PSYCHO → SEVENTEEN

SIXTEEN

It had been a week since Seungkwan's murder. Jeonghan and Seungcheol were found not guilty on the account of Seungkwan's murder. For one thing, Seungkwan was killed much earlier in the night, and the two boys had alibis for the time that Seungkwan had died- Jeonghan was busy talking to his dad on the phone, and Seungcheol was playing video games with a couple of his college friends. They did, however, get in trouble for breaking into Seungkwan's house, but his parents did not want to press charges for that because if it weren't for them, their family would not have discovered his body until later.

Seungkwan's body was left with a note. "Does this look like a game to you?" was written on his forearm. The boys felt like it was a nod to Seungkwan getting mad at Vernon, but since Vernon was dead, they knew it couldn't be him. They didn't know who to suspect. They all just had to pray that they wouldn't be next.

Jeonghan sat in his room sullenly staring at the wall in front of him. His dad took his phone away, so he had no way of contacting any of his friends. He didn't talk about the case to anyone. He just tried to remain quiet most of the time and keep to himself so that he didn't bother his father anymore.

Seungcheol tried to work on studying. School had restarted for them, but because they couldn't return to campus with the Psycho going around, Seungcheol just continued his classwork online and asked his friends to send him notes from the lecture. Jeonghan, on the other hand, had dropped all of his classes. He couldn't focus on anything.

Chan, Minghao, and Mingyu all heard about what happened to Seungcheol and Jeonghan. They were honestly disappointed in the two older boys, but they understood their intentions. Minghao got a little suspicious of the two boys when they pulled that stunt though- why would they visit Seungkwan of all people first? Minghao felt as if one of them were the Psycho.

It had been three weeks since they were forced into their houses. The Psycho had yet to claim another victim. For a second, because of the added security, they all thought that the Psycho was refusing to attempt to murder any of them, but that didn't turn out to be true when there was another murder in the fourth week of their lockdown. The Psycho had killed a random lady, but she was stabbed to death, just like some of the previous murders, so the police did not lift their security on the boys' houses.

"Do you think we'll be able to leave?" Minghao's mother asked.

His family was sitting in the dining room eating dinner in silence until Minghao's mother spoke up. Minghao's father didn't say a word; he just shook his head and continued eating. Minghao cleared his throat.

"I would like to go outside, but where would we even go?" Minghao asked quietly.

"We could take a little trip out of the city. Road trip?" Minghao's mother suggested.

"Maybe after the police officers catch the Psycho," Minghao's father grunted.

"Those police officers don't know anything. They know the same amount that we do, and that is nothing," Minghao's mother huffed.

"Let's just plan to take a small vacation once they catch the Psycho, okay?" Minghao's father tried to compromise.

Minghao's mother continued to vent about the police officers. Minghao couldn't stomach any more food, so he excused himself as his parents discussed potential vacationing spots.

Minghao went upstairs and laid down on his bed. He stared at the ceiling. He couldn't believe his life got to this point. He never, ever thought that he would be running from a psychopathic murderer. He wanted his normal life back. He wanted to be in the dance studio with his friends. He wanted to be happy.

Minghao sighed as he sat up. He looked around his room and noticed a cookie sitting on the table. He walked up to the desk and realized that this was a cookie that someone gave to him the last time there were thirteen of them. He couldn't remember who gave him the cookie, but he smiled at it. It brought back good memories.

"Minghao! Did you shower yet?" he heard his mother call from downstairs.

"I'll shower soon!" Minghao said loudly.

Minghao left the cookie on the table. He went to his bathroom and undressed. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed how dead his eyes were. He looked so depressed. Maybe he was getting depressed- anyone would with his situation.

The water was really cold when Minghao first stepped into the shower. He stepped out of the tub and waited for the hot water to come. As he waited, he noticed that the water wasn't getting drained. Minghao sighed; this was the third time in the past year that his drain clogged up. Minghao didn't know what to do about his damn bathroom at that point. He decided to just take his shower and then fix the problem in the morning.

Minghao stepped into the tub. He closed his eyes as warm water sprinkled onto his face. He tried to make his mind go blank. No more of this Psycho business.

The water filled up in his tub fairly quickly. Minghao was kind of disgusted with it. His feet were bathing in his dirty water. Then again, how dirty could Minghao get by just sitting in his room all day watching dance videos on his phone? Minghao tried to ignore the rising water and started washing his hair. He kept his eyes shut tightly as he scrubbed shampoo into his hair- the shampoo stung if it got into his eyes, and Minghao didn't feel like going blind.

A shadow appeared along the shower curtain as Minghao continued shampooing his hair. He didn't see it. Suddenly, the shower curtain was pulled back, and before Minghao could react, he felt a sharp object pierce through his chest. Minghao coughed out and opened his eyes, but shampoo ended up getting into his eyes. His eyes were blurred with tears as he tried to see who stabbed him, but the figure was gone.

"Psycho," Minghao breathed out as he collapsed in the tub.

Minghao tried to keep his conscious as he laid in the tub filled with water, but he was losing a lot of blood. The stab was deep in his chest. Minghao felt his heart rate fall as he sunk lower into the tub. He was fully submerged in water, warm water pelting down on him as his lungs filled with water.

..

who is it?