The beach house

33

The night of the carnival...

"I did everything you said, now what? You said if I did it, everyone would be left alone! You promised." Recoiling at the sound of his sinister laugh.
"You see my pet, everything has its place in our plans, every person plays an important role. I will get what's mine and if I have to have a little collateral in the mean time then so be it." The pain felt as her arms are pulled behind her is bad but not as bad as the pain in her heart.

"No, no, please. I did everything right." She is dragged into a warehouse. She knew the risk, she knew she should have called the police, told Johnny, something. But it was always in her head that she could end this. She could be the one to save the day. She never knew it would get so fucked up, so quickly. She is thrown into a chair and quickly tied to it. After she wears herself out thrashing the crazed man speaks.

"So tell me what it was like?" He asks with sick enthusiasm. She frowns.
"What, what was like?" He laughs manically.
"Breaking your lover? Your husband to be? Your soulmate? What did it feel like to break him?" He stares with too much interest.
"Fuck you." She says before earning a slap to the face. He gets uncomfortably close, spitting in her face as he talks.
"Tell me what it was like." She nods.
"Ok, ok. He uh." She goes back and relives the moment and replays it numbly.
"It was the worst moment of my life. Are you happy?" She asks as he smiles through her story.
"Not quite. I will be soon though. It won't be long before everything falls into place."

There is a loud bang as one of the outer doors opens and closes. She sees a man, seemingly identical to the one who is holding her hostage.
"Wait? Who is that?" She is slapped again.
"Only I get to ask questions." The man says, before answering her anyway.
This is my brother. He was out treasure hunting and found something I see.
"You sick fucks." She blacks out after another blow to the head.

Present day, day 4....

"Jaemin? What is that?" Renjun asks as they watch a police boat pulling what looks to be a body onto the bow. It's too far out to really tell but Renjun is gutted.
"Oh my god, no, please no." He whispers over and over.
"Come on baby let's go inside. You don't want to see that. If it's him, they will tell us." Renjun shakes his head no, an endless stream of tears rolling down his face.
"I need to know, I will wait right here." He says stubbornly.
"Hey guys, I brought you coffee." Taeyong says softly.
"What's wrong? Why do you look like that?" He asks as he looks out trying to see.
"They just pulled something onto the boat. It looks like a b-bo..." Taeyong drops to his knees and grabs Renjun.
"No baby, it's not him. Ok? It can't be him." He says through tears of his own.

When the boat gets close to the pier Renjun runs toward it. He watches as they hook the boat to the anchoring post and runs down the ramp onto the boat.
"You can't be on here." He shakes his head.
"I need to see it, please?" He begs.
"Look, it's been at sea for days now, this body is bloated and sun scorched. Even if it is him you wont be able to recognize him." He looks the man square in the face.
"Try me." The man shrugs and walks over where it lays covered.
"Fine but just to warn you, it is not pretty and it smells terrible." Renjun tilts his head and purses his lips in anger.
"Fine, fine, ok. Here goes." He slowly pulls the tarp back and Renjun gets close, practically touching it. He needs to know.

He breaks out into a terrible sob as he looks at each mark, and feature that he can see. He knows Jeno's face, his body, like the back of his hand.
The face is so swelled and the clothes are so tattered and ripped from the rocks and the body becoming twice it's normal size that they are unrecognizable too. His body is racked with sobs as he walks down the pier to the waiting arms of Jaemin and Taeyong.

Johnny wakes and feels around for Yuta. He assumes he must be making breakfast or in the bathroom and falls into a light sleep again.
He wakes with a start ten minutes later. Something doesn't feel right. He walks out of their room and sees Mark sitting on the couch.
"Hey, have you seen Haechan? Renjun is looking at a body. They pulled it out of the water. I can't bear to see it. I don't want to know. I thought I could hang out with him as a distraction but it doesn't look like he even slept in his bed." Johnny frowns and goes to look.
"How well do you know this person and is Yuta over there?" He asks with a deep frown.
"I don't know, I met him a few days ago, we slept together but other than that and a little conversation, I don't know him that well. I haven't seen Yuta since last night.

"Is it possible that he is the one?" Johnny asks as Taeil walks out of his room.
"Who is the one?" He asks.
"Haechan? How Well do you know him and would he possibly have a reason to stalk Yuta?" He asks with the utmost seriousness. Taeil smiles softly.
"He has no reason to. They are close enough, besides he wouldn't hurt a fly. Why do you ask this?"

"Him and Yuta are gone. Where would they have gone?" He asks. Taeil raises his brow.
"Did you ever stop to think about calling him?" Johnny runs to his room to grab his phone having forgotten that technology even existed for a moment. Of course his phone is off but lucky for Johnny, he put a tracker on it.

"I'm going to them. They could be in danger." He says going to get his jeans on and grab his gun.
Taeil and Mark both stand.
"Me too." They say at the same time. Johnny goes to shake his head no and argue it but Taeil shuts him down.
"Haechan is a very good, albeit younger friend of mine. I will always try to help protect him. And Yuta is precious to me and right now, I don't have anything left anyway so I am going." He finally agrees then looks at Mark.
"You need to stay here. Your cousin needs you and your friends need all the support you can give. We will check and bring him home."
Finally Mark agrees and goes back down the beach a ways to face the horrid possibility that his cousin has been found. His mind swirling with where Haechan is and if he's safe. It's safer to think of that then it is to think of the other looming horrors.
He looks up to see Renjun sobbing in the arms of his friends and drops to sit in the sand where he stands. His heart breaking further, his mind going down a spiral as he cries his heart out. It can't be...