The assignment for Art with Emotion class was simple enough. Taehyung had written the details in his planner with a smug grin, confident that he would have this one in the bag. Face a fear and paint what you feel. He would just go to the cafeteria and eat the pizza. He’d paint the pain of living in the bathroom for an evening.

“Taehyung, do you want to to be an artist or draw comics for a newspaper?” his professor asked when he turned in his sketch.

“Aren’t newspaper comic strips art as well?”

“Your assignment is successful, then.” His professor set the paper down, eyes failing to mask the disappointment he was hiding in the square of his shoulders. “Make sure to add more comedy to the piece, perhaps at the abdominal pain.”

Taehyung could feel the judgment seep into his skin and resonate in his bone. He wasn’t sure getting a passing mark was worth losing his professor’s respect. He knew what the words mean—he was studying art to be much more than the guy that sketched political cartoons and Sunday comics for the Daegu Shinmun.

In his dorm that night, his arms felt like lead as he started to work. His blank canvas was mocking him as he started to sketch his lines. He knew it wasn’t worth losing credibility in class for the easy A and the easy way out.

He signed and glanced at his watch. If he left now, he’d be able to sketch the graveyard before the sun set. He could take it to his professor the next day, hope for another chance of approval. It would only give him a day to finish his assignment, and there’s no way he’d get an extension at this point.

Packing his oil paints in a bag, brushes carefully rolled in his apron, tucked to the side, and a few bottles of water, he braced himself for spending far too long in a place that was the source of too many campus ghost stories. He wasn’t afraid of seeing something supernatural.

Face a fear and paint what you feel.

Taehyung would have to face the most common and debilitating human fear: death.

— — —

There were low lamps lining the walking paths in the graveyard. Standing an easel wasn’t an option if Taehyung wanted to see his canvas. The last of the sun was clinging to the black of night. His heart buzzed in his chest, the sound in his ears like a hummingbird. He needed the light and he needed this class to graduate.

His eyes flickered between the line of headstones and his canvas, sketching over the rough fabric where his paint would go, adding the eerie shadows that left his muscles tense. His back ached from hunching over, keeping close to the light, of focusing his attention to his work so that he could ignore the prickle of goosebumps all over his skin.

The wind blew but Taehyung ignored the chill dancing along his spine. An owl called into the night but Taehyung ignored just how it echoed. Twigs cracked and leaves crunched around him but Taehyung ignored how the sound grew closer and closer.

“Brave young man to come into the graveyard at night,” a soft voice whispered in his ear, their breath washing over him. He would have screamed but he knew he had nowhere to run. He looked straight ahead, trying to convince himself he was dreaming.

“What brings you here, handsome?” The voice was sultry, dripping with feminine seduction. He could feel a nail trailing between his shoulder blades. In any other location, in any other situation, he would have played along.

“A-Assignment.” How he spoke it all was a miracle.

“An art student, are you?” He felt a hand cupping his chin and pull his gaze around to face whoever was speaking to him. She had long, cascading auburn locks over her petite shoulders, the strands tucked behind her ears. She had sharp eyes, lined in black that made them appear more feline. She was crouched next to him, short dress showing her creamy thighs in the yellow light on the path. Her s were pushed up, a line of cleavage that would have left Taehyung panting.

“You have nothing to fear, handsome. I’m just enjoying the last of the warm days before autumn takes over.” She spoke with honey, smooth and thick, intoxicating. Her lips were close and Taehyung could feel himself melting into the woman. Her perfume was sweet with a tang of iron mingled in. Her eyes were like fire, burning holes into him.

“Why are you painting the graveyard, sweetheart? Don’t you know it’s dangerous here after dark?” Her lips pressed against his ear and everything in Taehyung moved south. He dropped his pencil, the wood clattering and rolling out of reach. She pressed a finger against the pulsing vein in his neck, her eyes closing as if the rapid wave of his blood pumping was a drug.

“A-Assignment…” he managed to answer, his gaze trained to her. Her lips curled into a wicked smile and he was captivated, even with every single nerve telling him to run. She had him hooked. She knew he was under her spell. Every blink of her dangerous eyes, every exhale from her perfect lips, every centimeter she closed between had his mind wanting more. “I’m supposed to paint what I fear.”

“And what is it that a handsome man like you fears? Darkness?” He looked up at her, eyes wide. “Death?”

He nodded and the sound that came from her should have scared him. “It’s too final,” he whispered.

“You shouldn’t fear death, baby. You should fear strangers.” She slid a finger across his bottom lip.

“You’re a stranger. Should I fear you?”

“Don’t you? Your heart is pounding, isn’t it. You’re not afraid?” He shook his head with too much enthusiasm, but that only seemed to encourage her more. “You’re attracted to me, then. Lucky me to have someone a cute as you thinking about doing horrible things to me.”

“Not–Not horrible. I’d b—” She pressed a finger to his lips to silence, her other hand gripping the inside of his thigh. He moaned and closed his eyes, electricity running in his body and zeroing in at his groin.

“Do you want this?” He nodded and her hand gripped him harder. “You’re not scared?” He shook his head and her hand pressed better his thighs. His eyes shot open to her. “Do you want me?”

“Y-Yes…” The finger on his lips dropped to slide under his shirt. She pushed it up, revealing his chest. She stared with hungry eyes. She leaned in, pressing a kiss just above his heart. Her tongue flicked his playfully. “Yes,” he whispered again.

She chuckled and looked up at him. “Big mistake, handsome,” she murmured, her eyes going black and her sharp teeth gleaming in the low light. Taehyung was consumed with an unnatural, overwhelming pain before his mind went black.