Our story begins in one of those small towns.

By those towns, this dear author means those dark, creepy, spooky, puny little towns that were invisible to the outside world, having no place on the map. A town so tiny and uneventful that youths dreaming of getting out was the only exciting thing that was sure to happen every single minute of the day. Like clockwork. 

A little town so dark, dreary, and obscure that its history book was filled with old wives' tales and legends. Still, there was a beauty held by these desolating towns. Something nightmarish.The town was small and filled with folktales and ghost stories. 

Black Water Falls was exactly like that tiny town. The perfect example, truly.

Though Black Falls could be described as being peaceful, and it would not be a lie, it was anything but placid. Frankly, no one that knew of the existence of Black Falls could describe it as being in a refreshing, nice way, but they also could not say it was dull and unimaginative. 

Black Water Falls was beautiful, its name was not inapplicable. For it consists of the world's most beautiful waterfalls. It  had a wet climate, filled with rain every day of the month—except for one month at the tail end of summer and the sun would show the town its face to the townsfolk.

However, out of all the wet, slippery beauty of that piece of land, it held a greater treasure than any other town in the history of humankind. That little piece of land held the precious gold; not just the kind of gold produced by the land. No! It was gold in the form of stories. Stories that were passed down from generation to generation. Stories of ghosts, vicious specters and nice, lovable spirits from the realm of the dead. 

But, of course! The people of the town were just like everyone else. Some believed in their towns’ legends and ghosts and others did not. Life went on. However, parents took pleasure in telling little ones those stories at night to make them stay put.

Like the headless car: the one that took little children that were out late at night. They never did tell them what they did with those children. But as we all know, the youth's mind seems to believe everything that they are told until they are of age and able to differentiate reality from make believe.

But as they blossomed, they learned all of their parents' little tricks and were no longer fazed by those little legends. But of course the next generation had to suffer too. It started with their younger siblings. Older siblings took joy in telling their younger brothers and sisters hair raising tales in the middle of the dark, wet, spooky night. When the wind was crying outside their window, shaking the shutters. Making the poor babies pee their pants out of fright, giving them a huge satisfaction as they walked out of their bedrooms, whispering good night to the quivering little ones with an overly big smile on their face. Already expecting the chiding they get from their parents the next morning. But they always take it with grace, for they know they got their revenge.

Life for them, these teenagers, was all about fun. Otherwise, how could you live in a town like this?

So small, dark, that it was the best place for mythical creatures, like vamp, werewolves, and those sorts. They had a ghost for each of the holidays they celebrated, starting with valentine, thanksgiving, to the rest. With their own holidays in the middle.

The non-living was a part of their cold, miserable lives. 

Residents of Black Falls sleep, eat,  and breathe within them. To them, they didn’t know a world without the supernatural in it, a day didn’t pass where they were not told you shouldn’t do a certain thing because of a certain specter. They were used to it, knew all of the stories that were to be known, visited all of the supposed houses to be hunted.

Just like any other person, old or young, after doing the same thing repeatedly, if you’re not converting a science experiment, it gets quite exhausting.

It was like that for the juvenile in the little town.

This was how a group of bored teenage boys came together and decided to become an investigation squad. Their goal was to disprove the existence of the supernatural in Black Water Falls, and they would serve their new founding call with a purpose until they drove out of Black Water Falls for university.

They all were childhood friends. Which was no hard feat in a small town with one elementary, middle, and high school. Being able to maintain the friendship was what was impressive.

At first, they were not at all serious about being investigators, they were looking for a way to pass time. But when Kim Jaejoong suggested they make it into a school club, with all ten spots that were already filled by all ten friends, it started to get interest from the study body. Then, a few years later, Jaejoong suggested making videos about their investigative process. And before they knew it, it had become this exciting, fulfilling activity that they all were taking part in. And without voting, Jaejoong gently became their leader and the face of the club. All the friends agreed he had the best personality, especially for their videos. He attracted viewers like bees to honey.

Before they knew it, they were well known around town. Not just as the son of so-and-so, but by their name and their club. They had an internet presence, and they even had developed a fan base.

      ---------------------

    The boys did not know what they were getting into when they decided to invest more time into their club. However, their first autumn was a wakeup call.

October was like no other. While the quality of their videos increased and their interaction increased, so did their caseload too. All their hard work did pay off, because the view and interest their videos and website garnered had a noticeable increase. 

Three days before Halloween, the ten teens sat in Jaejoong’s garage, their designated work room, attempting to wrap up their most recent case. 

Their club email always got ridiculous around this time of the year with the sheer number of reported sightings that they would receive by the minute. While they couldn’t investigate all of them, they liked to choose one to two to research, film, and pour most of their resources into. And they’ve started a tradition of each member completing a solo video detailing a ghost. Sometimes, they would choose one that was emailed about or one that interested them. Those videos were fun, not as labor intensive like their one or two major Halloween videos, and got them a lot of engagement.

Sungjoon massaged his temple and sighed loudly. “This is a lot of work for something that's supposed to be low maintenance.”

“That ship sailed a long time ago,” Junsu said with a light head shake.

“Well I agree with Sungjoon,” Hyungjun said, massaging his shoulders. “It’s a lot for free work.”

“What else would you rather be doing?” Yunho asked, reaching for his drink.

The teenager shrugged and mumbled, “Watching poorly made horror movies.”

 “We have one playing on the TV,” Jaejoong said, sounding short.

Yunho laughed and raised a pointed eyebrow.

Hyungjun rolled his eyes. “Not the same.”

“What do you mean?” 

“Well!” Exclaimed Hyungjun in exasperation, “Mr. No-one-elected-me-as-king-but-I’ll-act-like-I am, I’d like to do that without having to divide my attention to free labor.”

“You’re not being forced,” Junsu said, supporting Jaejoong.

“Yeah,” Yunho nodded. “This is tradition, a…a passion project!” He beamed at his friends.

Hyungjun rolled his eyes in annoyance. “It’s not like I am saying I want to leave or anything.”

“Good, because we’re too busy for that right now,” Changmin said, not hiding his consternation, looking up from his laptop’s screen.

“Really,” Jaejoong said sardonically. “So much time wasted. My clothes are already out of fashion.”

“I feel insulted,” retorted Hyujoong, rolling his eyes.

Biting his bottom lips so as not to jump at the other boy and bite him to death, Jaejoong took a deep, open mouthed breath. Feeling more centered, he said slowly, like he was talking to a re-k student, “How is that insulting?” He couldn't help snapping the last word.

Hyujoong rolled his eyes again. “Well, this is not a dictatorship. I can speak my mind.”

Jaejoong opened his mouth to say something, but Yunho restrained him by slapping a hand over his open mouth and smiling broadly at the older male and shaking his head. He was the peacemaker and peacekeeper.

Jaejoong sighed and relaxed. Without any bite in his voice, Jaejoong said,  “Just shut up and do your work, Hyujoong.”

“You’re so annoying.”

“And you’re whiny.”

“And you both need to drop it,” snapped Changmin.

“Yes, dad!” Saluted Hyujoong, laughing.

Jaejoong chose to not comment further, instead, he focused back on his task and declared, “I pick Red Rose.”

“Red Rose? Huh?” Yunho muttered, rubbing his chin. “You really think Red Rose is our ghost?”

Jaejoong nodded and tapped the bottom of his pen on his notepad. “I do.”  

Red Rose is the ghost of love. However, she was nowhere like Cupid. She was an enchantress. She took control of her victims’ minds and manipulated them into serving her till she grew tired of them and disposed of their souls and went out to acquire new toys.

The way she played with her victim was what made her cruel. She used her victims’ romantic interest to toture them.

Legends stated that her name came from the fact that after she sets her sight on her target, she’ll lure them to her inescapable labyrinth with her addictive rose fragrance and trace her footsteps with red rose petals. Red Rose was truly feared in Black Water Falls.

“She is my favorite specter,” Jaejoong said with a large smile.

“Why?” Junsu blurted.

“Because she’s sad.” And he looked up from his notepad and the notes he had written there in his rush as he did research. His handwriting was abysmal. 

“Sad? She’s evil!” Myungyeol laughed. 

“Yes, but her story is…Listen, she’s great for this Halloween episode. Her background is amazing.”

“True.” Changmin nodded.

“Sounds like a lot of work, though,” Hyungjun whined.

“Shut up, dude.”

To Jaejoong, Red Rose was vengeful and not a seductress for the sake of being an enchantress.  She made sense to him. 

“And I know exactly where we need to go investigate,” Changmin announced, his eyes twinkling.

“The Rose Maison?”

Changmin rolled his eyes. “Duh, obviously,” he teased Junsu.

“Whatever,” Junsu said, throwing popcorn pieces at his giggling friend.

Red Rose. She was a tragic ghost. A story of love. Lost, and betrayal.

Her story went like this: she was murder by her husband. The man she gave everything up to be with because she thought he loved her. However, after some years and some children, he got tired of her. And so, he wanted different, he wanted younger, he wanted someone fresh. He went and got what he wanted. He established a mistress. Red Rose looked away and put up with the abuse, because she loved him and he was the father of her children. She was completely faithful and stayed. She completely believed in love, and love didn’t hurt, and true love never disappeared. So she stayed. He didn’t think or feel the same as she did. He fell head over hill in love with his mistress, and he decided Red Rose had to go. 

And as most of these stories went, he went after his wife, and the best way to rid himself of his marriage and the baggage of his children was not to leave his wife, but to kill her and their children and frame the innocent gardener. Completely heartless and bloody.

 Red roses symbolized his love and loyalty to her. When he was courting her, he always gave her a single red rose, the signal that he loved her. And so, he buried his family in the garden of roses.

They say, every year when her anniversary comes around, red roses blossom in her estate. An estate named after its spectacular rose garden. The estate was an actual mansion, exactly as its name implied. It was a very beautiful, old house that was only scary because of its unkempt state.

    “She’s not a particularly scary ghost,” Yunho said thoughtfully.

    The friends all agreed in their own way, some nodded and some mumbled true.

“Do you think we’ll get interest?”

“I see where you’re coming from, however, I think this can be a successful episode depending on how we present her.”

“True,” Junsu said, agreeing with Jaejoong. “She does have a really nice background story. And this case here could really be “her” doing.” He made air-quotes with his fingers as he spoke.

“Or Foot Step,” Yohan said, shrugging nonchalantly when Jaejoong glared at him.

Jaejoong sighed, they knew he didn’t like that ghost. 

To be upfront, Jaejoong would go to his grave before he allowed anyone to claim that he was not scared of it! He wasn’t! It just unsettled him.

Foot Step was just creepy. No one knew its or gender. Or if it had ever been human and was just a disgruntled, spiteful spirit, like Red Rose. Legend said, it could appear to you in any form. It could be your most beautiful dream or your worst fear. Worst was the fact that it took people in their dreams. 

Jaejoong knew it was just...make believe.  Foot Step wasn’t real and was probably created to scare teenagers from dating and to get them to focus on their study, still, it was creepy!

“Yohan, you know how Jaejoong feels about it,” commented YoungSaeng, trying to be helpful.

“Which is nothing. I am not scared of a made-believed ghost,” Jaejoong snapped.

YoungSaeng shrugged. “I was only trying.”

“Well, stop.”

That made most of the boys laugh, and of course, Junsu and Yunho couldn’t help but to tease Jaejoong. 

“Come on Jaejoong, it’s the only one we haven’t done a video on,” pouted Junsu.

“No.”

“This case could be about Foot Step and we’ll get great traffic.”

“How do you know?” Jaejoong demanded, glaring at Yunho. He was supposed to be his best friend, his supporter.

“I am just looking at the same case file as you.”

“It’s Red Rose.”

“Or Foot Step,” Yunho said, fixing Jaejoong with his beseeching gaze.

“Guys, who also agrees that a video on Red Rose would be best? She has such a great story! We could visit the estate, interview around, and…it would be great.”

YoungSaeng shrugged. “I’m down for whatever.”

Sighing loudly from exasperation, Jaejoong reluctantly said, “Okay then, you know what? You guys pick whatever you want. Even if it is Foot Step, I’ll write the video and we’ll shoot and make this Halloween a success.”

“That’s our team player!” Changmin cheered him on. Yunho clapped him on the back and winked at him.

“What I want to know is, Jaejoong, why are you terrified of this ghost.”

“I am not.”

“Jaejoong!” Hyungjun Gasped. His eyes were wide. He looked scandalized. “Not trying to be funny, but are you not telling us something, bro.?”

“Shut up, Hyungjun. You’re not funny.”

Hyungjun  let out a hoot of laughter. “Boys, we got him. He is in love!”

“Oh gosh,” Jaejoong groaned, covering his face in his frustration. His friends laughed all around him and were talking about him like he was an invallid or was just not there in the room with him.

“Come on,” Hyungjun said with genuine interest in his eyes. “You’re not a bum, so the only reason for your fear is that you’re in love with someone and is scared Foot Step is coming for you because of that love.”

Jaejoong looked at his serious friend and started laughing.

“Dude, I love you, and I worry about you,” Jaejoong said gently, looking completely concerned.

The boys laughed. 

“Hyungjun is lonely, huh?” Yunho asked.

Hyungjun sighed loudly and animatedly flopped on his chair. “I am lonely, y’all. Like, I could be like my older brother and hanging out with my girlfriend right now, if I had one, but here I am.” He whined.

The boys rolled their eyes and decided to get back to business.

“Will we do Foot Step?” Changmin asked, looking up from his laptop screen.

Jaejoong shrugged when they all looked at him. 

“Let’s see if we have a video,” Yunho said.

“Okay.”

“Jaejoong, where’s the ghost book?”

“Huh?”

“The one you said your mom used to read aloud to you when you were younger,” Changmin added.

“First of all, most of our parents used to read to us from one of those books. But, yeah, I know which one you’re talking about.”

“Can I borrow it? I want to read about Foot Step.”

“Sure.”

And Jaejoong got up and left.

                                                              -------

With the teen gone, the nine boys crawl around each other and started talking in hushed whispers.

“I don’t agree with you!” Changmin said a little too loudly.

“Shss!” All eight of them said in unison.

“Whatever,” Changmin murmured sullenly. 

Yunho pulled him back into the circle so they could finish their low, secretive discussion. Again Changmin pulled back and said a little too loud for their state of discussion.

“I really don’t think we should be doing this to him,” Changmin said, pointing at Yohan. 

Yohan favored him with a roll of his eyes. “He’ll be fine. It’s just some good fun.”

“He never backed out of pranking us. This is Halloween, and we have a tradition, and this year it’s his turn.” Yohan shrugged.

“So next year it will be my turn,” Changmin murmured petulantly. 

“Dude, is this why you have your undies in a bunch?”

“Shut up. I just don’t like this.”

“It’ll be fine,” Yunho assured him, putting a hand on his young friend’s shoulder.

“Now, come on, focus,” Junsu said.

They formed a more uniformed circle again and  started talking, this time more hurriedly. They had to get everything ready.