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Yoongi had never seen stars this bright before. Out in the middle of the wilderness, surrounded by nothing but mountains and forest, there was no other light than that of the campfire, which didn’t even reach all the way to the dark tops of the trees. In the clearing they were in, there was nothing above them but the stars like a dome- simultaneously close enough to almost touch and infinitely far away.
The air was chilly but not yet cold, and the warmth of the fire made it perfectly pleasant. It hadn’t rained, nor was it predicted to. Surrounded by his best friends in such a beautiful place, Yoongi should have felt nothing but content.
Instead, he felt uneasy.
It was easy to pinpoint where the sense of unease had begun. They had been hiking to their campsite, listening to the sounds of the forest, when those had abruptly stopped. It was enough to unnerve anyone, particularly Yoongi, who knew such a sudden silence usually meant danger was nearby. His friends, varying degrees of unnerved as well, had stopped, and they’d all held still and tried to ascertain what they’d all sensed. But nothing happened, and eventually they laughed it off and kept going. The birds and animals stayed quiet, but nothing dangerous appeared, and Yoongi reasoned that if it was some kind of predatory animal, the six of them made a big and loud enough group that it would be reluctant to attack them.
Even hours and miles later, it was still weirdly quiet- except for Yoongi’s friends, who kelt up a joyful racket while they ate and roasted additional hotdogs, and it was hard to stay too uneasy around them. It was still the perfect trip, as far as Yoongi was concerned. He enjoyed the outdoors, and he enjoyed the company even more. It was precious to be there, all seven of them together.
Seven?
Yoongi counted again: seven again.
“Huh.”
There were six of them, he was certain, but… clearly, there were seven. Yoongi frowned, his unease now back full force. He looked around the circle; they were all his friends- nobody extra had joined their party. There was nothing to be surprised or concerned about at all.
Still, Yoongi’s gut told him something was wrong, and Yoongi’s gut was seldom mistaken. The heat of the fire suddenly felt stifling, and Yoongi got up with a mumbled excuse. He didn’t go very far, not even out of sight of the fire, just far enough to feel the air cold on his face and have a moment to think . Maybe he was losing his mind.
“Yoongi?”
Yoongi jumped nearly out of his skin.
“Sorry!” Jungkook hissed. “Sorry. Are you okay?”
“I’m good,” said Yoongi, not caring if it came out sounding incredibly fake. Maybe if it did, and Jungkook had noticed something strange too, he’d confide in him. Two were better than one. “I just have this weird feeling.”
Jungkook went still.
“You’ve noticed something, too?” Yoongi prompted carefully.
“I thought I was just going crazy.”
“How many of us left town this morning?”
“Six.”
Yoongi nodded. “So why are there seven of us now?”
Jungkook’s shoulder hunched. “But… we know everyone here.” He snuck a furtive glance at the five around the campfire. “Don’t we?”
“Don’t we?”
“Yah, what are you two whispering about?” Seokjin called from over by the fire.
“Talking about you behind your back!” Jungkook fired back. He turned to Yoongi again. “We know them. Right?”
“Okay.” Yoongi took a deep breath. “You’re absolutely positive there were six of us before?”
“Pretty sure. You thought so, too, before we even talked about it- no way we’d both imagine that on our own, right?”
“Right. God, Jungkook, what is this?”
“I don’t know. If one of them isn’t really our friend, then what is it?”
“I don’t know.” Yoongi felt a little ill. “We can’t tell them.”
“Because then it would know that we know?”
“Exactly. Maybe that’s how to get it to go away, or maybe something else will happen. We don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
“Do you really believe in this kind of stuff?” said Jungkook cautiously, like he was hoping Yoongi would say no.
“Not really, but I don’t not believe in it, either. And now…” Yoongi sighed. “Better safe than sorry.”
“Yoongi-hyung, Jungkook-ah, come back here!” Jimin called. “We’ll eat all the marshmallows without you!” Hoseok feigned whacking him with his marshmallow-roasting stick.
“Hyung.” The firelight reflected glossy on one of Jungkook’s eyes, the other half of his face in shadow.
“I’m with you,” Yoongi murmured.
“You’d better really be you.” Jungkook tried to chuckle, but it didn’t quite work.
You’d better be, too, Yoongi wanted to say, but Jungkook looked so young and so scared, like Yoongi was his only lifeline in the world. Yoongi brushed his hand. “I am. I promise.”
They returned to the campfire together, and Yoongi forced himself to separate from the relative security of Jungkook and plop himself back down between Seokjin and Hoseok.
Two friends with a “seok” in their name- what were the odds of that? Perhaps it would be easier to fake a second “seok” than to invent a completely new person altogether. But considering how well the fake was working, a name was probably child’s play.
Hoseok was singing a song that Yoongi vaguely recognized as a sea shanty that had experienced a modern revival a few years ago, except the words were now about s’mores, and Taehyung chimed in with his own silly additions every few lines. Jimin was laughing so hard he might have been crying, while Namjoon looked fondly bewildered with dimples showing up brilliantly in the firelight all the same. Jungkook was smiling again as he play-fought with Seokjin.
Nobody was the odd one out. Nobody didn’t belong.
Yoongi’s eyes narrowed. Jungkook had sure recovered quickly from the scared kid he’d been a few minutes ago.
Nobody was safe.
Jungkook or not, Yoongi wasn’t going to say anything. Not until he knew the consequences. He stole a glance at Namjoon; Namjoon loved to learn, loved other cultures- maybe he’d stumbled across the myth of whatever this was. Not that Namjoon would actually believe in it, but he might have information.
Provided Namjoon himself wasn’t the thing. Yoongi wondered how he had so many memories of Namjoon then, but… he had memories of all of them spanning back years, but he was equally certain there had only been six before. Clearly, whatever it was was messing with his head. Or he was just crazy, but Yoongi didn’t think he was crazy. He wished they’d brought their actual phones instead of just a satellite phone in case of emergency- then he’d be able to look at pictures and see who wasn’t present in any of them. That still wouldn’t tell him what to do about it, but at least he’d know.
“What was that?” said Hoseok suddenly.
“What?”
“It sounded like wolves. Are you sure it’s safe to camp this far out in the mountains?”
It could be either Hoseok trying to get them to go back, or the thing that was pretending to be Hoseok trying to see how likely they were to go back. Or just Hoseok being scared. Yoongi decided to test him.
“We have a fire, and wolves wouldn’t attack this many people together. Wolves don’t usually attack people anyway.” He settled more comfortably where he was sitting and tried to exude confidence that nothing was wrong.
Hoseok’s eyes flickered toward him, and he gulped visibly. Yoongi made eye contact with Jungkook over the fire.
“I need to go water a tree,” said Jimin. “Hobi-hyung, come protect me from the wolves?”
Hoseok cast another weird look in Yoongi’s direction as he got up and followed Jimin into the woods. Yoongi almost offered to go with them, but that would be weird, and if Hoseok now suspected him of being some kind of monster in disguise, that would really scare him. But if either of them wasn’t who they seemed- well, it was far too late to go after them now. Anxiety gnawed in Yoongi’s stomach.
Namjoon cleared his throat. Taehyung, who had gotten oddly quiet in the past few minutes, leaned casually into Seokjin’s side, but Yoongi knew him well enough to know it wasn’t casual at all. Or thought he knew him, anyway.
A scream rang through the woods.
Yoongi bolted to his feet. That was Hoseok: Jimin hadn’t really been Jimin, but some horrible creature that had done something horrible to Hoseok, and Yoongi had let it. His feet shuffled, unsure if it was any use still trying to save Hoseok or if he just needed to prepare for an attack from not-Jimin on the rest of them. Noisy footsteps came pounding back toward the fire, and they appeared in the wildly swinging light of a flashlight: first Hoseok, swearing; then Jimin, laughing so hard he could hardly walk.
“Park Jimin, you asshole! ” Hoseok exclaimed, trying and failing to keep a grin from breaking through anyway. “I’ve had a creepy feeling all day, and what do you do?”
Jimin giggled unapologetically and let Hoseok trap him in a headlock and gently rap his knuckles against his head.
“Why I oughta…”
“I love you, hyung,” said Jimin angelically. Hoseok let him go, and he flumped back down in his spot, still snickering. “You all look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“We thought you saw a bear or something,” said Jungkook.
Yoongi tried to remember how to breathe normally again while they roasted another round of marshmallows. Seokjin insisted on feeding him one- very generously, as it was toasted to perfection, and Yoongi thought- maybe it would be okay. Maybe it was all in his head; there had always been seven of them, they were his best friends in the entire world, and he was safe with them. Maybe it was just the marshmallow disagreeing with him a little that was tying his stomach in knots.
But if it was just Yoongi’s low sugar tolerance, then why did Jungkook’s eyes keep nervously darting around the circle of friends? And why was Taehyung acting so clingy- more than usual at least- and Jimin, too? And why was Hoseok trying to sit only in Namjoon’s shadow, and why was Seokjin so quiet, and why was Namjoon frowning like he always did when something didn’t make sense?
One by one, they all stopped talking. Yoongi felt the uncharacteristic urge to slink into Seokjin’s arms and not come out, but he couldn’t be sure Seokjin was actually Seokjin at all.
“Hey, guys?” said Hoseok.
“Don’t,” Jungkook cut in.
Namjoon scowled harder.
To get them out of this mess, Yoongi was going to have to trust somebody. It might get him killed or worse, but he had to try.
“Joon.”
Namjoon looked up.
“I need to talk to you. Alone.”
Namjoon’s eyebrows furrowed even more.
“I’m coming with you,” said Jimin.
Yoongi shot him a sharp look.
“Don’t try me, hyung.”
“Jiminie’s right,” mumbled Taehyung.
“Does somebody want to explain what’s going on right now?” said Seokjin like he was trying to sound angry, but he just sounded scared.
“Just- hang on,” said Yoongi. “Please. Please trust me.”
Nobody looked happy.
“Let’s go,” said Jimin.
The three of them made their way out of earshot of the fire if they kept their voices low. Jimin stood with his legs shoulder-width apart, hands loosely clasped behind himself, posture alert like a bodyguard. Yoongi and Namjoon both studied him.
“What?”
“Very subtle,” Yoongi snipped.
“I don’t trust either of you, so watch it.”
“Um?” Namjoon looked to Yoongi for help.
“Right. Look.” Yoongi racked his brain for a way to explain it without coming off completely insane. “Have you noticed anything weird tonight?”
It was like shutters slid closed behind Namjoon’s eyes, the way his expression changed from confused to guarded. “What… kind of weird?”
“You tell me.”
“It’s going to sound crazy.”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” Namjoon looked from Jimin back to Yoongi. “I think… I’m certain there were six of us before.”
“Thank you!” Jimin burst out, and they both jumped.
“But, that’s not possible. People don’t just appear out of thin air!”
“I noticed it,” said Yoongi. “You noticed it. Jimin must have noticed it. Jungkookie came and told me about it on his own.”
“There’s no way,” said Namjoon.
“There’s no way we all made it up at once.” Yoongi felt like begging, pleading for Namjoon to understand and do something . “I know it sounds wild, but the forest is too quiet, I’ve had this sinking feeling all evening- I really think we’re in danger here.”
“So what do you want me to do about it?”
“You’re interested in… folklore, and things? Have you ever heard of anything like this?”
“I mean…” Namjoon glanced back at the campfire, where their friends appeared to be having an urgent conversation of their own. Jungkook’s own brief glance was more like a dagger. “It’s just a story, though- it’s not actually real!”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” said Jimin, almost accusatory.
“Just tell me what you know,” Yoongi pleaded.
“Sure.” Namjoon folded his arms. “People online talk about these… hungry spirits, I guess you could say, that prey on hikers and campers. They’re able to almost perfectly mimic a human appearance and actions, and they can alter your memories to make you think you’ve known them for years. That’s how they insert themselves into a group. Then they can start picking people off.”
Even in Yoongi’s nervous state, that sounded awfully far-fetched, but the idea sent a shiver though him anyway. “Why not just hunt people outright?”
“I guess they’re not strong enough to take on that many people at once? Or maybe it’s more fun to pretend, I don’t know.”
“So how do we beat it?” said Jimin.
“It’s not real!” exclaimed Namjoon, and they jumped to shush him. “Sorry. It’s just a legend.”
“Sounds like something a real hungry spirit would say.”
“Jimin.” Yoongi turned back to Namjoon. “But if it is real? How do we beat it?”
“We just escape.”
Yoongi blinked. “That’s it?”
“We get back to civilization. They don’t like being around too many people. Or better yet, sometimes they’ll back off even if they just find out people are onto them. They don’t really do direct confrontation.”
“So do we just tell everybody about it and see who gets up and leaves?”
“Yeah?” Namjoon scratched the back of his head. “And if nobody does, we go back and see who doesn’t come with us.”
“You believe us now?” said Jimin.
“I won’t say I believe it,” said Namjoon. “But something weird’s going on at least. I really don’t believe in this shit, ugh… I’m going to pretend I do, though. There’s too much weird stuff going on, and I don’t want to risk anyone getting hurt. Or, eaten, I guess.” He chuckled without any real humor. “Have we all lost our minds?”
“Let’s let the others be the judge of that,” said Yoongi.
They made their way back to the fire, where no one was talking or looking at each other anymore.
“Alright,” said Namjoon like it pained him.
“Man-eating spirit disguised as one of us, huh?” said Seokjin.
“You guys are loud,” said Taehyung.
“Ah.”
They all stared into the flames.
“Well…”
“We know you’re here,” said Jungkook to the fire. “We’re going to leave so you can’t get us, so just… leave us alone, please.”
“You guys don’t actually think it’s real, do you?” said Hoseok in a small voice. “Namjoon-ah?”
Namjoon gave a helpless shrug.
“We won’t chase you or try to hurt you,” said Taehyung, and Yoongi didn’t miss the way his eyes flickered toward Hoseok. “We just want to go home.”
Nobody moved.
“Well it’s not me or Yoongi or Namjoon,” said Jimin.
“How do we know that?” said Hoseok, somehow managing not to sound very accusing.
“Because we all talked about it! The spirit wouldn’t want to talk about itself- then we’d know!”
“Maybe it’s trying to cover for itself!” said Taehyung, a little wild-eyed.
“What’s the good of that if we all know already?” said Jungkook.
“Raise your hand if you’re the spirit!”
Nobody moved.
“ See? It’s probably trying to make us all second-guess ourselves and think maybe it’s not there at all.”
“I mean…” said Namjoon. “Maybe it isn’t?”
All heads turned toward him.
“Hey!” He raised his hands in surrender. “I’m the one who told you what this thing is and how to beat it- would the spirit do that? ”
“You could have lied,” said Jimin.
“You’re sure trying to blame a lot of people,” said Jungkook. “Why’d you invite just Hoseok to go pee with you?”
Jimin flinched. “I was trying to prove to myself I could trust you guys, starting with him.”
“Why’d he get so scared?”
“I got nervous, so I decided to try to scare him first and run.”
“Why would you even try something like that?” Hoseok looked horrified. “What if it was me? I could have killed you!”
“I still don’t buy it,” said Taehyung.
“What part?” said Yoongi.
“Any of it. I don’t trust any of you.”
“Well, that’s kind of the point,” said Yoongi, not as gently as he would have liked. It hurt to see Taehyung huddled in on himself like he expected any one of his closest friends to turn on him at any moment, but it was that distrust that might keep him alive. “I don’t trust any of you, either.”
“Guys!“ Seokjin cut in. “Stop. Can any of us actually prove it’s not us?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Namjoon-ah, you said we need to go back?”
“Yes…? If we really want to take this seriously…”
“Then let’s go.”
“Okay.” Namjoon rubbed his hands together. “So. How do we do this? Hike down the mountain in the dead of night, and make sure nobody eats each other at the back of the line, I mean.”
“Diamond formation?” Hoseok offered.
“What do you mean?”
“We walk in sort of a diamond formation, so everyone can see each other.”
“How will we do that on the trail?” said Jungkook.
“We’ll figure it out,” said Namjoon. “Now, flashlights. Everybody got theirs?”
Half of them did.
“Go get- wait. One of us will go get the flashlights. The rest of us will watch each other and watch their back. From now on, we can’t leave any opportunity for two people to end up alone together. That’s how it’s supposed to hunt.”
No one volunteered. Despite their general distrust, to leave the light of the fire and the circle of familiar faces was a terrifying prospect.
“I’ll do it,” said Namjoon. “Can I have a flashlight?”
He took one, and set off on his quest. Yoongi tried to keep his eyes on everyone at once. Not a single one of them moved until Namjoon returned with only the one flashlight in his hand.
“Okay, I’m not kidding, and I looked everywhere, but I didn’t find any others.”
“I’ll look, too,” said Yoongi.
He rummaged through everything they’d brought, but, no flashlights. Operating on a hunch, he searched further and also found neither the car keys nor the satellite phone. His heart sank.
“Please tell me someone has the car keys?” he said by way of greeting when he returned.
What followed was everyone doing their best impression of increasingly frantic airport security patting each other down. No keys or phone were forthcoming.
“Well, shit,” said Namjoon.
“They have to be somewhere,” said Hoseok.
“I’d suggest splitting up to look, but since we’re in a horror movie right now, that’s the most cliché mistake we could make,” said Seokjin.
“We could search in teams…” Jimin suggested.
“Three and four,” Taehyung put in. “So we cover more ground, but nobody’s alone with anybody else.”
“Good thinking,” said Namjoon. “Jimin, Jungkook, and Hobi together. Everyone else with me.”
They went in separate directions to begin combing the campsite inch by inch, looking everywhere: in bags, in a box of matches, under the tent. Taehyung slipped his hand into Yoongi’s, and Yoongi almost pulled away. It was hard to take comfort in another person when that person could just as easily be the thing planning to kill him and all his friends. But if Taehyung really was Taehyung, Yoongi would feel like a monster to reject his hand-holding, and Taehyung might fear he really was one. Yoongi gave his hand a squeeze, and it felt solid and human in his own. If Taehyung really was the hungry spirit, and if they really did avoid direct confrontation, hopefully Namjoon and Seokjin would be enough to deter him. It. Whatever.
They didn’t find the car keys.
Or the other flashlights, or the phone. Eventually, the two groups reconvened around the fire, where the others reported their equally dismal findings.
“I was afraid of this,” Jungkook sulked. “I bet it hid the stuff before we even started to realize something was wrong.”
“Wouldn’t we notice someone leaving for that long with that much stuff, though?” said Hoseok.
Jungkook shrugged. “I guess we didn’t.”
“Should we check around the woods?” Yoongi didn’t relish the idea, but he relished the idea of being stranded even less.
“No,” said Hoseok quickly. “Looking around camp was risky enough, and we’re not likely to find anything in the dark in the forest anyway. Can’t we stay here until morning?”
Namjoon looked conflicted. “In all the stories I’ve heard, the people who survived all got back to a town as soon as possible… but they’re just stories, I guess. It could work completely differently from how people online say it does, or it could not exist at all and we’re just panicking over nothing.”
“Something hid the keys,” said Taehyung.
“Or one of us lost them,” said Hoseok. “Either way, we’re stuck here.”
“Are we going to stay up all night?” Jungkook frowned.
“We could sleep in turns,” said Seokjin.
“I guess…” Jimin fidgeted.
“You don’t have to actually sleep,” said Yoongi. “But if you’re able to, it’ll make trying to get out of here tomorrow easier.”
“Alright,” said Namjoon. “All in favor of staying?”
Every hand went up except for Taehyung’s.
“Taehyung?”
He looked miserable. “I just want to get away from it.”
“We all do,” said Seokjin. “We just can’t right now, and any more trying puts us at too much risk in the dark like this.”
“I know…”
Poor Taehyung, this was about his worst nightmare, Yoongi thought. Unless Taehyung was the hungry spirit doing a masterful job of pretending to be afraid of itself while trying to put the rest of them in a more vulnerable position. It was a brilliant strategy. Jungkook scooted over to wrap his arm around Taehyung’s shoulders.
“All in favor of sleeping in turns?” Namjoon continued.
All hands went up this time.
“Great. Anyone want to keep watch first?”
Yoongi volunteered, and Hoseok and Jimin joined him. They arranged themselves inside the tent, Jungkook squeezing himself into the space between Namjoon and Seokjin, Jimin sitting down near their feet, Taehyung going to lay his head in Jimin’s lap. That left Yoongi and Hoseok to take up positions by the door.
“If anything happens, just scream really loud,” said Seokjin brightly.
“No problem,” said Hoseok with a pathetic attempt at a grin.
“This feels so weird,” said Namjoon.
“Aww, hyung,” said Jimin with a devilish smirk. “I like watching you sleep.”
Namjoon pulled his sleeping bag over his head.
“Goodnight everyone,” said Taehyung.
A chorus of goodnights sounded, and then the tent fell quiet. Yoongi settled in for a long few hours.
“You’ll protect your hyung, won’t you, Jungkookie?” Seokjin whispered, loud in the quiet.
“Sure,” said Jungkook as easily as if he fought man-eating spirits all the time. Then, with far less certainty, “If you’re really my hyung.”
“Even as a shapeshifting monster, I’d still be your hyung.”
Jungkook made an unimpressed sound.
“It’s not me,” said Seokjin quietly. “Even if it was, I’d never eat you .”
“Thanks.”
A pause. A quiet scuffle.
“Hey!”
A stifled giggle from Jungkook, and then they settled back down. Jungkook fell asleep in a matter of minutes, his features lax and peaceful and his head turned slightly toward Seokjin, and Seokjin pretended to sleep as well. Namjoon lay awake with his eyes focused on the ceiling of the tent, deep in thought. Taehyung was either asleep or pretending as well, with Jimin absentmindedly petting his hair.
Hoseok had been slowly migrating closer to Yoongi, who gave him a curious glance. Hoseok scooted right next to him with a sheepish look, and Yoongi stayed quiet, knowing he’d start talking when he was ready.
“I hope you’re really you.”
Yoongi sighed. Hoseok draped his arm around his shoulders.
“You shouldn’t trust me, Hobah.”
“Oh I know.” Hoseok gave him a companionable squeeze. “But I might as well trust you as anyone else, and I’ll go crazy if I keep looking at everyone like they might eat me.”
“Okay.” Yoongi leaned into him a little, just for a moment. “I hate this.”
“Me too,” said Hoseok. “We’ll get home.” He glanced at Yoongi’s face. “I really think we’ll be okay.”
“You do?”
“I really do.”
Yoongi had never been gifted with the kind of optimism that Hoseok had, but it was easier to believe something hopeful when he was the one saying it. It was entirely possible that Hoseok himself was the spirit and was just trying to lull him into a sense of security, but like Hoseok, Yoongi felt he might just start yelling if he thought about it much longer. He stayed under Hoseok’s arm and tried to soak up a little of his warm optimism.
The night dragged on. Yoongi tensed at every little movement and sound, anything that might be an indication of one of them getting ready to attack. By the time it was time to wake the next watch, he was exhausted but wired at the same time, more ready to pass out than to sleep. He crawled into his sleeping bag and let the tension drain from his body all in a rush, and more quickly than he would have expected, slipped into an uneasy sleep.
A confusion of voices was what woke him, right before urgent shaking of his arm startled him upright. Still groggy but sufficiently scared, he looked wildly around, and the first thing his eyes met were Jimin’s wide, scared ones.
“What? What is it?”
“Shh!” Jimin’s nails dug into his arm. “There’s something outside the tent.”
“What?” Yoongi whispered.
Jimin’s voice trembled and strained. “There’s something outside the tent.”
Yoongi looked around at the rest of his friends, all in a defensive huddle in the center of the tent. Then he heard it, too: footsteps, and the sound of something sniffing around nearby. A quick headcount confirmed there were still seven in the tent, and Yoongi couldn’t help but feel relieved. He scooted over to join his friends, all sitting in a circle facing outward.
“What do you think it is?” Jungkook whispered, and was immediately shushed. “It knows we’re here.”
It did seem that whatever was outside was aware of them as it circled the tent, like it was looking for the best place to get in.
“I don’t think it’s a bear, but we have bear spray,” Yoongi offered uncertainly.
“That’s good,” squeaked Hoseok, practically on Jungkook’s lap. “We just don’t want to use it inside the tent.”
The sounds outside stopped, and the air in the tent grew thin as everyone inside sucked in a breath. The zipper jingled. Yoongi forgot how to move, his eyes stinging in fear as it began to move. He clutched the can of bear spray so hard that his hands ached.
The tent flap began to open, and Yoongi wanted nothing more than to run and hide, but his friends were behind him, and he was the first line of defense. He just needed five seconds of bravery. The tent flap opened, and everything else fell away and crystallized into a single focus. Yoongi surged forward and thrust his arm through the gap to use the bear spray outside the tent as Hoseok had advised, but before he could, something cold wrapped his wrist in a crushing grip.
The shock and alarm was enough for him to nearly drop the bear spray, and the grip squeezed painfully until he did drop it, and then it pulled. He gasped in alarm, and several hands grabbed him to pull him back. But the thing outside was strong, and with a sharp tug, Yoongi pitched forward against the tent flap, nearly yanked from his friends’ hands. He caught himself with one hand on the ground and tried to crawl backwards, but couldn’t make any headway.
“Punch it, punch it!” someone was shouting behind Yoongi. Someone else was trying to push past him to get at the thing. “We’ve got you,” said someone else.
They didn’t have him very securely. Yoongi tried again to wrench his arm out of the hand around it, but he felt with a chilling certainty that he knew it would take him. A hissing breath from outside the tent made him think whatever it was knew, too.
Yoongi’s knees slipped on a sleeping bag, and he could feel his friends’ hands slipping as well. He scrunched his eyes shut and tried to brace himself for whatever would come next.
All at once, the commotion behind him rose to a fever pitch, and even behind his tightly closed eyelids, Yoongi was aware of a brilliant light. It came from behind him but was so bright that even facing away with his eyes closed, it was almost painful. The hand around his wrist let go, and Yoongi tumbled backward into someone’s arms right before the light intensified and seemed to overwhelm him entirely. Just before his vision whited out, he felt something rush past him like a gust of wind and collide with whatever was outside in a sudden storm of noise.
Yoongi came back to consciousness slowly. He was lying half on top of a wadded up sleeping bag, it felt like, and someone was cuddling him. He felt heavy, like he’d slept for a century and could sleep for a century more. The events of the previous night felt like a distant memory or perhaps a dream with morning light filtering watery through the tent. It hadn’t really been a dream, he knew, and he frowned as he tried to make sense of everything.
The tent was quiet except for small rustling sounds and a sleepy-sounding groan from someone who sounded like Jungkook.
“Are you awake, Yoongi-hyung?” Taehyung murmured close to his ear, because of course it would be him cuddling Yoongi even in his sleep. Yoongi’s tongue felt too heavy to respond, but he made an affirmative sound in the back of his throat.
“Is everyone okay?” said Namjoon.
A few people responded, and Yoongi dragged himself upright to check for himself. A bed-headed Jimin squinted at him from across the tent, and gradually the rest got themselves blearily into more or less upright positions. Yoongi counted them without even thinking of it.
“We’re all still here,” Seokjin pointed out first.
There were still seven in the tent.
“Okay, everyone remembers the thing outside last night, right?” said Jimin.
“I’ll never forget!” said Hoseok with feeling. “Does anyone remember whatever saved us coming from in side?”
“That’s what I remember,” said Yoongi. “It went right past me, and it sounded like they were fighting right before everything got too bright.”
“So was that… one of us?” Namjoon ventured.
“It saved us?” Jungkook’s eyes were big and soft.
“I felt saved,” said Seokjin.
“But what about the whole ‘hungry spirit’ thing?”
“I told you guys, that was just a story,” said Namjoon. “It just seemed like the only thing that could explain what was happening.”
“And if it was going to eat us, it had the perfect chance while we were all passed out,” said Hoseok.
They were all quiet for a moment, contemplating.
“The birds are back,” said Taehyung.
The forest was alive with sound once again, and Yoongi felt like an enormous weight had been lifted from around them. “I think we’re safe now.”
“It got quiet before we even made camp,” said Jimin. “Does that mean that thing was following us, and the spirit or whatever joined our group to protect us from it?”
“But why would it trap us out here if it was trying to protect us?” said Jungkook.
“Probably easier if we’re all in one spot instead of spread out on the trail,” said Yoongi.
“And we’re not trapped anymore!” Seokjin held up the car keys and satellite phone like a trophy, and Yoongi’s jaw dropped. “Found these right by the door. I think it likes us.”
“No way…”
“But what is it?”
“An angel?” Taehyung offered.
“Thank you, angel-nim,” said Seokjin. “Or whatever you are.”
“Thank you,” they all chorused after him.
“Okay for real, who is it?” said Namjoon.
They looked around at each other.
“You saved all our lives, can’t we know who you are?”
Nobody answered.
“That’s okay,” said Taehyung. “We’re really thankful anyway.”
They fell into silence once again.
“So should we still go home or…” Jimin trailed off.
“I don’t wanna stay out here with whatever almost got us, even if we do have an angel,” said Hoseok. “No offense.”
“Yeah, let’s go,” said Namjoon.
They packed up as seven, picking their way around the deep gashes in the earth near the tent, and Yoongi caught Jungkook folding up a tent cover with a rather tragic expression on his face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked softly, just out of earshot from anyone else.
“I’m really gonna miss whoever it was.”
That was an unpleasant pang to Yoongi’s heart. “Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
“Positive. Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
“That thing was about to eat me alive- I can promise you I wasn’t the one who saved all of us.”
Jungkook snorted. “Kinda messed up for it to make itself feel like our friend, even if it was to help us.”
Yoongi didn’t know what to say to that. They hiked back to the car as seven, too- Yoongi counted.
“Are you coming, too?” said Seokjin to no one in particular.
Predictably, none of them said a word.
“It’ll be cozy,” said Hoseok. “But we can fit. I don’t know what you’re going to do once we get back to town, though.”
They all got in the car and drove away as seven, stopped for lunch at an extremely sketchy gas station where Yoongi was glad to have a supernatural bodyguard, and they were still seven when they got back to town.
Taehyung hugged each of them tightly. “Now I’ve hugged an angel!” he declared with a brilliant boxy smile.
“Unless you’re the angel,” said Hoseok.
“No, you!”
Yoongi rolled his eyes at them. “Anyone for drinks?”
They went out as seven and lingered long after their drinks were gone and all the ice had melted. They might have stayed there all night if Yoongi hadn’t intervened.
“Well, we’d better get home.” He stood. “Thank you again.”
They parted as seven, and Yoongi couldn’t deny his own sadness at the prospect of never seeing one of them again. Whatever it was had certainly done a convincing job of inserting itself seamlessly into their group of friends, he had to give it that.
To his surprise, when he opened his phone (a little earlier than planned after their “technology detox” hadn’t quite gone to plan, there were seven names in the group chat, nobody missing from the camera roll, and when they got together again, there they all were. Mostly, Yoongi was delighted.
“It is a little creepy,” Hoseok acknowledged once, and Yoongi was inclined to agree with him, no matter how much he liked his new friend and everything they brought out in his old friends. It was unnerving not to know which was which.
“That’s just our perspective as humans,” said Taehyung easily. Maybe a little too easily, Yoongi thought.
“Other beings might operate by a completely different moral code,” said Namjoon, and that did make sense- so did what Taehyung said, and now Yoongi was right back to square one.
“Do you think we’ll ever find out who it is?” said Jimin.
“Quick, raise your hand if it’s you!” said Seokjin.
Nobody moved. Jungkook snickered. Then Jimin giggled, and Hoseok laughed, and soon they were all laughing without knowing quite why.
“Well, I still like you anyway,” said Jungkook finally. “Let’s stop trying to figure out who it is, please?”
“Afraid of getting caught?” said Hoseok with a wolffish grin but no actual accusation behind his voice.
“Wh- no!” Jungkook floundered. “I just want to be friends and not worry. And you can’t prove anything!”
In time, Yoongi almost forgot they had ever not been seven. Occasionally they teased each other about being the angel: when one of them forgot something, when one of them did something particularly strange, when Seokjin somehow managed to dodge the horrible cold that leapfrogged through all of them one by one despite Jimin sneezing on him twice- but Yoongi for one didn’t continue to put serious mental effort into trying to find out who it was. He was curious of course, but he was content.