Not fifteen minutes after the boys had finished their conversation, the bus pulled up at a stop several blocks away from the group’s hotel. They woke Lay up and marched off one by one - groggy and sore, but thankful to be back and hopefully away from their nightmarish camping trip forever.

“Thank you,” Chen said to the bus driver as the man closed the doors behind the four campers with a short grunt of acknowledgement.

“Alright, guys,” Luhan said lively. “We’re almost there.”

They made their way to the hotel slowly but deliberately, and were surprised to see Chanyeol and Baekhyun sitting out in the parking lot on bright green lawn chairs when they got there. Chanyeol stood up to meet them as they approached the front door, but Baekhyun stayed where he was, apparently sleeping.

“Thank goodness you guys made it back,” Chanyeol greeted them, sleepy but smiling. “You certainly gave us quite a scare. Suho made sure a few guys were out here all night waiting for you in case you got back and needed help.”

“Thank you,” replied Luhan wearily. “I’m sorry we’ve been sending such weird messages, but I… w-we’re not too sure about what’s been going on ourselves.”

“That’s alright. I think we’re all just glad you’re okay,” yawned Chanyeol. “Let’s go upstairs; I’m sure Suho will want to talk to you.”

“Yes; I think that’s a good idea,” agreed Luhan.

“Yo, Baek!” called Chanyeol to his snoozing lookout buddy. “Get up; they’re here.”

In his chair, Baekhyun stirred and fluttered his eyes before leaning over to look at the new arrivals. He rubbed his face roughly.

“Finally. You jerks made us stay up all night waiting for you to get back,” he joked as he joined the others and put a hand on Chen’s shoulder.

“Oh, like you actually stayed awake,” teased Chanyeol, poking the shorter man’s ribs.

Baekhyun stuck his tongue out before turning his attention back to Chen.

“Glad you’re all okay.”

“Whoa,” Chanyeol gasped as he caught a glimpse of Lay’s bandages. He pulled Chen’s previously donated sweatshirt away to reveal the streaks of dried blood. “Not all of you.”

“That’s not even the worst part,” Lay muttered.

«««

The injured man limped over to the hotel door and struggled to open it on his own. Finally, Chanyeol came and held the door for him, then closed it once everyone else was through. All six of them crowded into an elevator, and Baekhyun punched the button for their floor.

“Okay, so… I’m sorry but what the hell happened to you guys?” he questioned as the elevator ascended steadily.

“It’s kind of a long story,” Chen answered. “And… hard to explain, to say the least.”

“Even harder to believe,” Luhan added.

Just then, the doors opened to reveal Kai, who happened to be walking down the hall toward his room. He turned to see his friends as they filed out of the elevator.

“You’re back!” he exclaimed. “But - oh my gosh - Lay, what happened to you?” he asked, immediately picking up on Lay’s injury and discomfort.

“Jongin, go get the others,” Chanyeol cut in before anyone had a chance to answer. “They’re going to tell us all what happened. Do you know where Suho hyung is?”

“Yeah. I’ll go get him,” replied Kai obediently. “Meet me in Kris and Luhan’s room; I’ll round everyone up and send them all there.”

With that, he turned and hurried off in the direction he had initially been going. The remaining six men made their way to the meeting place and shed their bags and satchels, relieved to be back home. Luhan flopped face-down on his bed with a thankful moan, and Chen came crashing down onto the covers next to him.

“I don’t even care that you’re on my bed,” Luhan laughed as he rolled onto his back and poked the other man. “That’s how much I’m glad we’re back.”

“Tell me about it.” Chen closed his eyes peacefully.

Xiumin helped Lay into a chair before taking a seat himself next to Baekhyun and Chanyeol, who were standing together in one corner of the room. Sehun came in and hovered by the door.

“Good to see you guys,” he said with a short wave.

Just then, Suho came bursting through the door, looking as if he were about to cry his eyes out, scream his head off, and giggle like a schoolgirl all at the same time. He marched into the center of the room before spinning around, overwhelmed and not sure about who to address first. Eventually, he settled on Xiumin, who had gotten up from his seat to give the fanatic man a reassuring hug. Suho softened and melted into the embrace before sighing heavily.

“I was so, so worried,” he sobbed. “Thank goodness you’re okay.”

“Mmhm,” mumbled Xiumin.

After a long moment, Suho broke the hug and looked first into Xiumin’s eyes and then over at Chen and Luhan - both still on the bed - before asking a question.

“Where’s Kris?”

Everyone was silent.

“What do you mean ‘where’s Kris?’” Luhan asked the room, bewildered. “Shouldn’t you know where he is? Didn’t he come back?”

“Uh, no,” replied D.O., who had entered the room along with the other missing members while all the commotion was going on. “Why would he be here? Shouldn’t he be with you?”

“Luhan,” Suho whispered, stepping over to the bed where the older man was still sitting, propped up on his elbows. “What the hell happened to you guys?”

«««

With this, the four men began to take turns recounting as much of the story as they could to their captive audience. Tao turned pale as they explained how someone they thought was him had snuck up to their campsite at dusk.

“T-that wasn’t me,” he whimpered to Sehun. “I’ve been with you this whole time; that wasn’t me. What the hell…”

Lay then revealed his multiple scars - along with the mysterious, unnatural bite wound - as the story continued, detailing how the campers awoke to find him like that and were sent into a panic that caused Kris to leave in hopes of bringing back help.

“What in the world could have left a mark like this?” wondered Baekhyun as he probed lightly at the blackening veins surrounding the two rings of teeth on Lay’s thigh.

“Ow! Don’t touch that, please.”

“Well, we were wondering that, too,” Chen said. “That’s when Xiumin got a text from Tao. And not the Tao that was sitting next to me by the campfire.”

The group’s eyes grew wide as Luhan explained shakily how they realized that Tao was not, in fact, the one camping with them, and then went on to say that Chen had hypothesized that they were dealing with some kind of shape shifter.

“But that… that’s ridiculous,” resisted Suho, shaking his head.

“It made sense.” Chen defended his position. “And it still does. Wait until you hear what happened next.”

The room was dead silent as the boys continued to describe their escape plan and tell the story of how they had escaped the camp, gotten lost on the trail, and were then ambushed by the creature - now mimicking Kris -  during the night.

“It was a good plan,” commented Xiumin after they had wrapped up the part about finding the rest stop and taking the bus back home.

He put a hand on Chen’s shoulder.

“It got us out safely,” agreed Luhan.

It had taken almost an hour to get through the entire story of their doomed camping trip, and the boys were exhausted. All Luhan wanted to do as he reclined on his mattress was to sleep for the next day and a half. Suho, however, had not been satisfied by some of the details of his friends’ story.

“But that doesn’t answer the question of what happened to the real Kris,” the leader reminded everyone.

Luhan snapped back to attention. Embarrassingly, and most likely as a result of his fatigue, that glaring hole in the story had completely slipped his mind, and he looked over at Chen with a sinking feeling in his heart. Chen returned the nervous look before taking his turn to speak.

“Unless…”

“Oh my gosh; you guys killed Kris!” wailed Tao from his spot on the aforementioned man’s bed.

Tao had been sitting with his knees pressed against his chest, wholly captivated by the horrific tale to the point where he was almost shaking at several points. Now, his body vibrated with fear and lament as he struggled to hold back tears. A deep regret swept over him.

“I should have just gone with you guys,” he sobbed. “Then none of this would have happened. I’m such an idiot.”

“Tao, stop,” commanded D.O. gently as he placed a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, looking unsure of what else to do.

“It’s not your fault,” concurred Luhan. “If you had come with us, then that thing would have mimicked Suho or Sehun or a park ranger or who-knows-what else.”

“I agree that Tao is not to blame here, but we have to focus,” Suho pulled the discussion back around to Kris. “Are you guys saying that now you think it was the real Kris who attacked you last night?”

“More like we attacked him,” whispered Chen, his eyes wide with the realization of what he had done. “He must have gotten lost. He would have been scared and alone, and then just when he thought he had found salvation, I knocked him out and broke his leg.” He buried his face in his hands. “Oh my God…”

“Kris didn’t know about the fake Tao,” added Luhan. “He would have been confused as to why we were all out there in the first place. He was probably surprised to see us.” He twiddled his thumbs. “And he certainly wasn’t expecting us to be so eager to defend ourselves against something.”

“I don’t know if I can believe this whole story about shape shifters and Hide and Seek,” admitted Suho. “But all I do know is that right now Kris is alone, possibly unconscious, and in the woods with something that’s capable of doing that.” He pointed to the bite on Lay’s exposed leg. “What are we going to do about this?”

Before anyone had the chance to answer, however, Lay suddenly tumbled out of his chair and hit the floor hard.

«««

“Hyung!” cried Chen, removing his hands from his face as he rushed over to Lay.

The wounded man was convulsing on the floor, his eyes pried permanently open while his mouth was squeezed shut into a thin, unmovable line. He tried to say something from behind his closed teeth, but all that came out was a series of muffled squeaks.

“I think he’s having a seizure,” theorized D.O., surprisingly calm.

He moved to the bed to get a pillow, which he placed carefully under Lay’s thrashing head.

“Look at the bite mark!” exclaimed Chanyeol.

Indeed, the wound on Lay’s thigh seemed to stretch and contort with each twitch of his muscles. As his seizure slowed, the black veins darkened beneath Lay’s skin and extended farther from the radius of the bite. It almost looked like the wound was spreading. Finally, Lay was able to open his mouth. He did so, revealing a gushing waterfall of bright red blood. He spit out a clot before grunting harshly and falling backwards, still breathing heavily.

“Oh, God; he bit his tongue,” panicked Suho as he examined Lay’s bleeding mouth.

“We need to get him help before we do anything else,” said D.O., kneeling beside Suho to look at Lay as well. “Chanyeol hyung, go call an ambulance.”

Suho nodded as Chanyeol left to find a phone. “Lay needs help, but so does Kris,” he reminded everyone. “We should split up. Chanyeol, D.O., and I will go to the hospital with Yixing. Another group should head back into the woods to find Kris and get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Some of you can stay here to make sure everyone is in communication with each other.”

“The paramedics are on their way,” announced Chanyeol, stepping back into the room.

“I don’t know what the heck is going on here,” sighed Suho as he left to throw together some supplies to take to the emergency room, “but whatever it is, we need to take care of it and move on from this goddamn nightmare.”

The room was filled with the sound of Lay’s labored breathing for several seconds before anyone else dared to speak.

“What’s happening?” asked Tao in a small voice.

“I don’t know,” said Chen forcefully. “But I intend to find out.” He began rapidly checking through his pack, obviously intent on getting back out to the woods as quickly as possible.

“Me, too,” agreed Kai. “I’m going with you; I want to know what the heck is going on here.”

“Same.” Luhan nodded sternly. “Minseok, what about you?”

“I-I don’t know,” faltered Xiumin, unsure. “I don’t really want to go back…”

“That’s okay,” Tao said, stepping forward. His voice was more confident now. “I want to help save Kris. You, Sehun, and Baek can stay here.”

“It’s decided, then.” Chen hurried them all along. He was already waiting impatiently by the door for the other members to finish their preparations. “Let’s go.”

«««

With a rush of energy, several paramedics burst through the door to the room, followed closely by Suho. They all knelt to look at Lay, who had a stoic but extremely pained expression on his face.

“Everyone, please vacate the room,” ordered one of the paramedics. “We need space to work. Thank you.”

The lot of them squeezed out the door and into the hall, and it wasn’t long before Chen was already making his way to the elevator. With a short exchange of goodbyes, he and his fellow volunteers departed, leaving the other three men to stay safely behind at the hotel. Down in the parking lot, they piled into one of the remaining cars just as the group going to the hospital exited the lobby. Suho hovered worriedly over an immobile Lay, who was passed out on a stretcher. The bed was loaded onto the ambulance carefully but efficiently.

“Sorry, but there’s only room for two of you to come along,” a paramedic informed the young men in front of him as he strapped Lay in securely.

“You go with Kyungsoo,” Chanyeol offered as he shoved Suho toward the vehicle. “I’ll stay here.”

Suho nodded gratefully before hopping into the ambulance and speeding away. Chanyeol waved to the car full of members who were going to rescue Kris before ducking back through the hotel’s revolving door. Before they could leave, however, Sehun came running out of the double doors - a set of which was positioned to either side of the larger, revolving one.

“Wait!” he called. “I want to come, too.”

“Fine, but hurry up!” Chen urged him. “The more the merrier.”

“Everyone ready?” asked Luhan tentatively as he turned the keys, starting the car.

“As ready as we’ll ever be,” answered Kai, his voice wavering slightly, though his expression remained firm.

With that, the five friends started their venture back into the horrifying woods, frightened and uncertain about what could possibly be waiting to meet them when they arrived. The cries and howls of whatever creature had been following them the day before rang endlessly through Chen and Luhan’s minds.