The apartment was empty.  The walls bare, and the furniture gone. 

“What the heck?” Onew exclaimed, rushing in.  “I swear there was stuff in here!”   He scampered across the carpet.  “There was a couch right here!  And the coffee table!  And there was this ugly, yellow wallpaper on the walls!  I swear!”

Minho ran his hand through his dark hair and sighed.  Another hallucination to add to the list of the crazy events of the last week.   

“Guys, you have to believe me!  There’s something in the building with us!” Onew cried, whipping around to face the others with a pleading expression on his face.   He threw his arms up, repeating, “There was something here!”

Jonghyun rested a hand on his friend’s shoulder.  “It’s okay.  We believe you,” he reassured him slowly.  However, he shot a confused look at Key, and he replied with a slight shrug and a frown. 

From the other side of the room, Taemin put his hands on his hips.  “Oh, okay.  So you’ll believe him, but not me?!” he spat angrily.

Key gasped and rebutted, “No, Tae, that’s not—“

“Forget it,” he interrupted, spinning on his heel and heading for the doorway.  “I’m just a little kid who doesn’t understand.  I get it!”

The other four young men sat in stunned silence for a second, looking desperately at one another.  Finally, Minho spoke up dryly, “Wow.  Thanks guys.” 

Jonghyun curled his lip at him.  “Really, Minho?”

Key had a few tears in his eyes and a pained expression on his face, and he started for the door.  Minho pushed him aside rather rudely and snarled, “Haven’t you guys done enough?  Like this is worth believing?  Look around, there’s nothing here!”  Key opened his mouth to reply, but Minho continued, “Whatever.  I’ll go find him.”

Key lifted a hand to stop the taller boy, but he was already gone, stalking away down the hallway.  He turned to Jonghyun and Onew, eyes wide and sad.  Jonghyun wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led his friend to the doorway, looking back for Onew.  “Come on, let’s just go back to the apartment.  Maybe Taemin will be there,” Jonghyun suggested. 

* * * 

Taemin fled from the room, hot, angry tears threatening to escape from the corners of his eyes.  He swallowed them down and lurched forward.  At the end of his headlong flight down the hallways, he found himself on the ground floor, standing in front of one of the doors to the basement. 

He sagged against the heavy metal, catching his breath.  Suddenly, he noticed something strange. 

There was light shining dimly through the crack at the bottom of the door.  “Hmm,” he mused quietly, getting down on his hands and knees to see if he could see through.  

His head was feeling much quieter now, and he was beginning to regret his outburst.  He knew that Jonghyun was probably just trying to make Onew feel better.  Why would they believe Onew, and not Taemin?  He’d just overreacted, and the constant pressure had made him snap.  Just like Minho had, a few days earlier. 

There was definitely a light on down there.   Taemin grunted in thought.  He could have sworn that there weren’t any other lights on in the building after they were…locked in.   So how was there one on down here? 

Before he could really think about it anymore, his hand had already opened the door, pushing it inward to reveal a set of metal stairs descending into the dim light.  The light in question was illuminating the staircase, gleaming dimly from the ceiling, one bare, electric bulb. 

Taemin took a deep breath and started down the stairs, one foot at a time.  The twisted metal creaked underneath his feet, and Taemin shivered.  The temperature difference was unbelievable.  Already it felt like it’d dropped five or six degrees since he’d started down. 

He reached the concrete floor and looked around, taking in his surroundings warily.  This was one of the boiler rooms or something, judging by the huge metal tanks and pipes running up through the ceiling. 

The light behind him flickered, momentarily plunging the room into darkness.  Taemin jumped and squeaked in surprise.  When the light returned, he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.  The bright red color stood out from the rest of the room, and Taemin wandered over carefully. 

“Huh?” he gasped as he realized what the object was.  “Bubby?”

It was a red plush toy.  A fish, with huge plastic eyes and a small, floppy fin on each side. 

But it wasn’t just any toy.  It was Taemin’s favorite childhood toy!  Bubby. 

He reached down to pick it up, not really believing.  How the heck did it get here?

The second his fingers touched the soft red fabric, everything vanished.  The boilers disappeared, the walls disintegrated into black space.   He couldn’t move; his arms and legs were frozen.  He couldn’t open his mouth to scream, he could only stare. 

The floor fell out from under his feet, and it was only him and Bubby as he started to fall, spinning in the suffocating darkness.

A/N:   Yay!  More updates!  So...more comments/subscribers, pleeeeaaasseee??? XD  However, the more I read over what I've written so far, the more I realize I should probably rewrite some parts... Well, I hope you enjoy anyways!! 

Oh, also, I'm thinking about changing the title.  It's kind of...stupid-sounding.  I'm trying to find some options...so HELP??  

So far, the list is: 

1.  Marionettes

2.  Chills

3.  Hell Games

4.  Head Games

5.  Cracks

6.  See No Evil

7.  [Insert your amazing ideas here!]