Chapter Five
Haknyeon is intent on finding Sunwoo. He doesn't realize that Younghoon and Q have vanished, until he finds himself in an empty white hallway. He spins around and cusses to himself. Damn Horror-Lover and Gullible Pretty Boy are gone! He keeps his pace, walking briskly through the hallway, alert for any sign of danger and keeping the pencil at his side ready to strike anyone that might pop out at him.
He rounds a corner and finds a door at the end of the hallway. He glances behind him momentarily, keeping the pencil ready and poised. He then walks cautiously toward the door and stops in the doorway.
He stifles a gasp, seeing Sunwoo standing in the center, looking around the room.
Haknyeon narrows his eyes and brings his tongue across his dry, chapped lips. I got you!
He finds that he can't move, only watch as Sunwoo looks around, his eyes wide and his expression unreadable.
It is only when Sunwoo spins around and sees Haknyeon in the doorway, blocking his exit, that he yelps in shock and steps back. His hands fly up and his mouth opens, squeaking noises escaping from his throat.
"Hak...please, don't do this..."
"One of us is going to die, Sunwoo. It won't be me," Haknyeon growls, finally finding the ability to step toward the panicked man.
"Hyung..." Sunwoo says, continuing to step backward.
Haknyeon lifts the pencil up. "Seems you're without a weapon now. You shouldn't have used it on New."
Sunwoo shakes his head. "I...didn't...kill...New..."
Haknyeon can hear his difficulty in breathing and his heart slamming against his chest like a pack of wild horses storming down a cobblestone street. He stops, pausing and blinking and cocks his head to one side.
Can I really kill Sunwoo? Can he really kill me or anyone in the group?
Sunwoo backs into the far wall, his chest heaving up and down and his breathing hard. "Hyung..."
Sunwoo suddenly darts around and ducks by him in a blur, heading for the exit.
Haknyeon whirls around, just as he reaches the doorway. "Sunwoo--"
At that moment a black arm shoots out and a leather-gloved hand grabs Sunwoo by the wrist. Another launches out and covers his mouth, yanking him to the right and out of sight out of the doorway.
Haknyeon blinks, surprised by the sudden act.
He can hear Sunwoo's pitiful muffled yelp of shock.
Haknyeon rushes to the door and leans out, looking to the right. He gasps with horror. A pencil, much like his own, is jammed into the young rapper's neck. Blood is gushing out onto the floor and Sunwoo's eyes are wide open in fear.
"You're welcome for doing what you couldn't do, Ju Haknyeon," a voice snarls from the shadows beyond Sunwoo's dead body.
Haknyeon feels a shiver race down his back. Sunwoo was innocent! No! Acting on instinct, he rushes to check the body, as the voice snickers wickedly and fades away into the distance.
Haknyeon drops down to Sunwoo. "This is all my fault, Sunwoo."
"No! It's..." Sunwoo's head lolls to one side, his eyes glazing over, but showing a little life in them. Blood continues to gush out of the wound in his neck as he croaks out, "I...forgive you...stop--" His eyes roll backward in his skull and his face pales over.
"SUNWOO!!" Haknyeon screams. Tears glisten in his eyes. I did this. If I hadn't forced him to run off from the group. If I hadn't blamed him. Of course, Sunwoo isn't a murderer! Stupid! Stupid!
Haknyeon sniffles, a few droplets of tears trickling down his cheek as he clutches onto the fallen rapper.
He closes his eyes, shutting out more tears from falling.
His hand gradually closes around the pencil in his hand. His eyes fling back open and he glares at the shadows, seeing the outline of a secret door within the depths. How he'd missed this early is beyond him, but he is seeing it now.
I'll kill whoever killed Jacob, New and Sunwoo!
Haknyeon gently lowers Sunwoo's dead body back down, blood smearing on his clothes and his hand. He gets up to his feet and storms for the door in the shadows. He grips the handle and throws the door open.
He finds himself looking into another room. His eyes fly open as they land on two people inside.
One of them has long black hair and the other has black hair with white highlights. Younghoon! Q!
Younghoon is taped to a chair and glaring at Q. Q is holding the tilted chair and Younghoon forward toward him, meeting his glare with one of equal menace. "You're lucky I haven't taped your mouth shut!"
"Go for it!"
Haknyeon gasps. "CHANGMIN, WHAT ARE YOU--?!"
Younghoon and Q both snap their heads in his direction. They both gawk in awe at his appearance.
"Kill someone recently, Hak?" Q sneers. "Maybe I should find a chair to tape you to!"
Haknyeon glares at Q. "Let him go!"
Younghoon struggles into the tape, flinching in agony as the adhesive rips at his skin and arm hair.
"That's not happening," Q snaps at Younghoon.
Haknyeon steps into the room. "You're hurting him, Q!"
Younghoon fights through the pain, grunting in distress. "This little asshole jumped me. As soon as we were far away from the lobby and from Sangyeon's viewpoint, he clamped his hand over my mouth and dragged me into this room. He stole the tape from me and used both his and mine to restrain me to this chair."
Q smirks. "And there's plenty more for you, Haknyeonie! Where's Sunwoo?" He spins the second roll around his arm in a villainous teasing fashion.
Haknyeon flinches at the mention of the rapper's name. The image of his dead, bloody body with the pencil jammed into his neck is fresh in his mind. "It's not important!"
Q tips the chair up, settling it on four legs. "It is important. Let me guess, you killed him?!"
"NO!" Haknyeon clenches a fist and lifts his pencil up. "Don't make me use this!"
Q whirls the tape roll around. "A pencil, I'm so scared."
"You should be! I know where to jam this to properly immobilize you."
Q chuckles. "Really?" He cocks his head to one side, his eyes glittering. "Tell you what, you and your deadly pencil can join me. You get my back and I'll get yours. Just help me dispose of Younghoon, here. Sound like a plan?"
Younghoon struggles and gasps in horror. "Don't do it, Haknyeon! I'm your hyung."
Haknyeon looks from Younghoon to Q and back again.
Younghoon's big brown eyes soften, filling with more and more terror.
"Q, this is madness! We're killing each other because someone wants us to. I'm thinking more and more about what Juyeon said in the lobby. I think he's right. There's no need for any more deaths or violence. Let's find Sangyeon and get out of here."
Q shakes his head. "I don't think so."
"I'm not killing Younghoon then," Haknyeon says, folding his arms and being careful not to poke the pencil into himself.
"Suit yourself, but if you get in my way, I'll kill you," Q growls, his eyes darkening.
Haknyeon hears Younghoon's shallow breathing. He lunges for Q, who is prepared for his move. Q grabs Haknyeon and flings him around, sending him to the ground and busting his lip open.
Haknyeon can taste fresh, tangy blood, but he gets back up to his feet and is met by Q, shoving him across the room.
"I said don't get in my way!" Q snarls, shoving Haknyeon backward.
"And I told you, you're not killing Younghoon!" Haknyeon tries to anchor himself and fight back.
But he is forced out of the room and into another hallway with incredible strength from the horror-loving man. A fierce battle cry erupts from Q, one that shakes and scares Haknyeon enough as he is shoved out.
Haknyeon gasps, stumbling backward and trips over his feet, falling to the ground.
Q snickers and slams the door shut, trapping him inside with Younghoon.
"NO!" Haknyeon howls, scrambling up to his feet. "CHANGMIN, OPEN THE DOOR!"
There's a loud crash from inside, followed by a pained yelp. Haknyeon slams himself into the door, hoping to force it open.
"SAY GOODBYE, YOUNGHOONIE!"
"Q, please!!" Younghoon's pained yowl sounds muffled from the room. "Q!"
Haknyeon rams into the door again. "CHANGMIN, DON'T DO THIS!!"
Then he hears a high-pitched scream erupt from Q. His signature dolphin scream. Something metallic clatters on the ground behind the door.
Haknyeon gives one final muster of his strength and propels himself into the door. FINALLY! The door finally gives way, breaking off the hinges and slams against the floor, with Haknyeon on top of it. Dust kicks up and Haknyeon coughs, swatting at it to get out of his vision. It quickly clears to show the chair toppled over on the ground, with Younghoon's lifeless body still taped to it.
Q, blood all over his hands and shirt, is backing away, blinking in shock. Whatever evil entity had possessed him is gone. He looks genuinely terrified.
Haknyeon's breath chokes out as his eyes scan up Younghoon's body to his neck, where a nasty, deep slash from a blade has slit across. The weapon is on the ground a few feet from him, the blade bloody.
It's the same one that Q had been seen with, in the lobby earlier.
"You..." Haknyeon manages to get out.
Q looks at him, his eyes wide with fright and confusion. He shakes his head in disbelief. "I...killed...Younghoonie-hyung..."
Haknyeon scrambles to his feet. He backpedals out of the room, fear taking control. He races down the hall, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Jacob. New. Sunwoo. Younghoon. Who is next?
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