Howling // A Halloween Story [Stray Kids]

Howling - A Halloween Story

Bells. I could hear them ringing. Strangely unknown, but I knew what they meant. I dropped everything and left my hut. As I stepped onto the muddy ground, the familiar sight of our little village, which now had no more than nine inhabited houses, came in sight.

Bells. There they were again. I quickened my steps and reached the yard in the middle of the village. Everyone was already gathered at our fountain and our village chief, who only held this office because of formalities, was ringing the bell. As he saw me, he stopped and stepped to the others. It seemed as if no one besides Chan himself knew what could be so urgent to call a meeting. We all curiously looked at him, before he took a deep breath and began to speak:

"JYP is dead."

Immediately everyone started to talk at once so that you couldn't hear anything. "Can we see him one more time?", Jisung, who had grabbed my hand, asked. I looked at Chan questioningly, because I wanted to see our village eldest too to say farewell. He had witnessed all our births and with the time he became like a father for us all. But Chan didn't answer instantly. Instead he swallowed and looked at the floor. "I... I wouldn't do that, if I was you" "Why? What happened?", Hyunjin asked and voiced probably not only my thoughts.

"We thought they wouldn't come this year", Chan started, "I guess we were wrong..." "We?", asked Seungmin. "JYP and I" "Of course the old ones discuss things without telling us ..."
Although everyone was shocked because of the news it was like him to annoy our mayor, how we called Chan jokingly, with his age, even though he was only a few years older than the rest of us.

"Anyway", began Chan again, "They are back. Every fifty years, in October, they wake up and look for new victims. JYP told me about them, but because the month drew to a close without any incidents, we thought they wouldn't come this year" "Drew to a close?! Today it's the 26th! We still have five days! And you want to tell me that until then, we all could be killed?!" Felix had big problems to hold Changbin back, who was yelling and trying to get to Chan.

"What are you even talking about?", Jeongin spoke up. Why didn't this question already come to my mind? Immediately everyone was silent and looked at Chan expectantly.

"Werewolves. They killed JYP"

No one said anything.

Everyone was just waiting for the others to say something first. "Ha... ha... Do you think that's funny? Couldn't you think of something better?", Hyunjin nagged. "You think I am joking? You think I would joke with JYP's death? Do you want to see his shredded body?", Chan's voice got louder with every sentence. "As I said before, I hope, none of you have to endure this sight!" "Maybe is was just a coincidence. Jisung and I heard a wolf pack a few days ago", Felix said, as he was clinging to Changbin's arm. "Say, Felix, since when are wolves able to open a door?" Defeated, he lowered his head.

"As soon as the sun goes down, stay in you houses. Try to secure your windows and doors. And stay alone, the risk of getting killed rises with every additional person" With these words, Chan turned and made his way to his house. "Can't we do anything?!", Jisung called and I noticed that he had begun to tremble. "No", was the answer, before Chan definite disappeared from our view.

Slowly our little group parted and everyone made sure to secure their houses.

。。。

The next morning the bells rang early.

As everyone gathered, confusion spread. "We're alive", Jeongin realised. "Right. If no one's dead, does that mean that the werewolves perhaps left our village?" You could hear the doubt in Hyunjin's voice. "We shouldn't celebrate too early. I don't know why they didn't attack this night, but they will try again. So stay safe everyone" Then Chan ended the gathering.