FEAR | stray kids

VI - never coming home

Jisung had decided that being a floaty, semi-corporeal soul was not fun.

He had to look at his own body that looked very very dead, as well as seeing his long lost group members, which overall brought up too many emotions to deal with in that moment. So, he did what he always did and firmly repressed them in favour of doing something else.

"Soul manipulation?" Chan questioned.

"Yeah, it's a sort of plan B for if the others don't get here." Jisung explained, just as one of the warehouse windows swung open. "Speaking of..."

The three of them watched in exasperation as Minho jumped down, yelling in pain as he landed on his feet. His eyes passed over them as he looked around, as if they weren't even there. Jisung felt his heart sink, not sure that he could get used to that.

"I don't know if you guys are here right now. If you are, we gotta work together on this. Could you... like tap on the floor or something? To let me know you're here."

Jisung was about to step forward to try and give some sort of signal, only to find his body held back by an invisible barrier.

"What the..." He muttered, glancing at Chan and Hyunjin.

"We haven't been able to move since we were brought back here." Hyunjin said, biting his lip. "I don't know if your 'soul manipulation' could help with that?"

"Uhh..." Jisung grimaced. "I'm gonna be honest, I skim read most of it and don't have a clue what I'm doing. I do have a theory. But we need to be able to move..."

It wasn't like being paralysed. Within a very small area, he could move. It was more like being surrounded by invisible walls.

Slowly, he reached his hands up, searching for a wall above his head. But there wasn't anything there, his hands were not stopped by any kind of force.

"Okay, there is no ceiling to the prison cube." He announced. "So how do I operate this thing?" He gestured to his own ghostly form.

"What, like floating upwards?" Chan asked, catching onto what Jisung was saying.

"Exactly. Can we do that?"

"I've floated forwards, but it's only a few centimetres off the ground. I'm not sure about going higher, but I can try." Chan's feet left the ground, and his face screwed up in concentration.

For a brief moment Jisung tried to do the same, but his feet remained firmly on the ground. "Okay. Weirdly, it makes sense that I can't. One of the articles said that before souls move on, they have certain abilities. I guess it must be different depending on the person, though."

Chan nodded, not hovering any higher than before. "That's right. I can float, and make lights flicker. I also wrote on the mirror, but that's the most I could do when touching things. Hyunjin was the one who moved the mug back at the dorm, so he can actually touch things properly."

"It was really difficult, though." Hyunjin said.

"Try pushing against your walls." Jisung said. "I know they're weird and invisible, but you might be able to move them."

"What about you?"

"I guess I've gotta unlock my ghostly superpower, somehow."

-

Minho's phone lit up again. This time, it was their manager calling him.

He picked up. "Hello?"

"Why are none of you at your dorm?"

"Ah... That's..."

"Where are you? I don't want you to be alarmed by this, but the detective needs to ask you some questions."