a/n if this chapter will be confusing but I tried my best so bear with me. lmao.

The moment we entered the party, I saw everyone crowding at one spot, pieces of paper being passed around. The first person I saw was Chanyeol trying to hold Minseok back and it was the first time seeing Minseok furious, his knuckles white as he tried to control his temper. His jaw was set and tense, the male looking like he was about to pounce.

“Oh, loosen up, Minseok!” A voice said and Minseok fought against Chanyeol, a hand going up on the air. “It’s just a game. So, what that a couple of people died while playing it once? It’s a coincidence.”

“Shut the up, Dawn. You don’t know—”

“What in the world are you doing?” Kyungsoo spoke and it was like a wave shifted, everyone turning to look at us. “Do you know how dangerous this game is?”

He sounded calm but I saw Kyungsoo tense up, his eyes going to the clock. It was 11 minutes before midnight and I felt my chest constrict. Something was changing and Kyungsoo glowered at them.

Another wave of nausea.

Kyungsoo looked back at me, a flash of worry on his features when he grabbed my wrist to steady me. But I began to feel my stomach turn, my muscles go weak. Kyungsoo looked over at Kai, jerking his head at me and Kai came forward, an arm beginning to hold me up.

Matthew was close by, the male glowing and trying to

“Why are the freaks here? I’ve heard about all of you from EXO High,” a girl said, laughing. I saw candles on the table and pins to prick themselves

While Chanyeol was holding Minseok back, Sehun had grabbed my brother. Baekhyun was out and I saw that Kai had no idea what was going on, Kim Kai reaching out to type the game on his phone with one hand before he read it out loud from beside me.

“The Midnight Man is a pagan ritual—A ritual that punishes those that break pagan rules.” Kai read. “A house would be the playing ground and every player would have to write their name and put their blood on paper. Every player is then equipped with salt and a candle. Once the game starts at midnight, you have to keep moving and keep hiding. If the candle goes off, you will have to make a circle of salt around you to protect yourself from The Midnight Man and stay there until he leaves. If you can quickly relight the candle in three seconds, you are safe. If he catches you, you will die. The game ends exactly at 3:33.”

“There are two types of players in the game. Those who play and those who don’t. Those who don’t have to get off playing grounds. Those who stay are immediately in danger,” Sehun continued.

“You don’t know what you’re playing with,” Kyungsoo hissed, a hand going to grip the cross around his neck.

10 minutes to midnight.

“If you’re not playing then go away. It’s as simple as that.” One of them snapped and Kyungsoo whipped his head around.

“The ones who are not playing but are in the vicinity are immediately put into danger.” Kyungsoo’s voice shook. “Those who are playing are safe until caught. Those who are not are immediately a target—”

“Then leave?” A female asked, her brown hair pulled back in a tight ponytail. She would be the host, I guessed as much. Her s were massive and she wore a y nurse outfit, the female throwing the ponytail over her shoulder. “You know we have another house, right? Stay there and get out of our way.”

We had seen it, two mansions right beside each other. I reached out to grab Kyungsoo to tell him to hurry, the male finally nodding.

“We can’t stop them but we can protect ourselves. Let’s go to the other house. We need to get off the playing grounds,” he said, pushing all of us to the side. I saw people beginning to prick their fingers, giggles, and sounds of people laughing at how cowardly we all were.

As Kyungsoo moved forward, I saw a young student come down from the stairs. He had glasses on and a book in hand, the male sighing.

“Jessie Noona. Can you keep it down? I’m studying,” he said to his sister, Jessie raising an annoyed eyebrow when she snapped at him, telling him that they weren’t even loud. “I’m just saying, geez.”

“Why are you even here? I thought you were going to the lab?”

“It closed. Just keep it down.”

The male gave everyone a glare, retreating back up the stairs. Kyungsoo wasn’t listening to anyone, busy with the salt and I saw him fill up his container, murmuring prayers under his breath when we heard a familiar voice.

“Oh. Sunbae?”

We all looked at the side to see that it was our three juniors. We were not strangers to them.

Haechan was in a batman costume, a cape draped around his shoulders. Despite how bad I was feeling, I thought that he was adorable to still enjoy such things even though he was already fifteen. Jeno stood there with his hoodie and sweatpants and Mark was Robin. Mark looked drunk and Matthew glowed, swooping down to inspect the younger male.

“Haechan wanted to party so I’m just here to make sure he isn’t messing anything up,” Jeno said, Kyungsoo not even bothering to say anything. He grabbed Jeno, pushing him forward and motioning them to follow us. “W-Where are we going?”

“Questions for later. We need to move,” Kyungsoo began to sound frantic when we finally moved out of the door.

Kyungsoo dragged Jeno along with him, Kai helping me up while Chanyeol and Minseok were handling Mark. Sehun had Baekhyun thrown over his shoulder and it took a minute walk to the next house. I saw the lights of the other house dim and a gust of wind blew, someone opening the door to leave it open for the Midnight Man.

“Get in,” he ordered and I stumbled in, Kai pushing me gently so my back hit the wall. I slid down, my knees growing wobbly.

“Why are we here?” Mark mumbled, Jeno patting his cheek. Jeno also did not know what was going on but I saw Kyungsoo begin to spread salt on the ground around us. He went to the door, sealing it with a line of salt.

“We’re here because the rest are playing an adult game,” Chanyeol told them. “And we don’t want you to see all that. Drugs and all.”

“ing teenagers. Summoning a demon to their household,” Kyungsoo was cursing and I saw him glance at his watch. “8 minutes to midnight—”

“Where’s Haechan?” Jeno asked out loud and we froze, our eyes running over the people who were there. Jeno stood up, the male having one responsibility and that was to take care of Haechan.

“What do you mean, “Where is Haechan?” Kyungsoo demanded but Haechan wasn’t in the room and he repeated the question. “Where is Haechan?”

“Let me go find him. I can swoop--” Matthew said but Kyungsoo snapped.

“No. Demons can hurt ghosts, Matthew. He might swallow you whole. He’s been on this earth for centuries and feeds off spiritual power and fear. You won’t make it. I’ll go find him. Stay right here. Protect the rest.”

I doubled over suddenly, searing pain shooting through my body when I vomited on the ground. It was clumps of food and Minseok reached out to pat my back. He looked scared. Sehun, Kai, and Chanyeol seemed to know that this was a different case.

It was more powerful.

I saw Kyungsoo grab the salt and give it to Chanyeol.

“Listen to me. If I’m not back by midnight, you seal the door with the salt and do not go over it or you will break the seal, you understand?” Kyungsoo asked Chanyeol, his wide eyes on the taller male. “Do not let anyone in. Even if they ask to be let in. Even if it’s my voice, tell the person that they are not welcome. Close the door and don’t open it for anyone. A demon can manipulate you to inviting them in.”

We were in a hang-out room, it had a wide window and the curtains drawn apart. The moonlight shone into the room and I hyperventilated. Kai slowly grabbed me and put me on a couch, the male trying to make me feel as comfortable as possible but my heart was racing and beads of sweat appeared on my forehead.

“Protect each other,” Kyungsoo told us and I shivered. “Remember to seal the doorway with salt.”

“Hurry back, Kyungsoo.”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 minutes to midnight. I Main playing grounds I Kyungsoo & Haechan

“Haechan! LEE HAECHAN!” Kyungsoo roared out his junior’s name, the handler rushing into the house to find the younger male. He had grabbed a candle and a lighter just in case and a paper and pen. A few people gave him dirty looks but he moved around the first floor frantically. “Lee Haechan! Where are you—”

“Shut the up!” One person said and Kyungsoo saw that they had found hiding places. He knew what he could do—he could seal the doorways so The Midnight Man couldn’t go past them. Kyungsoo finally moved doorway to doorway, the male making a line of salt by the entrance.

After he was finished with the living room, he saw a couple of them laugh, walking over the line of salt when he felt a bubble of frustration rise.

“Stop walking over the seal! You’re breaking it!” He said to them, his eyes scouting out for Haechan.

“We have to keep moving around, dude,” a man told him, rolling his eyes. “That’s the rule of the game—”

“And you think a demon plays by the rules?” Kyungsoo asked back but he was answered with a scoff, the male telling him that he was taking this a little bit too seriously.

“Freak,” he whispered under his breath at Kyungsoo and Kyungsoo would have said something if it wasn’t for the fact that he was running out of time.

Two minutes had already passed and he ran down the hallway, yelling for Haechan.

Where was he? Where did he go? Kyungsoo couldn’t let him stay in the house if he wasn’t playing. No, no. It was too dangerous, Kyungsoo knew that well enough. As he made his way through the first floor of the mansion, he took in his surroundings and tried to seal a couple of doorways.

A broom closet at his right.

A studio at his left.

Library right upfront.

He jogged forward, calling out Haechan’s name when he passed the main stairs and saw a photo and a cross by the storage under the stairs. Jessie was from a Christian family, he realized and it gave him a slight feeling of peace when he passed the maid headquarters.

Why did the house have to be so big?

Grandfather clock almost at every corner.

Paintings on the wall.

A couple of occupied rooms.

“Lee Haechan!” He called out one more time when he heard a toilet flush and the door of the bathroom opened, Kyungsoo seeing Haechan come out of the toilet of the maid’s quarters.

“Sunbae?” Haechan asked, blinking. “What’s wrong? I just had to go to the bathroom, it was all crowded and a few people were making out and—”

Haechan was quickly silenced when Kyungsoo saw the ticking clock move rapidly to the next minute.

Three minutes to midnight; Kyungsoo grabbing Haechan and glancing into his eyes to see if he really was Haechan. He just had to make sure.

He just hoped that his friends were safe and The Midnight Man would go past the other house that his friends were at. Demons did not care for the rules, they liked the games and he hoped that salt would be enough to hold as a barrier.

He prayed that Chanyeol would follow his instructions well.

What if he walked past his friends and sensed that most of them were Counters? What if he sensed Matthew’s power as a guardian angel? Or the fact that Bora was a medium?

The supernatural was just as unpredictable as the living and he hated it. The problem was that they were both scary.

Kyungsoo didn’t want to think about it. He only had to protect Lee Haechan and himself—as much as he found Haechan annoying, he wasn’t one to leave him be.

They wouldn’t make it back to the other house, Kyungsoo knew as much.

By the time they left the house, it would have taken them more than two minutes. They would run into The Midnight Man and even god wouldn’t be able to save them. Not when humans were the ones who summoned him.

Kyungsoo scribbled his full name and Haechan’s name on the paper, Haechan still standing there with his head tilted to the side. All the lights were off by now, Kyungsoo grabbing Haechan’s hand and stabbing his finger with the tip of the pen.

“Ouch! Sunbae—”

Kyungsoo pressed his finger on the paper and he bit his bottom lip, doing the same thing to himself. The blood oozed out of his skin and Kyungsoo dragged it over the material.

Tick tock, tik tock, tick tock

That would be their submission, Kyungsoo thought to himself before he dragged Haechan closer to him, a hand going to remove the cross from his own neck.

“Sunbae—”

“Shush.” Kyungsoo’s voice dropped into a whisper, the male putting the cross around Haechan’s neck.

At least he would be a little bit more protected, Kyungsoo thought. He reached up to draw a cross on Haechan’s forehead for extra blessing and quickly lit up a candle. “You’re a superhero, right?”

Kyungsoo sounded gentle and it threw Haechan off, the candle flickering slightly. Kyungsoo took Haechan’s hand and told him to hold his T-Shirt. They had no time to be moving around, they had to hide.

Fifty seconds to midnight and Kyungsoo felt his blood pressure hike up.

Too risky to still be standing there with the salt he had left, Kyungsoo cursing to himself. His salt was blessed.

“Get in. Get inside here,” Kyungsoo said quickly, pushing Haechan into the broom closet. Kyungsoo’s plan was for them to go closet by closet. He’d seal the ground and pray that The Midnight Man would not go through—that, and that people wouldn’t break his seal.

The broom closet was small but it was enough for them. Haechan sat across from him, knees tugged up to his chest, the door of the closet closed with a line of salt on the ground. The candle was on the ground, the yellow light emitting from the flame dimming and going bright in a matter of seconds.

Kyungsoo saw Haechan whimper and he knew the kid could feel it, too. The way it became colder, the shivers that were running down his spine, and how it seemed like there was something staring at them at all times.

“W-What’s going on?” Haechan whispered, Kyungsoo motioning him closer. Haechan scooted closer and he saw beads of sweat on Haechan’s forehead. Haechan didn’t understand but it wasn’t rocket science for Kyungsoo to know that Haechan, unlike Jeno and Mark, was on the left side of the counter-buffer spectrum.

He probably couldn’t see or hear normal spirits unless they show themselves to him, but he could definitely feel.

He felt sad for the child, knowing that he would be traumatized after this. Crossing paths with a demon always did that to you. Kyungsoo saw Haechan rub his hands over his arms, Haechan’s hairs standing on end and Kyungsoo reached over to wrap Haechan’s cape tightly around him.

They had to hold out until 3:33.

The only thing that would help them both was honesty and Kyungsoo told him that he would tell him the story. Haechan slowly shifted, Kyungsoo telling him to stand up so he could move closer. The handler stretched out his legs, Haechan dropping between them and leaning his back against Kyungsoo’s chest as the older man began to tell him what they were facing.

“The Midnight Man started as a ghoul that had a terrible past. He plays a game where he will find you,” Kyungsoo told Haechan. “The game starts midnight and you hide. Just like what we are doing now. The candle is for us to know if he is near. If he is near, the candle will go out.”

“He’s bad?” Haechan whispered, Kyungsoo nodding. “But they said that we have to keep moving.”

“The game rules say that, but you can also protect yourself. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet,” Kyungsoo whispered back, a hand going around Haechan to grip the cross he had around his neck. “Do you know how to pray?”

“A little. I can sing church hymns. And I know a little bit of Hail Mary,” Haechan said to him, tilting his head up to look at Kyungsoo with his big eyes. “Does it help?”

“More than you think,” Kyungsoo whispered when he suddenly heard a creak of wood, Kyungsoo lifting his hand up to tell Haechan to go quiet. It was there but it wasn’t near. Kyungsoo glanced at his watch to see that it was 5 minutes after midnight.

The door of the closet remained closed and Kyungsoo reached forward to grab a rag, tucking it under the space of the door to block the light out. It was a demon, but it made Kyungsoo feel better that it may not notice that he and Haechan were there.

People were running around and Kyungsoo bit down on his lip, knowing that all his seals might as well be broken. He heard a curse from one of the players and aggressive whispering but Kyungsoo decided to pay them no mind, the male leaning back and closing his eyes.

He would pray for his friends.

They needed it, too.

“Hail Mary full of grace,” he whispered, running the prayer softly from between his lips when he opened his eyes and saw Haechan staring at him. When their gaze connected, Haechan looked away, repeating what Kyungsoo said to himself.

“Hail Mary full of grace,” Haechan mumbled.

“The Lord is with thee,” Kyungsoo continued, Haechan following his lead.

“The Lord is with thee.”

Thinking of his friends, he continued the prayer, Haechan with his head down and his hands pressed against each other.

“Holy Mary, Mother of God. Pray for us sinners.”

Haechan looked like he had a lot of questions, Kyungsoo calmly telling him that it was a purity prayer. It helped against evil and The Midnight Man was evil.

“Why is The Midnight Man evil?” Haechan asked, Kyungsoo’s eyebrows furrowing. He held onto the cross so tightly, there were indents on his palms, Haechan noticing this. Thinking that it would save him too, he placed his hand on Kyungsoo’s when he repeated the question.

“The Midnight Man originated from a blog post in 2010. That was how it got viral,” he told Haechan, thinking back of when he first heard of the game years ago. He had done his own investigation and he knew enough of how it started. “It’s folklore but because people have tried it over the years, the accumulated fear is what makes him powerful. He’s a demon, a very powerful one.”

Haechan let out a wavy breath.

“He was once a man who was disfigured. They say that he was bullied and that the kids had stoned him at exactly midnight.” Kyungsoo sensed a movement, his hand tightening around the cross when he heard people talking. They were just people. “They left him there, battered upon the ground, and left him. While others stoned him, there was one person who stood there and did not help him. That person was his friend. This is why bystanders in the game are in more danger than those who play. That and one should not mock The Midnight Man.”

There was more to the story and Kyungsoo hoped he wouldn’t ask.

“So, he died from being stoned?” Haechan asked and Kyungsoo bit his lower lip.

“No. He went back to the orphanage and asked to play a game with them,” Kyungsoo answered. “It’s a game similar to this, hide and seek. Those he found, he bludgeoned them to death. It was a gruesome murder. Blood on the staircase, blood on the ground, the doorknobs, and even on the high ceiling.”

Haechan shivered.

“The world had turned him evil, child,” Kyungsoo whispered, Haechan asking him what they had to do. “We wait until 3:33.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thirty minutes after midnight. I Side Grounds I Bora

I felt a shiver run down my spine, my mind spinning when suddenly I was no longer in the living room. I was no longer in the mansion but front of an orphanage. My surroundings were saturated with grey and dark browns and I watched children play in a small playground.

I wasn’t in Korea.

The children didn’t look like us.

Where was I? I felt a gust of wind and I shivered, running my eyes around the sign. The Healing Grace Orphanage, it read. The banner was battered and ripped apart. I stepped forward, the crispy leaves crunching under my foot.

It was fall.

My jeans and Kyungsoo’s orange T-shirt were gone and it was replaced with a lace dress, long and up to my ankles, the material heavy enough to make walking hard for me. I moved forward, stopping in front of the orphanage before pushing the door open to see that the halls were dark and dreary. A couple of children laughed from their rooms, footsteps padding against the ground.

“We have a new orphan coming in today,” a voice said and I turned to see a woman talking to me. She was prim and proper and I lifted a hand to point at myself, the woman staring into my eyes before nodding slowly. “Yes, you. Go get his room ready. He’ll be a hard one to handle.”

I was about to open my mouth to ask her where I was when the door was pulled open and a man stepped in. He had bowed and smiled at her, the female widening her arms to welcome him.

“You have the boy?” She asked, kissing his cheek before turning to shoo me away. I shied away from them, walking backward. Whatever I was going through in my head, I was reliving someone else's memory. I moved down the hall, peeking into the rooms when a couple of kids waved at me, and then I wasn’t in the hallway anymore.

A blink and I was standing in front of a room, my hand going up with its own accord. I knocked once and a voice invited me in, my hands wrapping around the doorknob and turning it to push it open.

The door creaked open and a male sat there with a book in his hand.

His face was disfigured, the right side of his lip raised, and a lumped-up forehead. But his eyes were wide and his hands held his bag tightly.

“What’s your name?” I found myself whispering when he answered.

“Corvius,” he replied. He wasn’t as young as I thought he would be. He looked like a teenager. Or maybe an adult, I couldn’t tell. When the woman said “boy” I expected an 8-year-old kid and I took in his expensive suit when I realized that he had been recently orphaned by a rich family.

Was his family murdered suddenly? Or did they not want him anymore?

A flash of memory of a newspaper I had read a few days ago of a fire made me frown. These weren’t my memories.

“Sunbae?” A voice said from the entrance of the door and I turned to see a familiar face, Haechan looking awkwardly at me and I gasped, running to hug him.

“What are you doing here—"

“Bora!” Minseok’s voice could be heard and I looked up at the ceiling when the male smiled.

“Your friends are calling you, medium,” he spoke softly and a jolt of sadness traveled through my body. “I will be back for you and the boy.”

He was no longer timid, his whisper turning into a laugh.

“I have a game to play.”

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“Bora!” Minseok shook my body and I found myself hyperventilating when there was a rustle and I heard Jeno breathe. I looked over at him to see that