Snowy Night | a BTS Horror Story

Epilogue: Listen

7:13 AM (Sunrise)

"Andwae," one manager says. "What happened here?" He starts laughing. "Did they all drink themselves to sleep?"

Across every couch and chair, even the coffee table and the floor, the boys are spread out and fast asleep: Jin, Yoongi, Nam Joon, J-Hope, Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook, Jongin, Kyung Soo, Xiumin, Chanyeol, Baekhhyun, and Taemin; the early morning sun washes a soft yellow glow over them.

4:45 AM (2 ¼ Hours Till Sunrise)

Lost in his own world of horrors, Taehyung doesn't even hear the door to the second manager's room open.

"...that or we were all just having the same nightmare," one voice says- it's Jimin.

"What's everyone doing asleep?" Taemin asks.

"Ya!" Jungkookie cries. "Jin hyung! Wake up!"

"Hoseok? Are you okay?"

The room grows slowly noisier as people start waking up. Taehyung hears a little cough beside him, and then feels a hand on his shoulder.

"Tae?"

Taehyung looks up. "Yoongi hyung?"

Suga smiles and uses his free hand to give Taehyung a gentle pat on the back. "You've worked hard," he says.

5 AM (2 Hours Till Sunrise)

"So, Jin hyung," Rap Mon starts. "You know more than the rest of us, so do you have any idea how we're all in one piece again?"

"I remember being eaten," Jimin says, a shaken, far-off look in his eyes. J-Hope, sitting beside him on the couch, gives him a nudge and catches his eye. J-Hope smiles, and Jimin manages to return it.

Jin answers Rap Mon's question. "As long as the cat was contained or killed before sunrise, any and all damage it caused would be undone. At sunrise it's contained within its vessel again- Jungkook's plushie in this case- and from that point on the damage it's done is permanent."

"Speaking of that plushie," Jongin starts. "Do you think it's still around? Should we destroy it like we meant to in the beginning?"

"I would," Chanyeol says. "Just to be safe."

"That's in Jungkook's room," Suga says. "I remember distinctly what the cat did. It used an illusion to make the cat plushie look like the carrot one. Honestly that's... pretty smart."

They go upstairs to Jungkook's room as a group. For a moment, they can only stare at the somewhat ooze-covered doll. Then Kyung Soo steps forward, picks it up, and holds it out for everyone to see.

"Burn it?" He asks.

There are a few nods of the head and "Ne"s. Then they take it back downstairs to the electric fireplace. Rap Mon hits the wall switch that turns the fireplace on. Baekhyun opens the glass door, and Kyung Soo throws the plushie in. It bursts instantly into flames, slowly eaten away by fire.

"I didn't like it anyway," Jungkook says.

They talk and relate stories and experiences for another hour, easing the tension slowly and with a little help from some soju. One by one they drop off to sleep, exhausted, tipsy, and relaxed by each other's presences.

All but Taehyung.

Although his injuries are gone, it's as though they still cause him pain when he forgets to remind himself that they disappeared along with the cat. The smell of rancid fish paste won't leave his nose. The image of J-Hope as a grinning zombie popping out of a vent refuses to vanish.

He gets up from his chair, the fire still crackling away and casting its warm light on the common room. Walking down the back hall, he stops in front of the one door that he's never opened: is it the basement of his nightmares? Or a simple closet?

Taking the doorknob in one hand, he twists and pulls. A few towels, a couple bars of soap, and one bottle of shampoo. Definitely just a simple closet.

With a sigh, Taehyung shuts the door and walks back to the common room. He flops back down in his chair and stares at the reflection in the window created by the firelight. Nothing lurking in the shadows, nothing smiling at him demonically.

It seems to Taehyung that a master of illusions such as the Cheshire cat shouldn't have been such an easy match. Could it really be dead and gone? Just like that? He goes over to the couch and shoves someone over to make space for himself, then plops down and snuggles into a hyung. But even so, one thing continues to keep him sleepless: he can't get the subtle, pitter-patter sound of scurrying little paw-pads out of his head.

THE END