I'm back :) (for maybe two weeks)

I'm on my spring break so I have some time, for both rest and writing. I'll do my best to put stuff up over break.

BTW, I'm trying my hand at action here. Forgive me. Love me. And criticize me, I appreciate that. 

I APPRECIATE ALL COMMENTS~

Kyungsoo's first pet was a rock.

The rock--a piece of slate with yarn glued onto its flat top--was Kyungsoo's first love, as well. Its name was Steve, and its googly eyes fell off every three weeks, almost like clockwork. Every day before leaving for elementary school, Kyungsoo would pat its stiff-haired head and tell it to behave. Kyungsoo's mother didn't think much of it; she played along, leaving baby carrots out for it to "eat" and helping Kyungsoo give it baths. 

Little Kyungsoo had very few companions, and Steve was one of them.

Steve was two and a half years old when Kyungsoo's father, in a drunken rage, threw the rock against a wall and broke it. He had suspected Kyungsoo's mother of cheating--he ended up being right--and came home from a pub stinking of alcohol and filled to the brim with unadulterated hatred of the world. Kyungsoo hid in a corner of his room, small body curled around Steve and ears pressed flat against his head, spitting and hissing at his father as he approached. Mr. DO slapped Kyungsoo across the face, but Kyungsoo refused to let go of his rock, even as his father roared and pounded down on him. Finally, Mr. DO ripped the rock from Kyungsoo's hand and smashed it, ending Steve's life and killing something inside Kyungsoo himself.

The little pieces of Steve remained in a jar sitting on the shelf in Kyungsoo's dorm.

At one in the morning on a Saturday, Chanyeol came stumbling into his and Jongin's dorm room with a blackened eye and blood dried around his mouth.

Jongin, smelling something wrong, a light and dragged himself to sitting position, immediately coming around to full awakeness at the sight of his roommate.

"S ," he said, throwing off his blankets and helping the leopard hybrid into a chair. "What the f did you do?"

Chanyeol rubbed his forehead. "Baekhyun and I were walking down Main Street. Some dude jumped us."

"Why were you out at one in the morning? J-sus, that's a lot of blood." Jongin fumbled about for the first aid kit, rushing to wipe the fresh rivulet that threatened to drip from Chanyeol's split lip. "Where's Baekhyun?"

"With Soo."

"Is he okay?"

"Yeah, just scared."

"Okay, good. But what the f were you doing out?"

"Baekhyun was having a panic attack and he didn't want to see the counselor. The gate was open, so we just--"

Jongin froze. "What do you mean, the gate was open?"

Chanyeol blinked. "I mean, no one was at the guard station and..." His eyes widened.

The front gates to the town were supposed to be closed at night, with at least two guards in the station and a police officer patrolling the perimeter. Never in Jongin's memory had the gates been open by accident, or even on purpose, when they weren't supposed to. 

Something was wrong.

Chanyeol and Jongin both dashed to the door at the same time, falling out into the hallway and tripping over their feet to get to Kyungsoo's room.

Inside, Kyungsoo had a momentary heart attack when the door started visibly shaking under the impact of the two boys outside.

"Coming! Coming, oh my G-d," Kyungsoo gasped out, pressing a hand to his chest. Sehun wrapped his fluffy blanket around the shivering Baekhyun.

Chanyeol pushed his way into the room and went straight for the window. "I think Kris knows," he said, throwing open the window, against Kyungsoo's protests.

Jongin shut the door hard behind him and leaned against it, pulling out his phone and tapping something out on the screen.

Sehun got to his feet. "It's literally one-thirty AM. What the f's going on?"

Jongin looked up. "The front gates are open. I have no idea why. Baekhyun and Chanyeol went in and out with no problem."

Kyungsoo turned to the wolf hybrid with wide eyes. "What?"

At that moment, his phone rang from the desk. He barely glanced at the caller ID before answering, putting it on speakerphone almost as an afterthought.

"Luhan?"

"We have a problem, Soo. You don't need to worry about it--leave that to the guards and me and the Dragons--but can you let the rest of the people on your floor know to stay in your rooms?"

"I--what?"

"Please, Soo, I'll fill you in as soon as I can."

"Okay. Okay, I will. Be safe."

Kyungsoo dropped his phone onto his bed and followed suit, splayed out on his back. "This is serious, isn't it?" he asked slowly.

Jongin sat next to him and patted down the cat hybrid's bedhead. "Chanyeol and I will go out and let the rest of our floor know, okay? You and Sehun and Baekhyun stay here."

Sehun huffed, then snapped his fingers. "Get Suho. I can call him and tell him to wait for you guys."

"I think he'll be fine without company."

"Yeah, but I want him near me."

Chanyeol opened his mouth, ready to object, but Jongin raised a hand. "No problem. Call him or something. We'll bring him down."

Sehun smiled and rewarded his best friend with a smile.

The students on the third floor didn't take Jongin and Chanyeol seriously.

"That's bulls," a freshman said, rubbing the vestiges of sleep from his eyes. "A guard wouldn't leave the guard station. It's his job."

"Well, he or she did. Just stay in your room."

"Wasn't planning on going anywhere."

They checked the bathrooms--empty--before taking to the staircase.

"I'm not even tired right now," Chanyeol said, smile unusually perky for someone up at almost two in the morning. "Guess I'm just fired up."

Jongin eyed the leopard hybrid with his black eye and dried blood on his face and managed a sarcastic smile.

Their footsteps in the concrete staircase sounded strangely muffled, and as they approached the fourth floor, the sound of someone shouting could be heard. Before either Chanyeol or Jongin could say anything, the door above opened.

A man in dark clothes was holding someone by the collar--Suho, Jongin realized in utter shock--and pushing him towards the staircase. Suho was putting up a fight; he swung out, catching the stranger across the face. The man growled and shoved Suho, and the collie hybrid fell, arms catching nothing as he shouted for help.

Chanyeol rushed forward, grabbing Suho and pulling him safely down. "Who the f is that?" the leopard demanded.

Suho gasped for breath and swore. "I don't--I don't know."

The stranger took a step down the stairs, then reached into his waistband and pulled out something black. It clicked, and it took Jongin far too long to realize what it was.

"MOVE!"

He yanked both Chanyeol and Suho out of the way just in time. The wall where they had been standing cracked, and a small cloud of dust rose up.

"MOVE, MOVE, MOVE!"

The three of them flew down the stairs, back to the third floor. Chanyeol slammed the door shut, working the obsolete lock. Jongin and Suho ran down the hall to Kyungsoo and Sehun's room, with the former shoving his elder inside and turning to help Chanyeol.

Only to be met with the sight of his friend backed into a wall, a gun held under his chin.

"Get off of me, you fer," Chanyeol hissed. He lashed out, room keys held between his fingers like claws.

The stranger muttered something and slammed the leopard hybrid across the head with the of the gun. Chanyeol crumpled, hitting the floor solidly on his knees and tipping back against the wall.

Someone screamed behind Jongin, and the man in black turned in that direction, gun lifting up. Jongin threw himself to the ground and a door slammed before the bullet tore into the wall.

Inside the room, Kyungsoo tried to throw himself against the door, struggling against Suho and Sehun as they tried to pull him away. "JONGIN!" He almost yanked one arm free. "KAI'S OUT THERE! LET ME GO!"

Baekhyun slipped between him and the door and slapped his friend across the face. "Calm your s," he said through his tears. "So is Chanyeol, but we can't do anything about it."

Kyungsoo roared and pulled free, grabbing a paperweight as he pushed past Baekhyun and out into the hallway.

The stranger had his gun trained on Jongin on the floor. Jongin's chest rose and fell quickly, and he stuttered out broken sentences. 

"Don't--please, it's--it's not the--please." Each break was shorter than the last. "Th-this is a school--it's not--we're not--"

The stranger kicked Jongin in the side hard, and the sound of air leaving Jongin's lungs sounded like a thrown brick. He curled up as the stranger kept kicking.

"Just a school? Just a school? Do you fing know what they did to me here?" The man beat down on Jongin with a fury Kyungsoo had only seen in his father. "Do you know what they told me? I was a freak! I was a freak to them! Just a fing circus freak that they could chain to a wall once a month! And they called that innovation! F you! You brainwashed piece of--"

In a moment of pure luck, fear, and hatred, Kyungsoo threw the paperweight in his hand. It sailed through the air in one smooth, beautiful arc, glinting darkly like a drop of molten gold before meeting its target: the stranger's head.

With a heavy crack, the man stumbled back, hitting a wall and slumping down. Jongin whimpered, and Kyungsoo rushed to his side. 

"Kai?" He pushed back the wolf hybrid's head and felt for a pulse on his throat. "Kai, can you--"

"I'm fine," Jongin groaned. He pushed himself up to a seated position. "Even Luhan kicks harder than that, it wasn't a big deal."

"Don't joke about this."

"I'm not. We need to get security or the police or som--"

A crack rent the air, and to Kyungsoo, for one spectacular moment, it was as if time had frozen. Kyungsoo and Jongin were still, staring at each other; there was no other sound aside from the reverberations of the splitting noise; and a pleasant warmth had bloomed in Kyungsoo's chest, tranquil and lovely and soothing.

The reverie ended when Jongin's eyes crept down to Kyungsoo's chest. 

"Soo," he said, voice strangely quiet. 

Kyungsoo looked down at himself. His shirt felt sticky, and he brought a shaky hand up to a spot in his side that had started throbbing painfully. The spot was warm, sore. His fingers came away dark.

"Did he shoot me?" Kyungsoo said before falling to his side.

For a few heartbeats, the world became colorful and loud. Someone roared in piercing red, and a hard black thud followed. A mint green hand, cool and light, brushed Kyungsoo's shoulder. The deep purple carpet became silver, glinting and shining before blurring out into shining blue.

A warm, tender grey appeared and enveloped him.