Chapter 3

Burnt to a crisp. 

         The sight is as painful to even look at. The charcoaled body which used dance on these floors...is now going to be forever on these floors. His body was stunned and the last shiver he had seems to be alive still. No blood, no cuts. Just burns. Taeyang is now a real sun.

        The other members are speechless. You hear little whimpering murmurs from the outside hall. Seungri.

When you ran down from the main floor, you saw Seungri crouched down miserably in the hallway, his fingers clawing at his seeping blood stricken eyes. 

         "N-Now H-Hyung...I-I...ca-.." You can hear Seungri's mutters from the hallway. But mutters won't do no good. They don't take the death out of the living.

         Jiyong seems the saddest out of all of them. There are actual clear plastic tears in his eyes. 

          "Y-Youngbae-ya...y-you can't just go like this...." Jiyong's shaking had tries to hold Youngbae's extra crispy arm. But it falls off instead with a few embers flying out. Jiyong's hands let off smoke as Youngbae's burnt remains scorch his skin.  It's a weird feeling, knowing that you had just spoke to him and he was alive and well. Well, not so well. But now he is dead. More like a burnt mannequin. You can't even make out his face anymore. At least the arsonist had the decency to pour some water on Youngbae before he had turned to ashes.

          Daesung is already crying and TOP's face is horror stricken...or emotionless. You can't really tell.

To know that that this seared body was once alive, just a few minutes ago..talking to you.

 

 

 

 

 

           "We have to go. I have a feeling it isn't safe down here." you hear TOP say from by the door. He pulls Daesung who is crying close to him and pats his back.

You walk to Jiyong who is still grieving and try to pull him away from Youngbae's smoked remains.

            "Come on, we have to...go." You say carefully.

            Jiyong pauses for a moment, as if to gain his sanity back. When he looks back at you, it's almost as if he is normal again. Well..not exactly normal. His eyes are a chilly grey surrounded by redness around his pupils. His lips are taut and frozen as if he has no words to say. He stands up and actually walks out normally into the dark hallway.

         You follow him out of the room as well, leaving "Taeyang" behind in the darkness. 

          In the hallway, you see Seungri standing up, looking a little better now, but still a nervous wreck. The rest of the members are standing around him.

           "W-What does he look like? I-I just just heard hyung go into the emergency exit room through the dance studio and then...." Seungri frantically puts both hands up to his ears to cover them.

         His voice is now a whisper, "I heard him...scream".

         The atmosphere is murky and dark, no one wants to say what they have seen. 

 

 

 

         Instead, you all just start heading towards the stairs when an ominous ding sounds again. The elevator.

         A single yellow beam of light separates the darkness as the sliding doors slowly open. The light expands like a fan to light up the entire room.

You can feel the intense heat of the flickering light on your back, burning you.

Slowly your bodies turn to the source of the light. 

The girl's body is still there. Perfectly showcased by the twitching light and the saturated blood filters.

         You and the rest of the members walk in a trance towards the elevator. There's something new this time.

         The mirror that lies on the wall of the elevator has some nice words on it. It's painted by the girl's blood, trailing from the body up to the mirror wall without any breaks. Like one of those etch-a-sketch things. "3 more" the mirrored wall reads.

"The hell..." Seungri says breathlessly.

Three more? The girl, Jay. Now Youngbae and there was going to be three more?

Behind you, you hear Jiyong yell all of sudden. "UPSTAIRS, NOW!"

"Wait!!" Seungri yells, causing everyone to freeze once more.

Seungri slowly walks towards the elevator and is now inside. You are worried for his mental health but he seems to be coping better than before. He squats down cautiously to the girl's cold body. Then using his fingers, he pries out something that is clutched in her numb fingers.

 

 

 

 

"There's something...in her hand." Seungri says, his voice now on the verge of splitting apart. Seungri holds up a piece of crumpled paper that was in her hand. Top takes it from him and opens in carefully.

You know something is wrong as soon as you see a what's on it. Ink written speech bubbles and action figures...it's a page from an action comic book.

Then automatically you get this feeling inside of you. That same eery feeling when TOP said that the killer is inside the building.

WHO was reading an action comic book before she died? WHO was having a hella time reading it? The guy that you sat down next to and scared you, whispering "BOO" in your ear.

The innocent smiling guy. Daesung.

You immediately look at Daesung at your realization but at that exact moment, the elevator doors slam shut with a loud clash. Suddenly, everything happens at once. The light in the hallway that is already dim, begins to flicker and the ground feels as if it is shaking. But it's just the elevator.

"AHHH!!" You hear Seungri scream in fear from inside the elevator.

Behind the closed doors. You can't even imagine how horrifying it must be in there. The greenish elevator light flickering, the elevator floor shaking and best of all, the dead girl bleeding her guts out in the middle. 

"Seungri-ya!" Jiyong pounds on the elevator door and tries to pry the doors open but to no avail.

Seungri's scream continues but begins to fade away into whimpers.

"Can you see anything inside?!" You yell, trying to help Jiyong pry the door open.

"N-No...the b-buttons...t-they're gone." Seungri's voice is shivering.

 

 

 

Jiyong realizes that there is no hope and slowly backs away from the elevator. You notice that his finger tips are red with blood, from scratching the door so hard. But whose blood IS that?

Everyone is dead silent for a second until Seungri speaks again. Except this time, it is disturbingly quiet. You can hear tears in his voice. "J-Jay...her eyes." Seungri gasps loudly and you hear him stagger backwards against the wall, making a loud clunk noise.

"W-What's going on Seungri?" Daesung asked. Even under the crooked light, you can see that he is dementedly scared out of his mind.

 Seungri's voice pushes through again, through his sunken throat. "T-They're op-" Suddenly, there is frantic movement inside the elevator, Seungri struggling to breathe as if something is choking him with bare hands. He is gasping for air, trying to grasp life within a sea of death.

What the hell is going on. The girl? She's dead! Her eyeballs were smashed in by the killer until they were just dark purple holes. There is no way that she could be still alive. But the sounds frighten you to think otherwise.

You and the rest of the members stand frozen as you listen blindly to Seungri...being choked out of his last drops of living breath. As if a tidal wave had passed by, it is painfully still. The light has now stopped flickering. Just an overall dimness. Your tongue feels raw as if it has just been cut off with no words to say. Iron blood rushes through your teeth and you feel nauseous.

It is so still that you can hear a single teardrop clash on to the cold hard ground and burst open like a calm tide.

"Seungri..?" Jiyong asks in a thin splicing note. A single sliver of hope that spears through the darkened hell. The sliver is caught by the devil and then silenced.

No reply.