Yoosung walked into the house, in his hand was a pink and blue pinwheel. He grinned from ear to ear as he playfully blew on it and watched it spin. His amethyst eyes met Saeran’s mint green eyes with childish glee.
“Where did you get that?” Saeran asked. Though it seemed innocuous, the sight of the children’s toy gave him pause. The skin on his arms pimpled and the hair in the back of his neck raised like a wild animal, ready to flee.
“It was outside stuck in one of the planters. I thought you put it there.” Yoosung answered. “I was going to apologize for taking it, but it just looked so fun! I haven’t played with one of these since I was a kid.”
“I didn’t put it there.” Saeran said, voice flat.
“Hmm, I wonder if Saeyoung did as a little prank.” Yoosung laughed. He leaned into Saeran and gave him a kiss before heading further into the house. Saeran’s heart beat so fast he thought if he looked down, he would be able to see it under his shirt. He told himself his reaction was ridiculous; it was just a toy. He settled back down onto the sofa and picked up the book he had been reading. But his concentration was shot. He could hear Yoosung in the bedroom giggling like a schoolgirl.
He'd look like a psycho if he went in there and snatched it away. But that was exactly what he wanted to do. His body was poised to jump up and run in there, grab it and destroy it, burying it far far away. It was irrational and suddenly he wondered if the toy was triggering this response in him for some reason, a reason he couldn’t remember. Yes, that was it. His breathing normalized and he even grinned a bit at the ridiculousness of it all. Shaking his head he went back to his reading and pushed the toy out of his head.
Days later they arrived back home after a quick lunch date to find there were several pinwheels adorned on their front lawn. There were three in pots, five in the flower bed below the front window and eight along the stone path Saeran had painstakingly created that led to the stairs to the porch.
“Oh!” Yoosung smiled delighted. “Looks like Saeyoung is at it again.” He skipped around the yard as the wind caught the pinwheels, causing them to spin quickly. Saeran’s heart began to beat out of his chest and sweat coated his skin.
“No…I…I don’t think this was Saeyoung.” His eyes darted around the property, neighbors too far away to really see through the bushes and trees they had cultivated. The air felt ominous and oppressive. Suddenly he felt like prey about to be devoured. Something was out there, waiting, but for what?
He grabbed Yoosung’s wrist and dragged him inside. The blond gasped but did not resist. Once inside Saeran slammed the door and locked it, putting his body weight against it as if expecting something to crash into it. His labored breath was becoming painful.
“Saeran? What’s wrong? What is it?” Yoosung’s voice was worried and he reached out a hand towards his husband. With terror in his eyes Saeran noted that in his other hand, Yoosung held one of the pinwheels. As he stared, it began to slowly spin.
“Get it out of here!” he screamed, wrenching the toy out of Yoosung’s hands and quickly opening the door to toss it out. It clattered to the wooden floor and stopped spinning.
“What is wrong with you?” Yoosung said.
“Don’t touch them!” Saeran screamed, locking the door once more. He ran a hand through his sweat drenched red hair and shook his head, fear filling him.
“OK, you’re scaring me Saeran. It’s just a stupid prank, you know your brother.” Yoosung said calmly.
Saeran blinked at Yoosung and he knew what that look meant. He was afraid that Saeran was having another episode, something he needed to be talked down from. But that wasn’t the case. How could he explain to the other man what was happening? He couldn’t even understand it himself, but this was wrong, there was something horribly wrong with the pinwheels.
“I…uh…sorry…I didn’t mean to scare you.” He pulled his husband into a hug and just held him, feeling his warmth, letting his touch calm him.
“It’s OK.” Yoosung murmured into his shoulder with a sigh, believing the episode was diverted. “Why don’t I run a bath and we can just relax for the rest of the day, maybe watch a movie and snack. I can make those cream puffs you like, with the sweet filling?”
Saeran nodded and let the man go. His nerves were shot, but he felt relatively safe inside the house. Now to figure out how to convince Yoosung not to leave. He pulled the curtain to the side of the front window and peered into the yard. He could see the leaves of the trees slightly swaying in the wind, but it wasn’t strong enough to make the pinwheels spin as quickly as they now did. There was a soft high pitched sound that assaulted his ears and he pulled back squinting and covering his ears.
After a few seconds, the sound dissipated and all he could hear was Yoosung humming in the bathroom and running water.
He didn’t sleep that night, but was too paranoid to look out the window. He held onto Yoosung all night, wanting to make sure he didn’t get up and go outside. As the blond woke and slipped out of bed Saeran tentatively made his way to the front window again. His heart rate spiked but he still could not make himself look.
“I’ll get coffee started, you hungry yet? Or do you want to wait an hour or so for breakfast?” Yoosung asked, a bit warily. They had been together now for almost ten years and the man knew how to read him. He knew something was still wrong and he was being delicate. Saeran didn’t respond, his tongue felt dry and stuck to the roof of his mouth. “Saeran?”
After receiving no answer Yoosung walked towards him. Saeran couldn’t move, he didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to see what it looked like outside. His eyes flicked towards the window and back to the blond. It was bad, he knew it was bad, he could feel the heavy energy radiating all around him now. Inside was no longer safe.
Yoosung furrowed his brows and stepped in front of the window and pulled the curtain aside. Saeran wanted to pull him back, wanted to stop him, but he was frozen with fear.
“Oh my god!” Yoosung gasped. The tone, no longer amused by the “prank”, broke the spell Saeran had been under and he took a deep breath and joined his husband at the window. Outside every inch that could be covered, was covered by a pinwheel. Most were small, but many were large, all facing the house. They spun and spun and spun, a sound like laughter screeching through the air. Yoosung clung to Saeran, tears springing to his eyes.
As they watched, the front door began to open, footsteps sounding heavily on the floor. As one they turned, fear captivating them both. Something dark slithered along the edge of the door, misty and undefined. The laughter grew louder as their eyes widened.
