“Remember to listen to Siwon,” you say. Baekhyun rolls his eyes at you. “Remember about calling us every few hours to let us know everything is okay—“

“Dal,” Kyungsoo interrupts you.

“—And remember not to go anywhere alone if you feel like there’s something off—“

“Dal, with the wards you put up in town, I don’t think anything will be able to crawl in, anyway—“

“—And if something happens, you call us, and we come back. Also, there’re ashes in the top drawer of Kai’s wardrobe, and lots of daggers in the—“

“Dal!” Suho shouts, making you all jump. You look at him, blinking. Even Kai looks surprised. Suho looks at you with a warm smile. “Everything is under control. Go, have fun, be polite to Kai’s parents, and try not to jump his bones when you’re surrounded by his family.”

You squint at him. “Ha, ha.”

“Seriously though,” Baek muses. “You’re overreacting again. Nothing bad will happen when you guys are away.”

The thing was, not only you and Kai were going to be away. Kris and Luhan were going too, Sehun and Chanyeol were away in college, and even Sulli and Amber were going to Seoul with you because Kai’s mom insisted on getting to know them better. Tao, Chen, Yixing and Xiumin, on the other hand, drove three towns over to discuss the terms of the newest agreement you’ve made with the local witches there, so they were out of question for at least the next three days.

“I just don’t like it when we’re scattered around like this,” you growl, throwing your head back in annoyance. Kai takes your hand into his own, standing a bit closer to you.

“It’s just two days,” Amber tells you, rolling her eyes. “The world is not gonna end just because you’ll leave the city. Siwon is around. The wards are strong and working—“

“—Last week that witch managed to break one of them,” you say angrily. “So it’s not like we’re one hundred percent safe—“

“Okay, stop it,” Kyungsoo says, placing his hands on your shoulders and turning you on your heels, making you yelp. “Just go. Enjoy yourself. We’ll call.”

“But!”

“Dal!” everyone shout in unison. You almost feel bad. You look at them all, sulky, and throw your arms up.

“Okay!” you yelp. “Don’t come crying to me when someone gets hit with a hex spell!”

You finally get into your car. Kyungsoo, Baekhyun and Suho all wave at you as you drive away, smiles on their faces. All of your cars disappear behind the next building corner and that’s when the smiles disappear from their faces.

“We’re screwed,” Baekhyun announces.

“We’re totally gonna die,” Kyungsoo nods.

“Oh come on you guys!” Suho laughs, throwing his arms around both of their shoulders and bringing them close together. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

*

“I’m not doing this,” Suho says. “It’s dangerous. Dal always says not to touch these things; it’s magic. This is magic stuff!”

“This is a vibrating box,” Baekhyun deadpans. Suho shakes his head violently while Kyungsoo peeks over his right shoulder and frowns at the tiny box that is currently vibrating lightly in the other boy’s hand.

“Is this Hebrew?” he wonders out loud. Suho growls and shows up on Baekhyun’s left, propping his chin on the boy’s shoulder and squinting at the box.

“It’s Hindi,” he corrects angrily, like they somehow offended him.

“Wow,” Baekhyun drawls, raising a brow at Suho. “Now I feel like a total moron.”

“You are a total moron,” Suho says, circling them both to stand in front and look down at the box. “We should put it down. We shouldn’t go through this stuff,” Suho tells Baekhyun, pointing at the shelf in front of them. It’s dusty, there’re runes engraved by you in the wood, and there’s loads of stuff in there that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo seem very intent of going through while you’re away, because you never let them touch it. "You don’t know what it is. We were supposed to be smart, remember? When they’re away?”

Baekhyun rolls his eyes. “I was just curious. This is the last item. Chill, Itchy-Pants.” And with this, he places the box back on the shelf and turns towards his friends. “See? No harm done.”

The box slips down from the shelf.

Suho’s eyes widen. Kyungsoo shouts, jumping towards it, but it bounces off his finger the second he touches it. Suho panics and kicks it up into the air, just to keep it from falling down – as if it falling down meant the world coming to an end - and before they can react differently, or snatch it up, it ends up on the floor, the sound of the wood cracking echoing in their heads, bringing utter chaos up onto the surface of their brains.

“Baekhyun!” Suho shouts, grabbing fistfuls of his hair.

“You were the one who kicked it!” Baekhyun defends, scrambling up from the floor and running to the thing. Kyungsoo’s eyes are wide as ever and he’s covering his mouth with his open palm, his face completely pale.

“We’re gonna die,” he says. “We’re totally gonna die.”

“Nothing happened!” Baekhyun cries, reaching down for the box.

But then he hears a weird hissing sound coming from it and jumps warily back, his eyes flashing steel blue as his wolf grows rigid.

All the lights in the gym’s basement flicker as black smoke emerges from the box. The three of them stare, wide-eyed, as it grows bigger and bigger, slowly beginning to take an unmistakably human shape: long arms, wide shoulders, face hidden behind dark shawls.

“.”

The thing tilts and flies towards them and they all either shriek or gasp, scrambling up and towards the door. Suho runs out first, Baekhyun after him, then Kyungsoo; Kyungsoo practically falls right back, closing the door with his own body weight and also hitting the back of his head in the process, and then he’s running again. They hear the smoke hitting the door from the other side and they swear they can see the walls shaking.

“Out, out, out!” Baekhyun shouts, waving for Kyungsoo to catch up, and only when they’re finally in the same spot, they take off running again.

“You idiot!” Suho shouts to him. “I knew it was gonna end like this! You and your stupid- ideas! What part of ‘don’t touch the magical thingies’ don’t you understand?!”

“Stop screaming at me!” Baekhyun replies, throwing his arms around in a semi-fit. “Just get the out—oomph!”

The shadow punches him hard enough for him to fly and bounce off the nearest wall, falling flat at Kyungsoo’s and Suho’s feet; the two of them turn towards the smoke, canines growing in their mouths and eyes flashing blue, even if they know it’s no use against thin magic smoke.

“The box!” Suho shouts suddenly. “The box was what trapped it!” And we left it there was left unsaid.

The smoke attacks again and they all take advantage of the fact that this time it’s quicker to avoid it and let it fly through. Suho takes off, back towards the basement, and Kyungsoo unceremonially drags Baekhyun up onto his legs again. The boy is dazed, unsteady, and so Kyungsoo panics for a second and grabs Baekhyun’s wrists.

“Baek,” he muses, slapping the boy lightly on his face. Baekhyun nods vigorously, giving a thumbs up, and Kyungsoo turns just in time to see the smoke going at them again.

He dodges to the side, stretching his arms out and also getting Baekhyun out of the way. When the smoke flies by, he brings Baekhyun close again, pushing him towards the exit.

“Run!” he screams.

He hears the smoke sizzling in air as if angry, and knows that he has to get his attention long enough for Suho to get the box back and somehow trap the demon – monster? – back inside it. He pushes Baekhyun – who’s still only half conscious – towards the closed vault that’s the only exit (and entrance, obviously) to the basement, and he might’ve pushed a little bit too hard, seeing as Baekhyun hits the heavy vault door with a grunt and slides down onto the floor.

“Sorry!” Kyungsoo screams, extending one of his claws out and putting it inside the keyhole. The vault lets out a heavy, loud and long click, and Kyungsoo barely manages to grab Baekhyun again and slip out when the smoke hits the door full-force—

But stops there.

Kyungsoo watches in a bit of a daze as the smoke tries and fails to cross the vault’s threshold, seemingly hitting an invisible wall. It’s getting pretty nervous in its movements, as well.

“Dal must’ve created some kind of a barrier here,” Kyungsoo mutters, half to himself, half to Baekhyun. The boy is finally starting to regain some consciousness and he stands up on his own, unsteady on his legs, watching the smoke intently. The blackness stops suddenly, hovers in the air. Then it seems to spread down, once again gaining a humanoid shape.

“It’s staring,” Baekhyun muses. He sounds a bit drunk.

“Don’t say it, it’s much creepier when you say it,” Kyungsoo reminds him. At that, the smoke seems to glitch momentarily. Then his hand comes up and he seems to place it on the invisible wall, on the barrier between the gym and the basement. The boys freeze, hair standing up on their necks.

“He can’t break it, can he?” Kyungsoo asks. Baekhyun squints at the creature.

And then something around its palm seems to break.

They both yelp, jumping back, and the smoke – still in a shape of a human – steps over the vault, a wide smile appearing on its black face; he has a mouth full of canines and he smells heavily of venom.

“I ing know this smell,” Baekhyun grouses, taking a tentative step back, waiting for the smoke to move. “You all make the same venom.”

The vetala smiles even wider and takes a massive step towards them, stretching its long, clawed arm out.

“Yo!” someone shouts, and a dagger flies right at the monster’s head. It flies through the smoke, but the creature lets out a loud shriek of pain and momentarily disperses from its human shape. Suho suddenly jumps over its form, carrying the wooden box in his hands, his eyes wild; he also has a backpack on, and judging from the sounds inside it, it’s full of small daggers. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun don’t wait a second; they just take off after the boy. Kyungsoo snatches the silver dagger off the ground on his way, and Suho throws the backpack at them.

“Silver is gonna tire him,” he says. Baekhyun opens the backpack to find it full of not only daggers, but also knives and all kinds of different blades. No wonder it took him so long. “The box is broken. I gotta find something to fix it.”

“Ducktape,” Baekhyun moans. “That thing can fix everything.”

“Baek, roof!” Kyungsoo tells him and they split, Suho hiding himself behind a corner for a moment as pieces of wall suddenly flies right by his nose. He sees the smoke going after Kyungsoo and Baek and ducks away towards the gym’s entrance and the reception desk – his last hope for finding what he’s looking for.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo run like crazy, their footsteps thundering in the whole building, and the smoke suddenly gets quicker, outraged. Baekhyun takes two daggers out of the backpack, throws one of them from over his shoulder, and hands the other to Kyungsoo. The smoke sizzles again when the dagger gets it, becomes less visible, and the boys throw themselves towards the staircase leading onto the roof.

The last vetala they dealt with had a normal form, all bones and flesh and venom and canines; this one was different. This one is slower, but can deprive a grown werewolf of strength for a few long minutes with a single touch and even in its smoke-y form, it has incredible physical force, if the way it threw Baekhyun over the room earlier was any indicator.

They finally reach the roof, shutting the door behind themselves and taking a few steps back, away from it, staring at it and listening intently. There’s the sizzling sound, louder and louder; as if the smoke is getting closer. Finally, it hits the door, making it shake, and Baekhyun grabs a pair of daggers from the backpack, giving one of them to Kyungsoo. The boys clench their fingers around their weapons, getting ready to fight by standing in a defensive posture used in boxing, daggers glistening in their palms.

The door shakes again and again, and by the 4^th time, a dent forms in the metal.

“Why doesn’t it use the keyhole like before?” Kyungsoo wonders out loud.

“He’s pissed,” Baekhyun guesses. “Can’t think straight.”

Finally, the vetala tears the door out of its hinges, pouring out and immediately taking a human shape. Its long claws reach out for Baekhyun first, but Kyungsoo throws the dagger at it. To his utter panic, it dodges, and its claws would’ve pierced Baekhyun’s heart if it wasn’t for the boy slashing the monster’s throat with the silver knife in his hand.

The vetala coughs, hisses and jumps back, once again transforming into thick, black smoke.

“Hey !” someone shouts. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun look towards the roof’s entrance just to see Suho standing there with the wooden box stretched out in front of his face. He smirks, placing his hand on the lid, ready to open it. The vetala screeches in distress.

And then, when Suho tries to open the thing, it doesn’t.

He gets pale when he realizes that the lid got stuck, and he brings it closer to himself, hugging it to his chest and trying to open it. Baekhyun lets out a disbelieving gasp while Kyungsoo just stares, dumbfounded.

The vetala lets out a chirping, weird sound and then flies towards the blonde boy.

Suho yelps, takes a step back and throws the box to Kyungsoo; the boy (barely) catches it and also tries to open it, noticing that Suho has plastered the box with ducktape. The lid is, indeed, stuck, and he panics momentarily when he hears the vetala roar again.

“Soo!” Baekhyun screams. Kyungsoo sees the smoke right in front of his face and so he throws the box at Baek—

—With way too much force.

Baekhyun yelps and jumps back, not realizing that he’s just jumped off the roof, and he catches the box mid-air. Only then he feels his heartrate spike up and he swears his stomach touches his throat, because he’s falling.

The smoke jumps after him; Baekhyun clenches his fingers around the lid, lets out a forceful gasp and suddenly, the smoke is hitting him again, just as hard as previously, and he flies – not towards the ground, though, but towards the neighborhood building, which is an apartment block.

But right when it hits him, Baekhyun manages to wreck the box open, and is way too busy holding the box still while the smoke is inside it to realize that he’s flying at enormous speed towards someone’s window. It lasts mere miliseconds, the whole thing, and yet it feels like forever. He hits the glass with his back, the box’s lid clicks closed, and then he’s hitting someone’s carpet, letting out a loud ‘oomph!’ and causing someone to shriek in horror. Glass shatters all around him.

Every bone in his body hurts and he once again feels hazy, the vetala having touched him. He glances around, mind groggy, to see the box on the floor, closed and safe, and then looks up to see some middle-aged woman and – probably – her daughter staring at him in pure shock, the mom embracing her little girl in a protective manner.

“Baek!” Kyungsoo shouts, swinging in through the smashed windows and landing, smoothly, on the floor. Suho swings in right after him and they both bend down, looking for wounds, but Baekhyun just grins up at them.

“See?” he says. “No harm done.”

A chandelier falls off the ceiling, landing right next to his legs, and the lady with her daughter screeches.

*

“I need coffee,” a familiar voice says. Heejin turns towards the counter, surprised, a notepad still in her hands. She drops her pen when she sees Suho and blushes furiously, scrambling to pick it up. When she straightens up, Suho is grinning at her, his light hair adorably messy. He looks a bit tired.

“I didn’t know you were in town!” Heejin exclaims, making her way towards him and blushing again as she sees him up close. It’s different talking on Skype and having an actual conversation face to face after quite a long time. “How are you doing? Wait, um, coffee—how do you want it?”

This time Suho is the one blushing and Heejin sputters a little, realizing it came off a bit wrong (or maybe it’s just them and their erted minds) and awkwardly fixes her apron.

“I didn’t mean—“

“Surprise me,” Suho tells her, voice sweet and quiet. She nods, turning towards the coffee machine. Suho watches her making coffee but doesn’t really pay attention to what she’s making, only focuses on her, her face and movements, which are a bit clumsy at the moment. He can see that she’s flustered under his gaze and that makes him want to cuddle her to death and tell her how cute she is.

She finally finishes making the coffee. “Here,” she says, snapping a lid on the drink and handing it over.

Suho grabs it, curving his fingers around the cup, and taking a timid sip, as he swallows it. “Oh my God. This is good. What is it?”

Heejin smiles proudly, but shyly. “It’s a white chocolate mocha, but I added peppermint, and also a few extra espresso shots. Since—yeah, you look like you need it.”

“You’re like a coffee angel,” Suho mutters in a daze, staring down at the coffee. It smells like heaven. “This is probably the best thing I’ve ever had to drink.”

Heejin jumps a little in joy. Suho wonders if she can get any more adorable than that.

He smiles at her. “So. How’s school?”

“You know how’s school. We talked yesterday morning.” She bites her lip and Suho snickers a little, taking another sip of his coffee.

They spend some more time talking inbetween Heejin taking orders from customers and making coffee, and then her dad comes to the café, squints at Suho (as always) and hides in the kitchen. Suho and Heejin talk some more.

“Sorry,” Suho says when he sees his phone light up with a text message. He unlocks his phone.

From Bacon:
[Received 18:12]

Everything under control. No one noticed anything.

Suho makes a face.

Except for the lady who saw you fly into her house through a window
[Sent 18:12]

 From Bacon:
[Received 18:12]

Details!

From Bacon:
[Received 18:13]

If Dal calls you, don’t accidentally it up by spilling everything

Suho rolls his eyes and puts his phone back into his pocket. But then it buzzes again. He sends Heejin an apologetic smile.

From Bacon:
[Received 18:13]

I’m serious. I’ll come and shove a cupcake down your throat if you do

From Bacon:
[Received 18:13]

And it’s gonna be a spinach cupcake and you’ll choke

You come back next day evening, ‘bearing gifts!’, and it’s one of the really rare moments – lately, at least – when most of the pack is in the same room. The next day Suho is hanging around the school, waiting for Heejin to finish her classes and beginning to feel all gooey at the memories the place brings back, when he gets a text from Taemin.

From Taemin:
[Received 14:26]

why is there a chunk of wall missing near the vault at the gym??????? 

Suho feels the bottom of his stomach drop. Then another message comes and he's close to a panic attack.

From King Soo:
[Received 14:27]

do NOT come to the loft 

From King Soo:
[Received 14:28]

in fact, maybe you should like, leave the city, lol

He cringes. Another text comes.

From Dal:
[Received 14:28]

what the hell, Suho???? a VETALA??? 

Suho writes back to her.

it was Baekhyun's fault!
[Sent 14:29]

He hears the schoolbell ring inside the building and gets distracted momentarily when barely five seconds later there're people - students - exiting it, bringing back the memories again.

His phone buzzes yet again.

From Baekhyun:
[Received 14:30]

thanks a lot, you