Hide, as it turned out, was much different than Jungkook had initially expected. That is- the guy who had his girlfriend tied up on one of those tiny ass plastic chairs for children's birthdays was much less alive than he had expected him to be.

"You could've fucking warned me that we'd just have to fight a prowler." Jungkook snarled at Hoseok who was frozen in his spot, incapable of tearing his eyes off of the man standing upright in the middle of the wet cellar room.

"Hide is more than just some prowler." The white haired whimpered mournfully, taking a cautious step backwards until his back met the lower tip of Jungkook's scythe.

"Go ahead buddy," Latter smiled down at Hoseok, "-introduce us."

The corpse called Hide was, as far as Jungkook could tell, more like a marionette. His lifeless body dangled off of one long, slimy limb that the man recognized as that of a prowler - it seemed like the monster used Hide to interact with it's environment, instead of it's own body that was hidden somewhere in the ceiling, only the limb piloting the corpse sticking out. Said limb was grotesquely rammed into the dead man's back, somehow making the corpse move his limbs, even if the movements were rather sluggish.

"That is so disgusting." Jungkook commented, before pushing Hoseok over the doorstep, into the prowler's den.

As if he'd waited for it, Hide thrusted forward, movements strange and poorly controlled, as soon as Hoseok had breached the entrance, arms sticking out to grasp for the white-haired, who immediately retreated to the opposite wall, screeching like an unoiled door while wrestling with the strange puppet.

Jungkook scurried past the fighting couple, fixated on the unconscious girl in front of him.

He was so close, so close to having her back in his arms, just the two of them without any whiney idiots or confusing prowlers, so close-

The corpse flung into him with full force, knocking Jungkook into one of the rusty old washers and the scythe right out of his hand.

"What-" Taking aback by the sheer strength of the monster, Jungkook's eyes traveled to where Hoseok was supposed to be, just to spot a grossly deformed body with a gaping wound on his neck, "-what the ever loving-"

He used his position underneath the corpse to kick upwards, a little unsatisfied when he realized that the puppet didn't seem to feel pain like a normal man, using one arm to keep the bloodied mouth away from his neck and the other to punch the monster in the gut, hoping that would somehow affect him.

What the puppet lacked in coordination was made up in strength, so Jungkook had a hard time wrestling the freak off of him, using the tiniest moment of weakness to slide away from underneath the corpse, hurling towards the scythe still laying on the ground abandoned.

The puppet didn't take long to catch up with him, throwing itself on top of his back and pressing him flat into the ground. Its cold hands wrapped around his throat, making Jungkook choke whilst trying to reach for the metal hilt.

Somewhere on his right side he heard Y/N stir awake, really hoping that she'd stay asleep for a little longer, because his performance didn't look all that cool right now.

He croaked frustrated when Hide pressed down further, finally able to grip onto the scythe properly. With a practiced movement, he yanked that which he could grip of the hilt backwards, ramming the tip into what felt like Hide's eye, making its grip loosen for a split second.

The short moment allowed Jungkook to turn beneath the puppet, grip around the scythe now sturdier. His foot rocketed up, somehow shoving the tanky body off of him. Hide tried to fight back and surged forward again with one arm reached out.

Jungkook ducked away, whilst lashing the scythe out in a single movement, cutting off the puppet's arm. After having regained his balance, he found himself facing Hide's back, where the prowlers limb was still stuck into.

Because he is (against popular believe) very smart, he was able to put one and one together, swiftly hacking into the sturdy limb until it cut of entirely, making the corpse immediately slump together, like a- well, like a corpse. The rest of the limb retracted back into the ceiling with a gurgling sound, leaving a motionless body and a very much out-of-breath Jungkook.

Panting, Jungkook remained in his fighting stance, listening concentrated for any movement of the prowler that had controlled Hide. There was a faint hissing sound above his head, something in the ceiling rumbling until the sounds grew more and more quiet, as if the prowler in the ceiling was retreating, until it was completely silent.

"Fuck-" Jungkook panted, dropping the scythe and stumbling towards Y/N, who was also staring up at the moldy ceiling alarmed, arms and legs still tied to the ridiculous kids' chair. A little clumsily, Jungkook took out a nicely decorated pocket-knife (a present he got from her), cutting open the menacing nylon ropes restricting her, "-no one's tying up my girlfriend other than me." He grumbled annoyed, making her snort.

"You're terrible at jokes after a fight, anyone ever told you that?"

He squinted up at her from his crouching position, "You just did, thank you."

"You really didn't look cool during the fight just now."

"Ugh, I hoped you wouldn't notice."

"-like a kindergarten kid wrestling in a sandbox."

"Ah, fuck you." He heaved her up into his arms after having severed all the ropes, one hand under her back, the other hooked under her legs, pressing her comparably small body into his chest tightly, "I'm glad you're fine, Chickie." For good measure he buried his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling shakily.

"...but my wrists hurt."

"-god, shut up, I almost died 'cuz of you." He was so close to just dropping her already, but then again, he was a little too happy to have her back to do something childish like that.

Instead of squirming and demanding him to let her down, she remained calm as well, letting her eyes scan the room a little groggily, "There's another dead guy behind you."

"Don't mind him."

"If you say so."

...

"D'you wanna let me down or-"

"No."

"Okay."

___

San dropped his cigarette, using the tip of his boot to put it out, before entering Hide's cellar.

He might have to stop smoking. Cigarettes were getting increasingly rare these days, and he really didn't want to risk his life just to have a smoke.

His eyes wandered over the obscene picture the moldy washing room offered him - there was this guy Jung Hoseok, who had been an utter nuisance to them so far by always driving monsters off into their territory, rotting away through one of Hide's bites. San wouldn't be as concerned if it was only him that was dead.

But loosing Hide was a problem. One of the few monsters they'd been able to control, able to use to far. Whatever sick bastard did that, San hoped that he'd never have to interfere with them ever.

With a tired sigh, he crouched down in front of Hide's corpse, using one gloved hand to turn him onto his stomach.

"Shit." He cursed, tracing the cut-off monster limb with one finger. It was a straight, incredibly clean cut done by a blade way larger than an ordinary kitchen knife. It wasn't hard to imagine who it was, that had been able to do something like that and San's always had a pretty vivid fantasy.

It also wasn't a surprise that this guy was still alive, honestly.

___

if ur wondering why I took so long, my eye got infected?? I kinda couldn't see much for a few days, so that was a fun way to spend Christmas haha but I'm fine now

xx