He wore a navy blue pin striped suit, shirt buttoned up to his collar bone, cuffs sharply edged to perfection, decorated with gold cufflinks. He walked with stride down the hallway, the sun’s setting glow hitting the finely polished wooden floor. His auburn sandals glided across, his feet light as if a feather floating to the ground. When he turned the corner towards the outside view, a majestic circular garden was there to greet him, decorated in flowers of pinks and whites, flowers that could only be found around this area. Small rounded bushes guarded the sides, creating a soft barrier around the garden and in the corners stood tall ones, straight and beaded with strength in their roots. In the middle, however, he saw him. Tan ironed crisp suit, light ivory shirt tailored to neatly folded cuffs, but feet bare as they brushed against the hard stone floor that stood underneath the iron bench he sat in.

“Shindong.” He spoke.

The man stood up and turned around, a pleasant but worrisome smile forming on his lips.

“Ah, Heechul.” He said with such confidence.

Shindong nodded for the man to join him and quickly sat back down. Heechul knew the look on his face all too well, had seen it numerous times in their life. He too grimaced before joining him on the bench. Shindong looked down, eyebrow rising at the sight of Heechul’s shoes.

“Really Heechul. Sandals. So distasteful with the suit.” He shook his head.

“At least I’m wearing shoes.” He nodded his head towards Shingdong’s bare feet just as the man’s toes spread out to feel the smoothness of the stone.

They both looked up at one another and couldn’t help the chuckle that shimmied its way out of their mouths.  Shindong slapped his friend on the shoulder, clasping it.

“It’s good to see you again.” The man’s dark voice echoed throughout the garden. He turned his head and watched the wind sway against the petals of the flowers, watched as the wind rustled the leaves of the bushes. “Remember when we were kids-“

“And we came here.” Heechul finished. He nodded, slowly. “Only now, we come here to get away from the kids. At least they act like children. How is your side doing by the way?”

“Mmm,” Shindong grimaced, “acting like grown teenagers who aren’t in their last year of high school.”

Heechul chuckled.

“Yep, mines are the same. We brought their cousins, though.”

“Yes…their cousins.” Shindong leaned over to his side in indifference.

“What’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. I mean, we’re hoping it will change them for the better. Having more family up here and what not, but they’re still acting the same. Even after having two days of freedom from that education system. I mean-“

“Ah…my old friend. You must remember, our younger times were different. This generation is more rigid. Perhaps we should just be harsher with our discipline.”

“Harsher?” He scoffed. “Look at us, we’re sitting in a garden just to get away from them.”

Heechul paused and turned his back around, then squinted his eyes as if waiting for something.

“What’s wrong?” Shindong asked.

“Where are they anyway? Weren’t we all supposed to be meeting at your place?”

“I just thought they were rough housing with each other again.”

“Yeah, but where in the distance that we can’t hear them?”

Shindong abruptly stood up.

“Where indeed.”

****

“I think that’s it.” He spoke aloud in an attempt to ease his discomfort.

Key had searched through his phone everything that was possible to know about walking through woods in under eight minutes. One useful hint he’d discovered was following the cow trail, a term that still eluded him but, as the internet had told him, cows don’t usually walk up steep terrain, so if he was new to this, which he was, it was better to stay on flat land. Easier to find his way back. When he approached the sudden tall, dark barked trees, there was a slight trail in the dirt from others having moved through it before.

“But who?” He murmured.

Besides the police that came to investigate, there weren't many people that he knows around here that would daringly go into the woods unless absolutely necessary. And what was necessary enough to walk through these woods?

“Thinks the guy about to walk through them.” He muttered.

The sun was still at its highest possible point for setting, which meant he still had plenty of time for light. Just in case, though, he turned his cell phone to ‘power saving.’ Who knew when he may need his flashlight on it.

He held on tight to the straps of his backpack with his left hand. His right was busy holding tight to the camera, waiting for any opportunity there was to snap a great picture. The longer he walked, however, the more disappointment began to set in. Key looked about the tall stalks of trees with their black and green bark. Some peeled off and fell to the ground creating a soft crunching sound as he’d step on them. The trees, they sure were magnificent, in size. But that’s all there were. Size. Nothing picture worthy. And to this, Key scrunched up his face, lips squeezing together in disappointment.

“Perhaps you really did walk in here for no reason.” He whispered to himself.

He could hear his aunt screaming at him in the back of his mind. He shook his head to rid himself of her aftermath wrath. It was the last thing he wanted to think about.

The leaves, soaked up of life, hardened by the weather of last year, created a soft crunching sound benefit each footstep he made. Flies, gnats and what have you, flew into his line of vision every once in a while and in a tedious swing of his arms, he’d swat them away. Weeds pulled out of the corn-like stalks of grass, sturdy in their spot. A few held soft lemon petals. He squatted down for a moment and with just enough light hitting the edges of the petals that helped outline the stalk of the plant, he snapped a picture.

When he stood up, he could feel the strain in his legs. They started at the knees and like a bolt of lighting struck up to his thigh. A searing pain so strong that he grasped his leg that hurt the most with his left hand. Key was never really a walker and his legs knew it. Sweat began to bead down the nape of his neck, making the ends of his hair stick to the goosebumps on his skin like a strong adhesive. He stretched out his legs and wiped off the sticky substance from his neck, shaking his hair a little. Maybe carrying his backpack here wasn’t such a bright idea. Then again, as he looked around at the dense area, covered by tall tree after tall tree, he began to wonder if coming here at all was such a bright idea.

He had listened to the instructions given to him by the internet, but when Key turned around, he realized he had no clue where he was going, or how to get back. His feet were just leading him. Almost as if he knew where he was going, a strange feeling of familiarity. But he’d never traveled in the woods before, certainly not these either.  

“I-I can find my way back.” He stuttered.

After all, he’d only been walking for about ten minutes, how hard could it be? He couldn’t have gone that far, especially at the pace he was going. On top of that, he had no good pictures except for that damn weed or flower, whatever the hell it was. So he kept walking straight, keeping with the cow trail just as the internet had told him, but after another ten minutes, and the watermelon sky turning into a deep tangerine, he decided, enough was enough.

“Maybe I wasn’t meant-“ But he stopped.

His feet had stepped on something. Something bright. He adjusted the backpack on his back because it was beginning to slide off, he moved his right foot out of the way to see what it was and the beauty caught his eye. An ivory flower with petals that arched their way to the outside world. Even with the orange hue of the sky, they held their own light.

“It almost looks normal, but not normal.” He whispered and as he got closer, he swore that the petals bent themselves further.

“What the hell.”

He picked up his camera and snapped a picture, making sure to grasp every angle possible. Just as he was about to get up, he saw another a few inches ahead of him, something he sure wasn’t there a minute ago. He snapped pictures of that one too, walking up to it with the swiftest of motions. Forget the damn trees, these flowers were going to be a beauty. And as he looked up, another one, then another, and when he decided to stand tall, decided that he’d snapped enough photos. That’s when he saw it. A trail of them covered the space in front of him, greatly contrasting from the dense, murky grass that harbored these woods. Glowing against the trees.

The trees.

He looked at the ones the flowers stood next too and covering up their bark, there they were, coral-like flowers that swirled upwards. They choked the barks of the trees with their vines, symbolizing a pillar of greatness. The sight was amazing. The gradation from white to coral to a thick blush. It was incredible. Definitely not something he’d thought to see in woods such as these. With trees looking close to death and leaves out life.

“Oh my gosh…” He awed. He’d practically forgot to take photos until his camera, swaying from one side to another, lightly touched his hand. He scrambled his hands for it and with the gentlest of motions, started to snap pictures of the beauties. He touched the vine of one of them and ended up cutting his finger. It stung, but he swung off the pain, letting the drop of blood fall to the ground.

*Crunch*

He looked up from his camera, alerted and frightened.

“Please let that had been a bunny or something.” He muttered to himself, scrunching his eyebrows upward in annoyance. The skin in between them squeezed together creating a fold. His camera lightly swung against his chest and once again, he adjusted his backpack.

Another crunch.

Key began making a small sound, turning around to see if anything was behind him.

A growl.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” He whispered.

Another growl.

He blinked his eyes, looking for the source of the sound but there was nothing there.

“It’s Luna’s stories, it’s Luna’s stories, it’s Luna’s stories.”

A howl.

“It’s not Luna’s stories!” He screamed and commenced to springing in the opposite way he’d came, hoping that his feet weren’t leading him the wrong way because, in honest terms, he had no idea where he was going.

More growling.

Scratching.

Faster.

Closer.

He moved as fast as his feet would carry. When his head turned to the side, he saw a glimpse of them. White eyes glow from the depths of the trees, from the deep waters of the darkness. He didn’t stop to clearly see what it was. He was too frightened. Key dashed across the ground, jumping over every weed that seemed a means to an obstacle. He was fast, his legs pertaining any inch of pain that tried to pierce its way into his system. The adrenaline built up in him.

And just like that…

Something tackled him…

Something big.

Something hairy.

Something monstrous.

Everything went black.

And all he could remember was blood.

Lots,

And lots,

of blood.