❝ Halloween-themed stuff! ❞

[no1likeme]

{ 𝅘𝅥𝅯 this is halloween 𝅘𝅥𝅯 }
choose a character • leave a starter/prompt • link images or videos

Some options:

• trick or treating
• hayrides (haunted or not)
• corn mazes (haunted or not)
• bonfires (with or without ghost stories)
• halloween parties
• haunted houses (real or staged)
• picking out costumes
• pumpkin patch/carving
• anything your heart desires!

Comments

@briste

[sacrificialbff]

Maybe it was a bad idea to take Jongwoo out to the Halloween festival. It's on a farm out of the city, where you can pick apples, find a pumpkin, go on a hay ride, get lost in a corn maze... There are all sorts of fun fall-themed things to do. But it's dark now. And it's more crowded than Seokyoon anticipated.

Annnnnd... Jongwoo's wandered off when Seokyoon wasn't looking!

He isn't surprised; Jongwoo has a habit of wandering off. That's what scares him. When Jongwoo wanders off like this, it's sometimes days before Seokyoon sees him again. Of course, because the theme is Halloween, no one pays much attention to a young man rushing around in a panic looking for someone. An actor on the cast, obviously. Never mind that all Seokyoon's panic is real and he's near to tears.

[briste]

That fact that one of the activities on offer tonight is getting lost in a corn maze should have been the first indication that this was probably going to be a bad idea. Taking Jongwoo to a place that's littered with strange faces when he's so wary of strangers pointed, immediately, to this being a poor choice. Does Seokyoon even know of Jongwoo's issue with strangers? Can he really be blamed for taking Jongwoo out into a crowd of people? No. He can't even be blamed for taking the flight risk to a place where potentially losing your friends is one of the activities. It just sounded like a fun time, right? And it still could be so long as nothing bad happens before Seokyoon finds Jongwoo, or Jongwoo wanders back to Seokyoon.

Jongwoo didn't mean to wander away from his dear Seokyoon this time. He would actually prefer to be as near to Seokyoon as he can get, as often as possible. No, he was lured away from Seokyoon by a ghost. Not the kind they have dangling from the trees but the real kind. The kind that haunts him with what he is and what he used to be. He hears Moonjo wax poetic about the monster Jongwoo's become. He watches as Moonjo disappears behind a group of people with that sadistic smile and he can't help but chase after him. To prevent him from hurting those people? To help him? To cut them open alongside the man who made him?

He's deep in the corn maze when he realizes that he's nowhere near Seokyoon. It's just Jongwoo and a sea of unfamiliar faces. A slightly panicked Jongwoo surrounded by nothing but strangers.

[sacrificialbff]

Seokyoon meant well. He hoped that maybe taking Jongwoo out, that maybe pushing him just a little outside of his comfort zone would help. If only he'd known how wrong that thought was.

At least the one perk of being lost in a corn maze is that it's corn. Seokyoon can literally push through the stalks, ignoring the paths entirely in the search for his friend. If Jongwoo disappears here, in a strange place that's so far removed from where they live... how long might it be before he wanders home?

The downfall of the corn maze? It's corn and corn leaves cut. "Jongwoo? Jongwoo!? Where are you?" If/when he finds his friend, there will be more than a few bloodied clices across his cheeks and his bare hands.

[briste]

It was a good idea in theory. It might've worked well with someone else. Probably would've worked with someone else. It's probably difficult to know exactly what to do with Jongwoo or for him when Seokyoon knows so very little about the trauma he's suffered. How can he be expected to know what it is that might trigger Jongwoo?

This was such a bad idea.

It all happened so fast. One moment, a man was bursting through the corn, and the next, Jongwoo was driving a knife into his chest again and again. Over and over and over and- Likely a father and husband, looking for the family he'd been separated from. He startled the already on edge and panicked Jongwoo, and Jongwoo lashed out. Jongwoo attacked the perceived threat. The knife was in his hand so quickly (he had a knife with him. He always has a knife with him. Sorry Seokyoon) and he attacked before he even registered what was happening. And now he can't stop. The man's dead but he can't stop.

Until he hears Seokyoon call out his name from somewhere nearby. Wide, crazed eyes fall to the body he's straddling, down to the knife sticking out of his chest that Jongwoo's gripping so tightly. "Stay where you are." Don't come any closer. Don't see what he's done.

[sacrificialbff]

Right, because 'stay where you are' in the desperate voice of the friend he's frantically been looking for never had the smallest chance of working. As soon as he heard Jongwoo, heard his voice and the tone of it, he panicked. Panicked and pushed through more of the corn until...

It's more than a gasp, but not quite a cry. It's enough for Seokyoon's eyes to go impossibly wide and round, for both hands to clasp over his mouth lest he draw more attention to them. And he stops in his tracks. Frozen, rooted the spot like his legs turned into actual lead. He couldn't move. He can barely breathe.

So much blood!

It feels like solid minutes before Seokyoon can think. Surely something happened and Jongwoo was somehow provoked? But how could they argue self-defense when, even at a glance, Seokyoon could see so much violence? He shuffles closer and leans down to grab Jongwoo's arm. Now is not the time to talk about what happened. Now is the time to get Jongwoo out of here!

"Come on," he mutters. "We have to go."