Pluviophile - A lover of rain; someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days. 

   Baekhyun knew more now than when he first arrived. 

    He was in the In Between, a strange, dark place. It fell between Heaven and Hell and was a mix of both without being either one. It was both a maze and a never ending story. It never ended and held an infinite amount of lives and dreams inside of it. Broken people, broken dreams. The In Between could be called a shelter for the lost. Lost Souls, as someone once called Baekhyun. Souls who clung to tightly to life to pass quietly into Heaven or too violently to survival to be thrown into Hell. These souls, like him, missed their afterlife and fell into the hazy nothingness that was the In Between. 

     Once, Baekhyun believed the In Between was place for Lost Souls to be Found. He was told that it sheltered them, guiding them through the infinite loop. It guided them to the best place for their brokenness to be mended. Once they were, they drifted away into the bright light. When Baekhyun placed his hand on the white mirror's crack, he thought he was feeling Heaven in the light. It was warm and wild, pure and utterly overwhelming to his Lost Soul. Placing his fingers on that tiny shard of light burned and pulled. It left him feeling dizzy and full of fear. Like he had touched a comet racing into the night sky. 

       Baekhyun knew the mirror lead somewhere outside of the House. Maybe even to Heaven. He didn't think he'd ever find out. The House, that old, old House sitting on the edge of the In Between, had marked him. He belonged inside of it along with the other crying Souls. The Ghost House made the rules and the ghosts danced to them. Baekhyun, Sehun, Lay, Xiumin, Luhan, Kris, Suho. 

       Puppets. 

       Baekhyun stood in the attic, staring out of the dusty window into the front yard. His eyes were half closed and his hands pressed against the glass. 

        I wonder when this House will finally break us all to pieces. 

        Baekhyun had been here for what felt like eternity. He had learned not to just see things, but to know things. 

       He was beginning to see things as they really were, not just what they appeared to be. A gift, Sehun said, given to those who had accepted the House was their afterlife. 

       The first sign of the coming taxi was a low rumbling noise coming from down the road. Seconds later a dust cloud appeared, rising through the trees. Baekhyun frowned, nails scrapping into the glass. He couldn't remember if this was a rare occurrence or something that happened quite a bit. Time is so hard....He watched as the taxi came into view. It drove wildly down the long, winding road that s out of the woods and to the House. 

      "A new one?" Sehun asked, drifting to his side. 

       Baekhyun shrugged. "I guess," he said quietly. "It never comes without one." He glanced over at the taller ghost. Sehun looked haggard, more deathlike now than when he ghosted through walls. Baekhyun's stomach twists because he didn't want to know what horrible thing it took to make a ghost look dead. Sehun lights a cigarette, breathing in the smoke Baekhyun's positive helped kill him. Sehun caught his eye and offered him one. 

     "Can't hurt anymore," he said. "It's not like you're going to die of cancer now."

      Baekhyun sighed, accepting the gift. Sehun light it for him and Baekhyun watched the embers slowly fall from the end of it to drift down to the floor. 

       "It's here," Sehun said. 

       Baekhyun looked out the window. The taxi had pulled to an abrupt stop. The door creaked open and out stumbled two ghosts. One was tall with big puffy eyes like he'd been sobbing the entire way. The other boy was taller too, with dark brown hair. He hopped out after the first one, eyes wide as he grappled with the idea that he was a ghost. Baekhyun guessed he would adjust quickly. The other....the other had hair as black as midnight and clutched his bag like it was his life. In a way, it was. 

         The man, child, wasn't what he used to be. He was a Soul caught in the House. His body is empty and buried. If he was lucky, his body lay in a little cemetery with flowers on his tombstone. His name carved carefully into the stone. Maybe he even had people tending to his grave. People who loved him and remembered him for as long as grief and life allowed.

      Baekhyun doubted he was that lucky. His memories were blurred, changing and shifting like sand running through an hourglass. His memories are like watching a movie in reverse. They're dirt under his fingernails and iron tasting blood in his mouth.  Blood that trickled down from his face and from the large gashes in his legs. Water filled his lungs and he cried in desperation for someone who- without really knowing why- he knew wasn't coming. There were no names, no specifics. Only the fact that he died brutally knowing he was forgotten in the manner he had forgotten. 

      He'd be a tragedy if he ever remembered why. 

     The tall one began to cry. He didn't seem to notice the taxi driving away from him. He looke so lost and unsure that Baekhyun's heart leapt in his chest. He wanted to help, but he really didn't know how. Baekhyun was shattered too and knew he shouldn't be trying to mend other Souls. Sehun seemed to sense what Baekhyun was thinking because he put out their cigerattes and pulled him away from the window. 

      "Don't," he said. "Suho and Kris will manage them. They always do. Getting attached to new people is one of the dumbest things you can do. Let them figure this hell out first."

       Baekhun laughs bitterly, letting Sehun's icy hand guide him through the floors of the aging House. "What about me?" he asked. "You're friends with me and I'm not even close to figuring this out."

        Sehun shrugged. "You're...." he trailed off like he didn't really know. 

       Baekhyun and Sehun avoided the other ghosts gathering in the living room. He could hear the ghost crying and Suho trying to calm him down. He shuddered and pushed himself down into the basement of the House. I don't need to know another tragic life story. Not today. 

        Sehun floated down beside him. If he was surprised Baekhyun chose to come here he didn't mention it. The basement was Baekhyun's least favorite place. He hated it. It was always dark and musty, smelling like it was rotting. The wood and stone creaked and groaned like the House was breathing its last breath. The floor is broken concrete, cold and hard. The walls are crumbling and if it wasn't a house for the dead Baekhyun would think the House was going to crumble on such a shaky foundation. 

      "Let's just hang out here until-"

        Sehun's hand slammed over Baekhyun's mouth, the other dragging him to his chest. The tall ghost pulled him behind a pile of rotting boxes. Baekhyun glared at him, shoving his hand off of his mouth. 

      "The hell Se-" he stopped. Sehun held a finger to his lips, pointing around the boxes. Baekhyun rolled his eyes, but grudgingly looked. He was glad he did because he hates pain and if they had been caught he would be in for a day of hell. 

       "What's Xiumin doing here?" he mouthed at Sehun. Sehun shook his head, motioning Baekhyun to shut up. 

        Xiumin sat on the cold ground. He shivered in the damp air, knees pulled up to his chest with arms wrapped around them. Baekhyun watched as the ghost cried. His heart seemed to freeze in his chest at the sound. Xiumin's tears weren't those of an adult breaking down. They sounded like child crying out in pain. His fingers clutched a broken razor blade, bleed trickling down his sleeve from the deep cuts in the white skin. Xiumin shaked from his sobs, head buried in his arms. Baekhyun feels like throwing up at the sight. Out of everyone in the House, Xiumin always seemed the happiest, albiet the quietest. 

       Several more minutes pass. Baekhyun began to stand up to go talk to Xiumin, but Sehun dragged him back down. Baekhyun was about to argue when he realized Luhan had appeared. Sehun and Baekhyun were smart enough not to come out now. Luhan, out of all of the ghosts, was the most unstable. Some times Baekhyun wondered how one earth he'd wound up in the House. He was beautiful to the point it hurt to look at him at times. His eyes were large and seemed to hold the sun in them. Luhan, when in a good mood, was charming to the point everyone in the House couldn't help but fall under his spell. His words slipped from his pretty mouth so easily, dancing through their minds and pulling everyone to his side like he was some kind of succubas. And oh God his laughter. It rung out, piercing through any kind of walls they had built up in seconds. 

       Times like that, Luhan seemed more like an Angel than a ghost. 

        Other times, Baekhyun couldn't believe he wasn't in Hell. 

        Luhan, when angered,was a demon. He leapt to his feet, beautiful face twisting in rage. If he was a piece of sun when happy, Luhan turned into a hurricane when angered. Baekhyun could feel the fury pouring from him, poisoning the air until he couldn't even breathe. The House would groan as if it knew what was coming and couldn't stop it. Lightening flashed, ghosts screamed and ran for cover. Luhan ing laughed as he surged forward to claim his victim. Thunder boomed and the ghosts prayed to whatever God they could think of that the crackling force of chaos would be swayed to calm down by a tiny ghost whose face looked like a steam bun. 

         Ironies....what sets him off is the one thing that can stop him. 

          Luhan hovered over Xiumin, his face conveying how much seeing Xiumin like this hurt him. Reaching down, he tore the blade away, throwing it to the ground. Xiumin's head jerked up, revealing tear stained cheeks and swollen eyes. He looks horrible. Luhan scooped the frail boy into his arms like he weighed nothing. Baekhyun watcheed in silence as he Xiumin's hair. Luhan tilted his head to whisper into his ear. The actions are quiet and comforting. A side he only shows to Xiumin. There was no false charm, no raging fury.

           Baekhyun sees. 

           As much as Sehun hated him, they are more alike than they were willing to admit. They were both Lost Souls. Both their lives were probably a mess. A life lived to please others that wound up costing them their souls. He didn't need to know the details. He knew enough about this House to know their deaths were . Baekhyun swallowed nervously as he watched Luhan hold on to Xiumin like he was the center of the universe. Like the In Between was just a place, like Hell wasn't real and Xiumin was his Heaven. 

          And Baekhyun wanted to throw up because he saw. 

          Xiumin was crying, but it was Luhan who was desperatly afraid. 

          "I can't lost you," he mouthed into Xiumin's hair. "I don't know-I-I can't take it if this place takes you away from me. Please...Xiumin please."

          Sehun looked disgusted. Baekhyun felt irritated and smacked him in the back of the head. Jerking his head upwards, he drifted out of the basement silently. It felt horrible watching the couple like that and if Luhan caught them he'd skin them alive. 

         I can't lose you....In the back of Baekhyun's mind, buried deep behind the heavy curtian drawn over his memories, something stirred. A feeling, a memory, tickling his mind. The itch turned into a flame, running across his skin with a crackle. 

           I can't lose you....someone said that to me once.....

           Who said that?

           Almost bitterly, he went into the gardens. Sehun followed after him silently. The Gardens were more Lay's place than theirs. There everything was overgrown, full of weeds, and wild flowers. Broken glass lay scattered across the grass. It rotted from the inside out. A fitting garden for the House of the Dead. Baekhyun sighed and Sehun flopped down by the tangled rose bushes. He closed his eyes and threw his arm over his head like he was either angry or going to sleep. 

       Baekhyun however, was thinking. 

       I can't lose you Baekhyun. 

       “Sehun do you think I ever fell in love?” he asked, his voice tiny in the large, empty space of the dying garden. "You know, when I was alive."

      He laughed, hacking from the smoke. His shoulders shaked as he found the thought amusing. “Love?” he asked, not bothering to even look at Baekhyun. “I doubt it. You’re too smart for that mess and too harsh for anyone to dare try it. I bet you scared everyone away than wondered why nobody-“

       Sick of shirt, he kicked him in the ribs. Hard. He stopped laughing to cry out in pain. He scowled at Baekhyun, holding his stomach. “The hell was that?” he demanded.

      Baekhyun kicked at him again. “Don’t make fun of my philosophical questions about life,” he snapped. “Or I’ll call Lay and ask him to throw you down the well.”

        Sehun fell quiet. Instead he rubbed his stomach and glared at him. Lay had adjusted to the Ghost House as well as they had expected. He was quiet, mostly hanging out in the gardens and staring out into the woods. It was like he saw something none of them did and watched for it to appear. The ghosts really didn't know what to make of it. It was almost creepy, but Baekhyun didn’t say a word about it. They all dealt with death their own way. Baekhyun found his way was bitter and calculating, Suho’s calmly accepting, Sehun was Sehun, stupid, and Lay Liked to look at the ever dark and stormy sky of their own little pocket world at the edge of the In Between.

       Baekhyun really couldn't knock that. So he didn’t say a word, and Lay accepted that.

       They were not friends, not by a long shot. But Baekhyun’s insistence on being a part of his death seemed to grow on him. Eventually he stopped running away and instead let him sit by him quietly. The unspoken rules was that he came to him when she was sick of Sehun and he wouldn’t say word. When Baekhyun came to him, he could cry and he wouldn't say a word but instead pat his back in silence. Their relationship was built on accepting silence. 

         And throwing Sehun down the old, crumbling wishing well when he tried to follow. 

          It stood at the edge of the garden, a well built eons ago. It had a little wooden hood over it and a little bucket that could be lowered down into the dark to draw water up. The wood and the bucket were rotting. The rope was tattered and done, the stones were smooth with age and falling out of their place in the well. The ghosts called it the wishing well but no one really knew why. It was just its name and so they called it. Lay liked it. He liked throwing Sehun down it even more. 

        Last time Sehun had been thrown in, it had taken him what felt like forever to crawl out of it. He kept slipping, falling. He drowned more times than Baekhyun could count. Other tries ended with him cracking his head against the smooth, stone walls. He would scream and fall into the water. Dead by the time he hit it. Kris had laughed, finding it funny. So had Luhan. Baekhyun hadn’t laughed.

        He hadn’t helped either. None of them had. It seemed almost fitting to watch the angry ghost try to scramble up the sides. The rope snapped the last time had crawled out and he had never found another. No rope was lowered and he was trapped for days. At first he was angry. Sehun swore at anyone who came to watch him. Then they grew bored and time stretched on, only marked by the number of times Sehun died in that well. When he finally started crying, Baekhyun broke the ghosts’ unspoken agreement not to help. He snuck out at what felt like night to throw a rope down. He hauled him up, than ran away before Sehun could say a word.

        Baekhyun didn’t mention it and niether did Sehun. 

        “Baekhyun,” Sehun said, suddenly ever so serious. He pushed himself up on his elbow and ran his fingers and across Baekhyun's cheek. A soft, touching gesture so unlike him. Baekhyun leaned into the touch without even realizing he was doing it. He shivered under Sehun's fingers, feeling so very unsure of what they meant. “Baekhyun," Sehun repeated, softly, his voice holding so much emotion.  "Don’t worry about anyone loving you in your past life. Whatever happened there is worthless, meaningless. I’m here, you’re here, and we’ve got all of time to figure out what this life holds. “

        He kissed Baekhyun's forehead. A simply, brush of cold lips on her skin, than nothing. Sehun vanished into the summer breeze.