“Police?”

“I already called.”

“...Chen?”

“Not in the country.”

“Just… just try not panic.”

Yixing lost it. He threw his hands up in the air, whirling around at the shorter man, eyebrows raised to his hairline.

“Don’t panic? Don’t panic ? Xiumin, have you got any idea what’s going on? This is Luhan we’re talking about. Goddammit, what if something really did happen to him? How could we even look at each other anymore?! ” The tall man shouted, voice raising louder and louder at each word.

Xiumin took all of his anger without saying anything in return. He knew Yixing was just terribly worried about Luhan, who had been gone for nearly three and a half hours without so much as a word as to his whereabouts. When Yixing had dialed Xiumin’s phone and informed him of the situation, he’d hopped into his car and sped over to the apartment, seriously testing the limits of the legal speed limit.

Fifteen minutes after Xiumin’s arrival, the two had phoned the cops as well, who had promptly informed that a missing person’s report was to only be filed after twenty four hours. Which Xiumin and Yixing thought was complete bull and had been quite keen on letting the officers know.

Needless to say, all they heard was a, “We’ll do our best to find him” and then dial tone.

Currently, the taller of the two men was pacing back and forth in the quaint living room. The tall grandfather clock tick- tocked quietly in the corner, almost somberly, as if mourning the loss of one of the apartment’s residents.

Xiumin was scrolling through his contact list, quickly trying his hand at calling anyone with connections to Luhan who could possibly know where he was. Truthfully speaking though, with every passing second, a tiny bit of hope escaped him. Statistically speaking, the longer Luhan went missing…

“I’m going out,” Xiumin suddenly said, turning the full gaze of his cat- shaped eyes onto Yixing, who looked up from his pacing in surprise.

“Out?” he repeated questionably, as if not quite understanding what Xiumin meant. After all, Yixing had already personally walked to the corner store in back, in hopes of finding any trace of Luhan, but it had been to no avail.

Xiumin nodded, already making his way to the door and grabbing his coat from where it was thrown over the arm of the couch by the entrance.

“I’m gonna go look for him. You just stay here, in case he turns up,” Xiumin said firmly, seeing Yixing open his mouth in protest. “There’s no point if both of us go out and he comes back to an empty house.”

The taller man had a look of concern and torn anguish written all over his face. He never was good at concealing his emotions, despite generally being the most passive out of his circle of friends. However, it was different when one, if not the closest, of his friends just seemed to vanish into thin air.

Honestly though, could someone just tell him what the hell he was supposed to do?

“Ok…” Yixing said slowly, nodding his head almost mechanically, eyes sliding over to stare at a spot on the floor. Xiumin took one last look at him before making his way to the door.

“Yixing,” he called, making the aforementioned man look up at the sound of his name, “don’t do anything stupid, ok?” Xiumin raised his eyebrows at him, as if gaging for a response, and then slipped out the door before Yixing could utter a response.

“I wouldn’t,” Yixing whispered to himself. Honestly, it was at that moment that he wished for someone he never thought he’d wish for again. Someone who had lulled him into a sweet pretense before trampling all over him and leaving him high and dry.

Would he know what to do? This kind of thing was right up his alley, wasn’t it?

Yixing chewed on his lower lip thoughtfully, one hand raised to cup his chin. Should he do it? He supposed at this point, it wasn’t really a matter of whether or not he wanted to do it (although his pride was just begging and weeping for him not to), but rather if it would help in the search for Luhan or not. He waited for another still moment.

And then reached for his phone.

“N- not go home? I’m not- I can’t go home? And why?” Luhan swallowed hard, fingers nervously rolling into clenched fists. He felt like his long sleeve was suddenly two sizes too small, the material scratchy and restricting his breathing. He couldn’t get a decent breath. And was that a bead of cold sweat he felt rolling down his temple?

Kris sighed and leaned against the marble counter, two fingers pinching the bridge of his nose tiredly. He looked exhausted and fed up, but not necessarily angry, which Luhan was eternally grateful for. Not that it made him trust Kris more. It didn’t take him off edge in the slightest. It only proved Kris wasn’t as much of a sporadic psycho as Sehun was (although it seemed that in this place, looks could be quite deceiving).

“Luhan, just,” he began before being boldly cut off by Luhan.

“And how do you know my name? Why am I here?” Luhan demanded, suddenly feeling a surge of strength. His nails were digging into his palms, but he did his best to suppress the small quaking of his hands

As if noticing Luhan’s state of being, Kris’s eyes slid down towards Luhan’s clenched fists before traveling back up to look him dead in the eyes.

Luhan didn’t miss the way his eyes had momentarily stopped at the bandage on his neck.

The look in the taller man’s eyes almost made Luhan’s legs turn to jelly. It was so intense, the color so deep and dark that Luhan could have mistaken it for black had it not been for the little flecks of brown he spotted.

And then suddenly he was gone from the brunette’s view, vanishing from right before his eyes. He heard a small sound from behind him, and then a small, cold breath hovering over the nape of his neck.

“I won’t hurt you,” whispered a deep voice from behind him.

Won’t hurt me my  , Luhan thought with a spiteful bite. He tightened his jaw in both fear and frustration. As far as he could tell, his number one priority was getting the hell out, not making new camp buddies.

“I’m not like Sehun,” Kris added quietly. That piqued Luhan’s attention. Although it wasn’t saying much, considering Sehun didn’t seem exactly… all put together , in Luhan’s opinion.

“Are you guys… even human?” Luhan replied back, laughing slightly at the end. It was strange finally admitting his thoughts aloud. The question wasn’t truly a rhetorical one. After all, Luhan wasn’t an idiot. He could put two and two together and ever since he had stepped foot in the grand mansion (not quite willingly, he could say), there had been unnervingly… strange things that he’d witnessed. But they must have simply been his adrenaline getting the best of him.

But his question was responded with nothing but a long silence.

Ha. This all simply had to be one sick, huge, ing joke. Because there was no way he could’ve possibly been the only one walking alone at night and…

“It’s not, like, real, right?” Luhan stared straight ahead of him. He vaguely realized the juice box was still sitting on the table in front of him, untouched, unopened.

“What do you think is going on, hm?” Kris asked.

“I think my friends and family are worried sick looking for me right now,” he replied in a roundabout sort of way. A could touch on Luhan’s wrist brought his attention to it. Kris had one hand wrapped around it like a glove. It was chillingly cold, as if he’d just gotten out of a snowstorm. He was absurdly cold.

Luhan watched as his wrist was turned so the pale underside was showing up at him. The skin was so delicate that he could see the faint outlines of veins lying underneath the surface.

Kris’s thumb lightly d down a pulsing vein. It suddenly made Luhan hyper- aware of his position, so close to the man looming over him. His grip made him feel uncomfortable. He wanted out.

Luhan tugged his arm towards himself, only for Kris to yank it right back. The blond suddenly leaned in close to Luhan’s ear, his cold breath just barely shifting the little baby hairs there.

“Did you know that type O is Sehun’s favorite? Because he said he only seeks out those who are like him,” Kai chuckled, although Luhan failed to see what was so humorous about the statement. If anything, it freaked him out even more and he became more desperate in his attempt to get away from Kris.

This time, the blond let him yank his arm out of the other’s grip. Luhan backed away quickly, one hand clutching his wrist as if it had been burned. Kris merely looked at him with a nonchalant expression.

“I don’t understand,” Luhan said flatly.

“Let me show you,” Kris said suddenly and then he was baring his teeth, a sharp, hissing sound jolting Luhan from his murky thoughts and pulling him into the oh- so- real reality of the situation at hand.

Kris had a full mouth of pearly whites. Although his two canines were elongated, tapering down into a delicate point that looked sharper than any knife Luhan had ever seen before.

He suddenly realized he had stopped breathing, lips pressed together in the tightest line, as if trying to erase signs of life.

Kris closed his mouth and slightly narrowed his eyes, waiting for some sort of reaction from the smaller man. When he received none (surprisingly), he crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame of an entrance leading out of the kitchen.

“I’ll bring you to Suho. He’ll know what to do with a little deer like you,” Kris said with a tone of finality, as if Luhan actually had something to do with his decision.

The annoying nickname Kris had tacked on to the end of his sentence made Luhan’s skin crawl when he realized that was the same thing Sehun had previously called him, but he was too shaken up to do much more than glare and act as if he wasn’t about to collapse on the floor. He felt small and vulnerable, his arms folded close to his body as if trying to make himself as miniscule as possible.

Kris drummed his fingers against his forearm for a second before nodding to himself and exiting the room.

At a human speed, Luhan thought to himself. He stood there for a moment longer, just to make sure Kris had really gone, before slowly sinking down to the tile floor. He took a shaky deep breath and tipped his head back, suddenly feeling incredibly weary for some reason.

Just what the hell had he gotten into? Kris and Sehun were… not human. They were not like Luhan. They were, well, monsters.

And Luhan was stuck in a house with them.