Chapter Text
A tug.
“Come on!”
“Slow down,” Yoongi laughs. “Where are you taking me?”
Jimin doesn’t answer immediately. His scarf trails along behind him. His heart is pounding with barely contained excitement. He’s been planning this for weeks, trying to find the right opportunity.
The lights and sounds of the Halloween Fair are so loud and bright but rather than head towards the festivities, Jimin purposely leads them away, towards more secluded areas.
Yoongi huffs along just behind him, trying to keep pace with his hurried steps. “Come on, Jimin. Where are we going?”
“You’ll see!” he replies with a coy smile. He has to suppress a laugh at the sight of Yoongi’s pout.
It’s another minute or two before they reach the location Jimin had in mind.
This far out from the main fair, there is only one attraction left. Slowing down, they come to a stop in front of an entrance emblazoned with the sign ‘The Haunted Corn Maze.’
It’s the early evening. This deep into autumn, the sun has already set by this hour and the only light around comes from the four torches positioned at each corner of the small maze. The moon is not yet high in the sky.
The stalks of corn that line the maze are tall and withered. They cluster around thickly, blocking out any view of the inside. Some of them bend and twist over each over like gnarled fingers. All in all, it’s got a pretty eerie ambiance, Jimin has to admit. He finds himself both thrilled and spooked in equal measure. Which is fine, as it’s all the better to distract him from the butterflies in his stomach.
‘It’ll be great’, he thinks.
They do say a light scare is good for romance. Gets the adrenaline going.
They can walk around in the shadowed paths of the maze. It’s the perfect excuse to keep holding onto Yoongi’s hand, if nothing else. And when they reach the middle, he’ll finally work up the courage to ask Yoongi out properly like he planned. There’s nobody around except for them. It’s perfect.
“’The Haunted Corn Maze’?” Yoongi asks dubiously.
“Sure,” Jimin grins. “It’s a Halloween classic. We can pretend we’re on the run from a serial killer or something. It’ll be fun! Unless, of course, you’re too scared,” Jimin ribs playfully.
A snort. “Of course not. All that ‘haunted’ stuff is fake anyways.” Yoongi rolls his eyes. Turning to Jimin he goes, “well, what are we standing here waiting for?”
To his delight, it’s Yoongi that tightens his grip on Jimin’s hand and drags them both forward through the small entrance.
Inside, the path is narrow. The ground is carpeted in a layer of fallen leaves and dried stalks that crunch gently underfoot. The crowded rows of corn almost feel like they’re pushing in on the two of them.
They walk through side by side, still hand in hand. Jimin can’t help the way his heart flutters in his chest at being this close to Yoongi. They’re alone and he has him all to himself for once, without the audience of their endearing, yet sometimes overbearing friends.
Turning, he looks at the man beside him. The torches are bright, but the farther in they go, the harder it is for the light to illuminate.
Shadows dance across Yoongi’s face with each flicker of the flames, wild and erratic, highlighting the different angles and planes of his features. They cast a golden glow over his normally pale complexion and imbue him with an otherworldly allure. Not for the first time, Jimin can’t help but marvel at how gorgeous he is. The hopeless romantic in him thinks that it’s like looking at a work of art given life.
Yoongi notices. “What’s got you staring so intently? Do I have something on my face? Be honest, it’s the fake cobwebs from earlier, isn’t it?”
“Mm-mm, nope you’re good,” Jimin shakes his head. He pulls them to a stop. They’re already pretty deep inside. It’s probably as good a place as any.
“Then what is it? Come on, I’m starting to get self-conscious,” Yoongi laughs.
“What for? With how gorgeous you are, I think I could stare at you all day, actually. There is certainly a lot to look at.” Jimin has to commend himself for not stuttering, even as the nerves are twisting his stomach into knots. He can’t believe he was just so forward…
Yoongi quirks his lips in amusement at Jimin’s attempt at flirting. “Is that right, now? You’ll have to be a little more specific. Just what exactly has caught your attention?” The light tone of his voice suggests playfulness but the way he’s looking at Jimin now, eyes heavy and dark under the shadows is enough to make Jimin want to melt on the spot. If anything, the man seems to understand exactly what he is trying to do. And the fact that he’s playing along? Well, that’s just the ample encouragement Jimin needs. His nerves settle ever-so-slightly.
Taking Yoongi’s return flirting as an invitation, Jimin makes the bold decision to step in closer, narrowing the gap between them. He lets his eyes trace up Yoongi’s body, from his chest to his face, slow and obvious. “Hmm, for one, I was just thinking how pretty your eyes look in the evening light. When you turn a certain way the light reflects off like they’re glowing. It’s kind of mesmerizing.”
“Really,” Yoongi hums. “I had no idea. Anything else?”
Jimin nearly jumps as he feels Yoongi slide a hand around his waist. The man smirks at him seductively.
Oh wow.
This is actually happening.
Although they’ve had a lot of romantic tension, especially with the rest of the group making snide comments about when they were going to officially be a couple, Jimin hadn’t actually allowed himself to truly entertain the possibility, too scared of being let down. Too afraid that he’s misread all the platonic gestures as more than they really were.
But there’s no way he’s misreading this. It’s as good as an answer before Jimin has even asked the question. He feels himself buoyed with confidence. He slides a hand up Yoongi’s chest in response.
“Well, maybe I also like the way that leather jacket looks on you. Sleek and edgy. Gives you a bad boy vibe. Black is a good colour on you.”
Yoongi hums again. The vibrations reverberate throughout his chest and up Jimin’s fingers. “I didn’t know you had a thing for leather.”
“I didn’t know either until I saw you in it.”
A soft chuckle. “Cute.”
And then Yoongi is looking at him, gentle and expectant, like he’s waiting for Jimin to make the next move.
They’re so close.
Jimin can practically smell the cotton fresh scent of Yoongi’s fabric softener. Meanwhile, Yoongi’s got one hand in his jeans pocket, the other wrapped loosely around Jimin’s waist in an undemanding fashion, giving him the chance to pull away if he wants.
As if Jimin would ever.
Their faces are only inches apart. So close. Yoongi has practically given him permission. He just needs to lean in a little closer and then—
A loud rustle.
Jimin startles, jumping visibly. Yoongi’s head snaps up as well. His hand falls away.
Another rustle. This time louder and closer, directly behind them. The stalks shake. Beside him, he can feel Yoongi tense.
“Is…is someone there?” Jimin asks, voice small.
No reply.
He hadn’t really expected one.
The rustling ceases. A long, cautious silence takes over as the stalks fall eerily still.
Jimin is just about to write off the entire thing as a squirrel when all of a sudden, something comes stumbling out from between the wall of criss-crossing stalks.
“What the fu—” Yoongi starts, one hand darting out to pull Jimin behind him.
A jumble of limbs falls out onto the ground in front of them messily.
It’s a man.
The unknown figure twitches among the spread of dried vegetation on the ground. He stiffens when he hears Yoongi’s voice, before lifting his head to look in their direction like he hadn’t realized they were there.
The man is unusually pale and gaunt, with a complexion that reminds Jimin distinctly of a skull. Stringy black hair contrasts against bloodless skin. His eyes appear sunken. Maybe it’s the lighting, but Jimin swears his pupils seem to be tinted red as the light of the torches flicker across his face. Even so, he appears young, perhaps in his mid-twenties. A plain shirt and black jeans. Maybe he’s another student from the local university, just like them.
Still, his demeanor is unusual and it gives Jimin an unsettled feeling. Something about him immediately sets the hairs on the back of Jimin’s neck on end. There’s something off…
Perhaps he’s a drug user, shooting up in the secluded maze where he thought nobody would see him? It might explain the bizarre behaviour, particularly if he’s still high. He certainly seems disoriented enough, making no attempts to walk away or really, to leave them alone like Jimin wishes he would.
‘Just go away please,’ Jimin pleads silently. Let him go back to enjoying his night with Yoongi.
“Hey, who are you?” Yoongi demands when it’s clear the man isn’t going anywhere.
The man doesn’t reply. He stares at them, a weird expression on his face. If Jimin had to describe it, he thinks it looks…hungry. “I…I need…” the man begins, reaching a hand out towards them.
“’Need’? Need what?” Yoongi asks. He takes a step back with Jimin warily.
But before he can finish the sentence, the man’s knees buckle and he collapses face first on the ground in front of them, unmoving.
“What the— Hey!” Yoongi calls.
No answer.
“Shit.” Yoongi pats a hand against Jimin, indicating he should stay back, before venturing forward cautiously. All sense of lightness from their earlier entanglement is forgotten.
“Hey,” he calls again. “You okay?”
No response, not even a twitch of a muscle. The man lies still, looking for all intents and purposes like he’s dead. Jimin immediately starts to feel the panic creep in. Oh god, what are they going to do if he is?
Yoongi gets a little closer and drops down beside the prone man and shakes his shoulders.
Nothing.
“Oh no, he’s not dead, is he?”
“No idea,” Yoongi replies. He lays two fingers on the man’s neck in an attempt to find a pulse. Almost immediately after his fingers touch the bare skin, he pulls them back as if stung, cursing.
“What is it?” asks Jimin, alarmed.
“Jesus, he’s ice cold. What the hell?”
What?
Now that he’s paying attention, the man is only in a thin t-shirt and it’s the middle of October.
“Maybe he’s got hypothermia then?”
“No clue, but anything’s possible.” Turning back to the man, Yoongi shakes him again. “Hey buddy, get up.”
Still no response
“Goddammit,” Yoongi mutters, running a hand through his black hair. “Hey Jimin,” he says. “I’m going to stay here with him. Can you run back to the fair and get someone? There should be a medical booth. He might be going into shock and we need to do something before he freezes to death. Maybe he got lost. Who knows how long he’s been out here for?”
Jimin doesn’t like this. “Can’t we just call someone?”
Yoongi shakes his head. “That might take too long. It would be faster if you run and get one of the medical staff at the fair.”
Jimin doesn’t exactly want to leave Yoongi alone, especially not in the middle of a deserted maze with a strange man that appeared out of nowhere, but Yoongi has a point. No matter who he is, they should try to help him, especially when he’s potentially dead or dying. Besides, the fair is close. If he hurries, he can be back in fifteen minutes, tops.
“Alright,” Jimin nods with visible reluctance. “Just…be careful, okay? We don’t know who he is…”
Yoongi nods back. “I will, don’t worry. Just hurry, Jimin.”
Still not feeling completely at ease but without any other options, Jimin turns and breaks into a light jog as he heads back towards the maze entrance. His footsteps are muffled as he stomps on the dried stalks lining the ground. Jimin follows the same route back, taking a left turn here, a right turn there. The light of the entrance torches draws brighter with each step.
It’ll be alright.
Yoongi will be okay by himself for a little bit. Jimin will be back with help in no time. Still, the thought does nothing to dissipate his growing unease. He has a bad feeling about this…
He tries to clear his mind and put his focus on running.
Another turn, and in front of him is the entrance. Charging through, he’s in the open, the cool night air all around.
Jimin picks up speed as he spots the lights of the fair in the distance. Not much further now. He’ll be back before he knows it—
Suddenly, a scream cuts through the evening air. It’s coming from the maze behind him.
Jimin screeches to a stop.
Frantically, he whips his head around, feeling his blood turn to ice in his veins.
A second scream, this one shorter and more abrupt, like it’s cut off.
That sounds like…
…Yoongi!
Immediately abandoning the plan to head back to the fair, Jimin swivels around so fast that he almost trips over his own feet. With renewed speed, he sprints back into the maze. Each step brings on a renewed sense of dread. What’s happened?! He needs to get back there!
“Yoongi!” he shouts.
Damn it! He knew he shouldn’t have left Yoongi alone!
Barring that second scream and his own pounding footsteps, it’s silent again. No one answers him. The whole place is as quiet as death and it sends Jimin flying into a panicked frenzy.
“Yoongi!” he shouts desperately again. “Just hang on!”
He’s close. Jimin recognizes the bunch of twisted corn stalks on the left. Another turn and he will be right back where—
Jimin rounds the corner and freezes in his tracks.
There, from the shadows…
…two glowing red eyes stare back at him.
Wicked.
Menacing.
Feral, like an animal.
Cold sweat starts to bead at the back of his neck.
Staring into those eyes is like staring into a crimson abyss, full of the kind of vile corruption and enmity. Jimin feels his chest clench tight. For the very first time in his life, he realizes what true, primal fear feels like.
Those eyes belong to the same nameless man from before but now, he’s no longer a motionless heap on the ground. No, he’s very much alive and looking infinitely more sinister than when Jimin last laid eyes on him, face twisted nearly beyond recognition. He isn’t human…that much is certain. No human can exude such malevolence. Jimin should have trusted his gut instincts.
Oh god is that—
The man is hunched over a prone body on the ground, head inches away like he’d been feasting.
Messy black hair and a leather jacket…
That looks like—
“Yoongi!” Jimin shouts, somehow finding his voice in spite of the paralyzing fear.
The man—the creature—blinks at his cry. Slowly, the creature rises to its feet, fluid with an inhuman kind of grace. Pale gangly limbs sway with the motion. It takes a step towards Jimin. Then another.
Then, its face splits and Jimin is staring into a wide, bloody grin.
It’s like looking into the bowels of hell itself.
Jimin’s knees are shaking so badly. He wants to turn around and run but he can’t. He’s frozen to the spot, unable to do anything besides watch as the pale abomination draws closer with each agonizing second.
And Yoongi…Yoongi is crumpled on the ground, unmoving.
Oh god, he’s dead, isn’t he? He’s dead because Jimin left him alone when he knew he shouldn’t have. They’re both going to die here at the hands of this monster. It’s going to feast on them and this is going to be the end.
The creature takes another step closer.
Jimin absolutely loses it.
Squeezing his eyes shut, he lets out the loudest and longest scream of his life, in the faintest hope that someone somewhere will come rescue them.
He doesn’t know how long he holds it for but by the time he finally stops, his throat is raw and hoarse and he has physically run out of air.
Teeth chattering, he doesn’t dare open his eyes. Doesn’t want to look into those hellish eyes.
But it’s silent, unnaturally so.
Several seconds pass. There are no more sounds of footsteps crunching on the ground. Not even the rattle of the wind through the cornstalks.
Slowly and with great reluctance, Jimin opens his eyes.
There’s no one in front of him.
The man is gone.
Instead, it’s only Yoongi, lying on the ground
In an instant, the gravity of the situation sinks in.
“Shit, Yoongi!” Quickly getting a hold of himself, Jimin stumbles forward. ‘Please, please be okay!’ he thinks as he drops down.
His breath hitches and his eyes widen when he catches sight of all the blood.
So much of it, vibrantly red.
All the way down Yoongi’s neck.
Oh, no, no, no this can’t be happening.
Mind blank, Jimin lays a hand on Yoongi’s shoulder and shakes roughly. “Yoongi! Come on, please wake up! Please be okay!” he begs.
No response.
He shakes his friend again, more desperately this time. “Please Yoongi, wake up!” Even to himself, he voice sounds like he’s on the verge of crying. Which is exactly how he feels right now.
How did this happen?! Oh god, what does he do?!
“Yoongi!” he screams. No this wasn’t how this night was supposed to turn out!
Jimin is just about ready to collapse into a full mental breakdown when—
A cough.
And then a soft groan.
Metal clasps clink as they slide against each other.
Jimin’s heart leaps into his throat as, against all hope, the man below him stirs.
“Oh my god! You’re alive!” He doesn’t think he’s ever been so happy or relieved in his life. Tears well up in his eyes. He blinks them away quickly.
With both hands, Jimin gingerly helps Yoongi sit up.
“Holy shit, Yoongi, what the hell happened? And your neck! Oh my god!”
With a shaky hand, Jimin unravels his cotton scarf and tries to use it to scrub away some of the blood covering his friend. Yoongi doesn’t even flinch as the rough fabric of the scarf rubs against what has to be a large painful wound. Instead, he stares straight ahead, eyes heavy and unfocused, mouth slightly agape. He looks like a doll, with how vacant he appears.
The stare unnerves Jimin and he stops.
“Yoongi…?” he says cautiously. He waves a hand in front of the man’s face.
No reaction.
Not good. He’s probably in shock.
Jimin doesn’t pause to examine the wound on his neck any closer, although a cursory glance tells him it doesn’t seem like it’s bleeding as heavily as he initially thought. Maybe it didn’t damage an artery after all. God, Jimin hopes so.
Quickly, he drapes his scarf around Yoongi several times, careful to do so tightly enough to staunch any of the remaining bleeding but not tightly enough to strangle his friend.
Throughout all of this, Yoongi doesn’t so much as blink.
And it’s really starting to creep Jimin out.
“Hey, hey,” he cups a hand on Yoongi’s cheek and turns it so they are face to face. “Yoongi, look at me. Say something. Tell me you’re okay.”
In the dark of the corn maze, Yoongi’s eyes are nearly black. His gaze trails off into some unknown space just over Jimin’s shoulder. Seconds tick by. Jimin waits with bated breath.
Slowly, those eyes start to move. It takes a few more seconds but finally, they meet his own.
“Ji…Jimin…” a soft murmur.
“Oh, thank god,” Jimin says, feeling the relief flood over him like a tide. He’s about ready to faint out of joy.
After they get out of here, he is never stepping a foot near any corn mazes ever again. This has been way more madness than he ever wants to experience. Is it too much to ask for that the two of them can just go home and forget about all of this?
“Yes, yes! It’s me! Okay, we’ll get you out of here, Yoongi, don’t worry. We’ll get you help.” He digs out his cell phone from his pocket. “Just hang on, I’ll call someone and we’ll take you to the hospital, okay?”
Something flashes across Yoongi’s eyes.
In a split-second, a hand closes around Jimin’s wrist, fast like lightning. He gasps. He didn’t even see Yoongi move.
Whereas before his friend’s eyes were blank and unfocused, in an instant they come alive to bore into Jimin’s with a startling intensity.
“No…” Yoongi says, voice low and hoarse. There’s something else there, something layered underneath that doesn’t sound like his friend.
“’No’? B-but Yoongi,” Jimin stammers, at once freaked out and confused by the sudden shift in his demeanor. “You’re injured. We need to get you looked at. And we have to tell the police you were attacked so they can find that man and—”
“I said no,” growls Yoongi again.
Jimin flinches at the harshness of his voice, distinctly gravelly and almost animalistic.
And those eyes…those eyes won’t stop staring at him like they’re peering straight into his soul.
Jimin gulps. “Y-yoongi,” he tries again. “You’re…you’re really starting to scare me, okay? Stop it. You’re injured and you’re bleeding. We need to get you to a doctor!”
The grip on his wrist suddenly becomes crushing like a vice. Jimin drops the phone with a pained gasp.
“Yoongi, stop!” he pleads. “You’re hurting me!”
“No…police.” Yoongi says again, in that same disconcerting way.
The grip on his wrist won’t let up.
What the hell is wrong with him?!
“Okay, okay, I won’t call anyone I promise! Just let go! Please!”
And just like that, the hand is gone.
Jimin blinks back tears as he looks at his wrist, to his fallen phone and then back to Yoongi, who returns his gaze with an eerie blankness.
It’s so unnatural, so unlike Yoongi that damn it, Jimin can’t stand to keep looking at him like that. Quickly, Jimin turns his focus away to pick up his phone, breathing a sigh of relief when he checks to see that it’s undamaged from the drop before stuffing it back into his pocket.
Turning back to his friend, Jimin yelps.
Yoongi’s face is inches from his own, having leaned in while he was preoccupied. Those eyes that Jimin had called beautiful not so long ago are now thoroughly unsettling.
Yoongi tilts his head. The splatters of blood are bright against his pale skin. This close, the metallic stench is cloying. “Are you scared, Jimin?”
Jimin nods back mutely, hands trembling. Yoongi’s mouth turns up into a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes.
“Don’t be.”
And he closes the distance between them.
The lips that brush against his are gentle, whisper soft like the touch of a warm breeze. It’s everything Jimin had wanted tonight but he can’t even enjoy it because it feels like every version of wrong. How did his entire evening derail like this? The countless times he’d played the scenario in his head, he’d imagined pressing up against Yoongi in the dark of the maze, both of them happy and laughing.
Not like this.
Not with Yoongi bloodied and barely lucid, while Jimin is a terrified and nervous wreck struggling to make sense of this whole mess of a situation.
The lips pull away.
Yoongi drops his head into the crook of Jimin’s neck. “I wanna go home,” he sighs. “Take me home, Jimin.”