Fandom: U-KISS
Rating: R
Genre: Horror
Pairing: Kibum/Dongho
Word Count: 1588
Summary He is the big bad wolf in fairy tales, but when he’s gone, the story is over.
Prompt: 15. Protect Me Warnings: Graphic violence, lack of ethics, major mindfuck.
Author's Note: Hello, challenge I’ve neglected since November. What is this shit, idek. ;__;
He knew the tales very well.
The wolf ate the naughty little shepherd boy.
The wolf fell into a pot of boiling water, and became the third little pig’s supper.
The hunter cut the wolf open to save the grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood.
Dongho knew these tales very well, so it was no big surprise when he realized he had come face-to-face with his own big bad wolf.
His wolf was impish, finding pleasure in the little grotesque pranks he would pull. They had started out as, more or less, innocent: trapping some disgusting little bug under a glass and watching it slowly suffocate. When he was bored with just using insects for his own amusement, he moved on to something bigger.
His next victim was a poor little mouse that had scurried into his kitchen looking for crumbs to satisfy its hunger. The creature was so timid, always trying to scramble away but was never successful. His wolf enjoyed this new game. He would watch the mouse cowering in fear, making occasional sudden movements to startle the tiny animal, and then laughing about how stupid it was. He had enjoyed this game, but it was game over when he had accidentally caused it to die of a heart attack.
“Oh well,” He had said, shrugging his shoulders to show his point. He then tossed the dead creature over his shoulder, showing no visible feelings other than boredom when he heard the sound of a small body hitting the wall, and then falling on the ground.
The next prey to come in contact with him was a stray, old dog he had found on the road. It took some time, but he had thought it would be worth it when he managed to lead it home. The old animal was pitiful, always whimpering and falling into a submissive form. He was tired of it before he had even started playing.
“Bye-bye,” He had said with a roguish smile, watching as he let a baseball bat fall on the animal’s head, the sound of the skull cracking had him laughing in glee.
He had played with them all, and he grew tired of them all. When he watched the last of his animal victim-a turtle he had picked up from a pond-succumbed to the sweet bliss of death, he knew it was time to play with the new toy he was saving.
“Watch this, watch this, Dongho!” He ushered the younger boy over. Dongho, reluctantly, obliged, watching with quiet horror as the older man started to crack open the turtle’s shell.
Dongho’s stomach churned, watching as his wolf pulled out a knife, and steadily started to dissect the dead turtle. The dissection didn’t sicken him-well, perhaps a little-but Dongho felt more sick from watching the grin on his wolf’s face widening the deeper he explored the inside of the turtle.
“S-stop this, I don’t want to watch it anymore.”
“That’s fine.” His wolf dropped the knife, and smiled. “We’ll play something else.”
His wolf was agreeable, always ready to stop what he was doing when Dongho told him to, but it was the unknown motive that frightened Dongho. Why, out of all of the boys in the world, why him? His mother used to admonish him frequently about the dangers of straying away from a given path. The fairy tales he used to read would always tell the tales of wayward children, but in the end, everything would turn out alright.
“And they lived happily ever after,” Dongho would remind himself at night as he watched his wolf slept peacefully. That was right. Things would turn out fine. It would only be a while now before his wolf’s ending would come, and then Dongho would be able to live happily ever after.
He ran his fingers through the wolf’s dark hair, watching apathetically as his wolf made soft whimpers. He looked almost innocent. Almost.
“I told you I don’t want to eat this.” Dongho threw the hot bowl of ramyeon the wolf prepared onto the floor. He crossed his arms over his chest to emphasize his tantrum. His wolf knelt over the overturned bowl, carefully cleaning up the mess.
“I’m sorry, I forgot. Let’s play a game instead.”
“No, I’m hungry, make me food.” Dongho couldn’t understand why his wolf was so nice to him. He remembered the wolf’s previous toys and their horrifying demise, but the wolf had never once harmed him like he did with the other creatures. He was curious, but Dongho knew it was better that he did not question the wolf’s behavior aloud.
“How about congee?” The wolf smiled, his teeth glinted in the dimly lit room.
“Fine…” Dongho wondered how far he could push his bad behavior before the wolf’s motive was revealed.
Tantrums after tantrums had caused his wolf to lose his smile. He looked nervous, always questioning Dongho if he was alright. When Dongho snapped back that he was not, his wolf looked sad, and Dongho wondered why he felt a hint of guilt for causing that pathetic expression.
Dongho had woken up a little after midnight. He was thirsty, and his wolf was not sleeping beside him. He heard the sound of frantic chirpings in the kitchen, and he allowed his feet to take him there. He turned on the lights, noticing briefly the erratic light flickers before turning his attention on his wolf’s backside.
The chirping had slowed down, and it wasn’t long before it had stopped altogether.
“What are you doing?” Dongho’s voice was calm, almost bored even.
“N-nothing.” His wolf was nervous again. He slipped whatever he was holding under his shirt, and turned his head enough to look at Dongho’s face.
“I told you not to do that anymore.”
Even though Dongho never raised his voice, his wolf flinched, causing the object hidden under his shirt to fall on the floor.
Dongho looked at it. “And how did you get this bird in here?”
His wolf was quiet, and Dongho waited. Finally, his wolf whispered softly, “You won’t play with me.”
The lights continued to flickered, and Dongho decided he didn’t need that glass of water. He turned off the light, leaving his wolf in the middle of the dark room alone.
Dongho had decided he would change his wolf, make him give up his sick ideas of games. It was hard, considering he didn’t know what led his wolf to be like this. He decided to question his wolf about his past, but the response he received was not what he was expecting:
“I don’t remember.”
His wolf was like a child, Dongho concluded after a lengthy period of silent observation. The only thing he did not understand was why he was cruel to the animals and submissive towards Dongho.
“Let’s play a game.”
His wolf’s face lighted up when he heard Dongho’s voice.
Crack.
“I don’t want to play anymore.”
Cr-aack.
“Stop this!”
Craaaaaaack!
“Stop this, Dongho!”
Dongho’s lips twitched. He didn’t mean to take it this far. He had simply wanted to put himself in his wolf’s shoes, but Dongho realized it was harder to stop this charade than he had expected. “You liked this game when you were playing it before.”
His wolf’s hand looked bloodied, and Dongho couldn’t understand the strange fascination he felt. His wolf shook his head. “I stopped when you told me you don’t like something. Why won’t you stop for me?”
“Those creatures didn’t enjoy your games, so why didn’t you stop for them?”
His wolf looked torn between guilt and fear. “I just wanted to play.”
“And now I want to play this game too.”
His wolf screamed, but Dongho knew no one would hear it. After all, no one else heard their screams, so why should they hear his? Any guilt he had felt earlier towards his wolf disappeared in that moment, being replaced with a peculiar sense to protect any future creatures from falling into his grasps. That was right, he was their protector, and he’ll protect them and himself from his wolf’s nightmarish games.
Dongho smiled as he listened to the screams mixed together with the sound of a baseball bat making contact with a hard object. This game was fun, he thought to himself.
“The mother goat returns home, finding all but her youngest child missing. She and her child step outside where they find the wolf sleeping. Something is struggling inside the wolf’s stomach, so they cut him open, and the mother goat’s children emerge, alive. She places stones in his stomach instead. When the wolf goes to the well to drink, the stones drag him down, and he drowns. The end.”
Dongho smiled as he wrote down the last words. “See, Kibum, the wolf never wins.”
Dongho looked at the widened eyes of his wolf for a moment before carefully closing them, and then he did the same with the mouth. He returned his attention to his paper, carefully writing in an afterthought, “And they lived happily ever after.”
Dongho dropped the pen, and he looked at the last words he had written. Even though he could hear the sounds of birds singing, crickets chirping, and soft pitter patters of scurrying feet, he didn’t know why he felt so lonely then.
His face then lighted up as he talked to his still wolf, “Let’s start a new story, Kibum.” He looked at his wolf. “Where can I find a perfect wolf like you now?”
Clarifications
[1] The story referenced in the last scene is
The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids.
[2] No, I don’t know why my first U-KISS story in a long time is this thing. I’m sorry.
[3] I just realized this is the second story I killed off Kibum. I-I don’t know why I do this to him. T__T