Waking the Dead

Waking the Dead 09

Jin rubbed his tired eyes. "There's a dead girl on the table, a half dead soldier in the corner, an empath, a detective, and a university student standing here trying to figure out the mother of all puzzles. It's like the beginning of a bad joke. This is hopeless." 

"Look on the bright side." Namjoon said.

"Which is?"

"No haunted killer dolls."

Jin shuttered. "I just wish we knew what to look for. In horror movies there's always a reason a house is evil. An Indian burial ground, like in Amityville Horror, or it's super haunted like Thirteen Ghosts, but there was always a way to end the haunting, some sort of key."

Namjoon looked at him. "What do you mean?" 

Jin leaned against the bench. "There's usually always something that triggers the haunting, that...wakes the house so to speak, and the thing that triggers the haunting is always the key to stopping it."

Jungkook, who'd been listening, suddenly lurched up. "A key... When we attempted to leave, Dr. Lee said she couldn't do this without Tae because he was the key."

Namjoon nodded. "That's right, but what did he do?"

Jungkook hurried to Taehyung gently shaking him awake. "Hyung?"

Tae eyes fluttered open as he sat up. "Sorry, just so tired."

A paper lifted on it's own from the mess on the desk. "Um..." Jin pointed his camera toward the free floating paper. "Holy shit!"

There on his camera screen, holding the paper, was a teenage boy with shaggy blonde hair. Namjoon and Jungkook looked at the screen, mouths open.

"Jimin!" Jungkook cried.

The dead boy nodded slowly.

"Jimin what am I missing?"

The boy held out the paper, pointing to Tae. Jungkook stepped forward, taking the paper. It was full of symbols he didn't understand, and a picture of a human figure with what he recognized as the third eye, with notes framing the edges.

"He's pointing at Taehyung again, looking really upset." Jin said.

Hurrying back to where Jimin was pointing, Jungkook saw Tae was now slumped to the floor, breathing shallowly. 

"Tae!" Jungkook pulled him upright. "Come on love wake up, please."

Chocolate eyes rolled open. "No energy." Tae mumbled.

Jungkook looked stunned. "Energy, oh my god..." He looked frantically to Jin and Namjoon. "Energy! Tae is the key!"

Confused, they looked at him.

"Tae is like a reactor for the dead, he gives them energy, he's literally feeding the house."

Nodding frantically, Jimin pointed to the other side again.

"He's pointing again, to the other side of the room this time." Jin said.

Jungkook helped Tae up. "Come on Tae, we got to go."

Crossing the room they came up to a solid wall.

"What the hell?" The blonde touched the solid mass as if hoping it was fake.

"I've been here." Namjoon said, looking around wildly, pounding on the wall. "There's a secret room on the other side. I remember being here as a kid. I followed her down here..."

Jin looked at him. "What?"

Frantic fingers began scratching against the wall. "She led me here, I've been having nightmares and relapses since we got here."