The Monster From The Nightmares

16. Hope

Chanyeol is the first one into the house, bumping into an exhausted Jongin on the way. Rather than greet him, Jongin asks Chanyeol a question.

"Blonde or Brunette?"

"YIXING KNOWS WHERE AUTUMN IS!" Chanyeol shouts excitedly.

Jongin's eyes widen and he begins to tremble. Not the reaction Chanyeol was expecting, although it did attract the attention of all the others out the house. Xiumin is the first to show up.

"Yixing what?" he asks hastily. Chanyeol is bound cling up and down like an excited puppy.

"Yixing knows where Autumn is!" Chanyeol cries. The others quickly arrive.

Just at that moment, Yixing decides to walk in.

"Where is she?!" Xiumin is the first to ask.

"She works in a chicken restaurant," Yixing answers calmly, "I think her name tag said Stacie? Sadie?" he turns to Sehun, "She was the girl you two were talking to, the group project?"

Sehun's jaw drops, "Sofia?!"

Both Jongin and Sehun look surprised. Suho looks straight up pissed. Before anyone can stop him, he goes over and slaps the youngest so hard he falls to the floor. He is about to go after Jongin, but Baekhyun manages to grab him and yank him away.

"She's going to your goddamned school, he'll, you're working with her on a group project and you didn't know it?!" Suho shouts.

"Woah man, calm down," Xiumin gestures the order with his hands while Baekhyun struggles to hold him back. Chen helps Sehun up. The youngest's hand is brushing his cheek and he flinches.

"They wouldn't be able to recognize her," Yixing snaps, going over to the injured boy. He moves his hand away, revealing a hand shaped bruise forming on his cheek, "I almost didn't recognize her. She and the boys have changed everything about their appearance. If it hadn't been for the burn scar Chanyeol left on the back of her neck, we might even just walked out without even realizing it was her."

Suho growls and for the first time in a long time, Jongin feels utterly terrified of their leader.

Yixing heals Sehun's cheek.

"Both of you should go upstairs for a little while," Chen suggests to the two youngest. Both of them nod and, before Jongin can leave, Suho grabs his wrist in a vise-like grip.

"You still need to go get a new girl," he hisses, then shrugs Baekhyun off. He starts heading up the stairs.

"But she's not--" Chen is cut off by Suho's glare.

"She will be by the time I'm done with her."

🔹🔹🔹🔹

Autumn rubs her temples. Her head had been throbbing for hours and after she saw the splash of pink around her boss, she had been seeing more and more colors. Even Luhan, Zitao, and Kris had the faint shimmers.

"Ow," she groans as her hand cramps, again. She sighs, if only the pencil could write her essay on its own.

She gets off the bed to go get a bottle of water from the kitchen, and freezes. There was a faint scratching behind her. Slowly she turns. The pencil was upright and scribbling across the paper.

A small shriek escapes her mouth and the pencil drops again. Kris comes rushing in, ready for a fight.

"What's wrong," he asks.