[CONTENTID1]

fifty-eight: a moment of silence

[/CONTENTID1][CONTENTID2]

[“Something to remember him by.”]

[/CONTENTID2][CONTENTID3]

Their footsteps echoed loudly down the metal tunnels without any talking for many long, long minutes. Possibly hours. Juyeon couldn’t tell anymore; she quickly lost track of time when every odd noise made her jump. Even though fluorescent light bulbs hung from the ceiling and illuminated the tunnels with bright, artificial light, it still felt creepy and dark.

”What kind of tunnel is this anyway?” Kai finally blurted out, as though he couldn’t handle walking in silence anymore. “It’s huge. You’d think we’d have discovered it by now after all these years.”

”We didn’t know about the underground classrooms, did we?” Sehun pointed out, glaring at the mildew-covered walls with disgust. “The entrance was hidden behind a locker. The entrance to this place might be the same thing.”

”Check out the water damage,” Suho said, pointing out the dark discolorations. “There’s a bit of rust in some places. And check out those cement parts—mold. There used to be water down here.”

”Are you saying these were pipes?” Chanyeol asked incredulously. His voice bounced along the walls and echoed down the tunnel, a hundred Chanyeols calling back to them. “Look at this thing, it’s huge! Who even needs plumbing that big?”

”For the same reason why we’re down here, probably—to have an escape route if need be,” Suho said. “This probably goes down under the lake.”

”I knew there was a secret tunnel under the lake,” Juyeon muttered to herself. Guess the rumours coming from the rest of the Academia were half-right, after all.

”Um, did that Taehyuk say something about ghosts? Or whatever?” Baekhyun asked, his voice in a distinctly higher pitch than normal. “Didn’t he say someone died down here? And that they’re haunting the tunnels?”

”He was being sarcastic,” D.O said. Juyeon caught the barest hint of eye rolls in her peripherals. “There’s no such thing as ghosts.”

”That’s what you s all ing think.” Water dripped somewhere far away and echoed back to them, making Baekhyun flinch. “When we’re getting chased by some—some paranormal spectre bull, you’ll all regret not taking my concerns seriously.”

Juyeon, incredibly, found herself fighting back laughter, even though she was plenty scared herself. “Okay, who let him watch the Blair Witch Project when he was thirteen?”

”What’s that?” D.O asked, curiously.

”The Blair Wi—it’s—ah, never mind. Look, ghosts aren’t real, Baekhyun. There’s no scientific evidence that proves its existence.”

”There’s no scientific evidence of superpowers, either,” Baekhyun pointed out, head whipping away to stare frantically down a dark branching tunnel, “and look where we are.”

”Touché.” She squinted off into the distance. “Are we getting anywhere close to an exit? I feel like we’ve been walking for hours.”

”It’s only been thirty minutes,” Suho called out from the front.

” me, how much longer do we have?”

”Taehyuk said it should take about an hour.”

Juyeon fought back a small whimper of fear. The tunnels branching off from the main one were all dark and impossible to look into, but she had a feeling the tunnels were a complete maze. “It’s so creepy down here. And slightly suffocating. This is like the setting of every single slasher movie I’ve ever been stupid enough to watch.”

”Relax, tomato girl,” Sehun grunted , kicking a small rock down the tunnel. It made a louder sound than they all anticipated, bouncing off the metal floor and creating ripples of echoes everywhere. They all flinched, and after a tense pause, everyone continued walking. “And what are slasher movies?”

Juyeon weakly laughed. She wasn’t sure if her hands were shaking from the creepiness of the tunnels or from hunger. “Tell you what. We get out of all this alive and I’ll teach all of you about the horror genre of normal pop culture.”

”Sounds like a plan,” Chanyeol said, and as if it was a reflex, he flexed his fingers and created a small ball of flame that rested against his palm. It didn’t particularly add to the light source already shining down on them, but it did make Juyeon feel a little safer. Slasher movies never had to deal with victims who could fight back with superpowered gifts, after all.

”Actually, never mind. I don’t want you guys to get any ide—aaaaagh!”

Juyeon’s amused words broke into a shocked little scream. Almost instantly, the Exo reacted. Sehun was the closest and pushed her away, to the middle of the group, and Kai immediately wrapped an arm around her waist for a split-second teleportation, if need be.

”What is it?” Suho asked, looking around frantically.

”No, it’s not—it’s—” Juyeon stammered, pointing down one of the pitch-black side tunnels. “Down there, there’s something—”

”A person?”

”A body.”

There was silence. Then, Chanyeol said, voice shaking, “Okay, Sehun and I will go check it out. The rest of you take Juyeon and—”

”Oh, no!” Juyeon snapped, cheeks flushing red with embarrassment at the high-pitched scream that had left her lips. She was supposed to be keeping her cool, dammit! “I’ve seen too many horror movies to know what splitting up does.”

”Well, I’ve never seen any of these horror movies, so—”

”Trust me