Her eyes were wet, but tears only brimmed and never fell making her vision blurry and her heart pound each time she thought she missed a step.

Seulgi tried keeping up with the person who was leading her, despite her legs’ sudden inability to hold her body anymore. Her mind flashed the faces of the ones who were locked inside the glass vessels being poisoned, not in their right mind. She feared that something might happen to her as well; that she might be killed at the end of the night like how the man with the vicious laugh said he’d be more than happy to see happen to the ones who were suffocating in the intoxicating green gas being locked up in a square box.

The man who was leading her was doubling the effect of fear making Seulgi’s blood turn to water each time he craned his neck side ways and glanced at her from the corner of his eye. He was tall, had sagging eyes and sharp facial features that Seulgi remembered very well. She knew him from all those times the others had mentioned him.

Tao…

She thought remembering his name. She wondered why he was siding with the people who were trying to kill his kind. Then again, she guessed that they must have done something to him to make him act this way. He spoke no words; he just gestured her to follow him.

The sun was setting making the orange sky reflect the sudden change in atmosphere as Seulgi gazed out of the corridor she was walking in. She was in a half built concrete building, probably on the thirteenth floor, making her guess they were probably at some put-on-hold construction site.

She gasped as Tao suddenly pulled her from her elbow and brought her closer to him. She watched his deadly eyes stare into her soul before he tightened his grip on her elbow and pushed open a door with his foot making it open into a dark stairway going down.

He stepped inside pulling her, and dragged her with him making her unable to keep up with his pace. Seulgi hurt her ankle watching herself being dragged into some dark hole. She was suddenly beginning to confess her sins and apologizing to her mother over and over as her mind had somehow come to a conclusion that she was soon going to be buckled onto an electric chair and killed.

However, her inaudible sobs stopped as she felt Tao slow down and stop near which seemed to be a dead end, except it wasn’t. It was another large metal door. She watched him unlock the door with some key while voices from inside began to be heard. She wondered what was going on when, suddenly, Tao the door open and pushed her inside to close it back immediately.

Seulgi felt herself hit the concrete ground, her knee bruise and start bleeding. She saw nothing while listening to Tao lock the door back and walk away; it was pitch black inside.

The voices which were inside the room had become quiet. Seulgi dragged herself up and sat down to have two hands grab her from her shoulders making her startle and start screaming.

“Stop it, you idiot! It’s me! Son Seungwan!”

“Huh?” Seulgi looked up letting her vision adjust to the dark and finally make somewhat of a picture of Seungwan in front of her.

Without any further explanation, the two ladies pulled each other into a hug and soon started sobbing together; Seungwan especially loudly.

“Are okay? The bastards were about to kill us before. Poor Johnny has a broken face now,” Seungwan sobbed observing Seulgi, who looked around and saw two figures cuddled up on the floor at a corner.

Soon, Seulgi was sitting with the two others and Wendy while the flame of the lighter that Johnny had, gave them the chance to see each others’ faces.

Seulgi looked up to see Johnny with a broken nose. Apparently, the young lad had begun to fight back when the hunters hit Grace’s place.

“I don’t know what happened but green smoke just filled up in a flash. Your boyf-- Jongin was the first one to fall down unconscious. Then, the noisy one, the leader and then the grumpy one, Chanyeol. And everyone just fell on their feet we didn’t know what to do…” Wendy explained as to what happened this morning.

Seulgi sulked remembering how she and Yixing figured out that it was a trap when they were amongst the crowd who watched Grace’s little fortune telling shop on fire. Even when they were a step ahead, Seulgi went back to look for Yixing and Luhan, who advised her to runaway, but because she went back they were forced to go to square one once more. She started blaming herself as Grace got closer to her and patted her back saying,

“What’s done is done. We have to get out of here before they do something to us,” Grace spoke like she knew how Seulgi felt. She never once thought she’d be locked up in a dark room to rot. It was only this morning when she was thinking of how to finish up studying all her chemistry notes while her mind bothered her about how she leaned in to kiss Jongin without a second thought. Those worries seemed too minute and petty to what she was facing now.

Letting Grace tend to Johnny, as the poor fellow started feeling the pain once more, Seulgi and Wendy moved away to another corner to sit their hugging their knees.

“I should have never gotten involved. I brought this upon everyone…not just you and me, but also them,” Seulgi whispered as her eyes started watering again while her mind played the numerous times Yixing kept telling her not to be interested in them.

Wendy only listened to her. After all, she had nothing she could say to comfort Seulgi, when even she herself was against the idea. Wendy’s usual big mouth stayed shut for she knew her friend was sad, worried and utterly disappointed. If these were their last moments together she didn’t want them to be arguing.

Hours passed by as the four of them started feeling exhausted and grew quieter and quieter. The thirst for water made a few smack their lips while hunger made the others curl up and want to sleep. It was the first time for Seulgi to experience something like this. All those times she thought she was a poor girl she suddenly began to realize she was indeed rich in everyway.

Her mind flew to the ones who were locked up elsewhere when she last saw them. She wondered whether they were even breathing as of now but her stomach growled making her curl up tighter while her finger began to dug the dirty concrete ground.

When it seemed like the quadruple were spending their last minutes sane, a sudden bang made them open their eyes and bob their heads up.

They wondered whether Tao came back with someone else this time. And surprisingly, they all hoped that person had something to eat or end their thirst.

They listened to footsteps come closer to the door. Seulgi’s mind calculated and guessed that Tao would open the door in sometime. But nothing happened and only hustle was heard outside.

Curled up Seulgi crawled her way to the door letting her elbows get cut and start bleeding as she put force into pulling her body there. She listened to something hit on the door loudly, like some sort of a large metal pole. The others in the room advised Seulgi not to go further; Grace even put out the barely there lighter. But Seulgi didn’t listen.

And just before she got to the door, Seulgi felt her heart ache and the faint light she was seeing blur. She was going to pass out and she was certain.

She looked up to take a final look at the door as a louder bang was heard and she rest her head on the ground listening to the door burst open and feel two soft hands pick her up.

She thought she out, but she didn’t.

Moments later, her cheeks were being slapped slightly by those same soft hands, calling out her name and trying to get her to drink some water.

“Seulgi-ssi, you can’t give up now,” the sweet voice spoke as the hand made her taste the water drops on her lips.

Her mind cleared faster than predicted and she was soon realizing that those soft hands were none other than Song Qian’s, the metal like woman who could do anything and everything contradicting to her soft image.

Not only her, Seulgi looked about to see Taemin attending to Johnny at a corner while having an eye on Wendy and Grace. Seemed like he had somehow convinced Song Qian to let him tag along.

They stayed outside the metal door trying to get Wendy and Grace to make their legs work as Song Qian gave Taemin instructions to take the others with him to where they parked her car at.

“Guys please, do not slow down at all costs. Please run as fast as possible…” Song Qian went on as the others managed to nod a bit. They were all tired and didn’t care about anything as of this moment. They just wanted to get out of this horrid place once and for all.

Soon, they all walked up the stairs together while Grace and Taemin held completely passed out Johnny on their shoulders. As soon as they got to the surface they started running. They could hear loud explosions making their ears ring for a while before coming back to their senses. No one bothered to check what they were. Seulgi watched Wendy press on her ears and she copied her while making her feet step up faster.

She was following Taemin’s direction when she noticed Song Qian was not with them. Almost automatically she stopped and turned to see Song Qian going the opposite way.

“Seulgi, keep up!” Wendy yelled before taking a turn and disappearing.

But Seulgi stayed motionless watching Song Qian run away from her by the second.

She going to them…I’m sure!

Without a second thought, Seulgi pushed her legs in front. Her mind was set; she was going to follow Song Qian although Wendy shout out at her to follow them. She wasn’t ready to give up now. Although it may not be the best choice, she wanted to do her best to save them.

Yes, she caught up with Song Qian despite her ankle beginning to throb immensely. No, Song Qian was not happy with it.

“The hunters, the guards, where are they?” Seulgi asked trying to change the subject as she ran beside Song Qian while the older yelled at her for disobeying her.

“They are busy elsewhere,” Song Qian gestured to look outside where Seulgi saw a building being destroyed. She didn’t want to ask anymore questions; she knew Song Qian probably planned this thoroughly.

“How did you find us? Did you follow me?” Seulgi asked while she panted knowing the familiar path Song Qian was taking. Seemed like Song Qian had met the others before getting to them.

“No, I only saw you being taken. I didn’t follow you…It was Baekhyun. He got in contact with me.”

Seulgi’s legs halted at once.

“Baekhyun?” Seulgi was sure she saw him passed out inside the square tank.

Song Qian answered no more and grabbed Seulgi’s hand to make her keep up.

Moments later, Seulgi found herself entering the same room she was in before Tao was asked to take her away. The excruciating white light hit her eyes before the scenery of the twelve intoxicated boxes placed in a circle became visible. She pulled back for she didn’t want to see those same terrifying faces of her friends. But listening to screams being heard, seeing that some of the boxes seemed to be open and some bodies were lying on the ground, she wanted to know what was going on.

The closer she got, the more she felt shivers run down her back as she saw Lay lying on the ground struggling for clean air while his fingers dug the floor. Blood was being vomited from his throat. Seulgi’s legs automatically ran to him and her knees fell on the ground as she caught his shoulders and gave him support. He coughed out more blood.

Her eyes were becoming blurry again. She looked up to find Song Qian running to them and grabbing Yixing while he vomited blood on her. Seulgi let her hold Yixing as she wobbled her way away from him. Her eyes immediately caught Baekhyun running to a corner and grabbing a metal pole lying around.

She scanned the area and seemed like almost all the square vessels were open. However, seeing Baekhyun run back she followed him to the other side of the circle to see Chanyeol drowning inside his vessel.

“Get him out of there!” someone screamed.

She found most of the others trying to break the glass watching Chanyeol struggle for air. His nails scratched the glass as the entire vessel filled up with water while Baekhyun held out the metal pole and started banging the glass with it, but nothing was happening.

Frustration took the better of everyone, they were all yelling so loudly and didn’t even notice Seulgi was there terrified of seeing half of them covered in blood, their bodies looking weak and partially given up on them.

“Suho hyung, do something!” Baekhyun screamed as he continuously hit the glass as they watched Chanyeol stop struggling all of a sudden.

Suho shouted back while he laid on the floor unable to move his limbs as if they were paralyzed, “I can’t! Break the glass, I can feel his breath leaving him!”

It would have been a piece of cake if they weren’t all drained of their energy and messed up being re-poisoned in the green gas, but tonight they were all struggling.

Seulgi watched hints of green gas still in the air when she almost got pushed over having Xiumin running to Chanyeol. He at once, froze the glass before advising Baekhyun to hit hard.

Baekhyun’s grip on the metal pole tightened before he took it up and hit the glass with all his might making it shatter in an instance and an alarm go off at once. All the unfrozen water within swooshed out with Chanyeol.

The floor got flooded as bruised Chanyeol, with the glass pieces sticking to him, glided out and everyone reached out to him while Baekhyun ran to the other side as someone called him out loud.

His knees dropped near Luhan who had his hands on a person’s chest pumping, trying to keep him alive.

“Sehun-ah, stay with me,” Luhan whispered as Baekhyun checked for his pulse.

Seulgi watched Sehun’s lips turn pale while he stayed there motionless.

She was going to go to him when sud