“I see you’re past the phase of trying to impress me,” Baekhyun joked as he entered the familiar apartment, glancing around at the books and articles of clothing that were scattered around the living area.

“I haven’t exactly had time to clean lately,” Chanyeol said, blushing slightly at the comment. Suho had just dropped the pair of them off at Chanyeol’s apartment, the group having finished the investigation a few hours prior. They had stopped first to drop the equipment off at the office, and by now it was nearing six in the morning. “I’ve been spending most of my time lately at work, at the office, or with you.”

“I know, I’m just playing,” Baekhyun said, walking over and plopping down on the couch, stretching his legs out across the cushions. When the two of them decided they’d just go home together tonight, he had insisted on coming here, claiming that they hadn’t been to Chanyeol’s in a while. The truth was he just wasn’t too keen on being in his own apartment these days. “I’m exhausted.”

“I can see that,” Chanyeol replied, watching as the older man yawned, looking ready to fall asleep right there on the couch. He was pretty tired himself, but he planned on at least making it to his bed. “You do know you’re going to have to move, right?”

“Nope,” Baekhyun said stubbornly, trying to get more comfortable on the couch. It wasn’t really made for sleeping though, and he was a bit too tall for it, having to pull his legs up closer to his body in order to fit. “I’m staying right here. Goodnight.”

“Baekhyun,” Chanyeol whined, pouting. He walked over to the couch and started pulling on Baekhyun’s arm, trying to get the older man to get up. “I can’t fit on the couch with you, and I don’t want to sleep alone.”

“Guess you’ll have to carry me then,” Baekhyun murmured, already sounding half asleep. He doubted he even had the energy to get up and walk to the bedroom, tired from walking around the large fort all night. It didn’t help that he hadn’t been sleeping well lately, thanks to the nightmares.

“So lazy,” Chanyeol said, rolling his eyes. Inwardly he thought Baekhyun was adorable like this, his sleepy yet content smile making him look more relaxed than Chanyeol had ever seen him. He almost felt bad about ruining it when he reached down to slide his arms beneath Baekhyun’s knees and shoulders, picking him up bridal style off of the couch. Almost.

“Chanyeol!” Baekhyun protested, eyes snapping open as he was suddenly lifted into the air. He quickly wrapped his arms around Chanyeol’s neck, not wanting the taller man to drop him, and tried not to wince as Chanyeol gripped his injured shoulder. “This is not what I meant.”

“How else do you suggest I carry you then, princess?” Chanyeol asked, laughing at his boyfriend’s expression as he made his way over to the bedroom. The door was already open slightly, so he managed to push his way through without having to put Baekhyun down, though he had to convince the older man to let go long enough to reach over and flip the light switch on so that he wouldn’t trip on anything in the dark. He laid Baekhyun down on the bed and pulled the covers up over him, knowing that he was probably too tired to care about pajamas or anything else. Baekhyun made a grateful noise in response, already halfway to dreamland as he snuggled into the warm bed. Chanyeol decided he was too exhausted to worry about it either, walking over to turn the light back off before getting under the covers as well. He pulled Baekhyun close to him, wrapping his arms around the older man from behind. Baekhyun turned his head to place a sloppy goodnight kiss on what he probably thought was Chanyeol’s mouth but was actually slightly above it, and then he was out, breathing evening out as he slipped into unconsciousness. Chanyeol smiled at the gesture, waiting a few minutes to make sure that Baekhyun was actually asleep. He whispered an “I love you” before closing his own eyes, wondering how he had gotten so lucky as he drifted off to sleep. 

As always, the group spent the next several days analyzing the evidence they had collected, looking for anything to back up personal experiences they had as well as anything else paranormal. They caught the strange loud noise that had been heard throughout the fort, and after careful comparison determined that it could have been nothing else but cannon fire, which was also impossible as none of the working cannons had been fired that night. There was very clear audio of someone who wasn’t there walking up to Kai and Kyungsoo as well. They unfortunately did not catch Sehun’s apparition, but they did have the thermal footage that had gotten Baekhyun so excited.

Kai had been the one reviewing the thermal footage, stopping to get the others’ attention as soon as he saw it. “Guys, look at this.”

The other three paused what they were doing, removing their headphones and looking at the screen Kai was pointing to. Baekhyun grinned as he realized what it was. “We got it?”

“Got what?” Sehun asked. Kai responded by hitting the play button, seeing no need to tell them where to look – it was obvious. They all watched as a heat signature in the shape of a human materialized seemingly out of nowhere, running away from where the camera was. After a few seconds the camera started to shake and move closer to the figure, presumably when Baekhyun noticed the figure and tried to chase it. It went on for several seconds before they reached the point where Baekhyun tripped, camera view turning sideways as it fell to the ground. They were still able to see the figure, however, and watched in awe as it disappeared from the screen just as quickly as it had appeared. Sehun couldn’t quite believe the footage they had managed to catch, the heat signature appearing as solid as a person aside from the vanishing part. “And you’re sure there was no one else in the area?”

“Positive,” Chanyeol replied, understanding now why Baekhyun had taken off so quickly. “The rest of the team is accounted for, and the figure wasn’t that far in front of us on the camera screen. Neither of us saw anyone there, or heard any footsteps other than our own.”

“Have any of you found anything so far?” Kai asked once they were finished discussing the thermal footage.

“Yeah, actually,” Sehun said, pulling up the clip he had found on his laptop and hitting play once they were all looking. “This is in the area where you and Kyungsoo heard those footsteps, except this time there is absolutely no one around. We were all accounted for at the time, investigating in different parts of the fort.”

The clip began normal enough, the four of them watching dust particles float around the screen in the dark room for few seconds. Then the door to the room, which was wide open, slowly began to close. They watched in astonishment as it finished closing with a click, and the light switch next to the door was flipped on, as if someone had walked into the room. However, as light flooded the room, it was clear that there was no one there – even if all of them hadn’t been accounted for at the time, there was no way it could have been one of them.

“That’s awesome!” Chanyeol grinned, Baekhyun and Kai nodding in agreement. This place had turned out to be a goldmine in terms of evidence.

The four of them finished reviewing everything the next day, presenting their findings to Kyungsoo and Suho as usual. Baekhyun and Chanyeol decided to go their separate ways afterwards, both of them having to get up early for work the next day. Baekhyun had almost asked to go home with Chanyeol anyway, but he had spent the past two nights at the other man’s apartment and he didn’t want to seem too clingy. He wasn’t looking forward to spending the night at home though; he hadn’t had any nightmares while sleeping at Chanyeol’s. He didn’t know if it was because of Chanyeol’s presence or just the lack of Heechul’s, but either way he didn’t really want to watch those poor men die again. Baekhyun also didn’t like how quiet Heechul was being. On one hand, it was a good thing that nothing else had happened yet, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that the spirit was just building up to something worse. It must have taken energy for Heechul to manifest and attack him like that, so it was plausible to think that he was just resting before making his next move. Baekhyun hated to admit it, but it frightened him to think that there was some evil spirit just hanging around his apartment, waiting to hurt him.

When Baekhyun got home, he eyed the notes spread out on his coffee table momentarily before deciding he wasn’t up for reading tonight. It wasn’t that late, but he was tired and he had a long day of fixing computers ahead of him tomorrow. He figured he would just get some food and then go to bed, hoping it wouldn’t be too hard to fall asleep alone.

Baekhyun had just gone into the kitchen when one of his cabinets flew open of its own accord, and the stack of plates inside fell to floor, glass shattering everywhere. He only barely managed to avoid being cut, having instinctively moved away when the cabinet opened. He simply stood there for a moment, staring at the shards scattered across his kitchen floor in complete shock. Then, the room started to get cold, very cold. Something was telling Baekhyun to get the hell out of there, so he did. As calmly and carefully as possible, he stepped around the glass and out of the kitchen. He slipped on his shoes, grabbed his car keys, and was out the door.

He realized as he got into his car that it was exactly as he had feared; Heechul had been biding his time, probably gathering energy until he had an opportunity to strike. Baekhyun knew that if he had moved only a second too late, he could have been seriously injured by the falling glass.  It occurred to him then that Heechul might actually be trying to kill him, and was merely waiting until he was strong enough to do so. Baekhyun’s hands shook as he gripped the steering wheel, the gravity of the situation finally hitting him. Of course he had been scared before, had known he was in danger, but now he realized just how much danger.  

Soon he found himself parking outside of Kyungsoo’s apartment, and he tried to calm himself down before he got out of the car. He noticed with some satisfaction that his hands had almost stopped shaking, and took a few deep breaths as he opened the car door. Baekhyun’s first instinct had been, not surprisingly, to go to Chanyeol. The younger man always made him feel safe, and really all he wanted to do right now was curl up in his boyfriend’s arms and pretend none of this was happening. Unfortunately, Chanyeol could not give him the help he really needed, so instead he went to Kyungsoo. Baekhyun had been planning to bring the subject of spirit attachment up with Kyungsoo anyway, figuring that if anyone knew how to get rid of one it would be their chief researcher, but he hadn’t wanted his friend to get suspicious. He knew that he couldn’t let this go any longer though, and he hoped that Kyungsoo would have some answers for him.

“Baekhyun,” Kyungsoo said, eyes widening slightly in surprise when he answered the door only to find the older man staring back at him. It wasn’t that strange for Baekhyun to visit him, but dropping by unannounced this late at night was odd. “This is unexpected.”

“Yeah, sorry for just showing up this late,” Baekhyun apologized, smiling gratefully as Kyungsoo opened the door wider to let him in. “I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“Sure, what’s up?” Kyungsoo asked, motioning towards the couch.  Baekhyun sat down and Kyungsoo followed suit, wondering what was so important that Baekhyun couldn’t just call.

“Well, um…” Baekhyun paused, trying to think of a believable lie. At first he had planned to just tell Kyungsoo everything, but the more he thought about it the less he wanted to. If Heechul was really trying to kill him, the last thing he wanted was the others getting involved and trying to protect him. He would never forgive himself if they got hurt because of him. “I got an email, from someone who visited our site. They recently visited a supposedly haunted place, and started um… experiencing activity in their home afterwards. They wanted to know if it was possible for an entity to have followed them home, and if so what they should do about it. I had no idea what to tell them, but I figured you might. I, uh, I guess I was kind of curious too, if something like that could really happen.”

“It can,” Kyungsoo replied, though his face was skeptic. It was a flimsy lie, and they both knew it. The email address on their website for paranormal questions went directly to Kyungsoo. There was a contact for technical issues as well, which did go to Baekhyun, but the likelihood of someone mistakenly sending a question like that to the wrong email was small. What had Kyungsoo puzzled was why Baekhyun was lying about it in the first place, rather than asking the question out right, and even more so why he wanted to know about the subject in the first place. “Sometimes, if a spirit takes an interest in a living person, they can become physically attached to that person. Most of the time they’ll just follow the person around, feeding off of their energy, until they find someone new or their victim takes measures to get rid of them. There have been a few cases of a spirit taking up residence in a person’s home after becoming attached though, and that’s usually when it escalates from a minor annoyance to a serious problem.”

“How so?” Baekhyun asked, trying not to let his uneasiness show. He had a feeling that Kyungsoo was about to confirm everything that he had guessed, which is exactly what he had been afraid would happen.

“In those cases, the attachment is more permanent. Rather than moving on eventually, the spirit becomes almost obsessed with their victim, and starts interacting with them. Sometimes the interaction is mostly harmless, if not a little frightening, but in other cases it can turn violent,” Kyungsoo said. He watched Baekhyun’s face carefully for a reaction, and as he spoke he noticed the older man start biting the inside of his cheek nervously. “When a particularly mean or vengeful spirit is involved, they often feed off of their victim’s fear and pain. It can also be a simple case of jealousy; the spirit becomes envious that their victim is still alive, still enjoying life, and wants to take that joy away from them. It is rare, but it isn’t unheard of for a spirit like that to even attempt to take their victim’s life away. There aren’t any documented cases of a spirit ever successfully doing so, but some paranormal researchers have come across suspicious deaths every now and then.”

“They… they think that spirits have really killed living people before?” Baekhyun did not like that at all. He was already convinced that Heechul was going to try to kill him, though for what reason he didn’t know, but he had hoped maybe Kyungsoo would tell him that it wasn’t possible, that it had never happened before. He didn’t know how to feel after hearing that bit of information, confirming that Heechul could quite possibly end his life if Baekhyun didn’t figure out how to stop him. “Is there anything that can be done about it?”

“Some people say that you can get rid of attached spirits through exorcism, though personally I don’t know if I believe in it,” Kyungsoo replied. He could have sworn he heard fear in Baekhyun’s voice, and he was starting to get concerned. But… Baekhyun would have told them if he was having problems, right? “Moving works in some cases, if the spirit has become particularly attached to the home as well as the person. Sometimes they will just continue to follow their victim around though, so it doesn’t always help. Recently there have been experiments in asking for help from other spirits, people going to haunted locations and seeking benevolent entities that might be able to hold the spirit following them back. There’s no proof this can actually work though, and you run the risk of just attracting more angry spirits.”

“I see…” Baekhyun wondered if that was what Yunho was trying to do, but lacked the strength for. He noticed the way Kyungsoo was looking at him worriedly, and realized that he need to leave before he gave himself away. If it was true that Heechul might really be able to kill him, it meant that there was also the possibility that Heechul could kill one of the others if they got in his way. Baekhyun was not going to let that happen. “Well, thanks for answering my questions, Kyungsoo. I’ll be sure to uh… tell that person who emailed me what you said. I’ve got work in the morning, so I should probably get going now. Goodnight!”

Kyungsoo blinked at the sudden hurry to leave, not sure what the rush was. “Baekhyun, wait – ”

But Baekhyun was out the door before Kyungsoo could stop him, leaving the chef to stare after his friend and wonder what the hell was going on.

Baekhyun got into his car and drove off as quickly as possible, not wanting to give Kyungsoo a chance to follow him. He knew he had probably made the other man even more suspicious with his sudden exit, but he needed time to think about what he was going to do. He drove aimlessly for a few minutes, not really sure where to go. He most certainly did not want to go back to his apartment tonight, but that didn’t leave him with many options. Baekhyun considered going to Chanyeol’s, but his boyfriend was probably sleeping by now and he didn’t want to bother him. He would go there in the morning, and come up with some excuse to stay there for a few nights – tell Chanyeol there was a problem with his plumbing, or something. Baekhyun worried briefly about possibly leading Heechul to Chanyeol if he stayed there, but decided that he didn’t have much of a choice for the moment. He couldn’t exactly live on the street or afford a hotel room, but he couldn’t go back to the evil spirit trying to kill him either. So far, Heechul hadn’t appeared to follow him anywhere outside of the apartment, so he just had to hope that it would stay that way.

In the meantime, Baekhyun drove to a quiet side street in a relatively safe part of town, parked, and curled up in the back seat of his car in an attempt to get a few hours of sleep. He spent most of the night lying awake, tossing and turning on the uncomfortable cushions as he contemplated the mess he had gotten himself into. It was almost laughable, he found himself thinking, that he could very well die and it was all because of a little piece of silver.

The next morning, Kyungsoo was beyond worried as he walked into the bookstore, making a beeline for the front counter where Chanyeol was helping a customer. He waited impatiently for them to finish, standing off to the side of the counter and rocking back and forth on his feet. Chanyeol noticed him after a few seconds and gave him an odd look as he handed the customer their receipt, but Kyungsoo ignored it, walking over as soon as the customer was gone.

“Have you talked to Baekhyun at all this morning? Or last night?” Kyungsoo asked, not even bothering with a greeting. He had spent most of the night thinking about the strange conversation and concluded that no, Baekhyun wouldn’t tell them if something was going on. The older man was always far too concerned with burdening other people, and tried to handle everything on his own. With that in mind, Kyungsoo had decided to try talking to him again this morning, only to find out that Baekhyun had never shown up for work.

“Not since we left the office,” Chanyeol said, expression immediately becoming concerned. “Why? Did something happen? Is he okay?”

“I don’t know,” Kyungsoo answered honestly, sighing. He explained to Chanyeol about Baekhyun’s visit the previous night. “It was a really weird thing for him to just show up and ask about, and I’m worried that there’s something going on that he hasn’t told us about. All that time that he was wearing that pendant and attracting spirits… he seemed scared, even though he was trying to hide it. What if he was asking because he thinks something became attached to him?”

“You don’t think…” Chanyeol trailed off, not sure if he was going to like the answer. “There could be some evil spirit trying to hurt him?”

“I really hope not, but…” Kyungsoo paused. He didn’t want to freak Chanyeol out, but what he had found this morning wasn’t good. “I went to talk to him at work this morning, but they told me he never showed up. After that I went to his apartment… he didn’t answer when I knocked, but you know I have a key so I let myself in. He wasn’t there. His bed didn’t look slept in and… well, there was glass shattered all over his kitchen floor. I don’t know what happened, but I don’t think he went home last night after he left my place, and I have no idea where he is now either. I tried calling his cell but he isn’t answering.”

“Glass… ,” Chanyeol cursed, kicking himself for not realizing before. The nightmares, the blood on his shirt… he had known Baekhyun wasn’t telling him everything, but assumed that Baekhyun had his reasons and that he would tell Chanyeol when he was ready. It had never occurred to him that it could be something like this, something that could get Baekhyun killed. “Kyungsoo, I think you’re right. I need to find him.”

“Go. I’ll let Suho know what’s going on,” Kyungsoo said, watching as Chanyeol practically flew out of the store.

After a few minutes of indecision, Chanyeol decided to check his apartment. He knew that if it were him, he would have gone to Baekhyun. Chanyeol had once shown Baekhyun where he kept a spare key, and told him that he was welcome to let himself in if he ever needed anything. He could only hope that the older man had taken him up on the offer, because otherwise he had no clue where to begin looking.

Chanyeol was extremely relieved when he opened his front door to find Baekhyun sitting on his couch, knees pulled up to his chest and head resting on his arms. He looked up when he heard Chanyeol enter.

“You didn’t show up at work,” Chanyeol said with a frown, walking over to stand in front of Baekhyun. “You weren’t answering your phone either.”

“It died,” Baekhyun replied, offering an apologetic smile. “I’m sorry if I made you worry. The, uh, plumbing isn’t working in my building. They’re working on fixing it, but for now I had to come here to shower and all. I hope that’s okay? I ended up running pretty late though, so I decided to just call out of work for the day. Figured we could spend some time together when you got home.”

“You’re a terrible liar, Baekhyun. Your hair isn’t even wet,” Chanyeol said, giving Baekhyun a pointed look. “Kyungsoo went to your apartment, he saw that you hadn’t slept there. He also saw the mess in the kitchen.”

“Oh.” Baekhyun sighed, knowing he was caught. He should have known Kyungsoo would do something like that, and really should have guessed that he would tell Chanyeol. His plan of keeping them out of this was thoroughly ruined.

“Yeah, oh. Baekhyun, what the hell is going on?” Chanyeol tried not to sound angry, but he couldn’t help being a little bothered. He had trusted Baekhyun this far, and he still did, but he hated knowing that the other man had been hiding something like this for so long. Chanyeol didn’t like that Baekhyun had been suffering on his own, rather than sharing the burden with him. Isn’t that what you were supposed to do in a relationship? Help each other, support each other, especially when things got tough? At least, that was what Chanyeol had always thought love was about. Then again, he mused, maybe he was the only one who was really in love.

There was silence, and after a few moments it became clear that Baekhyun wasn’t going to answer. Chanyeol made a frustrated noise, and did something rather out of character. He grabbed Baekhyun by the arms, pulling him up off of the couch and forcefully turning him around so that his back was facing Chanyeol. Baekhyun tried to protest, but Chanyeol didn’t listen, pulling the back of Baekhyun’s shirt up over his shoulders. He let out a quiet gasp at what he saw, stepping back and letting go of Baekhyun. The older man’s shoulders slumped in defeat – there was definitely no getting out of this now.

Chanyeol stared at the marks that ran down Baekhyun’s back, looking far worse than the small cut that Baekhyun had claimed caused the blood. The wounds had healed and scabbed over some, but they were still clearly identifiable as claw marks, four lines spaced evenly apart in a way that matched perfectly with a human hand. “Baekhyun… how did this happen?”

“I…” Baekhyun started, not really sure where to begin explaining. He pulled his shirt back down and turned to face Chanyeol again.

“Baekhyun, please tell me,” Chanyeol pleaded. “I don’t know why you’re hiding from me, but you’re scaring me. Kyungsoo told me what you talked to him about… is something trying to hurt you? I just want to help, and I need you to be honest with me.”

“I’m sorry,” Baekhyun said, hit by the guilt of lying all over again. “It’s not that I was trying to hide from you… I wanted to tell you, I almost did more than once. But I didn’t want to worry you, at least at first, and now… things are a lot more dangerous than I initially thought, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Dammit Baekhyun, can you just worry about yourself for once? I’m not the one who was attacked!” Chanyeol said, voice raised. He tried to calm himself, knowing that yelling wouldn’t help. “I’m supposed to worry about you, I’m supposed to make sure you don’t get hurt, and so far I’ve done a terrible job. Tell me what’s going on, please.”

“It started when we investigated the prison,” Baekhyun replied, finally giving in. “Do you remember when I wandered off, into one of the cells? There was… something, someone, in there with me. I’ve never felt a presence quite like it, it was so cold. I wanted to run the second I walked into the cell, but he stopped me… then you showed up, and he was gone, or so I thought.”

“But he wasn’t… you think he followed you home?” Chanyeol asked, and Baekhyun nodded. He told Chanyeol about the nightmares, first the choking and then the memory of the murders. He explained about the two articles he had found, confirming that the person in his dreams was the man who had committed suicide in the prison, Heechul. Finally Baekhyun told him about what had happened in the shower, and about the incident last night.

“I had already been worried that he would try something, and after what happened last night and what Kyungsoo told me… I’m just scared that he could hurt you guys trying to get to me,” Baekhyun finished, voice a little unsteady as he blinked back tears. In some ways it was a relief to finally tell Chanyeol, to voice his fears, but at the same time it just made it that much more real.

“You should have said something, I could have… I don’t know, done something! You could have been seriously hurt last night,” Chanyeol said. He noticed the unshed tears in Baekhyun’s eyes and sighed, placing his hands on his boyfriend’s shoulders gently. “Baekhyun, I’m not going to let anything happen to you, not now that I know what’s going on. You’re staying here for now, and we’re going to tell the others. We’ll figure out some way to fix this. And don’t say that you don’t want me involved; it doesn’t matter if it puts me in danger too, I can’t sit back and do nothing. I love you too much for that.”

“You… what?” Baekhyun said, mouth hanging open slightly. It probably shouldn’t have surprised him as much as it did. He knew that Chanyeol cared about him a lot, love wasn’t much of a stretch. But it was a sudden confession, one he hadn’t been prepared for.

“I love you,” Chanyeol repeated, looking into Baekhyun’s eyes as he said it. He knew that they probably hadn’t been dating long enough for that under normal circumstances, but their situation was anything but normal. He needed Baekhyun to know that he cared for him, that he would do anything to protect him. Heechul was not going to win.

“I… I think I need a minute to think,” Baekhyun said, not sure how to react. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Chanyeol exactly, he just didn’t quite know how he felt. There had been so much going on lately that he hadn’t had much time to consider it. “Can I um… take that shower now?”

“…Yeah, go ahead,” Chanyeol replied. He watched Baekhyun walk into the bathroom and collapsed onto the couch with a sigh, running a hand through his hair. The fear that he had just ruined everything gnawed at him as he sat there, praying that he hadn’t.