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“JK, I don’t think this is very safe,” Seokjin said nervously as they approached the edge of the property.
Jungkook rolled his eyes. “It’s just an abandoned house, hyung. Where’s your Halloween spirit?”
“My idea of celebrating Halloween is watching old horror movies at my house and laughing when Hoseok screams,” his friend replied, hanging back. Hoseok whined and shoved him, making Seokjin smile.
The three of them were standing in front of the gates to the old abandoned house at the boundary between their town and the forest. It was rumoured to be haunted, and the people who lived near the house always spoke about it with fear, claiming to sometimes hear screams come from within. Apparently, those who entered never came back out.
So naturally, Jungkook’s adventurous side had thought it was a brilliant idea to go exploring on Halloween, dragging along with him two of the most easily scared people he knew.
“You know,” Hoseok piped up suddenly, gesturing at the crooked signs that littered the unkempt lawn, “I’ve never been much of a rule breaker, and I think we should obey those signs. They were put there for a reason, right?”
The wooden boards in question were weathered and cracked, with the typical ‘no trespassing’, ‘enter if you dare’ and ‘beware’ stencilled on. Other teenagers had spray painted over the words, and graffiti could be found all over the house, which greatly lowered its fear factor.
An owl flew over them, hooting, disappearing into the forest with powerful flaps of its wings. Jungkook felt Seokjin flinch and Hoseok screamed, clutching onto the back of his shirt.
“I don’t think I can do this. You two are on your own,” Hoseok declared, turning around and jogging back into the town.
Jungkook pouted, crossing his arms.
“I’m going too, and you should come with me, Jungkook-ah. It’s not safe to go in alone,” Seokjin advised him, also retreating.
“You two are no fun,” he complained. “Don’t you think it looks fun?”
“I’m old, Kookie,” his friend told him. “My heart can’t handle jumpscares.”
Jungkook’s shoulders slumped. “Fine, but I’m still going. Wimps.”
Seokjin gave him a look of warning, before following Hoseok.
Taking a deep breath, Jungkook forged on alone, taking the front stairs up to the house. He carefully tried the doorknob, finding that the old lock gave easily when he twisted hard enough. The air had stilled and dropped ten degrees, not a breeze to be felt. Cautiously, he fished the small flashlight out of his pocket, flicking it on. The dull beam illuminated dust particles in the house but showed little else, prompting Jungkook to walked further into the house to explore.
The inside smelled ancient and musty, the scent tinged with something akin to metal that settled unpleasantly on his tongue. Jungkook swung his flashlight around, stepping carefully among the broken and cracked floorboards. The entryway was empty of any furniture, and it opened up towards a staircase and a larger room that Jungkook couldn’t make out much of from his position. The house seemed totally abandoned, and so far he wasn’t scared, just curious.
As he approached, Jungkook realized that the large room was in fact a living area, decorated in the Victorian style with antique designs covering the couches and wallpaper. Again, the objects in this room was aged, dirty, and broken in some way. A spiralling staircase that led to the second story was situated in the back of the room, though it was too dark to see what awaited at the top.
The door swung shut behind him with no warning.
It wasn’t an ominous sound, like how thrillers always began when the main character got trapped entering some haunted house they weren’t supposed to. No, the noise it made as it closed wasn’t in any way violent at all, but rather sounded almost lazy in the way it slowly creaked shut. However, he could very well hear the lock click, even though it seemed broken when he first entered, so Jungkook couldn’t blame it on the wind. Although he wasn’t scared of the supernatural in the slightest, the fact that the door had closed on its own without any explanation was starting to put him on edge.
A light, tinkling laugh drew his attention back to the parlor, and Jungkook was startled to find that he was no longer alone. Sitting on the central sofa were two men dressed like princes, though their unnatural eyes gave away the fact that they weren’t human. Seated at the feet of the younger-looking one was another man dressed in a similar fashion though his attire was almost entirely black, and matching midnight wings sprung from his back. A fourth man was perched casually behind the couch, a loose hand on the silver-haired man in front of him.
It had been the silver-haired man who laughed, piercing blue eyes crinkled up in an almost cute way. His friend next to him looked amused as well, though he appeared to be holding himself in a more reserved manner. Jungkook realized belatedly that the area was now illuminated, bathed in an eerie white glow that came from an unknown source. The shock at the sudden light made him drop the flashlight, and when he lifted his eyes again, the parlor had been restored to its state before it fell into disrepair. Everything was new and unblemished, and the absurdness of his situation made him dizzy. Jungkook was convinced that he must have been dreaming.
“I hope he makes it. He’s a cute one,” the man with wings commented idly, toying with the silver-haired man’s rings on his fingers.
“I do too, Tae,” he replied, lifting a hand to stroke the winged man’s hair.
“Who are you guys?” Jungkook managed to ask. “Where am I?”
“Perhaps you should have asked yourself those questions, when you decided to ignore the warning signs and trespass onto this property of your own free will,” the other man on the couch replied in a much more sophisticated way.
“But now that you’re here, why don’t we play a little game?” the silver-haired man said.
Jungkook was starting to feel extremely uncomfortable and, dream or not, wanted to leave as soon as possible. He cursed himself for not listening to his friends who had the sense to leave earlier. But then again, he had been expecting to find a creepy old abandoned house, not an old house inhabited by creepy people.
“Oh, you aren’t dreaming,” the raven-haired man behind the couch, who had been quiet thus far, spoke up as if reading his mind. “This is very real.”
“Who are you?” Jungkook asked again, for if he was currently facing four serial killers, he would at least like to know their names before he died. Maybe he could make a run for it, if he moved fast enough.
A blur of shadow moved in front of him, and suddenly Jungkook found himself being pinned to the nearest wall by the raven-haired man by a hand at his throat.
“My name is Yoongi,” he said, completely black eyes staring intensely into his soul. “And you aren’t leaving. No human can enter and leave a human.”
Jungkook was speechless, surprised at the speed with which the man moved, and also at his apparent capability to read his mind. More than being scared, though, he was more intrigued with what the man had said.
“What he means is that once you enter this house, you can’t exit again if you remain human. The rules of the house prevents you from doing so,” the brunet on the couch explained, lazy eyes following him predatorily.
“Namjoon, just tell him,” Yoongi demanded, loosening but keeping a firm grip on his neck should he try to escape. The man on the couch, who must have been Namjoon, took up explaining again.
“We’re demons. This house is a bridge between the human realm and ours, existing as an inter-dimensional space that flickers among the two. The original owners wanted to prevent humans from ever entering the threshold, which is why all those signs outside were put up. After we took over, we made a game out of turning the disobedient humans into demons, considering they’d have to be worthy to survive the process.”
Jungkook tried to take a step back, but he was already pushed up against the wall. “If this is a prank, it isn’t very funny.”
The silver haired man grinned, and this time Jungkook could see tiny, sharp canines that further enforced the man’s otherworldliness. “I assure you, this isn’t a prank at all. But I think you will find our games quite…fun.”
Jungkook didn’t like the way he said the word, eyes glinting like a predator who had his prey cornered. A protest was ready on his lips, but before he could say anything, Yoongi left his side as quickly as he had appeared, and his surroundings evaporated.
He found himself in a dark bedroom despite not having moved at all. Again, the walls and furniture were reminiscent of an old Victorian era, completely unblemished but looked sinister in the dim lighting. At first glance, the room appeared to be a typical bedroom, with two wooden shelves holding dark objects, a single bed, and an open chest sitting by the foot of the bed. Sitting on the bed was the winged boy that was called Tae earlier, smiling at him with unsettling golden eyes, mouth twisted in a boxy grin.
“We didn’t get to properly meet earlier. My name is Taehyung,” the man offered, raven wings flaring out to make the room seem even darker. “I oversee childhood dreams twisted by abandonment. Good luck, doll.”
He disappeared in a plume of black feathers, at the same time something behind him went click.
Jungkook turned around, faced with an army of wobbling, misshapen children’s toys, each staring at him with empty eyes as they advanced on broken and unsteady limbs. The china and cloth dolls resting on the shelves jumped from their spot, stitched on mouths facing him in frozen grins. More toys poured from the chest at the foot of the bed, robots with missing eyes clacking spasmodically and jack-in-the-boxes cackling at him manically.
Straight out of a horror film, Jungkook thought in a daze, still not fully convinced he wasn’t just back at Seokjin’s place sleeping after watching old movies.
One of the little cloth girls reached him, tilted her woolen head to one side for a moment like she was confused at his lack of reaction, before literally trying to scale him like a tree.
“Let’s play,” she sing-songed, as her sister started climbing up his other leg. “Play with us.” Her eyes glowed an eerie golden colour, the same shade Taehyung’s eyes were.
At the far end of the room was a door, and Jungkook felt as though he would be safe from these mutant toys if he could get out. The only problem was that an army of toys - some of them with razor sharp parts and crazy eyes - stood in his way. Unlike the dolls circling his feet, preventing him from moving but otherwise harmless, those playthings looked like they could inflict some serious damage.
”Play with us.” The doll girl had reached his shoulder, and she was now able to whisper into his ear with unmoving lips. Suddenly, sharp pinpricks of pain dug into his shoulder, and Jungkook realized that the doll had grown claws of some sort. She scratched him insistently. ”Play with us.”
More of the toys surrounding him were sprouting dangerous-looking appendages, and Jungkook knew now that they weren’t as harmless as their more cruel counterparts blocking his exit. Pain flared from one of his calves where a jack-in-the-box had jumped close enough to bite him. At the sight and scent of blood, the crowd of toys grew even more frenzied, advancing on him with renewed enthusiasm.
Jungkook racked his head desperately for a solution. Countless nights of marathoning bad horror movies to criticize the decisions of the main characters allowed him to search from the most logical way out, but he quickly dismissed the thought. The main characters would usually make a run for it when faced with monsters, but that action always led to them getting caught and killed. Besides, this entire mansion seemed to be made of organized chaos, which meant nothing was logical.
Taehyung’s words resonated in his mind. Childhood dreams twisted by abandonment…
It was a long shot, but it beat getting mauled to death by tiny Lego men.
“I’ll play with you guys,” he announced. Jungkook could feel the toys’ confusion, and after a pause they resumed their actions. However, their enthusiasm seemed less blood-hungry and more interested at the prospect of being played with again.
“Let’s play,” he said, echoing the words of the little cloth doll. With great difficulty, he managed to make his way to the bed, and he patted the spot beside him to invite the toys to join him. Once enough clambered up, Jungkook began arranging them in an action scene that a little boy might have when playing with robots and figurines. The dolls got their own corner as he did his best to set a tea party for them.
Nervously, his eyes flickered to the door before he turned his attention back towards the toys. After checking that they seemed content with what they were doing, Jungkook carefully moved away from them, slowly rising from the bed. The mattress smoothed out with the absence of his weight, but the toys seemed undisturbed by the shift.
Still keeping an eye on the deformed monstrosities on the bed, Jungkook inched his way towards the door in fear that sudden movement might attract their attention. He was halfway there when the toys stopped chattering for a second amongst themselves. One of the robots had frozen, slowly turning its head towards him without moving the rest of its body. Rather than speaking, it clattered excitedly, eyes glowing red. Jungkook vowed that if he survived the night, he would get rid of all the figurines he owned, for there was no way he could trust any toys after this.
With one mind, the toys surged off the bed, a fearsome army that went from content and harmless to lusting for blood in a blink. Jungkook abandoned all pretense of sneaking away, scrambling into a run for the door. He rattled the doorknob frantically while the toys closed in, realizing that of course, his captors wouldn’t let him get away that easily. His eyes scanned the room, looking for anywhere the key could be. The good news: he found it located on a necklace around one of the dolls. The bad news: said doll was currently surrounded by a group of robots with sharp tools for limbs, and they were huddled around her protectively.
“Hey, uh, would you mind if I take that?” Jungkook tried asking her politely. The robots held up their arms, spinning their blade-tipped hands menacingly. “Okay, I guess not,” he mumbled.
Looking around wildly, he noticed that the front line of wobbling figurines had almost reached him. Without thinking about what he was doing, Jungkook picked one up and threw it across the room. This generated quite a response from the crowd of toys, though most of them only looked because they were puzzled by his actions. The jack-in-the-box had a look of pure confusion on his smiley face, like that guy is about to die, why the hell did he just throw that?
That split second was all he needed, and Jungkook lunged forward to snap the chain holding the key off the doll’s neck. However, he wasn’t able to withdraw his arm fast enough, and searing pain flared from his forearm where one of the robots cut him.
Ignoring the pain, he focused on unlocking the door, praying to whatever unknown deity that the key was the right one. With a click, the door swung open, and Jungkook was able to escape from the creepy room. He closed the door behind him quickly, preventing the toys from following, though he could hear their angry mumbles as he leaned against the door to catch his breath.
He found himself in a dark corridor, that doubled as a balcony, overlooking a dim living room and a spiralling staircase. The demons must have transported him to the second floor, though he didn’t know how, meaning he was still inside the mansion.
Before his eyes could adjust to the poor lighting, however, his surroundings shifted.
This time, the room resembled the inside of some medieval tower, a simple, circular room that rose up out of sight. There were several small holes all along the wall, illuminated by faint moonlight that bled out of a barred window some distance above. The air was uncomfortably damp, chilly to the point that he shivered in his thin jacket. Jungkook’s injury finally caught up to him, and he looked down at his arm to assess the level of damage. The sleeve of his jacket had a strip torn in it, but the wound itself, though lightly bleeding, appeared to be a surface wound. His jacket must have taken the brunt of the attack, or else the cut would be much deeper.
“You’ve made it,” said a surprised but disappointed voice. Jungkook raised his eyes from his cut to see Yoongi, leaning against the far end of the chamber with all the lazy gracefulness of a cat ready to pounce.
“Dolls aren’t really scary,” Jungkook told him with false bravado, for although he used to think it was so, after his encounter with the toys he wasn’t so sure.
Yoongi apparently sensed his thoughts, and Jungkook remembered that he was telepathic. “Most people end up terrified of toys, you know, after that room. I’ll have to say, Taehyung spent a great deal of time working on those enchantments, so he’ll be quite disappointed to find that you’ve bested his challenge so easily.”
A silence settled between them, and the demon dragged it on until it was getting uncomfortable for Jungkook before continuing. “So you aren’t scared of dolls, huh?” he let out a small, huffing laugh. “Let’s see how you fare with my pets. I’d like to tell you they aren’t real but oh, human minds are so easily fooled.”
With that, he vanished, leaving Jungkook alone just as a pitter-patter sound like falling rain echoed in the stone chamber.
The hairs on his neck raised in alarm when Jungkook heard something hissing behind him, turning to face a green viper that had just slithered out of one of the holes in the chamber walls. Its lidless yellow eyes stared back, a forked tongue appearing and disappearing from its mouth. Jungkook took a step back from the creature, wondering how the animal could have been warped by demonic magic, when something crunched under his shoe.
Swallowing back the desire to throw up, he forced himself to look at whatever he just crushed, and instead found the entire floor swarming with arachnids. Spiders of all types scurried around, dropping at random from the ceiling like rain, and converged towards him. Scorpions poured from the cracks in the walls with more caution than their weaving counterparts and in smaller numbers, almost seeming like they were appraising their opponent before striking. Again, though Jungkook didn’t use to be particularly scared of creepy crawlies before, he was definitely terrified of them now.
This time, having dealt with Taehyung’s dolls before, Jungkook had a better idea as to what he was expected to do. His first course of action was to search for any exit, since as soon as he locates one he will be able to overcome this challenge. The walls were smooth, spiralling stone all the way up, however, and Jungkook doubted he’d be able to fit in one of those holes the bugs were crawling out of. His only other option was the barred window he’d noticed earlier, and upon closer inspection, he could vaguely make out chains and a padlock preventing it from being opened. It seemed as though like his previous room, this one would require a key to unlock.
Jungkook looked around again, trying his best to ignore the mass of creepy crawlies circling him as he looked for a key. He jumped when he felt cool scales touching his bare neck, crushing more spiders in the process. The green viper had just made itself comfortable draped across his shoulders, making no further movement save for the occasional shifting, and so he decided to let it be for the time being.
A small sting was felt right above his left ankle, and when he looked down Jungkook saw a large scorpion staring up with black, beady eyes and its stinger raised above its head.
“Think Jungkook, think,” he muttered to himself, trying to calm his nerves.
The arachnids were getting restless now, becoming frenzied as more of them poured from the walls like a never ending black waterfall. The pitter-patter of thousands upon millions of feet blended into one another as the entire army threatened to engulf him whole, partially blocking out what little light he had from the moon.
His snaky companion hissed right into his ear, forked tongue slithering out once more. It was staring intently into the spot where it came from, and so Jungkook followed its gaze to the hole in the rocks. It appeared slightly bigger and of a lighter shade than the others, but otherwise looked like nothing special. He peered closer for a look, jumping back in surprise when a second snake shot out of the hole. Jungkook turned just in time to prevent his eyes from getting poked out, but its fangs still grazed the side of his cheek. The serpent hissed with a vaguely human-like disappointment before coiling itself around Jungkook’s ankles, restricting his movement and crushing spiders in the process.
This isn't real, Jungkook reminded himself, taking deep breaths to calm his erratic heartbeat. He recalled Yoongi implying his critters were nothing more than illusions, but the creatures looked and felt far too real for his mind to be convinced.
The hole in the rocks was definitely glowing now, radiating be faint light from within. Jungkook could see the outline of a key hidden inside, thus revealing how he was to escape this room. All he had to do was grab the key inside and climb to the window using various crevices in the wall as hand-and-foot holds, which was a fairly simple task.
The snake on his shoulders hissed. Right, he had to escape without dying to the scorpions on the walls or the twin vipers with their fangs out and ready.
But the key was so close, and Jungkook was young and reckless. Steeling his nerves, he reached for the key and snatched his fingers back quickly, feeling as if his hand had been burned by acid. Still, a small sense of triumph blossomed in his chest as the key gleamed inconspicuously from his open palm.
As if agitated by his actions, the critters around him moved with an urgent sense of unity, swarming him and crawling up the wall, preventing him from finding any handholds to escape. The viper that was curled up around his feet now coiled itself around his left leg, fangs hovering over his ankle in casual warning.
Jungkook swallowed his fear determinedly, holding the key between his teeth to free up his hands as he prepared to brush off the arachnids on the stones. He grimaced as his hands came in contact with the spiders’ fat, furry bodies and the scorpions’ unsettlingly smooth carapaces. It's not real, it's not real, he chanted like a mantra, though the words assured him little. After all, illusions shouldn't have been able to be felt.
Once he had cleared enough space to see cracks in the rocks, Jungkook heaved himself up in his best imitation of Spider-Man. Although, in his current predicament surrounded by spiders, the thought was anything but reassuring.
The arachnids scurried aside to reveal more handholds as Jungkook climbed, though the ones around him pressed in close enough on either side to form a black, suffocating mass of legs and bodies.
He had nearly reached the windows when the snakes struck.
Thankfully, he had dug his fingers into the cracks as he climbed, or else the sudden bites would have made him fall completely and lose his progress, maybe causing him to crack his head open. Still, the pain made Jungkook clamp his jaws tight in shock, hurting his teeth against the key in his mouth. The vipers must have been venomous, for his vision was beginning to blur and the wall seemed to liquify.
It's not real, it's not real, he reminded himself, and pushed on.
As soon as Jungkook’s hands touched the padlock, the twin serpents slithered off him, as if deeming he'd passed their test. The spiders have long since fallen away, leaving only the scorpions to judge him silently with their beaded eyes.
Jungkook almost cried with relief when the chains fell away, allowing him to lift the grate over the window to let himself out, but he was too exhausted to do so. Instead, he only smiled wearily as he heaved himself onto a smooth surface beyond the window, too tired to question why he hadn't fallen from what appeared to be a tower from the inside. All he cared about was that he'd escape that particular hell, and could finally catch some rest.
"You are not quite finished yet," a deep voice roused him from his exhaustion.
Jungkook lifted his head with great effort, feeling his whole body ache in protest. The well-spoken demon from earlier, Namjoon, stood before him impeccably with an expression of sympathy. If he hadn't been a demon, Jungkook would have believed he felt bad for him, but it might just be a trick like everything else. If anything, Jungkook wanted to hit him for looking so clean and perfect while he felt like he just went through hell, maybe throw him into the dungeon with the snakes and scorpions.
"My challenge," Namjoon began without preamble, surprisingly straightforward after the previous two had misled him with confusing words. "My challenge is for you to face your inner demons. Thus far, you have only faced external challenges, and however they played on your fears, they looked strange and monstrous that you knew they were to be defeated. However, the human mind is often inapt at detecting faults within itself, for inner demons resemble very much the host of said demons. Do you understand?"
Jungkook wanted to shake his head in frustration. He didn't understand a single word that just came out of Namjoon's mouth, the sentences sounding exactly like the essay topics his English teacher loved to give them. But he also knew that arguing with Namjoon would be counterproductive, and so he forced himself to nod anyway.
"At least," Jungkook croaked out, voice scratchy from dryness. "Tell me how to pass."
Namjoon fixed him with unreadable, ageless eyes. "Accept your shortcomings. Embrace your faults. Choose the difficult route, and above all, stay true to your heart."
The demon vanished a second later, leaving him with no clues other than a bunch of difficult words.
Groaning, Jungkook struggled to his feet, assessing his new challenge. This room was covered entirely in mirrors, the floor included. He squinted to overcome the vertigo that came with staring into endless versions of himself.
As he looked at each mirror, hundreds that stretched as far as eye could see, the room began to tilt. It took Jungkook a moment to realize that it was an illusion of the looking glasses, who were morphing and twisting his reflection.
A lovely voice started singing from one of the mirrors, beckoning him forward. It sounded neither male nor female, producing a light, wordless melody that promised him riches and power, anything he wanted. He stopped in front of a tall, gilded mirror embroidered by gold with the word ‘desire’ engraved among the fancy patterns. Jungkook saw a room through the glass, a sleek high-technology chamber of shiny steel with an expensive computer sitting on the desk in the centre.
He took a forceful step back. By now, he was able to recognize illusions of the demons, no matter what form they took, though the temptation was strong.
Unfortunately for them, my greatest desire right now is to escape. Joke’s on you, Namjoon, Jungkook thought to himself.
He continued on, searching for a key that would let him out, even though this particular room doesn’t seem to have any exits. The window he had come from had been left behind, and there was no way he was going back to the dungeon of spiders and snakes.
Jungkook managed to walk a few more yards before the next mirror caught his eye.
Hoseok’s disappointed face looked back at him, his arms crossed and mouth set in a thin line. He was dressed in dance practice clothes, and Jungkook knew instinctively that he was in trouble with his dance captain.
“Jungkook, I thought you practiced this.” No Jungkook-ah, no Kookie, just his name, which indicated that Hoseok was truly upset. “That competition could have gotten our team to the finals, and our name out. How could you have messed up such an easy step?”
Hyung, I’m sorry, he wanted to reply, even thought consciously he knew he did nothing wrong. His voice just wouldn’t work, couldn’t say those words in case he disappointed Hoseok even more. Jungkook tried to back up, knowing this was fake and the real Hoseok was probably screaming his head off at tacky ghosts with Seokjin, but the disappointment radiating off his captain felt tangibly real.
“We were so close, Jungkook. I counted on you. We all did.”
He shook his head. “No, no, that’s not true. I didn’t do anything wrong. It wasn’t - I’m sorry, hyung.”
“That’s right, run away. You always run from your problems, Jungkook-ah.” The nickname now sounded mocking even as Hoseok’s voice faded, and he didn’t have to look back to know it was the mirror for his deepest fear.
Jungkook kept running, past the row of tortured mirrors screaming about his painful deaths, past the ones showing him images of his loved ones in pain, and ran on blindly through the maze of looking glasses until he reached the far end of the room.
He stared at the final mirror before him, a simple, non-descript full-length mirror that reflected him without distortion. A golden key hung from a chain at the corner of the glass, glinting like it was winking at him, like it was sharing a joke he was too slow to catch.
Too easy, Jungkook thought, reaching forward for the key anyway as he scanned the mirror for traps. All he saw was his tired and battered body, sunken eyes, and dirty clothes. When he took the key off its chain, a keyhole appeared at the top of the mirror, as if it had been there all along for decorative purposes and only now chose to reveal itself. Weary of games, Jungkook simply inserted the key and twisted.
The surface of the mirror rippled, turning into a swirling portal of grey mist. Mentally preparing himself for the last challenge, Jungkook stepped through to assess his new surroundings.
For a disorienting moment, he thought he was still in the portal, for all there was around him was a dense, rolling fog that refused to betray what dangers lied within.
“I’m impressed.” Jimin emerged from the mist, his piercing blue eyes all the more startling amongst the grey background. “No human has ever made it past Yoongi’s pets, much less Namjoon’s mirrors. Welcome to your final challenge. Escape my maze, and you will join our ranks as a demon. Fail, and…well, I’ll leave that up to your imaginations.”
The demon leaned forward at that, like he was about to share a secret. “I really do hope you survive, you know,” he stage-whispered. “You’re a cute one.”
With a light, tinkling laugh, Jimin stepped back and let the fog engulf him.
Jungkook frowned at his words. The first human to pass Yoongi’s test. That’s why Namjoon’s challenge was so easy, he thought despite himself. They wouldn’t know the mental state of someone who escaped that dungeon, and make changes accordingly. That means this maze might be easy, too.
I hope it’s easy.
Slowly, blindly, Jungkook inched forward. The grey fog swirled around him, creating an intangible blanket that threatened to suffocate him. His field of vision moved with him, revealing a small gate before him flanked by stone walls that disappeared into the smog. He took a deep breath, then stepped through the gate.
His first instinct was to put one hand on the wall, for he had heard somewhere before that by following a single wall in a maze, it would be possible to exit it without fail. However, the insides of these stone walls were not smooth like they had appeared on the outside, but were instead covered in strange, black, gleaming spikes. Jungkook felt as though he was in some medieval video game where the character had limited vision and had to dodge various traps to escape.
The first arrow shot out of the fog with no warning.
Jungkook was on the ground before he had time to process, stilling as he listened for any more surprises. He moved as if to get up before dropping down again, hearing a second arrow fly past his ear with a whistling sound. They seemed to be motion sensitive, yet nothing tried to kill him whilst he lied on his stomach, so Jungkook began army crawling.
Just like a video game. If he lived to see the light of day, Jungkook would tell Seokjin that video games saved his life. He picked up one of the fallen arrows and continued, throwing it up occasionally to check if he had cleared the section yet. When finally no more projectiles were being shot out of the walls, Jungkook rose to his feet cautiously.
He had arrived at a fork in the road, both equally unassuming and normal. Going with his gut, Jungkook picked the left path. He had barely taken three steps when he heard the familiar hiss of snakes, like the twin vipers from Yoongi’s dungeon except amplified by a thousand. Before him, the path ended completely, opening up into a large chamber not unlike an ancient arena. He was standing on a balcony where the spectators would usually sit, looking down at the battlefield. Instead of sand, however, it had been transformed into a pit of writhing serpents.
A single rope hung from the centre of the ceiling, far out of sight. The other end had been secured to the wall where Jungkook was, and he saw two clear paths. He could either swing directly across the pit to another balcony at the far end of the chamber, or he could swing sideways where the faint glow of a corridor beckoned him. The obvious choice was to get back on a path to find the maze’s exit, but in video games, the balcony would be the place where he was given some sort of aid on his mission.
His mission being staying alive, that is.
Mind made up, Jungkook unhooked the rope and wrapped it several times around his hands before tugging on it to ensure its security. His heart was pounding, the adrenaline of making a risky move in a video game rushing through his veins except if he died, there would be no reset button. He’d die a horrible and painful death bitten to death by venomous snakes in the arena below.
What a cheery thought.
Clenching his teeth, Jungkook pushed off the balcony, using the force to swing his whole body across the pit. Unable to close his eyes in fear, Jungkook forced himself to look straight ahead at his goal instead of downwards, for the sight would have no doubt caused him to lose his grip.
For a moment, it almost seemed like he wouldn’t make it. The wall was too far, he’d lose momentum and swing back to his original path, or he’d lose so much force that he would just end up hanging over the pit forever.
Miraculously, just when Jungkook thought he reached the peak of the arch, the rop kept going for an extra second, allowing him to land at the balcony. Yet in his haste to land, Jungkook had accidentally let go of the cord. It now swung sluggishly at the centre of the chamber, limp and useless. He wouldn’t be going out that way, then.
Turning his attention to the balcony, Jungkook realized that it was actually a small niche in the wall, containing nothing but a small lever. There was no marking on it, just a simple metal lever sticking out of the stone.
Jungkook pulled it.
It was impulsive, perhaps, given that it could have blown him up on the spot. But video game logic kicked in once again, telling him that pulling it would provide a beneficial result.
His surroundings melted away suddenly, leaving him back in the living room he’d started in a lifetime ago. Jungkook looked down, finding that his clothes were unmarked and not a single wound remained on his skin.
The four demons were back in their original positions on or around the couch, all staring at him intensely with their unreadable faces. After an eternity, Jimin rose and approached him.
“You cheated,” he whined like a petulant child. “You were supposed to escape the maze fair and square.” Although his tone was disappointed, Jungkook thought he could hear a hint of grudging admiration as well.
“I passed your challenge. You never specified how I was supposed to. Let me go,” Jungkook demanded with false bravado, exhausted with the events of the night. He was still coming to terms with the fact that all his challenges had been an illusion of the demons in his head, and he was in no mood to play whatever little mind game they had for him now.
Jimin shook his head. “That’s not part of the rules, you know.”
“But I passed, didn’t I? You can’t kill me. At most, you said you would turn me into a demon.”
The four demons stared at each other, as if having a telepathic conversation. Yoongi seemed to be arguing against Namjoon, about what Jungkook didn’t even want to guess.
Finally, Namjoon sighed and nodded, and Jimin gestured at him. With his inhuman speed, Yoongi appeared in front of Jungkook, and although he was merely looking him in the eyes, Jungkook felt like his very soul was being examined.
Then, the world tilted beneath his feet, and everything went dark.