I shook violently in fear as I watched Sehun choke in pain. He constantly grabbed air, the grudge was choking him.

I didn’t understand how this worked; how she could choke him and hurt him when Sehun couldn’t even touch her physically.

I backed away a few steps.

Where the was I?

What kind of town am I in?

Why am I here?

Is this seriously what South Korea is like? Do the residents of Korea know that there’s a place like this? With the curse and all?

“C-Claire.” Ava whispered in fear.

I looked over at her. “Huh?”

Kai stood and carefully aimed his gun, the grudge moved fast, he was scared of hurting Sehun by accident but then again, Sehun was barely human.

She reached over and gasped when her hand went right through her. “Claire…she’s that girl you guys told me about. In the curse, she’s that girl.” She pointed to her nametag which was old and raggedy, it was stained with blood and her pale face didn’t help her appearance at all.

Ava didn’t think, she grabbed Sehun and pulled him away.

I gasped when they both fell on the floor, Sehun panted violently for air in Ava’s arms while the grudge just crawled towards them. Her head was all twisted and her bone structure seemed a little too unnatural.

I grabbed all the guns and all the weapons.

Ava scrambled up and with the help of Kai; they put Sehun’s arms around their necks and walked him out.

I watched in envy as Ava propped Sehun up against a tree, his chest rose and dropped quickly as he breathed in the fresh air.

She brushed his bangs out of his face and wiped his forehead. “You okay?” she whispered. Ava ran her fingers down his arms looking for bruises.

Sehun nodded. “We should get going.” He panted. “I’ll be okay…just…startled.”

We walked around the neighborhood looking at the amount of human bodies that were about to be turned into corpses. “Why is this happening?”

Kai looked down at his tablet once again. “The original corpses were people who used to live in this town, they were in love before. That’s why they all died…and we just saw Claire, that can’t be a good thing. That only means one thing; the demons….they know someone’s going to fall in love here. Either that, or someone already did.”

Ava looked around, she seemed unhappy for some reason. “Guys, where do we go now? The laboratory is unsafe.” I said.

Ava stopped.

“…I feel like nothing ever happens in my house…why don’t we just go there?”

We all stopped and looked at each other.

“Seems a bit suspicious no? Nothing happens at your house…” Sehun whispered.

“Don’t forget about the things that popped out of nowhere during the first day…” Baekhyun said.

“We really don’t have any other option right now.” Kai said in defeat.

I walked into Ava’s house and already I was uncomfortable, a chill ran down my spine. I suddenly felt cold; I remembered the doll that fell.

The angel statue and the crying baby.

There’s something off about this house as well.  

I walked in behind Ava and looked around. Her parents were in the living room, were they oblivious as to what was going on outside?

They made us dinner and didn’t comment much on the clothes we were wearing. How often do you see your daughter come into your house dressed all in leather with three guys behind her carrying guns?

I thought it was suspicious that they didn’t ask us or anything. They didn’t ask why Kai had a bloody gash on the side of his face.

They didn’t ask why Sehun had shoulder pains.

They didn’t acknowledge the blemish on Ava’s jaw.

They didn’t notice the cut on my brow bone.

Nothing.

They treated us as if we were perfectly fine and we weren’t…not at all.

We all went into Ava’s room after dinner; Sehun sat on the floor by her bed and put his rifles together.

Kai refilled all our guns with bullets and I looked through all the information we had.

It was all quiet and peaceful until a blood curdling scream came from the bathroom.

I shot up and ran in, Ava was shaking as she backed away. Her back hit the walls, she was already crying when she came in.

She must’ve been fixing up her cut. I saw the first aid kit on the sink.

“Ava…what happened?”

She shook violently in my arms, Sehun came in as well. “What was that?”

With shaky hands, she pointed to the mirror. “There was someone behind me…” She choked out. “A lady…she stood behind me.” She whispered.

She gasped and let out another little yelp. Ava pointed to the window above.

Kai slowly looked up; we stared in fear as she saw a woman staring right back at us.

We sat in a circle on the carpet of her room.

“I say one of us stays up for a few hours just in case, then we switch.”

“I’ll go first.” Kai said. “I’m wide awake.”

I watched as Sehun sat in a chair and grabbed a pillow.

Ava climbed into bed and looked around before looking at me. “Baek…come here.”

I propped my head up against the pillow and made sure Ava fell asleep before I drifted off to sleep as well. Soon enough, Kai drifted off to sleep and I don’t think Sehun ever woke up to keep watch.

We were somewhat safe in her house, but deep down, I had a bad feeling about her house anyway.

She woke me up in the middle of the night and asked why I was breathing so heavily.

I wasn’t.