#023 - in all chaos there is calculation
Title: in all chaos there is calculation
Author: kagamiwa
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: exo | xiumin
Rating/Warnings: pg-13
Challenge # & Prompt: #023 - starting tonight, people will die
Word Count: 439w
The stairwell smells of mold and the ghosts of the previous tenants of the apartment. Pan up three flights past damp walls and dim lights into a dark room with nothing in it but holey curtains, a lumpy worn couch, an upturned wooden crate, and an old television sitting on another wooden crate. The television is the only source of light, casting a ghostly blueish tint around the room. It is tuned in to the evening news, but the newsreader is speaking without a voice. Every now and then white lines fizzle across the screen.
Pan away from the television to the sofa. There is only one occupant, his eyes fixed pointedly at the screen. He is still dressed in outdoor clothes - a thick jacket and winter hat - as if he has just come home after a very long day. A glass of water rests in his hands. The room is silent, a silence so deep that you can almost hear the static in the air. And yet the young man continues to stare at the soundless words spilling from the newsreader’s mouth.
Outside, a young girl slips on an icy patch on the sidewalk. She giggles as she rights herself, clinging ever harder to her mother’s hand. Festivity hangs in the air illuminated with Christmas lights strung between lampposts. The chatter of the crowd moving along the main street never dies down. Then: the ear-splitting shriek from the alleyway a little way down the street.
Back inside, Minseok feels the scream echo around the room. He sets the glass down on the upturned crate, but doesn’t let it go. Perched on the edge of the couch, he seems more like a wolf sniffing the danger in the air. There: the sirens.
All the tension seems to leave his body. He seems to be remembering just a few hours ago when he clumped up the stairs to his apartment, leaving a bloody trail of footprints behind him in the old wood. A deliberate trail leading directly to him. He traces his fingers against the smooth glass of water, then throws its contents out in a sweeping arc. It splashes on the floorboards, and he touches a finger to the floor.
Almost immediately, a thin layer of frost sweeps across the wood, freezing the water translucent. Minseok sits back into the couch, once again staring at the silent, flickering screen. They found one body tonight. When they come for him - whether in a few hours or in the next few days - he’ll be ready for them. Revenge has never ended on the count of one.
Author: kagamiwa
Fandom/Characters/Pairing: exo | xiumin
Rating/Warnings: pg-13
Challenge # & Prompt: #023 - starting tonight, people will die
Word Count: 439w
The stairwell smells of mold and the ghosts of the previous tenants of the apartment. Pan up three flights past damp walls and dim lights into a dark room with nothing in it but holey curtains, a lumpy worn couch, an upturned wooden crate, and an old television sitting on another wooden crate. The television is the only source of light, casting a ghostly blueish tint around the room. It is tuned in to the evening news, but the newsreader is speaking without a voice. Every now and then white lines fizzle across the screen.
Pan away from the television to the sofa. There is only one occupant, his eyes fixed pointedly at the screen. He is still dressed in outdoor clothes - a thick jacket and winter hat - as if he has just come home after a very long day. A glass of water rests in his hands. The room is silent, a silence so deep that you can almost hear the static in the air. And yet the young man continues to stare at the soundless words spilling from the newsreader’s mouth.
Outside, a young girl slips on an icy patch on the sidewalk. She giggles as she rights herself, clinging ever harder to her mother’s hand. Festivity hangs in the air illuminated with Christmas lights strung between lampposts. The chatter of the crowd moving along the main street never dies down. Then: the ear-splitting shriek from the alleyway a little way down the street.
Back inside, Minseok feels the scream echo around the room. He sets the glass down on the upturned crate, but doesn’t let it go. Perched on the edge of the couch, he seems more like a wolf sniffing the danger in the air. There: the sirens.
All the tension seems to leave his body. He seems to be remembering just a few hours ago when he clumped up the stairs to his apartment, leaving a bloody trail of footprints behind him in the old wood. A deliberate trail leading directly to him. He traces his fingers against the smooth glass of water, then throws its contents out in a sweeping arc. It splashes on the floorboards, and he touches a finger to the floor.
Almost immediately, a thin layer of frost sweeps across the wood, freezing the water translucent. Minseok sits back into the couch, once again staring at the silent, flickering screen. They found one body tonight. When they come for him - whether in a few hours or in the next few days - he’ll be ready for them. Revenge has never ended on the count of one.