-Chapter 9-

Screams

Ever so slowly, you pushed your bedroom door open just a crack and your eyes did a full sweep around the room. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary or out of place, you opened the door big enough to slip inside and then promptly shutting the door behind yourself. Leaning against your door with your bag of purchased goods clenched in your hands behind your back, your eyes darted around the room once more just to be sure. You swallowed hard and stood up straight.

“Luhan?”

About a minute of silence had gone by until you felt a heavy presence standing directly in front of you. You turned your head away, feeling yourself stagger back into your door for support of the sudden powerful force spreading out before you. “Thank you for waiting…” you uttered out, feeling a bit stupid a few seconds later for thanking the spirit so awkwardly.

Goose bumps abruptly ran up your body the moment you felt something faintly touch your cheek followed by the very subtle and distance sound of a laugh- almost a light chuckle. The laugh unmistakably sounded like a male voice and you knew instantly that it was Luhan's.

You had always heard ghost stories talking about people hearing disembodied voices and laughter in the distance and crumbling in fear at the very sound of it but for some reason, you found your cheeks subtly warming up just a bit after hearing Luhan’s chuckle. It didn’t sound menacing at all. It fact, you would even admit that it sounded a bit playful and pleasant to the ears.

While your mind was busy attempting to comprehend what you believed was Luhan’s voice, it felt as if Luhan’s energy was now surrounding your entire body- almost as if he was closing in on you…

The moment you awoke out of your thoughts, you quickly eased away from the door and sat down on your bed. “Luhan, please stay there for a moment.” You called out, a bit more confident in your words to Luhan than before. Just as you had commanded, Luhan appeared to have stay situated in his spot since the air felt very still.

Placing the bag on your lap, you cautiously pulled out the black flashlight you had gotten at the store. You looked up at the spot where you supposed Luhan was because you knew he was most likely keeping his eye on you. “This is a flashlight, see?” you said, holding the flashlight up in front of yourself. You used your thumb to lightly press its button in order to flick the light on and off to illustrate its use.

You stood up on your feet, took a few steps forward and placed the flashlight down in the middle of the room. Luhan eyes watched your every move and you knew he was probably just as curious as you were anxious about this whole thing.

Walking back and sitting back down at your bed, you look back at the spot where Luhan was. “I’m not sure if you’ll be able to do this but… could you walk over to the flashlight and try to turn it on? Just push the button an-“

The flashlight flickered on.

A small chill ran up your spine as you stared wide eyed at the sight before you. With a shaky voice, you continued. “Now… can you turn it off…?”

The flashlight flickered off.

You were in disbelief now. You weren't exactly sure if it was because Luhan could actually fulfill all your commands so easily or if it was because your plan was actually working. He could turn the flashlight on… and he could turn it off…

“I want… to try something out and I would be grateful if you could help me out.” You said, looking down at the flashlight since you weren’t exactly sure where to look anymore. “I’m going to ask you a couple of questions. Flash the flashlight once for yes, and twice for no. Do you understand…?”

One flash.

A small tinge of excitement ran through your body at the sight of the flashlight flashing without any signs of hesitation. You carefully began sifting through your mind for questions for him.

“Have you always been here, Luhan? Since the day I moved in, until now?”

One flash.

“You’ve always been watching me… haven’t you?”

One flash.

You frightfully asked the next question. “Y-you’ve been watching everyone too, right? Like my parents and my brother?”

Two flashes.

“Just… me…?”

One flash.

You couldn’t look at the flashlight anymore, and gazed down at the floor. How could you not feel unsettled finding something like this out? If only you could ask him why… You wished you could ask him more than just ‘yes or no’ questions to get more information but you were still too limited with your communication. You decided to stray away from these types of questions and decided to ask him questions about himself.

“Did you used to live here, Luhan?”

One flash.

“Did you live here alone?”

Two flashes.

“Oh… did you live here with your family?”

Two flashes.

He lived here with someone who wasn’t in his family?

“Were you… murdered?”

Two flashes.

You let out a sigh of relief. “So that means you must have died peacefully, right?”

Two flashes.

You paused and stared at the flashlight curiously. If he didn’t get murdered and he didn’t die peacefully… then how did he die?

“I’ve been having dreams about you Luhan. Are you responsible for that?”

One flash.

“Really?” You were silent for a moment, feeling yourself becoming a bit nervous at the next question. “In my last dream of you… you said you loved me… Is that true…?”

One flash.

“But why?” You looked onto the flashlight expectedly until you realized he couldn’t answer that certain question. As you wordlessly sat there, you felt your emotions internally clashing with each other. This man, this spirit had admitted that he was in love with you. You should be feeling worried, scared; even terrified out of your mind but… you weren’t…

You weren’t frightened nor did you have the urge to break down into hysterical tears. When you thought of Luhan, you didn’t think of a terrifying ghost- you thought of the beautiful man in your dreams and the overwhelming joy you felt being with him. Knowing that Luhan was in love with you…

Sparked a hint of unexplainable happiness inside of you.

“Sehun, I’ll be heading for work now. Your mother and sister went out grocery shopping so you’ll be home alone for a few hours.” Sehun’s father said.

“Alright, that’s fine.” Sehun said, waving his father away. With a nod, his father closed Sehun’s bedroom door. Sehun silently laid in his bed, staring up at the ceiling and carefully listening to the sound of his father’s footsteps descending down the stairs and the front door opening and closing shut. “Finally home alone.” Sehun sighed in relief. He reached his hand into his jeans’ pocket and pulled out his ipod. Sticking his ear buds into his ears and turning the music up to the max, he closed his eyes and felt himself getting lost in his music.

Sehun was usually never home alone and he had his little sister to ‘thank’ for that. You never went out meaning that you were always home, meaning that pretty much nobody in this house was ever left alone. However, Sehun noticed that you seemed significantly cheerier than usual and was surprised to see you actually asking to tag along to go food shopping.

It was a significant change from what Sehun was used to but Sehun didn’t dig too deep into the subject. All Sehun cared about was finally being able to relax in his bed and listen to his music all alone in the house.

Several minutes of bliss had passed before one of Sehun’s eyes shot open. Something is wrong… “Huh?” he said, opening his eyes and picking up his ipod. He scrutinized the glowing ipod screen in front of his eyes to see if anything was off. Everything on the screen seemed just fine. But why was it that he was hearing static on his ipod.

“Why do I hear static anyways? This isn’t a radio, so why am I getting interference?” Sehun shook his ipod slightly and the static noise thankfully eased away. He closed his eyes once again and continued listening to his music, bobbing his head to the beat.

Two minutes later, the static returned.

Sehun’s face scrunched up at the unwelcomed noise but he disregarded it. As the seconds ticked by, the static became louder and louder. It was becoming unbearable. The static was beginning to overpower the music at this point. Just when Sehun couldn’t take the static noise anymore…. The static and the music abruptly stopped. There was a moment of complete and utter silence until…

AAHHHHHHHH

Sehun’s eyes flew wide open and he ripped the ear buds off and threw it to the edge of the bed. Sehun sat up and stared wide eyed at the ipod and ear buds lying tangled on his bed. His heartbeat ramming into his chest was all that filled his ear as he attempted to catch his breath. “What the hell was that….?” Sehun whispered to himself. “That scream I heard definitely wasn’t a part of the song… What song would have a bloodcurdling woman scream like that…?”

AAHHHHHHHH

Sehun’s painfully jolted up, feeling his heart jump into his throat. Sehun jumped up to his feet. It was the exact same woman’s scream but this one sounded like it was coming from inside his house. Sehun barreled towards his door and swung the door open. He frantically looked around the hall. No one was there.

He ran down the stairs and checked every room down below. Still no one. Sehun even peered outside his windows to see if there was a woman outside in distress but once again there wasn’t a soul to be seen.

Exasperated and confused beyond belief, Sehun finally just stopped where he was and put a hand on his head. “What’s going on?” he murmured to himself with eyebrows knitted together in distress.

He went silent, waiting to hear the scream again but it never sounded again after that…