Chapter Text
"Mark Lee! Hurry up!" Lucas yelled, frustrated at his younger friend, "you're always late!"
The bedroom window flung open revealing a less than ready Mark and his irritated expression. He clicked his tongue.
"I'm almost done! Shut that huge mouth of yours and be patient!" he replied.
The elder scoffed. beside him, Jungwoo sighed and Doyoung impatiently tapped his foot on the ground.
"One day I'm going to leave him," the latter whined.
"Give him time, eventually he will realize how far behind he is and pick up the speed," said Jungwoo, hope evident in his voice.
Lucas laughed, "no."
Jungwoo pouted.
Mark stumbled out of the door with toast stuffed in his mouth and locked the door, still pushing on his shoe as he hopped down the steps.
"Come on," he said, his voice muffled by the bread occupying his mouth.
~
As they walked through the gates of hell, eyes landed on them. The bustling yard was overrun by people, but the second one particular group set their eyes on the friends, everyone noticed.
The 'losers' had arrived.
"Hey Markie, you still haven't gotten any friends?" asked a taller male.
Jungwoo was shoved into, causing Lucas to get on his defensive side and pull his fragile boyfriend away.
"Back off, " Lucas growled, "or I'll do something I might regret."
They laughed. Of course they would.
"Calm down, you're scaring me," one added in a mocking tone.
Jungwoo had to grab hold of Lucas before he reacted.
"Yeah that's right fag, keep your boyfriend under control," the first laughed, "so, have you got my money?"
"If you've lost it, go find it yourself," said Doyoung.
They laughed, "you think you're smart? Huh?"
Doyoung pursed his lips into a line and huffed. No matter what they tried, they wouldn't get off of their backs. They were always looking for trouble. They weren't the only victims of their antics, either.
"Can you just leave us alone?" Mark begged, "we haven't done anything to you."
"You're desperate? How about you prove yourselves to us then?" one suggested, "go to the demon's shock room in the old asylum, tonight. Go there, get proof and come back alive. Then we'll lay off the harassment, okay?"
"But—"
"We'll do it," said Lucas eagerly, "it's a deal"
He held out his hand for the bully, who laughed and hesitantly shook his hand.
They walked away, leaving Doyoung, Mark and Jungwoo staring at Lucas.
"What did you just get us into? My parents will kill me!" Mark exclaimed.
"I can't believe they're stupid enough to believe the legends," Doyoung laughed, "all of it is impossible, and demons don't exist."
"Believe what you want, Doyoung. But I'm telling you I've seen something wander around that building at night," said Jungwoo, and a shiver made its way through his body as he tensed.
"You can all thank me once we've proved ourselves strong. Meet me at the park tonight at six. Okay?" asked Lucas.
"Fine."
~
Carrying his bag on his back, Mark took out a torch as they edged towards the large, dilapidated building. Doyoung was scanning the perimeter nervously as Lucas removed a wooden board from one of the back windows.
He placed the board down and signaled for his friends to follow him.
"Guys, this isn't a good idea," Jungwoo muttered, "we can still go back."
"Yeah, he's right, let's just leave. Okay? We can tell the teachers—"
"Are you being serious?" asked Lucas, jumping onto the window sill of the now open window, "What the hell will they do? Give them detention?"
"Teachers will make it worse," said Mark.
It had before. The students laughed in their face, and some teachers didn't believe them at all.
"Come on, or are you gonna run home?" Lucas laughed, "We can hurry up and get this over and done with."
Mark quickly jumped into the building behind the elder, and the two hesitant friends followed behind.
"So, legend says that some demon lives in that room... right?" asked Jungwoo, visibly shaking.
Doyoung hummed, "it was some guy around our age, a few years back. He was killed by his doctor during shock therapy, apparently. But it's been outlawed now. Actually, it was supposed to be illegal back then, too. It wasn't that long back."
"You don't sound certain," said Lucas, turning on a torch as he scanned the area.
"Well, demons don't exist and neither do ghosts," the eldest paused, "I think."
A sudden chill overran Mark and he immediately began rapidly looking around, "something is in here."
"What?" Jungwoo gulped, his heart racing at the thought that they weren't alone.
In the distance, there were footsteps every few seconds, getting closer.
Jungwoo clung onto his boyfriend's arm and quietly sobbed in fear. Lucas stumbled over the raised ground and lost his grip on the former's arm, sending him to the floor.
He cursed quietly, wiping dust off himself, but when he turned around, Mark gasped as the other two looked in horror. Even in the dark, they could recognize that sight from anywhere. A thought crossed Jungwoo's mind. Everything was scarily similar to a horror movie—he'd watched his fair share of them with Lucas, and had his eyes clenched shut half of the time—and the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to run.
"Your h-hands!" Doyoung yelled.
Mark shined a light onto the elder, revealing his bloody hands and now blood-smothered clothes. The crimson substance was far from old. There were glints under the torch light, and as Lucas moved his hands, it began to drip from him. They splashed to the ground one by one, creating a small pool of the fresh substance on the crumbled ground.
"Does it hurt...? What happened?" asked Jungwoo, hurrying forward.
"That isn't my blood," Lucas responded, looking down to the ground with wide eyes and a hitched, shaky breath.
On the floor was a pool of blood. In the center, a body lay lifeless. It's face mauled and bones smashed into what, at that moment, looked like hundreds of pieces, scattered across the floor. The flesh was visibly decomposing, and from it, an awful smell lingered in the air. It was hard to breathe. Even the thought of breathing in that air made them all sick to their stomachs.
Doyoung covered his nose and mouth to block out the stench and closed his eyes. Jungwoo, on the other hand, shrieked and began running out of the building. Nobody could blame him. They all wanted to run. With adrenaline surging through each teen's body, it came as a surprise to the aforementioned that the others didn't follow. Instead, they were frozen.
"Jungwoo!" Lucas shouted.
Doyoung looked at his two remaining friends and sighed, hesitantly, he ran after the terrified Jungwoo.
"What do we do?" asked Mark, attempting to steady his voice.
To say he was terrified would be an understatement. He scrunched up his nose and stepped back from the mutilated body. Lucas gulped as he looked up from the floor and to his hands.
"We can't exactly call the police, can we? We're trespassing!" Lucas quaked, "come on, we can still get to that room."
In a cold sweat, Mark pulled out a bottle of water and tipped it over Lucas' bloody hands. The thick crimson substance left a gentle red tint in its path.
"You're insane, completely insane," the younger whined, "let's hurry."
As they continued on through the endless hallways, Mark could feel somebody watching him. But everywhere he looked, there was nobody there. He was growing increasingly more anxious, jolting his head towards any slight sound. His heart skipped a beat as Lucas accidentally kicked a glass bottle, and it noisily rolled across the debris-coated floor until colliding with the wall.
Mark sighed in relief as it ceased to move, but his almost tranquil state ended as quickly as it began upon hearing a faint whistling in the distance. His wide eyes met Lucas', who clenched his fists in order to stop his hands from trembling. The younger ushered his eyes shut, holding his breath to hear clearly.
"Let's hide, okay?" asked Lucas quietly, "There must be somebody else here."
Mark nodded, and the elder pointed to a slightly open door. He held out his hands and hesitantly opened it, peeking inside before slowly stepping in. Lucas gestured for the former to follow him, and so he did.
Closing the door behind them, they crouched down on the floor. Mark scanned the room with his torch for reassurance and was relieved to see there were no surprise corpses staring back at him. Instead, the door was ridden by what looked like claw marks. It was as though somebody dragged their nails through the cheap paint in desperation, now leaving a barely visible sign of the past among the peeling and chipped paint.
The whistling was still audible, but the friends were distracted by another noise. The sound of shoes heavily colliding with the stone floor, and the sound of short, raspy breaths accompanying the footsteps. Mark covered his mouth to stifle any noise as the sound passed them, while Lucas stayed alert, prepared to stand up at any given moment.
"It was a terrible idea to agree to this, " Lucas sighed, "I'm sorry, this is my fault for being rash."
"Now isn't the time. But what do we do now? Go back empty-handed?" asked the younger, turning his head to his friend.
Lucas parted his lips as though to speak, but shut them again without words and harshly swallowed, "you decide. I'm up for either."
Mark thought, and in hesitation, he got to his feet, "let's go back. We can just tell them there was an ax-murderer or something in here, and that they chased us out before we could get any proof."
The elder nodded. He reached out for the door handle and turned the knob, opening it as slowly as possible. They were immediately hit by the scent of the decaying corpse once again, but after thoroughly scanning their surroundings, Lucas stepped out. They retraced their steps, carefully maneuvering around the body. As they neared the window, it seemed darker than before.
It was getting late, after all. It made sense.
But when Lucas turned the corner to the entrance, his steps grew much slower until eventually he stopped in his tracks and stared. Mark soon caught up, happy to see the end in sight. He raised an eyebrow seeing his older friend stood still, but when he looked forward, there was the window, boarded up from outside.
They were trapped.