chan can't affect his images like this. The dog had never moved before, had never talked before, the leaves had never moved before.

What was Chan?

As he was working hard at the cafe across from his apartment, he found himself silently watching the clock from the corner of his eyes. He wanted nothing more than to leave at ten to go home to study and to sleep.

He would see Chan again tomorrow and he wanted to know if he had a nightmare tonight that followed him to college after he woke up if Chan could make it go away or even make it stop talking.

But his plans were put on hold when he saw Minho, a younger male and Chan walk through the doors of the cafe.

It was busy so Felix wasn't just standing around doing nothing but he felt like he suddenly needed to move more, he needed to start doing something more so he wouldn't have to talk to Chan.

But as he hurried around the back of the cafe, through the kitchen, he began to question why.

He wanted to talk to Chan, didn't he?

Or did he just want to use Chan for an experiment?

Chan wanted to be his friend, so he couldn't do that to him. But could he actually say anything normal at this point to someone he went to the college with? In the same class as him?

Sure, he was comfortable with his job at the cafe but that included minimal talking to people.

The waiter and cashiers were the ones talking to everyone, getting their orders, and then they would tell Felix what they needed in order to have everything done quickly and efficiently.

This effectively left Felix in a comfortable position in a small kitchen in a small cafe tucked in the farthest corner away from the main campus but could still be considered college grounds.

He liked it this way, this was the way it had been for years.

But he never knew the name of the waiter or of the cashiers, they changed too often because they transferred or needed a better job.

Always a new face and never a familiar one.

But Minho and Chan were rapidly starting to intrude on that idea and he wasn't entirely sure how comfortable he was with it.

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Chan was thanking Minho for taking him to the cafe. He had been studying hard ever since he returned back to their shared apartment when Jeongin and Minho returned, asking if he wanted to go for coffee before he returned to finish his homework since he was having a break now.

He'd been reluctant since he didn't really have a desire to get the bitter caffeine, but his heavy eyelids begged to differ. It had only been a couple of hours past getting out of college but it felt like it had been years.

So he agreed.

And he was eccstatic he did.

While they were waiting to complete their order (and Jeongin was scrambling to clean a table with a cute waiter, who kept smiling at him), Chan noticed the familiar copper fluffy hair working in the kitchen.

Minho dragged him to the table and warned him once again on their way of the dangers Felix presented, to which he didn't listen to. Instead, he drank the coffee slowly and pulled out his phone.

From Chan:
Felix, I didn't know you worked here.

The boy in the back pulled up his phone as he felt it buzz, setting aside the rubber gloves and unlocking the phone.

"Don't read that text."

Felix's head snapped up and to the side, coming uncomfortably close to a black shadow's face. It took on the appearance of ink, a blob of ink dripping down its entire body and it had sharp white teeth that were stained with spots of yellow. The eyes were glazed with hatred and a terrifying pomegranate red but stained with the drips of black swimming in tears.

"What...?" he questioned, stepping back and placing the phone on the counter, "I've never seen you before."

The ink was again within a fingertip's inch in front of Felix's face.

"Don't you fucking talk to Chan. You're not good enough for him."

The words were odd and they stung but Felix was more terrified than worried about what the ink was saying about Chan.

"You will be tortured if you touch him."

He shook his head and opened his mouth to reply when he felt a pain on his wrist. He looked down to see there was a bloody red cut from his wrist up until his elbow. The ink's two claws then grabbed the sides of the wound and ripped back, making the pain shoot straight through Felix's body.

He reached and grabbed the dirty knife from the sink that he had been getting ready to wash, moving to stab the ink blob when it snapped to the ground and the claws ripped out ligaments and tendons, wrapping around the bones in his forearms to pull them out

So desperately he wanted to scream but through tears, he could see the clock in the corner and that the cafe would be closing in two minutes.

Biting his lip to hold back the pain, his eyes remained locked on the clock only to find that it no longer ticked, no longer moved.

"Don't you know a watched clock never ticks?"

The voice of the ink felt ten times more painful than the claws peeling the skin of his forearm back like a banana peel and Felix forced his eyes shut.

If a watched clock never ticks, an abandoned clock moved at six times the speed.

The "ding-ding" of the clock was a welcome sound and Felix's eyes flew open, finding himself alone in the kitchen, the knife resting fallen on the floor, and his forearm untouched by the claws that had been shredding it moments ago.

His breath was ragged and all he wanted to do was to pull himself together.

That was the worst image.

The others had never touched him before, much less hurt him. This was the first time he wanted to fight back.

He threw off the apron and ran from the closing cafe, the glass door snapping shut behind him before he ran hard into someone on the sidewalk.

Felix apologized, his heart beating fast and his face flushed in the night air, but it seemed to get worse...in a good way.

He'd run right into Chan.

"Felix!" he smiled, "I'm glad to see you out, I was hoping to catch you before you got home. Do you want to study with me tonight?"

Felix was dumbstruck. His mind blanked at the idea of being with Chan, alone, and then sparked with an idea.

If Chan could move the leaves before, the nightmare would be warded off by him.

Why would he not want to be around Chan?

There was nothing but benefits.

"Of course."