#happyraiday

Genre: Horror (I guess); suggestive

Word count: 5296

Information: wendigo!Kihyun, female reader

Warnings: Mentions of blood and graphic depictions of other things that could be disturbing; a way of writing that is too descriptive (is that even a warning?)

wendigo: a mythological man-eating creature or evil spirit from the folklore of United States and Canada; a monster with some characteristics of a human. It's connected to acts of murder, insatiable greed and cannibalism.

 Happy Birthday to my one and only amazing “mom”, @raibebe​ who I love very much. 💖 I wrote this for her, since her bias is Kihyun and I wanted to write something. 

To my precious mom: I know it’s not a surprise, but I’ll keep calling it that. I hope you like it, even though it’s too long and descriptive. Please enjoy it and have an amazing rest of your birthday, even though I posted this pretty late. I wish you all the best things in the world, because you totally deserve them!

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You took your suitcase to the hut that you were going to stay in for this weekend and you started looking around as soon as you went inside and closed the door. The walls were made of wood, which made you feel somewhat comfortable. In front of you there was a big white sofa and a fireplace. There were also bookshelves, on which the owner has left some books and magazines. You were definitely not going to be bored here – after all the stress from the university, all you needed was exactly the cozy atmosphere that this house was offering, in order to get some rest. It was difficult to convince your family, though – they wanted to come with you, stating it was dangerous for a young girl to stay in a hut alone in the woods. But you assured them you were no longer a kid and you should be respected and trusted enough to at least take a short vacation on your own. Sometimes people really drained you and left you with no energy. That’s why you believed the best way for you to relax was to go on a trip – alone. Aside from that, it wasn’t as if you were outside of the country: you were in a small peaceful and safe village, close to your hometown. It was only half an hour drive, it passed almost without you noticing. You didn’t believe there was any reason for your family to be so worried, especially when you certainly weren’t.

You sighed, sitting on the comfortable sofa and took your phone out of the pocket of your winter coat. You checked the time - it was 2 pm, which was the perfect time to go out for a walk and get to know the village a little bit. You weren’t afraid you were going to get lost – you were actually pretty good at remembering paths. The only problem was the weather, because it was freezing cold outside. It was already winter, so low temperatures weren’t something surprising for this time of the year, but bad weather definitely wasn’t your favorite. You looked through the window to see it was snowing outside. The leafless trees were covered by thick layers of white snow which you found to be absolutely beautiful. You grabbed your phone, even though you knew there wasn’t any wifi connection or even mobile signal. You just felt safer when you had your phone with you. It wasn’t really a good weapon, if an unknown villager suddenly attacked you (just the thought of it made you laugh a bit, because your family really believed this was possible), but it made you feel calm, so this was a good enough reason.

You went out of the house, locking the door, then you started walking. It was quiet and you found this to be relaxing. You could barely hear your own humming, while you were walking near a lake. You stopped to look at it – it was frozen, but it was still beautiful; or maybe that was exactly the reason for its beauty. After you finished admiring the frozen lake, you resumed your walking. Before coming here, while you still had wifi, you looked up some information about the village – even though strangely there wasn’t that much. Maybe the mystery was what made the place attractive to you. You got the folded map out of your coat’s pocket as you unfolded it to read where the local shop was. You wanted to do some shopping – you needed to eat something after all. According to the map you had to go through the forest to get to the shop. That made no sense to you. “Why do I have to do that?” you asked yourself. Was that the only route possible? After all, your own hunger motivated you to keep going and find that shop, if there was one. You started walking, trying to remember the paths you walked on, for you to be able to come back. It seemed difficult, but you were sure that if you paid enough attention, you would be able to memorize it. As you were walking, you stumbled across a branch and you almost fell down, but you succeeded to keep your balance. What you saw in front of you, however, made you freeze in place in terror. You were quite sure it was a corpse. You prayed it wasn’t what it looked like – but as you took one small step forward hesitantly, your suspicions were confirmed. But it wasn’t animal’s corpse, even though that would be terrifying enough – it was human’s. You started shaking in fear. “This can’t be real. This is a nightmare”, you kept telling to yourself. But it seemed real. It seemed horribly real and it was. You could see the body and its skin which was not whole – it looked as if it was torn apart. But who, or what, could chew a person’s skin to that extent? Human teeth definitely couldn’t do that, even if cannibals existed. Just thinking about that, you felt you were shivering in fear. The face of the dead person also looked pale and lifeless, just like the rest of the bloody body. You even saw body parts that were slightly detached from the body.

Knowing that you have seen more than enough, you did the only thing which you could think of – run back to the hut. “I’m taking all my stuff right now and I’m going home. I don’t want to be here anymore”, you thought, but you were trying to run so desperately in the thick snow that you stumbled again and you fell down, feeling more hopeless than ever. “But… if I leave this early, my family isn’t going to let me go anywhere alone in the future. Seeing me so scared would make them think that I can’t be alone”. You wanted to prove them wrong and even though it was dangerous, you were willing to do it. You were not a person who was giving up easily – even if there was an obstacle, you always found a way to cope with everything. This time was not going to be an exception, so you got up from the cold ground and you continued walking until you got to the hut. When you were there, you locked the door as you sat to think of the possible reasons why the body looked like that. It seemed as if sharp teeth have ripped the skin apart. The image was still way too vivid in your mind, it was as if you have taken a picture of the body and now you couldn’t delete it. And you wanted to, because now you were sure you were not getting any sleep tonight. “Maybe it was a wolf”, you tried explaining the body’s condition. “Or some other animal”. Whatever this creature was, you only knew one thing for sure – you didn’t want it to approach you ever.

Hours have passed and now it was dark outside. It was late evening and you were starting to feel sleepy. You still haven’t eaten anything and you had a stomachache due to this fact. You tried to ignore it and just go to sleep, but it just wouldn’t stop growling. You took a blanket and you wrapped yourself in it, laying on the big bed in the bedroom. The light in the room was left on purposefully, in efforts for you not to feel that scared, but honestly it didn’t help much. You laid on the bed, trying to forget the image, but it wouldn’t go away, no matter how much you have tried to chase it out of your brain. Finally, you succeeded to fall asleep after a long time.

 * * *

 You woke up from rather peculiar noises coming from the outside. You took your phone to look at the time – only one hour and a half have passed since you went to bed. You succeeded to have a nightmare during the time you were asleep and it made you even more afraid to wake up in the real life. You couldn’t stop wondering why there was a corpse in the woods. Wasn’t there any police? Or any villagers who wanted to do something about it? And why haven’t you met at least one person during your stay here? That’s it – you had to find some evidence of people living here. You had go and see what the source of the strange noises was that made you unable to sleep. You got up from the bed and you took your winter jacket – actually you didn’t bring any pajamas, so you were still dressed in your jeans and sweater. You hoped the strange noises came from animals – bears, wolves, foxes. Even though you were scared of them, you were even more terrified of the creatures you had nightmares about. You put your boots on as you slowly got closer to the door. You were still hesitant about your plan to find and eventually confront the mysterious source of the strange noises, but there was not many things you could do. The other option was to stay asleep all night, hearing the noises and going crazier with every minute. You actually thought that there was a chance it was all in your head – you wanted to go and see for yourself that there was nothing to be afraid of. Or was there?

You walked out of the hut, feeling cold air slightly caress your skin even through the thick layer of clothes you were wearing. You put your hands in the pockets of your winter jacket, but only seconds after you took them out, deciding that hands were going to be useful if you were going to fight someone or something. Then you realized you didn’t have any weapon so you were quite embarrassed to go back to the hut and grab a knife from the kitchen just in case. When you went outside again, you started seriously questioning your sanity. Going out of the comfortable hut in the middle of the night to go fight some probably non-existent monsters? You felt as if you were out of your mind. But that didn’t stop you from walking – you actually heard the noise again and you saw a flickering light in the distance, which encouraged you. You felt quite excited – but your main feeling was still fear. You continued following the light, then you suddenly lost it again. Were there any people? This light really looked as if it could be coming from a flashlight. As you started walking deeper into the dark forest while you held your phone in one of your hands to use its flashlight and a knife in the other, you lost sight of the light again. Just then the flashlight of your phone landed on something rather terrifying. You were so shocked that you stumbled, while trying to take a few steps back, and fell on the thick snow, letting out a loud gasp, which attracted the creature’s attention. You also dropped your phone in the snow, but it landed in a way you could still see the light coming from it. You noticed the creature’s claws, sharp row of teeth, perfect for ripping skin apart – speaking of that, it was exactly what the creature was doing. You saw another corpse, but this one looked even worse than the previous one you saw earlier. The creature in front of it looked insatiable. No matter how much flesh it devoured, it just couldn’t get enough. There was a lot of blood, body parts that were partially bitten off and you could even see human organs such as heart, lungs and kidneys that were still in its place. What was that creature and why did it seem it only ate flesh? Even this was already scary enough.

“Oh, darling,” the creature said, wiping blood from his mouth. “You weren’t supposed to see that.”

And in the next moment, in front of you stood a man. No sharp teeth, no claws, no inhumanly skinny body: it was a handsome man instead.

You were trembling, while you were feeling the coldness of the snow against your skin. Various thoughts were present in your head, but none of it was related to believing what was happening to you was real. You felt as if you were the main character in a horror movie; your second theory was that this was all a nightmare and you would wake up very soon. But why weren’t you waking up?

The man quickly put some clothes on that were obviously off during his transformation as he came closer to you. In response, you tried to move back, while you were still lying in the snow. You tried to take your knife, but as you reached for it, you felt another hand suddenly take it, resulting in the knife cutting through your own hand. You let out a silent whimper as you saw there was already blood. The man simply took your hand as if it was the most normal thing to do and he slowly licked the blood of it, savoring every drop.

“Only your blood tastes this good… I wonder what the rest of you tastes like?”

You couldn’t help but think of inappropriate thoughts and you felt your cheeks reddening in result. “What’s wrong with me? How could I be sexualizing a monster in my head?”.  It was actually a simple task when the so-called monster was this attractive. You still didn’t understand what was happening, but his voice sounded somehow foreign to your ears. It was only natural that you get a little bit aroused, despite what you just saw. The feeling was like hearing a foreigner speaking your native language – the man in front of you had such an interesting accent and his voice was enough to make you addicted. When you looked into his captivating eyes, you got even more convinced about that. There was definitely something special in him.

“W-what are you?” you succeeded to ask as you were shivering from the cold and from all the fear that you felt that was holding your heart and causing you a pain there. You did not break eye contact with the man who didn’t look very human-like only a minute ago. But now he did and you couldn’t get enough of his perfect features.

“I can be your worst nightmare or your most beautiful dream. It’s only a matter of perception, love,” he took a deep breath as he continued speaking. “When you saw my other face just a minute ago, you didn’t seem to like it. Now look at yourself – your face getting redder with every word I say, as you’re swooning over me. I guess I just proved my theory to you.”

And he was right – as he was talking to you right now, you felt more relaxed. You almost forgot that he was a horrible creature just minutes ago – this man had a duality you never have imagined. He held his hand in front of your face for you to take it, but you did not do it. Instead you kept sitting on the snow, waiting for him to move back, so that you could stand up.

“Come on. I’m not going to hurt you. I just had dinner. Besides, I’m actually on a diet recently.”

If this was not real life, you could have laughed, hearing that last part. But you didn’t do it, because this was as real as it seemed. Suddenly, you heard your stomach growling. You pressed both your hands there in efforts to make it stop, but it didn’t.

“I may have eaten my dinner, but I see someone else didn’t,” the man giggled, which also sent shivers down your spine.

How could he have such a husky, yet angelic voice? You have never heard something as beautiful before. Even though he was just speaking his voice sounded like a song. Especially with his exotic pronunciation – this man may be terrifying, but he was even more intriguing. You found yourself staring at his eyes that shined bright like diamonds. You couldn’t exactly describe their color – it was a mixture of mostly black with some interesting highlights.

“What are you?” you repeated your question, this time saying it louder and more confidently, as you stood up.

You realized you were the same height as him, but that didn’t surprise you – you were quite tall yourself, so he definitely looked tall enough as he was standing in front of you just seconds ago. He had good body proportions, an attractive face and clean hair which surprised you. Monsters were supposed to look scary. But why was he so handsome?

“I’m called a wendigo. We are actually pretty rare,” he chuckled. “Not that I’m bragging, but I’m sure you have never seen somebody like me.”

You definitely haven’t seen someone nearly as attractive as him and that was a fact.

“Wait, a wendigo? Like those evil spirits that possess a human body and turn the person into a cannibal?” you asked with surprise. “So this is not your real body?”

“Consider me impressed. You definitely know a lot about my species, but you obviously know nothing about me. My case is a little bit different. I was born in this body, with this so-called evil spirit living in my mind. The first time I felt it was when I was a kid – I ate quite a lot of food so I was pretty chubby back then. No matter how much food I ate, it was never enough. This is until I felt a real craving for human flesh, thus, I tried tasting it and it turned me into a monster. Surprise.”

You were beyond disgusted when you heard that this attractive young man was born this way. How was it even possible? Was it something you inherited from your biological parents? Being a wendigo? That was impossible, right? Whatever this crazy illogical nightmare was, you wanted it to end soon.

“When I started satisfying my hunger with human flesh, I realized I never needed any real human food to begin with, so I lost weight. I still love food, though. Like, have you ever tried chicken burrito? It’s so delicious. I’m hungry now.”

This man definitely seemed to love talking about food and even joking about it. But the fact that now you knew what kind of creature he was still freaked you out.

“Let’s go,” he said, taking your hand, but you let go.

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” you said, keeping your hands close to your body.

“I want to go and eat chicken burrito,” he pouted, looking almost innocent.

“Go by yourself and please leave me alone,” you said with trembling voice.

You started walking back to your hut but he quickly stopped you.

“I thought we already talked about this. I’m not going to eat you. I’m on a diet, so I only eat one person’s flesh a day.”

It was strange hearing him talk about this so casually. You felt as if it was all one big joke by the way he was acting. But you knew what you saw and he knew what he did. He was not nearly as innocent as he looked right now.

“Aside from that, you’re way too pretty. It’s my first time seeing such a beautiful human. I could never destroy such a masterpiece. Come and have dinner with me,” he said that sentence more as a fact than a request which was clear even in his tone. He was not asking you for permission: he already knew you were going to submit to him anyway.

The way every word was rolling off his tongue and the flavor his specific tone added to his voice was making him totally irresistible. Hearing this man talk could easily be your new lullaby. He sounded so persuasive without even trying. How could you say “no” when basically only one look into his magnificent eyes was enough to make you go weak at the knees? And him calling you a masterpiece – nobody has ever called you something like that. It seemed that he really meant it, so you were willing to trust him. He gave you no other option. Even though you were scared to death, you couldn’t help but trust him completely – you shivered because of that thought, mixed with fear and sweet desire to do something wrong. At this moment, you didn’t know if you wanted to pack your things, go home and never come back, or to stay here forever.

“Do you have a car?” he suddenly broke the silence and you nodded. “Great, where is it?”

“I don’t know. Somewhere outside of the forest?” you answered unsurely.

He sighed as you two continued walking in the same direction you came from and after a couple of minutes walking you succeeded to find your car.

“Is it your car?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Yes, it is,” you said, as you unlocked the car and you went to the driver’s seat, but before you get in, the man stopped you.

You couldn’t believe you were going to have dinner with a stranger who was also not exactly human. Was there even a way this could get any more twisted than it already was?

“Give me the keys,” he said, grabbing them from your hand.

You were taken aback by his sudden movement as his hand touched yours. Another thing that surprised you was his bluntness. You shook your head in clear disapproval.

“There’s no way I’m letting a stranger, who is not even a person, drive my car.”

“Please, don’t discriminate,” he pouted. “Hi, I’m Kihyun. Done, I’m not a stranger to you anymore. You know my name and I’m also a human right now. I don’t think you have more excuses now, missy.”

You couldn’t believe he was making everything sound so casual. He seemed like an easy-going person, so now it was completely impossible to feel threatened by him in any way. The scariest thing right now seemed to be his sassy answers to everything you said. You were not sure you could endure that for too long, before snapping.

“Ki-Hyun,” you said almost breathlessly, as you listened to how the name sounded. It was beautiful just like the man next to you,

Before you even know it, he was already in the driver’s sit, getting ready to turn the engine on.

“Get on,” he said, looking at you invitingly.

You didn’t really have a choice, since the magical sparkle in his eyes was drawing you into accepting his invitation, so you just went to the front passenger seat next to him and got on the car as you both took off. It was pointless to try to avoid this dangerous attraction.

 * * *

 As he was driving to God knows where, you remembered to ask him a question which may or may not be sarcastic, but you really wanted to know the answer no matter what.

“Do wendigos even know how to drive?” you asked mockingly.

You knew he was a person, when he wasn’t in his wendigo form and he had just the normal human abilities like every other person.

“Don’t tease me or you’re going to regret it. I’m still hungry, you know.”

“You said you wanted a burrito, not a human. And what happened to your diet and your promise? You said you won’t hurt me. After all, I’m too pretty to be the person who satisfies your hunger. It was your words, not mine,” you decided to quote his words. You were starting to feel really comfortable in his company and you had mixed feelings about that.

“I have to admit that’s right, sweetheart. But I didn’t promise anything. I could change my mind any time,” he answered. He was not going to let you insult him like this.

“No, you can’t,” you stated confidently.

“And why is that?” he raised his eyebrows in clear confusion.

“Because I’m so pretty right now and I don’t plan on becoming less pretty any time soon. That’s why you can’t hurt me.”

“Are all humans that annoying, or is it just you?” he asked in astonishment.

“Are all wendigos that self-centered or is it your own fault?”

You seemed to always have a proper comeback to everything and that really irritated Kihyun. He wanted to be the winner even verbally, without having to use his special powers to convince you. He sighed, while keeping his eyes on the road. What was still unknown to you was the fact that you were starting to get under his skin too but there was no way he could let it show that soon.

Around less than 20 minutes later, you got in front of a diner, which had neon lights, used for text signs. Kihyun and you got off the car and you walked in. The interior surprised you even more – it looked like the typical American movie cliché. Not that you minded it though; the creature you were with right now could make any place and any activity feel like something exciting.

You sat on the sofas which were opposite one another, with a table between them, as the waiter came and left menus for you two.

“So… What do you want to eat? It’s my treat,” Kihyun mentioned and you quirked your eybrows.

“You can’t be serious! Wendigos have money?!” you acted surprised just to irritate him and he really tried hard to act as if it wasn’t getting to him.

But you could make him feel anything you wanted: whether it was sadness or happiness. If only you had known that, you definitely would have used it to your advantage.

“Then I guess I’ll pay only for myself. Thank you for saving me money,” Kihyun answered with clear irritation in his voice.

“But I want free food,” you pouted, trying to think of a way to convince him to change his mind.

“And I want to be respected.”

“I respect you. I really, really respect you,” you said, looking him in the eyes.

It was a bad choice, though. Every time you looked at those eyes you got lost in them. They were capable of making you lose every type of game or sassy remarks exchange you and Kihyun had. You couldn’t fight it anymore. You just couldn’t stay away from him. Even if you tried, you always found yourself back at the start; it was a meaningless attempt to run away from your real feelings. He was holding you captive using his exotic charm and now you weren’t sure you wanted to escape anymore.

When the waiter came to take your orders, you cleared your throat, as you averted your gaze, so that you were no longer staring into Kihyun and you got ready to speak, but you were cut off.

“… And french fries with a strawberry milkshake for the lady.”

The waiter wrote down this bizarre combination of food and drink as he gave both Kihyun and you a confused look, before getting back to work.

“Who drinks strawberry milkshake while eating french fries?” you looked at him with no less confusion than the waiter.

“Definitely looks like your style.” He locked eyes with you, making you unable to look away.

You were literally connected to his eyes by invisible but very strong strings that you could not detach from yourself. That didn’t stop you from looking for a way, though.

“I’ve noticed that you like some very unusual things.”

By the confidence in his voice and by his knowing look, you could tell he definitely knew what kind of an impact he had on you. And the unusual thing he meant was him. Stating that you liked unusual things was just a code for saying you liked him and he was quite aware of this fact.

“But don’t worry. I like people who enjoy unusual things,” he said with a small smile, while he tried to make his voice sound even huskier.

But he didn’t need to do that, since even if he was not trying, his voice was already husky enough to drive you completely crazy. Did he mean he liked you? You were unsure of what his real purpose was, but you still liked what he was doing to you.

After your food and drinks were served, you just had diner in silence. He tried to look at you a couple of times, but you were desperately avoiding his gaze.

“When I go home, I have to leave all the wendigo stuff here and forget everything that happened”, you thought as you took a sip from your strawberry milkshake.

Actually french fries and strawberry milkshake were really a nice combination for you, just as Kuhyun predicted. No matter what he said earlier, he still payed for your food too. When you went back to the village, he parked your car at the same place where you were earlier. You took your phone to look at the time: it was 4:30 am and you were surprised. You suddenly remembered everything that happened tonight. This seemed like such a long time in your mind, but it was actually only a couple of hours? How could you get scared, fall in love with a supernatural creature and eat dinner in that small amount of time? As you both got off the car, you finally let him look you in the eyes.

“Is this how we part ways?” he asked, sounding just as desperate to meet you again, as you were about meeting him.

He tried to hide that through fake coughing, but he couldn’t deceive you; you already knew his real feelings, even though when you first met him, you weren’t sure he was capable of feeling anything.

“We… We don’t have to,” you said with a shaking voice.

Why couldn’t you let him go, when that was the most reasonable thing to do?

“No, you know what? I really have to go. I can’t do that, Kihyun… I just… Goodbye,” you whispered, looking at his hypnotic eyes, trying to remember them.

They made you fall into a trance that you didn’t want to exit. When you finally succeeded to look away, you turned and you started walking to your hut. Your eyes were shining because of the tears that were starting to form in then, but you couldn’t let this stop you in any way. As you started walking even faster, you felt someone grabbing your wrist, making you turn to look at them. You knew it was Kihyun, yet you were still surprised. You opened your mouth to protest, but he made you stop by pressing his lips to yours in a long kiss that you didn’t want to ever end. When he took a step back from your body, you found yourself missing his warm lips that were making you forget all about the cold winter. Without saying anything more, you took his hand and you started walking to your hut. When you got there, you connected your lips to his again, but this time it was a heated kiss, the type that left you breathless and wanting more.