Snowy Night | a BTS Horror Story

Book 2: Lights | Chapter 5: Lights

1:15 AM (5 ¾ Hours Till Sunrise)

"Hey," Baekhyun starts. "I don't hear anything on the other side of the door. You think maybe it's safe to go out?"

"Maybe," Suga says. "Or every second we hesitate it just gets more dangerous."

"Should we try and make a break for it?" Taemin asks. "We could run and get help."

"Isn't anything worth a shot at this point?" Kyung Soo says noncommittally.

"I'll go out and look around first," Xiumin says, standing up and walking toward the door. He unlocks it, then turns back to glare severely. "If you hear anything, don't try to come and rescue me. Do you understand? ...Good." Then he pulls the door open a skosh and sticks his head out, turning one way then the other before slipping out into the common room completely.

"Chanyeol," he says softly. "Lock this door behind me."

Chanyeol, who is closest to the door, complies as soon as Xiumin shuts it.

After a moment, Xiumin returns and reports.

"There's some blood on the floor," he says. "I suppose it's Jimin's. Other than that, the coast is clear."

They split up into three teams: the escape team- Baekhyun, Jongin, and Taemin- will try to sneak out the front hall and try the main door or the window in the mudroom; the exploration team- Taehyung, Suga, and Xiumin- will look for any trace of Jimin or Jin; the defense team- Kyung Soo, Chanyeol, and J-Hope- will stay behind to watch Jungkook and unlock the door for anyone who comes back.

"Hey, hyung, V," J-Hope calls to Suga and Taehyung as they prepare to walk out the door. He pulls the tissue off his face and looks at the dried blood for a moment, then says "Stay safe. Ne?"

They both nod.

"We'll be back," Suga says with a tired smile, making a peace sign. Taehyung laughs and copies Suga.

"Alright," Xiumin says to both teams. "Let's go."

Out in the common room, the exploration team and the escape team give each other a final goodbye wave before the escape team slips out the door into the front hall and closes it behind them.

Suga pulls out his phone first and uses the light to start inspecting the smears of blood in front of the door to the computer room. Taehyung and Xiumin have their phones out in a moment too, and they follow a trail of drips to the back hall where they find two doors.

"One of these is the manager's room, isn't it?" Suga whispers. Taehyung nods. "And the other one?"

"I don't know," Taehyung says. "Closet or a basement or something."

Suga ushers them back out into the common room, away from the doors. "Well," he says, "we know one thing. Jimin was carried, not dragged. If he was dragged, we would have seen smears all the way to the doors instead of drips."

"And if Rap Mon hyung bothered to move Jimin hyung," Taehyung says. "He must not be dead."

"We don't know that, Taehyung," Suga says. Taehyung frowns. Suga sighs and continues "I just mean we need to focus on what we really know if we're going to make any progress, okay?"

"Ne."

"Alright, then, should we look upstairs for Jin hyung next?" Suga opens the discussion to Xiumin, who shrugs and says,

"Sure."

They start off toward the stairs. They're a few steps up when the lights turn on.

Suga swears.

"Run," Xiumin says.

"Right," Suga says. "Right, come on. Run!"

They take off toward the stairs when they hear a piercing scream from the mudroom. Xiumin freezes.

"Sunbaenim," Suga starts. "Sunbaenim, run!"

"Ani," he says. "No, you go back to the computer room. Just go, I'll be fine. Go!"

"Fine! Taehyung, let's go!" Suga grabs Taehyung by the sleeve and drags him along toward the computer room.

Xiumin is almost to the door when it opens and nearly whacks him in the face. He jumps back as Taemin stumbles out, carrying Jongin. Taemin drops Jongin and kicks the door closed, his hands slide down to his knees where he stays bent over and panting for a time.

"It got Baekhyun," he says breathlessly.

Suga and Taehyung stopped in front of the door to the computer room when Taemin emerged and have since been watching Xiumin.

"Hyung?" Taehyung says. "What should we do?"

"Uh, I," Suga stutters. "Let's help them bring Jongin into the computer room."

"Taemin," Xiumin starts. "What happened? Is Jongin okay?"

"Ne," Taemin says, straightening. "He's fine, just took a blow and fell wrong. He hit his head. I'm pretty sure he'll be alright."

"How do we know you haven't been turned?" Suga asks as he walks over.

Taemin pauses to think, then says "Nam Joon hasn't spoken a word since he was turned, right? And I've been talking since I got here. Good enough for you?"

Suga doesn't answer, instead asking another question. "What did you see?"

"You really want to know?" Taemin asks, blinking as his eyes continue adjusting to the light in the room.

"Try me."

"A tiger," Taemin says. "But like a circus-tiger, all covered in too much makeup and weird colors... its teeth, were..." he trails off. "They were like Rap Monster's."

Suddenly something behind Taehyung and Suga seems to catch Taemin's eye.

"Wae?" Xiumin asks. "What? What are you looking at?"

"Actually," Taemin gulps. "They looked a lot like that." He points to the back hall.

Suga and Taehyung spin around freeze in place.

"Nam Joon hyung," Taehyung whispers.

Rap Mon holds his head at an almost unnatural angle, grinning wider than it seems he should be able to, his mouth full of green and pink glistening fangs. His gaze is fixed on one person in particular.

Taehyung bites his lip as he follows Rap Mon's stare.

"Yoongi hyung," he says. "Nam Joon hyung, he's looking at you."

"I know Tae," Suga says. "I know."