The path did not look nearly this scary during the day. Although she could still feel his eyes following her from deep in the woods even in the sunlight. She is sure that had she called his name, he would've come to her, materializing from her breaths and leaning against one of the rotten trees near the edge of the path, glowing in the soft touches of the shade. 

Insuk knows she shouldn't have taken this road back home; it is too easy, too fast, too dangerous and yet the main one turned her off almost inexplicably, made her skin erupt in goosebumps, her body shuddering in ways she could only attribute to his presence.

But here she is. 

He has yet to rear his head from in between the trees — she hears no taunting whispers, no expectant intake of air, no haunting tune being hummed into the night. He's always made sure to let her know he's near, always out of her reach but persistently there. Just like he's always made sure to remind her that for as long as he doesn't set his foot onto the gravel path, she can't get her hands on him. 

Tonight, he's yet to make a move. 

It wouldn't be the first night he doesn't come out to play, but the silence is a weight that presses down on all of her bones, nearly crushing them. She could almost choke on the dust of the remains. 

Insuk can see the light of her porch shining brightly in the distance, a lighthouse calling for her return to the safety of a place that has seen over 10 generations of her bloodline be born and find their demise in it. 

Then her eyes catch the light of it reflecting onto something near the end of the path, glistening even in the dark in all of his glory, tall and blood-curling— Park Chanyeol has always smiled too widely, with too much teeth; he is a beacon of sin even at the footsteps of a church, a monster without a master whom she would've found devilishly attractive had she not witnessed on more than one occasion minuscule parts of flesh caught in between his teeth. The one time she bothered pointing it out, he ripped a branch off one of the trees and used it as a toothpick to get rid of them, before flashing her another terrifying grin to check again.

"Can't have them scampering off before I work my magic on them."

Because while she knows him for what he is, others are unfortunate enough to miss the sharpening of his eyes, the re-positioning of his pupils vertically.

Her footstops still when she's near enough him she could feel his breath ghosting across the side of her neck, although there is a signigficant distance between their bodies for her to feel a sliver of comfort. Chanyeol is lazily smiling at her, eyes closed, head thrown slightly back and the silence is overwhelming. Tonight she doesn't have the time to waste on his little game, her patience steadily running thin already. 

"I could bring them back." 

Her heart skips a beat before falling to the pit of her stomach with a dissonant echo. He's looking her straight into the eyes, the veil of normalcy dropped as his elongated fangs curl inwards, his pupils a rip in the fabric of the universe. She could reach out her fingers and feel the flames of despair  at them. She could also poke his eyes out and watch him squirm in discomfort even if for a split of a second.

"I could bring them both back. Tonight, right at this moment, next month — you just have to say it." 

Insuk narrows her eyes at the sensual, tantalizing tone he adopted. He turns his body to face her completely as shadows dance ostentatiously across his countenance. 

"Broken", she spats.

Chanyeol shrugs his shoulders infuriatingly nonchalant. 

"Nothing that can't be fixed."

She can vaguely smell flowers in the air. While not overpowering her sense, the familiarity is crushing. Sooyeon had an affinity for roses and a garden filled with only them at the back of their house that she took great care of. Insuk tried to keep it alive, to cater to its needs according to Sooyeon's routine in her abscence, but they all wilted eventually and the rotten petals crunching under her footsteps is all that remained. 

A light brush of soft tresses across her bare arm has her startled, moving a little more to the edge of the path to escape