Fear {Taeil // NCT au}

ten

Taeyong's question still lingered on Tamsin's mind when the group arrived at the spot of Gachnar's symbol.

It wasn't that she didn't care. If anything she cared too much. She wanted nothing more than for every single one of them to leave the house alive, but there was barely enough time to breathe, let alone create an elaborate plan. Trusting Crystal and her knowledge on the demon, she had no other choice than to believe Ten would be okay and to accept whatever was going to happen next. 

"This is it," Crystal said, looking down at the red and white paint on the floor. "The mark of Gachnar."

"We're lucky the hallways didn't shift," Taeil said, following her gaze. "It could have taken us hours to find it again."

What he didn't know was that it had been Ten that caused the hallways to remain in their spot. Ten wasn't sure what it was, but he had been attracted to the symbol as he walked past, making an u-turn and waiting for his friends to come. For the first time since he'd turned invisible, Ten didn't feel completely useless. Hope returned and it immediately lifted his spirit. 

Of course, he had no idea what his friends had planned and would soon find himself amongst chaos in which he would be a mere bystander.

"So what happens now?" Yuta asked, looking at Crystal for the answer. "Do you remember the spell to defeat him?"

Crystal, admittedly, did not and shook her head. Sure, she had read about Gachnar before, but it wasn't like she needed to know every detail about him back then.

"I remember some of it, but I don't know if it's enough."

"Great," Taeyong muttered under his breath. He turned away from the red painted pentagram and began pacing back and forth.

"Gachnar can be conjured by performing a summoning ritual, which involves spilling blood over his mark." Crystal said, stating facts out loud, hoping it would somehow bring back more crucial details.

"Once he's summoned, his presence infects the reality of the environment he finds himself in, as well as the people in it. As we've experienced first hand, he can transform inanimate objects to animate, bring things to life and bring on hallucinations, affecting those in the area. He feeds on our fears to eventually bring himself forth, completing the summoning ritual. Ideally, we stop that from happening and by doing so, we are freed from his curse."

"What's the less ideal option?" Tamsin asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"We physically destroy the symbol," Crystal replied, trying to keep her voice steady. Calling it 'less ideal' was a huge understatement. "Gachnar appears and we fight until we kill him."

"How? What would we use?" Yuta asked and pointed at Taeyong's Halloween staff. "Would that do any harm?"

"Not much" she answered truthfully. "He wears a helmet that covers a third eye of sorts. It's what he uses to control our fears. It's also what will get him killed."

"So we just need to get rid of his helmet? That's it?" Yuta questioned with a frown. It sounded easy enough to him, but of course it would be far from it.

"He's strong and has powers other than manifesting our fears. It will be difficult and it will be dangerous," Crystal stated, making sure her friends didn't take the fight lightly.

"You think about that spell to defeat him while we gather things to fight with." Yuta replied, refusing to give up now that they were so close to escaping.

The others seemed to agree with him as they searched the adjoining rooms for anything that could be of use in the possible upcoming fight. Crystal knew they didn't have much of another choice, so she did as she was asked. Walking around the symbol, she tried her hardest to remember the spell that they needed to escape quietly.