Baekho sighed as he traversed the courtyard for the second time that day. Upon entering the hall, he looked forlornly at the poster he'd put up earlier, before he had his heel and went back to the library where he only just managed to get hold of the librarian as she was closing up. With the most earnest of pleading he convinced her to take one of the posters and put it on the bulletin board.

Not as if it would do any good, he mused dejectedly. Lost pets never found their way home. Lost pets were all but dead the very instant they're lost sight of. They were hollow sacrifices for the shadows, which stayed at bay so long as they could get hold of the occasional puppy or pigeon.

Keeping his eyes fixed on his feet, he ascended the stairs to his third floor apartment. When he arrived, he absent-mindedly slammed his hand against the magnetic scanner that faithfully recognised his wristband and opened the door with a humble buzz.

It welcomed him home, in its own sense.

He kicked off his shoes haphazardly, hung up his coat and finally decided to set his shoes neatly where they belonged anyway, despite his current state of mental fatigue. It had been a long day, in which he had been abandoned (intentionally or not), possibly used, talked back at by a child half his age, guilt tripped into a promise and looked at strangely by a prissy librarian who didn't seem to attach as much value to the happiness of children as he did. Or as anyone did, for that matter.

She was kind of a , really, he thought to himself, sighing again.

The exact moment Baekho progressed from the hallway into the common living room was the same in which Ren emerged from the balcony, not at all eager to watch Mouse devour a feathered piece of flesh. They looked at each other blankly, both still lost in their respective trains of thought, before they were derailed by the social obligation of the conversation upon greeting.

“Hey,” Ren said.

“Hey.”

“You're home, I see.”

“Yeah. It's kinda late. What's up?”

Ren shrugged, his default expression of utter stoicism not very inviting of pleasant chit-chat. “Nothing much.”

There was a silence in which Baekho nodded in complete understanding of the uneventfulness of their student lives.

“Well, there's a dead pigeon on the balcony. Mouse's eating it, so we probably won't have to feed him tonight. We'll need to clean up the mess, though,” Ren went on to add meaningfully.

“That's okay, I'll do that tomorrow morning.”

“Okay, cool. Thanks.”

An expression flashed between them of mutual agreement that this was enough and they each went their own ways: Ren to the kitchen to prepare something for dinner, Baekho to check whether JR, the third house mate, was in his room if nowhere else.

There was no lingering sense of awkwardness between them after this. Quite the contrary: the two of them were close enough to no longer have any requirement for proper discussion. Among friends, conversation wasn't about talking so much as it was about being in each other's presence.

Ren scoured the kitchen, rummaging through cupboards and the fridge in search of something acceptable for dinner. There was plenty, but nothing easy, and the boy wasn't in a particular cooking mood. He wasn't hungry, too filled already with gloomy thoughts and recurring images of dead and dying birds. He had a knack for destroying his own appetite with thoughts like these.

However, he wanted to prepare something for Baekho. Though the other never explicitly mentioned being hungry, Ren still felt obliged to take responsibility for feeding him.

Thoughtfully hovering in front of the open fridge without making any decisions, Ren was startled when Baekho suddenly appeared behind him.

“Have you seen JR anywhere?” Baekho made an inquiry regarding their shared room mate and friend.

“Not since this morning, when he left for class.” Ren turned, letting the refrigerator door fall shut behind him and looked at Baekho with curiosity. Now that he thought about it, JR usually returned home before either of them and in any case never stayed out until this late at night. It was already dark out. JR wasn't one to worry about these things, or about anything, but he had made a solemn promise to an overly concerned Baekho once that he would always return indoors before dusk. Say what you will about him, but he was someone who kept his promises, so this was highly unusual.

“Why are you asking me anyway? Between the two of us, you're probably the last one to have seen him today, since you have classes together.”

“He never came to class today.”

“That's strange,” Ren noted with sincere astonishment. Thought not reputed as the most avid of students, their friend wasn't one to play truant.

“I wonder-” They both froze before Baekho got the chance to finish his utterance. It had been the ear-splitting screech that slashed through the night silence right to the kitchen and into the boys' veins, immobilizing them.

They knew what that sound had been, but neither of them wanted to be the one to confirm it. Eyes locked on the kitchen doorway they were completely still and unresponsive, as if hoping for someone to come in and declare it was a false alarm.

What they heard instead was a soft, tired and frightened yowling.

“Mouse?” Ren eventually squeaked in a feeble voice, knocked back into his sense when he recognised the sound of his beloved pet in pain. He then suddenly sprung into motion and ran out to the balcony in a panic.

“Mouse?!” he screamed as he felt the cool night air hit his face. He scanned around fervently for the feline, fearing the worst. Then he spotted him, a trembling ball of fur in a growing pool of blood, slumped in a distant corner.

Kneeling down in front of him, Ren leant forward and reached out his hands in consolation but received only hostility in return.

The terrified creature, confused by his pain, lashed out at his master's face and swatted him right on the cheek with his claws. His remaining claws, that is.

The left front leg was missing, ripped clean off at the knee, leaving behind nothing but a bloodied stump with frayed edges of flesh.

Amber eyes flashing brightly in the reflected lamplight, Mouse pressed himself even further into the corner looking at Ren with an air of aggression that was entirely foreign to the boy.

“The Lurkers must've gotten him while he was distracted by that pigeon,” Baekho's voice came solemnly from behind him. Ren just nodded.

Everyone knew about the Lurkers, as they had been dubbed: the mysterious carnivorous creatures that lived in the world beyond hidden in the shadows. Everyone knew they were the sole reason for the fencing and the advised night time curfew. Everyone knew they lived on a diet of city pests and pets alike.

But most people simply tried not to think about it, not to care. Most people thought that if you didn't pay attention to them and the things they did, if you downplayed the danger they posed, you could pretend they weren't there. Ren and Baekho were some of these people.

The denial was only possible as long as it was other people's pets. As soon as the knowledge of the horrors forced itself into your life, in the form of your own pet's suffering or that of a little girl whose pleading pulled at your heartstrings, the reality of it all comes crashing back.

This time, it hit hard enough for Ren to re-evaluate his safety as a civilian. If being caged wasn't enough to protect Mouse, then what reason could he have to believe it would be enough to protect the rest of them?

“We need to get him inside, but he attacks if we try to touch him.” Baekho was thinking out loud, while Ren tried very hard to keep his thoughts to himself. He didn't want Baekho to panic the way he was doing.

“No, what we need to do is get him to a vet.” He was yelling now.

“There's no use, everything's closed at night, you know that. We should bring him inside and take him to a vet first thing in the morning.” In contrast, Baekho kept his voiced as hushed as he could.

“He'll bleed to death by then! We can't just... We have to...” But what was there for them to do? Baekho was right, everything closed the moment the sun set, for safety.

They only just didn't place all residences in lock-down as well. Not that they needed to, no one ever left.

Everyone became the recluse they were expected to be, for survival.

“We can go to Minhyun,” Ren tried hopefully. “It's perfect, he's studying to be a vet isn't he? We can just go to his place.”

“And what will he do?” A cold wind had picked up while they stood there arguing on the balcony, signifying a storm to come. “He's a sophomore for crying out loud, not a doctor.”

“It's better than nothing! I can't just leave him here.” Ren was beginning to sound hysterical and tears were b in his eyes, a stark contrast with his usual calm and collected demeanour. Baekho couldn't bear to see it.

“Ren,” he lowered his voice apologetically when he realised he had started yelling too. “I'm sorry, but I'm scared.” Ren swallowed back his rage and wiped away a stray tear, suddenly really embarrassed for the way he was acting. He understood completely why Baekho had a problem with what he was suggesting. “I don't want you to go outside, Ren.”

“Me neither. But I have to. I'll never forgive myself if I just let him die because I was too afraid of the dark.”

He really was afraid of the dark, as much as the next person. That was what humans did, the ones that wanted to live. Conversely, the Lurkers feared the light. It's why flood lamps were enough to keep them at bay. It's also why no one knew what they looked like.

Baekho nodded reluctantly and bit his lip.

“Very well. But you're not going alone.”

“Of course not.” The faintest of smiles graced Ren's lips. It was at least reassuring to know Baekho would always protect him from harm as best he could. For what it was worth, that made him feel infinitely better.

…

Mouse had been cautiously wrapped in Baekho's coat and now lay trembling in his arms, the animal's claws uselessly retracted once he realised they could not be moved with the padding of cloth surrounding his body like a cocoon. Before he finally settled in this makeshift shelter he still managed to get a few scratches on his owners here and there, but they braved his onslaught of random batting in favour of his well-being.

The two boys made their way across the courtyard as quickly as possible but never without letting down their guard. The light was all around, but it didn't help ease their nerves. No amount of brightness could subdue the feeling of being watched. When they scanned their wristbands at the exit the id screen displayed a message. Like an unneeded .exe repeatedly making sure you wanted to shut down the processor leeching nuisance it was, it asked them if they were sure they wanted to leave.

They were not, but they went anyway.

As they emerged into the sea of light beyond, they reached a point where they could no longer pretend there was nothing to fear outside and that they didn't fear it.

The fear that was so long suppressed left a bitter taste in their mouths when it finally resurfaced this night. They all told themselves there was nothing to be afraid of, that the Lurkers couldn't ever get inside, and stayed far away as long as the lights were there. But that didn't change the fact that people still went missing. People could deny it all they want, but Ren knew all too well that it was the Lurkers' doing. He knew that they got hold of people every once in a while and then did God knows what to them so that no bodies were ever left behind to be found.

He felt Baekho knew it too.

It wasn't something they talked about.

But as they made their way down the brightly lit pavement, staying as much huddled in the centre of the bundle of lights as was physically possible, he wished that it had been. He wished they could at least talk about it now, about what he felt.

Because he felt it again.

The same way he had when he sat looking out over the city earlier. He felt them watching him. He felt their longing to leave their hiding places. But there was more, something else than merely longing.

Determination?

He was shaken from his thoughts when he heard Mouse cry out. All of a sudden, he started writhing in Baekho's grasp and yowling loudly. He looked almost as if he wanted to escape. To keep him from worming his way out, Baekho held onto the bundle the cat was in more tightly, evoking a pained screech. He hated having to do that, but he couldn't afford letting the creature escape. If he ran away now he'd be dead for sure.

Ren had other thing to worry about. Because beyond the ruckus his cat was making, he heard its cause. Though very faintly, he noticed something shuffle in the shadows beyond. He looked around to try and pinpoint its location, but there was too much interference on Mouse's part.

Everything happened very quickly then.

He heard the thump, followed by the sudden and petrifying silence as Mouse instantly stopped moving and worse yet: the darkness. All the flood lights in the entire street went off all at once.

It was free game now.

“Oh no.” Ren faintly registered Baekho's unimaginative exclamation It was quite funny how devoid of fear his friend sounded at that moment. No quiver was present in his voice, no tone of panic, only a calm certainty. He had exactly the same feeling. For a reason he couldn't possibly explain, his mind was completely clear and his heart free of any feelings as the thought ran trough his head.

We're going to die.

Author's Note: I'm sorry about that first conversation between Ren and Baekho, but I just thought, that's what people talk like isn't it? Most of us as far from eloquent in real life, especially with good friends. It's like, the better you know someone, the less intelligent and meaningful you sound talking to each other. Like... yeah.

Remember how I said I'd post this on Friday or Saturday?

Yeah... that was a lie. Enjoy your Monday lies.

T.T Oh no Mouse. I hate it when animals get hurt/die in stories. People I don't give a darn about, but not the animals! I was so sad while writing this!