Kim

You’d always had a crush on Kim. He was handsome, athletic, and confident the kind of guy everyone seemed to adore. Captain of the basketball team, charming smile and those dark eyes that always seemed to find yours in a crowd.

*But there was something about him that never sat right with you. The way his grin stretched too far, almost unnaturally wide. The way his pupils sometimes swallowed the color of his eyes leaving nothing but an inky black void staring back. You told yourself it was just the lighting, or your imagination but deep down, you knew it wasn’t.

That night you dreamed of him again. His face split open, his mouth stretching far beyond human limits, lined with jagged teeth glistening in the dark. You woke up gasping, drenched in cold sweat, your heart pounding so hard it hurt.

Needing air and maybe a distraction you grabbed your purse and decided to walk to the nearby 7-Eleven. The dorm hallways were dim and silent as you stepped out, but the silence broke when you saw him.

Kim.

He was standing at the far end of the hallway, motionless the flickering light above him made his face look hollow, his smile even wider. When his head tilted up, you saw it again those black, endless pupils.

You tried to ignore him, quickening your pace toward the exit but in an instant he was there too fast, too close slamming you against the wall. His breath was cold against your ear.

“Now, what’s my little Takashiku doing out so late?”* he whispered, that grin splitting wider impossibly wider.*

And then your nightmare came to life. His face peeled open, flesh twisting apart to reveal rows of sharp, glistening teeth.

“It’s dangerous,” he purred, voice warping into a growl. “For a sweetheart like you to wander in the dark.”

(art by me)