#rfspook

“You know whatwould be hilarious, MC?” you sighed, turning to look at the red head thatsat at the other end of the table, chin sitting on his hands expectantly asgold eyes shined at you.

“No, Saeyoung, Ido not. What would be so funny?” you instantly felt regret asking thatquestion, because you knew in your heart it was going to revolve around somesort of prank-

“This prank Ithought of to do tonight!” and there it was.

You tilted your headwhile simultaneously raising an eyebrow, with a click of your tongue, yougestured for him to go on with this prank of his, knowing you would be suckedin whether you liked it or not. It was Halloween night, and Saeyoung seemed tohave this kink for pranks- though he’s told you time and time again it’s not akink, it doesn’t qualify as one. You still think he was lying.

“Okay, soeveryone’s coming over tonight, right? What if we break out a Ouija board? Iknow I can get a few of them freaked out enough just with that alone, but wecan hype it up! We can fake a haunting!” if his eyes could turn intohearts, they would have been pounding. You already had a bad feeling about thisprank of his, something was bound to go wrong. You weren’t allowed to mess withOuija boards anyway.. right? This has ‘horrible’ written all over it.

“You know youshouldn’t be messing with Ouija boards, yeah? What if something goes wrong-what if it’s real? Haven’t you seen scary movies-” he cut you off byputting a finger to your lips.

“Sshh, MC. Thoseare just that- movies. They’re made up! Fake! Not real in any way, shape, orform! We’ll be fine~” and with a wave of his hand, he dismissed theconversation, running out of the room to finish setting up some spookydecorations for the party and probably gathering whatever he deemed necessaryfor this prank of his. You turned to look at the other red headed boy, quietlysitting at the table this whole time. Fixing his blue eyes on you, offering asympathetic tug at the corner of his lips before also offering a small shrug.

“You know hewould have done it whether you told him no or not-”

“I’m well aware,Saeran, thank you.” You hid your face in your hands before taking in alarge breath. Nothing you would have said could have changed your mind- youknew this. You definitely weren’t ready for tonight. Nobody will be.

—-

“WELCOME TO HELL!AHHAHAHAHA,” the voice boomed through the house surround sound later thatnight- only moments after everyone had gathered into the living room. The groupjumped slightly at the sudden sound, but the fear quickly disbursed when theyrealized the voice belonged to Saeyoung. With a collective sigh, they turn togive the security camera in the corner an uninterested look. “Hey!”he exclaimed over the speakers, “I can’t believe you all saw through mycharade. It was a perfectly spooky greeting!” He huffed into themicrophone when the rest of the group shook their heads in disagreement to hisperformance.

You gestured foreveryone to relax and take a seat as well as grab a snack from the table infront of them. As they all went for snacks, they were met with Saeyoungknocking them out of their hands. With a quick sweep of his arm, everything onthe table was sent flying in the other direction. You stared in disbelief thatthe work you did for the past day flew to the floor, splattering and deemingitself unsalvageable. Replacing your once delicious snacks, was a large, woodenOuija board- following soon after was the planchette. He was really going throughwith this, wasn’t he? And where did he get that board on such short notice?

“I was thinkingall of us could take the opportunity today to talk to those beyond theveil!” the latter half of his sentence was accompanied by the wiggling ofhis fingers. The rest of the group harboured mixed emotions to the news. Youand Saeran already knew Saeyoung was planning something, so neither of you hadthe energy to even amuse him with a fake emotion, while Yoosung lookedabsolutely terrified, Zen seemed a little nervous at the fact the board waseven near him, Jumin seemed to share the same look as you and Saeran-uninterested. If looks could kill, the one Jaehee was shooting in the redhead’sdirection would have set him on fire immediately; Jihyun mustered up a small,nervous laughter as he went along with the idea. Knowing these reactions wereprobably the best he would get, Saeyoung continued. “Now, everyone, gatheraround! Get close! Let’s do this! Saeran, dear  brother, please hit the lights!” With ascoff, Saeran got up to literally hit the light switch. He smacked it hardenough, you could tell he knew exactly what this prank was and he was not happyto be a part of it. The moment the lights went off, you noticed the fact thatthere were several candles lit- how long were those on fire?

“I don’t see howusing a wooden board would allow us to talk to those who have passed,”Jumin stated, moving closer to the board, putting his fingers on the planchettelike Saeyoung had been gesturing. “Can you even speak to those in theafterlife? That shouldn’t be possible.”

“Oh, Mr. Han.Have you not heard of ghosts? The spirits from beyond? The very essence ofthose who-” Jumin threw his hand up to stop the nonsense pouring fromSaeyoung’s mouth.

“Nevermind. I’llgo along with it. The faster we go through this, the faster you will see thereis no such thing, and the faster we can move on to something else,” hesaid with a sigh. Despite being extremely reluctant to do so, everyone else’sfingers joined the planchette. They knew the only way to get past it was tojust… please Saeyoung by joining in this ritual.

“Everyonetouching the marker? Yeah? Okay, now clear your mind and relax!” with anexaggerated shimmy of his shoulders, he lets out a deep sigh before his loudvoice boomed through the room again. “Oh dear spirits from beyond, we lendyou our ears! We welcome you to the RFA! Please, come speak with us!”Jihyun shot him a concerned look- almost like he wanted to tell Saeyoung not toinvite these spirits to join the RFA in case they actually agreed, but kepthimself quiet. Everyone else started to fight to keep their doubts quiet, untilSaeyoung let out a loud gasp- all eyes turned to the planchette slightly movingon the board. “We have made contact! Oh great spirit, what is yourname?” Everyone watched with baited breath as the wooden marker started atthe ’S’, moving to the ‘E’, then to the 'N’, ’D’, 'N’, 'U’, ’D’, 'E’, and ’S’respectively. Throwing his hands up, Zen pushed himself away from the table.

“SAEYOUNG YOUASS, YOU CAN’T PRETEND TO BE A GHOST AND JUST SPELL OUT 'SEND NUDES’. This isridiculous!” he grabbed Saeyoung by the front of the shirt, pulling himclose, his eyes boring into the younger mans. “If you’re going to keepmessing with us, we’re just going to leave.”

“Does that meanyou won’t send the ghost nudes?” Saeyoung muttered under his breath,suddenly waving his hands when everyone started to get up, “Okay okayokay!! I was kidding! Please sit back down, let’s actually try now!” Hegestured for you to hand him something- what were you supposed to do, again? Ohyeah- you grabbed the surprisingly heavy bag of Honey Buddah Chips and handedit to him. “FROM THIS BAG,” he proclaimed, “WE MUST DRINK THEHOLIEST OF WATERS IN ORDER TO TRULY COMMUNICATE WITH THE SPIRITS!”

“Why the hell dowe need to drink holy water from your chip bag, Saeyoung?” Yoosung asked,raising an eyebrow while Jaehee crossed her arms.

“Holy water in achip bag seems to defeat its intended purpose…” she said as she judgedand questioned Saeyoung’s faith once again and watched as he put a hand overhis heart- a dramatic action to show his mock offense.

“Honey BuddahChips are little gifts from God. Please, just take the drink!” Saeyounghanded the bag back to you, throwing puppy dog eyes your way, knowing youcouldn’t resist. You sighed heavily before struggling to take a sip withoutspilling it all on you, passing it off to Saeran who was seated next to you.After shooting daggers at the bag itself, he took a sip and passed it on- therest of the group doing the same with their own looks of disapproval. Once itmade its way back to Saeyoung, he chugged the rest of the bag, spilling quite abit onto the board. The both of you scrambled to dry it off.

“Saeyoung, youidiot! That can’t be good! You can’t mess with things like this!” youhissed at him, trying to pat the board dry. You told him not to fuck with theOuija board. You told him you didn’t want a part of this prank- what in theworld did he have planned next? Once you got the board dry, everyone returnedtheir fingers to the planchette and sit in silence as Saeyoung took in abreath, ready to get down to business.

“Spirits… canyou hear us? Is anyone here with us?” slowly, the planchette started tomove towards 'yes’, and Yoosung let out a little screech. “Haha!Success!” Saeyoung cried out, exaggerating a wiggle of his body to pretendhe could feel the spirit through his body. “Oh spirit! Please, tell uswhat you want! Show yourself! I demand you to do so!”

The candles around theroom started to flicker, blowing out suddenly as an eerie green glow  came from the board accompanying a green fog.The temperature dropped suddenly, the room started to feel like static- justlike the sounds in everyone’s ears. Listening to his friends scream at the topof their lungs, Saeyoung sat back and laughed uncontrollably, wiping a tearfrom his eye. “Oh man! We got you good! Okay Saeran, you can cut off thefog machine-”

He opened his eyes tosee the back of Saeran’s head as he ran out of the room in a panic, droppingthe turned off fog machine to the floor.

The fog grew larger,the wind it created now whipping around the room- a neon green twister formingon top of the board as the room started to fill with loud whispers and hushedscreaming. The group all stumbled to throw themselves away from the board,minus you and Saeyoung. You could see the gears turning on his head and youmoved closer to him, trying to pull him away from the growing horror on thetable in front of him.

“Haha…”Saeyoung laughed nervously, his voice growing higher as his sentence continued,“Saeran, this isn’t funny, you can stop now… We agreed that it would bea simple prank… Come on!” You were able to pull him a little ways awayfrom the table, struggling to get him to his feet to run. Everyone else managedto get up and run out the door, pushing past each other and tripping over theirown feet. You heard the door slam shut and you knew it was up to you to get theidiot off of the floor and figure out how to fix this mess.

Suddenly, there was aboom from within the fog, and the two of you watched in fear as a beam of lightseemed to shoot out of the middle, accompanying this beam were louder moans andhigh pitched screeches- figures that appeared to have faces swirled around,some looked pained, others looked threatening. Frantically, you yanked the redhead to his feet, turning to run from the room- you’ll have to do somethingabout this, but your main goal for the time being is to get to safety. Youwould think Saeyoung would be smart enough to follow you- he has secret agenttraining, shouldn’t his fight-or-flight skills be perfected by now? Apparentlythey weren’t. You here a loud thump and turned to see what had happened- he hadbeen knocked to the floor, this now black and green mass with shadow-like facesnow seemed to form a make-shift claw, grabbing him by the ankle and knockinghim down. It seemed to growl in a low, echoing voice, telling him that he wouldgo nowhere as it started to drag him back towards the board. He was panickingand you ran to grab him by the arms, trying to pull him out of this…. thing’sgrasp. He had to kick frantically at the grip on his leg to free himself,almost knocking you over when he gets up- in fact he accidently pushed you outof the way to run from the room, oh what a brave boy he was. The two of youslam the door shut and he leaned against it, sliding down to sit on the floorwith a sigh.

“That.. thatisn’t a joke anymore, MC. That.. that’s real. That’s scary.. an abomination…a…. a job for real life GHOST HUNTERS!” he exclaimed with a beamingsmile on his face- that you immediately smacked off. He held his cheek with apout, “Ow! And what was that for?”

“THAT! Wasbecause you just HAD to prank everyone. You had to mess around with a Ouijaboard, even after I told you that those things aren’t toys! I told you! And nowyou’re still messing around when there’s literally thousands of angry spiritsin there!” your voice grew higher and higher as your anger rose as well.

“Well, MC, it wasjust a-” You cut him off with a raise of your hand, obvious annoyance inyour face.

“If you fuckingtell me 'it was just a prank, bro’, I will not hesitate to open this door andjust kick you back in there,” you threatened. One look at his face toldyou that he decided to hold his tongue and stand back up, scratching the backof his neck.

“Okay… MC, wehave to get rid of this thing though.. What do we do? I haven’t dealt withghosts before,” he looked at you with hopeful eyes.

Why the fuck did hethink you knew what to do with ghosts?

You pinched the bridgeof your nose and took in a large breath. Sure, you’ll figure it out. There’ssomething you could do, right? ….Right?

…Did the internethave the number for Ghostbusters?

You threw your handout, opening your eyes to look at him once you had an idea. “Okay,listen,” you started out, “This started when you dumped holy wateronto the board, then continued to open the veil, yeah? Well, we need to closethe portal! But that means we need to get back to the board, and at this pointthat is impossible… What are spirits afraid of? Can they really hurtus-” your question was cut off when the point of a large knife flewthrough the door, missing your head by mere inches. Your eyes went wide asthree more wedged into the door at once, “Okay, it can hurt us! It candefinitely hurt us! Let’s go- we gotta go! Move move move!” you shouted,pushing him away from the door and kick starting his sprint down the hallwaymoments before the door was completely covered with the points of sharp knives-when did you all get so many knives?

The two of you burstthrough the closest door in the hall- this thing was definitely going to comeafter you. What the hell did he get you into, you’re too young to die.

“If we make itthrough this, Saeyoung, I’m going to kick your ass,” you yelled, gettingready to throw a punch.

“Don’t punchhim!” Saeran called from his hiding spot on the other side of his bed. Hegot up and ran across his bed, getting ready to jump onto Saeyoung- he had firein his eyes and a snarl on his lips. “I’m gonna kill him myself!” Yousighed and stepped in between the two brothers, shielding Saeyoung and calmingSaeran down.

“You can’t killhim-”

“Thank you,MC!” Saeyoung interrupted, giving his brother a bright smile.

“We need him tohelp get rid of this… thing. Plus, if it comes to it, we can just give him toit and hope it leaves us alone.”

“Yeah! Wait,what? MC!” His smile fell as Saeran stifled a laugh. The three of you satthere for a few moments, racking your brains to come up with a plan. You threwyour hands up in the air in sudden realization.

“Guys, if holywater brought the stupid things to us, shouldn’t we use it to get rid ofthem?” you asked, watching their expressions turn from confused to understanding-you could almost see the light bulbs go off above their heads.

“I have my crosson me… I’m sure we could whip up some holy water right now!” Saeyoungsaid, pulling his necklace out from under his shirt. “But I don’t thinkjust dumping a bunch on the board at once will work… wouldn’t it grab us andkill us before we even got close?” As the two of you tried to work outsome sort of plan to use the holy water, Saeran quietly got up and made his wayto the closet, opening it up to pull out his water gun, staring your way untilyou took notice.

“Saeran… you’rea genius!” you exclaimed, jumping up and clapping to show your approval,Saeyoung had to admit it was a pretty smart plan- after all, he and Saerancould use them pretty well. But you and the redhead needed to get yours fromthe other room- not to mention you had to bless a bunch of water for it. Fornow, the three of you had to make do with what you had. He blessed the watercurrently in Saeran’s gun and told him to cover all of you.

With a quick look tofind the mass of spirits down the hall opposite of you, the group sprinted tothe bathroom down the hall- though it took notice fairly quickly. You keptrunning until you hit the closet a little further- you had to find the gun youhid in there.

Saeyoung stopped atthe bathroom, Saeran standing in the hall between the two of you, watching asthe horror moved closer, the moaning and groaning getting louder. Saeyoung turnon the water to the bath, starting to fill it up so he could bless a bunch ofit at once- but he was interrupted by Saeran’s angry growling at the eeriemass. While the steady stream of holy water from the gun seemed to help, theredefinitely wasn’t enough to stop it completely. It started to stretch and creepinto the bathroom- Saeyoung had to calculate the fastest way past it whiletrying to keep himself safe, but he couldn’t let this thing get his brother.This is when his fight-or-flight instincts finally kicked in, good thing, too.He used his acrobatic skills to tumble over some of the tentacle-likeappendages shooting out at him, sliding underneath others and grabbing hisbrother by the arm, meeting up with you a little ways down the hall.

In the mean time, youhad found the gun in the closet, just in time to see Saeran struggling to holdhis own with this mega spirit coming at him. You stumbled over your words,trying to remember what blessing you needed to recite to make the water in thisgun holy- why, oh why, did you tune out Saeyoung every time he did it? With aquick slideshow of his antics in flashback form- back when you watched himbless things like every chip in a Honey Buddah bag one by one, the goldfishshaped bread he had, even a little figurine he got from a cereal box- yourexpression dropped to an annoyed one and suddenly remembered why you tuned himout. Luckily for you, the boys ran by and you took that as your cue to hand itto him and let him do God’s work. Now the three of you were running, Saeyoungwas blessing a toy gun, and you all were heading towards the kitchen- great.

The three of you had alittle bit of time before the mega spirit reared it’s angry head through thedoorway, and you needed some time to figure out the next move. You ducked downbehind the island in the middle of the room, while Saeyoung hid behind the sideof the fridge and Saeran on the other side of the cupboards. There needed to bea distraction, or none of you were getting out of here. You bit your lip, heartpounding, and pushed yourself to stand up and call out to the beast.

“Hey! Ugly!Yoo-hoo, over here! Yeah hi, here! Come get me!” you teased, ducking downagain when one of its limbs shot out like a whip, cracking over your head.Saeyoung took the opportunity to jump out and shoot at it, turning itsattention towards him while you ran to the other side of the island- Saeranshot at it to take the attention away from his brother so he could move aswell. The three of you seemed to be playing peek-a-boo with the creature until youwere all able to shut it in the pantry and take off down towards Saeyoung’sroom, where the last water gun should be.

All at once, the threeof you duck under the bed, yelling at each other in hushed whispers until youfelt the gun poking at your side. You handed it to Saeyoung and watched asSaeran tried to take it from him.

“I’m faster, I’llrun and fill it up!”

“How are yougoing to do that when I DIDN’T GET TO BLESS THE WATER YET, SAERAN?”

“Will the two ofyou PLEASE shut up and get along? We have bigger problems here, any minutethat.. thing is going to be here, and-”

A strong, yet airylimb wrapped around your ankle, yanking you out from under the bed- youscreeched as it lifted you into the air and hung you upside down. The boysscrambled out and watched in horror as it quickly made its way back to theliving room as you struggled and threw yourself around in hopes of escaping itsgrasp.

Saeyoung was frozen inplace- he heard his brother’s frantic voice, but it was muffled. He justwatched this thing lift and take you away- and in his mind, it finally clicked.He brought this thing in here, despite your warning, and now it took you. Hewas beyond pissed off, now. He took off towards the bathroom, his brother intow. Taking his necklace off and tossing it into the now overflowing bathtub,he recited the blessing as if it were a rap song, impressing even Saeran withhis speed and desperation. Saeran didn’t even bother trying to argue with hisbrother about who could handle the second gun- it didn’t matter now. All thatmattered to the boys was getting you back, and they both clicked intoprotection mode. It had to have been taking you back to the living room- backto the portal, and they had to stop it.

Kicking down thealready broken door to the living room, Saeyoung stared straight at the megaspirit, holding both guns against his hips, anger spread across his features.

“In the words ofsomeone amazing, 'HEY UGLY!’” he started out, watching it turn around toface him, you dangling by your ankle still, “Say hello to my littlefriends!”

If the blood wasn’trushing to your head, you would have groaned your way into next week.

He started to spraythe beast with the holy water, Saeran running in from behind to shoot it aswell. It screamed out in pain, writhing and rolling uncomfortably- dropping youto the floor face first. 'Ow,’ you thought, 'how rude was that?’ By the timethe room stopped spinning due to your now normal blood flow, you saw that theboys both had been lifted into the air- the beat had a hold of them and itsgrip kept getting tighter, it was going to crush them to death. You had to dosomething- you had to end this!

With a deep breath,you pushed against the fog surrounding the board- getting to the board was youronly chance at winning against this monster! You kept moving forward, fightingagainst the wind and you immediately felt your feet raising from the floor. Thecloser you got to the board, the less gravity there seemed to be- but youdidn’t let it stop you. Floating above you was the planchette, you kicked offof the floating table near you to reach and grab it, yet the moment yourfingers wrapped around it, the beast’s attention turned to you- the boys triedto call out only to find the wind being crushed out of their lungs. You heardmore loud screaming to your side, watching the board light up even brighterthan before- as the aura around you started to feel like a vacuum.

'Shit shit shit!’ youthought to yourself, 'I’m going to get sucked into this thing!’

You struggled toswallow the lump in your throat. You had to get to the board and do it fast,which included avoiding getting taken in by spirits… no big deal, right?

Making your way to theboard via some amazing air swimming skills, you grab hold of its side, feelingyour hair starting to be sucked in. Your hair, your side, your whole body hadto struggle to keep itself in place. You got the planchette against the board,success! But this caught the attention of the mega spirit real quick. Keepingthe boys in its grasp, it slithers out another limb, trying to pierce the windssurrounding you and the board. You had to move and fast! It blindly swung atyou, causing you to duck and roll around in the air, fighting to keep thewooden marker against the board. Slowly, you slid it towards the 'Goodbye’,struggling to close the portal in general.

Your grip on the boardslipped, your arm immediately flying towards the portal. You screamed in terroras multitudes of hands threw themselves out of it, grabbing onto your arm andtrying to yank you in to their world. The only thing keeping you grounded nowwas the strong grip on the planchette, but you had to keep moving! With all ofyour might, you move it inch by inch- the hands now grabbing at your legs,clothes, even your face. With hands grabbing at your face, accentuating theangry that it held, you shoved the planchette even closer.

“That’s it! I’mdone with you bastards!” you yelled, “It’s time to go back to Hellwhere you came from!”

With one final burstof your energy, you pushed the planchette completely over 'Goodbye’- the bundleof spirits holding the boys let out an ear piercing, echoing shriek. You couldhear the pain in each and every voice within the monster as it dropped theboys- only to have them levitate due to the energy in the room- and quicklystart to be sucked back to the board one by one. The hands that were onceholding you turned their attention to the returning spirits, letting go of youas the winds pushed you away from the board in general. Once the last spirithad been vacuumed back, the portal closed itself and the three of youimmediately dropped to the floor as well as the furniture with a loud thump.

You guys just laidthere for a few moments, in complete silence, just… breathing. You gotthrough it. This horrifying experience was over, done with. Everything could goback to normal. The three of you could relax.

“You know what wedeserve?” Saeyoung started, “some ice SCREAM!”

“MC, the board.Give it to me. I’m breaking it over his big ass head!” Saeran shouted,pushing himself off of the floor and tripping over his own feet to get to hisbrother. You threw the planchette at him, knocking him in the head before yougrabbed the board and ran over to Saeyoung instead.

YOOSUNG:

“Oh cool, MC, you bought somecandles!” he called, grabbing one and getting ready to light it. Youscramble after him to get it back, explaining to him that they aren’t forburning around the house to look pretty. “Yoosung, I’m doing a ritual- theblack candle represents your life, your decisions, and your experiences in thepast year, while the white one represents the present moment and year to come!You light this black one and reflect on things that helped you become who youare today, how you’ve grown, what lessons you’ve learned, then you say goodbyeto it all and blow out the candle. Then, you light the white one and reflect onhow you can be your happiest every day, and blow out the flame holding hope inyour heart!” you went on to describe the simple ritual to him, watching ashe stared at you with eyes as big as dinner plates. To your surprise, heactually wanted to hear a little more about why you do this, and what otherthings there were to do. He wanted to join you in this one as well! He wantedto think of all the happy times he can have with you for this next year!

ZEN:

He came home and the house did notsmell like it normally did and he was concerned. He called out to you, hopingthat the smell was something you were doing and doing it safely. He found you standing on a chair in the center of the room,hoping some sort of… stick? Maybe? “MC! What are you doing? You could’vefallen!” he swooped you off of the chair, placing you on your feet gentlybut then suddenly started to cough over the smoke in his face- you quicklymoved it to the side. “Ah, sorry Hyun! I just wanted to banish all of theold energy from our house,” you tried to explain as you continued tosmudge the area around yourself. The look on his face said it all- he had noidea what you were talking about. You asked him to walk with you as youfinished smudging the rest of the house, explaining it was a cleansing ritual-with the herbs sage, mugwort, bay leaf, and lavender tired together with yard,you could hopefully dispel any old or bad energy, leaving the house fresh andnew! He understood after a while, but would never attempt to do it on hisown… if it made you feel better, he would absolutely let you do it.

JAEHEE:

“..MC… can I ask why you’relying in the middle of the floor?” she asked, closing the door behind her.You could often be found throwing yourself across the furniture and laying onthe ground, she didn’t think too much of it until she saw your hands movingaround, then she realized you were meditating and immediately felt bad- shedidn’t interrupt, did she? She sat a few feet away from your head, waitinguntil you were finished to actually talk to you. When you sat up, you greetedher and told her not to worry, you hadn’t even noticed her come in. She seemedto be trying to peek at what was in your hand, so you opened it to reveal asmall opal laying in your palm. You explained that the stone was used as apower stone to help become a conduit of the unconscious mind. When you breathedeeply and allow any and all images, thoughts, sounds, or sensations pass by,you’ll be able to release them from your mind. You even took a handful ofassorted power stones and explained each one to her- you watched her eyes asyou noticed her make mental notes about it all so she could research it in moredepth later. She really wouldn’t be against joining you for one of thesemeditations, the poor woman needs this

JUMIN:

“MC, I don’t understand why youwould willingly participate in doing this to yourself. All you’re going to dois scare yourself to the point you will lose sleep, or you will injure yourselfwith worry,” he said as you scrolled through multitudes of rituals youlooked up online, trying to find one you wanted to try out. “Jumin,sweetheart, it’s Halloween. The point is to try and scare yourself,” youtold him, stopping on one you wanted, turning to find him crossing his arms,shaking his head, and turning to leave the room- he muttered a soft “It’sa horrible idea” under his breath as he left the room. At midnight thatnight, you wrote your name on this piece of paper, pricking your finger to puta small drop of blood onto the paper- you light the candle and turn the rest ofthe lights off before knocking on the wooden door 22 times, all before 12:01am.You open the door, blow out the candle, then shut the door again before rushingto relight the candle and leaving the room, keeping the candle lit. You were tothink about your wish and keep close watch of the flame until 3:33am- as wellas watching for drops in temperature and faint whispers- this would mean theMidnight Man was close and you had to be very careful. You had spent so muchtime walking around, you began to get bored, but were too afraid to stop. Aftera while, you heard faint whispers behind you, and you immediately started towalk faster, being aware of the flame in front of you. You started to panic- ohno. This is real, isn’t it. Why didn’t you listen to Jumin? Why did you need totry and freak yourself out? Turning a corner, your flame went out and you werefrozen in place, your heart immediately beating in your ears. Suddenly, youhear Jumin whisper, “Well, did you get the scare you were looking for,MC?” You dropped the candle to the floor, immediately swinging your armsin front of you until you make contact with his chest, which he returned with asoft “oof” and a soft chuckle before pulling you close to hold you.

SAEYOUNG:

“Legend says that during thenight, a rift will open between the land of the living and the domain of thespirits,” he said in his best story telling voice- he was dressed in ablack, intimidating robe, trying to scare you the night before Halloween. Hehad a flashlight on under his chin and turned off the power to the whole house-Saeran was pissed. Yet, he stayed for Saeyoung’s story, which he continuedafter his dramatic pause. “Communication can lead to wishes being grantedand good fortune- for the living! The other side demands horrific payment fortheir services, ooooooo~” he wiggled his fingers to emphasize the spooky.You stared at him with an extremely unamused look on your face- you couldn’ttake him serious- even when he asked you to play the game with him. Between 2amand 5am on Halloween, the two of you closed yourselves in a small room, staringat a mirror that you couldn’t even clearly see in the dark.“Okay MC, whenthe rift opens, you should feel the room go cold, that’s when you put your handon the mirror and whisper, ‘I accept’. Then, we’ll see a figure in the mirror-a figure way too frightening to describe. Then you must answer all five oftheir deeply personal questions, you must answer honestly- each one you lieabout, they will take one of your five senses. Each one you get correct, youcan place a death curse on anyone you decide.” You tried to look at himlike he was an idiot but being in the dark made that hard. Suddenly, there wasa soft breeze behind your ear, you raised your elbow a little and jammed itinto his stomach hard enough to get an 'oomph’ from him. You knew he was tryingto just scare you. He chuckled a little, pulling your back closer to his chest,he started to nuzzle against your shoulder until the both of you felt the roomget extremely cold in a flash- the both of you turned stiff for a moment beforeyour adrenaline kicked in and the both of you started to push the other out ofthe way to escape the room. Saeran had to hold back a laugh from his place behind the mirror, where he had a portable air conditioner running silently.

JIHYUN:

Always willing to see differentparts of you and anything you like or believe in! So on Samhain, you wanted tohelp him with his past in any way you know how- Mandalas! You told him howmandalas are powerful because they reflect balance and wholeness- drawing oneup helps to express yourself and encourage emotional balance as well as helpingto heal yourself! He watched you practice a few, and had him join in. Drawingthe patterns in whatever colour he wanted, with no pressure to make it perfectwas calming. He turned to you, to thank you for showing him this activity, whenhe saw your page and immediately froze. He wanted to laugh but he was also kindof concerned. Your mandala was more.. in the shape of a common demon mask, andhe… he wasn’t sure what that meant- or if he should ask you about it… Hestill hung it on the fridge regardless, but it scares people when they walk by andyou act innocent, which he finds hilarious.

SAERAN:

“MC, this is stupid, I’m notdoing this,” he stated with a huff, his arms crossed against his chest andyou tried to drag him outside at around 11:30 pm, October 30th. You found thisritualistic game online and you wanted to see if it would truly work! I mean,if you can deal with him, you could probably deal with some sorta demons thatcome out of this. You search for bare patch of ground, waiting until 11:59pm- aminute before Halloween. He watched as you drew a circle in the dirt largeenough to hold your phone- then you plopped yourself down to the ground. With asigh, he sat next to you and stared at the phone for what seemed like too long.You kept staring, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 11 minutes, the time kept increasingand the whole time he kept trying to break your gaze from the phone, but youwere dedicated to this thing and he gave up. After 15 minutes, your phone litup from a call from a private number- Saeran went to answer once he realizedyou weren’t going to- you had to shoo him away quickly. “You can’tanswer!!!! You can’t, this is supposed to happen! Now, we wait for a text, andmake sure not to take the phone from the circle. It’s supposed to be anothernumber that we can call, then we tell this man our address, and he’ll tell usthat we’ll get a package at precisely 11:59 on November 1st!” you staredat the phone explaining it all, as Saeran just looked at you with an eyebrowraised- looking up across the yard, he saw his brother hiding around the cornerof the house, raising a finger to his lips to keep him quiet. Now he knew thiswas a prank and nothing that can truly hurt you- good. He would playalong.“What’s in this package, MC?” he asked, curious as to just whatkind of story his brother planted into your head. “You find a smalltransistor radio with batteries! You can put in the batteries but youabsolutely can’t turn on the radio until 12:15am, then go to the AM channel111.1 and listen- it says the guy from tonight will be muttering and will giveus a headache but we can’t stop listening. At 12:25 am on the dot, the messagewill stop and soft music will play- and until then, so long as you keep theradio on you and turned on, you’ll experience good luck!” you kept staringat the phone, speaking quickly, trying to get the story out before that textcame in. Saeran had to hide his growing laughter, “Okay okay, so wait.This dumb ritual will give you good luck? That’s what this is about?”“Yeah, but apparently, when the radio’s batteries die, everythingdrastically changes. Like, you’ll feel someone tracking your every move, see afigure in the shadows, hear a sound you can’t place, up until it makes itselfknown and comes to claim its payment!” your voice turned high pitched nearthe end of your explanation, as you watched your phone light up from theexpected text. He sat through the rest of your ritual, watching you one momentand turning to watch his brother with a voice box and his cell phone across theway. He’d allow this to happen, only this time, because you did bring this uponyourself.

VANDERWOOD: