Welcome to the Freakshow

All of the air seemed to vanish from my lungs. I felt as though I was falling through the grass beneath me, and my brain had gone icy cold - Josh, dead... No, it couldn't be!

"Oh, my God," I whimpered, dropping to my knees beside his body. My hand instinctively covered my mouth as warm tears began to slide down my cheeks.

"Move," Hoshi said gruffly, kneeling down beside me and reaching down to flip Josh onto his back. Seungkwan came over, helping me stand up and watching worriedly. He clung to my hand painfully tight.

"Is he alive?" Seungkwan asked shakily. Hoshi reached his fingers down onto Josh's throat, checking for a pulse. He shook his head.

"We..." Hoshi began, but his voice cracked. He shook his head again and stood up to face us. "We have to bring his body back to Jeonghan. Seungkwan, can you apparate a body?"

"I don't know," Seungkwan said, his voice laced with panic. "I don't know, I've never... I..."

"It's okay," Hoshi said. "We have to try. Jeonghan will want to see him,"

Seungkwan nodded, and he and Hoshi walked back over to Josh's body. Together, they lifted him up, and Seungkwan held him bridal style in his arms. Hoshi placed his hand on Seungkwan's shoulder and reached out a hand to me. I ran to him, burying my face in his chest, and felt the pulling sensation in my gut. A dizzying moment later, Hoshi and I were sprawled on the ground, still clinging tightly to each other, tears staining both of our faces.

"There's the house," Seungkwan's voice came. He stood as still as a stone, still holding Josh's body, and a determined look on his face. "Let's go,"

We began to walk down their long driveway, leading Seungkwan like a procession at a funeral. I squeezed Hoshi's hand, beginning to feel numbness and a sense of dread. How would the rest of the boys react?

The door to their trailer opened, and Jeonghan began to run towards us. A moment later, Minghao and Jun followed.

"What's going on?" Jeonghan asked, a worried look on his face. "Is everyone alright? Where's Josh?"

Hoshi sighed and dropped my hand, stepping out of Jeonghan's line of sight. I watched as a look of utter panic crossed over his face.

"Josh!" He cried, rushing over and cupping Josh's pale face in his hands. "Oh, my god, is he ok? Jun, hurry up and come heal him! Josh! Can you hear me?"

"Jeonghan!" Seungkwan said, loudly and sharply. "He's dead. It's too late."

Jeonghan stared up at Seungkwan for a moment, his face void of emotion. Behind him, Minghao fell to his knees in shock. Jeonghan's face crumbled, but before he could cry, he seemed to overflow with rage.

"This is all your fault!" He yelled at Seungkwan, lunging toward him, but Jun held him back. Silently and calmly, he took Josh's body from Seungkwan and turned towards the house. Minghao stood up shakily and followed. Hoshi took my hand again and began to pull me towards the house, leaving Seungkwan to fight Jeonghan off of him.

"Will Seungkwan be okay?" I asked.

"Yeah, Jeonghan will tire himself out and they'll come inside. Hurry, we need to break the news to Woozi gently before Jun gets to him."

We walked through the door and into the long hallway of rooms. I followed Hoshi towards the third one on our right, waiting as he knocked and opened the door a crack.

“Woozi?” He said softly, pushing the door completely open and stepping inside. “Woozi, we need to talk about something,”

Woozi sat up in his bed, rubbing sleep out of his eye.”Yeah? What’s going on, Hoshi?”

I leaned against the doorframe and watched as Hoshi sat on Woozi’s bed and took his hand. “There’s… There’s been an accident,” He began, looking down at his lap. “With Josh.”

“Is he ok?” Woozi asked, his eyes like saucers in his head.

Hoshi shook his head. “Josh… He’s…”

“Dead,” Came a voice behind me, and I turned to see Jun standing there. “Josh is dead. Come to the living room to say goodbye.” He then turned around and retreated towards the red room.

I looked back to Woozi and Hoshi to find that Woozi had turned into a tiny black kitten, and was now attempting to hide under his pillows. Hoshi picked Woozi up in one hand and walked over to me. As he stopped beside me, I could see pain in his eyes, and I could tell he was trying to stay composed for the sake of Woozi and the other boys. “We’d better go to the living room,” He said in a strained voice, not looking at me.

Jun had laid Josh’s body on a long, brown wooden table. Around him were hundreds of white candles, which Jeonghan was in the process of lighting, his hands shaking as pathetic wisps of fire sputtered out of them. When he had finally lit the last of the candles, he came and stood beside me. I instinctively took his hand and gave it a sympathetic squeeze.

“If anybody would like to say a few words about Josh before we lower him into his casket,” Minghao’s choked up voice came.

I heard a whoosh as Woozi turned back into himself, his cheeks stained with tears. “I’ll go first,” He said quietly.

It took a few hours for the service to end. It took even longer to pry Jeonghan away from Josh’s body.

“We have to try to heal him,” He was saying, eyes bulging out of his head. I could see he was in total panic mode, desperation clear in his face. “Please, Jun, you have to heal him,”

“I can’t bring people back from the dead,” Jun said flatly. “You know that as well as I do. We need to give him a proper burial Jeonghan, move away from him.”

“No!” He cried, flinging his body over Josh’s. “He can’t be dead!”

“Maybe you should just try,” I heard Minghao’s voice whisper. “For the sake of Jeonghan. Just to show him there’s nothing any of us can do.” Jun looked at Minghao skeptically. “It will give him closure,” Minghao reassured him, and Jun walked over to Josh’s body, shoving Jeonghan roughly out of the way.

I watched as he placed his hands over Josh’s chest, hovering an inch or so over his skin. Jun closed his eyes, a concentrated look on his face. Jeonghan hovered nervously over his shoulder as a glowing, white misty substance began to flow from Jun’s hands to Josh’s chest. After a few seconds, Jun stopped and put his hands over Josh’s head, white mist coming out again. His hands began to shake, and after a few seconds, the white mist sputtered and died out. Jun’s shoulders slouched and heaved as he caught his breath. He turned to Jeonghan and, with the most sincerity I had seen or heard from him, said, “I’m sorry, Jeonghan. There’s nothing I can do.”

Notes

sorry, this chapter is super short haha. anywho, idk what's going to happen right now. I'm kind of mad at myself that Josh died. uuugh it might take me a while to update again though, since I have literally no idea what to do. anyway, thanks for reading! hope y'all enjoyed, like, comment, all that other stuff if you like the story so far! okay bye