Annie’s POV:

Jongin and I woke up when his father called him. I heard ahjussi telling him that he’ll pick us up in ten minutes. Hearing that, I stumbled out of bed and walked into my closet to get changed. I put on a pair of jeans, a black tank top and loose, long-sleeved white shirt on top of it. After that I tied my hair into a ponytail and went back to the bedroom. Jongin was standing there, hands in his pocket, swaying back and forth. After a quick trip to the bathroom I was ready to leave. I stomped to the living room to say bye bye to everyone, with Jongin following closely behind me. When we got to the living room, I was surprised to see Yixing sitting on the backrest of the couch, facing the door. He stood up the minute he saw us.

“Hey Annie… I was thinking if I could come with you… I know that Jongin is already coming but I would like to come too… Like as an extra moral supporter” he said nervously. I looked at Jongin who nodded and I smiled at Yixing.

“I would love for you to come with us.” Yixing nodded and walked past us to the foyer.

“Well, guys, we’ll be going then” I sighed. Kris turned around and glared at Jongin. Then he looked at me.

“Good luck, I guess?” he turned back to Jongin.

“Jongin?” he said. Jongin stood up straight.

“Y-yeah?”

“…Look after her” Kris said and turned back to the TV.

After almost one and a half hours of driving, we were finally close to my family home. When the whole long line of police cars turned to the long driveway kind of thing, I grabbed a hold of Jongin and Yixing’s hands. Both of them exchanged worried looks with each other but didn’t say anything. When the car hit the small bumps on the road indicating that were on the front yard, I closed my eyes. The car came to a stop and ahjussi from the front seat said: 

“We’re here.” I squeezed the boys’ hands in even tighter and sighed: 

“Okay.” I took a deep breath and let Yixing help me out of the car. I heard car doors slamming as the other police officers got out of their cars. I made sure that I was tightly holding on to both Jongin and Yixing before opening my eyes. I looked at the house in front of me in shock and swayed backwards. Jongin immediately caught me and wrapped his arm around me to keep me standing still. Yixing held onto my shoulders, but I detached myself from both of them and took a few steps forward. The beautiful yellow colour of the house was now ruined by red splatters of paint all over it. Most of the splatters were random, but I could make out some words like ‘murderers.’ 

“W-what happened?”  I blurted out. Ahjussi casually walked to the front door and opened it with a key. 

“After everything that happened here came to the news, some of the neighbors were so angry that they decided to umm… re-decorate the place” he carefully said, motioning everybody to go in. Jongin and Yixing held my hands as we slowly got up the stairs. When I got through the door, I was surprised to see that everything was still exactly the same as it was two years ago when I left. Most importantly, the place was really clean. No dust, no stains anywhere.

“Cleaners come here once every two weeks. They keep this place clean in case it will be sold someday” ahjussi explained when he saw me looking around.

“I think you should show us the burial site so that we can start digging. After that, you can explore the house if you wish” one of the other police officers said in a rather official matter. I nodded and headed to the back door, which obviously would lead to the backyard. Jongin and Yixing both dragged behind me when I stepped on the back porch. I looked around and the fields, the woods and… that stupid barn. I was very careful when I followed the police officers towards the fields. I stopped by the ditch separating the fields from the backyard and looked around. The police officers gathered around me one by one. I moved slightly to right, then back to the left, trying to locate where the remains were buried. I jumped over the ditch and walked around. I stopped where I thought that the first victims were.

“I think this it” I said and police officers rushed over to me with shovels. Jongin pulled me back to the yard as the policemen started to dig like they were in a crazy rush. It didn’t take long before one of them yelled:

“I found something!” All the other ones rushed over to him and they looked like ants swarming around in their nest. Then somebody pulled up a worn out plastic bag which contained some brown liquid and a piece of something. The police officer inspected it.

“Chief” he called out for ahjussi.

“It’s an arm” he continued. I felt that lump from last night in my throat. Not long after somebody pulled out another bag.

“It looks like a head, sir” another police officer yelled. I slapped my hand over my mouth to keep myself from throwing up. I turned away and crouched down. Seeing that, Jongin and Yixing both rushed over to me. Jongin gently rubbed my back while Yixing told me that everything was okay. When I was sure that I wasn’t going to throw up, I stood up and held on to the boys’ shoulders. Ahjussi came over to me and patted my shoulder.

“Annie, why don’t you go inside? I think there’s nothing for you out here” he calmly said. I only nodded as a response. I let Jongin and Yixing lead me back to the house. They sat me down on the living room sofa and I lowered my head between my knees. With his left hand, Jongin held onto my hand and rubbed my back with his right hand.

“I’ll get you a glass of water” Yixing said and was about to leave for the kitchen, but I grabbed a hold of his hand with both of mine and stopped him.

“No no no no no” I pleaded. I knew that anything that I’d eat or drink, I’d throw up.

“No need to. Really.” Yixing nodded in understanding and sat on the other side of me. After a good fifteen minutes of getting myself together, I decided that it was time to get up and take a tour of the house. I slowly stood up, immediately supported by Jongin and Yixing. I weakly smiled to them as a thank you for helping me and I headed upstairs. I smiled slightly at how everything was still same as it was in the happy part of my childhood. You know, back when I didn’t know that my parents were busy killing people. I remembered the step that was broken and needed to be stepped on the right way; otherwise you’d fall down the stairs. I also remembered the boys about that. I smiled at how the office door opened when somebody walked pass it; that’s how crooked the house was. I smiled at the family pictures surrounding us in the hallway. I opened the white door with pink flowers at the end of the hallway and stepped into my old bedroom.  I squealed as I threw myself on the bed and greeted my teddy bear.

“Hi Teddy Snuggles!” I exclaimed happily as I hugged the bear. I heard Jongin and Yixing laughing.

“That’s your teddy bear’s name? Teddy Snuggles?” Jongin chuckled. I threw a small fluffy pillow towards him.

“I was three when I got him, okay?” I said and glared at him. Jongin lifted his hands up in defeat but kept that grin on his face. Yixing wandered around the room and stopped in front of my old dresser. He inspected the big, wooden box on it and tried to open it. I knew that it was locked.

“Hey, Annie, what’s up with this?” Yixing turned to me and looked at me with his signature confused look. I pulled myself up from the bed and walked to Yixing. I stared at the box, then at him.

“It’s a music box.” Yixing huffed.

“Figures. But why is it not opening?”

“Because it’s locked.” Yixing laughed and wrapped his arms around me. 

“You are so precious” he mumbled into my shoulder.

“Do you know where the key is?” he asked as he lifted his head back up. I dug the key out of my pocket and flashed it in front of his face. By this time, Jongin had also become curious of the box and joined us. I pushed the key into the keyhole and turned it. I heard a click and lifted the lid of the box. I smiled again when the princess on the music box began to swirl and I heard the familiar music. My image of a perfect moment was quickly ruined when I saw something on the bottom of the box that didn’t belong there.  A brown envelope. I furrowed my brows as I snatched the envelope out of the box. To my surprise, the envelope was really heavy and thick. I ripped it open, furious at it because it ruined my perfect music box moment. I pulled out a pile of Polaroid pictures and immediately recognized the person in the first one. Henry. I gasped in shock before dropping everything on the ground.

“There’s two more” Jongin said and handed me two more envelopes. I was about to take them, but they slid through my hands on the floor. I looked at the scattered photos and the more I looked, the more faces I recognized. Jongin bend down to pick the fallen objects up and looked at me.

“What are these, Annie?”

“T-these are photos of the v-victims…” I muttered. When Jongin picked the photos up, I noticed that behind each photo was a number. #09. #56.#211.

“Hey, isn’t that Luhan?” Yixing said as he picked one of them and inspected it. I looked over and indeed, it was Luhan. A younger him, obviously, but no doubt, he was my beautiful doe-eyed Luhan-oppa. I took the photo from Yixing.

“What are these numbers?” Jongin asked.

“The ordinal number of the victim. As in – uh- the order they were killed in” I mumbled while still staring at Luhan’s photo.

“How many people did they actually kill?”

“I think 211 was the final number.”

“What is Luhan’s number?” Yixing asked. I flipped the Polaroid over and my heart sank.