Inception

The room was quiet, save for the minor sounds of utensils lightly clattering against plates as the two others in the area ate their food. The piled boxes of silverware and appliances that once filed on top of the kitchen’s counters several hours ago were now emptied out, and put away into the cabinet and drawers of the expanse. It was now morning but the images of the night  still haunted my mind.

Don’t Trust Him.

“Kyungsoo honey, what’s wrong?”

"Huh?" I blinked, snapping out of my thoughts. I scooped into the food before me, taking a biteful of the air cooled meal.

"You seem a bit out of it, honey." I could see the concern in my mother eyes as she stared at me.

"It's nothing, mom." I gave her a small smile, brushing off any unease she was having. "I just didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to."

"Oh really?" She stood up, collecting her's and my father's empty plates. "But you were sleeping so soundly when we went to go get you for dinner. We guessed you situated in your new room much quicker than expected. Do you like it?"

"It's good." I took another bite of food. "The room is bigger than my old one. I just have to decorate it more with my stuff. Did you open my windows when you came in my room before?"

"No, why?" She turned the water on to wash the dishes.

"They were opened when I woke up during the night. The cold air snapped me out of my dream."

She hummed. "Maybe the wind opened them. Just lock them next time."

Nodding, I finishing the last bit of my meal. "Speaking of windows, the neighbour's son and my windows are directly across from each other. I think we should get some curtains."

I didn't want Kai looking into his room like he had before. It was kind of creepy still. Even at the moment  I felt like I’m being watched. 

My eyes drifted towards the doorway on a instinct, but nothing was there.

"Oh the neighbours have a son? We didn't get to meet them yet."

"Yeah." I stood up and handed his empty plate to my mother. "Suho said that his name is Kai."

"Suho? Kai?" My dad lifted his eyebrow towards my direction. "What kind of names are those?"

"They're just nicknames, yeobo." My mother laughed. "You know how kids are these days. Was Suho the one you were flirting with outside yesterday?"

"F-Flirting?! Mom!" I blushed in embarrassment. "We were just talking."

"Sure." My dad chimed with a light smile.

I groaned causing my parents to erupt in laughter. The feeling in the room was warm but somewhere nearby I could feel something, an incipient cold, inside the home.

"You sure you you don't want to come into town with us?" My father asked from the car window.

I shook his head. "Suho said he was going to show me around town when I want so I'm going to go tomorrow."

"Picking a boy over us already?" He joked.

"No," I playfully rolled my eyes. "I'm just going to use this time to finish settling in my stuff. I have to Skype Baekhyun later because I promised him I'd do it as soon as we were settled in."

"Alright. Just don't burn the house down, we just moved into it." He shifted the gear in the car to reverse.

"I'm not five, dad. Have fun in town you guys." I waved as the car backed out of the driveway and drove down the street.

I stood staring down the street, the familiar feeling shooting down my back, making my body shiver.

Maybe I’m just being paranoid.

I walked back into the house, locking the front door before walking towards the staircase and upstairs. I stood in my doorway and scanned the for the remaining boxes I didn't put away. They stood next to the dresser my white board was on, the words in red remained untouched since I discovered them. Casting one more glance at the whiteboard I walked towards the boxes, opening one and pulling out my laptop wrapped in bubble wrap.

"My baby." I cooed, unwrapping the device and pulling out the cords to the charger. Once I got the device powered up and started, I sat on his bed, frowning as I realized my parents didn't reinstall the internet.

 -

-

The officer chuckled, startling Kyungsoo from his story.

“Oh I’m sorry,” Office Choi smiled apologetically. “It’s just kids concern with the internet all the time these days. It reminded me of my kids. But continue on with your story.”

Kyungsoo nodded with a small smile and continued on.

-

-

"Ugh, tell me someone has wifi around here." I clicked through the option until I hit one named KJI114. "Why are locked?" I pouted in disappointment.

"It's K.H.A." The voice merged out of air like a shadow off the walls.

"Why do you keep doing that?!" I tried to calm his started heart. I glared over at the neighboring male who leaned near the open window frame.

"I don't do it on purpose." Kai smirked. "But it is amusing to see how easily scared you seem to get."

The more the tanned male talked to me, the more I felt the attraction secretly grow. Kai's husky voice, his captivating facial features, and that bewitching smirk sent a red alert to my internal system.

"Well I don't find it amusing." I responded, snapping out of my revere. I started to type in the password into my laptop. "Is this your wifi?"

Why was I trying to keep a conversation with the male?

"Yeah." Kai responded nonchalantly.

"Well thank you for eavesdropping and helping me in my wifi need. You seem like a nice person." Maybe Suho was wrong about the boy.

"Who said I wasn't?" He asked bemused.

"I... Heard around." I logged into my skype account. I didn't want to say Suho's name straight out and rat out the male.

"From Suho?" Kai's voice changed, now cold and hard. I saw his eyes narrow at the name but the boy still held a smirk. "What did he say about me? Enlighten me would you."

I felt scared to answer the other. I felt like I had said something wrong. "Just... that you have a record." I paused. "But is it true?"

Kai didn't respond. He just smirked and walked away.

Maybe Suho was right.

"So how is the new home?" Baekhyun asked from the laptop screen.

I laid on my stomach on my bed as I chatted with my best friend. We had been talking about a tall guy Baekhyun ran into at the store on a grocery run for his mother since we started the video chat. "Its fine, it's just me here right now. It looks pretty nice but I miss our old home."

"Just say that you missed me." The brunette said, making me chuckle.

"I do. I don't have anyone to be friends with yet. Well, except for my neighbors."

"Ooh neighbors~." Baekhyun leaned closer into the screen. "Are they hot? How many are there?"

"Two and oh God yes they are. One is so nice and the other is like a mysterious bad boy." I glanced at my side window to make sure Kai wasn't there to hear me. "The bad boy actually lives close next door, like our room windows are aligned next to each others."

"Watch him get dress and tell me if he has a body." Baekhyun winked at me. An action to match the typical types of words I already missed him saying. "I might come visit sooner if I had a better motivation."

"You are horrible!" I gasped dramatically as the other laughed behind the screen. "I'm not going to spy on him!"

"You say that now, but you shall be tempted one day."

I was about to retort when he heard light shuffling from downstairs. I turned my head towards the direction of the sound, sitting up quietly to listen for it to happen again.

"What's wrong?" Baekhyun asked. When I turned back I saw him frowning in a bit of curiosity and concern.

"I thought I heard something from downstairs." I picked up the laptop, quietly walking towards my door frame to listen better. I gave a look to my friend. "This house is weird, I swear."

The words were meant more than I weighed them at the time.

"Maybe you're parents came back." Baekhyun suggested, reaching somewhere on his desk and plopping a chip into his mouth.

"I didn't hear the front door open... Let me go check." I placed the laptop on top of his drawer. "Be right back."

I made my way downstairs, walking slowly as I approached near the kitchen where the sounds came from. "Mom? Dad?"

There was no response.

I walked into the kitchen, but there were no traces of life but myself inside. Whoever I thought was in there wasn't, but my eyes landed on the silverware that was now laying on the kitchen counter instead of the dish rack. I didn’t think about it, I just assumed my mother must have forgotten to put them away.

The floorboard creaked slowly above me, drawing my attention to upstairs now. I felt my head drop for a second as I began to reakize that whoever I heard was now upstairs.My body sprang on alert as I hastily made my way upstairs and into my room.

No one.

There was still no one in the room or the house but me. I felt my mind go blank from the irrational explanations that could have justified what was happening.

"What took you so long?"

My head tilted towards my laptop screen. I almost forgot about Baekhyun.

"Sorry," I picked up the laptop, pushing aside what just happen. If there was no one there and nothing wrong, why should I over worry right?

"You owe me a house tour for taking forever and for being a liar." Baekhyun was looking back, his mother's voice could be heard faintly in the background.

I frowned. "A liar? When did I lie?"

"You said you were the only one home. You liar." Baekhyun smiled knowingly at me. "And don't try to pretend like you don't know who I'm talking about because I saw her when she passed by the screen."

I felt myself pale, freeze. My eyes surely widen in shock but Baekhyun didn't notice because he was now turned away from the screen and talking to his mother.

"Gotta go, Soo baby. My mom is sending me on another run. Talk to you later!"

The screen went black, disconnecting the brunette from the me.

Her.

There was someone in my house right now. But how could that be when I just checked around? Clutching my phone in my hand I slowly walked out of my room, cautiously looking in each room of the floor.

As I looked down the hall into my parents' room I heard it again.

The slow, drawn, creaking of the floor board.

The floorboard that was behind me.

I went frigid, body still as ice. I felt it, the presence of someone right there behind me but I was too scared to turn around. I was paralyzed by fear. But I could feel, feel it as if it was slowly reaching out to grab at me and-

Click.

The front door opened had opened.

"Honey? We're back!"

The presence seemed to have disappeared that instance and all I could do was run down the stairs and into the arms of my parents.

"What's wrong honey?" My mother asked, startled by how shaken I was in her arms.

"This house..." I couldn't finish my words, the fright still overpowering my mind.

"Its okay honey." My mother comforted me. She was probably looking to my father for answers but I could sense he was just as lost as she was. "You are probably uneasy about being in a house you're not use to. You just need to go rest probably. Come on."

My mother led me up the stairs into my bedroom, guiding me to the bed.

She looked around the room, eyes landing on one object. "Oh Kyungsoo! Look at this! Your whiteboard!"

The whiteboard! I almost forgot about it in the moment. How would would I explain the writing on it?

I shot up, panic washing through my body. "Mom I-"

I stopped, stupefied as my eyes landed on the whiteboard in my mother's hands.

The white canvas facing innocently towards me.

There was nothing on the whiteboard anymore.

But how?

‘Maybe... it was never there.’ A part of my mind thought. 

"Aw, you still have this honey? I thought you tossed it long ago." She placed the whiteboard back as she found it. "Well I'll call you when dinner is ready."

I sat in silence as I watched his mother leave, closing the door behind her.

I was losing my mind in this house already.

I sighed and flopped back onto my bed with a groan, putting my arm over my eyes. I let the silence take me and my thoughts around in constant questions with few to little answers that could answer them.

Knock, Knock.

The noise interrupted my thoughts, bringing me back to where I was.

"Come in." I said, not bothering to move.

But the door didn't move an inch.

I frowned, sitting up to look at my door.

Knock, Knock. The noise sounded again.

"Come in." I said again. But there was nothing again.

I got up from my bed, opening the door.

"I said you could-" I looked at the empty hall in a mixture of confusion and fear as I stepped outside the room, feeling a cool breeze pass by as I entered the hall.

"I'm going insane," I muttered to myself as I cautiously walked back to my room, taking one last glance at the empty hall before closing the door back. "I need to get more sleep."

Little did I know then that I had opened the door to all that was yet to come.