Sweet Decay
TW: Mentions of blood, dead bodies, character death.
This is a sweet home angst au!
Word count: 1.2k
Cha Hyun-su woke up to the sound of dripping.
He lays there for a moment, letting the darkness settle in his eyes. The room smelled of mildew and iron, the kind of stench that never quite faded. His body ached. Every breath felt like swallowing glass, but that was normal now. Pain was just another sensation, like hunger, like exhaustion.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Something warm and thick ran down his cheek. He reached up, fingers brushing against the sticky wetness. Blood.
His?
Maybe. Maybe not.
He pushed himself up, wincing at the dull throb in his skull. His apartment was in shambles. Broken glass littered the floor, reflecting the dim glow of the emergency lights. The door hung loosely on its hinges, as if something had tried to claw its way inside—or perhaps, something had clawed its way out.
Hyun-su exhaled shakily. The silence pressed against his ears, too thick, too loud. He should check on the others. See if Eun-yu was still alive. See if Ji-su had found a way to hold on. See if Sang-wook was still standing.
He needed to move.
But then he saw it.
A shadow, standing in the corner of the room.
Still. Silent. Watching.
His breath caught in his throat. His fingers curled into fists. The emergency lights flickered, casting jagged shapes across the walls. The shadow did not move, but its presence seeped into the air like poison.
“Who’s there?” His voice came out hoarse, barely above a whisper.
No response.
Hyun-su’s heartbeat thundered in his ears. He took a slow step forward, muscles tensed, ready to run or fight. But as he drew closer, the shape unraveled, breaking apart into nothing.
Just the darkness.
Just his mind playing tricks on him.
Again.
Hyun-su let out a breath and rubbed his eyes. He needed to get a grip. The infection was inside him, writhing beneath his skin, whispering in his ears, but he wasn’t gone. Not yet. He still had control.
Didn’t he?
---
The hallways were empty.
Hyun-su moved through the shadows, every footstep echoing like a gunshot in the quiet. The scent of rot clung to the air, the remnants of death and something worse. He kept his eyes forward, ignoring the shapes that seemed to slither at the edges of his vision.
Something was wrong.
He could feel it in his bones.
The stairwell was covered in blood. Smears of crimson painted the walls, streaked in frantic patterns. There had been a fight here. No bodies, just the aftermath.
Hyun-su clenched his jaw. His fingers twitched at his side. He should turn back. Find another route.
But then he heard it.
A voice.
Soft. Faint.
Calling his name.
“Hyun-su…”
His breath stilled.
It came from below, curling up the stairwell like smoke. A whisper, familiar and distant all at once.
His mother’s voice.
His hands clenched. His nails dug into his palms.
It wasn’t real.
It wasn’t real.
He stepped back—
And something grabbed his wrist.
Cold fingers, thin and trembling.
He turned sharply, heart slamming against his ribs.
It was his mother.
Pale. Hollow-eyed. Standing right there, in front of him.
She smiled. It was a horrible thing, that smile. Too wide. Too wrong.
“You should come home,” she said.
Hyun-su staggered back, ripping his wrist free. His breath came in short, shallow bursts. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t real.
“You’re dead,” he whispered.
She cocked her head. “Does that matter?”
His throat closed. His vision blurred at the edges. His mother took a step forward, bare feet silent against the floor.
“Hyun-su,” she murmured. “It’s not so bad. Just let go.”
A sharp, stinging pain coiled around his skull. The whispers inside him grew louder.
Let go.
Let go.
Let go.
His hands trembled. He pressed them to his temples, nails digging into his skin. He couldn’t listen. Couldn’t fall into it.
He squeezed his eyes shut.
When he opened them again—
She was gone.
Just the blood.
Just the empty hallway.
Hyun-su stumbled back, chest rising and falling in sharp, uneven breaths.
He needed to move.
---
The survivors were dead.
Or maybe they had never been there at all.
The apartment complex was a graveyard, rooms filled with ghosts and echoes of things that should have never been. Hyun-su walked through the wreckage, his reflection trailing behind him in broken shards of glass.
His fingers twitched at his sides. The whispers were louder now.
He had been fighting for so long. Holding on by fraying threads. But for what? There was no one left.
He wasn’t even sure if he was still here.
Something shifted in the corner of his eye. A flicker of movement.
He turned—
And saw himself.
Standing there, at the end of the hall.
Black veins curling beneath pale skin. Golden eyes gleaming in the dim light.
The monster inside him.
It smiled.
“You’re tired, aren’t you?” it asked.
Hyun-su swallowed. His throat felt raw.
“You don’t have to fight anymore,” it whispered. “Just let go.”
His hands curled into fists. His breath came ragged, unsteady.
“I’m still me,” he said.
The monster tilted its head. “Are you?”
Hyun-su exhaled sharply. He turned away, forcing himself to move. One step. Then another.
The whispers did not stop.
The darkness stretched long and endless ahead of him.
And somewhere, in the depths of his mind—
A door creaked open.
And something else stepped through.
---
Hyun-su didn’t know when he started laughing.
Soft at first. A quiet chuckle bubbling in his throat, like a secret whispered in the dark. But it didn’t stop. It grew, stretched, twisted into something else. A jagged, hollow sound that scraped against his ribs.
His knees buckled. He fell forward, hands catching against the bloodstained floor. His reflection stared back at him in a shard of glass.
It grinned.
Not his face.
Not anymore.
Black veins pulsed beneath his skin. His eyes flickered, golden light bleeding through the cracks. The laughter didn’t stop. It filled the empty halls, curling around him like smoke.
He was so tired.
So tired of fighting.
So tired of pretending he was still human.
The whispers were no longer whispers.
They were his own thoughts.
You were never meant to survive.
You were always meant to become this.
Hyun-su dragged a trembling hand across his face. His mouth ached from smiling. His chest ached from laughing.
He understood now.
The struggle had been pointless.
There was no one left to protect. No reason to fight.
The monster had won.
And maybe, just maybe—
It had been him all along.