— fᵃᶤʳ

TAEHYUNG: CHECK.
SEHUN: CHECK.
JAIJIN: CHECK.
HOSEOK: CHECK.
EUNWOO: CHECK.

[ Part 3 ]

Once that embarrassing task was dealt with, J-Hope noticed that it was time to meet his ally. They had agreed to meet up at the fair centre, since telecommunication here was not secure from the extremely talented and determined. J-Hope wanted to take no chances. Dressed in a colourful tank top and smart khakis, his favourite red Yankees cap nestled onto his hair, the young man left his hotel once again, eager — or rather anxious — to have everything set in motion. Nighttime was not far away.

True amazement at the scale of celebration really sunk in upon his arrival at the main festival centre. There were balloons of all sorts hung up on the street lamps, colourful streamers lining the streets, giving the place more vibrance. In the centre, several stalls, stores, games for children, a bouncy castle, dance shows — it was endless. Hoseok would never have been able to fathom the scale at which people celebrate a festival.

As he moved through the crowd, his eyes scanned for a figure he had seen long ago but remembered well. Eventually, as he drew closer to the opposite side, his eyes landed on a familiar figure. Myunjae was standing at a stall near the outskirts of the festival, thankfully, and so it was easy to approach him. Without even greeting the man (they had time to do that under cover), Hoseok dragged the other male along towards the streets behind the festival. Here, it was much more quiet and isolated. They had so many things to discuss, he couldn't afford to have someone overhearing even a little bit. His freedom depended on the fact that everything was executed smoothly and cleanly so no attention was drawn to him. It was going to be a long talk.

[part 4]

A pan in hand, Eunwoo stepped to the railing and gazed out at the waters with a forlorn expression. He couldn't help but sigh.. it somehow matched the atmosphere here. That vender from the market had been right, this really was a magical fair. Wait. Eunwoo groaned and brought his right palm up to press it against his aching forehead. Clutching the rail with the other hand he curled up in pain, moans of pain slipping out of him. A few people around him looked at him strangely, their gazes flickering between his agonized figure and the pan he had dropped into a river just a moment ago. A mother hastily pulled her children away and after a few seconds the area around was cleared of people. Eunwoo was sitting on the ground, rolled up into a ball as tears stung his eyes. His mind was blank. Well, that's what it felt like.. visually it seemed like there was just too much to process floating around in his head. All the minute details of the past events in New Orleans were bombarding him. His head was spinning. He couldn't think. Eunwoo stumbled slightly, falling on his . If he hadn't been so disoriented, he might have been embarrassed, but now he just stared up at the sky with an empty expression. The noise in his mind had come to an end. "...", the teen opened his mouth as if to say something and then simply closed it again. What was going on? That wasn't the sky he remembered looking at. Fumbling around in his pockets he drew out a slightly battered apple and looked at it stupidly. That's right.. he had bought/stolen an apple.. and then he had wanted to go buy a knife.. Eunwoo rummaged through his clothes once more, eyes widening in shock when he couldn't find anything else. Hastily he looked around, fearing he might have accidentally dropped it.. but there was nothing there. Where was he? Panic drenched his features. Somewhere in the process his hood had slipped off, revealing slightly dishevelled hair and a distraught expression. Eunwoo's breathing quickened. It had been quite some time since he'd been this afraid. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. This feeling of helplessness... trembling slightly, the Korean came to his feet. His hands reached out to grasp the railing lest he lose the sensation in his legs and topple over again. He felt light-headed. And sick. Why couldn't he remember anything?! Nervously, Eunwoo glanced around, his eyes meeting with the worried and curious gaze of on-lookers. Slightly frightened, he pulled his hood over his eyes again, as if shielding himself from them and almost ran out of the fair.

TAEHYUNG: CHECK.
SEHUN: CHECK.
JAIJIN: CHECK.

[ 3 / 10 anonymous ]

While a sense of unease had been hanging around his shoulders since he'd left the eatery Jaijin found it falling away with each step. For some reason the scent of the ocean was putting his mind at ease, and for a moment he almost forgot about the impending doom - that was putting it lightly. In his calmer pace his eyes followed the series of docks to a large one in the center. It carried upon it's heavy planks old machinery and all manner of ancient toys. Immediately fascinated by such a beautiful and broken area of the city Jaijin crossed the street, jogging to the entrance. His eyes couldn't stray from the cracked paint and warped mirrors, especially those of a dusty carousel towards the front of the park.

Lucky enough, the fair was free today for the parade, and Jaijin was able to enter without having to purchase a ticket. Once inside his ears were filled with the blind noise of screaming children and laughing families. It was almost too happy, a possible damper on his own mood, because Jaijin wasn't here for the same type of fun everyone else seemed to be having.

As he makes his way through the bursts of crowd Jaijin decides to walk to the end of the dock. He wants to see what they'll manage to uplift at the end - if it's more exciting than the entrance or forgotten by the rest of the park. It seems to be the latter as Jaijin emerges from the maze of booths and kiddie rides. Standing before him is a large door, complete with inky black paint and the words 'haunted house' scrawled in its middle. Well, no wonder this area of the park is so deserted. Disappointment at the discovery settles somewhere in Jaijin's stomach and he begins to turn away. Once more he dives back into the ruckus that is the fair, avoiding most of the passerby while simply looking around. He's not typically one to enjoy such festivities, and was initially attracted merely by the way it was all stringed together. It looked as if it all may break suddenly. What a marvelous display it would be to watch as the tippy top of the carousel dips into the ocean.

His daydreams are getting the best of him.

Shaking his head to get rid of the unnecessary thoughts Jaijin feels a headache coming on. The pounding gets louder, and as he brings a hand up to his head he realizes it's not in his head at all. It's the banging of drums, off towards the entrance of the amusement park. Nearing the gates he watches as the parade from earlier comes marching past once again. A mirage of color, sound and light that dances just on the edge of the dock. The energy is such a stark contrast from this faded post.

So, Jaijin follows. He follows the noise, the lights, the color that smears across his vision. What he usually finds distasteful becomes normal in a city full of strangers.

Then he's on the edge of the people moving in and out of one massive body. He's watching and walking and waiting as he journeys with them down the expansive street. No one is there to stop him, nor would they want to. Who denies a man a party (smart people, that's who)? Jaijin is swept away by the sheer power these people have in number. He can't deny the pull, the need to join with the many taking over any sense of annoyance.

He leaves behind the broken horses and all thoughts of his mission.

Here and now. This is here, and now.

[post deleted by owner]

TAEHYUNG: CHECK.
SEHUN: CHECK.

part 2


"Just like his dad.", the wind carried his fathers words towards him and Sehun sighed, looking down at his hands, startled when he saw a couple of watery drops land on his knuckles. Was he crying? .
"Granny?", Soobin suddenly asked, a lot closer to him now and the raven haired doctor swallowed around his tears, chancing a look up and meeting big, brown eyes that resembled someone else a little bit too much.
"Why is that man crying?"
He knew his mother was looking at him too now, but he couldn't look away from the small boy that held his gaze so strongly. "I don't know, Soobin dear.", she told the curious child, reaching down to take his hand while her smiling eyes met Sehuns for just a second. "But I bet he cries because he's really happy."
Soobin made a soft noise, mouth round and sticky and childlike-gentle, gaze still locked with Sehuns.
He got up then, supporting his weight on his cane again as he began to walk away then, not looking at his family or the eyes that would now haunt him forever.
They were his own.

[] part 10 of Shixuns journey

part 1

The sun was still gentle in the sky when Sehun limped onto the fair just outside the city, cane held tightly in his cramping hand, body tired and strung tight from the night before. There was a bruise on the side of his face and the cut in his lip was still burning, ripping open when ever he tried to stifle a yawn behind hand.
He hadn't gotten much sleep, hastily packing his belongings and cleaning up the rest of his bloody mess. His sister in law had offered to drive him to the airport last night, even going as far as to buy him a ticket so he could leave and run again, but he had chosen the other option.
It was hard, being here. Maybe even harder than killing that man the night prior, no matter how much he had struggled and begged for his life before he had stopped moving altogether. It was weird to walk this path, surrounded by laughing, loving families when he himself felt like the duty he had carried out had not closed this chapter of his life once and for all, but opened it up again. Oh, the irony.
"You can talk to him, if you want to.", she had offered him with something that was almost a smile, an apology shining unspoken in her big brown eyes. "I'm sure he would love to meet you. And your parents..."
She hadn't even finished this sentence. And Sehun didn't want her to.

He wasn't here to follow her suggestion and rip himself open again by kicking down doors he had barricaded so long ago. It was wrong. They had their lives now, they were happy. And Sehun wasn't a part of that world anymore - the happy and shining one - the last night had made that clear to him. No matter what name he would use - Oh Sehun, Shixun, whatever - he would always be a creature of the night, a predator that would take life after life until he was taken down himself. But maybe he deserved a single ray of light just for once. Just once...
His leg was hurting so much again, he could barely stand on his own two feet and so he sank down onto a bench at the side of the fair, cane resting on his knees.
"They will be there.", she had said, waving him goodbye before pulling out of the parking lot and into the busy street again, leaving him behind to grow smaller and smaller in the rear view mirror, until he had vanished. It was a pretty metaphor, really. How he wasn't just disappearing in the mirror but from her life too.
Because this was it, the last string that had held them together. The vengeance they both had craved for.

"Oh Soobin, get back here! Or so God help me!", the angry voice of his mother ripped him out of his thoughts, bringing a sad, gentle smile to his lips as his eyes easily found the bony frame of the woman who had given birth of him between the few people who went to the fair this early in the day. "Soobin!"
His father was walking behind her, rolling his eyes and chewing on the end of a cigarette and Sehun wanted to roll his eyes, about to scold his old man for not having quit like he had said all those years ago.
"Christ help me.", he heard his mother sigh, watched her wring her hands together in frustration, before it dawned on him that she had called after a child. A child that was running straight at one of the merry-go-rounds on Sehuns left, brightly lit and playing the softest of melodies.
"Granny, look!", the boy shouted, jumping up and down while pointing a small hand at one of the fire trucks on the carousel, clearly a newer model. So this was it... the moment of truth. The moment Sehun had shied away from for years.
"Yes, yes, I see it.", Sehuns mother sighed, grasping the boys arm and crouching down in front of him."But you can't run away like that, ok? I could lose you."
"Sorry, granny.", Soobin smiled up at her, all chubby-faced and ice cream sticky cheeks. "Won't do it again."
Sehun felt his chest ache while he watched, his hold on the cane tightening as he sat there, looking at the people he loved more than anything in the world and the child who would never know the truth. The truth that was so cruel, Sehun had vowed to take it into his own grave with him and yet he had shared it with the very aunt of this boy just a couple of hours earlier. She had died to give birth to him, that was all Soobin needed to know.

@jeongguk j. 〈 jeon |H| TAEHYUNG: CHECK.

[ 5 ]
The laughter that was far away once before is bright and in his face now. Better days clear in front of him. Fair food sizzling in oil and screeches of laughter melding into one another. Glee is mirrored on his face, onto so many others. His fingers pull at the cotton candy, buying one with the money he pulled from his shoe. So glad now that he had the money to bite into it. He makes silly faces at himself in the house of mirrors, surrounded by himself.. Just himself. Staring back at him with an almost malicious look… And that’s when the idea hits him. His eyes drop to a downcast and his hand hovers over the pocket that holds the letter addressed to him. Addressed to Kim Taehyung. Not V. Not anyone but him:

‘My dear Taehyung, we meet again – or do you not recall myself? How quaint; you were always the scatterbrain. Alas, I need you to do something. We wouldn’t want your situation of being .. Safe to get into the wrong hands, no? That Xi… S… Oh well, you know who it is. I need you to commit a crime - a killing, a fire, anything, darling. Rob a bank, for all I care, but you need to put yourself on the line now. You need to be brought into the light, otherwise we’ll let that little letter of where you are get sent straight to His mailbox.’

The unsigned letter still remained in his head, like he was the main actor and he’d studied his lines, only this was read once. Once and it branded him to the core. Sobs threaten to bubble up and over him as he leaves the light, stepping into grass mixed with cobble and walking along the backside of the food kiosks. Behind the prize booths. Behind the rides. Behind the security and the ticket masters.

His bottom lip wibbles as he looks at the large ride that was presented in front of him, the attendant preoccupied with a girl that had her s hanging out. Beautiful, in her prime, probably late teens. With her hair crimped and her nails filed - no where near able to afford acrylic nails herself, but not even close to working hard to be unable to maintain genuinely pristine nails. That’s when Taehyung finds clippers and he snaps the wire from the ride.. The wire cutters were brought with him, tucked against his forearm and hidden so well within the sleeve of his sweater.

His back is to what is about to unfold.

- G O R E W A R N I N G -

Laughter is still in the air as loud techno-synth music beats through the air, the ride lifting. Nothing wrong just yet. The girl with the crimped hair sits pretty in the middle, a smile stretching across her face. The ride moves from side to side like a pendulum, everyone sitting side by side as they’re all lifted at once and brought back down. Brought back down --

The wire is flailing wildly. Cutting through the air as momentum builds and it’s loose. It’s loose and whips across faces that once held smiles. The sudden realization flashing through 17 out of 20 faces as wire cuts through their flesh like nothing. Blood seeping from wounds across their chest, their shoulders .. Some so low that their feet were no longer apart of their body. Blood causing the attendant to slam his hand on the emergency stop button, bringing the ride back to the ground. People rush in and around, screaming for their babies, their husbands, their wives and their friends. Out of the twenty, three didn’t get harmed at all. Out of the twenty, seventeen were injured. Out of the seventeen, five died. Out of the five, one died instantly.

The girl in the middle, the one with crimped hair and perfect nails, her fingers twitch. A gurgling sound leaving her as blood bubbles from her neck. Eyelids twitching and muscles straining to make the gulping motion but it offsets it. Her head slides from her neck, spinal cord and cartilage of the discs in her spine clear as day. Head lolling onto metal grating of the floor, blood dripping from the clean wound that just ended her life so abruptly. People are screaming around Taehyung and he takes this as the chance to leave with them, taking the chaos in stride and limping out of the fair.

The aviators hide his tears.

OPEN.