The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

21

Leaving Seungmin by the pile of rubble, Melody waded her way through the grass, following the trail left by the three others. Upon reaching the shed, she quickly noticed just how run down it was. Thin, corroded wooden steps led to a poor excuse of a shelter, tilted to one side with barely anything to hold it up.

There were no lights inside nor lamps but the sunlight coming through what was left of the windows and door provided enough light to instantly notice the filth inside. Dust blanketed every flat surface and, although Jeongin did a good job removing most of them, spider webs decorated every corner, some even going from one edge to the other. And there were at least five spiders occupying the webs in the corners while, every so often, a rat would push through the gaps in the wood and run across the creaky and weak wooden floorboards. Mel was appalled by all of it, having to suppress the overwhelming urge to gag. 

Beside the door were three rusty shovels with splintered handles, all leaning against the wall. The ends were blunt and still had a bit of mud on them earning a shudder from Mel. Another shovel sat still in the middle of the floor as though it had been taken from the wall and then thrown across the room. And it probably was. 

Ignoring the sight of Minho, Brea and Jeongin crowding around one corner, Mel approached the tool cautiously, crouching down to get a better look at it. It was identical to the rest: the same size, equally as aged and also had mud at the end of it. Picking it up, she couldn’t help the rush of nostalgia that coursed through her body. The memory of a time when she never had to stress about surviving, when her biggest concern was digging holes with Harri.

Thinking she was just overthinking the placement of the shovel, Mel decided to put it back down but paused halfway through when she looked down as the part of the floor that had previously been underneath it. A small piece of the wooden floor was stained red. 

Hastily turning the shovel around, her gaze landed on the back of the head of the shovel to discover it was painted on the end in dark red. The way the colour was flaking off the metal confirmed that it wasn’t just paint like she had hoped, it was blood. This shovel, the one she held in her trembling hands, it was a murder weapon.

“You might want to see this,” Jeongin glimpsed at her, taking a few steps back so she could finally see what they had been crowding around on the left. The shovel fell from hands as she gasped, bringing a hand up to cover her mouth in shock. Horror filled her eyes as she forced herself to stand up, staggering towards them.

In the corner was a large bloodstain on the wall: relatively circular with dried blood drips emerging from it, some making their way to the ground and others barely making it to the halfway point. However, that wasn’t what caught their attention. It was the drawing and writing beside it.

“What does it mean?” Brea looked at the ace.

Mel narrowed her eyes, glaring at the drawing as though that would make two and two click. It was a circle drawn out of blood — all of it was drawn and written in blood. The blood of whoever lost their life in this wretched shed. In the circle was the peak of a mountain range with a sun and a pair of large clouds behind it. Underneath the drawing were five words that made her shiver: Only one will make it.

“We saw that drawing before,” Minho muttered. “Jeongin, Jisung, Seungmin and I saw it when we were in the Pen. When Seungmin touched it, the whole North wall collapsed. That’s how we left the Pen.”

“Wait… Really?” Brea furrowed her eyebrows at him. “Our walls just fell on their own. We didn’t have to do anything… That being said, when we left our Pen, the walls built themselves up after us, did that happen to you guys too?”

“Yeah, why?” Minho responded.

“Then why didn’t the walls of this Pen build themselves up again? Why is the East wall still a pile of rubble?”