Could someone kindly explain to him just one more time, how it was possible that he got himself into trouble like this?

Tao looked up at the creepy house that loomed in front of him and whined. Usually, he didn't mind it much when October came along. He rather enjoyed the coming of autumn, since the beautiful colors of the leaves made the best backgrounds for taking selfies, and, of course, they got to celebrate Lay-gege's birthday. However, the moment when the last day of the month came along, he felt his mood worsen and his stomach turn.

There weren't enough words in the world to express how much he loathed Halloween. No matter what he did, he always managed to get tricked by Chen-hyung, always got scared by whatever scheme his brothers came up with, always ended up as the one that screamed his lungs out when they tricked him into going into yet another haunted attraction. Each and every year it made him nauseous to have to survive through Halloween, but it seemed even worse this year.

Why, for the love of Gucci, would anyone in their right mind go inside a haunted house for fun?!

He had never even heard about this old, decrepit mansion on the island before. It wasn't the standard haunted house attraction that was set up annually at the Freaky Farm Fest of Fear, but an entirely new one, which of course Chen had found out about.

Thinking about the Freaky Farm Fest of Fear, Tao realized how he would have much rather walked around there, instead of having to go all the way out here. At least there, people were more or less normally celebrating the holiday. While families held picnics under the golden autumn leaves and children went around trick or treating at the various candy stations strewn across the farm, the youthful population of the town of Hanwol would roam about the property in hopes to find their thrills in haunted houses and scare zones.

How he found himself so far away from all of that merriment still puzzled him. Simply standing at the front of the porch of the old mansion gave Tao jitters. Why did Jae-noona have to like scary things?

After Chen had told them about the "amazing" mansion he had found, Jae got excited and insisted to try it on Halloween. He whimpered and sighed in exasperation when he thought back to that very moment.

"It's just a haunted house attraction, Taozi," she said with the brightest smile he had ever seen, "nothing to be scared of. All of the things inside of it are fake, it's just some scary fun, that's all."

"Scary fun, pah!" Tao clacked his tongue and rolled his eyes out of frustration. He glared at the haunted mansion, pacing around and shaking his head. If that truly was the case, then where were the other people to visit the house for fun? It's been, what, over an hour now, and he hadn't seen another living soul out here. How could any of them have thought that this was going to be "fun"?

He checked his phone while he paced about, tsking at his screen after reading the last message Chen had sent to him.

Pikachen: Just keep watch and wait outside, Taozi. Let the real heroes find Jae-noona, okay? Don't get scared on your own, you never know what else might be roaming about on All Hallows' Eve... buwhahaha!

"Aiyah..." Tao smacked his lips in annoyance, still pacing about since he couldn't bear it to stand still in front of the house of death. Why did it have to be so isolated, too?

Most of the Halloween festivities were in town, but this was in the middle of nowhere, hidden amongst the tall, dark trees that cast dancing shadows over him, making him more anxious and jittery than he already was.

Now that he was out here, on his own, he might have regretted not going in with the rest of his brothers...

"Where's your usual bravado, Taozi?" he heard the voices of his brothers in his mind from moments ago, teasing him, like they always did this time of year.

"Every year you say that you're going to conquer your fear by going into a haunted house without screaming, but every year you start crying anyway before you even get into one," Chanyeol laughed, clapping his hands. "Sick and tired of pretending?"

"It's okay for Taozi to be scared, you know," Lay pointed out, a worried expression on his face. "What if we go into a haunted house and there's an actual ghost in there?"

"I'll wrestle it!" Baekhyun exclaimed, getting a handful of crispy leaves thrown against his face.

"Sure, is this before or after you've salivated all over the ghost because you're too scared to control your bodily fluids, hm?" D.O. mocked.

"Yah, last year's haunted house was really scary, all right? Kai couldn't even stop cursing and accidentally teleported in and out every time he got scared!" Baekhyun argued.

"Hey, hyung, at least I wasn't that scared that I was shaking throughout the whole haunted house and left a trail of drool all over the floor," Kai retaliated, crossing his arms while wiggling himself between D.O. and Luhan.

"Yeah? Well, Lay-hyungie sounded like he was singing a Spanish song with his ai ai ai ai ah!" Baekhyun exclaimed.

"Oh?! Yah, I got lost and I was alone, Baekhyunnie!" Lay defended, though the blushes of embarrassment appeared on his face. "Suho was so scared that even his eyes were shaking!"

"They were not!" the leader tried to protest, but couldn't help but chuckle nervously at the lie he just uttered. "My eyes were just dry, okay? At least I didn't keep falling over everything every time someone scared me, like Chanyeol did!"

Chanyeol's eyes had widened to the size of saucers at the accusation. "It was too dark, I couldn't see, hyung! Also, Kris-hyung's flashlight broke and he kept screaming every other second!"

"Chanyeol-ah, didn't your mother ever teach you that it's very naughty to tell lies? You're going to be punished tonight," Kris said as coolly as ever, but everyone could easily tell that he was the one fibbing, considering that his knees had started shaking.

"Well, I can see that Xiumin and I will have to be the ones to set the example, considering that the rest of you are cowards," Luhan mocked, laughing.

"What are you talking about, Lulu? Weren't you the one that nearly fainted out of fear in one of those houses?" Xiumin asked with a near evil smirk that had the other brothers doubling over in laughter.

"S-says the person that left me there to die! Who does that?" Luhan accused.

Xiumin shrugged calmly. "You should have been faster."

"I agree," D.O. smirked as well.

All of their banter about their previous Halloween adventures had only made Jae-noona more excited to go into a haunted house, of course, while Tao had only felt more dismal.

He startled when the wind blew, causing the leaves to make a racket overhead. For a moment he stared back up at the black door and Tao shivered.

They should have been back by now...

Was he really going to wait for them to come back? Shouldn't he just go and look for them? What if they really were in trouble somehow? There weren't any people working at this haunted house, so maybe they shouldn't have come here in the first place...

It had started when Jae entered the house by herself first, because everyone was too busy debating and arguing who should go in with her, noona had simply winked at him, put her finger against and snuck inside.

Tao thought it was funny at first, until he got worried that she might be really scared and alone in there. The moment he told his brothers that Jae had entered the house while they were bickering, they started whining and quickly went into the house one by one.

Tao hated how scared he still felt of having to go inside, though. Suho had made him feel better by saying that there should be someone outside waiting, just in case Jae came out again so she wouldn't have to wait alone for the rest of them to come out. Chen, Baekhyun, and Chanyeol for being a coward of course, but didn't mind that he stayed behind.

Still...that was an hour and forty-five minutes ago. Dit it take that long to go through a haunted house?

Tao swallowed when he saw strange lights flickering inside of the decrepit building, curtains moving behind dirty windows and the wood of the porch creaking, as though it was inviting him to go inside.

"Oh, this is ridiculous," he whined to himself, grabbing hold of his chest as his feet felt heavy the moment he forced himself to walk up those steps.

He whined again and winced upon seeing the ghoulish mannequin near the door, rocking in the old rocking chair when the wind blew a little harder. He had screamed the first time he saw it, and looking at it now, at the fake monster mask, the ridiculous cheap wig, he wanted to scream at it again.

The mannequin had a key on its lap, used to open the door to enter the house. Tao stared at the object, long and hard, every fiber in his being yelling at him not to take it and to turn around and just wait for everyone at the Freaky Farm Fest in town, but the other part of him was really starting to worry for his brothers, and of course, for Jae-noona.

She had been gone the longest, and sending her text messages hadn't been fruitful. He even tried calling her to ask her if she was okay, but her phone didn't work. How typical that weird things would happen on Halloween...

Tao groaned and quickly snatched the key from the ghostly mannequin as if he was afraid that there was a chance it would suddenly come to life. Now that he had the key in his hand, he felt the hesitation and fear kicking in.

Should he go inside the haunted house? Could he even leave his brothers and noona behind in this horrific mansion?

>>> ENTER THE HOUSE. GHOSTS AREN'T REAL ANYWAY... RIGHT? <<<

>>> CANDIED APPLES SOUND BETTER. LET'S LEAVE! <<<