Oubliette - A dungeon with a door only in the ceiling; a place where one puts people and things to forget about them. 

      If the funeral had been gut wrenching, being alone in his room with only his grief threatened to tear Chanyeol apart from the inside out. Sitting on his bed, Chanyeol tossed his tie aside. He didn't have the energy to get changed yet. Instead he caressed the scarf in his hands. It looked ridiculously tiny and batted in his large hands. There were no stains on it - the scarf being the only thing of Baekhyun's that hadn't been covered in mud, freezing water, or blood. 

     Chanyeol closed his eyes, squeezing it as tight as he could. He remembered when Baekhyun had bought it. They had been hanging out at the mall when Baekhyun jokingly picked it up from the sale's bin. Chanyeol had told him it was ugly, it only made Baekhyun want to buy it even more. The small boy had laughed, sticking his tongue out at the bigger boy. After that Chanyeol had made it a point to tease Baekhyun about it. Ugly, he called it. Hideous. Who wears strips anymore? HE wouldn't wear anything like that. Now the scarf was the most precious thing Chanyeol had. 

     A tear rolled down his cheek. Chanyeol reached up to brush it away only to find more falling. Overwhelmed he let out a shaky sob. At the funeral he had been numb and angry. Now he was alone and all he could do was think and think and think. 

     Baekhyun!

     Chanyeol cried, not even trying to be quiet. Crumbling into a heap on his bed, he gripped the scarf like it was the only thing keeping him sane. Maybe it was. Baekhyun, he cried out silently. I'm so sorry....I should've have been there, please I should have been there!

    Knock Knock!

    Chanyeol didn't bother opening his eyes. His parents should know better than to talk to him now. Didn't they understand that Baekhyun was more than his best friend? No, they wouldn't know that. That was a secret Chanyeol had told no one. He regretted that choice so badly it hurt. 

      "What?" he called out. "What could you possibly want?"

      The door handle rattled. "Sweetheart?" his mother called through the locked door. "Care you okay?"

       I'm never going to be okay. 

       "I'm fine," he rasped, burying his head into his pillow. He resisted the urge to throw up. "Go away."

       "Shion is here," she said, worry twisting her voice. "Do you want to see him? I-I thought he might help...."

      Shion....The name sparked a fire inside of Chanyeol. He stopped crying at once. Hands clutching the scarf, he stood up and strode towards the door. Chanyeol ripped the door open, almost pulling it off the hinges. "Tell him to go Hell," he snarled. 

      His mother took a step back, eyes huge. Chanyeol looked possessed. His eyes were blood shot, almost red with rage. His face was puffy and reddened from crying, his hands white as they gripped the scarf. Chanyeol shook with anger as he glared down the stairs where he knew he was waiting. 

     "But-" she stammered. "It's Shion. You-"'  

      "I'm not mad at you," Chanyeol said - because Baekhyun would want him to only be mad at those who deserved it. "I'm furious with him. Tell Shion I don't want to see him, hear him, or even knows he's alive. As far as I'm concerened he's dead to me."

      "It wasn't his fault," she whispered, almost crying herself. "And it wasn't yours." She reached for his face, begging him to let her touch him. "Please don't do this. Breaking up with him won't bring Baekhyun back."

      Chanyeol laughed bitterly, walking back into his room. "I broke up with Shion a long, long time ago," he said. "But I should've done it sooner. If I had Baekhyun wouldn't be dead."

     "No Chanyeol," his mother said imploringly. "No one could have known what was going to happen. Even if you had been there it might not have changed anything. Baekhyun might have been killed later or you could have died with him. No one knows, but you have got to move on."

       Chanyeol whirled around, not sure whether he was going to cry or scream. "I know! Baekhyun was there because of ME. I told him to met me there and then I didn't show up. Baekhyu would have never been alone there if Shion- If I-If we hadn't been." he stopped mid-sentence. Shaking his head he moved back to the door. "It doesn't matter what I was trying to do. The facts are that I was going and Shion stopped me. I let him stop me. Whatever he wants to say to me I don't ever want to hear."

       Chanyeol closed the door. 

       "Tell him to go to Hell," he whispered to himself. "Because that's where he and I are  going."

       Chanyeol stood by the door. Staying completely still, he heard his mother downstairs. She was telling him that Chanyeol wasn't "feeling up to guests quite yet". The front door closed with a bang! Shion had always been a bit childish. Chanyeol could see him now, moodily getting into his car and speeding off. Probably muttering something about how immature Chanyeol was being. 

      Sighing, Chanyeol his computer. He had work to do. Pulling up a new tab, he began his search. He meant what he said. He was going to fine out who killed Baekhyun. Holding the scarf in one hand, he searched for any known criminals. They lived in a smallish town so the results were few. Chanyeol groaned in frustration. There were no murderers, no offenders (if he had found one of them in town he would have ran over and killed them right then and there) no armed robbers or anything violent. No, he needed to dig deeper. If it had been that easy the police would have finished it by now. Chanyeol needed to look for someone less obvious, maybe someone with a record of being unpleasant, someone with rumors about them, maybe a drifter in town. Another search brought up a small list of people. 

      Chanyeol clicked 'print'. 

       Standing up, he took off his suit and pulled out some jeans and a sweater. The names were a long shot to be sure, but they were a start. Right now finding out who killed Baekhyun was the only thing keeping Chanyeol from giving into the black feeling of drowning himself. Creaking open his door, he checked for his parents. When they did not appear, he snuck out quietly. An unsettling feeling twisted in his stomach. Baekhyun hadn't known any of the people on his list. Up to this point he had assumed it was a freak coincidence that Baekhyun had been the victim that day. After all, who would target Baekhyun? The boy had been mostly invisible to everyone and those who did notice him weren't the killing type. 

     Still the feeling wouldn't go away. 

    Chanyeol walked outside and started his car. The gut feeling told him that Baekhyun had been killed by someone close to him. 

     Maybe someone close to Chanyeol. 

       Baekhyun might not be in Heaven, but he wondered if the House was a part of Hell. 

       He sighed, moving through the walls. At first he had struggled to find his way around it, Suho and Kris being no help at all. The House seemed to be in motion, closing off rooms and changing where halls lead. Sometimes it would be clean, sparkling even. The fires would be lit and everything would shine like the living lived there. Like children played in the halls and their laughter rang through the House. Then the light would fade and Baekhyun would be standing in a room full of the whispers of things lost. The dust would appear and the coldness set in. 

     During these times he felt the House was rotting from the inside out. 

     Didn't Hell rot? 

     Baekhyun moved into the living room. It had taken what felt like forever to realize that the House was rotting no matter what it looked like. The longer Baekhyun stared at the 'living' version the more he understood how fake it was. He could still smell the dampness, fell the cold breeze and hear the of the dying House. 

     The House was for the dead after all. 

      Soon after he realized that the House stayed like it really was. Whatever it had been trying to tell him had failed. Baekhyun trailed his hand over the ancient couch, watching his hand slid though it in places. He had struggled with phasing at first, always slipping in between being there and being elsewhere. He hated it when he wasn't all there. It was like having his soul from his body. 

      Ironic as he was just a soul with a rotting body lying in the ground somewhere. 

      Baekhyun turned and walked out of the room. He turned into the entry way, beginning to climb the stairs. He had explored this House inch by inch in his first few 'days' (time was hard to tell here). He found that on average, as the House continuelly sealing off doors and such, that there were 6 bedrooms, one kitchen, a pantry, a living room, two studies, a library, an attic, 4 bathrooms, a dining room, three gardens, an overgrown yard, four staircases, an entry way, a basement, a greenhouse and numerous closets and halls. Suho could be in any of them. 

       Baekhyun scowled at the thought of Suho. They hadn't explained anything. They had stood in the study, peering at Baekhyun like they didn't know what to do with him. Finally Suho spoke. 

     "I'm sure you have a thousand questions," he said. "All new Souls do. But we can't answer them all. The Ghost House is different for everyone, there's no set guide to it. You'll have to figure most of it out yourself."

     "The Ghost House?" Baekhyun asked. Something in his mind told him he had forgotten something important. "Is that what this place is?"

      Kris answered this time. "It's a small part of Purgatory."

      "Why am I here?" he asked softly. 

     "Who knows?" he answered, moving towards the door. "Who knows why any of us are here? We're all Lost Souls. People who've died with too many things left unresolved to go anywhere else. You're bound to the House and can't leave. Hence the always returning here. No one comes except for the dead and no one ever leaves."

      "What about the taxi?" Baekhyun asked. "Someone drove me here."

      "The Driver," Suho interjected. "We don't know who or what he is. We've all forgotten. He brings the new ghosts here and leaves without a word." He blushed sheepishly. "You can't get in and leave with him, I tried."

      Baekhyun shook his head, trying to make sense of it all. "But how do I get to Heaven?"

      Kris laughed. "You're asking the wrong ghosts. If we knew how to ditch this place we would be long gone."

      He vanished through the wall, making Baekhyun jump back. Suho patted his shoulder. "Don't worry he's like that," he said. "Always has been. The Ghost House will take care of you as long as you let it. Don't fight it and maybe you'll find peace here."

      "Peace?" Baekhyun asked bitterly. "Like the killer that jumped me earlier?"

     Suho sighed. "Sehun," he said. "His name is Sehun."

      That was all before he left. 

       Baekhyun threw the memory aside and drifted into a random bedroom. He couldn't explain it, but apparently ghosts needed to sleep at least a little bit. Not eat, although that was option. He didn't really have a bedroom he claimed as his. He just slept wherever he wanted to. It seemed to work. 

        BOO!

         Baekhyun screamed, hands flying up to defend himself. Sehun laughed, floating out from the floorboads. Shooting him venomous glare Baekhyun turned around to leave. 

       " you," he said. " ALL of you!"

       "What's the problem?" Sehun asked, following Baekhyun from the room. "Anry because you were murdered? Who did it anyway? Was it your boyfriend?"

      Snarling Baekhyun lunged at him. "You don't know anything!" He shrieked, shoving Sehun to the ground. The other ghost was taller than him, but he wasn't ready for a pissed off Baekhyun. Baekhyun jumped on top of him, striking him in a blind fury. He didn't really know if he was actually hitting Sehun, everything was a red blur. 

      Sehun hooked his leg over Baekhyun's, shifting upward suddenly. He rolled on top of Baekhyun, pinning his flailing arms to the ground. Panting heavily, his eyes gleamed red. Baekhyun squirmed, trying to get out of his insanely strong grip. 

     Then he laughed. 

       Baekhyun froze, what the heck? He was laughing. He scowled at him. "What's so funny?" he demanded. 

      Sehun rolled off of him, sitting off to the side. Baekhyun sat up. "You are," Sehun said. "They've all been worried about I mean I am and how you're new and all that . Turns out Luhan was right, you're a freaking poltergeist. We're the ones who have to watch out."

        He kept laughing. Baekhyun was surprised by how light hearted it sounded. Like they were two living boys who were friends. It was infectious and Baekhyun couldn't help but laugh too. He had liked to laugh when he was alive. When he was nothing but a normal teenager who laughed with his friends. 

       The thought of one friend made his heart freeze over. 

       Chan...

         Baekhyun stopped laughing. He couldn't remember the name. It was a gaping hole in his mind. A black spot that screamed at him never to remember the boy with a bright smile and stupidly huge ears. A freezing shadow stole over Baekhyun as he realized this boy had been a huge part of his death. I don't want to know what he did to me. 

       "Are you crying?" Sehun asked in astonishment. 

        Baekhyun reached up to feel the tear sliding down his cheek. He gave a hollow laugh before his face crumbled into tears. Sehun awkwardly patted him on the back. Only after Baekhyun's sobs turned into ragged breaths and hiccups did he speak. 

       "What is it?" he asked. "Five minutes you were literally trying to scratch my eyes out."

        Baekhyun shook his head, drawing his knees up to his chest and draping his arms around them. "I-I-I'm dead," he said. "My entire life is just gone. I don't get to grow up, finish school, go to college, get married....I don't get any of that. I'm dead."

        "We're all dead," Baekhyun said. "It's reality. Whatever life you could've had is gone now. You'll never get it back. But it isn't that bad here is it?"

        Baekhyun glared at him. "BAD?" he asked. "BAD? I'm stuck in a House that's falling apart with two ghosts who refuse to talk to me, a pyschotic one who think's it's fun to be an , I'm here because I can't go to Heaven and I can't even remember how I died!"

        Sehun's eyes slanted. "Can't or won't?"

      Baekhyun looked away to avoid his eyes. "Doesn't matter."

     "Course not," Sehun said. "Doesn't matter I think you know more than you're willing to tell." He stood up, brushing himself off. "If it hels, the Ghost House lies in the In Between. There's ways out of here if you know where and how to look for them."

      Baekhyun scrambled to his feet, eyes wide. "Out?" He asked. "You can get out of here?"

       Sehun shrugged, already fading away. Baekhyun stretched out his hand, trying to catch him. His hand went right through Sehun's shoulder. "Maybe," Sehun whispered as he vanished . "If you're desperate enough."