The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

23

“A bloodstain?” Seungmin practically shrieked when Minho explained what they had found in the shed. “How big?”

“Huge. And there was a shovel laying haphazardly on the ground with blood on it too but I don’t think that was the murder weapon,” Minho stated. “There was too much blood for it to be the result of a blow to the head. I think the person was stabbed.”

“There were shattered pieces of glass inside,” Jeongin added. “Not too far from the blood either. That could have been the murder weapon.”

Brea shivered, “just the thought of what went down in there gives me chills. Who would ever do such a thing?”

And just like that, Seungmin remembered why this scene looked so familiar. He recalled the devastation, the smell of smoke and the stench of rotting corpses. It remembered it all as though he was reliving it: the memories that haunted him every single day he lived in the Pen. How could he have ever forgotten this?

He was with Chan the day it happened. It was an average day, nothing out of the ordinary. That day he was scheduled to explore the forest for anything the creators could have left for them to find so he got up early that morning. At the break of dawn and as soon as the wolves had left the Pen, he and Chan were up and out of the shed, racing towards the forest.

“You have your whistle, right?” Chan glanced at him with a soft smile.

Seungmin had only arrived a few months prior and was still trying to get his head around everything and the whole concept of the Pen. And the boys around him were doing all they could to keep him caught and make sure he, as their Ace, knew everything he needed to know.

By the end of his first week there, he already had a detailed understanding of his role as the Ace as well as a clear understanding of the Joker. While the others didn’t want to scare him too much, seeing as he was only sixteen at the time, they also knew that it would only be a matter of time before the Joker shows up and they needed Seungmin to be more than prepared for that.

Little did they know that the Joker was already among them.

“Yeah, I have it,” he responded, holding it up for the other boy to see.

“Great,” Chan pat the teenager’s back. “Because you’ll need it.”

It was only Seungmin’s second time entering the forest and Changbin had given him the whistle the night before so that if he ended up getting lost, at least the boys would be able to find him. They had described the forest as a maze: the further you go, the more likely you are to find something essential but also the more likely you are to get completely lost. According to Felix, none of them had ever gone far enough to reach the wall on the other side, in fact, they hadn’t even gone halfway through. And that’s why Chan was taking him into the forest that day. So that at least their Ace knew what was on the other side.

“I’ll have to go back to the shed in about an hour or two to make sure Hyunjin’s okay. Poor kid hasn’t been able to get a good night’s sleep since he arrived here. Adjusting to the new way of life was hard for all of us but he just doesn’t seem to be settling in at all.”

Seungmin only nodded in response, eyes darting across the forest as he scanned his surroundings. The trees were tightly packed together, making it hard to manoeuvre around them and the gaps between them only narrowed as they got further and further in. It really was a maze. No wonder no one had ever made it halfway through.

“This is it,” Chan released a soft sigh before smiling at the boy. “This is the furthest I’ve ever gone and I think it’s about time I head back. Remember to blow your whistle if you ever need help or get lost, ok? And if you find something, immediately bring it back to us, yeah?”

Seungmin nodded, mirroring Chan’s smile.

Gently patting the Ace’s arm, the older male stated, “and remember, don’t feel like, as our Ace, you are required to push yourself beyond your limits to help the rest of us. Regardless of what happens and how far you go, we will be cheering you on. And if you need someone to go further in with you, we’ll always be here to give you a helping hand.”

And with that, Chan turned around and walked back to the shed, leaving Seungmin in the cold, dense forest. Both equally unaware that that would be their last ever conversation.

“We need to get Melody out of there,” Seungmin glimpsed at Minho, Jeongin and Brea.

“She won’t listen,” Brea stated. “We already tried to talk her out of going.”

“I don’t care if we need to carry her out of there, we just need to get her out. And leave this place instantly.”

“Is something wrong?” Jeongin raised an eyebrow at him.

Seungmin ran a hand through his hair, “I finally know why that stench was so familiar, why it was gnawing at a part of my brain. I know what it is.”

“The smell of dead bodies?”

“No, these bodies have been dead too long for them to still smell,” the Ace of Spades shook his head. “This place reeks of Joker. One was here not too long ago.”

And that’s just assuming they aren’t still here.