☆ ᴏɴᴇ sʜᴏᴛs ☆

܀ ɪᴛ ᴡᴀs ɴᴏᴛ ᴛʜᴇ ʜᴏᴜsᴇ ܀

It was not the house they should have been afraid of. In truth, abandoned estates were all the same. Creaky floors, dusty furniture, broken window panes. Perhaps a ghost or two, if you were gifted with clairvoyance, or in need of content for your urbex channel.

The punks presently standing in the neglected courtyard were, however, none of those things.

They were simply here for the midnight show.

Something yelped in the darkness. Though whether it came from the house or elsewhere, none could tell. The night was so thick one could barely take a step without faltering, let alone see where one's foot had landed.

"Yeontan-ah!" cried a boy, eyes tearing up at the thought of his dog waiting for him in the murk.

"Told you it was in there. Now go get it, before it drops dead!"

They pushed him roughly and he stumbled forward. It had rained during the day and his sneakers squelched, leaving footprints in the mud as he staggered toward the rotten porch.

"Let me go with him." The request was barely heard, drowned by their rowdy laughter.

"Shut up and stay put, Jeon. No one's going in there but the poof who claims to be a man. Let him show us he's got what it takes to be even called that."

Concealing their own nervousness behind boisterous hooting, none of them caught the boy's angry whispers. He would show them, indeed.

Only when the front door screeched did they notice his disappearance.

Kim Taehyung had never pretended to be anyone else but himself, which had not been an easy thing to do in the first place. Teens just wanted to fit in. At any cost. Yet Taehyung had not deemed the world worthy of his efforts to conform to its socially acceptable norms and rigid morals. It was ugly enough as it was. Why bother piling on pretence?

Despite his hope to remain unnoticed, the bullies had, for lack of — well — many things, targeted him, relishing the torment they'd put him through, day in and day out.

Taking it out on his dog was not, however, something Taehyung had seen coming. Nor was he ever going to forgive them.

Yeontan had been missing since yesterday. Had they even bothered to feed him? The mere thought of his fluffy companion having to pay the price of his resistance to sheep mentality and his unapologetic love of pretty clothes brought tears to his eyes. Perhaps he should have tried to assimilate. Dropped the tinted lip balms, the silky scarves, and the long silver earrings the bullies had almost ripped off last week.

A colony of bats fluttered in the shadows. Taehyung reckoned this was not the time for reminiscent regrets. Wiping the moisture from his face, he began his exploration of the derelict mansion, using his phone as torchlight. As he took in the gloomy surroundings, a thought suddenly had him halt his steps. These guys outside were nowhere near brave enough to enter such a place, much less find a cache to hide his dog in.

Another faint yap confirmed his suspicions. Striding through the lifeless hallway, Taehyung soon located the back door, which led him into a wilderness that once upon a time must have been a garden.

"Tan-ah!" he called.

The dog yelped louder this time. Taehyung jumped into the tall grass in search of his pet who, from the sound of his barking, could not be far. Above him, grey clouds stretched thin, barely hiding the moon's spectral shine.

Two glowing orbs soon caught his eye. "Tannie-ya!"

The cheerful reunion lasted long enough for Taehyung to notice that his dog had been attached to a wrought-iron grid covering the gaping mouth of an ancient stone well.

On the street side of the house, the crowd of thugs was growing anxious. The boy had been gone for a good half-hour now, and the ruins had remained eerily quiet.

The skies had begun to clear when Jeon Jungkook decided he was done waiting. "We have to go check up on him."

"Didn't I tell you to leave it be? It's just an old house. If he can't take a few squeaky floor boards, then he doesn't deser-." A roaring howl swallowed their words, muffled their ears, and clenched their beating hearts with its harrowing fist.

"What was that?" someone finally asked.

The moon had fully arisen by now, and all could make out the ragged home barely standing in front of them. Strutting down its mouldy staircase, a beast that looked nothing liked the pup they had abducted. Its eyes, fur, and teeth glowed white, reflecting the selenic shine dripping from above.

It growled.

They ran for dear life as the wolf hunted them down, one by one. Until there was but one left.

Holding a shaken puppy in his arms, Jungkook stood by the well, watching it slowly coming for him, mesmerized by its lustrous mane.

Indeed. It was not the house they should have been afraid of.

"It was the well, wasn't it?" he asked the growling canine. He had heard tales of such magic waters which had the power to reveal one's true nature under the light of a full moon. In fact, that was precisely why he had suggested this particular location.

The beast gnarled, showing its fangs, darkened with blood.

Jungkook felt so foolish for believing in the promised 'fun and spooky treasure hunt'. In his arms, Yeontan quivered. "I'm so sorry. None of this was supposed to happen."

High above them, the dense clouds returned, hiding the night's luminous orb. The wolf whined quietly before collapsing onto the ground, inert.

Only then did Jungkook dare approach it, running his fingers through its shiny fur. "Your true colours are beautiful, Kim Taehyung. Always have been."

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Another short au written for the Flash Fiction competition hosted by Authors Unite last month. It did not win this time because there were more deserving fics which I urge you to check out! (Book to be published shortly.)

The prompt was as follow:

- footprints in the mud

- reminiscent regret

- broken window panes