This took me forever. I'm sorry. I was planning to put it up the weekend after the first chapter, but after getting half of it done, I had so much to do. My stress has been all over the place, but I tried to make it long to (maybe?) make up for taking over a month to write it. What I'm planning to do is tell the backstory of certain characters every other chapter, so.... yeah. Sorry for taking so long :)

The woman smiled down at the newborn she held in her hands. Her husband had held her hand throughout the whole thing. He looked down at her and smiled, the sweet grin slowly turning into a smirk. She looked at him, confused. Suddenly the man she had married threw his head back and a malicious sound rippled from his mouth. The laugh took her off guard. This was not her sweet husband’s soft chuckle. The man looked down at her, still smirking, and she looked into his eyes, undeterred. Suddenly the eyes lost all color, becoming pits of dark horror. She stumbled backwards, tripping over a chair. Black smoke started to pour out of every open socket in the man’s face. Out of his eyes, his mouth, his nose and ears, it started to surround him. It swirled around his body until her husband could no longer be seen. Then it was gone. Evaporated into thin air. The man fell to the ground and looked up at her with fearful eyes. She ran over to the man and held his hand, baby long forgotten somewhere in a dark corner. The man’s eyes were deep and sorrowful, looking as if they had seen and done things that could never be forgiven. She held him as he let out a few strangled breaths and finally went limp, body shuddering. She fell backwards. Nothing that had just happened could be comprehended by her fragile brain. The thing she had a baby with hadn’t been her husband. The thing she had wasn’t a human. A soft cry broke the silence. She crawled over to where the baby was and scooped it up. He looked like her husband, so much so that she nearly forgot that it wasn’t human. The woman walked out of her bedroom and down to the small basement. She put the baby on the ground and gave it a bowl of milk before walking out. She wouldn’t treat the child of the thing that killed her husband as one of her own. The baby would be called Chanyeol, after the man that had tortured her long ago. It was a name the thing deserved.

Chanyeol woke up to darkness, just like every day. His eyes adjusted to it quickly. He got off of the ground and walked over to the cement wall of his room. Looking at the ground, he discovered that no food had been delivered. He determined that there would be no breakfast today. Maybe if he was good, he could manage to get dinner. He didn’t hope for lunch though. He rarely ever got lunch if there was no breakfast. Or maybe today he wouldn’t get anything. That would be okay though because usually she would feed him twice a day if he went a day without food. He was so lucky. His mother had told him stories about parents never feeding their children. Chanyeol knew he was lucky to get anything. He was lucky to get a room, even if it was just cement with a couple of rocks. His mother loved him, he knew that. He would never forget the time he tried to tell his mom that he needed more. She had nearly kicked him out. The only reason she kept him was that she loved him. Chanyeol knew that. But sometimes, in the dark of the night, he wondered what it would be like to see the outside, to see whatever was out there. If his mom ever let him go outside he would probably scream of joy.

Chanyeol laid there on the cement for the rest of the day, like always, imaging the outside world, outside people. He imagined anything he could think of. Finally, later in the day, the door swung open. A woman stood in the doorway. She had a bowl in her hand. Chanyeol got on the ground and bowed to her like he was taught to do. She nodded at him and out the bowl on the ground. He crawled over to the bowl. “Thank you, ma’am. I appreciate your kind efforts.”

“Good. This your dinner. Eat it quickly. I will be back in five minutes for the bowl, whether you’re done or not.” She slammed the door on him.

Chanyeol looked at his bowl and began to devour it, making sure not to eat too quickly. Once his mother had given him almost half a bowl and he ate it so fast he threw up. He didn’t get to eat for the next two days. He was glad he had gotten dinner tonight.  His mom was so nice to feed him. After scarfing down all of it, he put the bowl next to the door.

Soon the woman came back in and took his bowl. Sometimes she said things the second time, sometimes she didn’t. She didn’t say anything to him tonight before slamming the door again.

Chanyeol had asked her once why she didn’t ever talk to him about anything, or why she didn’t ever speak kindly to him like he had heard her talk to other people. She had told him that when people are nice to you, it’s just because they don’t like you enough to tell you the truth, and that if people told you things about themselves or about something that was wrong, they were just using you. That’s how he knew his mom loved him. She told him that if someone really loved you, they wouldn’t be afraid to tell you the truth, and they wouldn’t ask you to help them with their problems. That’s what she did. Chanyeol loved his mom too. He just couldn’t show it as much otherwise she would get mad. He didn’t tell her his problems anymore though. Chanyeol wouldn’t tell her when his back hurt so much he could barely move, or when he felt as though the world was crushing him. He couldn’t tell her.

Tonight when Chanyeol went to sleep, he only woke up three times from her screaming and shouting somewhere high above him. He had gotten fairly used to it. Sometimes she would come down to his room, and she would smell different. She would hit him and those nights were the night he knew something was wrong, even if she didn’t tell him. He knew that if she smelled different when she came to his door she would hit him and tell him things about himself. After the nights she came down he would hurt all over, but she loved him, so it was okay.

The second time Chanyeol woke up, his mother was hovering over him. She was quiet, but in her hand was something shiny. She pressed the thing against his wrist and it hurt. He almost cried out, but then realized that he shouldn’t. His mother dragged the thing down his arm, leaving behind a deep cut. His arm and the ground around it was dark red, soaked in blood. She hit his face a couple of times, smiling the whole time, before she slammed the door behind her. It was then that Chanyeol began to cry. His arm hurt a lot. He looked around for anything to stop all of the blood leaving his arm. He finally decided he could spend a night cold and took his shirt off. He wrapped the shirt around his arm and hoped that the blood would stop before falling back asleep.

The third time the boy woke up, his mother was shouting at him. “Guess what?! Guess what you little brat?!”

Chanyeol said nothing, only looked up at her.

“It’s your birthday!!”

Chanyeol becomes paralyzed. No. No. Not his birthday. His mother screams other insults at him before leaving again. Not this day again. He dreads this day more than he dreads anything else. His birthday is the day when his mother becomes the worst. His birthday is the day that Chanyeol always wonders whether his mother actually loves him. Chanyeol doesn’t fall asleep again.

He doesn’t get breakfast. He didn’t expect to. His mother comes in and hits him several times. She still smells. After leaving he can hear her with men above him. He briefly wonders if the men are hurting her. However, he doesn’t want to think about things like that, so he starts imagining what it would be like to leave his room and see the outdoors. He wonders what everything would look like.

He goes the rest of the day like this until he falls asleep. Nothing is at his door the next morning. However, he wasn’t beaten up last night. He doesn’t understand why this birthday had been so easy to get through. Other than his arm and a small beating, there was nothing bad about the day. Chanyeol doesn’t get lunch either. He starts to get worried. His mom wouldn’t leave him without food for two days again, would she? He doesn’t get dinner and goes to sleep hungry.

Chanyeol wakes up starving. There is no food next to his door. Maybe this is why he didn’t get much of a beating. His mother was planning to punish him with no food instead. This thought makes Chanyeol less upset. Of course his mother wasn’t doing this for no reason, she was doing it because of his birthday. He doesn’t get lunch either and his hunger becomes overwhelming.

Not too much later an ear-splitting scream reaches his ears.

“NO! STOP!” Chanyeol has heard his mom scream with men before, but it doesn’t sound like this. He runs over to the door of his room when he hears her scream again. She starts screaming violently and constantly.

Then suddenly her screams are muffled. He hears loud footsteps coming down the stairs. Chanyeol is mad. How dare these people hurt his mom? He’ll hurt them! Maybe he should be scared but all he feels is an overpowering rage, and suddenly everything is getting warmer. Warmer and warmer until he feels like he’s burning alive. But it doesn’t hurt. Instead it feels good, like he is finally powerful enough to anything. The door slams open and a single man stands there. The door is coated in a layer of frost, but it does nothing to cool down Chanyeol. Instead he feels as if he gets hotter. This must be the man that hurt his mom. He charges at him, but never reaches the silent man.

Chanyeol no longer feels hot. He’s freezing, and the man remains silent, looking at the boy who is slumped against the back wall of his room. Chanyeol is suddenly scared. This man pushed him against the wall and nearly froze him with just a flick of his hand. Is he some sort of monster?

Another man walks out from the stairs. This man is taller than the first one. “Are we sure this is the one? He looks too weak to be him.”  The man looks skeptically towards Chanyeol.

The shorter one doesn’t reply. Suddenly another man comes running down the stairs, scolding the taller one. “Hush Jongdae. We saw the records. Of course it’s him.” The man walks in to the room and crouches in front of Chanyeol. “Are you okay? I’m not going to hurt you.”

Chanyeol’s mother would have hit him. This man was being nice. Chanyeol decides to be nice back. He doesn’t love this man, so what was the harm? Using things he had heard his mom talking about to her friends, the boy replies, “I’m fine. How are you?”

The boy looks confused. Chanyeol must have said something wrong.

Has this boy been locked up in this room so long that he doesn’t even know what to say to a stranger? Yixing feels horrible. The woman must have not even taught him to speak and interact properly.

Chanyeol waits for the man to say something. “My name is Yixing. That man,” Yixing points a finger at the taller man, “is Jongdae. And the other one is Minseok. Don’t worry about them. They won’t hurt you either. All of us are like you, we have powers.” Chanyeol’s eyes get big and round. They had powers? He had powers? How had he gone his whole life without knowing that?

“Minseok has the power of frost, as I think you can see,” Yixing points to the door, “Jongdae’s power is lightning, and mine is healing. As I’m sure you know, yours is fire.” Was that what the heat was? Fire? Chanyeol doesn’t know what to think as Yixing leans over and helps him up. His skin feels weird on Chanyeol’s. He had never been touched lightly before.

After standing up, Yixing leads Chanyeol to the door, where Chanyeol stops. “My mother wouldn’t want me to leave. You can go, I’ll stay here.” His mom would wake up soon and Chanyeol wouldn’t leave her. His mom had never left him.

However, Jongdae grabs his arm and pulls him out. “It’s okay. See?” Chanyeol looks around. The walls around him were concrete too. The ground was concrete. It was dark. It looked just like his room.

“Can we get out of here? It’s too dark.” Jongdae suddenly comments, looking around. Chanyeol looks at him, confused. How would it be any different outside? Jongdae turns to Minseok. “Lead the way.”

Minseok says nothing, but he walks forward up the stairs. Chanyeol stumbles. He wasn’t used to walking up things. When the door is opened, the boy immediately slams his hands over his eyes. It was so bright! He couldn’t put into words how bright it was.

“Chanyeol? Are you okay?” Yixing asks, sounding concerned for the boy’s safety.

He nods and walks forward, taking the hand off of his eyes. They burn from the intense brightness in front of them. Yixing helps him forward. They get out of the stairwell and everything is still bright. Chanyeol wonders how the other were able to see in the brightness. They pass through a door and everything gets brighter somehow. Chanyeol doesn’t know where they’re going, and he wants to see his mother.

Although he hears another voice, he still can’t see through the brightness. Then suddenly he feels like he’s tumbling across the air. When he opens his eyes again, it’s a bit darker and Chanyeol can almost see. He’s escorted into some room and he lies down on something soft. It feels like he was sleeping on a hundred shirts, all soft and rolled up. The boy falls asleep quickly.

“That poor boy. I think he’s been trapped in that basement his whole life. He didn’t even know how to talk to us.” Yixing speaks, sounding upset.

“Well, what did you find about him in the house?” Junmyeon asks him.

“”He’s 16. He has the power of fire. His mother hates him.”

“About the mother, what did you three do to her?” Junmyeon says, changing the conversation again. Yixing sounds too sad, he thinks.

“We just sent her to a place for mental patients. Hopefully she will get better there.” Yixing sounds a bit better, and Junmyeon hates to ruin it, the sliver of happiness, but he has to know. He continues to ask questions, eventually learning everything Yixing knows. Chanyeol sounds like a naïve kid, too innocent for the world. He wonders how long the boy would be able to stay that way.

The man hoists his young boy onto his worn out shoulders. The father had many things going on in his life. His best friend was lying in a hospital bed, more life seeping out of him every day. However, to the man what was most important was that he protect his family. He put them over everything. So, he had to continue doing his job and supporting them as much as possible so they could live a good, happy life. He walked into the little house with his still on his shoulders and saw his beautiful wife and their daughter dramatically singing along to loud music. She danced around crazily. The father smiled, thinking how lucky he was to have all of this.

As the man awoke, he went through the actions he did every morning, kissing his wife and children goodbye before leaving for work.

As soon as his father left the house the boy bounced over to his sister, demanding she play with him. She giggled and followed his little arm tugging her along while she sang some song. His sister was always singing. He wished his voice could be as amazing as hers. Distracted by her singing, the little boy didn’t realize that he was running straight towards an extended piece of the wall until he ran into it. Stumbling backwards, he felt his lips trembling. It really hurt. He falls onto his as tears blur his vision.

“Aww Baek, it’s okay,” his sister tells him as she hugs him. Baekhyun sobs into her sweater as she sings him a soft song.

Having heard her son start crying, the woman walks into the playroom. Her two children were hugging. Even though the woman knew that her son loved both her husband and her daughter more than her, she still loved him just as much. It hurt her slightly, but seeing the close friendship he shared with the two of them, but she couldn’t complain. Her husband’s eyes would always light up whenever he saw Baekhyun. She walked away with a smile on her face.

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re firing me.” The man spoke after finally finding his voice.

The chubby man’s eyes were focused on the ground. “We’re letting you go.” His eyes hadn’t moved.

“No, you’re firing me. It can only be considered letting go if the person wants to go.” The man knew why they had chosen him to get rid of. He wasn’t bad at his job- he was actually quite good at it. He preferred to work alone and unbothered at the office which meant that he was one of the only workers that wasn’t friends with the boss. One of his friends couldn’t be let go, no matter how bad they were otherwise the friendship would be ruined. And that certainly couldn’t happen.

“If we weren’t short on money right now-“

The man got up and left, slamming the door behind him. He walked out of the building, ignoring the pitying stares directed at him. How was he supposed to support his family without a job? He absentmindedly began walking home. Suddenly he stopped. His wife had wanted the groceries today. Turning around, he pulled out his wallet and started to count the money. Was there even enough for groceries? He would have to deal with what they had. There might be some job ads there. He picked up the pace, wanting to be home before sunset. Suddenly the man tripped and ended up sprawled out on the ground. There was a cut on his arm that had already started to bleed. A woman ran over to him and helped him to his feet.

“Oh! Your arm is cut! Hold on.” the mysterious lady tells him. Her purse strap falls off her shoulder as she rummages through it, seeming to look for something inside. “Ah. Here it is.” Her arm comes out of the bag, and before he can do anything a needle has been stuck into his arm, quickly emptying whatever it contained into his bloodstream. His arms are been held back and he feels something metal click around his wrists. He is gagged, blindfolded, and everything is happening too fast for him to process it. A mask is over woman’s face and there seems to be someone behind him who is talking to her. Her smile is evil when it turns to him. It’s the last thing he can see.

He can feel himself walking towards some destination. He’s eager to get there. He feels an uncontrollable rage burning in his veins. He wants to murder someone. Or at the very least, torture them. He can’t quite identify who he wants to hurt, but he knows that it is someone. Or maybe it is anyone. However, his arms are still linked and he can’t make a sound through the gag.

Suddenly the gag is ripped off, then his arms are free, and the blindfold is ripped off last. A figure stands before him, and he pounces. Their neck is in his hands and the man is pushing them backwards. It is still too bright for him to see clearly however the feeling of power coursing through him is more immense than ever before. He smiles as the person staggers back. Why has he never done this before? It feels so amazing that he can’t imagine life without it He could feel the life slipping away from the person. Just a couple more seconds- but he is sent flying backwards and held down to what feels like a chair. As the people step back from tying him down, he realizes he can see slightly better. It looks as if there is a cloud hovering right in front of his eyes, preventing him from seeing clearly.

They asked him questions about his wife and his daughter and his son. He answered the questions with only a couple of angry outbursts. Then they asked him when he and his wife had Baekhyun.

“Not,” the woman clarified, “when he was born, but when he was created.”

The man couldn’t understand why these questions were being asked. They couldn’t possibly be testing him because what wouldn’t he know about his own family? As he opened his mouth to answer her, his mind drew a blank. He couldn’t remember. How could he not remember? His vision began to clear. A splash of deep scarlet colored his memories. The thing- it had gone into him. He went home. The thing had-

The thing. He had forgotten over the years that it had happened. The memory is still vague and repressed, as if it was teetering on the edge of remembrance but not quite there.

“Well?” He is roughly shoved backwards and the chair tips over. The pain is nearly unbearable. It is then when he realizes what he had done earlier. He had nearly killed someone, and he had liked it. He couldn’t understand why he was so mad or why hadn’t cared about telling these people about his family. His family meant the world to him.

A sharp pain ran down his arm and when he looked down, he had been once again injected with the liquid. All he manages to think before passing out is ‘No.’

Baekhyun looked at his mom. She was crying again. His sister was trying to make her feel better, and although she was giving it her all it didn’t seem to be helping much.

“What’s wrong mom?” Baekhyun asked, slowly going towards her.

She didn’t respond, so he went up and hugged her. He tugged on her sleeve.

“Where’s dad?”

Her eyes turn up to him. Her whole face is red. She looks at him for a moment. “Go to your room.”

“What? But I just-“

“Now!” Her voice cracked as she roared at Baekhyun. He stood there dumbfounded. His mother had never yelled at him like that. She looked down at him. “What did I say, Baekhyun?! Go!”

Her hand hit his face. The boy’s eyes opened wider than she had seen them before.

Baekhyun thought that this was the scariest his mom had ever looked. She had never hit him before. No one had ever hit him before. He didn’t want it to happen again. So he ran. He thought that maybe he should have gone to his room, but instead he ran outside into the woods. It was dark outside and his vision was blurring, but he kept running.

It felt like hours later that he finally stopped. After he collapsed on the ground was when the fear set in. He could hear things moving. It was dark. It was really dark.

He wanted his father before he realized that he was gone. His mother had hurt him and his sister had no idea where he was. He was all alone in the pitch black woods.

So he sat there, curled up a ball for the longest time. He tried the find the stars through the trees. His sister always said that stars could lead you home. He couldn’t see them. Baekhyun sighed. He wondered if was even going to make it out alive.

Suddenly there was a crunching sound to his right. He turned around so quickly that his neck almost cracked. Another crunch. It seemed to be coming closer. Baekhyun was so scared and it was still so dark. Whatever it was sounded like it was only a couple of feet away from him.

What if it was going to kill him? His family? Or maybe it was someone that came to capture him and take him away? The boy’s heart was going into overdrive. He couldn’t breathe. What was it? Tears were falling down his cheeks. Baekhyun hated the dark.

            The air around him was suddenly freezing, and as he felt something move towards him he flung his hand up, trying to fend off whatever it was. The boy’s eyes were scrunched up and his head was buried in his knees. Slowly, the air got warmer until it felt normal again. Cautiously, he looked up and discovered that he could see what was around him. His hand was pulsing and emitting a strong, bright light that lit up the forest around him. Whatever had been there before was gone now.

Baekhyun realized then that if his hand could give off light, then he wouldn’t have to be scared of the dark anymore. He didn’t know how he turned the light on, but assumed that everyone could light their hand up.

With the help of his hand, the boy crawled over to a big rock and lied down on the moss in front of it. His eyes slowly got heavier and heavier until he fell asleep.

Baekhyun was awoken by loud screams of his name.

“Baek! Baekhyun! Where are you?!”

“Mom?” His voice was cracked and dry.

His mother suddenly burst through the trees, looking panicked. She ran up to him and gave him the biggest hug she had ever given him.

“I’m so so sorry, Baek. I didn’t realize what I was doing until it was too late. I’ll never do it again, sweetie.”

Baekhyun hugged his mom. She had always taken care of him when his father wasn’t there. She stepped back and grabbed his hand.

“We should get back to the house.”

Later, as they were attempting to make cookies, the front door slammed open. It was done with such force that the walls of the small house vibrated. His father walked in to the kitchen. Baekhyun smiled. His mom hadn’t been as happy without him around.

“Where have you been?! We’ve been so worried about you!” His mother said to the man looming in the doorway.

He growled. “This is your fault.” His father walked up to her and hit her. She gave a sound of surprise, but had no time to say anything before he hit her again.

This is when his sister walks in. “Dad?! What are you doing?! Stop hitting her!” Baekhyun backed up against the cupboard. Why was he hitting his mother?

His father slapped the girl and spoke in an icy cold tone, “Don’t. Ever. Tell. Me. What. To. Do.” He hit her. Hard. The boy couldn’t believe it. Why would he hurt his daughter?

The eyes full of ice turned up to look at Baekhyun. He cowered even more. His father was slowly approaching him. The man stopped right in front of him. His hand was raised, and that’s when Baekhyun got his second hit in 24 hours.

Time went on and the family got used to the new routine. Baekhyun’s mother would get up and cook breakfast. They would eat, and after the meal his father left. He and his sister went to school. When they got home, their dad was already there. Dinner had been made, and it was served when the children walked in. During the meal, his father was silent. It was only after the children had left for their rooms that he got mad. Every night he would hit Baekhyun’s mother. Depending on what kind of day he had, sometimes he would hit the children. Tonight was one of those nights.

While his dad was hitting him, Baekhyun was usually silent. It worked best that way. However, tonight he slipped up.

“Dad, why don’t you love us anymore?” The sentence was quiet and broken up by sobs, but somehow his father understood.

The room grew very silent. His father backed up. “How could you say I don’t love you? Do you not realize that I’m doing this because I love you? This is how you are supposed to treat people that you love. You hit them so that they understand your feelings. If you are kind to them they will think that you are lying and deceiving them. However, if you are mean to them, they will know it is real. How dare you accuse me of something as horrid as not loving my own family?”

Baekhyun found himself outside, deep in the woods, with nothing more than a ‘Don’t come in’ from his father. He started panicking before he remembered last time in the woods. Looking down at his hand, he waited for it to turn on. When it didn’t, he sighed. He shut his eyes and told it to turn on. Suddenly something behind him fell. It sounded like something big. The light came out of his hand. There was nothing behind him when Baekhyun looked. The boy found a relatively comfortable spot and slept there, like he had the first night.

Every night of that week, Baekhyun was thrown outside and told to not come in. He slowly figured out how to get the light to work. The last night of the week was when things got bad. It was freezing outside. Baekhyun’s skin felt like it was ice. Everything was freezing. He willed his hand to give out light, and it did. It had gotten a lot easier, however he was so cold that he didn’t even realize that someone was approaching him.

“Baekhyun?” His head turned. There stood his sister, wrapped up in scarves, holding blankets. She was looking at his hand like it was a part of some sort of mutant in a zoo. “Baekhyun what are you doing?” She didn’t come any closer to him.

“I’m using my hand for light.” He said softly, lips half-frozen as well.

She asked, “How?”

“I don’t know. I just can. Can’t you?” The boy asked her, looking up curiously.

“No, Baek. That’s not normal. Not everyone can do that.” She inched closer, hoping he wouldn’t hurt her.

Baekhyun’s head tilted sideways. He raised an eyebrow. “Then why can I?”

He moves his hand so that his sister can be seen better. She flinches, thinking something is going to hurt her.

“I’m not going to hurt you.” Baekhyun says quietly, afraid that his sister would leave him. He was hurt that she thought he would harm her. Then he remembered what his father told him. That’s why she had expected to be hit. Baekhyun knew that he should hurt her to show his love, but he didn’t want to. He would start tomorrow.

She walks over to him and covers them with blankets after she lies down next to him. “Oh, Baek. I’m sorry everything has turned out like this. I wanted you to be happy, but instead you’re stuck out here in the cold every night.” The older girl gave her brother a big hug. “I’m so sorry.”

The light in Baekhyun’s hand grew brighter and suddenly light erupted from the area around his heart. His whole chest was glowing. The girl sat back and looked at him. She gave him a sad smile and wrapped the boy up in a big hug. They fell asleep like that.

Baekhyun was harshly awoken by a hand on his collar yanking him upwards.

“How dare you?! How dare you disobey me like this?” His father’s booming voice scared the confused little boy. He felt his face start to sting as it was hit repeatedly.

Suddenly there was a hand pushing his father away. “Stop it! He’s just a little boy!”

The man’s head turned towards the girl who was only a few years older than Baekhyun ever so slowly. The boy was thrown to the ground as the towering man approached his sister.

He hit her. Again and again until she wasn’t moving, her chest barely expanding. He stormed inside, leaving his children stranded in the woods.

Baekhyun’s mother had to take the two back to the house hours later when she found them. His sister was fine, but very hurt.

As time passed, Baekhyun grew cruel and harsh to those he loved and cared for. His father continued to do the same thing to his family. The boy’s father sometimes even brought different women home. He didn’t hurt them. Baekhyun supposed it was because he didn’t love them.

It was on his sister’s 16^th birthday that everything changed again. Baekhyun was 11. The day had gone on like normal until sunset. His father wasn’t home yet, which wasn’t out of the ordinary. It could be midnight before he got home on some nights. Baekhyun had heard the door open while he was in his room. The boy had thought that it was his father, so he was surprised when he saw his sister walking outside with a suitcase next to her.

“Where are you going?” Baekhyun had asked, looking at his sister.

“Away from here. I’m sorry to leave you, but I can’t stand this place anymore. I wish you and mom the best.” That was all the girl had said before she had walked away.

Baekhyun tried to chase after her. He tried calling her name. No matter what he did, the girl kept walking. She didn’t look back once.

From that day forward, Baekhyun’s father had been worse on the both of them. More women started appearing. His mother cried every night. Nothing good seemed to ever happen.

At age 15, Baekhyun’s mother was gone. She never said a word. One day she was there, the next she wasn’t. It was the day after she and her husband had gotten into a fight. Baekhyun figured she had left like his sister until he walked into his parents’ bedroom that night. He was worried that his dad was going to hurt him more than before since his mom had left, so he was going to check for hiding spots. But that’s when he had seen her. She was in their closet, dangling from the ceiling. A rope was around her neck. He ran up to her and pulled her down, but she wouldn’t wake up. There was no pulse.

Nothing got better. It got worse. His father beat him more. He was never allowed to eat. Baekhyun supposed that his father was just telling him that since his mother and sister were gone, he couldn’t lose him too.

Today, Baekhyun was 17. Celebrating birthdays seemed quite useless now. There was no one to celebrate with. He occasionally played around with his light, but only when his dad didn’t come at night. However, it was daytime now. Baekhyun flopped down on the ground. There was nothing to do now.

The 17 year old was halfway through a forward roll when the door burst open. He quickly sat right side up when he saw his father run in. He was backing up slowly after shutting and locking the door. Just as his father relaxing and started advancing towards him, the door was flung off of its hinges. The room was 10 degrees colder immediately.  A man who couldn’t have been more than a couple years older than him walked in. He didn’t say a word, but Baekhyun’s father cowered under the gaze of him. The boy was in awe. How could this man do this? How could someone so young scare his father?

The father looked around frantically for something to fight with. Noticing this, the strange man cut off the lights. He didn’t touch anything, just sort of pointed his hand at the lightbulb and it froze before going out completely. No one could see anything, however the 17 year old could hear footsteps approaching the two of them. It was the situation in the woods all over again, except not quite as cold. He felt it coming. He could feel his power rising. He begged his body to stop. Who knows what would happen if his father found out what he could do? The stranger as well, he could kill the both of them because of Baekhyun’s power.

But the light burst out anyways. It seemed to attack itself to the man’s body, forcing him backwards.

Minseok didn’t know what this was. One second he was in control, the next second he was being forced backwards. There was a sort of terrible pain ripping him in half. He continued to stagger back. Where were his powers? What was this light causing him so much pain? He fell to the ground. The pain stopped. Minseok couldn’t get up. He heard the father talking to his son. There was a smacking noise that repeated itself. He mentally begged Jongdae to show up. The five minutes had surely been exceeded. The rule had always been to have Minseok go in, wait five minutes and then come in after him. As if his thoughts had been read, the door burst open.

Baekhyun was lying on the ground. His father wouldn’t stop hitting him. The door burst open and his father was thrown backwards by a bolt of light. It wasn’t like his own, it was much sharper and faster.

Jongdae didn’t know what to think. On one hand, the boy they were supposed to be rescuing was lying on the ground all beat up by his father, and lying on the ground away from him was Minseok. Minseok had been defeated by this boy? He couldn’t believe it. Minseok was one of the best fighters at camp. This untrained boy couldn’t beat him, could he?  The boy looked back at him. Light shot out of his hand. Jongdae felt an incredible pain engulfing him. He tried to overcome it, but the man collapsed. All of his will had been stripped from him.

Baekhyun was tired. It hurt to do this. It was very tiring, and the boy just wanted to sleep. A man came running in and grabbed him from behind. Although he tried to fight, there was nothing much he could do before darkness swam over him and he fell to the ground.

After Yixing knocked the boy out, he went to work healing Jongdae and Minseok. It took a while before they could move and think properly again.

“I took care of the man, but before I could do or say anything to the boy, something happened to me. Was that him?” Jongdae asks Yixing and Minseok.

Of course Minseok wouldn’t reply, but Jongdae was nice enough to ask anyways. Yixing explains how he had seen the boy focusing some sort of light on Jongdae before he was knocked out.

“I suppose,” Jongdae says, “that we’ve found our person.”

The three wait for him to wake up before warily explaining what had happened.

Although he had stopped fighting, it didn’t take a genius to notice that the boy, Baekhyun, neither trusted, nor liked them.