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Epilogue It was snowing at night. Onew wore a thick white coat and grinned up at the sky, holding his hands out to try and catch some of the flakes. When he did, he quickly shook them from his palm, because they were cold, but he still grinned excitedly.
He stood there for a long time, just watching the snow fall, until a man asked him why.
"Why are you out here all by yourself?"
"The snow is fun." Onew answered, grinning ever so brightly as he turned to look at the man. A tall, fit man with dark layered hair. He was obviously older, an actual man, where Onew was still only 15. Yet, the approach of an older man didn't much worry Onew, even if it was late at night. "It's pretty." he added.
"Hm." the man said. "You're pretty."
He'd grinned, and stepped closer to Onew.
Onew was shoved to the ground, his head hitting the snow covered sidewalk and fast turning it red. In a daze he told the man, who laid down on top of him, to call the hospital...
"Call the hospital..."
"You're not going to the hospital."
"Why do you sound like a girl?"
"Great. Brain damage."
Minho blinked, his vision clearing on Jessica, which was quite a contrast from the muscular man from what he could now just imagine was a dream. Of course it was a dream, though. He had been Onew...
"Jessica?"
She raised a brow, asking "Who else?"
Minho's head pounded, no, it was worse than a pounding. It almost felt as if someone was scraping at his brain. He groaned, trying to look around. The room was tiny, and the bed he was on was black with a steel headboard that chains hung from. There wasn't much space for anything else, with only a foot or two between the nightstand Jessica used as a seat and the door.
"Where are we?" he asked.
"We haven't gone anywhere. This is a hook up room." she twitched when she said it, and he gathered that the concept of being in one was annoying to her. "You were out for hours. I already have what I need. We can leave now."
"Nobody important saw me?" Minho asked.
"Everyone saw you. It was this whole embarrassing thing." Jessica rolled her eyes, and then stood up. "Can you walk?"
Minho took his time sitting up, "I think I dreamt of Onew as a human."
Jessica looked hard at Minho when he said that, as if she was trying to find a sign of lying. Of course, why would he lie about that? Eventually, he must have checked out, because she straightened up. "It isn't unheard of." Her voice was that light, uncaring tone that had started to seriously annoy him.
"What does it mean?"
"Questions, Minho. They're really annoying."
Minho frowned at her, but stood up. His head was clearing, at least. Still, he put a hand to it, as he followed Jessica out of the room... and into a crowded new one, where his eyes shot straight to one thing. There was a stage, that reminded him quite of the one he'd ran off of with Onew. There were shackles along the wall behind it, but what especially caught Minho's eye was the man binded to a chair in the center, while a woman sat on his lap and did what he imagined was sucking his blood.
Like.. it was a show or something?
When he tore his eyes away, he was surprised that Jessica had forced her way far ahead of him, and he hurriedly started after her, until he heard a crack that was way louder than it should have been, and looked back to the stage.
The man was dead now, he knew it instantly. He'd been alive, and just like that, it was over.
Minho was frozen, heart pounding and eyes wide. He'd just been in a room as someone was murdered, again, and the woman who did it was now smiling and receiving cheers from her audience. This was the sick world he'd gotten involved with - this was how vampires worked.
He looked again and saw Jessica, still walking as if he was following, and then he turned from her, getting himself mixed in the crowd and looking for an exit. Instead, when he went through a dark doorway, he found restrooms - and that was good enough, because there was space and he could breathe, only when he walked in to the room marked mens all he could see were the speckles of blood that stained several different places of the walls or floors.
The crimson on the white tile reminded him of blood on snow, and his head got that scraping feeling again. He stumbled forward, and threw up overly sweet pastry into the sink. He was dry heaving when someone else walked into the bathroom, making him nearly jump when they spoke to him.
"Minho, right?"
He straightened, hands still clutching the sink. "Who are you?"
"Joon. I'm a friend of Onew's."
The man, with shaggy lightened hair and a classy black outfit, stepped closer to him. Minho let go of the sink so he could step back. Onew had mentioned having friends, but Minho wasn't in an incredibly trusting mood.
Joon didn't seem to mind Minho's concern. "Jessica.." he said, "you can't trust her."
"I can't trust anybody." Minho responded.
"Good point." Joon said with a grin, "Least of all me. I'm the one that sold Onew and you out last time."
"What?"
"Onew trusted me." Joon said, "And I was in some trouble, which Jessica knew how to fix, so I told her where you guys were. She said she was only trying to help you. I didn't know Jonghyun and Key were involved, or I.."
"Or Krystal wouldn't be dead right now?" Minho asked, feeling sicker yet, and needing something more in his stomach that he could vomit.
"I guess maybe?" Joon asked. "Just let me get you out of here. I owe it to Onew."
Getting out of there was all that Minho wanted right now, so he nodded at Joon. The man stepped forward, and gently took Minho's non-bandaged hand, leading him slowly from the bathroom. They walked back in the crowd, and Minho closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see anything like what he'd seen before - but then he smelled it. Blood. And he had to open his eyes again, or else he was sure he'd vomit here in the middle of everyone.
Joon opened a door against the wall, and an upwards staircase was dark, but leading to a bright light. Minho hadn't realized they were underground, but he could recognize that bright light as the place he'd seen from outside. He followed Joon up the stairs and into a thinner, tamer crowd of people. He looked around, expecting to see Jessica, but he didn't.
Joon said bye to somebody, and they were out in chilly autumn air, where it had begun to drizzle rain. "And here we are~." Joon said to Minho, "Of course, you need to get way away from here, because vampire territory and all."
"If you owe Onew," Minho said, "Save him."
"Yeah, I could tell you all about why I can't, except.. Jessica just paraded you around so you'd become Jonghyun bait, and I really wouldn't be surprised if shortie was already on his way."
"What?"
"It's why she was in such a hurry to get out of there." Joon said, shrugging. "So like I said, you need to get away from here."
"I don't even know where I am. Where am I supposed to go?"
Joon seemed overwhelmed with annoyance,"Ah, jeez, okay, I'll take you there, anywhere, you have to know someone in Seoul - right?"
"My brother."
"Okay then, your brother. Let's get in a vehicle. Last thing I need is to get sucked into more drama.."
Next ----------------------------
Considering doing a one-shot from this universe. :D You can vote on who and what it's about by going
here.