The Tail Of A Golden Deer: The Sixth
This is a collaborative project with the account @jongins-laceglove. We apologize for the delay and hope you enjoy the sixth part of this series!
A Deer watched as the two men ran off, staring at the group before him with a wide smile on his face.
“I’m gunna go find Jisungie!!!!! I’ll be back!!” He yelled enthusiastically, running back into the dark and scary wood.
A carefree, young lad spun and skipped around without a single thought in mind. Except for, well, Jisung. Little did he know someone was watching him from the trees. Eyes that roared with green hues, and a uniform in which was for little girls. The thing stared and pondered with its’ little green eyes, growing curious.
Another watched the deer carefully, just as unaware. A man with spitting red hands and tan skin, followed Chenle by foot. All while Peppermint remained carefree.
That is, until he saw something so dreadfully horrible that made him stop right in his tracks.
A boy with dark hair hang lifelessly from a rope that was carefully tied into a noose. The boy’s body was bruised and cut and mangled, while his head dangled by his spine. Slowly, the fairy fell out of the rope’s hold and landed silently on the cold ground.
Chenle felt himself tick and buzz as he began to laugh, allowing the toxicity of freedom and in-sanity crawl under his skin. Crack, snap, bloody murder. The Canary’s hair and once-beautiful antlers went ink black, dripping with blood and dead skin. His once-gone fingers into sprouted bones, all the while his mouth tethered shut and spread into a sewed-on smile that reached to his ears. With eyes as red as hers, the Canary turned around and laughed at Haechan. This laugh wasn’t carefree and joyous at all. This laugh...this laugh spoke murder.
“Hiya, Freak!” He giggled, getting a bit too close for Haechan’s liking. The smell of death reeked throughout the forest, nothing the two hadn’t smelled before.
Haechan let out a hearty sigh and fought off the feeling to kill Chenle, realizing that he was definitely needed. “Hey.” He spoke blankly.
“Haha! Acting tough, are we? How cute, how cute indeed. Yep! Yep! Such carefreeness for one who just killed my best friend. How cute, how cute indeed. Yep! Yep! We found your double. There is always the possibility of replacing you, but my Mama said we need you and your triples later on. Yep! Yep! The Canary always wins! Indeed, Indeed!” The boy’s voice worked like clockwork, ticking and buzzing and slowly losing control. A small whisper in his ear told him what to say, so he gladly listened.
“My Mama said not to trust men who know men in lab coats! Yep! Yep! How cute, how cute indeed! Rude! Rude!” Chenle sang as he paced around the Mage, laughing and giggling.
That seemed to trigger Haechan in a way that made him stumble back and fall on the ground, a small gasp leaving his lips. “W-Who told you about that!?” His eyes went wide, a part of him trying not to cry.
“My Mama!” The canary replied cheerfully, humming.
“G-get away from me, freak!” The mage yelled, getting back onto his feet and running off.
Chenle only giggled, turning around and returning to his normal self.
“Well, I found Jisungie...I guess...”
---------------------------------------------
Winwin sat nearby the mangled body of a wind, mumbling about how he can’t leave Kun with a child and no one to protect him. He had no clue if Aldrich had returned yet but he knew that he couldn’t leave Kun with a fucking CHILD. It was a bad idea to let Kun keep her in the first place but it was even worse for this to suddenly happen.
“FUCKKKKKKKKK Even if i do make it back Baekhyun is literally going to slaughter me if he found out this happened!” Winwin yelled quite loudly, scaring off some birds.
A loud whistle sounded throughout, spooking Winwin. Curious, he sprung up and followed the sound.
Oh, it lead back to the cabin. OH, everyone’s here.
“I have news...” The deer whispered, staying awfully close to his double. “J-Jisungie...Jisungie is dead...”
Minseok blinked at him, trying to process his words before sighing heavily, moving sit down on the deck.
Hybrid Jisung smiled at the news, turned away from the group as he sat next to Yixing’s body.
That night was one big blur, everyone getting ready for bed as Minseok stared off into the forest, pacing nervously as he tried to decide on what to do with Yixing.
He walked by his body countless times, not even having the stomach to look at his lifeless form.
The moment he died kept replaying over and over in his head, the feeling he got as his friend’s life force slipped from his body like it was nothing wasn’t anything short of pure, unfiltered dread.
He finally gave up, letting out a loud frustrated noise as he opted for just putting a bed sheet on him and walked into the house.
He would have missed it when Chanyeol woke with a start, blindly searching for his notebook if it weren’t for his excessive cursing.
“Fuck if I don’t find it now I’m not going to be able to write it down, shit where is it I’m gonna fucking scream that god damned notebook is-“ Chanyeol flinched when his notebook smacked him in the face after Minseok threw it right at his face with an expectant look in his eye.
Chanyeol quickly sat down at the coffee table, quickly trying to scribble down all the events of his vision before it completely slipped from his mind.
“Fuck!” He growled, throwing his notebook across the room when he completely forgot some important information before he could write it down.
Minseok gingerly picked it up, flipping through the tattered book before stopping at the page he wanted, only to be more confused than ever.
“Orange. Blue. Black. Death. Jongin. Ch” He furrowed his brows and repeated it over and over, looking between the book and Chanyeol with a questioning look on his face.
“I don’t know, Minseok.. I really don’t know. I can’t help beyond that, I’m sorry. It’s gone.” He sighed, slumping over on the couch in defeat and running his hands over his face.
“And Jongin? Why does that name sound so familiar...” Minseok pondered as he walked over to Chanyeol, handing him his book back.
Chanyeol shook his head, taking the book absentmindedly with furrowed brows. “I.. It’s on the top of my tongue, but I just can’t quite put my finger on it. For some reason my first thought is that he has something to do with Renjun.. but that can’t be right, no that’s impossible. Right? It’s gotta be.”
Minseok stood there, his mind racing as he tried to figure out what to think of this situation when he and Chanyeol were suddenly startled out of their thoughts by the sound of the glass door slamming shut- making them both jump in surprise.
They exchanged a suspicious glance before they both scurried outside, seeing an orange-headed boy with a fluffy striped tale slinking quietly into the dark forest and immediately following after.
He stared down at the dead body of his doppelgänger, happy with his work as he tied the cloth pouch that held Jongin’s eyes to his belt.
He was about to fly off- before he heard the argumentative shouts of.. three? People in the distance, and decided to have some more fun that night.
He quietly walked through the forest, slowly getting closer and closer before he broke through the tree line, and startled the three men.
“W-wait, you look.. Chanyeol I think you were right about Jongin being related to Renjun... I think they used to be friends.”
Kai snarled, his boney dragon wings twitching and his white eyes seemingly glowing under the moonlight. “You knew Jongin?” He threatened.
The tallest one nodded once, his ears flopping slightly with the movement. “Yeah actually. He was- wait, knew?” He backed up.
Kai smirked, staring right into him “Yes, knew. Why I killed him, after all!”
They gasped, but the one with the orange hair stood out to him in particular, so of course he did the most logical thing.
He lunged forward, ripping into the soft skin of his stomach with his left hand and tearing out organs as the boy let out pained screams. Black flames from his hand burned him from the inside out.
Kai turned to the other two that were trembling in fear, too shocked to say anything as he twisted his hand once more- making the boy scream even louder and enjoying the way that they flinched.
He finally had enough, reaching into his rib cage and burning right through his lungs to rip out his heart.
He kicked the body aside, moving towards the other two.
“Now. What do you know of Renjun? Where is he. If you play nice I might let you live~ barely, of course- But you’ll survive.” He teased.
The short one shuddered, his eyes still glued to the corpse of his friend and not even registering the words his taller friend sassed back at the man.
“I’d like you to say that again with just as much confidence after you know just how many seers I’ve killed, boy.”
The boy glared as he moved to punch Kai- but let out a guttural scream when he grabbed his arm, breaking his bones with the sheer force of his grip and tossing him to the ground as though he weighed nothing.
Kai smiled at the two before he slowly lifted both of his arms. One backed up as the other merely sat on the ground in horror, pathetically scooting against the dirt in an attempt to escape. “No.. no, please! I’m begging you, don’t!”
Kai just chuckled deeply, and steadily grew flames in the palms of his hands- the left being black, and the right being blue.
“Well, this was fun while it lasted.”
He shot his flames at both of them, their cries of pain the only thing he could hear over the sound of burning flesh.
He frowned at the blue flame, being reminded once again of the days when his bastard of a father took him to that small blue room.
When their screams finally stopped, he relented- and made sure he was satisfied with their charred beyond recognition corpses before finally flying back to wherever he came from.
What’s it like to lose your best friend?
Only few know that feeling.
Only few know the hopelessness.
A deer, a mouse, a bard, and many.
In-Sanity is a lot of fun.
When you’re doing it with another.
The Deerest of Deers stood silently and blankly, rapidly changing from his other form back to the original. It couldn’t decide. Didn’t want to decide. In-sanity is funny. It likes to bounce around wildly in your mind while you try to stay alive. Quite humorous, if you ask us. It likes to glitch and sting and buzz. A monster of all sorts, we must say.
He ticked and buzzed and flinched when the others around him in the cabin living room spoke. Everything was incomprehensible, blended in with each other. Reverbs and autotunes lifted their voices until everything was just hums and squeaks.
The boy let out a small, freakish sound. Down he went, to the ground. Not unconscious, just overstimulated. The voices mocked him. Told him it was all his fault.
The voices only laughed and the buzzes and static noise got louder. Every other sense blocked out as he fought his mind.
Don’t slip into In-Sanity.
Don’t slip into In-Sanity.
Don’t slip into In-Sanity.
Mint, snapping, twisting, deer.
The boy let out another freakish sound, covering his ears and trying to drown out the hearty thoughts that stabbed him countless times over.
It was testing him. Probing his mind with questions. He wasn’t ready, wasn’t worthy.
“Stop go away!” He yelled, yet nothing came out.
“I can’t!” He said once more, no one heard him.
A slip out of mind. To where no one heard his cries. His mind. His mind. His mind.
As soon as it started, it was over.
Skin, pale and scared, seemed to glow. The red and white hues to his features returned, no longer gold. He wasn’t worthy anymore.
To everyone else, he had merely changed colors like a chameleon. No one saw his pain. No one saw him collapse.
“Don’t trust men who have green couches! Don’t forgive men in lab coats! Don’t believe men in orange! A tiger is dead! Yep! Yep! A griffin has no heart! Yep! Yep! Dobermen Dead! Indeed! Indeed!” He blurted out, unable to control what he just said. Covering his mouth, he shook. “W-what...I-I didn’t mean to say that! Why did I say that?!!”
Jisung watched Chenle from a corner of the room, his own eyes swimming with worry. He’d been trying to muster up the courage to walk over and help him- seeing as nearly everyone else couldn’t see his distress through the haze of their own.
He mentally slapped himself when Sicheng and Yuta stepped into his line of vision, unfamiliar serious looks in their eyes.
He opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but before he could get the words out they both reached down and grabbed an arm, pulling him up. A confused noise escaped his mouth as they dragged him up the stairs into his and Chenle’s room.
Sicheng pushed him down on the bed, Yuta sitting down next to him as he pulled a chair away from the desk in front of the window it sat in front of.
He was speechless, eyes flicking between the two with a suspicious look.
Sicheng snorted out a laugh, crossing his legs in the chair.
“We wanted to know if you need to talk? Not just about all the deaths.. but things in general.”
Jisung looked surprised, and he was indeed as to why they’d want to talk to him of all people. Why not Chenle? He certainly needed it more than him.
“I.. I suppose so. It honestly hasn’t caught up to me yet.. and I don’t think the worst has come.”
Yuta nodded, moving to wrap his arm around Jisung’s shoulder. “I see.. well, you know we’re here for you when it does hit. If you need us we’ll be there- no matter what. Don’t be scared to come get us.”
Jisung chuckled, reaching to grab the desaturated orange blanket with cream splotches and black stripes that was draped over the headboard.
He wrapped it around himself, a comfortable silence settling in between the three. He didn’t have to speak for them to understand his situation or noisy mess for thoughts. They just knew. almost as if they’d been through something similar.
Jisung shot up from his sleep in a cold sweat, looking out the window to see a bright crescent moon.
He swallowed, but the lump in his throat protested, causing him all the more pain.
He blinked, suddenly realizing the wetness of his cheeks.
All too fast, his mind flashed with the memories of his boyfriend from his dream and he only cried harder.
He got up quietly, padding through the hallway and down the steps to the bathroom. He picked up a small animal that was glowing dimly, and grabbed some sugar cubes for it on his way to the bathroom.
He set the small fluffy yellow creature onto the side of the counter, right in front of the mirror and giving it the snacks. He smiled softly as it’s glow became brighter with happiness, nearly buzzing in delight as it hummed sweetly.
With shaky hands, he took out Chenle’s pocket knife and sniffled, staring into the mirror at his own blurry and disoriented reflection.
He raised the knife to his hair- slicing off chunks until it was an inch long on top. With shaky hands, he shuffled through the drawers in the shelf behind him, pulling out an electric razor and deciding to shave the bottom a bit.
He stared into the mirror with a dull look, holding back the urge to scream and cry and punch something until his fists were bloody.
He clenched his jaw, suddenly turning to go back upstairs.
He walked right past his room, turning into an empty . His tears started falling even heavier, dripping onto the ground as he searched through the drawers for Chenle’s lighter.
He finally found it, pulling it out of the drawer and dropped to the ground. He hugged it close to his chest, sobbing freely.
After a while he calmed down a bit, and he decided to get up and go act upon whatever impulses his mind feeds him.
As he was standing up to leave the room, he jumped- the silhouette of his roommate startling him.
“C-Chenle? What are...what are you doing out of bed...?”
“What the heck do you think I’m doing?! I’m trying to find that stupid book...Yep! Yep! Indeed!” Chenle grinned and approached the other, his figure darkened and bloody. In between the knots and strings of his mouth, a set of sharp teeth rest, waiting to strike. The boy’s red eyes glowed so brightly that it was almost blinding to look at.
“Would you like to commit a crime as horrible as murder with me? For sure! For Sure! We shall ruin life and death! The king has befallen! Yep! Yep! In a pile of roses, once more! Yep! Yep! May we pray for his poor soul!” The Canary giggled, twitching and ticking as he hummed around the room.
“My Mama,” He continued, looking back at Jisung, “My Mama said to have you help me, as you are as heartbroken as I am!”
Jisung gulped, shoving the lighter into his pocket and averting his gaze to the floor. “I don’t know who your ‘Mama’ is, but she’s wrong. I’m not heartbroken. I don’t know why I would be. It’s not like.. like he’s really gone or anything. He’s just, he’s just missing, that’s all. Yeah, he’s missing!”
He bounced over to the doorway, looking behind him to Chenle, waiting for him to follow.
“I- I’ll find him! Yeah, You’ll burn the book, and i’ll g- go look for him. And I’ll find him! He’s okay, I just know it.”
Chenle stopped the taller one, tightly gripping his wrist and looking down.
“Jisungie...You can’t go in the woods anymore...there’s an evil man there. H-He...He killed your...your me. He’ll kill you, too, if you go out there. The man with...dragon wings...He doesn’t show any mercy. Just...Just grab the book. We’ll burn it together, okay?”
He let out a shaky and weak sigh, the tension in his body slowly disappearing.
“I.. I will burn the book with you. But after that, I can’t promise anything. I appreciate it.. but I have to go into the forest. I can’t explain it, it’s like there’s something calling me. And I need to know what it is.”
“Then, I’m going with you.” The Deer let go of the mouse’s wrist, leaving the room and coming back with a lit lantern. “But let’s do it before it gets too late. We can burn the book when we get back, or we’ll get it now and do it in the woods. How does that sound?”
With winds of ice and horror, two boys stood at the edge of a dark forest, wielding only a pocket knife, a lighter, an old book, and a lantern. In Xymore times, right now it would be 2 First, or, 2AM.
The Wood, alive with creatures only the night knows, crawled up their backs and made them shiver. Howls and shrieks and cries they had never heard before. Sounds only heard in dreams. The wisps of eerie whispers tickled them.
Only a small flame brought them to the center of it all. Everything fell into a sort of enchanting spell at this hour, whistling a tune while purple lights dangled from the trees as if they were hung for a birthday party.
“Mendorus Candelactum...” Chenle mumbled, “The Goddess Of Memories...She’s watching...We mustn’t make a sound, Jisung...”
The Deer stood tall on his heels and sniffed the air, pointing North, deeper into the forest.
“That way...” He breathed, quietly heading the direction he pointing to.
The reeking smell of death filled their noses and blanketed their tastebuds with rotten, human flesh. Chenle, quite used to it, kept moving closer towards the smell. Jisung, however, gagged and unwillingly followed the canary.
What they saw was hideous.
Guts scattered the forest floor. Blood, clotted and gooey, stuck to the bottoms of their shoes as they directed the light towards the source. Three dead bodies rest mangled and stagnant, hollow of any magic. Just a shell of the people they used to be. The youngest let out a choked sob once he saw someone familiar, yet the oldest directed his attention towards the rope that hung from a tree, and the man who lay beneath it.
A graveyard of magic and unfulfilled hope. It disgusted them, yet, intrigued them, as well. A lighter and a book, four dead bodies, possible doom...It intrigued them. Made them so undeniably curious. What lie at the end? Only the dead knew that answer.
The small “tick, tick, tick” of a lighter being lit was the only sound made in this moment. Soon after, the crackling of a book being burned to ashes, and the choked laughs of two In-Sane children. ‘Such a pretty sight,’ they pondered, allowing for the in-sane-ness to drown them in such a pretty and curious light. ‘Such a pretty sight to see the ones we hate mangled on the forest floor.’
Jisung giggled, the misplaced happy sound cutting through the air over the crackling of the burning book. His hand subconsciously reached towards the dancing fire, before the sound of a twig snapping from behind startled him.
He whipped around towards the sound, flinching and swiftly pulling out his dead boyfriend’s knife from his back pocket.
His eyes widened at what he saw, the corpses of their deceased friends- and his boyfriend- rising from the ground, their empty eyes dull-ly twinkling from the light of the small fire.
“Burn.. Burn.... Burn........” They groaned, clawing and stumbling after the pair before Jisung had to slash at Minseok’s hand when his body got too close. “I.. I think that’s how they died...” Jisung mumbled to himself, clicking his tongue as he grabbed a heavy rock to bash Chanyeol’s skull in with it while stabbing Minseok in his rotting temple, successfully killing them one last time.
He panted, staring down at the bodies in a moment of uneasy silence before a shrill scream of surprise ripped out from his throat, being shoved to the ground with a harsh pushed from behind.
He struggled, slashing at the crazed, re-animated body of his boyfriend that reached for him while he sobbed. “No! No, please- Chenle! It-It’s me! Don-don’t you recognize me?! It’s- it’s go-ing to be ok-okay! Just please, Don’t hurt me!!!”
Our very deer-like Chenle twitched and ticked towards his double, pulling him up by the back of the shirt and giving a dead stare. Looking him in the eyes, the Canary’s pupil dilated until the eye was as small as a pin. Looking death in the eye, giving his doom the final laugh before reaching up the lighter in which the book was burned from. Slowly, the small whispers of the forest silenced, being filled by the short breaths of someone who’s faced death many times over.
“You can’t hear me...You have nothing left...But, I promise you...I will take care of him. You shall hurt no-one...an-y-mo-re. May Death never forgive you, and may you light up in flames and fuel our heat.”
The Silence, like a bubble, popped. Soft, crackling noises from the fire that burned a familiar body.
“He’s watching us. Such...a foolish boy...Jisungie...Someone’s watching us. He’ll make it 21...We must hurry home.”
A whip of dark light flew by them. The small laugh of a confused man, creeping up behind them.
“I recognize those certain words, yes yes,” The voice spoke, making himself apparent.
“Mark told me once, I thought it was your father who would say it. Of course, it’s you. He could tell the future! Ah, green, green!” Wrapping his arms around Chenle and squeezing tight, a bright smile lit up the forest. “Your father wouldn’t be proud of you, but I am.”
“Kun!!” The Deer smiled, returning to his normal self and helping up Jisung, “Jisung! This is...oh, are you okay? You look awfully pale.”
Said boy shivered in dread, wrapping his arms around himself on the ground he sat disoriented upon. He stared Into the distance- the feeling of something being wrong consuming him before the question registered, and he stood up stiffly, offering a curt nod to no one in particular.
“Yeah, I’m.. fine. I’m just not used to an... anybody el-se b-ut m..my Chenle car-ing about m-e.”
He wiped blood off of the blade of his knife with the fabric of his tattered gray shirt, cutting a long slit into it accidentally as a result.
He scrunched up his nose in anger, impulsively flipping the knife downwards in his hand before shoving the knife into the hole.
Right as it registered in his head what he’d done, it was too late.
He gasped, the pain slowly spreading through his body before he pulled the knife back out of the side of his side in a panic- spasming in pain and flinging the knife through the air blindly.
Kun blindly caught the knife, recognizing its’ pattern and dropping it to the ground, letting a small gasp grab his throat and strangle him. A choked cry brought him all the way left as he stumbled over to Jisung and absent-mindedly started to treat his wounds. A strange tingling feeling brought him to a halt, feeling as if there was a ghost touching his shoulder. He shivered, continuing what he was doing until the wound was bandaged and secure.
Yet, something felt off. Not in the way that’s like “oh I’m not home”, but in a “I know this place” kind of way. He knew this forest.
It was the forest he went missing in over 20 years ago.
By now it was getting to be sunrise and the three In-Sane members of the group made their way up the steps, too tired to notice that a green book and some pointy object rest where Yixing was supposed to be, but now gone.
Tired, but aware, Kun saw the small sign that was hung right next to the door, absolutely speechless.
“Renjun...Renjun...Huang Renjun...?” He spoke to himself, entering into the cabin after the two boys.
With Chenle and Jisung already in their rooms, probably sleeping, Kun took his time peeking around the cabin until he had someone to talk to. Reminiscing the old cabin and memories he had in the past.
The fiery heat of a Phoenix made his way down the stairwell, still sleepy and in his soft pajamas. It was quite early, after all. Sunlight breeched through the large windows Kun was facing, causing him to groan and shield his eyes from the powerful light. His tucked-away Fairy wings were quite visible, now, as his black shirt wasn’t at all heavy. This caught Renjun’s attention. He gasped so loud that it made Kun swiftly turn around.
The two shook as they tried to keep themselves together. Many, Many years it had been since they last made eye contact. So many lost years in which the Phoenix called the Fairy’s name deep in the woods with no response. They both looked so mature now, it was almost too good to be true.
Renjun trembled, his eyes stinging with the pain that came along with the remembrance of lost memories.
Pictures of his childhood flashed before his eyes in a vivid haze of laughter and fun. He had been friends with the fairy at a young age.. up until he disappeared without a trace one day, leaving the boy to wonder if it was all a dream.
But he stood before him now, in all his glory.
He blinked his thoughts away, stepping closer to the other man.
“Is... is it really you? I- I assumed you were dead. You look so different now...”
“I would say the same for you, Renjun. Yes, it really is me...I uh...thought I’d never see this place ever again, honestly.” Kun didn’t seem to smile, even in this moment of joy. Yet, the phoenix could tell Kun was insanely proud of him. “Oh, right. My Renjun wanted me to tell you that he is okay. He’s at home resting....Mmmm...Do you have any soda...? It’s been years since I’ve had a coke.”
Renjun’s caramel brown hair glowed ember in a moment of excitement as he jumped to the kitchen happily.
“That’s right, you used to really like pop didn’t you?” He thought out loud, swiping a can of coke from the top shelf of the fridge.
“I like to drink one out in the place we used to play around as kids... I never really thought about it before, but I really miss those days.” He pondered reminiscently.
“Mmm...” Kun looked down at the floor, holding the can of coke tightly in his hands. Soft tears slowly fell down his face while he attempted to push them away and act like nothing was happening. “S-Sorry...Sorry I’m sorry...”
The distant arguing of two of the now awake members came crashing down the stairs. Winwin...and Yuta...Surprise, surprise. Winwin came tumbling over to Kun, tackle hugging him.
“Saonac, soam-raoc acaas!!“ He slapped Kun right on the cheek, giving a small pout and sitting on his lap.
“Shoth of!“ The stupid, tear-faced idiot returned.
“Dhraeen~” Winwin stuck his tongue out, wiping Kun’s tears away.
The loud crash of a startled man came tumbling down the stairs, quickly collecting himself and looking at the group with wide eyes.
“I know the coordinates!”
