Monster got me like -SCREAM-

Anyways, I want to thank everyone for reading so far into my story and for hanging in there. I am actually going to be finishing up soon (with a real conclusion! Not just leaving you hanging like I did for the past million years). Yes, the angst will end and there will be fluff, because that's what you're here for. And I may start another story, but I'll have to see. But again, thank you so much for being here and making my first-ever fanfic writing experience so amaze. I love you all!

At eleven pm, Jongin was woken up by thunder and an overwhelming sense of dread.

Yonghwa was still up at his computer, brow furrowed over the research he promised to do on lupitherosis. He looked up when Jonging started kicking at the heavy blankets on top of him.

"Jongin, what are you--"

Yonghwa stood the moment Jongin tore free from his makeshift shackles. Voices screamed in his head; his episode was coming.

But Kyungsoo--

Jongin stumbled out into the hallway, the world spinning briefly around him in an amalgam of reality and nightmare. There went his father, there was a flash of red, there was Yixing leaning against a window with a slash down his face, and back to the health center. 

A flash of lightning illuminated the building, and Jongin threw open the side door. The cold rain was sobering, the thunder wakening, and Jongin heard someone whisper in his ear: Kai?

Jongin dashed across the empty campus, faintly aware of Yonhwa shouting behind him and the puddles that soaked his pants up to the calves. His hair was slicked against his forehead, water dripping into his eyes. 

He didn't stop until his phone rang.

Jongin skidded to a halt, the vibration of his phone not fully registering until he pulled it out and saw Chanyeol's number.

"H-hello?"

"Kai, where the f are you?"

"I--I'm--"

"Get to the dorms, now."

"I'm on m--"

"I SAID NOW!"

Chanyeol hung up, and Jongin kept running, faster than before.

The common room of the boy's dorm was empty. Jongin shook his head, then looked around. The line between his episode and the moment blurred again. Jongin put his hand up against the wall and took a deep breath.

Kyungsoo had been here, with Amber, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun, and an unfamiliar smell lingered in the background, like lemons and cut grass. Someone had been angry. Someone else had been crying.

Jongin's head steadied, and he went up the stairs to floor three.

Kyungsoo had just finished a box of tissues when the pounding started at the door.

Amber put her hand in her pocket for the knife and Baekhyun flinched, pausing in the process of rubbing circles on Kyungsoo's back. "Oh, G-d. Chanyeol, can you get that?"

Chanyeol grunted and lifted himself up from Sehun's desk chair, where he'd been smacking the napping Sehun on the forehead. "That'd better be Kai--"

The door flew open, the snapped lock on the handle rolling across the ground. Jongin fell forward, catching himself before he hit the ground. 

Chanyeol grabbed his shoulder, looked at the door, and sighed. He let his hand drop from his friend's shoulder.

Jongin was dripping wet and leaving puddles on the floor with every step, but never before was Kyungsoo so happy to see him.

Baekhyun stood up. "Kai, you're going to--" He stopped when he saw Kyungsoo move.

The smaller cat hybrid lifted his arms up, lip trembling again, and grabbed at Jongin's soaked shirt for a tight hug.

Amber ushered out the other people in the room (Sehun protesting the entire way) and shut the damaged door behind her. 

Jongin sat down on Kyungsoo's bed, hyperaware of the way Kyungsoo's breath came out in hiccups. "Hey, you're going to get a cold," the wolf hybrid said, trying to pull away.

Kyungsoo squeezed tighter, laying his cheek on Jongin's shoulder and sniffling into his neck.

The world spun around, and Jongin grimaced. Kyungsoo looked up. 

"Your episode is soon, isn't it?" he asked, worry overshadowing all else.

Jongin nodded and gave the cat hybrid a butterfly kiss on his ear. "Don't worry, okay?" Jongin said. "I can take care of myself."

Kyungsoo's lip wobbled, and he blinked away the fresh tears threatening to spill over. "I think I'm going to cry again," he said.

Jongin leaned back against the wall, pulling Kyungsoo into his chest and holding him tight. "That's okay," he murmured. "I'm not going anywhere."

Sehun went back into his dorm room half an hour later, against the wills of Amber and Baekhyun and the raging temper of Chanyeol. He might be known as a brat, but he wasn't going to let his roommate and best friend suffer.

He threw open the newly de-locked door. "Alright, what do you need m--" Sehun froze. Kyungsoo was asleep in Jongin's lap, head resting on the taller boy's shoulder with his ears barely brushing Jongin's ears and body curled up into an appropriately cat-like ball. Jongin glanced up at the intruder and held a finger to his lips, smiling. 

You owe me this one thing, the smile seemed to say. But no worries.

Sehun nodded and backed out of the room, then turned to a fuming Baekhyun. "Never mind," he said.

Around midnight, Amber tiptoed in to wake Jongin up.

"Yonghwa says you have to be back at the health center," she whispered. 

Jongin looked down at the cat hybrid asleep against him, face half shrouded in shadow. He looked so peaceful like that, so young, like nothing had ever happened. As if there was no such thing as sadness. Safe.

With a sigh, Jongin prepared to disengage himself, then froze. And listened. And listened harder. 

Finally, Amber frowned. "Come on. What is it?"

"Amber," Jongin said. "I don't hear it."

"Hear what?" Amber's eyes widened in the room lit by the single lamp on Sehun's desk. "Oh. Oh, my G-d."

"The voices. I can't hear the voices."