Tiffany adjusted the cotton jacket around her shoulder, resisting the urge to turn around and race back to their parked cars. She could feel every pulse in her body drumming against her cool skin and that ever present nagging at the back of her mind.

This is a stupid idea.

This was a suicide mission.

Her stupid friends were s to suddenly think of this right after her admittance of being scared of abandoned buildings.

She was stupid for going through with this idea.

Her hand went to seek solace from another source, managing to snag a piece of the plaid button up of the closest person. She breathed deeply, waving the weak light of her keychain flashlight in front of them, gripping tightly onto her car key. The person in front of her slowed her pace, matching with Tiffany’s so that they could converse in hushed whispers.

“You alright?” Tiffany swung the flashlight behind them, the light barely even reaching their parked cars.

No.

“I- I’m- alright.” She stuttered. “It’s just a stupid mall. Nothing to be afraid off.” Just that the mall has never been occupied before and constructions were suddenly halted for no clear reason. A shiver ran up her spine and she faltered in her steps.

“Hey..” A hand went to grab her free one. “Hey..” Tiffany tilted the beam of her flashlight a little higher, enough so the beam could light up the child-like face smiling at her encouragingly. “It’ll be alright. I’ll be with you the whole time.”

“You promise?”

The girl nodded. “We’re best friends, Ppany-ah. I’ll never even think of leaving your side.” She squeezed her hand, getting a small smile from Tiffany in response. They resumed walking.

Further up they could see their five friends gathering near one side of the sin wall, the brighter beams of their flashlights moving from one side of the fence to another. Two were arguing in hushed tones, Tiffany could only hear the hissings of the s and t’s. They reached their side within moments.

“What’s all the fuss about now?” The newcomer interrupted the heated debate. Both girls paused long enough to glare at the shorter girl who dared disturb them before the taller of the two huffed and nodded her head to the others.

“As I was saying to Soonkyu here,” the shorter glared at her, reaching out to shove her by the shoulder. The taller girl shifted a little, but kept her footing and continued as if she wasn’t just interrupted. “we’ve got to scale the wall if we want to get in. There’s no other way, and I sure as hell ain’t going on my belly to crawl under the front gate. I mean, who knows if they’ve posted guards on the other side? We’d be busted before we even set foot into the place.”

“And what bonehead here failed to think of is that if they really did post someone inside what difference would it make if we scale the wall. We’ll most likely produce more sound this way than crawling under the front gate, and this time we won’t even have the chance to get away in time. Scaling a wall isn’t exactly an easy task.”

“Maybe not to you short stuff.”

“Excuse me, but have you looked around Gigantor? We’re not exactly as tall as you. Hell, you stick out like a sore thumb in this group!”

“Knock it off, both of you.” A cold tone intercepted. A high beam flashed across their eyes. Tiffany staggered back a little, blinking rapidly to regain her sights.

“Yah, Sica! Do you wanna blind us?!”

“Shut your loud mouth Sooyoung. Sorry bout that Sunny, Tiffy, Taengoo. Forgot how strong the beam is.”

“It’s alright.” Taeyeon voiced out. “You alright Ppany-ah?” she asked, the same time Tiffany felt Taeyeon’s hand coming up to her wrist to pull her closer.

“I’m alright.” She muttered, though her answer was over-ruled by Sooyoung’s slightly louder protest about Jessica leaving her out of her concern. The response she received was a snorting noise and a small giggle that was most likely Sunny’s.

Fortunately, the argument was cut short before it escalated by the form of lights waving at them frantically at the far side of the wall. The two troublemakers of the group wave them over. They had found a wide enough gap for one person to squeeze into if one of them held onto the side of the wall to hold the opening. Hyoyeon, the excited kid, decided to squeeze in first, pulling with her the three bags with their equipment.

One by one they went through until Yuri, the one designated to do the hard work, was the last to squeeze through, almost making a ruckus when Hyoyeon decided to prank the girl and let the gap close onto her . They both laughed silently, Yuri playfully vowing revenge on her.

Slipping through an open window the girls gathered in the nearest hallway. The teams were quickly decided amongst the seven of them. Sooyoung, Jessica, and Sunny had to be separated, especially after Jessica had confessed earlier on that though she didn’t dislike Sooyoung in the slightest she did like getting her riled up, finding her over-exaggerated reactions amusing, and Sunny and Sooyoung together usually ended up with the both of them butting heads. Sooyoung ended up being paired up with Yuri while Jessica, Sunny, and Hyoyeon composed another group. Tiffany breathed in relief, clutching a little tighter onto Taeyeon’s hand.

Taeyeon squeezed back. “I promised you. I’ll be with you every step of the way.” She grinned and winked at her, eliciting a soft giggle from Tiffany.

“Alright, so everyone knows what to do?” Sooyoung spoke up, waving the light from each team for an affirmative. Hyoyeon passed the bags to each team, the contents making a soft clunking sound as they shifted.

“So far there’re no signs of life, but we can’t be sure.” Taeyeon followed after, commanding everyone’s attention. Being the eldest everyone looked up to her for guidance. She preferred it when they treated her as equals and would easily laugh it off when she was the target of bullying by the troublesome bunch, but she easily took control when needed. “If your gut starts feeling wrong, drop everything and get the hell out. I don’t want anyone landing into trouble.”

“Yeah, ” Yuri chimed in. “and if someone does get caught, you do community service on your own.” A chorus of stifled laughter followed her statement.

Tiffany hefted the bag over her shoulder. It wasn’t heavy, but the clanking of the metal cans made her body tense up. It was not her first, nor would it be her last. The adrenaline of the whole process felt great and despite the initial hesitance that she always had the end result was always good enough to have her going back for more. It wasn’t just the adrenaline that got her addicted but the spray painting itself. For her, it was an art. Their tagging wasn’t merely hastily scribbled initials of the group, it was much more than that. It was stencil art, made to show the world that despite the harshness that everyone goes through there’s always good somewhere.

They separated, Tiffany keeping close to Taeyeon as the older took the lead, keeping the small beam of the keychain flashlight ahead of them. A little argument had broken out again for the levels of where they should tag. They ended up drawing sticks, guess who got the third floor?

Using the escalator was quickly shot down as it would make too much noise. It was a unanimous decision to take the stairs, one that Tiffany groaned at. It was no joke to take two flights of stairs, and Tiffany mentally cursed the developer who decided to have the wounding staircase leading to the third floor instead of one that divided into two parts. If anyone would flash the light up at them they’d be easily spotted. Maybe that was the idea, screw the developer for that.

By the time they reached the third floor Tiffany was already feeling tired. Running was one thing, climbing the stairs as fast and as silently as they can was another.

“And I thought I’d be easier to tag an empty mall. Damn the stairs.” Tiffany huffed. Taeyeon chuckled breathlessly, breathing through .

“I think..” she huffed, nodding her head to the nearest hallway of what she presumed leads to the bathroom. “that’s a good place.”

Tiffany straightened up, letting the strap of the bag slide down her arm. Walking over to the wall she ped the bag, taking out four folded up cartons, a roll of masking tape and four cans of spray paint, laying them all out in front of her. With Taeyeon focusing the light on the wall while keeping a look out Tiffany shakily started taping up the first carton. From time to time she would wryly glance at the dark inner corner of the hall, shifting a little closer to where Taeyeon stood. As much as she wanted to call Taeyeon to her side she knew how important it was to have her as a look out. She swallowed, hurrying the spray painting.

By the time she got to the second she giggled at the additional drawings surrounding the cutout. It was cartoonish, the way the man’s eyes were drawn too big for its head while the rest of its body looked like bender from futurama. Obviously, someone’s sense of humor couldn’t take the boredom of being precise.

“What’s so funny?” Taeyeon asked from her post. She peered into the hallway, letting out choked chuckle when Tiffany showed her the cartoonish drawing. “Yeesh, that troublemaker.” She said, shaking her head.

“It’s cute. And she must’ve been so bored doing all the stencils, you know her.” Tiffany defended their friend.

Taeyeon chortled. “Hyoraengi was with her. I bet you she told the kkab to do that.”

Tiffany chuckled, remembering the loud laughter she had heard in their little hideaway prior to eating dinner, and nodded her head, conceding her defeat. “She probably did.”

It took a couple more minutes with the silence only broken by the choppy hissing of the spray can. Tiffany was doing the finishing touches when the dim light switched off. She heard the dull thumps of Taeyeon’s shoes hurriedly coming closer and her heartbeat started to beat harder in her chest.

“Are you done?” she hissed, crouching down to refold the carton and putting them back to the bag. Tiffany didn’t need further warning and pulled the last stencil from the wall, ignoring the wet paint sticking to her hand. Wiping her fingers much as she could to the dry part of the carton she grabbed whatever was left of their things and hastily stuffed them into the bag.

Taeyeon hefted the bag over her shoulder, reaching for Tiffany’s hand before she led them to the edge, cautiously peering over. Tiffany could feel her skin break into cold sweat, even her palm, clasp tightly onto Taeyeon’s felt cold and wet and she wanted to pull her hand back and wipe the sweat off her jeans. She tried, but Taeyeon’s tighter grasp on her hand prevented her so.

“Come on.” She whispered, moving to the other side. They ducked into one of the empty stores, keeping to the walls. Taeyeon shone the light around, searching for a place to hide, but with barely any object in the place the light shone directly to the walls. Undeterred Taeyeon moved further in, swinging the beam from one side to another until a green plastic hanging from the ceiling caught her sight. Making their way towards it Taeyeon gave a sigh of relief upon discovering a small niche behind the plastic, immediately pushing Tiffany into the corner and pulling the green plastic back to cover her from view.

“Tae?” she whispered, her voice cracking from the anticipation of getting caught.

“Sh.. I’ll be close. I won’t let anything happen to you. Keep still. I’ll be right back.” Taeyeon hurriedly whispered back. Before Tiffany could respond Taeyeon was already gone.

Alone now Tiffany backed up against the wall so that she faced the plastic. It was the only way out and if, God forbid, the night watchman stumbled upon her she had to be ready to make a run for it, no matter how futile it seemed. Despite the loud beat of her pulse in her ear soon enough she heard the steady thumping of shoes, maybe a heavy set boots, growing louder and louder. She became acutely aware of how loud her breathing sounded to her and tried to control it, but instead ended up holding her breath. A beam flew across the green plastic, Tiffany froze up. The thumping noise grew louder, though the steps became longer in between as the watchman surveyed the interior. It flew across again. One more time. It couldn’t have been more than a minute, but to Tiffany, it felt longer.

Finally, the thumping resumed, growing softer and softer as the watchman moved away. Tiffany waited until she could no longer hear the soft patter of the shoes before she tentatively emerged from her hiding, head peeking out first as she surveyed what little she could see in the dark.

“Tae?” she called out in a hushed whisper. Stepping out she kept her hand against the wall for guidance and she called again, a little louder. “Taeyeon-ah.”

“Ppany.” Taeyeon called back. A moment later a small beam peeked out from behind another, wider, green plastic and Taeyeon’s head followed. Slipping out of the plastic Taeyeon reached out for Tiffany, the girl instantly clamping on, sighing a breath of relief. It was only then that she noticed how badly her hands were shaking against Taeyeon’s cold ones. She was sure Taeyeon noticed, how could she not? But all Taeyeon did was pull the bag back up one shoulder and held her hand a smidge tighter, tugging at it to indicate that it was their time to leave.

Slowly, keeping their backs to the walls as Taeyeon took extra precaution and switched off the small light, they made their way out. They could see a flicker of light in the distance, the tense muscles slowly relaxing as they made their way to the stairs, slowly and silently making their way back down to the second floor. By then Tiffany’s eyes had adjusted to the darkness, thanks to the minimal light from the tinted windows at the far side of the third floor, enough so she could faintly see outlines of the stairs. She recalled the stairs from the second leading to the first was a little further away from the stairs they had just descended from. Using the flashlight with the watchman just a floor above was too risky. It seemed Taeyeon thought the same as she felt her tug at her hand, blindly leading them to the next flight.

“Shi-.” Taeyeon hissed, jerking forward a little bit. Tiffany, startled, unconsciously acted as an anchor as she pulled them both back before growing rigid with worry and fright. What was wrong?

As if Taeyeon could read her mind she whispered back “I think I found the stairs. Careful Ppany-ah, we’ll take it slow. It’s just right in front of us.” She reached back, Tiffany could feel Taeyeon pressing against her front as she grabbed her other hand to guide it to the wall. “Keep to the walls.”

She nodded, then realizing Taeyeon couldn’t see managed to respond with a breathless yes.

They began to descend. She squints her eyes, hoping it could somehow show her even the slightest of outlines but all she could see was pitch darkness. They were too far into the mall, where the darkness was all that greeted them. Her heartbeat restarted its hard drumming, her heart seemingly taking up more space for her lungs to function properly. She drew in a shaky breath, and with their slow pace, cold fear was beginning to outweigh the adrenaline. She clutched Taeyeon’s hand tighter, no longer conscious of whether she’s hurting the older girl. Finally, she felt Taeyeon shift, they had gotten to a corner. She could faintly hear Taeyeon muttering something under the loud drumming in her ear. With her jaws seemingly screwed as tight as a clamp she couldn’t ask her to repeat, and instead, let the older girl lead her wherever she wanted to go.

Tiffany trusted Taeyeon.

Her father always did say, and quoting his exact words “You’re a fool for blindingly trusting those six troublemakers!” Maybe she was, but those six troublemakers felt more like home than in her father’s house. They weren’t related by blood, but Tiffany felt safer, more at ease whenever they were around. They never stole. Never hurt anyone. They get a little wild at times, but never gotten into any of the bad stuff, even though she was sure most probably think they have. And maybe it was because she knew Taeyeon the longest, or maybe it was because she was the eldest of the group, but of the six she trusted Taeyeon the most. No questions asked, no hesitation. Anything she said Tiffany would do.

She took another shaky breath in, forcing her lungs to take in a little more oxygen to calm her mind. One foot first, then the next. Slow and sure. Hand and back to the wall to keep her balanced. Too focused on her thoughts she didn’t feel Taeyeon stop in her tracks until she collided with the shorter girl, nearly squealing from the shock. She managed to throw her arms around Taeyeon, balancing herself before she fell on her face. She heard a small grunt, felt Taeyeon give under her weight, yet somehow managed to stop the both of them from falling into a heap on the floor.

“W-w-wh-“ she stuttered. Taeyeon made a shushing noise and Tiffany immediately clamped close and held her breath. Then she heard it, the scuffling of rubber shoes on tiles. Her eyes widened.

“Run.” As soon as the words left Taeyeon’s mouth she was off, Tiffany hot on her heels. The small beam of the flashlight illuminated as much as it could reach, not much but enough to guide them through the large space. They both slipped into a hall, Taeyeon remembering the scaffolding positioned a few feet away from hallway they had initially come out of. They were close, Tiffany could already see the end of the hallway that led to a narrower hall where their exit was. But was that, Tiffany squinted. That was light, wasn’t it?

Throwing caution to the wind Taeyeon called out “Who’s there?”

“Taeng!”Sooyoung yelped, skidding to a halt at the end and swinging the stronger beam of her light at the partners. Tiffany jerked her head to the side and took a step back, using both her arms to shield her face. The bright white light had momentarily blinded her.

“Yah!” She heard Taeyeon protest, but Yuri’s panicked words killed whatever angry retort Taeyeon had.

“No time! Run!”

Tiffany didn’t need another warning and took to a blind sprint, this time following after Yuri’s fleeing figure. It took a while for her vision to readjust and notice that Yuri’s figure was the only thing she saw in front of her. If the bright light following after her was Sooyoung’s, where was Taeyeon? Her steps faltered.

“Stop right there!” A voice boomed from behind. Tiffany flinched when she felt more than saw someone moving past her, flashlight in hand.

“What are you doing?!” Sooyoung shouted at her, not lowering her pace.

A hand grabbed her wrist, jerking her back into a faster momentum. “Keep running!”

“Stop!” The voice shouted again, the slightly weaker flashlight bobbing up and down with the watchman’s movement.

Tiffany paid no heed. Adrenaline was once again coursing through her system, making her deaf to all other noise and her sights and mind focused only on one thing, getting out of the mall as quickly as she can. Dead ahead she spots Yuri’s feet just managing to disappear outside the open window. At the base of the open window was a wooden crate, what Tiffany assumed was the bright idea of the trio assigned at the ground floor. Sooyoung was using the prop to boost herself over the window, it didn’t take long for her abnormally long legs to disappear from view, the others at the otherside helping their comrades.

Tiffany took a peek behind her, her fear lowering slightly at the sight of Taeyeon’s brown hair illuminated by the light just a pace behind her, but the relief was quickly washed away by the sight of the bobbing white light. Too close for comfort. Will they both make it?

“Go! Go! Go!” Taeyeon shouted at her. She glanced at the silhouette of their friends faces peeking around the window, urging them to hasten their pace. An idea struck her.

“Soo! Flashlight!” she reached her hand out as soon as she arrived at the base. Taeyeon was hissing at her to get up, but she ignored the girl and called out Sooyoung’s name again, her voice thick with urgency. It was a pale hand that reached back down, passing Tiffany the police torch Sooyoung had been carrying. As soon as she received the torch she aimed it at the bobbing light, switching it on. The light stopped moving and she heard a hiss, the opposing light going up to Tiffany’s eyes and she flinched back.

“Ppany, what are you-”

“Taeyeon go!” she hissed, blindly grabbing Taeyeon by the shoulder with one hand and forcing her towards the window. She kept the beam of the torch straight at what she assumed was the watchman’s face, deterring him long enough to buy time. She moved back closer to the window, glancing up in time to see the soles of Taeyeon’s shoes making it fully out of the window.

Still focusing the light on the watchman Tiffany hopped onto the box. As soon as her free hand was on the edge of the window she threw the torch out and turned her head away, ending the blinding contest. With both hands free she hefted herself up, arms instantly grabbing her under her arms and pulling her to safety. On all fours she scrambled for her footing, hand gripping onto the pair pulling her forward for balance. She felt someone hold the back of her head, forcing her to crouch as she passed what she assumed was the fence. She stumbled at the other side, her vision hasn’t fully adjusted yet and a marginal portion of her sights was taken by a rainbow like orb floating wherever she focused them on.

“Tiff, get up!”

“Jessie?” She blindly reached out. “I can’t see yet.”

A cool pair of hands wrapped around her arms, pulling her up. One of her arms was raised over Jessica’s shoulder as she supported Tiffany, hurriedly guiding her back to where they parked the cars. “Is everyone out? Are we all out?” Tiffany asked worriedly as she kept up with Jessica’s pace.

“Everyone’s out.” Was Jessica’s curt reply, it came quick, like she didn’t even check before answering.

“Taeyeon?”

“I’m here.” Tiffany soughed deeply, the sides of her lips quirking in a smile. “Get her in the passenger seat. I’ll drive.” Taeyeon ordered, Jessica made a small grunt slowing her approach.

Again Tiffany felt a hand over her head, pushing down to guide her into the car. She felt and heard the whirl of the seatbelt as it was secured followed by the slamming of the car door.

Engines were switched on, three different motors purring in the darkness and one by one they pulled out of the drive. Tiffany listened intently, waiting for the sound of an additional car, waiting for the revving of her own car indicating the increase of speed. She blinked, her sights getting better. She peered behind them, a pair of head light was tailing them, in front of them was the bright red of the tail light. Only a pair.

They weren’t being followed.

They did it.

“We got away.” She said, a breathless laugh following right after. “Taeyeon-ah, we got away!” she repeated, a little louder. Beside her Taeyeon, keeping her eyes focused on the road ahead, chuckled.

Tiffany tiredly squeezed herself into the available space of the old mattress, giggling when she felt Jessica wriggling her sock clad feet against her side. She pushed it away but Jessica, feeling playful, lifted her foot and placed it right over Tiffany’s chest. Tiffany pushed it away again, and again got the same result.

“Jessie, stop it. Aren’t you tired?” she whined, pushing Jessica’s foot away again. This time, Jessica let it drop to the space beside Tiffany.

“I was here first. Go find your own place.” Jessica muttered sleepily.

“What are you, six? This isn’t even your room. Share.” She felt a nudge to her side, then a pinch. Tiffany sat up, slapping the offending foot lightly. “I give up, you spoiled princess.” She muttered, hopping off the bed.

She glanced up to Jessica’s smiling face just as the girl sleepily muttered a “Love you Tiff.” before yawning widely and snuggled back into the small blanket she had hogged all to herself. Tiffany rolled her eyes and shook her head as she headed over to the next room. Next door was a medium sized space fitting the living, kitchen and dining room. There wasn’t much in terms of furniture, an old tv set, a couple of picture frames, a nearly empty bookshelf on one corner, a rectangular table pushed at the other corner with a couple of foldable chairs shoved underneath to maximize the space, and a single family couch that Taeyeon had occupied on one side as she diligently read a novel.

Crawling over the backrest Tiffany cooed the older girl’s name and plopped ungracefully onto the couch. Extending her feet so that it hanged off the armrest she wiggled her head onto the silent girl’s lap, wrapping her arms around the small waist in search of warmth. Body heat was way better than a blanket. Taeyeon merely adjusted her book, one hand going up to gently massage the top of Tiffany’s head.

“Aren’t you tired?” Tiffany directed the question to Taeyeon this time. She read the cover title and suppressed a shiver at the authors’ name. Stephen King. “And since when did you like reading” she lifted a finger, pushing against the bottom of the book to garner Taeyeon’s full attention. “horror books?” she finished, brandishing a pout up at the older girl.

Unperturbed by the puppy look Tiffany was going for Taeyeon shrugged, eyes returning to the passage she was on. “I don’t remember mentioning my likes and dislikes of genre.” Her book jostled, nearly slipping from her hand. She retaliated, moving her other hand to try and cover Tiffany’s face, only to pull back when she felt Tiffany’s hot breath brushing against her fingers, prepared to bite onto them. “It’s the only book I can find since someone decided to “borrow” all of my books. Pretty sure this one’s Sunny’s. Anyway, don’t you want to take a little shut eye? My room’s available.”

“Not anymore.” Tiffany snorted. “Sleeping beauty decided to revert to a child and hogged the whole bed.” She elaborated when she received a raised brow.

“Ah.”

“Where are the others?” Tiffany wryly asked after a moment of silence. The silence was never really good. It could always go two ways, one is that everyone left to do God knows what, two is that everyone’s up to God knows what. She straightened up, ready to make a bolt for the bedroom just in case. Taeyeon’s chuckle had her relax a little.

“They said something about needing some things… and I think I heard someone proposing another dare.”

“Again? Wasn’t tonight’s event enough? And it’s” she glanced at the clock hanging over the tv. “almost 2! Are they crazy?!” Taeyeon gave her smirk. “Right. What was I thinking?”

“Speaking of dares…” Taeyeon wedged a card in between the pages, placing it neatly on the armrest. A wide grin was plastered on her face, almost looking creepy, if only her face didn’t look so pinchable and childish. “I recall you owe me two now.”

The glint in her eyes should’ve made Tiffany bolt out of her chair, should’ve made her disagree. But instead, Tiffany her seat, crossing her legs under her as she faced Taeyeon head on.

“Give me your best shot.”