"Shut up!" shouted Jungkook suddenly. "Shut up, you stupid old creep! We're not leaving!"

There was absolute silence, a silence so full that Hoseok held his breath and wish that the frantic heartbeat pounding in his ears would silence itself for just a couple of seconds. Then the soft sound of a breeze whistled through the air, and Hoseok felt a cold wind passing over him-- through him. The dust lying thick on the floor in front of Hoseok and Jungkook began to swirl, coalescing into the pale, transparent shape of a small, mid twenties man, carrying a trowel in one hand. He looked up at the pair, and his eyes narrowed.

"In that case," he breathed in the same voice that had just told the children to run, "let me explain."

"Old Man Suga," Hoseok breathed.

The man rolled his eyes. "I hate that name. Do I look old to you?"

"C'mon, Hobi. We ain't listening to this jerk." He stalked off, walking through the dusty shape of the man. Hoseok followed hesitantly, shivering as he passed through the ghost and gagging slightly on the sour stench.

Old Man Suga re-coalesced in front of the pair. "Listen to me."

"Lord, no," snapped Jungkook, walking through the ghost again.

"Do not go in the basement," breathed the ghost's voice, "whatever you do."

"Y'know what?" said Jungkook. "That's exactly what we'll do." He stalked down the rest of the hall and into the next room, shining his flashlight around. 

A massive, cobweb-coated chandelier hung from the ceiling, the diamonds inlaid in it glittering in the light of Hoseok's flashlight. A dining table with chairs stacked on top of it sat pushed to the side of the room, and a long staircase ascended up to the second floor. Beside it stood a plain, unmarked wooden door with a brass handle that glittered when Hoseok shone his flashlight on it as he followed Jungkook into the room.

"Kookie," said Hoseok, "maybe we oughta..."

"You're not gonna listen to that bully, are ya?" asked Jungkook with a snort. "Let's go, Hobi. C'mon."

"Jungkook--" said Hoseok, following his friend up to the door. But it was too late; Jungkook had already grabbed the handle and yanked the door open.

The air in the basement was warm and sticky and smelled almost sickly sweet. Hoseok could see the first couple of curving steps leading downwards, but the rest of the stairwell was obscured by a thick, white fog. Hoseok's breath hissed in as tendrils of fog floated out of the room, almost... pulsing.

"What the..." he breathed.

Jungkook took a deep breath, then plunged into the fog, disappearing almost instantly. Hoseok stumbled after him, shining his flashlight desperately through the fog, his feet repeatedly catching on the edges of steps that he hadn't seen were there. Finally, he stumbled across flat ground, slamming into Jungkook in front of him.

"Watchit," snapped Jungkook. Hoseok squinted, and he could almost make out Jungkook's silhouette through the fog.

"I'm trying," said Hoseok. "This fog--"

"Shhh," Jungkook hissed, flapping his hand in the general direction of Hoseok's face. "The fog clears out over here." He stepped forward and vanished. Hoseok followed, squinting and wrinkling his nose at the sickly sweet smell. Underneath it, he thought he could smell something... metallic.

Suddenly, he emerged through the wall of fog and into a sort of clearing. In the center was a massive lump of pinkish-grayish... something, entirely smoothed over and pulsing and quivering, crossed by thick bluish veins. It looked almost wet in the light of the flashlights. It was criss-crossed by rusting, reddish-brown chains that were attached to the floor via large hooks that looked as though they'd been nailed into the stone floor. 

Underneath the chains, Hoseok could see that the fleshy pinkish-gray substance was red and inflamed and in some places worn away. 

Tiny rivulets of a dark, glittering, scarlet liquid ran down over dried-up paths to spill onto the floor, joining strange slime the same colour as the fleshy lump in the places where the scarlet rivers hadn't touched it that covered the floor in a layer about two inches thick, dully reflecting the flashlight beams so that they bounced around in the confines of the clearing in the fog, lighting the whole thing with a faint white light. 

The substance on the floor soaked slowly through the soles of Hoseok's shoes. It was just warmer than his feet and slightly gelatinous, so that Hoseok had to fight both to push his feet through it onto the stone floor below and to pull them out for long enough to take another step.

Old Man Suga's hoarse, whispery voice sounded, too close in the claustrophobic space created by the fog. "I told you to run."