Chapter Text
“If they legalized gay marriage, I’d have more fun at my job,” Wooyoung stated while sinking deeper into the couch cushions.
“Tell me about it,” Jongho replied from his right.
“I don’t think that argument’s gonna convince the National Assembly,” Mingi commented from his left.
“Well, it should,“ Wooyoung muttered.
After years of talking about moving in together, they’d finally found the perfect house just a few months ago - perfect for them at least.
Constructed in the twenties during colonial times, Jongho called it "an interesting mix of Western and Japanese architecture". Wooyoung and Mingi called it "ideal" because the previous owners had it renovated which meant they wouldn’t have to deal with shitty plumbing or faulty wiring. Meanwhile, Yeosang primarily cared about the fiber connection since it was essential for his job.
“Guess who just got offered his first sponsorship?” Yeosang announced as he joined them in the living room, face illuminated by the brightness of his phone screen.
“Your parents’ dog?” Wooyoung offered, not even joking. That dog had more followers on Instagram than some A-List celebrities.
“No, he’s had Instagram sponsors for years! I’m talking about myself!”
“Ah, congrats!” Jongho cheered.
“Thank you!”
“Who from?” Mingi asked.
“Some developer who wants me to try out their game!” Plopping onto the couch between Wooyoung and Jongho, Yeosang showed them the email. “Look!”
While scanning the text, Wooyoung felt dread steadily grow in his gut and quickly glanced back up at Yeosang’s adorably bunched up cheeks. His little smile. He was so happy. Ah, shit. “Sangie… they’re just trying to get you to promote their game for free.”
“No, look, they-”
“They probably sent that same email to hundreds of people,” Mingi cut in. “It looks dodgy as hell.”
Admitting defeat, Yeosang clicked off the screen and discarded his phone on the coffee table with a sigh. “At this rate, I’m gonna have to get another job so I can help pay off the house.”
“You’ve got a loyal fanbase,” Mingi argued, “it’s gonna work out eventually.”
Jongho huffed a laugh. “Says the one who was just whining about his music career, Mr. one-hundred-and-fifty-thousand monthly listeners on Spotify.”
“Shut up, you were also complaining just now!”
“Because I’m sick of singing at straight weddings!”
“I’m sick of taking pictures at straight weddings,” Wooyoung joined in.
“Well, quit your jobs then!” Mingi fired back.
“Dude, we just bought a house, are you insane?”
“Right, sorry..." A beat of silence fell. "I guess we’re all just a bit miserable today.”
This was far from the first time they’d thrown a pity party for themselves. Just once, it would've been nice to have some good news to share with everyone, but fate had never really been on their side, not since way back when they’d first met fresh out of high school at least.
Even finding the house had happened on the same day as Yeosang getting an unfounded strike on his YouTube channel, Mingi losing his chance at a collaboration with a Western rapper, and Wooyoung and Jongho getting hired for a wedding which had ended in complete disaster after the horses had escaped their enclosure and started attacking the guests.
People really needed to stop with the live animals at their receptions; even dogs somehow always ended up peeing on the bride.
“You know," Jongho began after the prolonged silence, "maybe we should’ve conducted that ritual after all.”
Barely listening, Wooyoung's gaze rested on Jongho and Yeosang's hands, the casual intimacy of the way they played with each other's fingers. “You were the one who said it was pointless,” he finally said, breaking his own staring by dropping his head on Mingi's shoulder.
“Well, at this point, it couldn’t hurt.”
"I beg to differ," Mingi cut in, “I don’t think messing around with the paranormal is ever a good idea."
“Do we even still have that book?” Yeosang asked.
“Uh…” Glancing around the room, Wooyoung lifted his head as he tried to remember where he put it. “I think it’s in one of the drawers?” Curiosity growing, he got up and made a beeline for the dresser beneath their wall-mounted TV.
He was looking for a deep blue cover with silver detailing, a small book filled with neat handwriting. He’d found it on Etsy during last year’s Halloween preparations, but after taking a vote the day of, Mingi’s fear and Jongho’s rationality had left them at a tie, so they'd never ended up using it.
“Found it!” Raising his hand in victory, Wooyoung presented the book over his shoulder before he turned on his heel and flipped straight to the Index page. "‘Rituals and Summonings’," he read aloud. "Right toward the end... Uh... Ah, here we go! ‘The Wishing Spirit’.” In his periphery, he watched as his friends got up to crowd around him, their eyes now also trained on the first of many double pages covering the ritual.
“You think we can use a scented candle here?” Yeosang asked, pointing at the ingredients list.
“And write that text on the sigil in Hangul?” Jongho added in reference to step three.
Wooyoung frowned. “Well, if we substitute everything, it’s definitely not gonna work."
“It’s most definitely not gonna work either way.” Jongho's comment earned him a fleeting glare from a pouty Wooyoung.
“Then why agree to trying it?”
“Because why not? If it works, we get a wish and if it doesn’t, nothing changes, so…” Jongho shrugged. “Maybe doing something this dumb together will make us feel at least a little better.”
“I’ll take it,” Wooyoung said after a beat before he looked back down at the ingredients list. “We'll have to order some of this stuff online.”
"We can do it next weekend then."
“Slumber party!” Yeosang cheered.
“Before we start, I just wanna say, I’m not comfortable with any of this,” Mingi informed them.
“You said the same thing about swapping the living and dining room,” Jongho pointed out.
“And this is even bigger than rearranging furniture!”
“And yet you’ve been practicing that protective seal for an hour straight,” Wooyoung replied.
“‘Cause that’s the part I’m most invested in!”
“And you’re doing great!” Yeosang complimented cheerfully.
A smile appeared on Mingi’s face as he looked down at his work. “Really?”
“Everyone ready?” Jongho asked, clapping his hands together.
After moving all the chairs across the room and pushing the dining table closer to the wall, the four of them were now standing gathered in the dining room in their pajamas with a small stack of paper, four pencils, a candle, a fireproof bowl, and the instructional book all laid out in front of them.
Across the room, the wide window facing the street was now covered by a large black sheet which Yeosang had crudely thumb tacked to the ceiling - it served as a replacement for the black wall the ritual called for, because honestly, no wish was worth painting over brand new wallpaper, and the only alternative had been to move the entire ritual into the woods "under a rising moon". Even Wooyoung wasn't crazy enough to go that far.
“Let’s start!” he now called out, ignoring Mingi’s audibly heavy sigh beside him while he lit the first candle.
Closest to the open doorway, Jongho moved to switch off the ceiling light and douse them in near complete darkness.
Part one of the three part ritual had now begun: protection.
As practiced, this part went off without a hitch. They rattled off the spell in unison, drew their sigils, held them into the candle flame and watched as they burnt to ashes inside the fireproof bowl. So far so good.
Part two: summoning. As they began to recite the second spell, there was an almost immediate shift in their surroundings. Wooyoung could sense the mood darkening to something more serious while the air grew heavier, denser, leaving him questioning whether this really was such a good idea after all or if Mingi had been right all along. But there seemed to be no going back anymore. His mouth kept moving on its own his accord, his eyes kept reading, and before he knew it, he’d completed the sigil and was watching the flames of the second candle consume it.
The final word still lingered in the air as the candle light weakened, shrunk, and disappeared, leaving them drenched in deepening shadows. Only the first candle was now left. And it was then that Wooyoung finally escaped his trance, looked up, and noticed something off about the pinned up sheet. There was a stain on it. Right at the center. Something dark and weirdly... opaque which seemed to grow and spread right in front of his eyes, snuffing out the glow of the streetlights which had previously shone through the fabric. The candle flame flickered.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” Wooyoung’s voice was low, barely above a whisper.
The spreading darkness contracted, condensed, then separated into four distinct… figures? Silhouettes? The outlines began to lift off their surroundings, appearing increasingly opaque as they grew more and more distinctly humanoid - slender limbs, hair, clothing. But these couldn't be actual people, right? That'd make no sense. The ritual wasn’t actually supposed to work to begin with, nevermind summon more than one spirit or multiple… men?
“What the fuck…” Jongho whispered, words barely loud enough for Wooyoung to hear over the rushing of his own blood and the pounding of his heart.
“What do we do?” Yeosang exclaimed.
Forcibly tearing his gaze away from the shadows, Wooyoung threw himself forward to snatch up the book and begin flipping through its pages. There had to be a way to stop the ritual, stop this, but if there was, the author clearly hadn't bothered to include it in the instructions. The chapter simply ended after the final step - no extra notes, no warnings. "Maybe if we don't declare our wish, we'll be fine? Or- Or maybe we'll just wish for those things to go back to where they came from?"
“I think I’m having a stroke, catch me,” Mingi stated.
Hastily looking back, Wooyoung discovered Mingi still upright - white as a sheet and staring unblinkingly ahead, yes, but still upright. When Wooyoung faced back ahead a mere second later, the figures across the room were even more solid and all too undeniably real. "Shit." His vision blurred as he suddenly grew dizzy, disoriented. Instinct had him holding onto the table as Mingi grabbed onto him from behind to steady himself.
As quickly as the lightheadedness had come, it also disappeared again, leaving him blinking in disbelief at the four people now standing right there across the room. It took a second before he recoiled, hands flying back to clutch onto Yeosang and Mingi, pulling them both closer and behind himself. "What the fuck?"
The summoned... beings were clad in all black, oddly formal and fashionable where they stood across the room. Outside the context of the ritual, Wooyoung would've simply assumed they were human like him, even men roughly his same age, but as it was, he couldn't help but notice the shadows on their faces were a little deeper and darker than they should be. Staring at them one by one with adrenaline rushing through his system, he tried to gather his wits but his brain wouldn’t stop spewing expletives.
Were these beings, these creatures, really wishing spirits? Was this what they were meant to look like? Just some... runway-model-looking dudes?
And why were there four of them?
What the fuck was going on?
Did he just pass out a couple of minutes ago?
Was this a dream?
“Aw, they’re cute!” the being with the longest hair stated, dark gaze wandering across Wooyoung and his friends. The smile spreading across its face was eerie.
Shuddering, Wooyoung forgot how to breathe for a second. He'd never felt more like prey.
“Cute?” the shortest being scoffed. "They're idiots!"
“Agreed," the tallest chimed in. "They didn't even finish the ritual.” A pointed look was tossed Wooyoung's way.
“R-Right, uh..." Wooyoung cleared his throat. "Could you just leave again?” He paused. "Please."
Just then, the remaining candle flame died, blanketing them in darkness as a giggle filled the room.
Jolting back, Wooyoung felt hands reaching for him and nearly let out a scream before he realized they belonged to Yeosang and Mingi.
“Oh, damn, they really are pretty stupid,” an unfamiliar voice remarked. It had to be the being with the shortest hair and it sounded amused, mocking.
“You should’ve protected your light source better.” The long-haired being's voice was oddly hypnotic and now also much closer than before. Just to his left.
Backing up, Wooyoung collided with the wall and instantly pressed himself flat. His friends' arms were now pushing up against his shoulder as they kept clutching onto each other, holding on for dear life while the suffocating smell of smoke permeated the air, far stronger than a mere snuffed out candle. Was it coming from the creatures?
“And to answer your question..." The words were spoken in a low, teasing voice - close, way too close for comfort. It sounded like the shortest being. Wooyoung could feel its heat against his front as he froze in fear. “No,” the being drawled, “we’re not just gonna leave.” There was a notable shift in the air, and suddenly, the searing presence was gone and the voice back across the room where it had first appeared. “You summoned us because you wanted your wishes granted, right?”
“Actually,” Jongho spoke up, tone bizarrely calm, "we thought we were summoning just one of you."
“Seriously?” the short-haired being mocked, now much closer again, a mere few steps away near Jongho. "You didn't even realize this was a one person ritual? How dumb are you?"
“What now?” Mingi blurted out. “What are you gonna do? What do you want?”
“Now...” the tallest being began. It had to be right in front of Mingi. "Now we stay here until you’ve stated your wishes and then, when the time comes, we'll return to take your souls back to hell with us.”
“Woah, hold on a second!” Wooyoung interjected, mind unfreezing. “Take our souls? Since when-”
Cruel laughter filled the room, entirely devoid of happiness. “Oh wow!” the shortest being called out. “You really don't have a single clue what you've just done, do you?” In a flash, the creature was back in Wooyoung’s space, startling him into flattening himself back against the wall in a blind panic, head aching in the aftermath of the impact. There was no way out, no escape. He was trapped. “Maybe, just maybe, you shouldn’t have summoned a demon if you were planning on keeping your souls, huh? Ever thought of that?”
“Wait. Demon?” Wooyoung echoed, only to hear that giggle again - this time right up close as a near scaldingly hot hand patted his cheek once, twice, leaving him staring into the pitch black darkness, frozen in terror despite the adrenaline rushing through his veins.
“You heard right, idiotic mortal,” the demon - a fucking demon! - right in front of him confirmed, voice low, bordering on a whisper. "You've just damned both yourself and your friends for eternity. Are you proud?"
“What if we don’t wish for anything?” Yeosang asked.
“Hmm, no…” the long-haired demon replied, voice originating from somewhere near Yeosang. “No, that wouldn’t do.”
“Should we give them some time to decide?” the short-haired one asked.
“Hm, maybe,” the one in front of Wooyoung replied. “How about…” it trailed off right as it disappeared again, finally giving Wooyoung some space to breathe again “...a minute?”
“That’s not enough!” Wooyoung exclaimed without thinking.
In an instant, another presence appeared in front of him. “You don’t get to negotiate.” The short-haired demon’s voice was deeper, forceful like its touch as it grabbed Wooyoung’s chin to root him in place. “You couldn’t even complete the ritual, which means it’s now up to us to make the demands. All you humans get to do is to shut up and listen.”
“But-”
The fingers pressed a little tighter, shutting Wooyoung up. “You ought to obey if you'd like to keep your soul a little longer.” The words buried into Wooyoung’s brain, leaving him shuddering.
A second later, the fingers disappeared as the ceiling lights came back on, momentarily blinding him, leaving him hissing in discomfort.
“Since you’re just a bunch of idiots who didn’t know what they were doing, I’m gonna offer you, hm…” the shortest demon hummed for a moment “...let’s say: twenty-four hours.”
As Wooyoung’s vision adjusted, he was left squinting at the four demons all lined up in front of the sheet. Their stances were casual, unbothered, their expressions almost bored as they looked about the room, inspected their nails, like they’d already grown tired of the whole getting summoned spiel. Yet the most unsettling thing about them was more so how eerily human they looked, even under bright lights; really, the only notably abnormal thing about them was how objectively pretty they were. Was this part of their scheme? Lure people in with beauty, then seduce them to do evil?
“How about a week?” Jongho suggested, only to mumble a “sorry” when Yunho shot him a glare.
“If I make four wishes, can you let the others go?” Wooyoung asked, ignoring his friends’ protests.
A beat of silence fell before the four demons erupted into laughter.
“Oh, that's adorable,” the long-haired demon got out. "We’ve got a self-sacrificial one!”
“Alright, just for that, you can have the full week!” the shortest demon declared.
Wooyoung stared at it in disbelief.
The demon snickered again. “Go ahead. Say thank you.”
“Thanks,” Wooyoung complied, earning himself yet another chuckle.
“Alright, there we go. See? Not that difficult to just do what you’re told, is it?”
“It goes against my character."
“Yeah, I figured."
“Alright then," the tallest demon took over, "if you’ve got any other questions, you better ask them now, because once we're done here, we’re officially off duty for the rest of the night.”
“Uh..." Mingi raised his hand in Wooyoung's periphery. "How long do we get to live after we’ve made the wish?”
Arms crossed, the long-haired one raised its eyebrows at Mingi's schoolboy behavior. “Unless you kill yourself, we'll be back to pick you up on your sixty-sixth birthday."
“That’s funny,” Jongho deadpanned.
Taking a step forward, Wooyoung straightened his posture, fingers still curled into his friends’ sleeves. “And what’s gonna happen to our souls after that?”
“They’ll rot in hell for eternity, of course,” the long-haired demon replied casually.
“I see,” Yeosang’s voice was a little unsteady, "and what's it like there? In hell."
The shortest huffed a laugh, not a touch of joy left in its voice. “It’s a battlefield.”
“What?” Wooyoung blurted out.
“You heard me,” the shortest snapped, sharp gaze burning into Wooyoung, making him flinch. “You’ve been creating hell on earth for centuries so I'm sure you'll feel right at home.”
Tensing his jaw, Wooyoung withstood the demon’s gaze for just another second before he looked down at the table between them. One stupid decision, one stupid ritual, and they’d damned themselves to an eternity of war? There had to be a way out. One week to come up with the perfect wishes - that should be doable, right? And then a few more decades to figure out how to get out of this deal entirely. That wasn't nothing. There was still hope!
“Are there rules about what we can wish for?” Jongho asked.
“No wishing for more wishes,” the tallest began, visibly bored. “No immortality or invincibility. No solving global issues like disease, conflict, or hunger.”
“No wishing to become a wishing demon,” the short-haired one continued, “or to get out of this deal.”
“Anything else?” Wooyoung prompted.
“No wishing to become omnipotent or otherwise god-like,” the long-haired one went on.
“You can wish to become smarter,” the shortest suggested, inspecting its black nail polish.
Aware he was being provoked, Wooyoung suppressed the urge to glare at him. “What about the four of you then? Do you have names?”
“Obviously.”
“Are you gonna share them with us?”
“Why should we?”
“Why not?”
Scoffing at Wooyoung’s increasingly jeering tone, the shortest demon shook its head. “You’ve really got a death wish, eh?” Following the remark, he instantly reappeared in Wooyoung's space, mere centimeters away with eyes that burned a deep red before they darkened back to black.
Stumbling back, Wooyoung's head and back met the wall yet again, breath trapped in his lungs as he stared into pitch-black irises and questioned his own sanity. Why did he provoke a demon? Was he actually crazy? A ring covered hand brushed past his face, making him flinch before it landed on the crown of his head and clutched onto a fistful of hair, leaving his scalp stinging just enough to border on actual pain. Suppressing a wince, Wooyoung kept looking back and forth between the demon’s eyes, hoping, praying he wasn't about to get murdered in front of his friends' eyes.
The adrenaline rushing through his system was making him feel dizzy.
“We can sense your fear, you know?” the demon shared, voice low. “Humans feel fear for a reason, so why don’t you just go ahead and listen to your survival instincts for once? Keep your mouth shut, hm? I’m a wishing demon and that means I don’t enjoy committing murders. It’s disgusting. It’s messy. So if you could stop forcing my hand here, you’ll be doing us both a favor.”
Unable to nod, Wooyoung spat out a quick “okay” which was seemingly enough to ease the tight grip on his hair, though the demon's abnormally hot fingers didn't withdraw just yet, not until they'd left a lingering pat right on the aching spot on Wooyoung's scalp. The gesture felt weirdly condescending.
A second later, the demon reappeared among its kind, falling right back in line with a careless stance as if nothing had happened.
Wooyoung sank back against the wall, all fight leaving him as the air rushed from his lungs.
“I suppose that concludes our Q and A segment!” the tallest demon announced cheerfully, pushing back its left sleeve to uncover a narrow wrist watch. "It's... still pretty early, honestly. Good job, everyone!"
“Sorry, but what's going on?” Mingi asked.
“We're off duty now, which means we get to do whatever we want. No summonings, no going back to hell for a week or until the deal is done - whichever comes first.”
“No going back to hell?” Jongho echoed, audibly confused.
The short-haired demon grinned, dimples appearing in its cheeks. (Why did it have to look so damn human?) “Say hello to your new roommates!”
“Wait, what?” Wooyoung burst out.
A puff of black smoke, the stinging scent of fumes and suddenly, the long-haired demon appeared in front of him, straddling a chair which had been all the way across the room a mere split-second ago. With its arms folded on the backrest, it smiled up at Wooyoung, eyes piercing red until they faded back to black. “You didn’t think we’d leave you unsupervised for an entire week, right?"
"The ritual keeps the eight of us tethered together until we've fulfilled your wishes,” the tallest demon clarified as it appeared beside its companion and began flipping through the pages of the spellbook. “Eh, not entirely worthless,” it remarked after a beat of silence, “but it’s incomplete and falsely labeled.” With a gleeful snicker, it tossed the book aside and swept its gaze across the four humans as it leaned back against the table. “You really had no idea what you were getting into… I almost pity you.”
“Thank you?” Yeosang replied awkwardly.
“Don’t thank him for making fun of us!” Mingi hissed.
“But hold on, wait. Are you seriously just gonna stay here?” Wooyoung pushed, unable to hide his disbelief. "Right here? In this house? With us?" As he spoke, his gaze flickered over to the other two demons roaming about the room. The short-haired one was already on its way out to the living area. “Wait! Where are you-” His instinctive attempt to intervene left Wooyoung trying to squeeze past Yeosang and Jongho, only to smack face-first into the tallest demon who'd suddenly teleported in front of him - it felt similar to running into a brick wall. Stumbling back, Wooyoung looked up with wide eyes and was met with an unreadable expression. “I, uh, I just wanted to-”
“Keep track of the demons inside your house?”
“Yeah…”
“Why?”
“Well, um, reasons?”
Chuckling, the demon shook its head. “You better get used to the fact that you can’t control us. We’re gonna do whatever we want, whether you like it or not. If you wanna get rid of us, you'll just have to use your wish and damn your soul for eternity. Capisce?”
“We don’t speak Italian."
Wooyoung snorted a laugh at Mingi's comment before he could smack a hand over his mouth to stop himself.
“For fuck’s sake,” the shortest demon muttered as it brushed past the tallest on its way out to the living area.
“If you’re gonna live here, can we at least exchange names?” Jongho pushed, though his tone was cautious, betraying his brave facade.
“Captain!” the tall demon suddenly called out, gaze deadset on Jongho. “They’re asking for our names again!”
Appearing beside him in a puff of smoke, eyes glowing red, the shortest demon crossed its arms while its glare traveled from one human to the next. “You’re really fucking annoying, did you know that? Why do you care, huh? Do you think it’s gonna help you look us up online? Do you really think you can just find a way to get rid of us? Well, you can’t. You won't find us in any of your records, because we’re not dumb enough to go around bragging about our deals!”
Following a beat of silence, Jongho cleared his throat. “It’s just polite.”
“Polite?” the demon deadpanned.
“Yes.”
“What the fuck is wrong with you? No, seriously - do you have a death wish too like your idiotic friend over here?”
“No.”
“I’m Seonghwa.”
Turning around, Wooyoung felt a spike of anxiety at the reminder of the demon who’d been lurking behind him this entire time. Yet as their eyes met, Wooyoung could only stare for a moment while his brain failed to compute the newly offered piece of information. “Seonghwa?” he echoed eventually.
“Yes,” the demon confirmed.
“But that sounds so… human.”
The force of the resulting glare had Wooyoung flinching, jerking back so harshly he nearly stumbled right into the other two demons. It was then that he realized he was actually surrounded. How had he not noticed before? Did he really have no survival instincts at all? “Sorry," he hastily blurted out, "I swear I didn’t mean it as an insult - I was just surprised! You know, I- I was expecting something like Azazel, Kappa, Asmodeus, Pazuzu, not… Seonghwa. But it’s a pretty name! Seriously! Super pretty! It suits you, even! Or if 'pretty' is an insult in hell, then it’s really ugly and grotesque! Whatever, you know, whatever constitutes a compliment... in hell.”
The expression on Seonghwa’s face as it watched him squirm was tough to decipher. It didn’t seem angry or amused, not even insulted or annoyed, more so… curious, maybe? Weirded out perhaps?
“Of course you’d be the first to give in,” the shortest demon muttered, an edge of betrayal to its tone.
“His name is Hongjoong,” Seonghwa stated in response, expression unchanging even under the power of Hongjoong’s glare. “And this one is Yunho, and the one running around your house is San. Are you happy now, Wooyoung? Jongho?”
Hearing his name from the demon’s mouth sent a chill down Wooyoung’s spine. Had he just been cursed? Names held power, right? As he glanced back and forth between the powerful beings surrounding him, he became hyper aware of how easily they could probably tear him to shreds if they so pleased. Though it didn't seem like they particularly enjoyed murder - at least not if Hongjoong’s words were to be trusted.
“You know our names,” Jongho noted.
“Yes, because unlike you,” Yunho mocked, “we do our research before we go around involving ourselves in rituals.”
“That's- Honestly? Fair enough…”
For a second, a cloud of shadows appeared right in front of Wooyoung, sending him flat against Jongho as San materialized right inside his personal space. “We’re gonna take the beds upstairs. You can sleep on the floor.”
“Demons need to sleep?” Somehow, Mingi sounded more caught off guard by that than almost anything else they’d heard in the last few minutes.
“No, but we prefer being comfortable,” Seonghwa replied sharply, “got a problem with that?”
“Ah, no, of course not! Go right ahead! You need extra blankets, lemme know!”
Sweat built up on Wooyoung’s forehead as the heat from all the demons sunk into him, making him feel like he was trapped in an oven and getting prepared to be eaten alive. Him and his friends truly were so royally screwed.