Chapter 7
Sacrifice
 

Baekhyun was shaking as the dying man held onto him. He watched as the splits closest to Yifan's heart widened, watched as the man curled into himself and tried to stop the flow of blood. He held Yifan's hand when he gasped, letting him squeeze it when needed.

To say he was terrified was an understatement. To say he was nauseous was as well since he'd long since thrown up and was doing his best to hold whatever was left in his stomach down. The sight before him was causing such distress he wasn't sure if he'd ever be able to overcome it.

Yifan had tried to speak a few times but it had only resulted in a pained gurgling noise.

He wished Jongdae and Junmyeon would just get there already.

For Yifan as much as for himself.

                                                                                                                       -♡-
 

Chanyeol was silent as Jongdae navigated the car through a few different alley's and shortcuts, speeding when he could. 

The man wasn't exactly sure what he was going to say to his boyfriend, ex-boyfriend? Chanyeol wasn't even sure what to call him now. But he did know that he needed to talk to Baekhyun face to face when this nightmare was over and see if they could salvage anything... he sighed loudly and looked over to Jongdae when he drove into a neighborhood and parked in front of a normal house. Didn't magical wizard people live in castles or old victorian houses or something? 

Chanyeol shook off his confusion and ran after Jongdae who had almost thrown himself from the car the second he'd turned it off. He watched the man jump through the open window at the front of the house and disappear within, and heard the sobbing noises from inside. Not even thinking at this point, Chanyeol went in the same way Jongdae had, through the window.

The sight that met Chanyeol was enough to make him dry heave in the hallway. Baekhyun was shivering, blood pooling around him as a much larger man clung to him. The man, if he could be called such at this point looked like something from a zombie movie, the way flesh was hanging off of him at random points now, a trickle of blood running from the corner of his mouth.  It was almost surreal.

 As Chanyeol's eyes scanned the scene before him, they met Baekhyun's and he saw a pleading look on the smaller man's face. If Baekhyun's eyes had a voice, they'd be asking Chanyeol for help, begging him to make it stop. to do anything, really.

A rasping gurgle that turned into a whine escaped from the bleeding man wrapped around Baekhyun before he quit moving. Baekhyun screamed and Yifan's grip loosened.

Jongdae, being the only one used to seeing anything like this was the one who moved forward to check for a pulse. It was faint, but still there. Yifan was still alive.

A few minutes later and Junmyeon had arrived, barking out orders and getting Yifan moved to the living room since no one wanted to see the state his bedroom was in based on the rest of his house. However, the man was heavy, and unfortunately, Chanyeol had been the only one who could move him resulting in Chanyeol being covered in what he would later describe as Zombie goo.

Baekhyun took a moment to compose himself and laid his head on the kitchen counter as he did his best to calm down. Jongdae had gone out to the car and grabbed a spare set of clothes for Baekhyun to wear, and after being reassured that Yifan wouldn't suddenly die if Baekhyun left, Jongdae had convinced him to take a shower.

Chanyeol sat in the kitchen and waited for Baekhyun to come out, staring in the direction of the couch every now and then.

"Do you see how hard Baekhyun's job is now?" Jongdae was now leaning against the counter next to Chanyeol.

Chanyeol opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out, only a small choked sound before he swallowed thickly. 

He had no idea what to say.

"That's what I thought..." Jongdae smiled sadly and left him alone to his own thoughts.

                                                                                                                    -♡-

Junmyeon was pacing in front of the couch, listening to Yixing's findings on the phone. He'd put it on speaker when Jongdae walked over.

"Okay, so get this. The spell seems to have been meant for someone else. The fact that he changed it, or screwed it up? That tells me a lot. but that's not really what you're wanting to hear, am I right?" 

"That you are, Xing, what do we do here?" Junmyeon glanced in Chanyeol's direction and offered a small smile as the man on the phone continued speaking.

"Well. Honestly speaking I'd let the curse run its course, but since you have other ideas.... You have to get a familiar connected to him, and I mean now. preferably a cat though, anything else won't work." 

Junmyeon and Jongdae frowned at each other.

"What will that do, exactly? Xing, you kinda lost me here..."

"This is why I'm better with animals," Yixing chuckled. "You have to Connect his soul with a cat, and hope the cat has enough lives to spare one. Otherwise, this guy's done for. that's it, Jun, that is literally the only thing that will stop a curse like this, and technically, it's not stopping it, it's just offering something else to it."

Junmyeon was about to say something when he heard a quiet "I'll  do it.." Turning around, he saw Baekhyun standing there wrapped in a towel. "He- he begged me to save him..  so I'll do it..."

"Not the best idea, Baek. You're low on lives as it is... and you damn well know how you'd have to do this." Yixing reminded him.

"I... I know... but," Baekhyun sighed. "I have to..." he glanced over at Chanyeol who was giving him a worried look.

Jongdae was frantically shaking his head and mumbling; 'no'  as Junmyeon ran a hand over his own face. "You know I can't stop him. It's part of our contract if he sacrifices himself...that's it. Baek, do you really want to do this? at least.... at least talk to Chanyeol first."

"Okay." Baekhyun smiled with tears in his eyes and walked over to the man in the kitchen, grabbing his hand and leading him into the back yard.

                                                                                                                         -♡-
 

Chanyeol watched Baekhyun curiously as he stared at the ground and fidgetted.

"Baek?"

"Yeollie... I-I know I haven't been the best boyfriend... and I know this probably isn't something that you want to hear... But the contract between Junmyeon and myself... It's. It's permanent.. lifelong. As long as I live, Jun will have the power to call me and tell me to do whatever he wants, whenever he wants... and since you're not in this world... in my world... " Chanyeol nodded at him to continue as his eyes started to water.

"Since you're not in this, I'd eventually have to leave you... but... But if I do this, if I save this man, then I'm connected to him for the rest of my life, you see? Familiars can't quit... we can move from one person to the next, but we're never really free..." Baekhyun sniffled and wiped his eyes before clearing a stray tear off of Chanyeol's face. "I'm so sorry I never told you..."

Chanyeol couldn't speak. He could only wrap his arms around Baekhyun and cry into his shirt.

Baekhyun let out another sniffle before speaking again. "M-maybe we should discuss this once we're done here, hm? who knows, maybe we can work something out."

Baekhyun smiled weakly at him.

"Go home, Yeollie. I'll be back as soon as I can. But, hey... Yeol.. Even if this doesn't work out...I love you, okay?"

Chanyeol nodded before letting him go.

"I-I love you too. Please, just... be careful."

Baekhyun smiled at him again before walking back into the house, what he didn't tell Chanyeol, was the very real possibility that he wouldn't make it through this. In fact, he was almost certain he was going to die.

Chanyeol waited a few minutes before cleaning himself up and leaving, opting to take the bus home.

Baekhyun watched him walk down the sidewalk towards the bus stop and turned to face Junmyeon when Chanyeol was no longer in sight.

"I'm ready."

With that, Junmyeon plunged his fist into Yifan's chest, wrapping his fingers around a blackened ball of flesh just above Yifan's heart and pulling it out before slamming it against Baekhyun's chest.

The man screamed as the curse started to sink into his skin, tendrils spreading. 

It was odd, looking between Baekhyun and the man on the couch. As the tendril's spread across Baekhyun's chest and the curse took hold, Yifan's skin lightened and healed.

A final scream erupted from Baekhyun before his world went dark.

 
                                                                                                                      -♡-


Tao and Jongin were laying on their bed together, completely wrapped up in each other. smiles were shared as well as the occasional whispered: "I love you" when Tao's chest started to burn, he scratched at his skin slightly as a symbol appeared over his heart. He could feel it begin to burn as it removed itself from his skin and faded into what looked like a puff of smoke.

"The curse is gone... It's gone, Jongin... that.. that was it.."

Jongin's smile widened and Tao almost squished him into the mattress with the force of the kiss he caught the other man in.

                                                                                                                       -♡-

Kyungsoo awoke from a nap on the couch to find a heavy weight on his body. When he'd gone to sleep, he'd had a cat on his chest. Now that he was awake, he was covered by a very human, very Luhan.

Kyungsoo screamed and flailed himself into the floor, launching Luhan off of him and waking him up in the process. 

As Kyungsoo sat there trying to process what had happened. A knock sounded on the door and Kyungsoo got up to answer it, leaving a  dazed Luhan to stand up on wobbly legs by himself.

When the door opened Minseok had been ready to beg Kyungsoo to talk to -cat- Luhan. He had been ready to respect his wishes if the answer was no.

But now, when he was faced with the once again human version of his boyfriend, all respect for anything went out the window and he pushed Kyungsoo aside to tackle Luhan, catching the still slightly dazed -and now giggling- man in a kiss.

"Minnie? Oh my god! Minnie, I missed you so much!"

"Lu, Lu! I'm so sorry! I'm so so sorry." Minseok held onto Luhan tightly as they both began to cry.

Kyungsoo just sighed and headed for the door throwing a quick "No tears or on my furniture!" over his shoulder.

He didn't even know if they'd heard him, but he hoped they had.

 

Oh.. my god... Guys I just realized, there are only one, maybe two chapters left of this omg  :O 

Sorry, I'm just shocked that we've made it this far ^^ and yes, I realize this probably isn't the best story ever, but still. I'm proud of it coming so far.

And I do plan on editing it and actually, proof reading it in the future :D so there's that. HUGE THANKS to all the subscribers, upvotes and comments :) 
!
-Miki