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Felix watches from a safe distance, waits for Chan’s lifeless body to start moving. The night is dark and quiet, and they are alone but for the skeletal trees around them. And, although the first chilly days of autumn have already started, the night is fairly warm; but Felix cannot really feel it in his excitement. All of a sudden, Chan’s chest starts rising and falling. Felix hides further behind a tree, always watching expectantly.
He has been planning this moment for the last two years. All the attempts to bring the dead back to life have been in preparation for this exact night. They haven’t been in vain, since Chan’s eyes open slowly, and Felix can see him bring his hands to his face. Poor soul, he must be so confused, assuming he doesn’t remember his last living moments.
Eventually, Chan sits up and looks around, while touching the back of his head. He doesn’t seem to know why it hurts so much. He picks up his phone from where it lies next to him, where Felix conveniently left it after charging it. He calls someone and puts it on speaker in order to get up and shake the leaves off his costume. Felix smirks from his hiding spot. Everything goes according to plan.
The phone rings and rings, and when it seems that no one is going to pick up, a shaky voice answers from the other side of the line.
“Hello?”
“Minho? Where are you?”
“Chan?” Minho sounds terrified when he mentions the name, as he should be, thinks Felix. “Where are you?”
“I have no idea. Though, I’m pretty sure it is that park that’s like a forest, you know the one?”
“Yes,” Minho says slowly. ”How could I not know?”
“Could you pick me up? We’re probably late to Changbin’s party and I promised him I would make it on time. Gosh, I must have drunk a lot, I don’t even know how I got here.”
-
October 31st. Two years since the accident. Minho recalls details from that night as he applies blood red lipstick to his lips and down his chin, to give it a dripping effect. But he would rather not remember. He has to let it go, to move on. When he decided to stop drinking two years ago, he also decided to leave all the drunken nights in the past, including that one. Especially that one.
But life has a funny way of reminding him, because as soon as he pops the lipstick closed, his phone rings. And the name on the screen is no other than Chan’s. Who has been dead for two years.
He stares in disbelief at a screen as it continues ringing. Maybe… It could be… Perhaps it’s not him… With a trembling hand, he answers.
“Hello?”
A familiar voice comes through the line. “Minho?”
-
Minho’s fingers dig into the steering wheel as he drives towards the forest. The last time he has driven this nervously and carefully was probably two years ago, when he was driving away from it.
He sees Chan standing at the gates to the park. He is still wearing the white angel costume from two Halloweens ago, the one that matched Minho’s black one. The only difference is that the back is now stained in blood red. The sight sends chills down Minho’s back. To his eyes, it is as if he has come back for revenge.
But when Chan climbs into the car with a smile, Minho realizes that he doesn’t seem to remember what happened. He doesn’t even seem to know he has been dead, or even that any time has passed.
“You’ve changed your costume! What are you dressed as?”
“I’m supposed to be the grim reaper,” he says and shows him his black hood. “I left the scythe at home.”
The rest of the drive to Minho’s house is silent. Wearing this robe was probably a bad idea, because he sweats the entire time. And with Chan in the passenger seat, it is hard to keep the memories away.
He remembers how that night they left his house in an already miserable state. They had been drinking for hours before they decided to head to Changbin’s. I am sober enough to drive, don’t worry, he had said, grinning. They had gone half the way before Chan realized he had left his wallet at Minho’s, and he needed it, so they decided to go back.
The accident was a couple of blocks from Minho’s house. As he drives past that corner he recalls it. He can almost hear the sound of that poor blond boy’s head crash against the hood of his car again. Having driven with headlights off was a bad idea. And he remembers how he sobered up immediately.
Tonight, he feels as scared as he was that night. Maybe even more. When he looks for the right key to open the door, some words echo in his head. We killed him!, said by either him or Chan, he can’t remember. We fucking killed him!
They enter Minho’s house. Everything is still as he left it, ready to go to Changbin’s annual Halloween party. But Minho doesn’t really know what to do. There is an awkward tension in the air that Chan finally notices.
“So… should we head out?”
Minho could take him to the party as Chan is expecting, but he can’t show up with a person who has been missing for two years as if nothing had happened. He has to do something. He can’t let anyone see Chan. He looks around the house, smiles gently and picks up the last part of his costume.
“Yeah, let’s go,” he says casually.
Chan gets inside the car again, but Minho goes around it, secretly takes a shovel from the shed and puts it in the trunk. Exactly the same way he did that night. Than night when, upon seeing the blood start pooling from under the blond man’s head, they made the quick decision to wrap him with his own costume (a ghost costume presumably, it was just a white sheet with holes for the eyes), and take him to the forest to bury him, not without going to get Minho’s shovel first.
Minho hops onto the driver’s seat and asks, “You’ve got everything? Your phone, your wallet?”
Chan feels inside his pockets and announces that no, he doesn’t have his wallet. “I must have dropped it at the park when I was there.”
So, they drive once again to the spot where the blond boy’s body is buried.
-
Felix hasn’t moved from his spot since Chan left. He still can’t believe it worked, and it worked perfectly. Everything has gone according to his plans, he finally is getting his sweet revenge.
Well, everything was going according to plan, because the peace of the forest is interrupted by a What’s the shovel for? and an I don’t know. In case your wallet’s buried, I guess.
“What the fuck are they doing here again?”
-
Shovel in hand, Minho pretends to look for Chan’s wallet. It is unbelievable how all of this reminds him of the night he swore to forget. He remembers Chan’s loud sobbing as they carried the body wrapped in the blood-stained white sheet. I think we should just turn ourselves in, Minho. That’s the right thing. Please.
Are you out of your mind? We’ve gone this far only to confess? It is too late, Chan.
The memories won’t leave him alone. Chan looks at him in the eyes just like he did back then. Minho remembers his exact thoughts. He is going to tell. He won’t keep his mouth shut. I have to do something. Just like he did back then, he is filled with pity for his friend.
-
Felix watches the two people who took his life precisely two years ago look for something on the ground. Carefully hidden behind a tree, he makes sure he catches every word they say, every movement they make.
He watches as they look at each other in the eyes, how they shrug, how one of them looks back down to the ground, but the taller of the two holds his gaze.
He sees Chan turn around, crouch down, and he sees Minho stare. He catches a small glisten in the corner of Minho’s eye. He thinks he is hesitating. He sees Minho take the shovel in his two hands, he sees them shake, watches Minho lift the shovel over his head and take a deep breath.
And for the second time in his life,
He swings.