DBSK FIC: Shatter [Yunho/Changmin, R]
Title: Shatter
Author: Selena
Rating: R for creepy goings on
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Warnings: Implied violence, scary things.
Word count: 4, 538
Summary: Yunho is a monster hunter. Halloween is supposed to be his night off but this Halloween night he gets a call for help that he can't ignore.
A/N: Written for the minho_yongwonhi Halloween fic contest and because I also wrote it with a kpop prompt in mind I am going to add it to that challenge too. Prompt #4: Save. My prompt table can be found here.
Shatter
Yunho feels like he’s halfway to drunk when the phone rings. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, he’s only had a few mouthfuls of Soju but already he feels that soft buzz of inebriation. He wants to sit and finish his drink; he doesn’t want the phone to be ringing. Dammit, it’s Halloween; it’s supposed to be his night off.
The phone rings and rings and rings and rings and it might just be Yunho’s imagination but he thinks that the sound has an almost desperate quality to it. But that could also be the Soju affecting him, no one actually calls him unless they are desperate. He sighs resignedly, sets down his drink and extracts himself from the chair he was so comfortably ensconced in. His cell phone is on the table beside him but it’s the main line that’s ringing. His business line. Very few people have his cell number. He mutters curses as he pads barefoot across his sparse apartment, he was toasty warm in his chair beside the heater. Now the floor is cold against his exposed skin and...a soft, chilled breeze flows through the room, ghosts over his skin, leaving a flutter of gooseflesh in its wake and the phone keeps on ringing. Yunho shivers, there are no windows open in his apartment and the breeze-cold wind-emanated from the hallway where the phone keeps ringing and ringing.
“God dammit.” He mutters as he picks up the receiver. “This is my night off. Hello.” He says into the phone. He never identifies himself, who he is, what he does. He used to, when he first started out, people would hang up on him. Even those who called with a legitimate problem, because when you say those words out loud they are ridiculous. Most people have a hard enough time believing that they have a reason to call him without him saying:
“Jung Yunho, Monster Hunter. I bust what goes bump in the night.”
See, ridiculous.
“Hello?” He says again when there is no answer after a few minutes. Static crackles from the other end of the line, like someone breathing heavily into the mouth piece. Great, another prank call. Yunho hangs up. He looks at the phone for a moment, it doesn’t ring again, he turns away, goes back to his comfy chair. His eyes flick to the clock on the wall and he smiles. The drama that Heechul has a bit part in is due to start in a few minutes and Yunho did promise that he would watch. He drags a blanket off the sofa and cuddles down into it. He’s almost settled when the phone rings. It’s his cell phone this time, he grabs it, looks quickly at the caller ID.
“Yoochunnie.” He says, genuine warmth in his voice. “How goes it? You’re where? Yes, I’m watching it.” Yunho leans back in his chair and listens as Yoochun chats away. “No.” Yunho says the second Yoochun takes a breath. “I’ll stay here and watch, after the week I’ve had I just need a quiet night at home...yes, I’m sure.” Yunho pause. “Hey, is...is that Heechul laughing in the background? He sounds like he’s being murdered.”
They talk for a few minutes before Yunho begs off, after assuring his friend that, yes, he will be just fine here on his own.
Yunho takes the TV remote, flicks the set on. Immediately overly dramatic music sounds and blood splatters the screen. Oh this show is going to be awful, Yunho is going to love it. The phone in the hallway rings. It rings once, it rings twice, it rings three times and then cuts off. Yunho glowers in its general direction, he can’t see the offending object from where he sits but he sends annoyed vibes its way anyway. It’s going to ring again, he just knows it is, and he’ll have to get up to answer it. Chances are it will just be another crank call, but there is still that-very small-chance that someone might need his help. Not many things go bump on Halloween night, it’s like the Supernatural world takes a holiday and Yunho gets a night off.
He holds his breath and waits, the seconds tick by in silence and then the phone rings. But the ring sounds wrong; it sounds muffled and far way even though he knows that the phone is only in the next room. It sounds half faded, like someone is holding a pillow over it, trying to smoother the noise. A waft of air kicks up beside his head, like someone just walked quickly passed him. A cold wind flows around his legs, gently lifting up the edges of the blanket, exposing his bare feet to the cold. The phone keeps ringing but it’s getting quieter and quieter. The wind around Yunho’s legs whips up hard and the blanket is blown off and away. In less than a heartbeat Yunho is up off the chair and across the apartment. He grabs the phone from its cradle, the plastic feels terribly, unnaturally cold in his hand.
“Hello?” He says.
No answer. Static crackles over the line again. And then...
“Hello? Is this Yunho? Jung Yunho?” The voice on the other end of the line is male, he sounds young. Young and scared.
“Yes.” Yunho says and the boy heaves out a sigh of relief. It’s an almost familiar sound, that soft rush of air. It sounds a lot like the prank phone calls he’s been getting this last week.
“Finally.” The boy says. “I’ve been trying...she’s not been letting me get through.
Yunho waits for the boy to explain further. He wants to ask what the boy has been trying, who’s not letting him do what. He has to wait for the boy to tell him, he doesn’t want to scare him more then he already is. Yunho tries to imagine who the boy is, what he’s like. He guesses the boy to be in his late teens, maybe very early twenties, people always sound younger on the phone don’t they? He might not be that much younger than Yunho.
“Help me.” The boy says. His voice sounds thin, almost hopeless. “She won’t let me leave. She...” There is a gasp and then a click and then the line goes dead.
Yunho stands there for a minute, listening to the ominous drone of the dial tone. He hangs up the phone and waits. He has to suppress the urge to hit redial and call the boy back. The boy might try to get through to him again and Yunho doesn’t want him to get a busy signal. Five minutes pass and nothing happens. Yunho picks the phone back up, it still feels cold; just touching it chills him down to the bone. He dials his recall service and a robotic voice reads out the number that called him last, Yunho hastily scribbles it down. He calls the number and waits, his heartbeat thudding in his ears. After what feels like a lifetime the call is answered but whoever is on the other line doesn’t say anything.
“Hello?” Yunho says. No answer. Yunho hears breathing, a quiet hiss and then a soft, musical laughter. Female. Then the line goes dead again. Immediately Yunho calls back but the call isn’t picked up, instead it goes straight to voice mail.
“Hi, you’ve reached Shim Changmin. I’m sorry I can’t answer the phone right now...”
Yunho doesn’t get to hear the rest of the message, the phone he’s holding becomes so cold that it burns. The plastic cracks and shatters in his hand. He lets go of it, the little plastic pieces fall to the floor, Yunho just stares at them. Dread coils snakelike in his gut, settling uneasily in the pit of his stomach. He can still hear that musical laugh; it feels like it’s here in the room with him.
“Fuck.” Yunho curses. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Not many things go bump on Halloween night, but one thing does. One thing doesn’t recognize that tonight is a Supernatural day of rest. They are rare here in Asia, the malevolent ones anyway, despite what the movies would have you believe. Rare here in a culture where the dead are honoured and spirits are laid to rest with dignity.
“Fuck.” Yunho says again. “I hate ghosts.”
*
He calls Jaejoong. Jae’s a cop and owes him a favor. Yunho rarely calls in anything he’s owed. Really, what’s a zombie outbreak between friends? But he needs information and he needs it now, so he calls. When Jaejoong answers Yunho gives him the Changmin’s name and number, Yunho needs his address.
“Give me a half hour and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks Jae, I owe you.”
“More like I owe you plenty. Is this kid in trouble? Your kind of trouble?”
“Yeah, I think he might be. I didn’t get really get to talk to him but this...it feels bad.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Thanks, Jae.”
Yunho stands there staring at his cell phone for a few minutes willing Jaejoong to call him back faster, now, five minutes ago. Eventually, reluctantly, he decides that waiting for his phone to ring isn’t going to make it ring any sooner. He tucks the device back into his pocket then he writes out a memo to buy a new phone on a post it and sticks it above where the now broken phone sits. As he surveys his apartment he feels panic try to claw its way out of his chest. The apartment is still now, quiet. There is no trace of that chilling wind and he can’t hear that musical laugh. And yet he feels like there is something here with him, a residue of what or who is apparently haunting this Shim Changmin.
Yunho really, really hates ghosts.
Half an hour crawls by and still Jaejoong hasn’t called. Yunho checks his cell phone to make sure it’s still working and no indefinable presence has messed with it. It’s fine.
Yunho really, really, really hates ghosts. The last time he’d dealt with one had been back when his Dad ran this business and Yunho had been in training. That ghost had almost killed them both. Yunho grabs his kit bag from the hall closet and riffles though the contents. There are no real hard and fast rules for dealing with ghosts; it’s all about getting the restless souls to rest. Keeping yourself alive and in one piece while doing this is the tricky part. All Ghosts are different but they all want to head on to the hereafter, they just don’t know that they do.
He needs salt and iron to keep the ghost away while he works, but in his business he never knows what he might bump into so his kit bag is always well stocked for any eventuality. Wooden stakes, silver blades, a cross bow even a mallet. That’s for smashing in the heads of zombies, a messy but satisfying job.
Yunho is checking the contents of his bag for the fourth time when finally, finally his cell rings.
“I’m sorry,” Jaejoong huffs, he’s out of breath. “I got waylaid by my superintendant.”
Yunho wants to say its ok, but he doesn’t. He just waits. Jaejoong reels off an address and Yunho hangs up after a curt “thanks.” He grabs his kit bag and heads out. Changmin’s apartment complex is only a half mile away but Yunho thinks it will be quicker to drive. The streets are crowded with party goers and trick or treaters. There is a parking ticket sitting on the windscreen of his battered old Ford. Yunho just screws it up and throws it away.
*
When he arrives the apartment complex is quiet, too quiet. Yunho parks up outside and sits in his car to observe the unnatural stillness. The complex is rundown, on its way to being decrepit, but the building isn’t particularly old, it’s just been the victim of shoddy maintenance. It’s like no one cares about the building or the people in it. Yunho casts a glance around, it’s a poor area of town but there should still be more people about. Yunho doesn’t like that the place is so quiet, so empty. There is only one apartment with lights on, Yunho counts the windows, it could be Changmin’s apartment but he’s not really sure how the numbering in this place works. He watches that apartment for a moment, he thinks he sees a shadow cross one of the rooms but he can’t be sure.
As he gets out of his car Yunho thinks back to his conversation with Yoochun. He could be at that party right now. Heechul keeps telling him there is some guy he wants to introduce Yunho too, Yunho could possibly be getting laid right about now.
He really needs to get laid.
The main door of the apartment complex is unlocked. There looks like there used to be some kind of buzzing in system but it’s broken now. He doesn’t need to press the buzzer for Changmin’s apartment but he presses it anyway. It doesn’t work. Inside the foyer there is an elevator but there is no way Yunho is going to chance using it, the doors look rusted and stiff. Instead he trudges up the stairs to get to Changmin’s floor which is the fifth; he’s a little out of breath when he gets there so he gives himself a moment to rest and to listen. It’s still unnaturally quiet here. Yunho can almost feel the silence, it’s like a weight pressing down on him.
He shivers.
Changmin’s door is number 5C. Yunho stands outside the door, presses his ear to the wood, he hears nothing at first and then there is that soft, musical laugh. Yunho knocks but his knock doesn’t make a sound. He tries the door handle, the door is locked. That’s ok though, another core ingredient in Yunho’s kit bag is a lock pick set and it doesn’t even take him a minute to get the door open.
The door opens into a whirl wind. Yunho doesn’t have time to even take a breath before he’s swept up in it. The door slams shut behind him.
*
He manages to hold onto his kit bag for all of a minute before it’s ripped from his hand. Yunho-and his bag-then spend a fun filled five minutes bouncing off the walls as the whirlwind whips them around the room. Yunho tries to keep his eyes open, to see, to assess the situation, but it’s a stinging wind and his eyes water. Still, he thinks he sees her, the ghost girl, in the corner of the room. She is nothing but a shadow. He can’t see well but he can see enough and he’s more worried about what he doesn’t see than what he does see. Yunho is the only warm body caught up in this maelstrom, where is the kid? Where is Changmin?
He fumbles in his pocket, glad that he thought to have a few supplies on him when entering into this unknown situation. He pulls out a rock of salt; it’s about the size of a ping pong ball and is pure, unrefined salt. It’s perfect for throwing at all manner of spooky things. He aims for the corner where he thinks he saw the ghost girl but his shot is wide and he misses. Still, it seems that his pitiful attempt was at least enough to distract her because the shadow that is the ghost fizzes and crackles and fades away. Yunho-and everything else-falls back down to the floor with a heavy thump. Winded, Yunho can’t do much of anything for a few minutes while his body stutters for breath. He’s sore from the battering he’s just taken and tomorrow-if he lives to see tomorrow-he will be one giant bruise. When he is able to take a breath again Yunho stands up, he’s a little shaky on his feet and has to grab onto an arm chair for support. He looks around; the apartment is quiet, cold, still.
The unnatural cold seems to creep over his skin, Yunho knows the ghost is still here, watching him. He walks silently though the rooms, not even his footsteps make any noise. There aren’t many rooms so it doesn’t take him long to search through everything. There is a main room, a kitchen, a bathroom and one bedroom. There is no one else in the apartment. Yunho returns to the main room and just stands there unsure of what to do next. The lack of noise is unnerving, it’s like the world around him has been soundproofed. He shudders as a cold wind flutters passed him and he shuffles over to where his kit bag landed. He stuffs a few more rocks of salt into his pockets and he drags out an iron poker. These things will only keep the ghost away for a little while, Yunho hopes that he can buy himself enough time to find Changmin, he hopes that the kid managed to get the hell out of this apartment in time - though deep down he knows that this hope is futile.
“She won’t let me leave.”
Where the hell is he?
Then, slowly, like a veil being lifted, sound seeps back into the room. Yunho hears the sound of his own heavy breathing; he hears that horrible, soft, musical laugh.
“I won’t share him.” Something whispers by his ear. It’s a rasping, little used voice. “I won’t share him with anyone.”
Cool sweat trickles down the back of Yunho’s neck and he whirls around to face whatever had spoken. The poker in his hand swishes through the air but comes into contact with nothing. Yunho finds himself faced with nothing but empty space.
There is something wrong with this room...apart from the fact that it’s haunted. This room-there is something off about it. Most apartment complexes are uniform in both size and set up and this one should be just like the hundred or so others that Yunho has been in. This one should be very much like Yunho’s own apartment, but it’s not. This main room seems smaller, it might only be a difference of a foot or so, not enough space to be really missed but enough to be noticeable if you know what you are looking for and Yunho has trained himself to notice even the smallest of things.
There is a door in the far wall; it leads off to the back half of the apartment, the bedroom, the bathroom. Next to that door there should be an alcove, Yunho has a book self his grandfather made in the alcove in his living room. Slowly, Yunho steps up to the wall, he holds his poker up high, just in case. He places a hand on the plaster, its cold. Cold like his shattered phone, so cold that it almost burns. Feeling more than a little silly he knocks on the wall like he’s knocking on someone’s door. The knock is answered by a frantic pounding from the other side and Yunho hears someone call out:
“Help! Please, help me!
“You have got to be kidding me!” Yunho mutters to himself. His kit bag does not include a sledge hammer. This, well this he never expected.
Behind him the ghost girl screeches and he feels her tearing at his hair, clawing at his back. Pain sears through him and he feels his skin split and tear. The whirl wind starts to kick up again but everything stops with a swing of the weapon in his hand.
Yunho’s kit bag doesn’t have a sledge hammer but he does have a mallet and that proves to be just as effective against walls as it is against zombie brains. The wall is still cold, so unnaturally cold and all it really takes is one hard hit and the plaster splinters and shatters like it’s just a wall of ice. Behind the wall are two people, one alive and frightened and one very, very much dead.
“Hi.” Yunho says to the tall boy-kid, young man. “Did someone call for an exterminator?”
The kid, Changmin, doesn’t say anything. His face is chalk dusted and tear streaked and he looks so young that Yunho’s heart breaks a little. No one should have to see this kind of thing.
“Come on.” Yunho says as he takes Changmin’s hand. “We need to get out of here.” Yunho pulls Changmin away. He tries not to look at the body-the bones-that Changmin had been trapped in there with. The ghost is quiet now though Yunho can still feel her. She’s still in this room but she won’t bother them now that her body has been found.
In the end all they want is to be laid to rest.
*
They stand by Yunho’s car while they wait for the police. Yunho called Jaejoong because it was easier to explain to him about the body behind the wall. Not everybody, especially not everyone in the Police department, believes in the supernatural if they haven’t seen it for themselves. Yunho tells Changmin that it will be ok, Jaejoong will sort it out, he’s not all that sure that Changmin believes him. The kid is understandably shaken up, having been walled up with a corpse for the last few hours. He’s sweaty and pale and really, really good looking and Yunho tries not to think about that too much.
Heechul helped him out on a job once. Heechul didn’t much like the fact that he got covered in slime but he did enjoy ‘comforting’ the son of the victim family.
Yunho lays a hand on the kid’s (Changmin dammit) arm, hoping to steady him a little. He tries not to let his touch linger for too long.
Yunho really, really needs to get laid.
It takes a while to get the full story out of Changmin, the kid is reluctant to say the words out loud, to him this whole thing is still just too crazy. Yunho doesn’t really blame him, he felt like that once too.
Changmin tells Yunho that he knew there was something wrong with the apartment when he moved in. The rent was too low-even in this rundown neighbourhood-not to ask questions. The apartment manager was upfront enough to admit that some of the previous tenants had problems, just the female tenants though. He never went into detail as to what those problems were; just that whatever presence shared that apartment didn’t like girls.
“I said that was ok.” Changmin says, his voice quiet and unsure. “I’m a university student and between school and work I wouldn’t have time to have a girlfriend let alone bring anyone home.
Though the truth of it is that I don’t really like girls that way so I wouldn’t bring one home anyway.” Changmin falters, he sniffles. He looks so young and vulnerable that Yunho wonders if brushing the hair out of Changmin’s eyes would qualify as bad touching.
“I have friends who are girls, but I only see them at school. It was all going fine, I barely noticed anyone was in the apartment with me.”
“And then?”
“And then I brought a boy home, and she didn’t like that at all. Still, it was just little things at first. Loud banging, throwing stuff. But it slowly got worse. I was supposed to go out to a party tonight, a friend of a friend was supposed to set me up with a guy but...” Changmin trails off; he shrugs helplessly and gestures up to his apartment window. “I don’t even know who she is.”
“The police will identify her.” Yunho says and he tries to sound positive, sometimes bodies are never identified.
When the police do arrive, in the form of Jaejoong and his partner Junsu, Yunho is told to get the hell out and away. Jaejoong has enough to explain already without there being a ghost hunter on the scene.
“Monster hunter.” Yunho grumbles. “I don’t normally do ghosts.”
No one pays any attention to him.
*
For Yunho, the next few days are a rush of slime, blood and werewolves and he almost forgets about the tall, good looking boy. Until he sees a story in the paper about a body walled up in an apartment block. Yunho is said to see that the identity of the body is as yet unknown.
The same say he gets a cheque from Changmin, which is a nice surprise. Much like he doesn’t really call in favours he’s owed he rarely chases anyone up for money which is really no way to make a living.
So, he thinks, that’s it then.
*
“You ignorant bastard!” Heechul’s voice blares out from Yunho’s answer machine. “No one ignores Kim Heechul! Get your unsociable ass down here this instant.”
Heechul sounds half drunk and there are sounds of merriment in the background. Yunho shuts off the machine. There are about 15 more messages all from Heechul and all saying different variations of the same thing.
It’s a week later and there is another viewing party for Heechul’s drama. He’s got a bigger part in it this week. Yunho looks around his apartment, it’s all quiet, a natural quiet, and warm. He grabs his coat and his cell phone and heads out.
The bar is packed, the highest concentration of people congregating at the back where Heechul is holding court. Yunho can just about see him over there with his new boyfriend, a dancer from China. Yunho has a vague notion of leaving. There are a lot of people here tonight and he weighs up the pros and cons of drunken people asking about his job and facing Heechul’s wrath if he bails.
It’s moot point anyway, Heechul sees him.
“YUNNIE!” Heechul screeches. “You emerge from your pit at last, I am so proud.”
Heechul hooks a bony arm around Yunho’s neck and pulls him along. “There is someone I need you to meet. You’re going to love him and he’ll love you and you can go off and be sickeningly happy. How does that sound?”
“Like toothache.”
“Oh you. KYUHYUN!”
“I already know Kyuhyun, Hyung.” Yunho says and Heechul cuffs him around the head.
“I know that idiot. Kyuhyun’s friend. Kyuhyun has a cute and adorable friend that I want you to meet. His name is...well, I forget but it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he’s hot. Like fire. Ahh there they are.” Heechul stops suddenly, Yunho isn’t expecting it and he stumbles. “Kyuhyun, introduce your friend.”
Yunho regains his footing and straightens up, what he sees makes him smile. He sees Kyuhyun and his cute and adorable friend who really doesn’t need to be introduced.
“Hi.” Yunho says and he’s aware that he’s grinning but he doesn’t really care.
“Hey.” Changmin says, he’s grinning too. They stand there grinning at each other.
“I think I’m going to throw up.” Heechul grumbles and he stumbles away. “Don’t forget to invite me to the commitment ceremony.”
.end
Author: Selena
Rating: R for creepy goings on
Pairing: Yunho/Changmin
Warnings: Implied violence, scary things.
Word count: 4, 538
Summary: Yunho is a monster hunter. Halloween is supposed to be his night off but this Halloween night he gets a call for help that he can't ignore.
A/N: Written for the minho_yongwonhi Halloween fic contest and because I also wrote it with a kpop prompt in mind I am going to add it to that challenge too. Prompt #4: Save. My prompt table can be found here.
Shatter
Yunho feels like he’s halfway to drunk when the phone rings. Ok, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, he’s only had a few mouthfuls of Soju but already he feels that soft buzz of inebriation. He wants to sit and finish his drink; he doesn’t want the phone to be ringing. Dammit, it’s Halloween; it’s supposed to be his night off.
The phone rings and rings and rings and rings and it might just be Yunho’s imagination but he thinks that the sound has an almost desperate quality to it. But that could also be the Soju affecting him, no one actually calls him unless they are desperate. He sighs resignedly, sets down his drink and extracts himself from the chair he was so comfortably ensconced in. His cell phone is on the table beside him but it’s the main line that’s ringing. His business line. Very few people have his cell number. He mutters curses as he pads barefoot across his sparse apartment, he was toasty warm in his chair beside the heater. Now the floor is cold against his exposed skin and...a soft, chilled breeze flows through the room, ghosts over his skin, leaving a flutter of gooseflesh in its wake and the phone keeps on ringing. Yunho shivers, there are no windows open in his apartment and the breeze-cold wind-emanated from the hallway where the phone keeps ringing and ringing.
“God dammit.” He mutters as he picks up the receiver. “This is my night off. Hello.” He says into the phone. He never identifies himself, who he is, what he does. He used to, when he first started out, people would hang up on him. Even those who called with a legitimate problem, because when you say those words out loud they are ridiculous. Most people have a hard enough time believing that they have a reason to call him without him saying:
“Jung Yunho, Monster Hunter. I bust what goes bump in the night.”
See, ridiculous.
“Hello?” He says again when there is no answer after a few minutes. Static crackles from the other end of the line, like someone breathing heavily into the mouth piece. Great, another prank call. Yunho hangs up. He looks at the phone for a moment, it doesn’t ring again, he turns away, goes back to his comfy chair. His eyes flick to the clock on the wall and he smiles. The drama that Heechul has a bit part in is due to start in a few minutes and Yunho did promise that he would watch. He drags a blanket off the sofa and cuddles down into it. He’s almost settled when the phone rings. It’s his cell phone this time, he grabs it, looks quickly at the caller ID.
“Yoochunnie.” He says, genuine warmth in his voice. “How goes it? You’re where? Yes, I’m watching it.” Yunho leans back in his chair and listens as Yoochun chats away. “No.” Yunho says the second Yoochun takes a breath. “I’ll stay here and watch, after the week I’ve had I just need a quiet night at home...yes, I’m sure.” Yunho pause. “Hey, is...is that Heechul laughing in the background? He sounds like he’s being murdered.”
They talk for a few minutes before Yunho begs off, after assuring his friend that, yes, he will be just fine here on his own.
Yunho takes the TV remote, flicks the set on. Immediately overly dramatic music sounds and blood splatters the screen. Oh this show is going to be awful, Yunho is going to love it. The phone in the hallway rings. It rings once, it rings twice, it rings three times and then cuts off. Yunho glowers in its general direction, he can’t see the offending object from where he sits but he sends annoyed vibes its way anyway. It’s going to ring again, he just knows it is, and he’ll have to get up to answer it. Chances are it will just be another crank call, but there is still that-very small-chance that someone might need his help. Not many things go bump on Halloween night, it’s like the Supernatural world takes a holiday and Yunho gets a night off.
He holds his breath and waits, the seconds tick by in silence and then the phone rings. But the ring sounds wrong; it sounds muffled and far way even though he knows that the phone is only in the next room. It sounds half faded, like someone is holding a pillow over it, trying to smoother the noise. A waft of air kicks up beside his head, like someone just walked quickly passed him. A cold wind flows around his legs, gently lifting up the edges of the blanket, exposing his bare feet to the cold. The phone keeps ringing but it’s getting quieter and quieter. The wind around Yunho’s legs whips up hard and the blanket is blown off and away. In less than a heartbeat Yunho is up off the chair and across the apartment. He grabs the phone from its cradle, the plastic feels terribly, unnaturally cold in his hand.
“Hello?” He says.
No answer. Static crackles over the line again. And then...
“Hello? Is this Yunho? Jung Yunho?” The voice on the other end of the line is male, he sounds young. Young and scared.
“Yes.” Yunho says and the boy heaves out a sigh of relief. It’s an almost familiar sound, that soft rush of air. It sounds a lot like the prank phone calls he’s been getting this last week.
“Finally.” The boy says. “I’ve been trying...she’s not been letting me get through.
Yunho waits for the boy to explain further. He wants to ask what the boy has been trying, who’s not letting him do what. He has to wait for the boy to tell him, he doesn’t want to scare him more then he already is. Yunho tries to imagine who the boy is, what he’s like. He guesses the boy to be in his late teens, maybe very early twenties, people always sound younger on the phone don’t they? He might not be that much younger than Yunho.
“Help me.” The boy says. His voice sounds thin, almost hopeless. “She won’t let me leave. She...” There is a gasp and then a click and then the line goes dead.
Yunho stands there for a minute, listening to the ominous drone of the dial tone. He hangs up the phone and waits. He has to suppress the urge to hit redial and call the boy back. The boy might try to get through to him again and Yunho doesn’t want him to get a busy signal. Five minutes pass and nothing happens. Yunho picks the phone back up, it still feels cold; just touching it chills him down to the bone. He dials his recall service and a robotic voice reads out the number that called him last, Yunho hastily scribbles it down. He calls the number and waits, his heartbeat thudding in his ears. After what feels like a lifetime the call is answered but whoever is on the other line doesn’t say anything.
“Hello?” Yunho says. No answer. Yunho hears breathing, a quiet hiss and then a soft, musical laughter. Female. Then the line goes dead again. Immediately Yunho calls back but the call isn’t picked up, instead it goes straight to voice mail.
“Hi, you’ve reached Shim Changmin. I’m sorry I can’t answer the phone right now...”
Yunho doesn’t get to hear the rest of the message, the phone he’s holding becomes so cold that it burns. The plastic cracks and shatters in his hand. He lets go of it, the little plastic pieces fall to the floor, Yunho just stares at them. Dread coils snakelike in his gut, settling uneasily in the pit of his stomach. He can still hear that musical laugh; it feels like it’s here in the room with him.
“Fuck.” Yunho curses. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.”
Not many things go bump on Halloween night, but one thing does. One thing doesn’t recognize that tonight is a Supernatural day of rest. They are rare here in Asia, the malevolent ones anyway, despite what the movies would have you believe. Rare here in a culture where the dead are honoured and spirits are laid to rest with dignity.
“Fuck.” Yunho says again. “I hate ghosts.”
*
He calls Jaejoong. Jae’s a cop and owes him a favor. Yunho rarely calls in anything he’s owed. Really, what’s a zombie outbreak between friends? But he needs information and he needs it now, so he calls. When Jaejoong answers Yunho gives him the Changmin’s name and number, Yunho needs his address.
“Give me a half hour and I’ll get back to you.”
“Thanks Jae, I owe you.”
“More like I owe you plenty. Is this kid in trouble? Your kind of trouble?”
“Yeah, I think he might be. I didn’t get really get to talk to him but this...it feels bad.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can.”
“Thanks, Jae.”
Yunho stands there staring at his cell phone for a few minutes willing Jaejoong to call him back faster, now, five minutes ago. Eventually, reluctantly, he decides that waiting for his phone to ring isn’t going to make it ring any sooner. He tucks the device back into his pocket then he writes out a memo to buy a new phone on a post it and sticks it above where the now broken phone sits. As he surveys his apartment he feels panic try to claw its way out of his chest. The apartment is still now, quiet. There is no trace of that chilling wind and he can’t hear that musical laugh. And yet he feels like there is something here with him, a residue of what or who is apparently haunting this Shim Changmin.
Yunho really, really hates ghosts.
Half an hour crawls by and still Jaejoong hasn’t called. Yunho checks his cell phone to make sure it’s still working and no indefinable presence has messed with it. It’s fine.
Yunho really, really, really hates ghosts. The last time he’d dealt with one had been back when his Dad ran this business and Yunho had been in training. That ghost had almost killed them both. Yunho grabs his kit bag from the hall closet and riffles though the contents. There are no real hard and fast rules for dealing with ghosts; it’s all about getting the restless souls to rest. Keeping yourself alive and in one piece while doing this is the tricky part. All Ghosts are different but they all want to head on to the hereafter, they just don’t know that they do.
He needs salt and iron to keep the ghost away while he works, but in his business he never knows what he might bump into so his kit bag is always well stocked for any eventuality. Wooden stakes, silver blades, a cross bow even a mallet. That’s for smashing in the heads of zombies, a messy but satisfying job.
Yunho is checking the contents of his bag for the fourth time when finally, finally his cell rings.
“I’m sorry,” Jaejoong huffs, he’s out of breath. “I got waylaid by my superintendant.”
Yunho wants to say its ok, but he doesn’t. He just waits. Jaejoong reels off an address and Yunho hangs up after a curt “thanks.” He grabs his kit bag and heads out. Changmin’s apartment complex is only a half mile away but Yunho thinks it will be quicker to drive. The streets are crowded with party goers and trick or treaters. There is a parking ticket sitting on the windscreen of his battered old Ford. Yunho just screws it up and throws it away.
*
When he arrives the apartment complex is quiet, too quiet. Yunho parks up outside and sits in his car to observe the unnatural stillness. The complex is rundown, on its way to being decrepit, but the building isn’t particularly old, it’s just been the victim of shoddy maintenance. It’s like no one cares about the building or the people in it. Yunho casts a glance around, it’s a poor area of town but there should still be more people about. Yunho doesn’t like that the place is so quiet, so empty. There is only one apartment with lights on, Yunho counts the windows, it could be Changmin’s apartment but he’s not really sure how the numbering in this place works. He watches that apartment for a moment, he thinks he sees a shadow cross one of the rooms but he can’t be sure.
As he gets out of his car Yunho thinks back to his conversation with Yoochun. He could be at that party right now. Heechul keeps telling him there is some guy he wants to introduce Yunho too, Yunho could possibly be getting laid right about now.
He really needs to get laid.
The main door of the apartment complex is unlocked. There looks like there used to be some kind of buzzing in system but it’s broken now. He doesn’t need to press the buzzer for Changmin’s apartment but he presses it anyway. It doesn’t work. Inside the foyer there is an elevator but there is no way Yunho is going to chance using it, the doors look rusted and stiff. Instead he trudges up the stairs to get to Changmin’s floor which is the fifth; he’s a little out of breath when he gets there so he gives himself a moment to rest and to listen. It’s still unnaturally quiet here. Yunho can almost feel the silence, it’s like a weight pressing down on him.
He shivers.
Changmin’s door is number 5C. Yunho stands outside the door, presses his ear to the wood, he hears nothing at first and then there is that soft, musical laugh. Yunho knocks but his knock doesn’t make a sound. He tries the door handle, the door is locked. That’s ok though, another core ingredient in Yunho’s kit bag is a lock pick set and it doesn’t even take him a minute to get the door open.
The door opens into a whirl wind. Yunho doesn’t have time to even take a breath before he’s swept up in it. The door slams shut behind him.
*
He manages to hold onto his kit bag for all of a minute before it’s ripped from his hand. Yunho-and his bag-then spend a fun filled five minutes bouncing off the walls as the whirlwind whips them around the room. Yunho tries to keep his eyes open, to see, to assess the situation, but it’s a stinging wind and his eyes water. Still, he thinks he sees her, the ghost girl, in the corner of the room. She is nothing but a shadow. He can’t see well but he can see enough and he’s more worried about what he doesn’t see than what he does see. Yunho is the only warm body caught up in this maelstrom, where is the kid? Where is Changmin?
He fumbles in his pocket, glad that he thought to have a few supplies on him when entering into this unknown situation. He pulls out a rock of salt; it’s about the size of a ping pong ball and is pure, unrefined salt. It’s perfect for throwing at all manner of spooky things. He aims for the corner where he thinks he saw the ghost girl but his shot is wide and he misses. Still, it seems that his pitiful attempt was at least enough to distract her because the shadow that is the ghost fizzes and crackles and fades away. Yunho-and everything else-falls back down to the floor with a heavy thump. Winded, Yunho can’t do much of anything for a few minutes while his body stutters for breath. He’s sore from the battering he’s just taken and tomorrow-if he lives to see tomorrow-he will be one giant bruise. When he is able to take a breath again Yunho stands up, he’s a little shaky on his feet and has to grab onto an arm chair for support. He looks around; the apartment is quiet, cold, still.
The unnatural cold seems to creep over his skin, Yunho knows the ghost is still here, watching him. He walks silently though the rooms, not even his footsteps make any noise. There aren’t many rooms so it doesn’t take him long to search through everything. There is a main room, a kitchen, a bathroom and one bedroom. There is no one else in the apartment. Yunho returns to the main room and just stands there unsure of what to do next. The lack of noise is unnerving, it’s like the world around him has been soundproofed. He shudders as a cold wind flutters passed him and he shuffles over to where his kit bag landed. He stuffs a few more rocks of salt into his pockets and he drags out an iron poker. These things will only keep the ghost away for a little while, Yunho hopes that he can buy himself enough time to find Changmin, he hopes that the kid managed to get the hell out of this apartment in time - though deep down he knows that this hope is futile.
“She won’t let me leave.”
Where the hell is he?
Then, slowly, like a veil being lifted, sound seeps back into the room. Yunho hears the sound of his own heavy breathing; he hears that horrible, soft, musical laugh.
“I won’t share him.” Something whispers by his ear. It’s a rasping, little used voice. “I won’t share him with anyone.”
Cool sweat trickles down the back of Yunho’s neck and he whirls around to face whatever had spoken. The poker in his hand swishes through the air but comes into contact with nothing. Yunho finds himself faced with nothing but empty space.
There is something wrong with this room...apart from the fact that it’s haunted. This room-there is something off about it. Most apartment complexes are uniform in both size and set up and this one should be just like the hundred or so others that Yunho has been in. This one should be very much like Yunho’s own apartment, but it’s not. This main room seems smaller, it might only be a difference of a foot or so, not enough space to be really missed but enough to be noticeable if you know what you are looking for and Yunho has trained himself to notice even the smallest of things.
There is a door in the far wall; it leads off to the back half of the apartment, the bedroom, the bathroom. Next to that door there should be an alcove, Yunho has a book self his grandfather made in the alcove in his living room. Slowly, Yunho steps up to the wall, he holds his poker up high, just in case. He places a hand on the plaster, its cold. Cold like his shattered phone, so cold that it almost burns. Feeling more than a little silly he knocks on the wall like he’s knocking on someone’s door. The knock is answered by a frantic pounding from the other side and Yunho hears someone call out:
“Help! Please, help me!
“You have got to be kidding me!” Yunho mutters to himself. His kit bag does not include a sledge hammer. This, well this he never expected.
Behind him the ghost girl screeches and he feels her tearing at his hair, clawing at his back. Pain sears through him and he feels his skin split and tear. The whirl wind starts to kick up again but everything stops with a swing of the weapon in his hand.
Yunho’s kit bag doesn’t have a sledge hammer but he does have a mallet and that proves to be just as effective against walls as it is against zombie brains. The wall is still cold, so unnaturally cold and all it really takes is one hard hit and the plaster splinters and shatters like it’s just a wall of ice. Behind the wall are two people, one alive and frightened and one very, very much dead.
“Hi.” Yunho says to the tall boy-kid, young man. “Did someone call for an exterminator?”
The kid, Changmin, doesn’t say anything. His face is chalk dusted and tear streaked and he looks so young that Yunho’s heart breaks a little. No one should have to see this kind of thing.
“Come on.” Yunho says as he takes Changmin’s hand. “We need to get out of here.” Yunho pulls Changmin away. He tries not to look at the body-the bones-that Changmin had been trapped in there with. The ghost is quiet now though Yunho can still feel her. She’s still in this room but she won’t bother them now that her body has been found.
In the end all they want is to be laid to rest.
*
They stand by Yunho’s car while they wait for the police. Yunho called Jaejoong because it was easier to explain to him about the body behind the wall. Not everybody, especially not everyone in the Police department, believes in the supernatural if they haven’t seen it for themselves. Yunho tells Changmin that it will be ok, Jaejoong will sort it out, he’s not all that sure that Changmin believes him. The kid is understandably shaken up, having been walled up with a corpse for the last few hours. He’s sweaty and pale and really, really good looking and Yunho tries not to think about that too much.
Heechul helped him out on a job once. Heechul didn’t much like the fact that he got covered in slime but he did enjoy ‘comforting’ the son of the victim family.
Yunho lays a hand on the kid’s (Changmin dammit) arm, hoping to steady him a little. He tries not to let his touch linger for too long.
Yunho really, really needs to get laid.
It takes a while to get the full story out of Changmin, the kid is reluctant to say the words out loud, to him this whole thing is still just too crazy. Yunho doesn’t really blame him, he felt like that once too.
Changmin tells Yunho that he knew there was something wrong with the apartment when he moved in. The rent was too low-even in this rundown neighbourhood-not to ask questions. The apartment manager was upfront enough to admit that some of the previous tenants had problems, just the female tenants though. He never went into detail as to what those problems were; just that whatever presence shared that apartment didn’t like girls.
“I said that was ok.” Changmin says, his voice quiet and unsure. “I’m a university student and between school and work I wouldn’t have time to have a girlfriend let alone bring anyone home.
Though the truth of it is that I don’t really like girls that way so I wouldn’t bring one home anyway.” Changmin falters, he sniffles. He looks so young and vulnerable that Yunho wonders if brushing the hair out of Changmin’s eyes would qualify as bad touching.
“I have friends who are girls, but I only see them at school. It was all going fine, I barely noticed anyone was in the apartment with me.”
“And then?”
“And then I brought a boy home, and she didn’t like that at all. Still, it was just little things at first. Loud banging, throwing stuff. But it slowly got worse. I was supposed to go out to a party tonight, a friend of a friend was supposed to set me up with a guy but...” Changmin trails off; he shrugs helplessly and gestures up to his apartment window. “I don’t even know who she is.”
“The police will identify her.” Yunho says and he tries to sound positive, sometimes bodies are never identified.
When the police do arrive, in the form of Jaejoong and his partner Junsu, Yunho is told to get the hell out and away. Jaejoong has enough to explain already without there being a ghost hunter on the scene.
“Monster hunter.” Yunho grumbles. “I don’t normally do ghosts.”
No one pays any attention to him.
*
For Yunho, the next few days are a rush of slime, blood and werewolves and he almost forgets about the tall, good looking boy. Until he sees a story in the paper about a body walled up in an apartment block. Yunho is said to see that the identity of the body is as yet unknown.
The same say he gets a cheque from Changmin, which is a nice surprise. Much like he doesn’t really call in favours he’s owed he rarely chases anyone up for money which is really no way to make a living.
So, he thinks, that’s it then.
*
“You ignorant bastard!” Heechul’s voice blares out from Yunho’s answer machine. “No one ignores Kim Heechul! Get your unsociable ass down here this instant.”
Heechul sounds half drunk and there are sounds of merriment in the background. Yunho shuts off the machine. There are about 15 more messages all from Heechul and all saying different variations of the same thing.
It’s a week later and there is another viewing party for Heechul’s drama. He’s got a bigger part in it this week. Yunho looks around his apartment, it’s all quiet, a natural quiet, and warm. He grabs his coat and his cell phone and heads out.
The bar is packed, the highest concentration of people congregating at the back where Heechul is holding court. Yunho can just about see him over there with his new boyfriend, a dancer from China. Yunho has a vague notion of leaving. There are a lot of people here tonight and he weighs up the pros and cons of drunken people asking about his job and facing Heechul’s wrath if he bails.
It’s moot point anyway, Heechul sees him.
“YUNNIE!” Heechul screeches. “You emerge from your pit at last, I am so proud.”
Heechul hooks a bony arm around Yunho’s neck and pulls him along. “There is someone I need you to meet. You’re going to love him and he’ll love you and you can go off and be sickeningly happy. How does that sound?”
“Like toothache.”
“Oh you. KYUHYUN!”
“I already know Kyuhyun, Hyung.” Yunho says and Heechul cuffs him around the head.
“I know that idiot. Kyuhyun’s friend. Kyuhyun has a cute and adorable friend that I want you to meet. His name is...well, I forget but it doesn’t matter, what matters is that he’s hot. Like fire. Ahh there they are.” Heechul stops suddenly, Yunho isn’t expecting it and he stumbles. “Kyuhyun, introduce your friend.”
Yunho regains his footing and straightens up, what he sees makes him smile. He sees Kyuhyun and his cute and adorable friend who really doesn’t need to be introduced.
“Hi.” Yunho says and he’s aware that he’s grinning but he doesn’t really care.
“Hey.” Changmin says, he’s grinning too. They stand there grinning at each other.
“I think I’m going to throw up.” Heechul grumbles and he stumbles away. “Don’t forget to invite me to the commitment ceremony.”
.end