They were driving down yet another winding road just off the highway, and the grass-colored, hopelessly disorganized car was filled with a steady but uncomfortable silence. Taehyung had tried to strike up a conversation at several points throughout the journey, but Hoseok always stayed stubbornly and silently fixated on the road ahead. That never stopped the younger man from trying again, however, and he made another attempt just as the sun started to set, causing the car’s headlights to cast shadows along the tall trees that lined both sides of the road.

“Will you at least tell me where we’re going?” bugged Taehyung.

Hoseok actually responded to him this time, but it wasn’t with an answer that the young cryptozoologist was happy with.

“Nope,” said the older man. “I’m just following a trail, remember? I don’t even know where exactly we’re going.”

Taehyung twisted around in his seat until he was facing Jimin, an enormous smile spread across the younger’s face.

“Do you feel anything yet, Jimin?” he asked eagerly. “Something deep inside you that’s pulling you forward? Leading you towards it?”

Jimin didn’t know what “it” even was, and the only things he felt were nervous and hungry - and the second was probably because he hadn’t eaten anything all day besides a couple handfuls of pretzels, and it was now nearly seven at night. Taehyung laughed when the other man told him this, and dug around in his glove compartment for a minute before tossing a bag of animal crackers into Jimin’s lap.

“It’s not much, but it’s the only thing I have,” apologized Taehyung. “They’re all yours, though; re-live your childhood.”

Jimin appreciated the gesture, but he had no idea how long the crackers had been sitting in Taehyung’s filthy, shaving cream-scented car, so he stuffed the bag in his pocket instead of opening it. He didn’t want to risk food poisoning when his stomach was already doing cartwheels, and it seemed much safer to forgo the questionable food. If Taehyung noticed Jimin refuse the offering, he didn’t show it, and the younger man settled back into the passenger’s seat to look at the road in front of them.

“Hey, I’m hungry, too,” complained Hoseok. “Why does he get all the food?”

“I just payed you my life’s savings and then some,” shot back Taehyung. “I think you can afford to buy your own goddamn animal crackers - thank you very much.”

The car was quiet again for several minutes, until Hoseok pulled into a random ditch on the side of the road and cut the engine.

“We’re close enough,” he announced. “Let’s go.”

✧✧✧

All three men filed out of the car and stood on the side of the abandoned road. Hoseok came around the vehicle to stand beside Jimin and Taehyung, and he led them all into a lush meadow to their right.

“Here we are,” declared Hoseok, even though there was nothing particularly remarkable about the field in which they now stood. “This is where we’ll start.”

Jimin squinted to see Hoseok’s face in the dying light, and the latter stood directly in front of him while instructing the younger man to close his eyes. Jimin complied, and immediately started picturing the hellhound again, certain that this was what the other man was going to order him to do.

“Okay. Empty your mind,” commanded Hoseok.

Jimin’s eyes burst back open as he stared up at Hoseok with a questioning look.

“Trust me, okay?” requested the older man, and Jimin closed his eyes again. “Taehyung probably had you do that stupid ing visualization exercise to track the hellhounds; am I right?”

Jimin nodded without opening his eyes, too busy focusing on clearing his head of absolutely all errant thoughts. It was a difficult task, as he knew the other two men were both staring at him as he concentrated, and his brain was spinning from hunger, fatigue, and confusion.

“Yeah, that doesn’t work at all,” ridiculed Hoseok. “It’s an old - not to mention idiotic - technique developed by some guy who wasn’t even a Sensor.”

He paused to laugh for a moment.

“And yet people still try to use it to train rookie Sensors.”

Hoseok clicked his tongue.

“It’s a shame, really.”

Jimin heard Taehyung start to protest, but Hoseok shushed the younger man as he placed both of his hands on Jimin’s muscular shoulders.

“Have you emptied your mind?”

“I think so,” Jimin hummed.

“Good job,” praised Hoseok, removing his hands so that Jimin was left standing on his own. “Now, just continue to focus your energy on keeping yourself that way. Don’t think of anything; just be mindful of your surroundings. Let total peace wash over you.”

Jimin wanted to ask how anything so hippy-dippy and ridiculous sounding was going to help him locate teleporting, red-eyed dogs from Hell, but he figured that doing so probably wouldn’t have counted as emptying his mind, so he stayed quiet. He felt his legs go numb as he stood in the darkness behind his own eyelids, keeping his mind void of anything and waiting to feel something.

“Is it working?” whispered Taehyung from behind him.

“Quiet, Tae,” hissed Hoseok.

“It’s not working,” Jimin informed them, his eyes still shut. “And I feel like a ing idiot.”

✧✧✧

“Hey, do you want this to work or not?” questioned Hoseok, moving his mouth closer to Jimin’s ear.

Jimin sighed, but confirmed that he did with a short nod of his head.

“Then shut up, and concentrate on not concentrating,” Hoseok scolded. “The worst thing you can do is try to force it. Your targets are out there; you just have to pick up their trails.” Hoseok moved so that he, too, was behind the young man, and Jimin heard the other man’s voice from somewhere over his shoulder. “Sensing is in your nature; you just have to let your body do its job.”

Jimin squeezed his eyes shut even tighter, but he was having trouble shaking off the thoughts about how insanely stupid he must look. If being a Sensor was part of his nature, then why had it been news to him that he was even supposed to be able to do it? Jimin knew that what Taehyung had said to him yesterday must be the truth, at least in part, as he had certainly been able to see that snarling, drooling mutt at the end of his bed last night. But a small part of him still thought that maybe this had all been some sort of huge mistake. He could accept that monsters were real, and even that he could see ones that other people couldn’t - but to think that he would ever actually be able to track them down using the sheer power of his mental energy seemed nearly impossible as he stood in the deserted meadow.

✧✧✧

Jimin was about to give up and tell the two men behind him that he simply couldn’t do it when suddenly something deep in his mind sparked violently. He felt his perception shift as a faint pressure tugged gently on his consciousness; like an almost invisible string of light that was pulling him in a particular direction. His whole body felt warm and enveloped by the sudden, unfamiliar presence, but strangely enough the feeling wasn’t scary or uncomfortable.

Jimin opened his eyes, and started walking to his right, in the direction the line was guiding him. He felt as though he was a fish on a very slack line, as although he was free to move in whatever direction he fancied, there was undeniably something urging him forward on the path that he now took. He walked past the treeline and deeper into the woods as he heard the twin footsteps of his companions fall in line behind him.

“; he’s feelin’ something - isn’t he Hoseok?” Taehyung squealed quietly.

Hoseok gave no verbal response, but Jimin felt strangely confident that the former had nodded in agreement as he continued to navigate the dense forest, weaving in and out of the tall pines that towered over the three of them on all sides.

“He’s totally feeling something,” whispered Taehyung shrilly. “This is so awesome!”

Jimin surged deeper into the woods, the thin line tethered to the recesses of his consciousness guiding him as he kept his eyes to the trees.