;;;;;

Leeteuk opened his eyes a while later to feel his head being cradled in her hands on her warm lap. He could see her smile, let out a laugh of relief, and hug him tightly with only cries escaping her. His mind swirled in confusion.

“Are you ok?” she asked cautious. “You can breathe alright, right?”

Leeteuk nodded after he’d pulled himself up to his feet. Now that he was looking at her he wondered how had she gotten to him when her clothes were still dry? Yet, he didn’t bother to ask. He felt too cold and goosebumps were growing all over his arms as well as his legs.

“I’m sorry, I think I want to go back,” Leeteuk told slightly hugging himself.

She looked at him with sorry eyes.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked.

Shin Ae just pressed her lips together unable to say anything, “Yes, you should go back. I’ll drop by next time.”

Leeteuk watched as she began to turn away, “Wait…where are you headed?”

“I’m going to go now. I don’t think it’ll be a good thing for me to be with you right now.”

Leeteuk felt confused by the way she was talking but he didn’t say anything. He just watched her continue to walk off with her white dress standing out so clearly among the green they were surrounded with. He slowly turned around and began to make his way back toward the mansion without turning around to see that Shin Ae had completely disappeared in mid air.

When he stumbled around the corner feeling the shivering cold climb all over his aching body he wanted to see Taeyeon standing by the steps waiting for him. Once he looked up he did see someone there, but it wasn’t Taeyeon. Instead Gyuri stared at him with bewildered eyes.

“What happened?” Gyuri exclaimed.

Leeteuk just shook his head wondering where Taeyeon would have gone to hide herself.

“I can’t recall.”

As he made his way up the steps he could feel the stairs sliding underneath him as if he were standing on an escalator…or more like he was floating just centimeters above it. The hallway before became blurry and it felt like he was surrounded with foggy clouds. That was the last he was able to remember before images began to flutter before his eyes.

;;;;;

“What! Are you crazy for screaming so loudly?!” shrieked Junsu running down the hallway.

Once he reached the doorway he came to a sliding stop with eyes becoming wide. Leeteuk was lying across the stairs with his head at the top of the stairs and Gyuri was kneeling beside him checking to make sure he still had a pulse.

“What’s going on?! What did you do with him, witch?!” Junsu blabbered.

Gyuri looked up at him with a deep glare before pushing away his rude comment, “Would you help me get him up?”

Junsu stared at her with a face expression full of agony from her nagging before he took a few steps forward. Grabbing Leeteuk’s arm and lifting it around his neck he half lifted Leeteuk up.

“Aish!” Gyuri exclaimed again. “Be careful! You might hurt him!”  

“Hurt? Him?” Junsu asked looking at her with wide eyes before turning to glance at Leeteuk. “Don’t say that because you like him.”

“Don’t tease me.” Gyuri threatened.

“Ok. Fine, fine.” Junsu muttered walking down the hallway.

Leeteuk’s drenched clothes were making his shirt wet as well. However, Junsu decided not to complain as he did not want to face Gyuri’s wrath. Gyuri opened the door to Leeteuk’s bedroom and stood by it while Junsu half threw Leeteuk onto the bed.

“Change his clothes,” Gyuri ordered with arms crossed.

“Why are you ordering me around?!” Junsu snapped.

“Shut up or I’ll curse you to meet a ghost,” Gyuri uttered and closed the door behind her.

“Aish!” Junsu muttered glancing down at Leeteuk.

;;;;;

The green grass fluttered whistling with the wind. A melody that only nature knew of. Something that only nature’s creatures could hear. The music that a young soul wouldn’t yet be able to understand. The peace of harmony in a place full of happy silence.

The sparkles on the water glittered before him shining up the dull empty scene he was just seeing. The tall trees all anchored the sky together with their branches upright and the leaves poking the graceful blue sky. Images of a happy past summer’s play filled his heart along with a song full of love words. It was something that only a soul could feel. A soul…

“Oppa!” the voice of a female child screamed.

“Leeteuk!” the voice of another child, a boy, chimed in.

The scene slowly enveloped before him. Very clearly, very visibly a boy sitting on the ground busy with his toy trucks appeared. From the hill hidden behind the shrubs was a young boy and girl running down. The girl’s chubby face with bright happy eyes that expressed perfection smiled at him with her pigtails waving in the wind. The boy was holding up a large fenced net for catching insects. The net flew open creating a triangular shape as he held it upright while running down the small green hill.

It felt like staring at a large movie theatre screen. The children talked on and Leeteuk could hear every single word, make out every single detail, and he could also see the happiness flowing out of the three children’s bodies.

“What is this?” he muttered under his breath.

The screen started moving fast and started going in a fast forward motion until it stopped. What appeared before him this time was a body of water. The loud ripples of the water moving back and forth against the broken boat echoed.

“Leeteuk! Leeteuk!” the voice sounded familiar. “Leeteuk!”

As young Leeteuk was pulled out of the water he’d been drowning upon he opened his eyes to see himself floating elsewhere. Time had transitioned so fast that he did not know where in time he was. Waving his arms about he could see the sun shining above the translucent blue. He reached his arm up to feel the cool air breathing across the water on his fingers but could not reach above the surface. His throat suddenly closed up and large bubbles escaped his mouth as he tried to breathe in oxygen that was nowhere to be found. Putting his hands up to his neck he glanced around feeling himself spin in a circle inside the blue. He waved his arms back and forth, back and forth finally coming to a stop when he saw as figure remaining still before him. Her face was unseen…but it was her white dress that stood out in his memory.  

“Don’t leave. You can’t leave.” the voice whispered.

He stared at her lost, his mind in a trance. It was all before a pair of hands landed on both of his shoulders pushing him deeper below the surface.

Breathing in too deeply he let out a noise similar to that of a dying animal. Leeteuk opened his eyes screaming, “Shin Ae!!!”

Panting, puffing his lungs for air he looked up to see Junsu staring down at him bewildered.

“What the heck, man….” Junsu stared at him, fear engulfing his eyes.

Leeteuk could only stare up at him lost then looked around the room wondering what had just happened? Had it been a hallucination…or an exaggeration of when he’d almost drowned just minutes ago? He was lost for a few seconds trying to fix it into his mind that he was no longer underneath the blue but atop dry land.

“Guys! Open the door! What’s going on in there?!” Gyuri’s voice shouted from beyond the door she was suddenly pounding against.

Junsu turned around to glance at the door then to Leeteuk, who had sat up on the bed. After giving him a strange glance Junsu walked toward the door, grabbed the doorknob, and twisted it a few times to find that it was unable to open.

“What did you do?!” Junsu shrieked at Gyuri.

“I didn’t do anything!” Gyuri screamed back. “Open the door! This is not funny, Junsu!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Junsu snapped in return.

Junsu could hear Gyuri stomp her feet from outside the door, “I’m going to get Siwon. If I come back and find out that this is a joke, you’re so dead, Kim Junsu!”

With that he heard her footsteps rush down the hallway in a hurried manner. The closed room that he was in with Leeteuk brought chills down his spines. Was he just being paranoid and allowing his thoughts to make his heart skip a beat?

;;;;;

After taking a shower and getting dressed Taeyeon stared at herself in the mirror. Taking a deep breath to calm the nerves she told herself to go out of her room. Hopefully, Leeteuk would no longer speak about last night. When she opened the door Taeyeon couldn’t help but glance down the empty hallway. Well, not that it wasn’t surprising to see each end of the hallway empty since the mansion was so huge anyway.

She hadn’t seen Yoona ever since she’d went to Changmin and ran away from Leeteuk. Walking further down the hallway she saw that Yoona’s bedroom door was open. Stepping a foot into the neat room Taeyeon spotted Yoona at the foot of her bed on her knees searching for something on the floor.

“Yoona?” Taeyeon called with a small frown.

Yoona quickly spun around with her long hair sailing the air, “Oh…unnie.”

“What are you doing?” Taeyeon wondered walking further into the room.

“Oppa said there was something on the ground, but I can’t seem to find it,” Yoona pondered.

“What was on the ground?”

“He didn’t say,” Yoona told splitting part of the carpet apart and glancing to see what was in-between, however, she didn’t find much.

Yoona finally sat up a few minutes later with a helpless sigh.

“Oppa seemed really worried about it,” Yoona expressed with droopy shoulders. “Do you think it could have been something from that night of blackout?”

Taeyeon only glanced at Yoona. Whatever it was she hoped that her friend wouldn’t have to endure any more fright.

“Probably not. Maybe Siwon saw wrong,” Taeyeon tried.

Yoona glanced at her then back to the carpet.

;;;;;

The intense silence was already burdening Junsu. It felt like a block of heavyweight on his shoulders. Cold sweat poured out from his back as Leeteuk seemed to have dazed off with his mind floating somewhere. He sat like such an empty minded person; his back hunched a bit, mouth hanging open, and his eyes looking up at the ceiling focusing on only one spot.

The creeps. Leeteuk gave him the creeps. The way he’d wriggled on the bed, eyebrows twitching in horror, then that sudden squeal that Junsu had never heard a human make before. Maybe he, along with Taeyeon, were strange people themselves. Including Zhoumi, who claimed he had a great sixth sense. Junsu now began to wonder why he’d even bothered joining this group of strangers for a vacation out in the middle of nowhere and nobody to be found except for the weird neighbors, who Leeteuk hates.

Junsu shook his head unable to move from his spot in-between the door and Leeteuk. A light of hope flourished in him assuming that it was Gyuri finally coming for him along with Siwon. However, as the footsteps neared he noticed that the steps were heavy and long, not short and light like Gyuri’s. The clink of the doorknob told him that that person had grabbed the doorknob from the other side. And without much effort the door opened as if it had never been stuck at all.

A tall shadow loomed into the room from the crack of the doorway before the door was fully pushed open. A pair of black rimmed glasses glanced inside and Junsu immediately frowned.

“Zhoumi?” Junsu wondered. “What are you doing?”

The way the tall Zhoumi looked at him wasn’t very welcoming.

“Hey…what’s with the glare?” Junsu asked ready to take a step back.

“You did wrong,” Zhoumi muttered, eyes lost.

“What?” Junsu asked.

Silence just followed. Zhoumi did not finish his sentence nor explain himself. Junsu, then, finally noticed that Zhoumi’s eyes were not on him, but elsewhere. Turning his head to follow Zhoumi’s stare he found Leeteuk staring blankly at them as if he had just woken up from a long sleep.

“Zhoumi,” Leeteuk began. “I didn’t see you.”

Leeteuk began to stand up from the bed. Zhoumi began walking forward with each step landing on the floor heavily in a fast manner and just in 4 steps he’d reached Leeteuk immediately wrapping one hand around Leetuek’s neck.

“What are you doing?!” Junsu screamed as Zhoumi pinned Leeteuk onto the bed beginning the process of crushing his fragile throat.

“Arghhaiklhh…” Leeteuk was only able to mutter against the strength Zhoumi held on him.

Junsu watched as Leeteuk’s eyes began to roll back while he kicked his legs in call for helpless help. His hands that were trying to pull Zhoumi’s hand off his neck were beginning to tremble tremendously. To witness a death…Junsu had never planned on seeing such.

“Are you crazy?! What is wrong with you?!” Junsu screamed over and over unable to move from where he was. Fear had spooked him too badly that he was unable to send any messages from his brains to his muscles. “Let go! Let go! Let go!”

Junsu finally grabbed Zhoumi’s shoulders and pulled him back. Together the two of them toppled onto the floor. Junsu did not understand where the strength within Zhoumi came from as he quickly jumped to his feet headed back for Leeteuk. Junsu forced his body up and tried to pull Zhoumi from the back again, but this time Zhoumi spun around and sent him flying into the wall.

“Ah!” Zhoumi moaned.

From where he sat dizzily he watched as Zhoumi take hold of Leeteuk again. Biting his tongue promising himself that he’d never fight again Junsu painfully got up with his body aching. This time pulling Zhoumi from the shoulders was, for some reason, easier than the first time. His body was light. But without much thinking Junsu tossed him to the ground, sat on top of him, and began punching him in the face while Leeteuk coughed hoarsely behind them.

“Kim Junsu!! Are you crazy?!” a voice broke into his ears.

Junsu finally looked up to see Siwon and Gyuri standing before him both bewildered by what they were seeing.

“It’s not what you think,” Junsu declared moments later surrounded by everyone.

Zhoumi, who was bleeding profusely, sat by the corner of the room with his blood being wiped off by Jang Hyuk.

“What if Zhoumi just got on Junsu’s nerves again?” Seungho questioned.

“And that’s a reason for Junsu to jump the poor guy?” Gyuri snapped. “Did you see how hard Junsu was hitting him?! It’s an assault!”

“Whoa! Cool down,” Jang Hyuk muttered.

“Don’t you want to know why Zhoumi went into the room?!” Junsu screamed then pointed to Leeteuk, who rubbed his sore throat and because of that he was unable to talk at the moment. “Leeteuk was being killed!”

“Do you have evidence? Who’s going to believe you? Why would we believe you?” Gyuri snapped. “Why would Zhoumi want to hurt anyone? All he ever does is speak about the ghosts that are around here. And for God’s sake you’re the one who always gets pissed off at him!”

“It’s not that this time around!” Junsu shouted standing up from where he was sitting.

He stared at them.

“Do you believe me, Siwon?” asked Junsu with eyes that challenged his rightfulness.

Siwon just stared at him, “I don’t know.”

Junsu bit his lower lip, “Fine! Don’t believe me. When time comes for Zhoumi to kill you, don’t you start crying for help.”

With a last glare at the group in the living room Junsu stepped out.

***Curious about what happened to Zhoumi? Well, recall in Ch 37 that Zhoumi saw Shin Ae standing by the window and she told him, "Get him for me..." that's the start of when Shin Ae linked her feelings to Zhoumi. And you can guess why she is upset with Leeteuk. And because she is upset, Zhoumi will also feel upset.

***F.Y.I. Leeteuk was seeing parts of his past and he is slowly regaining memories. And at the last scene Taeyeon and Yoona are, obviously, not there.

***Sorry for the late update. I went to see Paranormal Activity 2 last night instead of writing and the fright didn't kick in right away after the movie finished. But I got super paranoid when I go to sleep, so I don't brainstorm for this story. And this story requires creepy scenes, which I think I will refrain from for now until I get over my paranoia. Anyhow, Paranormal Activity 2 was scary, I'd say that now xD If you're not doing anything for Hallowee, you should go see it, just for the spooks :)