T/W - mention of blood (possibly pet's)

Agowilt (n.) - unnecessary fear

Childhood superstitions are the creation of our innocent minds when we are kids. As we grow up, we start replacing them with logic to hide our inability to explain the unknown and to numb our paranoia.

Seokjin was no different. He thought of them as 'unnecessary fears. But was he willing to trade his own life to know if these superstitions were true? Or was it just his paranoia?

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Seokjin looks out of the window and sees it. It was 2.55.

It would take 'it' exactly eight minutes to come up since the lift wasn't working.

He turns off the lights, creeping back into his warm bed. He will get out the bed exactly after five minutes. Covering his large frame under the blanket reminded him of all those childhood superstitions we all believed in.

"Cover yourself from head to toe with your blanket."

Seokjin scoffs thinking about this. Would the monsters not see you if you can't see them?

"Turn on the lights. Night creatures hate lights."

Seokjin deliberately keeps the lights off. What good will it even bring? It is better to save electricity than living in some unnecessary fear.

"Do not look under the bed."

He looks under the bed to find his dog, Cujo, sleeping soundly. There can be no monster under his bed if Cujo is with him. That dog himself is a monster.

"If the closet door opens on its own, there is someone in your house."

Even if there is someone in Seokjin's house, they wouldn't find anything in the closet but his dirty clothes.

"Do not glance at the mirrors at night."

Seokjin is a handsome man. He wouldn't deny himself the simple pleasures of looking at a beautiful face, regardless of the time of the day.

All these thoughts were once broken when his wrist-watch made a 'beep' sound. It was 3:00 now.

He quickly pulls off the cover from his face and looks around. The bell did not ring yet! He decides to investigate it. Putting his warm feet on the cold, cement floor was painful enough but now he had to go to the living room. Just where did he forget his slippers?

He quietly moves around his own house as if it wasn't his home and stops at the top of his stairs. The bell hasn't rung yet. That is strange!

He looks to his right to see his slippers right in front of the bathroom.

"Aah! Here they are!" he pushes his feet in them, getting back the warm, fuzzy feeling again. As he glances at his bathroom door again, he gets the urge to pee. He looks at the main door, thinking.

"Well, if he rings the bell now, I'll genuinely have an excuse to be late." He goes inside the bathroom. It was already 3:02.

While washing his hands, Seokjin could feel a presence right behind him but he shrugs it off as one of his unnecessary childhood fears.

He looks at his watch again. It was now 3:06 and he was kind of worried. He thinks of himself as being petty and walks off to the door to wait for it.

As soon as his hand touches the doorknob, the bell resonates through the house.

TING!

Seokjin holds himself so he doesn't curse out loud, clutching his chest. He could have just had a mini heart attack. He composes himself and puts up a frown on his forehead. He had to look scary.

He turns the doorknob, hearing the lock click.

"I am sorry sir, for the delay." The pizza delivery boy was bowing so low that Seokjin's spine got hurt just by looking at it. He suddenly felt sorry for the guy.

"Ah...it's okay...you can get up now..." he says hesitantly. But as soon as he stands straight, Seokjin could see a trail of blood along his forehead.

"Your...your forehead...." He points it out with shivering fingers.

The pizza boy just smiles when he touches the wound. The smile itself itched Seokjin in ways he can't describe.

"Aah, it's nothing, sir. I got into a mini accident while rushing here." pushes the large pizza box to him.

"One large pepperoni pizza?"

Seokjin nods hesitantly as he takes it. Should he take it or not? What if this boy caused a big accident?

"You don't have to pay sir; this one is on the house." He bows again but takes out a card.

"But could you please do me a favor?" he hands out the card to him. "Please go on to this website, type my name, and give me a rating. Our company follows a strict policy, sir. If I don't get paid for the delivery, I have to make sure I get some ratings." He pleads with his puppy eyes.

Seokjin looks at the card. "Food Express. Top class delivery services or money back, guaranteed!"

A website's address, the pizza boy's name, and his employee ID were given on it.

"Mr. Kim Hyung Joong?" Seokjin reads out his name, somewhat sounding familiar.

"Yes, sir. Please, I just ask for this favor." He bows again and Seokjin shows pity.

"Okay okay ...you can stop bowing now. But before that..." he looks for his wallet in the living room, "It is the end of the month and I am already broke. I was waiting to open the door late so that you wouldn't deliver the pizza within thirty minutes and I would save money. But looking at your condition..." he points at his bloodied forehead, "Here. Use them to buy some medicine." He hands him a 5 dollar note.

The pizza boy was delighted to see the money and kept bowing.

"Thank you, sir, thank you. Please don't forget to rate!" he keeps running down the stairs.

"Yaah! Go slowly! You will trip!" but the boy had already vanished. Seokjin closes his door with a sigh.

He enters his apartment again and keeps the pizza on the table.

"Now I would feel bad about eating this pizza." He looks at the box.

He takes his cell-phone out and types the website's address. It seems that the business is going pretty well. Can't they let off few boys and cut them some slack? He makes a mental note to post an anonymous message on the website about it. He looks at the name on the card and types it on the search bar.

The result shows that the account has been deactivated.

"What?" Seokjin scratches his head in confusion. "Maybe the website is down?" he looks at the employee ID and decides to punch that in.

The result now shows that such an ID does not exist anymore.

"Weird." Seokjin thinks that it might be some glitch in the system. He puts his phone down and decides to check it later. His stomach was rumbling from hunger and he can't wait to jump into the pizza. As he was just about to open the box, the wretched bell again resonates through the whole apartment, making Seokjin jump on his feet.

"Fuck!" this time he didn't stop himself from cursing because now he didn't need to hide. "Who could be here at this hour?" It was 3:15 at night.

Yes, Seokjin has midnight cravings, okay?

He walks to the door and without opening it, asks from inside,

"Who is this?"

"Sir, I am from the Food Express Delivery Company. You had ordered a pizza." The voice says.

Seokjin is confused. He did order a pizza but it got delivered already. Maybe he came to the wrong address.

"I am sorry, I think you got the wrong address." He says, still keeping the door closed. Call it paranoia or whatever, but Seokjin was scared to open the door.

"No sir, I am pretty sure this is the right address. This is Moon Residencies, apartment 13, right? Mr. Kim Seokjin?" the boy reads it from his GPS.

Seokjin slowly turns the doorknob and comes face to face with another young boy, in the same delivery uniform as before.

"A large pepperoni pizza?" the boy asks and Seokjin just nods. He comes out of the trance when he heard the word 'free'.

"Sorry sir, since our delivery couldn't be done on time. So according to our policy, this is pizza is free. You don't have to pay for it." The boy smiles and bows. He also takes another card out.

"Instead, please give us ratings on the website." He bows as he hands both the pizza and the card.

Seokjin takes them hesitantly. He is at the crossroads. He now has two pizzas, he paid for none. Should he just tell him that he already got a pizza delivered?

But wait Seokjin! This is the end of the month. You don't get your salary till the 2nd week of the next month. What harm would come by having two free pizzas? He can have the other one for lunch tomorrow.

He mutters a small 'thank you' to the boy. But there was one thing that was still revolving in his mind.

"Can you tell me how to give the ratings?" he asks politely to the boy.

"Yes, sir." He nods eagerly, "Do you have a cell-phone?" he asks. Seokjin nods and gives his phone, unlocking it.

"Okay, so just type the website's address here and the homepage opens. Here you can order food online and rate the delivery people. On your left you can either search the employee ID or the employee's name." he types his own name, "My name is Kim Min Jun and there you go," he holds his phone in front of him, "You can rate me here." He bows giving the phone to him.

It was weird that when Seokjin tried, it didn't happen.

"Wait!" he stops the boy who was rushing.

"Yes, sir?"

"Can you help me make another rating? I tried but it wasn't happening."

"Sure." The boy replies hesitantly. Is this man a fool or what? He just taught him how to.

"Here, this is the card. He delivered a few weeks ago and I have been trying since, but it says the ID doesn't exist." He looks at him hopefully.

The boy looks at the name and takes a deep sigh.

"Of course, the ID doesn't exist anymore. Kim Hyun Joong is dead."

Seokjin stops dead in his tracks. His eyes become wide with shock.

"He died last week while rushing to deliver an order. Actually, somewhere around this area only." He remembers.

"Good night sir!" he wishes Seokjin when he doesn't get any response from him for another five minutes. As he takes a step down, he looks at a five-dollar note on the ground.

"Sir, is this yours?" he holds the note in front of Seokjin. He looks intently at it, remembering who he gave it to earlier.

"No...you...you can keep it..." and then turns back to slam the door on his face.

"Weird!" the boy remarks and stuffs the money in his pocket.

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Seokjin has a hard time breathing. He looks at the pizza on his table, and then towards the one in his hand. He slowly moves towards it, his heart beating like crazy.

Did he just take a pizza from a ghost? And gave him money for his accident?

He makes sure not to tear the wrapping and open it slowly and steadily. Somehow, he was dreading to see what was inside.

He opens the lid and sees the pizza. Worms were crawling from it and the stench made it impossible to keep it open even for a minute.

It seems the pizza must be a week old.

Seokjin stops himself from hurling out. He hadn't eaten anything and now suddenly he has just lost his appetite. He closes the lid and disposes of it in the dustbin. The stench was still in the kitchen but he had to get away from it. He walks to his room. As soon as he reaches the top of his stairs, the lights in the apartment, all go off at the same time.

Seokjin's breathing was heavier now as he runs back to his warm bed, covering himself from head to toe with the blanket.

Those childhood superstitions might seem true now as Seokjin keeps shivering even inside the blanket. The lights were off and he wouldn't dare to stick his hand out switch it on. He did not glance at the mirror while coming up. His head and toes, both were inside the blanket.

As these thoughts ran inside Seokjin's head, the closet door seems to be opening with a creak. Seokjin makes his thoughts louder to numb that noise.

Suddenly that stopped but another sound started. A faint tapping on his window. He always kept it closed. The knock was slow and gentle at first but then it turned into banging. He covers his ears to leave out whatever paranoia was eating him out.

But all of a sudden everything stopped. The lights were back on. It took some time for Seokjin to peek out of the blanket and look. There was no one. The closet door was closed. The mirror at its place, showing off his handsome reflection. Seokjin scoffs at himself for getting scared.

"I should stop watching horror movies." He starts laughing at himself. But another thought strikes him.

Where was Cujo?

Even if he was a monster, he was a scaredy dog. He hated when the lights would go off suddenly like this. But didn't hear him at all.

Seokjin sticks his hand down and touches the soft fur of Cujo.

"Aah thank god!" he brings his hand back up only to find it covered in blood.

Seokjin wants to shout but his voice doesn't come out.

Seokjin wants to scream for help as the window opens on its own, and the delivery boy climbs through it, blood oozing from his forehead.

Seokjin wants to run but he is stuck at the place, now crying for his life.

"Sir, I told you to rate." The delivery boy smiles maniacally as he sharpens the knife with his overgrown nails.

Some childhood superstitions are better left unknown.

Like "Do not stick your hand underneath your bed."

The End

My readers rn~

What childhood superstitions did you follow?

I did the mirror one, I was fucking terrified of them xD

Anyways, share, vote and comment <3