Hakyeon opened his eyes and found himself in a room. Outside, the moon was shining brightly. He turned around and was surprised to see a woman sitting on a chair with a child on her lap.

His view of the room shifted and he saw a tall, handsome man at the door. He donned a suit with a blood red rose badge pinned on his chest.

Hakyeon could not stop himself from being afraid of the man he had never seen before because the look he was giving to the woman was full of mirth and black with wickedness.

The scene changed, showing the two people arguing, the boy ,probably six years of age, was hiding fearfully behind his mother.

 “ You won’t believe it but he and I are soulmates even if we are different”, the woman said in defiance.

The scene changed again, the man was holding the boy at the neck, the woman pleading at him to let her son go.

Hakyeon tried to move to help the woman but his legs was stuck on the floor.

“ If I kill you, then my brother will die with you”, he smirked before throwing a knife at the woman.

She fall to the floor but her son’s cries kept her going, crawling at her beloved child with all her might.

The man just laughed with evil amusement.

He’s going to be a runt in the community. What a disgrace. Don’t worry, I will not kill him. I will just left him in the woods to prove how weak he is”.

Then, two men arrived at the scene, one took down the man while the other rushed towards the woman.

“ I’m sorry, I could not protect myself and my son”, she stammered the words, blood flowing freely from the wound on her chest.

“ I’m sorry I could not protect my family”, the man who was obviously the woman’s husband said before he too collapsed on the wooden floor, pressing his hand on his chest.

Now, Hakyeon was outside the small wooden house with tears coming out of his eyes.

The man who took out the attacker walked out the house with the boy in hand. The boy was crying and kept looking back at the house.

“ Why can’t I stay with Omma and Appa?”, the boy asked.

“ Because I promise your father who is also my brother to take care of you. Don’t worry, Cha Hakyeon, I will take care of you. That, I promise”.

Hakyeon gasped awake from the memory, the memory he had tried to surpress for a long time. He tried to move but he was squished between Jaehwan and Sanghyuk. Against what? He did not know yet. He looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings. It seemed that a huge serpant-like creature had encircled the three of them and it was fast asleep.

Hakyeon did not know where Wonsik,Taekwoon and Hongbin is but he hoped that they are safe, wherever they are. The last thing he remembered was passing out at the Old Witch’s road.

He scanned the place, noticing that they were in some sort of a basement. The basement was completely dark and cold. He had a fear of the dark but using his senses, he knew that they were the only ones here. He hoped it was true.

He tried to think of any place that had a basement near the Old Witch’s road which gave out an aura of despair and dread.

He pieced  it together and he did not like the answer. They were now in the basement of the old witch’s house. Luckily, she had died years ago, more like killed, by the other protectors of the woods.

The Alpha used to tell him a story about a witch who dabbled with dark magic and went insane. She murdered other magic users including Jaehwan’s parents to add more to her power. Heck, she even tried to kill Jaehwan and his brother too.

He heard Jaehwan whimpering beside him and he felt pity for him. If this place reminded him of his worst memories, he could not imagine Jaehwan reliving his parents’ death all over again.

He heard another cry, this time from Sanghyuk.

“ Please, stop. Stop. It hurts. I will do anything just please stop”, Sanghyuk sleep-talked, causing Hakyeon to purse his lips. He wanted to help them stop the nightmares and escape but he could not move.

He tried to push off the whatever was in front of him but it was heavy as a tree trunk.

He pushed for a long time but it won’t budge. He wanted to cried out of frustation but he could not. He took a deep breath, feeling very tired and useless. His  eyes felt heavy and without meaning to, he fall asleep.

“ Hahahaha, you are useless. You can’t even keep up with us.”, a boy taunted the panting Hakyeon after a game of tag.

“ Yeah. Even though you are the chief’s nephew, you are nothing. I don’t know why he took you in. You should stay dead like your parents. Hahaha”.

“ You did not belong here. You are different from us. Look at your dark skin. It looks so dirty”.

“ Psst, I heard his mother is a Light Elf. No wonder the Elders don’t like him. His parents broke the rules”.

“ See, look at him! He’s crying. Are you crying? Do you want your mommy back? Too bad she’s dead and your father followed her.Hahahaha”.

The young Hakyeon could not take it anymore and ran to his uncle’s house. He wiped his tears before entering, not wanting to worry his uncle and his wife. The house was silent and Hakyeon wondered if they had gone out.

The sound of a conversation from the dining room guided him there. He heard his uncle and aunt discussing about something.

“ This is ridiculous!!! They do not have the reasons to take away your position. You earned it fair and square”, his aunt was waving her arms in anger.

“ It’s not how I got it. It’s how the history of my family reflected on it. My late oldest brother’s secret marriage, my second brother’s betrayal, me taking care of a child they don’t like, they think my family could no longer lead this community”, his uncle replied calmly but his eyes showed his distress.

“ That’s rubbish!!! You did not do anything wrong. Your leadership keep us secure from danger, better than the previous ones”.

“ Ahh, they don’t like the new changes I brought. They want to return to their old ways which is not making any contact with other races. It’s going to be hard because of the deal between us and the other protectors of the woods. But, I’m more worried about Hakyeon. After they took my position, I hear they are going to banish him”.

“ Banish him?! That is even more ridiculous. Hakyeon is such a sweet child like his father and very passionate like his mother. He can’t do no harm to others. It’s ok if he is a late bloomer but they could not do that to a child”.

“ They are going to do it because he is different”, his uncle sighed. “ I think it’s better if we sleep early. Can you check on Hakyeon?”.

Before his aunt could search for him, he ran outside, feeling he just made other people’s lives harder. He wanted to run away and at that time, he hoped to die. He almost did when he fall into a river and he did not have any strength left to swim. But then the Alpha came to rescue him.

He opened his eyes again, scolding himself for falling asleep. This time, he was not alone. Jaehwan was awake and he was crying.

“Hakyeon hyung? Is that you? Where are we?”, he could hear the panic rising in his voice.

“ It’s me, Jaehwan. It’s ok. We are safe for now....”

“ NO NO NO NO!!! YOU ARE NOT HAKYEON HYUNG!!!! YOU ARE THE OLD WITCH AND YOU ARE GOING TO TRICK ME!!! YOU TOOK HIS VOICE TOO?!! HOW COULD YOU?!!”.

“LEE JAEHWAN!!! I’m Hakyeon and I’m not a witch. We have been friends for years! The witch is dead, years ago”, he was afraid the shouting was going to wake up the creature imprisoning them but it seemed to be in a deep sleep.

“ I remember her. I remember she used my parent’s voice to trick me to open the barricade of our house. I almost let my brother die”, Jaehwan broke into a sob and it broke Hakyeon’s heart to hear it.

“It’s ok, Jaehwan. Your brother’s alive. No one will try to kill you”.

Jaehwan was silent and to Hakyeon’s horror, he had fallen asleep again. Soon, he heard Jaehwan’s whimpers, this time more often than usual.

He cursed, knowing that this place was going to drive them mad eventually. He spent a long time thinking of a way to escape but none came to mind.

Then he heard it. The steady heartbeat of Sanghyuk beside him. In his tired and drained state, the sound of it was music to his ears.

He shook himself out of those thoughts, trying to reign some control to himself.

“ We apologise for our treatment against you and we are deeply sorry. For your information, due to your unique condition, your development will be slower than ours but it is still going to happen anytime soon. For that, we recommend you to return so you can have the training that we had neglected to give you. Also, your uncle had notified us that he will resume his guardianship on you until the right time comes for you to live independently”. From the Elders.

 He remembered ripping the letter to shreds, feeling angry that they wanted him to leave the place he had called home. Still, deep inside, he could not deny the other part of him.

He tried to hide it but soon he had to face it. But why he had to face it now?

“ It is near the time, right? I know you are scared and hurt but just know that I'll always be your friend”.

He did not want to hurt his friends but now, in his darkest hour where everything seemed hopeless, he was beginning to give up and his buried survival instincts were getting ready to take control.

In the dark, he could sense Sanghyuk beside him and his throat burned, knowing that he was really thirsty.

“ I’m sorry, Sanghyuk”, he whispered before he inched closer towards the younger.

Suddenly, a ball of light appeared from the corner of the basement and lighting the whole place with a gentle light.

Then he heard a familiar yet annoying voice.

“Hakyeon?”.

“ Eunji?”