November 25, 2:37 AM.
Yizhuo stares at herself in the bathroom mirror, the dim light from her phone's screen illuminating her face from below. She looks tired. She is tired. Aeri had gone to bed hours ago, and she would have gone to bed with her—she would usually be the first one in bed, actually, pouting at Aeri until she got into bed with her—but the pounding in her head is incessant and whenever she closes her eyes she sees images flash across her mind that she does not want to see.
A sharp pain shoots through Yizhuo's jaw, white-hot and angry. She has a terrible habit of grinding her teeth when she's in pain and she's been grinding them all night, she supposes it's really no wonder that her jaw hurts this much. She opens her mouth enough to relieve the pressure she's putting on her teeth, lifting her hand and massaging one side of her jaw and then the other. If Aeri were awake, she would make sure Yizhuo had taken medicine, and that she wasn't just wallowing in her headache and jaw pain.
Yizhuo glances over her shoulder through the bathroom door and into their bedroom. Aeri is fast asleep, pink hair splayed across her pillow, blanket kicked away and tank top exposing her midriff to Yizhuo's eyes, sweatpants low on her hips. If her jaw wasn't already sore, she might consider facing Aeri's wrath by waking her up, but she knows she'll only end up regretting it tomorrow—later today? She's not sure.
Another sharp pain shoots through her and she waves away the idea entirely. She turns back around, glancing down at her phone and checking the time, 2:39 AM. A walk would do her good, right? She knows it's late and if Aeri were to find out she went out this late she might kill her, but she'll be back long before she wakes up.
November 26, 9:00 AM.
Aeri hears her alarm go off and she lets out a little groan, stretching before blindly reaching out for her phone and hitting it until she manages to press the snooze button. She keeps her eyes closed for a minute, waiting for her girlfriend to whine about how she forgot to turn her alarm off or attempt to keep her in bed. The inevitable doesn't come and she forces herself to wake up, looking at Yizhuo's side of the bed.
It's empty which isn't entirely unusual, but Yizhuo tries to stay in bed as long as she can on Saturdays, wanting to make the most of having Aeri to herself for an entire day. Yizhuo has always been an early riser, though. What is unusual is that it looks as if Yizhuo hadn't even gotten into bed at all. Aeri sits up, running a hand through her hair to push it out of her face. She stands from the bed and grabs her phone, a yawn escaping her mouth as she makes sure that she actually turned the alarm off. She hates it when it goes off twice.
The rest of the apartment is empty with no sign of Yizhuo anywhere. Aeri even checked out on the balcony, even though they keep forgetting to purchase new outdoor furniture and there isn't really anywhere to sit out there. She checked their shared calendar to make sure she hadn't forgotten an appointment Yizhuo had.
Aeri checks her text messages even though she knows Yizhuo wouldn't have been able to text her if she went somewhere—she found her cell phone on the bathroom sink. That isn't unusual either, Yizhuo is the most forgetful person Aeri has ever met. Yizhuo has left the apartment multiple times to pick up breakfast or dinner for the both of them and forgotten her phone. There have even been a few times throughout their relationship where she's gone to get groceries and forgotten the list which she happens to keep on her phone.
Aeri assumes Yizhuo went out to grab them breakfast and relaxes. She would have preferred if her girlfriend had woken her up and told her that she was going before she just left, but that's okay, Yizhuo likely wanted it to be a surprise. With her worries quelled, Aeri places her phone on the coffee table in the living room and considers whether or not she'll have enough time to shower before Yizhuo gets back.
It's 9:12 AM, so surely there's no harm in getting a quick shower. If Yizhuo has gone to their usual breakfast spot, she won't be back for at least another half an hour. The morning rush is always incredibly busy and her girlfriend always gets caught chatting with the owner—a friend of her parents. Yizhuo has never minded seeing Aeri get out of the shower, either.
Aeri spends far too long picking a playlist before she actually gets in the shower, and by the time she gets out, it's already 9:42 AM. Yizhuo still isn't home, but Aeri assumes she got caught talking with someone else. She's always been a social butterfly. She gets dressed—a pair of sweats and one of Yizhuo's t-shirts—and blowdries her hair. She knows she could technically let it air dry because she doesn't plan on leaving the apartment unless Yizhuo wants her to, but there's something about the ritual of getting ready for the day that compels her to do it anyway.
It's 10:00 AM when she's done getting ready and there's still no sign of Yizhuo. Aeri tries not to worry, Yizhuo is a big girl and if she wants to go out she's allowed, she just wishes she wouldn't forget her phone so often. She walks into the space between the living room and the kitchen, their apartment is open concept and she's never really sure if she's technically in the living room or the kitchen, not that it matters in the grand scheme of things. Something catches her eye and she realizes that Yizhuo's purse is still hanging from its hook by the door. Yizhuo can't have gone to get breakfast without her purse, Aeri realizes.
Yizhuo forgot her phone and her purse.
Now Aeri is starting to worry—is allowing herself to worry. She brings up her text messages with Minjeong and hits the call button in the top right of her screen. It rings a few times before her friend picks up.
"Good morning, Aeri," Minjeong chirps.
"Hey, Minjeongie.. Have you heard from Yizhuo this morning?" Aeri replies, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.
"Huh? No, why?" Minjeong asks, and Aeri can almost see the way her brows furrow just from her tone. It is an odd question to be asking, she supposes. If anyone should have heard from Yizhuo, it should be her. They do live together, after all.
"Oh, I just…" Aeri trails off, not wanting to say it out loud. There's a nagging voice in the back of her head now that she's talking to Minjeong telling her that Yizhuo left on purpose. She doesn't think Yizhuo would ever break up with her, but she understands how it could sound now that she has to say it out loud. "She wasn't in bed when I woke up," she finishes.
It's silent for a moment until Aeri hears rustling and she assumes Minjeong must have still been in bed. "Putting you on speaker, one sec," Minjeong says, throwing her phone on her bed and tugging her pants on so she can go find Jimin.
"Jimin Unnie!" Aeri hears Minjeong call out, followed by quick footsteps, "Have you heard from Yizhuo today?" Minjeong asks.
"No, why?" Jimin responds, "Ask Aeri, they live together, you know."
"I know that!" Minjeong huffs, and before the quarrel Aeri knows is coming can happen, she interjects, "I haven't seen her since we went to bed last night. She wasn't here when I woke up."
Jimin is silent for a moment.
"Oh."
"Yeah… She left her phone and her purse at the apartment," Aeri says. She's trying not to panic. She's trying not to let all of her emotions out in the form of word vomit. She needs to be calm. If she panics, Minjeong will panic and then Jimin will panic and that's really not good for anyone. "If you hear from her will you let me know?"
"Of course."
It's 10:07 AM by the time Aeri gets off the phone with Minjeong and she was half expecting Yizhuo to walk through the door as soon as she pressed 'end call.' For her girlfriend to waltz in balancing two iced americanos and their breakfast and tell her she's silly for having worried so much.
She doesn't.
The amount of times Aeri checks her phone for the next fifteen minutes is ridiculous considering she's not sure what she's waiting for—Minjeong or Jimin to text her and say that Yizhuo wanted their help pulling a prank, that she's at their apartment—and her girlfriend's phone is sitting on the coffee table in front of her. It lights up with a text from Minjeong, showing off Yizhuo's lock screen: a picture of the two of them from a few months ago. Her hair is still dyed pink and she's wearing a denim jacket and a beanie, looking away from the camera. Yizhuo is sitting next to her, giving the camera an awkward smile while she holds up a pair of chopsticks. She's wearing one of Aeri's flannel shirts and a ball cap.
It's radio silence, of course. Yizhuo cannot text her if she does not have her phone and she cannot answer Minjeong either. If Yizhuo is in danger she cannot call for help.
If Yizhuo is in danger she cannot call for help.
Aeri stands from the couch abruptly, interrupting her own thoughts that are starting to spiral. She can't stand sitting idly and just waiting. "Yizhuo is fine," she says out loud, and then a second time for good measure, "Yizhuo is fine."
She knows she's being ridiculous. As far as she knows, her girlfriend has only been gone for about an hour and a half. Just because it looked like Yizhuo didn't come to bed doesn't mean it's true. Maybe she just went for a walk and because she forgot her phone she doesn't know how long she's been gone. There's no reason for her to be panicking like this. She just can't help it. Yizhuo is her baby.
Aeri busies herself with cleaning the kitchen and the living room, repeating the words 'Yizhuo is fine' in her head like a mantra while she continues listening to the playlist she had picked earlier. By the time she finishes cleaning, it's 11:12 AM and Yizhuo still isn't home.
She can't take it anymore.
Aeri changes from her sweatpants into something a little more presentable—a baggy pair of jeans—and pulls on whatever shoes she sees first. She grabs her keys, makes sure she has her phone and makes a beeline for the parking garage. There are a number of places Yizhuo could be: from the park where she likes to people-watch to her favourite cafe downtown to the market on the other side of the city with local artists and fresh produce. Aeri doesn't think she would have gone that far, they live closer to downtown than anything else, but she's been gone so long she can't be sure.
Aeri drives all over the city, she stops anywhere she knows or thinks her girlfriend would like. She's forced to make friendly conversation with all of the acquaintances she runs into. She pretends everything is fine. When they ask where Yizhuo is she tells them she's at home. She's not sure why she lies, she just feels like she has to.
Yizhuo is nowhere to be found.
By the time she gets back to their apartment, it's 3:01 PM and Aeri has abandoned all pretenses of staying calm. At this point, Yizhuo has been gone all day and there is absolutely no way Aeri can rationalize it. She paces the living room, wiping her sweaty palms off on her pants as she does. She doesn't know where Yizhuo could be. She hasn't heard from Jimin or Minjeong. She doesn't know what to do.
Yizhuo is fine, she has to be. She's going to come home in a second and laugh about how silly she was to forget her phone and everything is going to be fine. It has to be. If anything ever happened to Yizhuo, Aeri's not sure what she would do. Everything has to be fine.
The dial tone is ringing in Aeri's ear before she even realizes that she's called Jimin. There's a lump in her throat and she's not even sure what she's going to say when Jimin answers the phone. She's not sure if she can say anything at all without bursting into tears.
"Hello?" Jimin answers. Aeri doesn't usually call.
No response.
"…Aeri?" Jimin asks, trying to prompt a response.
"Jimin," Aeri's voice cracks and she lets out a little sob before she can stop it, "I can't find her."
"Oh, Aeri.."
"I don't know what to do. I can't—I don't—"
"Okay, it's okay. You're okay."
Jimin pauses for a moment.
"How about I come over for the night? Minjeong will stay here just in case Yizhuo shows up, and you and I can wait there. We can watch a movie."
Twenty-five minutes later, Aeri finds herself sitting on the couch with Jimin while her friend looks through her various subscription services. She looks down at her phone, 3:27 PM. Yizhuo has been gone for nearly six and a half hours. Aeri feels nauseous.
She hates feeling useless like this, just sitting on the couch while Yizhuo is doing who knows what who knows where. This isn't like her. She feels ridiculous, acting so dramatically about her girlfriend being gone for less than 24 hours, but something about this just isn't right. The fact that she left both her phone and her purse just isn't right.
She's gotten over the crying stage, at least. Jimin being here helps.
Her leg bounces, glancing over at the door what feels like every five seconds. Jimin has put on some comedy film, she thinks. She's not sure, she's not paying attention.
Aeri is restless and Jimin can tell. She doesn't think her friend is overreacting, something about this situation is strange. However, Yizhuo is also an adult, no matter how much they all think of her as a baby. She's sure she'll show up soon, an apologetic smile on her face for worrying her girlfriend.
"Why don't you take a walk around the neighbourhood," Jimin suggests, wanting to give some sort of solution for the restlessness her friend is feeling. "I'll stay here for when she comes back."
Aeri appreciates the sureness in Jimin's voice, the confidence that Yizhuo will come back. "Yeah," she nods, "okay." She stands from the couch, sliding her phone into the pocket of her jeans. "It's going to start getting dark soon. I don't want her out in the dark." She nods again, almost dazed. She's moving on autopilot, pulling her shoes on and grabbing her keys.
"I'll make sure to give her a good talking to when she gets back," Jimin jokes, trying to lighten the mood. She's not sure anything can lighten the mood.
Aeri offers a tight-lipped smile before she leaves the apartment.
She and Yizhuo usually go for walks after dinner. They're lucky enough to live in a gated community which means walking at any time of day is relatively safe. The worst you have to look out for is one of the resident's dogs getting loose. The neighbourhood is nice, close enough to downtown that it isn't too out of the way, but still secluded. Behind their apartment complex in particular is an expanse of trees, a little forest with a walking trail. It's not loud, the scenery is pretty, it's almost the perfect place to live. There is greenery throughout the streets, hanging baskets on lamp poles and trees planted by the sidewalks.
There is a park for the children of the neighbourhood next to a walking track and a soccer field. Aeri passes all three as she walks through the streets. She waves to neighbours she's familiar with, gets caught in conversations with others. One of the friendlier older women who live there—not that they aren't all friendly, but this one is especially—asks about Yizhuo and when she should be expecting a wedding invite. Aeri's ears turn red at that question.
By the time she's walked around the entire neighbourhood twice over, it's dark out, the streets illuminated by the ornate street lights that line the sidewalks. She checks her phone, 5:36 PM. There is one last place she hasn't looked, mostly because she knows Yizhuo does not like it there.
Despite her girlfriend's love of nature, Yizhuo has never liked the little forest behind their apartment building. Even during the summer, she refuses to go in there. It's more than a little strange, now that Aeri really thinks about it. She hopes Yizhuo didn't decide to go in there for the first time without her phone and get lost.
That thought is more than enough to convince Aeri that she needs to look there.
Aeri knows that the forest isn't huge, but she also knows that there are only a few lights in there and that the areas off of the trail are largely undeveloped. She remembers a few years ago when a kid went missing in there because he went off of the trail.
She checks the time when she gets to the entrance of the walking trail, 5:56 PM. There's a little entrance sign to her left with a map of the trail, showing that you can enter where she's at and come out either ten feet to her left or near one of the other communities downtown.
It's quiet as she walks, the only sound she can hear being the crunch of the gravel under her shoes. She was right, there are only a few lights, but it's not dark enough yet for it to be a problem. She doesn't come across a single person as she walks the trail and it's really quite peaceful. She wishes she were doing this under different circumstances.
Aeri is just about to give up and turn back when she's halfway through her second loop of the trail when she hears a rustling in the trees. There are a million and one reasons why she should not investigate that noise. She's seen more than enough horror films to know this is a terrible idea.
Is it, though?
Everything has felt off all day without Yizhuo. She takes her phone out—7:03 PM—and turns on her flashlight, shining it toward the trees. It's been nearly 12 hours without her girlfriend. Aeri's not sure she's gone that long without Yizhuo in…well, since they started dating. Everything has felt off without Yizhuo and there's been no sign of her anywhere except for this strange rustling.
It's not quite a rustling of the leaves, no. The sound is different, Aeri finds herself walking toward it, her flashlight illuminating her path.
It's not a rustling of the leaves at all, Aeri realizes, as she rustles them herself when she walks by. It's more of a… light growl, like a purr maybe. Maybe there's a stray cat in here, she thinks.
About thirty seconds later, Aeri steps out into a little clearing in the trees. It's not big, there's maybe enough room for two picnic tables. She shines her flashlight around to find the source of the noise.
She pauses, her hand frozen in place as her eyes widen.
There is a woman kneeling over a body, head against its neck. The presence of light makes the woman's head snap up.
Yizhuo is kneeling over a body. The mystery person is certainly dead, throat torn open, the grass next to their head stained red. Yizhuo's lower face and hands are bathed in blood, her eyes wild. Aeri cannot believe her eyes. It is almost worse and better than she expected. She does not move.
"Sweetheart," Aeri starts, taking in a breath, "I've been worried sick all day."
Aeri is not scared. She should be, she knows. Her girlfriend is covered in blood, her girlfriend is a monster. The little fangs she can see glinting in the moonlight tell her what kind. She should be scared, but she's not. She could never be scared of Yizhuo. What she's feeling is much much different than fear.
Yizhuo tilts her head, like she's not exactly sure what Aeri is saying to her.
Aeri isn't deterred. This is Yizhuo, after all. Even if it's Yizhuo covered in blood. She takes a step forward and the other girl doesn't move. She keeps going, "If you're going to be gone all day, you need to leave a note. Especially if you don't take your phone."
The closer Aeri gets, the more lightheaded they both feel. Yizhuo's jaw hurts. Aeri's heart races.
"Do you know how worried I was? I thought you'd gone to get breakfast. I went all over the city looking for you." Aeri stops in front of Yizhuo, separated only by the body on the ground. Yizhuo has to crane her neck to look up at her.
Yizhuo's eyes glaze over like they always do when she's in this position with Aeri. Her mind is foggy, clouded with bloodlust, and her brain far too scrambled to think properly. She tries to pull her feelings apart from each other, to separate the hunger from the lust and the pang she feels in her chest when Aeri tells her how she caused her distress. Everything is too intertwined, everything screams Aeri.
She has to have Aeri. She does not care how.