He was in there. It was so dark, though.  

Jiyong… he was out there! He has to be looking for me, Seungri thought. He had to get out of here!

Seungri tried to get out, tried running in every direction to find the way, but every step he took made him feel like he was running through a pool of sludge, trudging slowly, not getting anywhere. Dizziness overtook him. He couldn’t see anything; everything was blurry. Maybe if he spoke, maybe if he screamed, Jiyong would be able to hear him.

Nothing. Even when he opened up his mouth wide enough to let out a bloodcurdling scream, nothing came out. Not even a squeak.

Why couldn’t he do anything?

Stay still, young man, another voice in his head said. It was deep, growling. It sounded like him, but he could tell it wasn’t. Who, then, was it?

I can hear what you’re thinking, young man. I can tell you’re wondering who I am. But I think you already know. At least… you know what I am. So just be a good boy and sit tight. We’re gonna have some fun.

Fun? Seungri thought. What kind of fun?

It was in this moment Seungri thinks that he was really cursed. And if Jiyong found his way to wherever he was, his cousin would only make matters worse.

{End Flashback}

The room had fallen silent and both of young man stood in the room awkwardly, unspoken words acting as the elephant in the room. Neither of them wanted to voice that painfully reality.

“Hey?” he muttered. At these times, he really wondered if he wanted to talk. It just felt a bit too awkward. At last he murmured something. “I’m sorry.”

“Um… yeah,” Seungri said, knowing he sounded just as awkward as Jiyong did. The confusion, the grim line in Jiyong’s face became spitefulness in Seungri’s heart. “I’m fine. Things are a bit hairy, but I’m fine. It’s okay. I know you would never hurt me.”

“You don’t know that. I don’t know what happened to me anyway. There’s was a long paused of silence before he continues. “I wish things could be different,” Jiyong murmured.

“Well they aren’t,” Seungri said, hurting because he understood the impossibility of Jiyong’s words. Already, Seungri was almost in tears.

The two are distracted by Boom entrance. She signalled them that it’s about time to go.

“So what do we do now?” Jiyong was the first to speak up, tossing his leather jacket into the trunk as they stood outside of the motel. “We need some kind of a plan.”

“I say we stickin’ together are damn good plan,” Boom said looking at both them. “We’ve been stuck in a town in the middle of nowhere, whose know that we might being picked off one by one in some sick version of American Gladiators. I don’t know if we could make it out of here alive.”

“Well, that’s reassuring,” he said sarcastically.

Seungri had just gotten everything loaded into the truck, with more supplies to the point of overstocking, Boom was just outside of the motel office on the cell phone. They were going headlong into something hard and heavy.

“So you can arrange it?” Jiyong heard Boom’s voice talking over the phone. They needed back-up. And Boom was on the phone trying to secure it.

Flipping the phone shut, Boom pulled herself erect and away from the office’s brick wall, moving to join them at the truck.

“Big phone call?” he asked Boom as she shrugged.

“Making sure we have all of our asses covered. That’s all.”

“You mean bases, darling, not asses.”

Boom moved to the driver’s side, climbing the wheel and starting the truck without a word. The trio looked silence at the moment. Boom was too focused with the driving. Talking to his just reunited cousin wasn’t his strong suit and at that point, he felt it’d be better to conserve their energy anyway. They’d need it for the long journey.