Author's Note:

Sorry for disappearing for months :( I was very busy with life and got an enormous writer's block and I keep on writing this chapter but then deleting it because none of it came out right or good askdjanda
But anyway! Since nothing barely goes on in the previous chapters, this chapter provides you a short peek of Sehun's life pre-Ijeon and then, there's the second bite!! asndaosdnaosdn
Also, Sehun, Jackson, jisoo and Jinri are like the typical dumb heroes on a horror movie here but that whats make everything interesting, right? right.
This chapter is long, to make up for the lost time (well at least I think it's long) but yeh, enjoy guys!

Six.
The Second Bite.

Today, Sehun wakes up feeling like he's been forced to watch incoherent snippets of cutscenes and blurred imagery. He remembers he keeps on seeing a building in his dream, some sort of Victorian-styled or something, but Sehun can't make out the details. Strange.

It's seven in the morning and it’s peaceful. He nearly jumps when his phone suddenly starts to ring, creating a cacophony that breaks the short lived placid atmosphere. Struggling, Sehun reaches for his phone and blinks a couple of time to register the caller id on the screen. It’s his mother and Sehun feels even worse now than before. The phone continues to ring while he mentally debates himself whether to pick it up or not. He settles with the former.

“Hello," his voice sounds dead.

“Sehuna?" his mother speaks from the other side of the phone. Her voice sounds sure and warm, better than the broken whispers and hoarseness from months ago.

“Hello, Mom.”

His mother breathes a sigh of relief. “How are you, Sehun? I… I missed you.”

Sehun shuts his eyes. That's rich, coming from her when she's the one who walked away after what they've been through. Already, he can feel the discomfort bubbling in his chest.

“I'm fine.”

“That's good. I'm glad you're well." his mother says, however there's a slight pause in her voice, as if she's not entirely sure of what to say.

It's Sehun's turn to sigh. “Is there anything you need?”

“I… well…” she seems to lose all of the sureness and confidence she had. “I just want to know how my son is doing.”

Grimacing, Sehun glances at the clock. It's still too early to get ready, but he doesn't want to spend another minute talking to his mom. “Okay, well, I'm doing okay." he starts to speak, trying to keep his tone as light as possible. “Campus starts in a few so I'm getting ready, bye Mom.”

“No, wait!" she splutters, panicked. “Sehun please don't be mad at me. You have to understand why I did it… you have to know, I… I have no choice and I need help and-”

“It’s alright, Mom." Sehun cuts her off, probably sounding a lot colder than he intended. “I have to go now. Take care, okay?”

He doesn’t give time for her to speak. As soon as he finishes talking, Sehun ends the call and throws the phone onto the bed. He lies down again, sick of the bubbling mash-up of negative emotions in his whole system, rising from his stomach, constricting his chest and choking his throat. The pain becomes worse in every passing second he can feel his heartbeat increasing, drumming uncomfortably inside his ribcage.

In attempt to calm himself down, Sehun takes a deep breath, multiple times, which every exhale he casts away his anger, disappointment, anxiety and bitterness.

It takes nearly five minutes to calm himself down but Sehun is still miserable. The prospect of going to campus is unentertaining for him today but Sehun knows if he locks himself in his room, he'll feel even worse. The worst thing he can do to himself is giving a space and time where his mind can reign over his whole being. So he pushes himself up and starts to get ready.

The sky is gloomy today, as usual, Sehun takes his time as he walks to the campus. On the tallest hill, the ever-present shadow of Hollow Manor looms over the quiet little town, it's ominous silhouette, as always, seems like it's calling out to him. Huffing, Sehun tears his gaze from the castle and continues his walk.

The rest of the day passes as if time is stretching its limits. Words from the lecturer floats into his right ear and out from his left. His brain, somehow, loses the capability to pay attention. Maybe because it is already occupied by a more sinister and menacing thought- his mother and father.

“What's wrong with you?" Jisoo asks as they are heading to the cafeteria. “Not that I miss your usual, annoying self but you're awfully quiet.”

Sehun sighs. It's only the two of them now, the others are in different class.

“Mom called me.”

Jisoo scowls. “Yeah? What did she say?”

Despite wanting to tell her, Sehun can't find it in him. It's as if his throat is lodged. Besides, thinking about it again soured his mood.

“Just… stuffs.”

He can sense Jisoo is disappointed, but she knows better than to pry. It takes time before Sehun is ready to open up. Sometimes it took hours, other times it took weeks, even months. She knew what he went through, of course, but Sehun only told her perhaps years after she had her suspicion.

It was during their freshman year in high school, Jisoo was visiting him during one summer holiday and noticed something strange. His mom smiled when she welcomed her, but it looked forced. His father wasn’t around, Mrs. Oh said he was out on a business trip. Sehun was in his room but he looked sad, there’s a little bruise on his cheek and when Jisoo asked about it, his answer was he got into a fight with neighbor’s kid, which was so unlike him because Sehun, no matter how annoying he is, was never one to got into a fight. This worried her because it's not the first time she saw him with bruises.

When the night came and Jisoo was awoken from thirst, she could hear choked sobbings and gasping from Sehun’s room. It was terrifying, she can still hear the sounds clearly and it was so pained that the hair in her nape always rises when she remembers this moment. When she braved herself into Sehun’s room she found him curling into a fetal position on his bed, face wet with tears and his body was trembling so much. It was when Jisoo shook his body and he opened his eyes that Jisoo realized he was dreaming.

“Sehun, what happened?” she asked frantically, trying to wipe the tears from his eyes. He was a total wreck, aside from tears, Sehun is drenched in cold sweat, his hair sticking to his forehead and clothes damp and cold.

It took awhile before Sehun could steadied his breathing and by the time he’s calm enough, Sehun starts crying again and all the words slipped away from his lips like water breaking out of a dam. “I’m scared, I’m scared, I’m scared,” he kept on repeating.

And then Sehun started to tell her about how his dad lost his job because of an embezzlement, had no luck in getting another job, used alcohol as a form of escapism and resulting in abusive behavior. Sehun told her how his father first started hitting on his mom and then hitting Sehun when he tried to protect his mom. Sometimes he would hit them with his fists, or kick them with his legs, but there are times where his father would assault them with objects- bottles, broom, baseball bat, anything he could get his hands on.

Sehun told this all frantically, like a possessed person getting exorcised, his words flowing out of control from his mouth like devil being forced out of his body. Through it all, Sehun was crying, his hand shook and he buried his face in his knees.

And Jisoo… Jisoo was horrified. Panicked, even. Millions of thoughts racing through her head as she wondered just how she could help him. She settled with rubbing soothing circles on his back and pouring him a glass of water when Sehun finally finished talking. It’s silent for a while, sometimes Sehun would hiccup or let out another sob, but other than that, there is no other sound in the night.

“So the bruise wasn’t from fighting the neighbor’s kid, it’s from your dad, isn’t it?” she tried to ask.

He nodded before letting out a shaky sigh.

“Sehun since when does this happened…?”

“Since the beginning of junior high school.” he answers.

Three whole years he had suffered and Jisoo knew nothing of it. It’s not like they barely met, she visited him often and all these time he said nothing. Part of her felt hurt thinking that Sehun didn’t trust her enough but thinking about it again, this is not something that is easy to talk about.

“I’m trapped, Soo.” Sehun mumbled. “Nothing we can do to stop him. Nothing we can do to make him leave.”

Jisoo stared at him worriedly. “Where is he now?”

He shrugged. “Who knows? Left the house two days ago after forcing my mom to give him her money. I got in the way so he punched me. He’ll return once he wasted all his money on booze, girls and gamble.” Sehun stared at his feet, his eyes was wild, distraught and afraid before but all Jisoo could see then was pain and anger. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to disturb you… or any.”

“Hun, it’s alright.” Jisoo’s eyes widen in disbelief. There’s nothing else she could do at the time, rather than to rub his back, whispering that everything’s gonna be alright, that he’d escape this situation soon, all the while keeping blind hope that those words will somehow, magically, manifested into reality.

He did escape, in the end, but at the cost of losing his mother, too.

Sehun sighs. The cafeteria is packed but he could still make out Baekhyun and the rest sitting on the farthest seat in the corner. They hate sitting in the middle, it’s too packed and noisy.

“Just sit down, I’ll get you your food.” Jisoo says gently, glaring at him when he tries to argue, which means he has no say in this and he better do as she says.

So he gives up and makes his way to Baekhyun, sitting on the empty spot beside Jinri. The girl stares at him, mouth curling into a lazy smile.

“Something happened to you last night? You look like you need three days worth of sleep.”

“Guy next door was banging his girlfriend.” he lies easily.

Jinri’s eyes widen before bursting into a fit of laughter. “Gross. How long did he last?”

“Two hours or so.”

“I can last more.” Jackson boasts.

Chaeyoung frowns. “This is disgusting guys, cut it out!”

“Yeah, you guys better cut it out before baby Chaeyoung here cries.” Baekhyun snickers.

“Baek! I’m serious!” Chaeyoung whines, cheeks reddening.

They all laugh for a while, while Chaeyoung glares at Baekhyun and Jackson. They don’t mind, though. Jackson, enthusiastically snaps his finger.

“Guys, this guy at my class told me there’s this lit bar in the neighboring town, since tomorrow’s Saturday, how about we hang out tonight? I’ll drive.”

Baekhyun arches an eyebrow. “I don’t know, Jackson, travelling across town at night isn’t really the safest thing to do here.” he says, surprisingly uninterested at Jackson’s invitation.

It’s Jackson’s turn to whine, he clearly didn’t expect such kind of objection, particularly from Baekhyun. “Whaat?” he exclaims. “Man, that’s why I ask you! You’re the local, surely you know a way or two that’s a lot safer! And surely you’re more familiar with the streets so I thought-”

“Because I’m the local I can say for sure that going out of town at night is stupidity.” Baekhyun replies sternly. “Besides, you can’t really predict the weather in Ijeon. If we went out at night and got caught in a storm, we’re screwed.”

“What are the chances of us getting caught in the storm?” Jinri pipes in. “Besides, there are enough streetlights and the road is safe… I don’t see why we shouldn’t go.” she tries to reason.

This causes Baekhyun to sigh. “It’s just not safe guys. If you want to go out, it’s better when it’s still day, we shouldn’t travel too far at night.”

The discussion ends after that, leaving Jackson very unsatisfied and Jinri curious. Sehun doesn’t put too much thought into it. When he’s on the way to class, Jackson starts to complain.

“I don’t get why Baekhyun has to be so uptight. Mark told me he often travel back and forth to neighboring town during the night and look at him! He’s alive, well and annoying.”

“Who’s Mark?” Sehun asks.

“The guy in my class.”

Chaeyoung stares at Jackson in worry. “I don’t know… Baekhyun sounds pretty serious about it. We should listen to him.”

The conversation ends with Jackson looking very disappointed. Sehun chooses to say nothing. Throughout the class, he barely paid any attention and time seems to be stretching longer than usual. He keeps on thinking about his mother. What is she doing right now? Why did she feel the need to call him when she's already living her best life with a rich man on a comfortable apartment in Seoul? Why does everyone seem to be abandoning him?

“Sehun, yah, Sehun!” Jackson's voice breaks Sehun out of his reverie.

“What?" he whispers back, hoping that their lecturer wouldn't see that they're talking in class.

“So I've been thinking." Jackson says, oblivious to Sehun's worry. “Let's just go tonight, maybe me, you, Jinri and Jisoo. I don't know about Chaeyoung. I feel like she'd snitch us out to Baek.”

“What? Are you crazy?" Sehun hisses, ducking his head low when the lecturer sweeps her gaze through the entire class.

Jackson rolls his eyes. “Look, come on, it's been, like, a month and I need my dose of booze. Besides, what’s the worst are going to happen? It's not like I can't drive my way through a bit of rain.”

“Whoa, whoa, are you nuts?" Sehun frowns, snapping his head to Jackson. “Storms in here are awful!”

“Man, chill." Jackson looks at him in surprise. “Look, Jinri and Jisoo are coming, so you should come, too!”

And Jackson keeps on pestering him until Sehun gets antsy. “Alright, alright! I'll go with you!” Sehun hisses, glaring at Jackson.

An excited smile blooms on Jackson’s lips. “That's the spirit! I'm going to pick you up at six in your apartment, alright? We'll be back at 10, don't worry.”

*

And so, at 6.15 PM, Sehun finds himself sitting on the backseat with Jinri on her left. Jackson is driving and Jisoo is showing him the way. Loud music is blasting on the radio and Sehun stares at the view outside the window, where trees sprouting tall from the ground like dark, bony fingers. The sky is already dark, clouded, starless.

“You really think we'd be okay ditching Baekhyun and Chaeyoung?” Jinri asks, glancing at Jackson as she applies another layer of lip gloss on her red, plump lips.

Jisoo snickers. “It'll be okay. I do night travel a couple of times before with mom. Even though it stormed sometimes, we could always find our way home safely. Besides, there's only one road, you won't get lost.”

“What she said." Jackson nods, smiling in satisfaction.

Jinri let out a sigh. “Well, I'm leaving my journey in your hands!"

*

Vampires don't need to eat every single day, especially those who inherits the pure bloodlines, they can go on fo