Chapter 6
Ladder

Donghae crept into Eunhyuk’s lap in hopes he would make love to him. He wasn’t afraid of his lover like his father assumed he would be. Eunhyuk was his second half, his soul, his everything, so why fear. Catching Eunhyuk’s gaze, he moved quietly, rocking his hips over his lover’s. And then it happened, for a spilt second, Donghae saw only the whites of Eunhyuk’s eyes—the beautiful, silvery rim gone. He jumped away as if electrified.

“Babe?” Eunhyuk reached for him reflexively and caught him by the elbow before he fell to on his .

“Um.” Donghae wet his lips. Before he could even form a proper reply, he heard his father shout his name. It was obvious he was furious too. Donghae had never heard his dad shout so sharply. It made his bones shake.

“What? What’s wrong?” Eunhyuk said when he saw the horror in his lover’s eyes.

“I’m in trouble,” Donghae told him. “He’s coming!” He could hear his father crossing the distance in long strides. “Who’s coming?” Eunhyuk asked, all panicked. He heard no one coming but Donghae’s sudden freak out was making him quite nervous too.

“Dad! He was calling my name—practically shouting it, there’s no way you didn’t hear that!” He looked at his brother on the bed. “Donghwa?” But his brother shook his head, “I only heard all the mouth-smacking going on. Was wondering, too, when you will notice you were not alone in this room.” Annoyance was evident in Donghwa’s voice, but irritation and fury were swirling around in Donghae’s mind. He didn’t want to go through this again. He didn’t want to be seeing things… hearing things… He hated the times of delusion and hallucination, he had been so happy he had healed.

Breathing deeply, Donghae closed his eyes for a moment and watched the red spangles behind his lids. He could hear his father’s stomping fade away and little by little it died altogether that is when he knew his father was never coming to find him in the first place.

“It’s getting late. You should get some sleep,” Donghae whispered as he slipped away from Eunhyuk’s grasp. “I’ll see you in the morning.”

After Donghae left, Eunhyuk stared at the floor for a few seconds, feeling depressed. Whatever had happened to them at the old house, it was still ruining their relationship.    

* * * *

The next morning, Donghae was trailing behind his mother in the kitchen, whispering… begging for her to act civilized towards the one who had hurt her son. Even though possessed at the time, Misun was not happy with what happened at the old house. “Please, mom, be nice to Eunhyuk, please! We’ve had this talk before, and I told you I will not give up on us. All that’s been happening, mom… all of it, it can’t break us. You can’t break us, please.”

Misun looked over her shoulder at her husband who just shrugged casually. Donghwa was sipping on his orange juice, thoughtlessly, and seemed to be lost in his daydreams. Footsteps squeaked as Eunhyuk descended the stairs, scratching his scalp, not sure where to go from there. “Over here, honey,” Donghae said, waving from inside the kitchen. Eunhyuk smiled at the sight of his angel and hurried towards the kitchen.

Donghae greeted him at the door with a kiss. Although quick, it was very reassuring. Donghae smiled as he led his lover in and Eunhyuk greeted everyone cheerfully. Their relationship was the only thing keeping him sane right now that he felt he owed it to Eunhyuk more of a debt these days.

As they started their breakfast, Misun scanned their faces quickly before she spoke up. “Last night,” she said, seemingly against her will. “I heard some noises.” Donghwa dropped his fork and stared up to say no , but thought better than to put his brother in trouble. “The house was ,” he said instead, smirking when Donghae kicked his leg under the table. He shrugged and pulled his hair from his face. “It happens since this piece of crap is old as sin.”

“Language,” his father said warningly. He looked at his wife, “Honey, is there more coffee?”

“Plenty, dear.” And she got up to give him some.

“So, boys,” Mr. Lee said, huffing. “We’ve got a long day ahead of us. This house, as Donghwa put it is an old piece of , it needs serious repairing.” His wife sang “language, darling,” teasingly from where she stood by the coffee maker, and they all laughed. “I will be working on the attic, so you won’t be hearing these moans again. I don’t imagine it will be too much work, so I go up there on my own. Donghwa and Eunhyuk, you can tend to the porch roof, it is miserable, and it needs to be painted over.”

Feeling a little emotional for not being able to help with any chores, whether hard or soft, Donghae got up from his chair. “I need some air. Too dusty in here.” Eunhyuk was quickly on his feet but Donghae was fast to reassure his worried lover. “I’ll be right there in the garden. Besides, you just got yourself a job, I wouldn’t want to be the reason you get fired.”

Eunhyuk nodded his head, and watched his lover leave out of the backdoor.

* * * *    

A tall aluminum ladder was already propped up against the edge of the porch roof, stretching above it. The tree limb had been pulled away. The hole it had made in the roof was visible from the ground.

“I’m going to climb up and pull off all the damaged shingles, first,” Eunhyuk said. “The limb crashed right through, which means the wood under it is probably rotted.” He started up the ladder, his eyes on the roof.

“I may have to tear the wood planks out too,” Eunhyuk add with disappointment. He didn’t want to stay up all the porch all day, but seemingly that was the case.

“What should I do?” Donghwa asked, brushing a spider off his T-shirt sleeve.

“Hold the ladder for me. I think it’s a bit shaky,” Eunhyuk said. “Hold it against the porch, real steady.”

“Sure.” Donghwa rolled his eyes but did as he was told. He grabbed the sides of the aluminum ladder with both hands and steadied it against the wall. He watched Eunhyuk climb the ladder. As Eunhyuk climbed higher, Donghwa’s grip on the ladder would tighten. His finger curled around the aluminum and its cool seeped through to his skin. It was very cold. Cold as dead flesh. Donghwa wanted to let go of it.

“The shingles are all rotted, they have to go,” Eunhyuk announced. Great, now Donghwa would spend his entire afternoon holding a goddamned, cold ladder. The burdens couldn’t get any worse, Donghwa thought, his shoulders drawing up as his clamp on the ladder tightened. And then, all of a sudden, Donghwa felt his hands moving. He hadn’t told them to move. He wasn’t even sure he wanted them to move.

The ladder squeaked, and out of instinct, Donghwa moved out of its way. He in a breath, sharp and scared. There was something by the tree that is a few feet away from them.

“Eun—hyuk,” Donghwa’s voice was strangled as he called.

“Yes?”

Eunhyuk’s breath caught in his throat when he saw Donghwa not holding the weak ladder still. He tried not to make a big deal out of it, and reached for the roof edge with his left hand to keep from falling. His gaze then followed Donghwa’s to the bushes by the tree and saw nothing at all. But, somehow, he knew Donghwa saw something there. And somehow that was scarier than seeing it himself. 

“Donghwa?” Eunhyuk tried to distract Donghwa from whatever was going on and bring him back to reality. “A little help here so I can come down?” But Donghwa took several steps towards the oak, and when he got close enough, the outline of two, young twins became clear and solid.

The kids were balanced on a low branch, swinging their legs. Donghwa dared to raise his gaze higher, their false-colored, wet hair caught his attention, it was cherry-red, the color of blood. It left Donghwa puzzled whether it was really drenched with blood or just dyed that way. They looked at him with their pearly silver eyes which looked filmy and pupilless.

“Donghwa.” They spoke his name in unison, smiling at him with rouged lips. Those lips were too dark in the pale of their skin, and there was no warmth in their smile. They looked at each other and then beyond Donghwa, up the porch roof. One of the crimson-haired twins rested his head on his brother’s shoulder, and Donghwa couldn’t help but think they fit together like a puzzle.

Even though awed and mesmerized by the beauty of the twins, Donghwa could not miss the whiff of the decay. He tried to convince his mind that it was the shingles and not the twins, but the kids’ skin looked brittle as if a blow of a wind would flake it away.

The ladder started to shake underneath Eunhyuk’s weight. A gentle trembling at first, then harder, until the aluminum hummed and vibrated violently.

“DONGHWA,” Eunhyuk called sharply, snapping Donghwa from the momentarily state and suddenly the twins were gone. Donghwa looked back just in time to see the ladder scooting away from the wall. “!” He ran back to the porch step in hopes to save Eunhyuk from the inevitable crash.

He pressed all his weight against the ladder, but that only caused its misbalance, and the ladder continued to swing away from the house, nevertheless. Eunhyuk’s hands flailed at the air and his fate was in the hands of gravity right then.

He let go and jumped out of the way as the ladder fell.

 Eunhyuk screamed all the way down. The fall was harsh, it had Eunhyuk landing on his back, flat. His breath seemed to explode from his body in a whoosh. His arms and legs bounced once. No, twice, before he lay still with his eyes closed.The ladder clanged as it bounced hard and luckily landed beside him in the tall grass.

“Oh, no!” Donghwa let out a horrified gasp when she saw that Eunhyuk wasn’t breathing. He ran back inside the house to get help. He prayed Eunhyuk would survive this fall, because if not, then neither his brother would, nor this already wrecked family