Treasures of The Damned

6. The Blank

Briar watched her father go with a slightly surprised look on her face. Was the animatronic, who was supposed to be hunting her, somehow recognize her?

"No-...that's not possible. That isn't my dad. This isn't real." She muttered to herself, slowly standing up and looking around.

She remembered quickly what Hongjoong had told her, so she turned tail and ran. She knew she couldn't leave the gates of the theme park, but if she could find somewhere to hide for the rest of the night she would be golden. Right?

She had a strange feeling that they wouldn't go into each other's main buildings, and she'd distracted Wooyoung, so she ran to his room.

Looking around, she slowly closed her eyes as she thought to herself. Hongjoong said that it was 11 pm...I don't know when the park will reopen...

Her head snapped up when she heard footsteps, and the door slowly opened then closed, and her breath caught in her throat.

She shifts, looking around. She was hiding in the outfit room of Wooyoung's building, and a small little noise escaped her when she heard the excited voice of someone searching..but not for her.

"Wooyoungie! Where are you?" A bright and happy San's voice filled the entire building, and he skipped around the building, looking around for his best friend.

Soon, Briar could hear his footsteps getting closer and closer to the outfit room, when the door slammed open once more, before closing much quietly. "Sannie?"

Just barely peeking out from where she was hidden, she could see San in the door to the room she was hiding, and he was joined by a pouting Wooyoung, who was holding onto his hand with a pout.

A small bit of the wires under his skin was exposed, but he hadn't lost any motion in the hand.

San glanced over at him before walking over and taking Wooyoung's hand in his. "The human girl did this to you?" he questioned softly, gently cradling Wooyoung's hand when he got the nod of affirmation.

"I hope I'm the one who finds her. I'm going to hurt you the same way she did to you." He snarled softly, his eyes flashing red.

"We've also got to be careful, Sannie. I was reading through the tickets of everyone who came to the theme park today."

"And? What about it?"

"The young girl we're dealing with? It's Mingi's daughter. Briar."

"She should be dead by now. Or much much older." San's voice hummed after a pause.

"But she's not. Remember? She has that chip of some sort in her brain. One of the 'side-effects' of it was that she ages super slow. That's why she looks like she's 18."

There was a pause from both boys, before a gentle sound could be heard, something wanting to cry.

"I hate this, Sannie. We shouldn't be alive. Our bodies died years ago. Why can't our souls?"

"Because, our purpose wasn't over, Youngie...we were all tragically killed...we weren't ready to die."

Their talking was cut short when someone else opened the door to the building, stepping over to them. "San. Wooyoung. Come on, Briar is still loose in the theme park and we need to find her." Hongjoong hummed softly to the both of them, his red eyes glowing in the dim light of the hallway.

"Why do we even need to find her? Can't we let her survive?" Wooyoung huffed softly.

"No, Wooyoung." Hongjoong hissed sharply. "We need to kill her. She knows too much." His voice carried a snarl, as he looked over at the couple. "Plus, remember? We need to take over her body and get out of here. Just because the human souls of Ateez want to stay here and perform for the rest of eternity doesn't mean we have to be stuck with them."

"It's annoying, quite frankly." San hummed softly. "Our purpose is to cause chaos and to find the chrome. And since the human versions of ourselves refuse to tell us where they hid it..."

"Our only option is to go out ourselves and find it." Wooyoung finished the thought process and nodded. "Alright, alright. Let's go and find her. I doubt she's hiding in one of the member buildings." He said simply, walking around Hongjoong and San to leave the room.

A bit more talking between San and Hongjoong, which Briar couldn't understand, happened before they both left the building as well and she was left alone once more.

Finally, she was able to relax and slowly leaned back into the clothes behind her, not saying anything. She took a few deep breaths, knowing she was alone.

That is until she felt a hand quickly cover her mouth and nose, stopping her from making any noise, and the other hand of the animatronic behind her wrapped around her waist, pulling her harshly into a back room hidden behind the pounds of fabric.

"Shush." The voice warned her harshly, and the last thing she was before she was dragged into the darkness was the blank-looking eyes of one of the security bots as it surveyed the room once before leaving to check out the other rooms.

When she was finally let go, she looked around with wide eyes, tugging her phone from her jacket pocket and the flashlight shone on the room. It was fairly small, a storage room, and full of things for the Wooyoung building.

As she searched the tiny room with her flashlight, her light caught a black and white suit that didn't fit with everything else, and she soon found herself face to face with the Yeosang animatronic, who smirked softly and tilted his head.

His glowing red eyes seemed to bore deep into her soul, despite looking blank and lifeless. "Look at you." his voice box seemed to glitch every once in a while. "So helpless. So scared...just a disaster waiting to happen."

His voice was taunting and he seemed to be eyeing her like she was his next meal.

"And now you get to be all mine~" And with those final words, the well-dressed animatronic launched at her.