Spawn ✦ Nomin

05

Jaemin sits on the loveseat with wide, vacant eyes staring blankly at the flame of a candle on the floor on the other side of the room.

He knew what he saw. The blood was real.

Right?

But it didn't make sense why the blood would be there one minute, then gone the next. Perhaps Jeno was right. Maybe his brain was playing tricks on him. The house was a little hot, now that he thinks about it. Maybe he was getting a sort of heat stroke.

Light thumping sounds come down the staircase. It didn't quite sound like footsteps, but Jaemin wasn't sure what else it could be. Curious as to what could possibly be making that sort of noise, he stands up from the loveseat and ventures into the hallway to find out what it is.

But he instantly wishes he hadn't.

Upon setting foot in the narrow space, Jaemin spots Jeno. But he wasn't normal. His body is bent over backwards as he descends down the last few stairs. He reaches the bottom floor and twists his body around so he's now on all fours. He crawls towards Jaemin, but his movements are inhuman. His elbows are bent so that he's closer to the ground, and the way he moves is spasmodic.

"Oh fuck," Jaemin squeaks.

At that moment, Jeno starts charging in Jaemin's direction. Jaemin lets out a shriek of terror and rushes back into the living room. Jeno follows, and Jaemin determines he needs to manage to get around him and escape out of the front door.

Jeno crawls around the loveseat from the right side. Jaemin goes left books it. He runs into the hallway, but after taking merely a step in the direction of the front door, Jeno leaps out into his pathway. Jaemin screams at the top of his lungs and takes off in the opposite direction:

towards the staircase.

He ascends them with moderate difficulty. He grips onto the railings on either side of the small space, but it doesn't take away the fact he nearly misses several steps as he goes up them. His panic only rises at the sound of Jeno clawing his way up the stairs just behind him. The scratching of his nails against the wooden boards strikes intense fear through his being. It only further convinces Jaemin that Jeno was not human, or–at least–he was not acting like it.

Jaemin has no time to think as he reaches the top of the staircase. He thrashes open the first door on his left, deciding he needed to either dodge Jeno once more or shut himself inside to keep safe. He scurries inside without so much as a second thought.

But this turns out to be a grave mistake.

The room he enters into doesn't have any sort of furniture whatsoever. It was clear that the provision of comfort wasn't part of the intended purpose of the room. The wood floorboards have a pentagram drawn in the centre of the room with some type of white paint. Red candles are placed at each point of the star in the circle. Inside the pentagram is a mountain of dismembered body parts ranging from toes to full legs to a pair of eyeballs. There was just about everything you could think of, minus heads. God knows what happened to those.

Jaemin screeches at the horror he witnesses before him. He turns to take off in a run to leave the gruesome scene, but Jeno stands tall in the doorway staring unblinkingly back at him.

Jaemin backs away from him, tears pricking his eyes as his breathing becomes wildly irregular.

"Ple-ease," Jaemin says with a choked sob. He goes to take another step back, but his foot slips out from underneath him. He slides and slams his back onto the hard floor. He feels the clothes on his back saturate with a warm liquid. He didn't have to check to know what it was. He had landed in a small puddle of blood which had leaked from the pile of body parts just a few feet away.

Jeno seizes the opportunity and takes a step closer to Jaemin. His head twitches to the side as he continues to take sluggish steps in his direction.

Felling trapped and helpless, Jaemin begins to wail. Tears flood from his eyes like faucets that can't be shut off. He was going to die.

"Pl-lease, d-don-n't k-kill m-e," Jaemin begs through his cries.

Jeno stops just in front of Jaemin. He crouches down to get closer to him. Jaemin is sure he's as good as dead. And then,

Jeno starts to cackle.