The Raven Hotel | Jikook |

Chapter 14: A Quick Run

Jungkook waited a while before he made his way out of the hotel room. The moment he sat over the bed, expecting Jimin to be out of the hallway, he distinguished all his fears and once again, allowed his curiosity to take him further. At this point, he couldn't imagine Jimin punishing him terribly for leaving the hotel room after all the kind things he's done for him. Jungkook believed Jimin was just bluffing just so he would make sure the boy wouldn't escape. But of course, Jungkook dared to take a step further.

Quickly, Jungkook sprinted down the hallway of the sixth floor. Cautiously looking around and hugging himself due to how cold the dimmed floor became. Only now, the flickering lights didn't seem to give out much light now. Within seconds, all lights of the hallway went out and he was left to venture through the dark. Trying to grasp a sense of where things were before.

"Could this be one of the signs? Jimin must have kept this hallway dark and cold just to make sure I wouldn't escape..." Jungkook thought and extended his hands out to finally reach the elevator. "It's isolated up here... he knows exactly how to keep someone held captive to the point where it makes me wonder if there were people before me in the same position..."

Jungkook whispered to himself just to drain out the eerie silence as he tapped onto the button on the elevator to travel down. Just as he stood there in the dark, waiting for the elevator doors to open, the hairs on his neck suddenly began to rise. His heart pounded and the sense of something staring at him creeped up from behind him. Jungkook let out a sharp exhale and imagined Jimin already standing behind him.

"What are you going to do to me, Jimin?" Jungkook asked and turned around just to see that no one else was there...or so he thought. "I'm losing my mind here... there's no way Jimin would stay on this floor to test me," Jungkook thought before he heard the elevator chime and stepped in. But just as he turned around to press the button to the third floor, the uneasy feeling never went away.

The sudden itch of looking up and dying to find the source, demanded Jungkook to become curious at the wrong time. But the boy only stood within the elevator and peaked out into the dark abyss. Silence whispered into his ear until... he heard the shivering sound of an animal biting down onto what sounded like ripping flesh coming from one of the abandoned rooms close by. This caused Jungkook's heart to race as he repeatedly pressed onto the button to the third floor until the elevator doors finally closed shut.

"W-What was that...?" Jungkook whispered to himself and listened to his heart pound like gunshots being fired from afar. "Maybe... maybe I'm hearing things... there's no way an animal would be up there..." Jungkook assured himself and listened to the elevator play its continuous melody like always.

Jungkook couldn't help but to wonder what caused a sound like that to echo within the walls of his mind, but he knew better not to ask Jimin and let the man know about his escape from the room he was bound to. Jungkook just stood at the elevator and watched the floor travel downwards until... it stopped on the fifth floor.

"Please don't be Jimin..." Jungkook begged underneath his own breath while he kept his arms wrapped around his shivering body; still thinking of the horrendous sound playing over and over again in his mind while he tried to get rid of it. But no matter what he did, there was no way he could dismiss the sound of flesh ripping and being consumed in one bite.

When the elevator doors pulled open, Jungkook's horrified gaze met with Hoseok once more. The sight of the pale and weak older man left the boy relieved, but also surprised at his extended stay. Jungkook expected the man to be gone by now, but here he was, standing before him as if he never left in the first place.

"Glad to see that you're still alive..." Hoseok spoke as his deep voice dragged from one word to the next, expressing how tired he was from just the tone of his voice. He wore about the same black coat and matching pants with thick boots. He dressed as if winter was already creeping around the corner and his pale skin displayed the white snow of the first snowfall.