~Summer’s POV~

“Well,” I said in a small and scared voice. “Uh...let’s get home.”

Minnie nodded, also scared.

I took a step, and the whole shopping mall turned black, the exits locked, and we were stuck.

“Nevermind,” I squeaked.

“Hello?” Minnie yelled into the eery silence. There was no one in the shopping mall, where it had been bustling with people a few seconds ago. Where were they?

The crackle of the PA system brought us back to reality. I jumped, looking for the source of the sound.

The message played at me. It was like a ghost, haunting and trying to frighten me. Well, it should be happy. I am more than frightened right now. I’m absolutely horrified.

The monotonous female voice blasted at us.

You want to reach them? Then you have to get them. And there’s a sacrifice for everything. Learn it the hard way. You think you’re perfect, but you aren’t even close to good. Sacrifice, honey, sacrifice.

“Agh!” I yelled out loud, covering my ears. I’ve heard those sentences enough in the past few minutes. We get it, okay! Now please shut up; we’re already tormented enough.

But the message played over again, a minute later. This time, 10 beeps were played at the end of the message.

You want to reach them? Then you have to get them. And there’s a sacrifice for everything. Learn it the hard way. You think you’re perfect, -beep- but -beep- you -beep- aren’t -beep- even -beep- close -beep- to -beep- good. -beep- Sacrifice, -beep- honey, -beep- sacrifice.

I closed my eyes, bracing for the same message to blast out at me the next minute. Instead, I was only met with complete silence.

“What do you think the message means?” Minnie whimpered.

“A total of 10 beeps...10 hours? We have 10 hours to make a sacrifice.”

“What exactly is considered a sacrifice?”

I spotted something taped onto the door of one of the stores. It read:

10 hours to make a sacrifice. You can take the easy way or the hard way. Your pick. Will it be your love life? Anyone? Your idol life? Or your REAL life?

“We’ll never give up our love lives. I love Kai and Summer loves Sehun, and vice versa. There’s nothing you can do about it,” Minnie yelled to the air.

Suddenly, a loud CRASH came from behind us. Only missing us by a foot, a shelf of china bowls had tipped over. The voice over the PA system came on again.

“Are you sure about that? You have 10 hours to determine if that’s what you really want. Your boyfriends...or DEATH.”

“W-what are we going to do?” asked Minnie, wide-eyed.

“I dunno. Let’s try finding a way out of here.”

We checked all of the doors, but as before, they were all locked. The PA system sounded again. “Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.”

“Nine times. Nine hours left,” I whispered.

Minnie pointed at a trapdoor in a ceiling of a storage room. “Why don’t we try here?”

I agreed, and the two of us found a ladder. I knew that Minnie was scared of heights, so I climbed up first. Just as was going to step on the last step, my foot slipped, and I fell backwards. Luckily, I landed on a pile of dirty clothes, not the hard floor. “Minnie, help me get up.”

I lifted an arm and Minnie pulled me up. “I’m not trying that again,” I said while massaging the pains in my back.

“I’m thirsty,” said Minnie. “Is there any water?”

“There’s a water fountain near the bathroom. I’ll go with you, I’m thirsty as well.”

We went over to the nearest water fountain, but when we pushed the button on the water fountain, no water came out. Still thirsty, we went to some of the food shops. But the beverage dispensers all didn’t work.

“No water? Oh god. What are we going to do?”

We sat down on one of the mall’s sofas, contemplating what to do. Although we were the only ones in the shopping mall and we could be doing anything, we didn’t feel like having fun. Time passed by slowly, second by second.

“Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.” Nearby, a TV screen turned on and flashed these words: “Tick tick boom boom ‘bout to blow. The time is decreasing, make your choice!” It glitched out as fast as it had turned on.

“Okay that’s it, we’re getting out of here,” I said while standing up. I found a large book, then walked to the nearest window. With my greatest force, I flung the book at the door. Somehow, the door did not budge. The glass didn’t even crack. “How?!” I yelled. I threw the book at the window over and over again. There was still no use. Suddenly the large light hanging from the ceiling fell down and shattered, inches from my feet. I screamed, then ran back to Minnie.

“It’s useless,” I panted. I reached for my phone. No service still. 5:32 pm. We still had 7 hours and 28 minutes left. We had till 1 am. Then my phone turned black. I pressed all the buttons repeatedly, but there was no reaction. Minnie pulled out her phone, which had a black screen as well. I groaned, realizing that I never even used the restroom.

“I’m going to use the bathroom,” I told Minnie. But when I tried opening the restroom doors, they wouldn’t budge. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” I walked back to the sofas once again, but Minnie wasn’t there.

“Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-beep.”

I found her in a bar. She was going through stashes of empty bottles, before finally taking out a bottle of clear liquid. “Finally!” She exclaimed. My eyes widened and I snatched the bottle out of her hand. “Vodka?! You can’t even drink one glass of wine without going crazy! Not to mention we’re not old enough!”

“Summer, I NEED water! Or at least something to drink!”

“No, I won’t let you drink this and become insane.”

Two more hours passed by with us getting up, pacing, trying to open more doors and failing, sitting down again, and repeating the process all over.

“Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep. Five hours have passed. It is now 7 pm. Oh, you’re so close. Honeys, so close.”

My stomach growled, my tongue was dry, and I needed to use the bathroom REALLY badly. In fact, I couldn’t hold it anymore. “Wait a second, I gotta go,” I said as I ran to the nearest store. I found the trash can, and went. When I came back, I found Minnie on the couch again, sleeping. I went over to her and put my head inches from hers.

“Oh no, oh no no no,” I said. From the smell coming from her mouth, she had drank the vodka. I looked at the floor next to the sofa, and saw a shattered vodka bottle and vodka on the white tiles. I slumped in a chair and decided to sleep as well.

I woke up to the sound of beeping again. “Beep-beep-beep-beep.” It was already 8. Minnie was awake, but definitely not sober. Suddenly, the only bit of light source was gone. Luckily, it was late spring so the sun had just begun to set. We still had light. In the somewhat darkness, we heard an ear-splitting scream. Minnie and I huddled closer, and heard several more crashing sounds and thumping. Had someone gotten in?

“Hello? Anyone there?” Minnie yelled. Silence followed. “Probably just a recording,” I said, trying to reassure her. “Y-yeah.”

A few more minutes past, and suddenly I smelled a strange scent. I took a deep sniff, and felt sleepy. “Minnie, don’t breathe deeply,” I said. But when I looked over to her, she was already asleep. My eyelids felt heavy, and slowly I fell asleep.

~Meanwhile~

“It’s already 11 pm. Where are they?! We can’t reach their phones!” Yoomi told the other SUGAR and Exo members.

“Did you leave them behind in the mall?” asked D.O.

“I don’t know. The mall staff told us to evacuate the building and not return until they said so, and we assumed that Minnie and Summer left as well,” replied Hailey.

“Try calling them one more time,” said Baekhyun.

Tae frantically tried to call them again. “No signal, the call can not be transmitted,” the voice message said for about the five hundredth time that night.

“Agh!” Tae yelled, frustrated. She threw her phone across the room.

A loud clank was heard. Tae’s phone hit the car keys.

Everyone looked at each other.

“Are you guys thinking what I’m thinking?” Suho asked.

“Thought you’d never ask,” D.O. said.

The oldest members, Xiumin and Luhan, grabbed their car keys and raced out the door, Sehun and Kai following right behind them, heading to the shopping mall. Sehun and Kai hadn’t said anything, but their faces were super worried.

~Kai’s POV~

The moment we got there, I knew something was wrong. I knew that Minnie was in danger. It took every bit of restraint to not run out of the car.

Luhan parked the car, and I ran out, not bothering to close the door.

“Wait up!” Kris shouted, but I took no notice.

Slamming into the shopping mall door, I stopped. The door would not budge. I shoved the door, but it was locked shut. I put my hands over my eyes and I peered in the glass door.

Two figures.

Unmoving.

Dead.

Notes

Oh no >< What's happened to Summer and Minnie?
Comment your guess!!
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Love,
M and I