The asylum was a decaying nightmare, its gothic halls echoing with whispers of suffering. She had been here long enough to know that true fear didn’t come from the crumbling walls or flickering lights—it came from them. The eight monsters that ruled this place.

She wasn’t like them. She was just another patient, drowning in depression, her past carved into her skin. But they? They were the things that made even the doctors afraid. She had once spoken to them. But the moment she saw what they truly were, she ran.

Hongjoong’s words could twist minds into submission. Seonghwa’s obsession with perfection made her skin crawl. Yunho’s unpredictable shifts turned comfort into terror. Yeosang never spoke, but his silent presence haunted her. San thrived on suffering, craving her fear. Mingi whispered her fate to the shadows. Wooyoung’s fixation had already left its marks on her body. And Jongho was destruction incarnate.

She avoided them at all costs, slipping into the shadows, pretending to be invisible. But in this asylum, hiding never lasted forever.

---

One night, unable to sleep, she went out of her room. The halls were silent, her bare feet making no sound against the cold floor, until she reached the main room. There a indestructible glass window that was lined with thick metal gates, a barrier to keep the patients from escaping, but she never had any intention of running. She just wanted to see the moon, to feel the emptiness of the sky, a reminder that there was something beyond the asylum’s walls.

She stood there, staring at the moon, her mind wandering as the soft light bathed her face. In moments like this, she almost felt free, even if just for a few seconds. She would come here every time the weight of her thoughts became too much, finding comfort in the cold, distant beauty of the night sky.

But tonight, as she stood there, a chill ran down her spine. She couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t as alone as she thought.

"Can't sleep?" a husky whisper came from behind her.