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"I'm asking you what this room is all about!"
The detectives were being nosy again, that Doyoung could tell. Not like it was his business though, his brother did take the spiritual side from their late father, even dropping out of college to pursue his dream as a pastor. Johnny had always been the type to immediately jump on any sign of haunting.
Doyoung...well. He wasn't as fascinated.
"It's a special room," Johnny replied, his voice lowering into a whisper and the sound of the rusty metal door closing followed suit. It didn't matter to Doyoung though, as he sat crossed legged on his bed with his head an inch away from the wall.
A wall thinner than any other wall in their home.
Doyoung kept his eyes on his book, gently tracing his finger on the swirly letters written in thin lines of manually made ink. From the other side of the wall, he heard Johnny drag two stools to usher their esteemed guests to sit. He could hear them whisper to each other, their voices easy to be told apart and names too common to forget.
"This place is insane," he heard Taeyong hiss. He could visualize the image of the blonde haired detective's eyes darkening the way they did when Johnny had accidentally spilled that there were spiritual happenings in their home. "You reckon we'd get something to report that doesn't sound like it was written by a madman?"
Taeil shushed him, his voice quiet enough that he didn't have to resort to hissing breaths to speak. "We should hear what he has to say first, TY"
The nickname made Doyoung smirk, sounding as childish as the ones Johnny called himself. Many people were children at heart, that Doyoung knew. He did still feel awkward when called things like "angel" and "dear". Johnny didn't have to know that.
"We come from a family of exorcists, from our ancestors all the way down to us. Comes from our fathers side" Something clinked, as if Johnny had picked up two bottles of herbs and power. "These come in handy when...unfortunate things happen."
"Do elaborate on the unfortunate part," Taeil interrupted, his voice calm and steady. "We're here to investigate a specific unfortunate event."
Scuffling. A heavy sigh. "May I ask which one...to narrow down the scope"
"We're here because there has been...a plague of nightmares reported." the harsh voice of Lee Taeyong cut through the calmness. "People at this apartment, even the staff, have been having series of bad dreams repetitively. Dreams that foreshadow death and murder."
The screech of a stool. "Does any of this perk your curiosity, Mr Suh?"
Johnny's chuckle was low and grim. "Yes, actually. It does. But that still doesn't help me figure out how to help you."
"We don't need a specific case, Mr Suh," Taeil spoke, his movement to stand not quite as vicious as Taeyong's. "We want to know what had happened last month"
Silence. Deathly silence that weighed between the detective and the 26 year old man. Doyoung kept quiet with them, waiting for an answer he already knew. It was a secret between himself and Johnny, or perhaps it was their own individual ones. Johnny had been serious on the matter while Doyoung had gone on with his life as merrily as ever.
Still, it was Johnny's own choice to break the promise he had started.
"I didn't realize what was happening until he woke up screaming," Johnny's tone was defeated and he seemingly slumped onto one of the chairs in the small room. "The lights were flickering and he was fighting something...convulsing and — "
"He was possessed by a demon?" Taeil asked, "Your brother. He was being...bothered by spirits, wasn't he?"
A loud bang resonated, making Doyoung jump ever so slightly. The lights in his room flickered. Johnny had slammed his fist against the wooden shelf of powdered garlic and greens. Out of fear or out of guilt, Doyoung couldn't tell.
"What's important is that it's gone." Johnny said with a tone of finality, his facade crumbling along with his resolve to help out the two detectives. "I exorcised the evil being myself, saw the soul of it leave my brothers body. It's a night I'd rather not relive and I believe you've overstayed your welcome."
Doyoung closed his book, sliding it under his blanket before making his way to the living room to pretend he had been there all along. He could almost feel the power radiating from the pentagram that lay hidden under the carpet as he passed over it, the memory of that night flashing through his head.
Johnny had a point. They shouldn't remember that night, it was safer for himself that way.
-
"We need you to stay at a foster care or your friend's house for the time being"
Doyoung set down his cup of hot coffee onto the glass table. He found it rather immoral for the detectives to show up at his door when they knew Johnny wasn't home. Still, there were another two of them for back up and that meant Doyoung was outnumbered four to one.
He had allowed them to guide him to the police station.
"Did something happen? Was my brother shoplifting again?"
"Your brother was —? Actually, no. It's not about his criminal record." The detective that sat directly in front of him cleared his throat, massaging the sides of his neck as he studied the clipboard on the table intently. "We just need to investigate your apartment while your brother isn't there."
Strange. These detectives didn't seem to be bound by anything if they could get away with doing private investigation without the owners consent. Perhaps they were bound by truth and justice, the thought making Doyoung stifle a laugh.
Getting himself accused would be most unfortunate.
"I don't have any other place to go. I could just wait around until you're finished."
"We might take hours — "
"You've already requested me to do your bidding behind my brothers back," Doyoung continued, keeping his smile pleasant as he looked at them in the eye one by one. "I can be lenient on our privacy since you act by the law, but that is all."
Guilty mutters followed his statement but Doyoung paid no mind. Being powerless did start to become a norm. The phone he had handed to one of the detectives — Detective Mark whose hands became more jittery the longer Doyoung sat there — was passed back to him, four new contacts saved.
"We'll call for you when we're done. But there might be times of emergency when we'll need you to move fast, so always be alert." Taeil said sternly, arms crossed as he looked at Doyoung in worry. "Is there anything you need?"
Doyoung brought a hand up to his mouth and breathed out, wincing at the smell of his own breath. "A mint if you can. Johnny will freak if he finds out I'm drinking coffee. He doesn't like it."
-
The weather as getting chilly, the streets emptying as the sky foreshadowed a storm. Doyoung didn't mind the cold, which was why he still sat there on the rusty swing, swinging back and forth lightly. Johnny hadn't arrived when he had finally made it home. Strangely, Doyoung had felt a little bit disappointed about that.
"How about it?" he asked the shadow of himself on the grass, "Things are moving faster than usual, faster than I thought."
The black reflection didn't have an answer. Apparently, someone else did.
"That's a good sign," Detective Jaehyun said as he settled on the swing beside Doyoung with a dimpled smile. Contradicting his friendly demeanor was an ashen face, eyes clouded and distracted. They had found something perhaps...or had already made a conclusion. "It will be over faster than we thought."
"I don't want it to be over faster," Doyoung replied, looking back at his shadow. "I want things to go back to the way it was."
"And if it doesn't?"
Doyoung's feet scraped against the ground, harsh against the silence of the evening. His fingers tightened their grip on the metal chains, hard enough to turn his knuckles white. "Can you at least give me a hint on what's going on?"
The detective's face was thoughtful, partially flushed with guilt. Actually, his ears were turning a bright shade of red — which Doyoung suspected was not from the cold.
"Your brother might not be the person you think he is. So...be prepared for things to happen, and the call might come...earlier than you think."
Doyoung's grip loosened.
-
"We need to get him out of that godforsaken house!" Mark stated sharply, rubbing his palms against his face. "Like, right now."
Taeil was flipping through his notes, calm facade replaced with one of barely contained panic. They were still in the house and Jaehyun had moved to guide Doyoung away from the apartment. The owner had sent emergency texts to the residences privately to have them stay locked in their homes.
"God, I would never have thought. This is some nightmare material" Taeyong's voice was getting higher pitched the longer he paced around the living room — which had a freaking pentagram in the middle. Not only that. They had found strange and disturbing items located in Johnny's room, almost in clear sight.
"The exorcism wasn't complete," Mark read again from the text a local exorcist had sent them wen they'd snapped evidence and sent them to him. "The evil spirit could have broken free of the pentagram before it could be properly exorcised."
"It's in Johnny Suh's body. We've been talking to it the whole time!" Taeyong wailed, shushed as Taeil made a phone call. They had to get the police inside before Johnny came home and...misfortune happened. The memory of the lights flickering and the ominous presence in the strange room was clear in Taeyong and Taeil's memory.
Mark's phone blinked.
He's here.
-
"Get off of me!"
Jaehyun's skin crawled as he stood there, watching the police carry his Johnny away in shackles. The sight wasn't pleasant, but Jaehyun had to keep calm as he held Doyoung back with a hand on his shoulder. He could see the man's eyes well up with unshed tears, hands balled into fists.
The people across the street were watching, and Jaehyun suddenly felt like a monster.
"We'll keep him contained until he's ready to be exorcised." he said in hopes to cheer up the latter, but Doyoung gave no reaction. Jaehyun had heard that it was him who had been possessed at first, had succumbed to the evil spirit and suffered its wrath.
Now, he was suffering again.
"Doie! Doie save me! Hyung didn't do anything! I saved you, I promise you I saved you and I'm clear! You can feel it can't you? I'm clear!"
Doyoung didn't answer, so Jaehyun gently spun him around so he could bury his face in his chest. Under his touch, he could feel Doyoung's body shaking.
-
It wasn't his first time.
Johnny had been jailed before, but when he did he knew he's be free. Now, he wasn't so sure. Most of his thoughts centered around him being the one possessed. It was possible, and the fact that his own brother had suffered for a long time before he had noticed could be a sign that he was still weak.
He's rather spend eternity in prison than hurt Doyoung.
Currently, he was being guided to the inmate visiting room where Doyoung already sat on the chair behind the glass. It had always been difficult to read what Doyoung was feeling, especially in instances like this when he wore a poker face. Gingerly, Johnny slid into his seat before leaning forward, closer to the glass so Doyoung could hear.
"I'll get better, okay Doie?" he spoke softly, watching his brother's brows furrow. It always pained Johnny that the exorcism — the failed one — had left his brother almost detached with reality. He seldom forgot things, showed signs of amnesia that Johnny patiently guided him though. "They'll get rid of this demon and then I'll be back. I'll make up for it."
"Make up...for it?"
Doyoung's head was bowed so Johnny couldn't see his face. His hands were clasped together so tight it looked painful, and his shoulders were shaking as if containing sobs. How Johnny longed to reach out and take those hands in his own, to comfort his brother and make promises he could keep.
"Make up for it?" Doyoung repeated, and he raised his head.
His eyes were glinting mischievously, a smug smile thinning his lips. He leaned back against his chair calmly, eyebrows raised as if questioning Johnny's existence. Nothing in his expression could make Johnny persuade himself that that was his brother. Someone else...no...something else was behind that innocent face.
"Don't make promises you can't keep, you scum of the earth" Doyoung stated, a smirk on his face as he watched Johnny with obvious amusement. "You couldn't even save your brother."
Johnny slammed his palms against the counter, only for the security to move towards him in warning. His brother laughed pitifully, leaning his elbows on the marble and cupping his cheeks. "You forsaken being, I made sure you ceased to exist. I saw you leave his body, saw sanity return to his eyes. I invoked your name, detached your soul from him and banished you to hell!"
"Which soul did you banish, dear human?" Doyoung asked tauntingly, his smile widening "Oh, you should have heard him pleading! Wait...but he did, didn't he? He begged for you to stop."
"Hyung, hyung no! It's me! It's Doyoung, I swear in the name of God that it's me! Please...please Johnny it hurts so much! Please stop!"
"Silence creature from Hell!"
"That was you!" Johnny screamed in denial, flinching as the guards banged their guns threateningly against his chair. "You...no. I refuse to believe — "
"You seemed very proud of exorcising your own brothers soul," Doyoung interrupted forlornly, leaning closer. "I didn't want to disappoint you. But oh well, we shouldn't talk about where the poor soul of your brother went."
"SHUT UP! GODDAMN YOU!"
"God damn you, Johnny." came the reply as Doyoung stood, nodding at the guards to take him away. "I can't confirm if you'll ever see this body again. Have fun in this hellhole. It's probably paradise in comparison to the real thing."
"ROT IN HELL!" Johnny screamed brokenly, despair overtaking him as he fell to his knees, the guards grabbing him by the forearms to drag him away. Doyoung...he had lost Doyoung and wouldn't even be able to give him a proper funeral. He had killed his own brother, had become a murderer.
"I'm pretty sure your brother already is"