Seven:

The four men sat in an uneasy silent on the way to the hospital, the sky drizzled. When they arrived they were quietly escorted into an empty part of the wards to keep the other patients protected. It was like any other hospital, smelling highly of antiseptic and chilled medical tools; only this area had guards posted outside the glass separator. They all marched in quietly as all people with a healthy respect of life, of illness, of death did, trying their best not to make a noise. Twitching slightly Sungjong jerked the curtains aside. Full of childish impatience that the other three had lost he rushed pass the curtains, which later Sunggyu would pull back into place, and stood staring at the sitting man.

Dongwoo. Their minds told them but their instinct said otherwise. With his cynical, sharp eyes analyzing them he felt nothing like the man any of them knew, not even on an investigation did Dongwoo give off such coldness. Pricking sensations moved along their bodies, someone had walked over their grave.  This was not their friend, roommate, hyung, partner, or acquaintance, but something else with his skin.

“Hello,” the voice greeted detached while the glaze bore into Sunggyu.

“Demon,” he whispered suddenly as it connected in his head. That glaze he feel was one of a cold-blooded killer, one he felt aimed at him too many times for his comfort.

Chuckling he answered, “Yes that’s what you call me.”

Sunggyu opened his mouth but a shout interrupted him. Emanating from the innocent faced men it shocked everyone.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HYUNG?!” angry boiled in his voice as he forgot that only moments ago he was terrified of the man with Dongwoo’s image. It seems that youthful impatience got pass that one.

With a large, yet extremely cool smile he barked, “Nothing he’s just asleep.”

“You’re lying,” he spoke with a conviction only the foolish or pure can have, oddly like how you know a child is telling the truth they knew Sungjong words were no lie.

                The smile grew, so terribly wrong for a smile especially for on that face.  Dongwoo’s smiles crinkled his eyes, lit up his face, have a cartoonish-loving quality to them. This smile though was a strict curving line one the mouth, cool and calm.

                “Aye-AH---“ Hoya covered Sungjong’s mouth while dragging him kicking out the room. The other two followed in suit, cautiously.

                Hang still over the kid’s mouth Hoya asked roughly, “What the heck is wrong with him?”

“He…” Woohyun’s voice vanished as he fell farther in thought.

                Breaking from Hoya’s tight hold he jumped into Woohyun’s, now nonist, personal space.

“Wae???” he asked in a whining tone even going as far to stomp his foot.

                “Aye!” Hoya smacked him hard on the back of his head. “No! Acting like a spoil brat.”

“It’s fine. Hoya,” Woohyun muttered half absorbed in his thought.

                Sunggyu alternated between staring at the wall and into the room where his roommate and friend –enemy- lay.  His emotions whiplashed, spun, kicked basically mentally gave him a beating. How could he, Sunggyu suddenly remembered when Dongwoo and he had gotten lost in Seoul,be the same guy that… an image of a grave stone burned into his mind.

                “How-I mean Hoya what do you know about Dongwoo’s past?” Woohyun probed gathering more information.

                “Well, he was an orphan never adopted,” Hoya suddenly realized how little he knew of his partner.

                “Nothing? I have a feeling that something in that time period created the figure before us,” he looked up eyes blazed. “Sunggyu you should go back with Hoya to see where Dongwoo to trace his past to see why the current events occurred.”

                   “What about me?????” Sungjong bounced.

“You’re staying here, kid. Can’t let you get in the way of the investigation,” Hoya patted Sungjong’s head.

                The drive from the hospital was just as awkward as the last, however, this time to man sat tense as the strings of a guitar. The sky above them was overcast as though reading both of their emotions and reflecting them. Three hours later they arrive at the slightly rundown orphanage. Hoya looking much too serious for his usual self and Sunngyu too deep in thought for his own good walked up the steps.

                “Wae?!” Sungjong ran in circles as he was locked out of the room while Woohyun interrogated the Demon.

                “What is your name?” Woohyun asked softly but clearly.

“Ha, what do you mean?” he answered in a question.

                “You must have a name, since you obviously aren’t Dongwoo,” Woohyun stated.

“A name?” he mused and replied, “I never had a reason to have one just call me as you always have.”

                “Fine, Demon. Why are you doing all of this? You’re just hurting Dongwoo,” Woohyun pushed a button.

                Growling the Demons yelled, “Hurt him?! I’m protecting him!”

Angrily he jerked at the handcuff which cut deeper into his skin. Woohyun looked at him sadly and pressed a button that pushed sedatives into his body. Within a handful of minutes the mad figure slumped.

                “I guess we’ll just have to rely on Hoya and Sunggyu for now,” he whispered to himself as he wrote on his clipboard.

                Sungjong asked to use the toilet as the guard eyed him warily. Inside the stall he picked up the phone which had been vibrating nonstop the last five minutes.

                “Hello?” he left his question in the air.

“Sungjong,” a familiar voice replied.

                “L? What do you need?” he referred to Myungsoo by his friendly nickname.

“What’s going on? Cops came here asking about Dongwoo.” He said bluntly needing the answer.

                Nervously Sungjong spilled everything, words tumbled over another as Myungsoo tried to understand.

                “Thanks, bye,” Myungsoo said and hung up.

The boy Myungsoo ran down the steps, the same boy who only moments earlier they had met.

                Walking up the steps they nearly crashed to the leaving man. Flashing their badges they told him the reason for them being there with the bare minimal information. The boy had looked over his shoulder cautiously and whispered, “No one here can tell you what you want to know, money seals their lips. But I might be able to tell you about Dongwoo Hyung.”

                Now they walked the lonely streets lead by Myungsoo.

“Talk to us, boy,” Hoya ordered, which made Myungsoo stop in his tracks.

                “Two things. One: don’t call me boy. Second I will give me time to think,” Myungsoo announced rudely to the older man.

                They walked another block before Myungsoo spoke again.

“Dongwoo was like a big brother to us, when he was here.” He began, revealing the fact he was once a orphan in the same place as Dongwoo.

                “When he was here,” he repeated although with importance, “but he was like a lot of us he rebelled by running away multiple times. It even came to the point where the orphanage stopped calling the police since Dongwoo always came back within a few days of his own accord. Later, they found out that he’d been staying with a man living nearby so that made them feel better perhaps this man will adopt Dongwoo soon, they must have thought. This is probably the black stain on the orphanage’s history since that man was… was unsavory to say the least.”

                They stopped again in front of an aged, unused house. Myungsoo walked up the steps quickly and paused in the middle of an empty living room.

                Speaking dramatically, “This is the house where he stayed, the house of a murderer.” Although Myungsoo’s words were chilling his tone stayed calm as he spoke, “This is where 35 boys were brutally murdered within the span of five years, where that same man raised the man you think of as the demon, oh Sungjong told me everything. Dongwoo told me after the guy was murdered that he was taught to dissect animals and everything. Yah the guy was murdered some people say by Dongwoo and some say by some vandal, some by an unknown victim any of these theories can be true since Dongwoo never told anyone how he was found covered in blood.”

                While all these events occurred Dongwoo was chain in a darkness so black that he couldn’t even see a centimeter in front of his face. Here he began losing himself, he could feel it pieces of him were dropping into the abyss. Abruptly his chains released and propelled him towards a floating white door, which he opened and entered. The room he entered was a mirror of that house Sunggyu, Hoya, and Myungsoo stood in only it was furnished. This was a mirror of the house when it was alive, based off Dongwoo’s memory of it. He walked numbly towards the room he called his and dropped flat on the twin-sized bed. Looking around he wondered if he would see that man here. Much to his surprise a shadowy figure began to form and walked up to him, touching as his face gently as it finished forming.