Hello, Neighbor

Chapter Fifteen.

Jisung stands outside of Chris's house, staring at the door.

After days of no response from Jeongin, he had tracked his phone and traced it to the dreadful house across the street.

It just doesn't make sense at all.

If he was solely staying with the man, why couldn't he respond?

The brunette braces himself before He walks forward, advancing up the stairs and raising his hand, knocking on the door. "Jeongin!" He calls with each noise, "Jeongin, are you here?"

He doesn't gain a reply or even a slight noise from inside of the house.

It is dangerously silent.

And the silence only makes the brunette more desperate.

Jisung looks behind him, gulping. Chris's car is here, and Jeongin's is across the street next to the curb. They have to be here.

When turning back toward the door, He catches a glimpse of a metal gate on the side of the house, tilting his head. He ponders toward it, lifting the latch and opening it, listening to it creak.

The gate leads to the back yard, rows of flowers displaying before his eyes.

They were all dying; the roses have turned black and brittle, and they fade away, blowing in the breeze.

He walks forward slowly, digging his phone out of his pocket, staring down at it. He dials Jeongin's number, monitoring its ringing until it falls flat just as it had hundreds of times before.

Still looking down at his phone, he marches forward, the sun shining on his features, blinding him. He abruptly trips, landing on his knees, his phone falling out of his hands.

"What the..." He rubs the mud off of his knees and furrows his eyebrows, gazing back.

A shoe lies on the ground.

And Jisung had tripped on it.

He bends down and picks it up, examining it, suddenly covering his lips. He knows this shoe. They are Jeongin's favorite, and he had a pair in the same size as this.

"Jeongin..." The brunette breathes, his heart plummeting, "What happened to you?" He asks rhetorically. He lifts his phone and takes a picture of it, holding the shoe to his chest, biting on the flesh of his bottom lip.

He keeps his phone out, creeping forward, examining the ground for more evidence. There are gray ashes sprayed over the bare soil, forming small piles.

Looking further, Jisung doesn't see a firepit. He must have a furnace on the inside.

Finally, he ends his voyage, reaching the end of the house. He stands beside a dead rose bush, kneeling, stretching his hand to grab onto a grey object between the stems.

As soon as Jisung grabs onto it, He drops it, gasping.

A skull.

He had been holding the fractured skull of some creature.

The anatomy is far too off for it to be human, though it still shakes Jisung to the core.

He stands straight up, turning around slowly, meeting a sight He would never have expected.

Chris and Jeongin were on show infront of him from inside, kissing on the counter.

Never in his life has he seen his best friend like this, though the things that upset him the most are the ribs poking out from under his skin and his pale complexion.