Dormiveglia - The space that stretches between sleeping and awakening. 

     Baekhyun did not think Death would be like this. 

     He gripped the tattered seatbelt tightly, eyes fixed on the worn seat beside him. He hadn't really thought of Heaven, but he imagined it like one of the cheap Christmas cards his mother used to buy. A place of fluffy white clouds and fat babies with wings. Harps, halos, light. Even if it was different from that, he would think this would be the last place a dead person would end up. 

      In the backseat of a taxi. 

      Baekhyun shook his head. Taking in deep breaths he struggled to remain calm. Was this Hell? Forever driving in an ancient taxi can through darkness and rain?

      But a taxi. 

      "Excuse me?" he said, leaning forward to look at the Driver. The seatbelt, no matter how old, refused to give him much movement. He tried to take it off, but the buckly only glowed angrily in response. Baekhyun scowled at it. What was the use of a seatbelt when someone was dead? Dead. The word made him feel like someone had split open his head and thrown in a bucket of ice water.

     I don't even rememeber how I got here....It was all dirt and fear and the iron taste of blood. Already he'd forgotten exactly how it had happened. He realized he'd stopped breathing. in air he tried again. 

     "Excuse me sir?"

      "Yes?" the voice boomed. 

       Baekhyun leaned forward to look at him. His head went dizzy almost at once. He tried in vain to keep his eyes on the -was it a man? Baekhyun blinked. The Driver wouldn't stop moving. He twisted and changed so many times Baekhyun's head spun. Was he tall? Short? Bald? Pimples or a beard? He didn't know. He felt like as soon as he saw what the Driver once he forgot. 

      "I-I don't know where I am," Baekhyun asked, trying to steady his shaking voice. "I don't know how I got here."

      The Driver laughed, shaking the entire taxi as it sped down the road at a breakneck pace. Baekhyun clutched the side of the seat as hard as he could. A glance out the window showed nothing. All there that appeared were blackened trees whizzing by. Baekhyun yelled to be heard over the rattling of the taxi. 

    "Where are we going?"

      "There!" he yelled cheerfully. Baekhyun scowled. He couldn't even tell what the man's voice sounded like! It changed too quickly. What the hell was this man?

      "WHERE?" Baekhyun yelled as the car sped up, threatening to tear apart at the seams. 

      "It's an old place," the Driver cried out. "Older than time! It stands in the In Between and holds Lost Souls! Not all go there, but YOU will."

    "I'm a what?" Baekhyun asked. "What- where?"

     "You're a Lost Soul if I've ever seen one," he said. The taxi took a corner so fast Baekhyun was slammed against the window. He saw the dirt road come into view. We're going to flip over. 

       "You're a Soul so lost you can't get into Heaven or Hell. Probably because you were murdered you know? I saw the report, nasty business. This is where the House comes in, it's a resting ground if you will. Some call it PURGATORY!"

       The Driver began to scream. The word turned into a wailing shriek so loud Baekhyun threw his hands up to muffle it. It failed as the noise grew loud enough to shake the taxi violently. Make it stop! Baekhyun thought francticaly. 

       Silence. 

       Slowly, Baekhyun peeled his eyes open. The taxi sped away from him, kicking up a dust trail. He looked down, realizing he was clutching a ratty old suitcase that hadn't been there before. Already his memories of being inside the taxi were vanishing. Soon they were one blurry moment of panic. Baekhyun turned around. He stood in front of a gated house. 

      The yard was overgrown with weeds and plants. Broken glass lay around it, toys thrown into the mess. The house soared above him, three stories high. A leaning tower built into the side.The paint was chipping off and the windows dusty and broken. The porch sagged down, covered in filth. Baekhyun shuddered. No one had lived here in years. This was a corpse of house. 

     Unsure of what to do, Baekhyun took a hesitant step forward. What was this place? Vaguely he remembered hearing something about Purgatory, a place for Lost Souls. Is that what he was? A Lost Soul stuck in a depleted house for eternity?

       Baekhyun walked up the steps onto the porch. The wood groaned beneath him, causing him to flinch. He tried the door, finding it unlocked. Swallowing nervously, he opened it. It creaked, a sign it hadn't been used in a while. Gathering his courage, Baekhyun stepped inside. 

      "What are you DOING HERE?" A voice shrieked. 

       Baekhyun's eyes flew open as a ghost flew straight at him. It was completely white, eyes red and threatening to tear him to shreds. He screamed as he fell down to avoid the grasping hands. 

      "Get out!" It screamed. "GET OUT!"

      Forgetting he was a ghost too, Baekhyun run for the woods. He heard someone calling after him, calling him back. He ignored the voice. Baekhyun felt a pinching sensation in his stomach. A feeling that gripped his lungs too tight. Screaming at him that people who went into the woods alone died. 

       CRACK!!

       The tree branch whipped in front of his face. Baekhyun's hands flew up to stop it, but shoved againist something much harder. The heavy wooden door flew open and he fell on his face. Bewildered, he realized he was back in the House. A hand yanked him to his feet. Baekhyun found himself staring into the red eyes of a young man. He was pale, tall, with blonde hair that was smoothed back. He shook Baekhyun by the shoulders, snapping him out of his fear struck stupor. 

      "Calm down!" he barked. 

      "KRIS!" a voice called out. "He won't calm down with you shaking him, stop it."

      Kris rolled his eyes, but stopped. Baekhyun acted. He threw his hands up, pushing the much taller boy away from him. Kris flew through the air, smashing against the wall. Baekhyun gaped at the sight, realizing he had done it. Someone grabbed his outstretched arms. 

      Baekhyun whirled, flinging the brown hair ghost away from him. He ran out the door, hearing the crash behind him. Baekhyun raced down the massive staircase. He heard them yelling for him to stop. Baekhyun flung open the door. This time he headed down the dirt road he came on. 

        I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead.

        It buzzed through his skull, threatening to rip him open. 

        You're dead. 

         Baekhyun tripped. He threw his hands out to break his fall through to the dirt. Blinking, the dirt turned into wood. Landing on the floor, Baekhyun closed his eyes. Panting heavily, he realized he was back in the House. A prescence crept into his mind, a shadow probing at the very core of him. Baekhyun recoiled away from it. It pushed deeper. 

      Stay, it commanded, an ancient voice throbbing through his head. There's no way out of me. You're mine forever. 

       That didn't calm him down. Panicking, Baekhyun scrambled to his feet. Letting out a shuddering sob he tried the back door. 

       The side door. 

       The Windows. 

       The Kitchen door. 

       The Basement. 

       All roads led back into the House. Baekhyun kept running though, his fear refusing to let him stop. He saw the three ghosts watching him, waiting for him to stop. He didn't like looking at them. Their eyes were full of pity, of anger. They gleamed red, their skin pale and in some places he could see right through them. 

       I can't stay here. 

      "Hey," the quiet one who had told Kris to back off called out. "It's going to be okay."

       It stopped Baekhyun short. He stood on the stairs, fingernails digging into the bannister wood. Everything in him told him to keep going. Told him to fling open the door and run even when he knew he'd end up in the House again. Baekhyun closed his eyes. He was beginning to understand he wasn't going to be able to leave. 

      Stay. 

      "Come on," the ghost said, offering Baekhyun a hand. "My name is Suho...you're going to be okay."

      Feeling numb, Baekhyun took his hand. Suho led him up the stairs and into a study where Kris waited. 

     "What's your name?" Kris asked roughly. 

     "Baekhyun," he whispered. "It's Baekhyun."

      I'm trapped here forever. 

        Baekhyun was beautiful. 

       He had always been beautiful. Chanyeol had literally stopped breathing the first time he had seen the boy walk into his class. Baekhyun was small in everyway. He was thin, with slender hands that Chanyeol could stare at for hours. Baekhyun's hair was bright red, dyed in defience of his parents. His eyes flashed with fire when he was angry and gleamed with joy whenever Chanyeol made him laugh. Some people didn't think Baekhyun was pretty. They only saw the loud mouthed boy who got good grades and had few friends. 

       To Chanyeol he was the most beautiful person in the world. 

      Death did nothing to change that. 

       Chanyeol silently stood in the crowd of people dressed in black. He felt numb, like his brain and body had just shut down in response to what had happened. He watched as the coffin holding his best friend slowly made its way into the gaping grave. His tie was choking him, making it impossible for him to breath. 

       I can't believe this is happening....

        He looked around him, searching the sea of tired faces for a sign that this was a joke. Wasn't it a joke? A horrible prank that Baekhyun had died? No, he told himself. It isn't a joke....you should know. You're the one who find him. Across from him he saw his parents trying to comfort Baekhyun's. They silently wept as their only child was lowered into the ground. He saw students who came for a show, teachers who didn't know what else to do. Neighbors and strangers, people he thought might be relatives. It looked like the entire town had turned out to see the funeral of the high school boy who was brutally murdered. 

       Everyone but one. 

       If he had shown up Chanyeol might kill him. 

       Chanyeol tried to breath, hands keeping a death grip on the tatter blue stripped scarf. The police had tried to take it away from him at the site, but he'd insisted on keeping it. It was the only thing keeping him together at the moment. 

     "He was so young," someone whispered behind him. "Did they find out who did it? The stories are gruesome..."

    "Not yet," a man answered in a high voice. "But I heard what the body looked like. Boy was covered in blood, broken legs and freezing wet. Horrible, they couldn't even show the body at the wake."

     Chanyeol's knuckles turned white as he clutched the scarf. His fingernails dug into his palm, possibly drawing blood. He shook with anger. How dare they stand there and talk about Baekhyun? They didn't know him. For Heaven's sake his parents were less than ten feet away crying their hearts out over their child. 

       "See the boy in front of us?" the man's nasally voice continued. "The tall one with that ugly scarf? I heard he found the body in the old River. People are saying there was a trail of blood leading to where it got dumped...but other's are saying the boy drowned. No one knows who killed him. The most popular rumor was it was a stalker. Or maybe he'd ticked off the wrong person. Who knows? He was kind of ty from what I knew, maybe he was beg-"

     Chanyeol whirled around, punching the man straight in the front. People gasped, backing away hurriedly. Chanyoel yanked the man to his feet by his tie. "How dare you?" he hissed into his face. "You don't know a damn thing you bastard." 

      He couldn't stop himself, he punched him again. Again, and again. Maybe he could have stopped if he really wanted to, but Chanyeol didn't want to. Suddenly he had an outlit for all the emotions raging inside of him. "You didn't know him!"

     "Chanyeol stop it!" A familiar voice cried out. 

      Hands seized his arms, pulling away from the man. Chanyeol let himself be led away, shooting the terrifed man one last dirty look. The teacher walked Chanyeol to the edge of the cemetary, far away from the crowd in black and that coffin holding the one thing Chanyeol truly loved. 

     Are you okay?" Kang Tae Won asked, full of concern. 

      Chanyeol shook his head, refusing to look the mathematics teacher in the eye. "I---It-He said Baekhyun was...." he kicked at the ground, savagely wishing that twig of a man had been the one in the coffin. "Baekhyun didn't deserve this," he finally said. "He deserved to live. He deserved to be happy and get out of this hell hole."

      "These things happen," Tae Won said gently. "It isn't anybody's-"

       Chanyeol him. "Fault?" he snarled. "It is someon's fault. I put Baekhyun there. I wasn't there and that bastard killed him. It's on me and it's on them."

       He took a step back from Tae Won. The teacher held out his hands as if to implore him to stay. Chanyeol shook his head. 

       "I'm going to find out who did this," he said, holding the blue striped scarf to his chest. "And I'm going to kill them."

        Tae Won called after him, but Chanyeol kept running. 

       I swear to God I'm going to kill whoever's responsible for this. 

Hello everyone :) Here's the very first chapter of this story. I was ridiculously happy when I came on to post the first chapter and saw I already had an up vote and 7 subscribers. That's amazing! Thank you very much! ^_^