Krystal awoke to the feeling of someone watching her.

It startled her awake rather unpleasantly. When her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she found herself staring into Kai’s chest, which wasn’t out of the ordinary, considering they had fallen asleep together on her bed. His arms were caged around her protectively.

What was strange, was the creepy, cold feeling of someone’s gaze burning into her back.

Curiousity killed the cat.

She held her breath and turned her head slowly…

Krystal screamed.

Kai jolted awake, sitting up abruptly as he tried to blink open his eyes. He looked around in confusion “Wha—what—”

He froze.

He could feel Krystal pushing herself away from the bed and closer to him. He shifted his body so he could push her behind him.

Kai’s mouth was dry as he opened it to speak.

“Xiumin…”

Xiumin was standing at the edge of the bed.

There were still some pieces of ice left in his hair and on his clothes, but he was otherwise unfrozen. His gaze was empty.

He stared at Kai and Krystal. Unmoving.

Kai let out a quick breath when he realised Xiumin’s eyes were no longer red. They were blank.

Krystal’s grip on his arm was beginning to hurt, and he gently put a hand over hers.

“Don’t worry, he’s not going to attack,” he whispered. Kai tapped the back of his neck. “Remember the zombie controls?” She nodded even though he couldn’t see it. “I need to get Lay, so I’m going to teleport you to Amber’s room, okay?”

Biting her lip, Krystal made a small whimper in acknowledgement.

“I need you to get off the bed,” Kai instructed. His eyes were still locked on Xiumin, who followed their every move with his lifeless eyes.

Krystal’s legs were shaking, but she managed to plant her feet firmly on the ground. Kai stood up after her. They slipped into their shoes and begin to slowly back away.

Xiumin continued to stare.

White smoke pooled, and Krystal found herself in Amber’s room. Before she could even turn to look at Kai, he was already gone.

“...Krystal?”

“Amber!” Krystal ran towards Amber, who had been woken up by her previous scream.

“What’s going on?”

“It’s Xiumin, he’s unfrozen and—”

A loud yell of pain pierced the air.

Krystal and Amber looked at each other in shock. Krystal begin to pull the older girl out of her bed. “My room, quick!”

Shaking the sleep out of her vision, Amber stumbled after Krystal. Her brain caught up to her a minute later and she pulled up a forcefield around the two of them. Just in case.

They opened the door to the darkness of the night. It was silent.

Krystal gulped.   

They took a step closer to Krystal’s room, which was just next to Amber’s.

Amber reached out of the forcefield to put her hand on the doorknob…  

Bright light illuminated the corridor.

“! What the hell!” Amber shouted. She squinted her eyes at the sudden light, which dimmed a little.

When she could finally open her eyes again, Baekhyun was standing there, looking a little apologetic. Sehun and Suho had been woken up as well, and they ran over with worry etched on their faces.

“I heard the screaming,” Suho said, his expression stern.

“Xiumin’s unfrozen,” Krystal explained. She pointed a finger to her still-closed door. “He’s in there. With Kai and Lay.”

Amber morphed her forcefield so it was like a shield and held it out in front of her.

She grabbed the doorknob, turned it—

—and promptly fell. The door was ripped open just as she had begun to push. Kai caught her and gave her a strange look.

He looked up at the small party that had gathered. “Xiumin’s fine. We took out the tracker so he’s out of the mind control now.”

They all stepped into the room, and Krystal tried very hard not to stare at the splatters of blood on the floor. Xiumin was sitting down now, clutching his head. Lay had his glowing hands on either side of it.

Suho was the first to move. He immediately crouched down beside Xiumin, a hand on his shoulder. He raised his other hand and waved it across Xiumin’s face and body, washing away some of the dried blood from their fight.

“Xiumin, how are you feeling?”

Xiumin forced opened his eyes and squinted at the face in front of him. It took him a moment to recognise it. “Suho? What… how…” His eyes surveyed the room, taking in the familiar and unfamiliar faces. Krystal could feel a chill run through her body when Xiumin’s eyes landed on her.

“We can explain later. What’s happened to you?”

Xiumin frowned. “I don’t remember… They put me under mind control most of the time. The last thing I can clearly remember is you, Kai, and Chen escaping.”

“It’s been a month since that happened,” Suho told him. Xiumin’s expression turned bitter. A whole month that he couldn’t remember living through.

“How did I end up with you guys?”

“It’s a really long story…”

“Wait,” Baekhyun suddenly said. “Did you say you just took out his tracker?”

A look of horror crossed the boys faces. Krystal could feel panic rise in her as well, even though she didn’t know why.

“...Was Xiumin under control when he woke up?” Sehun asked hesitantly, hoping for a refusal, but the look on Kai and Lay’s faces was enough of an answer.

“What’s wrong?” Amber asked, her voice shaking. “Why do you all looked so scared?”

“It means the tracker was active, even for just a moment.” Kai’s expression was grave. “The Facility has our location.”

“The Facility? Didn’t the earthquake bring them down?!”

Kai shook his head. “The building is just a decoy. The real maze is underground.”

Krystal cursed under her breath.

“Wake the others,” Suho commanded, taking over as the leader. Baekhyun and Kai ran out of the room. He helped Xiumin stand. “How long has Xiumin been unfrozen?”

“I—I don’t know,” Krystal rushed out. “I just woke up and he was there, staring at me.”

Suho’s face seemed to darken even further. “They may already be here. Sehun!”

“Already on it.” Sehun had his eyes closed now. Krystal could feel a light breeze swirling as Sehun tried to feel movements in the air around the house.

“What should—what should we do?” Krystal asked.

“Start packing. Amber, do you have another place we can go?”

Amber’s eyes were wide. “Uh—yeah, I’ve been contacting—”

“Suho!”

No one saw it coming, but suddenly Suho was flying across the room. He crashed into the wall with a loud thud.

Krystal was next. She could feel something collide into her and pain exploded as she was shoved against the wardrobe. Her head was spinning as she slid down the wood.

“Krystal!” Lay moved towards her, but he too was pushed away.

Xiumin’s eyes narrowed. He could see it now. The blur of movement. He watched it smash into Amber and she flew to the wall.

Before he could suffer the same fate, Xiumin placed a hand on the floor. A layer of ice covered the floor instantly.

The blur slipped on the ice and fell, and they could finally see the figure of a boy. He had a mess of curly blonde hair. The ice crawled up his hands and legs and held him in place.

Kai appeared in the room with the rest. His eyes swept the room and landed on Krystal, who was slumped against the wardrobe.

“Soojung!” He ran towards her, sliding an arm under her shoulders to pull him towards his chest. “Soojung, can you hear me?”

“Ugh…” Krystal groaned. “I feel like I’ve been hit by a car, but I don’t think anything’s broken.”

Suho, Amber, and Lay