***

Tao looked at his younger brother and felt his heart breaking in a million pieces at how fragile he looked. When he gazed back at Jae, with the massive chains wrapped around her body and neck, his heart broke all over again.

How was he supposed to choose? How could the doctor force him to choose like this? It occurred to him to try and use his powers to stop time and try to save both of them from the evil clutches of the dead doctor, but something told him that the doctor may have anticipated that move. There had to be a reason why he wanted to make him choose, and Tao didn’t want to give him the pleasure of watching him make a mistake by using his powers. Not to mention that the air here was different. It was loaded and heavy. His senses had hardly worked in the mansion, and something told him that his powers might not work the same way he wanted to either.

“Time is running out, hero,” the doctor provoked, tapping his wrist. “What is your decision?”

He had to think logically. His emotions were raging, but to make a good decision he had to use his brains. Chen and Suho were anxiously waiting for him, the doctor hurting both Sehun and Jae when either of them so much as moved an inch.

Tao shook his head to clear it and focussed. If he chose to save Sehun first, the doctor would have every opportunity to attack Jae and have his way with her. He needed Jae for his experiment, so the chances of him hurting her would be smaller, except that the fact that she was important to him made her more important than Sehun. The doctor had not been kidding when he said that time was running out. It wasn’t running out just for them, but it was running out for him, too. He was growing more anxious and erratic by the second.

“Make your choice or they both perish!” he threatened, his voice turning into that of a beast for a split second.

Tao was still wavering. How could he choose?

“Hyung,” Sehun called out to him and there was a certain determination in his innocent eyes. He gestured towards Jae, nodding at him as if he just placed all of his trust and his life into Tao’s hands. It was all he needed to make a choice and Tao moved quickly to catch the doctor off guard.

Tao rushed towards Jae, pulling her free from the chains which had loosened when the doctor startled and he roared as he realized that he had let his guard down. He quickly rushed towards Sehun, narrowing the cage around him, but Chen zapped bolts of lightning towards the vengeful spirit and broke the maknae free.

Angered as well, Sehun summoned the strongest, roughest winds Tao had ever felt and even though the doctor was hardly effected by it, the windows of the library all shattered.

“No!” the doctor roared as he shifted his shape, revealing his true, horrid form, “No! I will not be beaten! Not when I am so close to fulfilling my destiny!” he growled, showing his misshapen form, the skin melting from his bones and sagging as he walked, his evil eyes glowing menacingly as he headed straight towards Jae.

“The night is not over. You cannot escape me!” he bouldered.

“So you thought, psycho!” Suho and Chen were seething with anger themselves, combining their water and electricity to zap the horrid entity of the doctor back.

But, even when in flames, the doctor would not relent, the mansion shaking on its grounds, the wailing of a thousand tortured spirits loudly lamenting into the night sky.

“I think that’s our cue to leave,” Chen mentioned as he supported Sehun with Suho, Tao nodding as he watched over Jae.

“Come on, noona,” he said, as they headed towards the window Sehun had burst open.

“No! I will resurrect from the dead! You can never stop me! I will succeed! Give me her heart!” the monstrous doctor demanded as he stampeded towards them, books still falling from their shelves, the floor shaking and trembling so much it was difficult for them to keep their proper balance. For a moment, Tao wasn’t sure whether they could make it out in time, when he caught a gentle light flash by in the corner of his eye.

Tao gasped as he saw the grieving bride appear and stood firmly before them. The others startled at seeing her, but the bride lifted her hand to shield them from the rage and the hate the doctor emanated.

“I will not be defied!” the doctor raged, attempting to trap them with him in his sinking mansion.

Enough. You will trap no further souls, you evil beast, the bride spoke as more spirits stood by her side. Even the gypsy woman stood next to her, the tortured spirits bringing a certain fear in the doctor’s eyes. From the other side of the library came a small army of what seemed to be living dolls, gruesome monsters attacking him, tormenting him as he screamed.

“I want to play too,” a scary little girl spoke, dragging a large hammer behind her as she approached the doctor.

“Don’t look, noona,” Tao immediately urged, shielding her from the horrors the spirits wrought on the owner of the mansion.

“Hurt me! Torment me! But I will always rise from these ashes!” the doctor screamed and Tao feared that that may be true. Every Halloween this mysterious house of terror would appear again, and the curse could start all over again. There had to be a way for them to stop it.

Tao realized then, that his senses had not been dulled while he was in the mansion. Chen, Suho and Sehun had been able to use their powers without problems. Even Kris and Baekhyun had used theirs as well. He was so numbed by fear that it wasn’t until know that Tao was truly freed by it and there was only one thing he could think of doing to ensure the doctor would never be able to carry out his insane plan.

With a flick of a wrist he blasted a powerful source of energy towards the doctor that sealed him along with the mansion in this very moment

“What did you do, Tao?” Suho asked as he saw the obvious horror on the doctor’s face, as the spirits around them grinned and smiled, all of them freed and disappearing in shining light, one by one, while the doctor remained in his terror.

“I’ll tell you when we get out, hyung. Come on,” he grabbed Jae as they all jumped out of the window. Tao made sure to shield her when they landed, rolling over the ground as the mansion sunk further into the earth.

“Oh, thank God, there you are!”

They were still panting when Baekhyun ran up towards them, but Tao was still enjoying having Jae in his arms, who had been hugging him tightly. She smiled at him and blinked when her watched beeped softly. Halloween was over.

“Yah, noona, are you comfy? Probably not, Tao is skin over bones, come here, I have more muscle to offer!” Chen noticed as they laughed, helping her up as she helped Tao get to his feet.

“I’m so glad all of you are all right,” she said, looking at the twelve brothers. “I’m so sorry for going into that house like that,” she then apologized, looking fragile.

“Yeah, never go inside like that on your own again, Jae. Look what you put poor Tao through, I bet he’ll be having nightmares for years,” Luhan scolded though he was smirking.

“That was definitely not your average haunted house,” D.O. said as he turned around to look at the mansion slowly sinking.

“About that…” Chen started before he exclaimed and sent lightning bolts towards the house. “No way am I going to let that thing come back whole again,” he said as Tao chuckled.

“I wouldn’t worry about that, hyung,” he smirked.

“Yeah? Well, be it as that may, Chen has a point,” Chanyeol grinned before blasting hot flames towards the house to make it burn.

“Chanyeol, think of the forest! You’ll burn everything down!” Suho exclaimed in worry, quickly placing a circle of water around the mansion to make sure the flames wouldn’t spread.

“Here, I’ll help,” Luhan used his powers to make the mansion collapse on itself as D.O. shifted the earth to swallow the mansion whole. They saw lights shooting up into the sky then, though there was one voice still wailing into the night.

“Is that the doctor?” Jae asked, rubbing her arms.

“Yep, probably,” Tao nodded with a sigh, looking at his hand.

“What did you do to him inside? Those ghosts stopped their torment after you flicked your wrist and the doctor looked like he just soiled himself out of fear,” Sehun mentioned, everyone looking up expectantly at him.

Tao shrugged. “The doctor kept talking about how he was never going to stop his evil ways, how he was going to keep coming back just for the sake of his sick research, and I thought that even though I didn’t have the power to stop him from coming back, I could perhaps stop him from ever hurting anyone ever again. The moment those spirits came to take their revenge on him, to torture and hurt him, I created a time loop of that moment,” he explained. “So, in the future, if he does come back, the doctor will have no other choice but relive that exact moment over and over again until he gets tired of the pain and hopefully will just move on,” Tao elaborated.

“Wow. That’s pretty smart, hyung,” Kai mentioned dryly.

“Why do you sound so impressed, I’m a smart person, aish!” Tao scolded.

“Well, guess you keep on surprising us, Taozi, you appeared to be a brave guy after all too,” Chen admitted as he patted his shoulder.

“Oh please, I’ve always been brave,” Tao spoke boldly, blushing slightly when he saw Jae smiling at him, but then he masked it and put up a tougher mask.

“Noona,” he said to her, seeing her blink in confusion rather cutely, “what were you thinking going into that house all by yourself? You could have hurt yourself! See how dangerous that was?! Next Halloween we are going trick or treating and eat candied apples, got it?” he scolded, as Jae tried graciously to not laugh in his face.

“Okay, Taozi, that sounds really good,” she smiled and quickly gave him a kiss on the cheek much to the chagrin of his other brothers. “Let’s go home, okay?”

“Whoa, wait a minute, noona, where is my bobo? I went into that house to go after you, too, you know! Yah, I was even changed into a little chibi Baekhyun doll! Noona, hey, noona!” Baekhyun argued, quickly following her.

“Please, that’s not even worth a handshake, I was stuck in a cage!” Sehun protested.

“At least that’s better than a body bag,” Suho shuddered.

“Oh? A body bag? Are you okay, Suho-yah?” Lay asked, checking up on the leader.

“Try being stuck in a crystal ball, that’s not a party either, you know,” Xiumin mentioned.

“Tell me about it,” D.O. remarked.

“Blah blah blah, I was put in a straightjacket, gagged and shoved in a cabinet by a dead guy! I deserve at least three kisses if not more!” Chen bouldered above the rest, immediately being met by exasperated sighs and groaning.

Tao shook his head and smiled when he followed his brothers last, taking a very deep breath and exhaling in utter relief. He looked up at the sky and was thankful to see the stars shining, the moon granting light over the forest. It was always going to be a wild adventure with his pack, wasn’t it?

He touched his cheek where Jae had kissed him and felt a pleasant warmth travel over his entire body. At least they got to say that the first Halloween with Jae-noona will be remembered forever. He chuckled and couldn’t help but look behind him one last time.

Tao blinked when he saw the bride standing where the mansion once was. She was holding her beautiful bouquet and waved at him. Tao smiled and gently waved back. The bride turned away from him into the arms of what he assumed was her groom. When he blinked, they both had gone away…as was his pack.

He sighed deeply.

“Hey! Wait for me! Don’t leave me alone! Aish!” he ran after his pack and raced them to see who would get to share a candied apple with Jae.

=== TRUE ENDING: HAPPY HALLOWEEN! ===