Don't Come Inside • Jungkook

xvi.

"This is the building?" Yoongi asked, scanning the building left to right, top to bottom. Three stories, but the second and third floor were being leased for commercial use, according to a directory out front. The bottom floor was dedicated to apartments, five per side for a total of ten.

"It looked like Jimin was being kept in a basement," Namjoon said, turning to the others, "which makes sense if the apartments are on the ground floor."

"Ten apartments though," Jin said, biting at his lip. "How do we know which one?" He turned to look at Hoseok, pointing at his phone. "Can you get any more specific about his location?"

Hoseok shook his head, staring down at the screen. "His location sharing is still on for both my phone and Jungkook's, but it only tells us the building, not the room."

"Mailboxes," Taehyung spoke up, gesturing to the front doors leading into the lobby. "Let's check the mailboxes. Sometimes they put the name on them instead of just a number."

"Good idea," Namjoon said, clapping a hand on Taehyung's shoulder before moving to the front door and stepping inside, the others following him one by one.

"Hey, that's weird," Yoongi said, squinting at his screen and frowning. "I can see Jimin's location on my phone too. But he doesn't usually turn the setting on for me."

"Maybe he did it when he was in the car," Jin said, checking his phone to find that Jimin was also sharing his location with him. "I wish we would have checked sooner," he whispered, thinking of the sounds from the video. He hadn't watched it; he'd been too afraid to.

They were all silent for a moment before Namjoon nodded as if to agree and conclude the thought. Then he glanced over the mailboxes.

"Blank strips," Taehyung said.

"Vacancies," Namjoon explained. "All the rooms are empty. He could be in any one of them." He thought for a moment before nodding and clasping his hands. "All right, left's start on the left side of the hallway. We'll each take one room. Shout if you see or hear anything, okay?"

They all nodded before leaning in and draping their arms over the shoulders of the people beside them, bowing their heads in until their foreheads touched just like they did before they went on stage.

Then Namjoon patted Yoongi's back and they broke apart, each taking a separate room.

***

Namjoon knocked on the first door out of an ingrained sense of politeness before testing the knob to find it unlocked. Sighing in relief that he didn't have to bust down a door, he pushed it open cautiously, waiting for the door to swing fully before stepping inside and shutting the door behind him, first peeking back into the corridor to ensure that no one (save his friends) had seen him enter.

He looked around the bare-bones apartment, finding himself in an empty kitchen. The appliances were in all right condition but were outdated, and when he flicked the light switch, the lights shuddered before coming on with a fluorescent hum.

Walking deeper into the apartment, he found two doors, one to his right, one to his left, both shut. He tried the one on the left first, opening it gently, trying to keep the hinges quiet. A bathroom. Clean with the exception of a thin layer of dust lining the tub. He exited the bathroom, shutting the door behind him once more and turning to the door that had been on his right and was now directly ahead of him.

He opened it and was met with darkness. He slid his hand to the left, bypassing the frame and gliding his fingertips over the wall until they were met with a plastic switch. He flicked it up to find himself in a bedroom. A thin, sagging mattress held up by a rusty metal frame. No windows in the room. No other furniture.

But. A third door, set in the wall farthest the bedroom door.

Namjoon advanced towards it warily, trying to keep his steps light. If he was currently treading just above the basement, he didn't want to give himself away, although he'd likely already done so. He reached for the knob, hesitating for a moment before twisting it ever so slightly, pulling the door frame an inch at a time in the effort of preserving silence.

A closet. Just a closet.

He sighed, shutting the door and turning back.

***

Jin, Yoongi, and Taehyung had much the same result as Namjoon. The rooms were set up in identical layouts and, as with Namjoon, they found nothing in the apartments but dust and disuse. When they went to leave the apartments, though, they encountered a small problem in that the doors wouldn't open.

They were locked from the outside.

***

Hoseok had chosen the room on the end, figuring the ones in the middle wouldn't have basement access. As Namjoon had taken the leftmost room, Hoseok was left with the rightmost. Like the others, he found himself in a kitchen, only this one had days-old dishes piling up in the sink and stains on the counter that had solidified and become part of the kitchen itself. It appeared to be lived-in but recently forgotten.

Hoseok proceeded with caution into the rest of the apartment. Two doors, one left, one right. Both were shut, waiting to be explored, looming in front of him, taunting him.

He chose the one on the right.

A bedroom, he could tell from the faint light trickling into the dark room from the kitchen beyond. The walls glistened, reflecting light off shiny surfaces. Photographs, probably, and hundreds of them. He had a pretty good idea of what he'd see if he flicked the light on, so he left it off.

He spotted a door in the back corner. A closet, probably, but he would check it out anyway.

He tightened his grip on the doorknob and pulled at the door, finding it surprisingly heavy, likely reinforced. He tugged at the knob with both hands and opened the door to reveal steps descending into darkness.

A basement.

Hoseok tried to show neither fear nor excitement as he moved towards the first step, feeling about with his foot as he descended level by level. He heard the door swing shut softly behind him.

Eventually, there were no more steps downward.

Fumbling about and finding no light switch on the wall, he pulled his phone out of his pocket, brightening the screen and holding it up to find himself in what was essentially a concrete box. The room was rectangular, only slightly deeper than it was wide, and in the middle was a chair, and in the chair was a boy.

"Jimin," Hoseok uttered, taking quick, careless steps over to him, crouching down on one knee and sliding his palm up to Jimin's cheek.

Jimin's eyes fluttered open, at first dilating as a result of both fear and the light source. Once he recognized Hoseok, he squeezed his eyes shut. Even so, tears leaked past at a steady rate.

"Hoseok," he whispered, shoulders curling inward as he cried harder, eyes still shut.

"What's that?" Hoseok asked playfully, but his eyes took in the blood on Jimin's scalp and arm, the bandage on his leg, the wandering bruises and the shallow cuts against his neck, all made crueler by the harsh light of his phone. 

"Hyung," Jimin corrected, leaning his head down to rest his forehead on Hoseok's shoulder.

"Attaboy," Hoseok said, slipping his hand from Jimin's cheek to circle around his back, hugging him but not too tightly. He pulled back after a moment, thumbs collecting Jimin's tears before setting both palms against Jimin's cheeks and holding his delicate face in his hands. "Hyung's here, okay? So-"

Hoseok didn't see the bat coming.

how are y'all liking it so far? is the horror everything you expected and more?