#«you are interested only in your stupid games» wrong my steam library is collecting dust for a year or so already

[diveintoturmoil]

its embarrassing not to fit into people‘s expectations but even more embarrassing not to fit even in their complaints

[yawnjunie]

monster hunting for dummies (2)

chapter two: it’s all fun and games

wc: 4.3k a/n: i'm too lazy to put the same descriptions in the top of each chapter and reformat it each time so it'll just be word count from now on; additional warnings will be put in new chapters' descriptions if necessary. if you would like to see the info again, just revisit chapter one or the masterlist. happy reading!

———

Jumping off of the Viking ride, you took a moment to catch your breath before looking for something fun to do again. You walked among the crowd, looking around at the people around you. From juggling clowns to contortionist freaks to children with gargantuan cotton candies, the carnival was just the place you’d imagined it to be. 

“Corn dogs, corn dogs, come one, come all!”

You were studying a yellowed fair map until your ears perked up at the sound of the snack vendor’s voice, whipping your head in the direction of the call. After wandering around for a while, you were sure you’d seen almost every ride, every game booth, every circus animal. That ride had worked up your appetite, and now you were a carnivorous predator. Nothing in the world mattered anymore— nothing but food.

You were close. You could feel it– well, smell it. There it was: the holy grail. You slowed your steps to behold the majestic sight. Feeling like a prince in shining armor on his way to collect his princess, you felt the wind billow in your skirt as you flipped your hair. Come to mama!

But of course, life didn’t like making things easy. Standing in the way of your precious dinner were those five dunderheads. No problem, you reassured yourself, tapping your foot on the ground. Patience is a virtue. This’ll only take a few minutes.

A few minutes felt more like a few hours. But at long last, they sauntered off and you stepped up to the stand.

“I’ll take two.” You jammed your hand into your skirt pocket and pulled out four wrinkled one-dollar bills.

“Sorry, those young fellas took the last ones. It’s about a 15 minute wait for the next batch, though.”

“Never mind, I’m leaving.” Your smile disappeared almost immediately; your angry meter was really peaking. You needed to blow off some steam before you really killed a man. Or five.

Just a few minutes away from the stand, you found yourself at a hammer game. This’ll do.

Wham! You brought that hammer down with the force of a thousand, fueled by your rage at those five jerks. It especially helped to envision their faces on the target.

Not too shabby! The weight went up pretty high, at least by your standards. Exhaling deeply, you placed your hands on your hips and grinned. It felt nice. Beat that, assholes!

“Wow, this looks fun! Let’s go give it a try!”

Oh, God. I didn’t mean it literally.

“Me first!”

“No, I’m going!”

“Step aside, peasants, bow down to your mighty Crown Prince!”

Out of all the places they could’ve gone, they just had to choose the hammer game.

Ding ding ding!

“Whaaaa, you did it first try! Won’t you gimme your prize, hyung?”

“Amazing! What would you like, young fella?” The booth tender showed the boy a massive selection of large stuffed toys.

“You guys are really intent on ruining my day, aren’t you,” you hissed, making no effort to mask your annoyance. Before the rest of them could upstage your performance in the hammer game, you stalked off in long, brisk strides.

––––

This sucks. This really freaking sucks. Even though you came to the carnival to enjoy yourself, you were feeling even worse than when you arrived.

Before you headed out, you figured you might as well take a full tour of the place and see if there was anything worth seeing. You weren’t going to let a bunch of boys from school ruin your fun at the carnival. For some bizarre reason, after wandering around for a bit, you kept finding yourself standing in front of the same ragged, purple tent with yellow stripes. It was as sketchy as sketchy got, and that was exactly what caught your eye. You were about to enter when a voice cut through the silence.

“Whoa whoa whoa! Let’s go there next! It looks so mysterious!”

Why me?

“Hell yeah, maybe we’ll meet a wizard!”

That was it. Something inside you snapped.

You whirled around to confront them once and for all. “Listen up. I don’t know what your problem is, but either you guys shut up or stop following me. I’m sick and tired of your stupid voices!”

“What– Wyann??”

“You were at the carnival too? What a coincidence running into you here!”

“Sure is a small world, isn’t it?” one of the boys exclaimed, licking his vanilla and chocolate swirl ice cream. Even his choice in ice cream flavors made your eyes twitch.

“Coincidence my ass. This is the fourth time you’ve gotten in my way since I’ve gotten here, and I’ve had enough. First, you just so happen to get on the only ride I decide to go on and shriek like you’re about to be murdered, then you take the last corn dogs– that was going to be my dinner, you know– and you––” That last part was too embarrassing to say out loud, so you waved your hand around instead. “Point is, you’ve done enough, haven’t you? Why don’t you leave me alone for once?!”

“Dude, what’re you talking about? When did any of that happen?” Yeonjun stepped in front, hands at his hips. “What is your problem, huh?”

“If we knew you were here, we would’ve said hi! You’ve got us all wrong, we wouldn’t do that on pur–” Huening Kai started.

“Spare me. The number of shits I give is about the same as the number of corn dogs in my stomach.”

“Okay, we’re really sorry if we bothered you, and we’ll try our best not to let it happen again. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we’ll be heading into this creepy tent to find ourselves a wizard.” Taehyun cut, an expression of pure glee plastered onto his face. He didn’t spare one glance at you when he said that.

“Hold it right there, nerds, I’m not done with—”

“Uhm…” Oh, great. Bread boy. “If you’re still hungry… do you want some ice cream?” He extended his waffle cone, a sticky, melted, half-eaten-with-drool-all-over-it abomination to prove his point. What, does he want me to knock that thing out of his hand? When he caught wind of your disgusted expression, he took the cone back and flushed in embarrassment. “I mean, not mine, of course. I’ll buy you a new one.”

You stood by silent and stone-faced as he went off to a nearby ice cream cart. A few minutes later, he came back with a vanilla-chocolate swirl akin to his own. You hated vanilla-chocolate with a passion.

“Here.” Bread boy held out the cone expectantly, his face scrunched into a small smile. “And don’t worry about paying me back. Think of this as an apology gift for all the trouble we’ve caused you.”

You continued to stare straight ahead.

“Aww, come on, Wyann. Truce?”

Still you said nothing.

“Wy—”

Splat. A sickly brown bled into the half-dead grass, mottled with strains of a bleak gray.

��Do you need me to spell it out for you?” An angry pink had formed on the back of his hand, a mirror print of your palm.

“I don’t want anything to do with you guys. And you should know by now that I’m more trouble than I’m worth. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to be my friend. So do us both a favor and f*ck off, please.” That was it. There was no way you could’ve bottled that up any longer.

He didn’t say anything, his tingling hand frozen in place and disbelieving eyes taking in the murder scene. Without another word, you turned and walked into the tent. Even if it meant walking straight into an awkward situation, you weren’t letting anything else ruining the rest of your time there.

“Hey, Wyann! Nice of you to join us!”

“Hey.”

“Where’s ‘Bin?”

“Outside.”

“Hey, yeah, I’m here!” Well, shit. “Sorry, I was cleaning up my mess outside.”

You kept your gaze on the ground, bracing yourself for the whiplash of your assholery— which you very much deserved, of course— but to your surprise, that small smile of his was back on his face as if nothing had happened.

You were off the hook, but for some reason, a twinge of guilt struck at your heart.

Meanwhile, the rest of the boys were busy exploring the shop. From every oil painting to every nameless book lay a new story waiting to be told. There was so much to explore.

Walking past a bookshelf, a specific volume glinted at the corner of Taehyun’s eye, catching his attention. This seems interesting. He lifted the heavy book up carefully and turned it over in his hands.

Upon closer observation, he noticed that the book was covered in a thick layer of dust. There was an empty slot for it on the dark shelf, yet it had been sitting out collecting dust. Its pages were yellowed, its parchment crumbling with age. It looked like something from the library of a Medieval wizard, but not out of place in a fortune teller’s tent, yet he felt a strange connection to it. As if he were making a wish, the curious boy blew off the layer of dust on it.

Grey particles diffusing to the other parts of the tent, the title of the mysterious volume became visible.

The Tome of Spirit Summoning.

“Whoa, where’d you get that from?” Yeonjun said, eyes wide with surprise and curiosity.

“Ooh, open the book! Open the book!” Beomgyu urged, shoving a few pieces of popcorn into his mouth.

“Not before you put your food away,” the boy replied, carefully turning around to shield the ancient pages from flying popcorn grease. The other two rushed over to his side to see the contents of the mysterious book for themselves. He carefully flipped to the first page, where there was a fancy inscription in a language none of you understood. It looks like Latin.

Disinterested, you left that side of the tent and continued browsing elsewhere.

“So, anything interesting to see in this little hovel?”

“Excuse me, what do you mean by ‘hovel,’ young lady? This place is the highlight of the circus, a sacred emporium for the mystic.” Naturally, the owner of the hovel looked like a scraggly old hobo.

“I mean that your place looks like crap. Not exactly the most appealing, you know.”

His face immediately dropped into a frown. “What do you want-“

“But that’s exactly why I decided to come in. So what do you got in here, sir?” You sauntered through the shop, dragging your fingers along the shelves. “Let’s see, what do we have here? Crumbling books, organic soaps, dollar-store scented candles, relabeled antidepressants, preserved human innards…” you trailed off, deciding that the place was in fact, very creepy. But it left you more interested.

“Sir, what’s the coolest thing in the shop?”

“Probably that shelf of books over there,” he gestured to the shelf of books that was so hidden you wouldn’t even have noticed had Taehyun not found the book he was holding there. “They’re the intact volumes of the 16th century grimoires of spirits, complete with strange stories of the supernatural and their origins, how to conjure them and such. Of course, everything in this shop is precious to me, so I naturally take very good care of them.”

Boring. Then, something caught your attention. “Ooh, what’s that blue thing over there?” You pointed towards the object on top of the cabinet behind the fortune telling table.

“Sorry, that’s not for sale, missy.” His face grew dark, but you couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Then why would you leave it out?” Blue-hair piped in from behind you.

“You see, it belongs to a certain somebody I’m trying to find— wait a minute. How many in your group?”

“Do you need new glasses, mister? I’m by myself. Those guys over there are just five random dumbasses.”

“By my stars… could it be...?” Without warning, the old man got up in your face, his nose almost pressed to yours.

You recoiled, nearly backing up all the way into Bread Boy. After murmuring a quick apology, you glared daggers at the shopkeeper, but there was something about the look in his eyes that held you back.

“Beast of the eternal flame...we’ve looked long and hard for hundreds of years.”

“What the hell is that?”

“You there, with the sight, surely you know what I mean,” the old man insisted, pointing a shaky, bony old finger straight at Tae’s chest.

The boy blanched, but strangely enough, didn’t deny the man’s claim. “How could you tell?”

“Of course, because I’m the same as you.”

“Tae…?”

“In my vision, you children asked about the Tome— Could it be finally happening?” He began muttering incoherently to himself once more.

You were starting to get irritated. “Alright, I’m out, this isn’t funny. I don’t know if you’re getting a kick out of this sick joke, but I’ve had en—”

“Wyann, let’s hear him out… I’m not so sure this is a joke.”

“No. You can stay and listen to this nutjob yap on about psychic bull, but I’m out of here.” Before you could get smited by some magic voodoo crap, you noped tf out of there. At least, you were going to, until the voices in your head came a’raspin’.

Stay, daemon. Stray not from the path that belongs to you.

Oh, God, don’t tell me I’m a schizophrenic.

No matter how much you wanted to get out of that creepy place, you really couldn’t. It felt like your feet were getting rooted to the ground, and the only way to go was back. To avoid incurring the wrath of the voices in your head, you did a 180. Even without the voices, there remained an unsettling feeling in your stomach. It’s just the creepy atmosphere of the carnival, no biggie.

Your arms were crossed as you leaned against the cold stone wall, rolling your eyes for good measure. But as disrespectful as you appeared, you still kept your manners in check. “For God’s sake, just please explain what the f*ck is going on.”

“The mystical beast borne of the flames…..the Seer...the prophecy...the Tome.” The fortune teller started sweating profusely, his eyes turning glassy and his whole body shaking. “The configuration…..”

Okay, very helpful. Like we’re supposed to know what any of that crap means. This man sounds and looks like he’s high.

“What are you talking about, anyways, old geezer? Care to explain in English?” Blue-hair knew when to pop in and asked all the right questions. You figured you should at least try and learn his name– Yeonjun, wasn’t it?– but hair color was a much easier way to ID him.

Gasping, the geezer suddenly collapsed onto the floor. Then, crawling to a small cabinet in the back, he pulled at the drawer handle and fumbled for something. That thing turned out to be an inhaler, with which he promptly used to pump some air into his mouth. After a few moments of heavy breathing, he started again weakly. “I just got a vision, and I’m afraid it means something far beyond my ability to decipher.” With shaking hands, he reached for the odd configuration and set it on the low table in front of him. “This is a family heirloom, and if you can pass my test, you are allowed to take it. Would you like to bet on it?”

You looked around at the guys huddled around you, waiting for your response expectantly. Tucking your hair behind your ears, you shrugged. “Okay yeah, sure.”

“Miss, your hand, please.”

“You’re not going to do anything weird to me, are you?” Knowing that your question wasn’t going to get answered anyway, you held out your hand to the guru. I’m a dumbass for doing this. Well, if I die, then I die.

The five boys huddled around you, intrigued by what was going to happen. The fortune teller sat you down, then dipped your palm into a weird red liquid. Then, mumbling a few words, he held your (what you presumed to be) blood-dipped hand onto the surface of the object. As if the object were alive, it pulsed a little under your hand. Or maybe, your heart was just beating so fast you could feel it in your hand.

Once more, the guru took a deep breath as he held your hand down on the object, his eyes shifting underneath his eyelids. It felt like an eternity until Soobin suddenly spoke up, pointing to your left.

“What’s he doing with his hand?”

All of your heads turned towards the guru’s right hand, which looked like it was furiously tapping at his desk. Rat-tat, tat-tat, rat-a-tat-tat. At first, it looked like he was just shaking. It took a moment for you to realize that it wasn’t just a nonsensical series of tapping—it was some sort of code.

“Could it be a code?” The boy who you knew as Huening Kai asked.

“...Morse Code.” Both you and the blonde-haired boy croaked out at the same time.

As the man kept humming and tapping, the bunch of you started to get excited.

“Oh shoot bro, grab your notebook! We gotta write this down!”

“Go, go, go! Why are you so slow?” Beomgyu urged, unzipping his older friend’s backpack.

“Hey guys, chill! What is this, Stranger Things?  Where we crack some Russian spy code shit?” Yeonjun responded, annoyed that his backpack was being dug into without his permission.

“Shut up, what if it means something?”

“Okay, I got the notebook, gimme a pencil—”

“Hey wait, doesn’t Taehyun know how to decipher morse code?” Soobin pointed out.

“Yeah! Wait, Tae, come over here!”

“...Tae? Are you okay?”

You were so caught up in the group’s chatter that you didn’t even realize one of the boys became oddly silent, but he quickly snapped to attention.

“Huh, what is it?” “Tell us what this says!”

Before the boy could respond to his friends, the guru’s eyes sprang open. His large orbs which once shone like tiger eye stones, were now dull and bloodshot, veins bulging out and magnified by the tears that clouded their surfaces. “Take it! Leave this place!”

Although the bunch of you began to sweat from the excitement, the room suddenly felt ten degrees colder. Or maybe it was just that your hands were cold and clammy.

“Uh, what’s going on?”

“Sir, are you alright? Would you like us to call an amb—” Yeonjun offered.

“I said, get out! Go away!” He clutched his head tightly, mumbling spells quietly as if to dispel something in his mind.

“O-oh, okay then,” you stood up, and were about to leave before the guru grabbed your wrist out of nowhere, making you jump.

“Beware of the blue moon. The flames are not going to stop licking the great gate. Remember who you are.”

Shaking off his grip, you clutched the bloodstained orb-like contraption in trembling hands. “You aren’t gonna die, are you?” It didn’t seem right to leave this old man on his own in the state he was in, but he looked like he might murder you or even give you rabies.

“Worry about yourself, first. Get out. I’m warning you––” Boom! “Okay, what the f*ck was that?” A large crash sounded, followed by the pitter-patter of heavy raindrops. It seemed uncanny that it would be raining this hard, given that it was the middle of June, the dry season, and that it had been 110ºF just a few hours ago.

“It wasn’t a bomb, was it?” Soobin shuddered, brows furrowed in fear.

“Are you dumb? It’s literally raining and there’s thundering outside!” Yeonjun shouted back.

“So? Bombs still go ‘boom’ whether there’s rain or not!”

“You’re such an idi––” “Uhm, guys? I think we have a bigger problem to be worrying about.” Huening Kai called from in front of the two of them, eyes widening in fear. “What?!” The two snapped in unison, their faces pinched in the same annoyed expression.

“In case you haven’t noticed, the tent’s kinda on fire. Come on, we have to go!”

“Then wouldn’t the rain just put it ou––”

“For f*ck’s sake, unless you guys want your sorry asses to be seared into five well-done idiot steaks, f*cking move!” One of your bad habits was excessive swearing when you were stressed, and it was starting to really f*cking show. Running back into the tent, you grabbed the two boys by their forearms and booked them out of there.

Without another argument, the six of you bolted for the exit as the tent began to fold in on itself, threatening to trap you in a wall of fire. It was hard to see straight through all the smoke and heat. You felt yourself slowly letting go of the boys’ arms you were holding just a few seconds ago. You were melting. Your body, your mind, who you were, the line between reality and fantasy, logic and reason; all of it melted into one fat pile of goop.

And then all of a sudden, like you were pulled out from deep waters, you could breathe again. You’d made it to the exit, and you were safe now. Looking up, you took a moment to soak in the rain, which washed over you like a cold shower. There was something about running for your life in the rain that made it all the more exciting.

Nature’s teardrops fell onto your skin, flowing down from your large eyes to your chapped lips, from your hairy arms to your mosquito-bite ridden legs. It felt nice to just stand in the cold. Somehow, through the flame and the weight of the new responsibility you now carried, you felt happy. So happy, in fact, that you flashed a smile at the guys behind you as you took a break from running, holding the blue contraption against your stomach.

But that smile quickly faded as you heard a hard thud behind you, followed by a sharp yelp.

“Ah… my ankle…” One of the boys was on the ground, arms hugging his left leg. Face pinched in pain, he attempted to get to his feet, but winced when he put his weight on his left side. He was the one that helped you find your econ class. The rest of the boys ran back to his side to see if he was okay, and you were right behind them.

“Beomgyu! Can you walk?” Massaging his ankle, the boy on the ground just shook his head. “I think it’s sprained.” “Here, get on my back. I’ll carry you.” Yeonjun kneeled in front of him, beckoning him to crawl onto his back, but after a moment’s thought, turned to face him and held his hands out as if he were proposing.

“...What? I can get up on my own—”

“I love ya. Will ya marry me?” “What the h–” “I’ll take that as a yes.”

Without a warning, he scooped the injured boy off his feet and carried him bridal style. Beomgyu opened his mouth to protest, but the other boy simply smiled wryly.

“What’s the matter, wifey? You want a kiss?” The threat of Yeonjun’s puckered lips was enough to shock him into submission. “Guys, what are we gonna do?” The question running through everyone’s minds was now in the air, and nobody had an answer for it. Silence descended upon the group; you were all waiting for someone to tell you where to go next, but each of you was as clueless as the person next to you.

“How long are you planning to stand around in the rain?” You spoke in the most classic Wyann voice you could muster: self-assured, blunt, somewhat irritated, and on top of the situation. The exact opposite of how you felt at the moment.

“Yeah, let’s just hurry and get out of here. I could use a bite to eat.” The other four clamored in agreement, and the group came to the consensus that they would figure things out over dinner. After a quick search on Google Maps, they set out for a small diner just a block away.

It was as if your feet were planted deep into the earth. You could only watch their backs as they walked down the street past the bus stop, as they walked away from the troubles of today, far beyond your reach. The frightened screams of the carnival-goers were drowned out by the sound of the sirens, but more so by the overwhelming silence that grew louder and louder in your head. But the strangest feeling was your heart sinking, as if it were washing down to your feet like rainwater through a waterpipe. Then, one of the silhouettes stopped and turned, then started towards you.

“Wyann. Aren’t you coming?” Bread Boy extended his hand for the second time that day, but this time, you took it. He wore an expression of surprise on his face, as if he expected you to not take it, which he quickly hid as you pulled him along. It was at that moment that maybe you’d decided he was not that terrible of a person.

The bunch of you walked down the road, a little too calmly for a group of kids who’d just escaped a fairground set ablaze. Little did you know, in the moment you slipped your hand into his, you had forsaken the world. Luckily, the world was a much uglier place than you had thought.

––––

It was a feeling he hadn’t felt in a very long time. Tae held the small object closer to his chest and his fingers curled around the matted tufts of its felt.

The plushie was caked in mud, battered by the rain and the dirt. It lay right by the side of the tent, and the fire would have caught it had he not scooped it up. It usually wasn’t his thing to pick up random objects off the ground, especially not chewed up kids’ toys (he wasn’t about to be the protagonist of some horror film), but something about it drew him to it. Probably his spidey senses acting up again. Not thinking much of it, he stuffed it into his pocket and ran.

Taehyun sprinted through the hellish landscape to catch up with his friends, racing against time as each tent fell after the last like dominoes. The voices were back again, the same ones that he thought had gone away ten years ago. But now, they were back, louder than ever. And they taunted,

Ring around the rosy

A pocketful of posies

Ashes, ashes

We all fall down!

The nursery rhyme continued on and on until its harmony subsided into dissonance. All the while, ashes rained down from the sky like snow until the ground was enveloped in a grey blanket.