Byun Baekhyun, day forty eight 10:22

“So, are you ready to escape?”

Junmyeon’s words rang loud and clear in my mind as a jolted awake. The dream had been an unfortunate mix of Haneul, Master Kim and Junmyeon’s voice. If I’m being completely honest, I don’t even know what was going on half the time. One moment I was at the testing room and the next I was in a room that wasn’t my room. I heard Haneul asking Zhang Yixing to report to his room and then suddenly it was Junmyeon only, he wasn’t calling Yixing, he was calling me. Next thing I knew, I was breathing heavily and practically bathing in my own sweat at 7 am.

A shower later I still couldn’t get Junmyeon’s voice to stop echoing in my mind.

The door to my room opened which could only mean one thing: the testing room. Without much thought, I walked out of my room and into the hallway with multiple replicas and made my way down the familiar path.

The walk was quiet save for the light sound of my shoes hitting the floor. It was calming in a sense. Distracting me from the messed up state my life had come to but something about it felt off. There was a feeling of slight dread gnawing at the back of my mind and I could feel my heartbeat quicken despite the moderate pace I had set. The answer to my body’s weird reactions came as a walked down the last flight of stairs and a piercing scream enveloped me from all sides. It sent shivers through my body and I could feel the goosebumps brushing against the fabric of my clothes. Another scream, this time coming from somewhere behind me. I wasn’t sure if I should turn around or not but before I could decide someone else started screaming in the hallway to my right.
Making a split-second decision, I dashed to my right to find the source. To my disappointment the owner seemed to be behind a closed door. I hesitantly tried to open it only to find it locked which, in all fairness, was expected. At my action, the person in the room practically fell on the door and cried out for me to help them.
“Don’t worry,” I said to the person on the other side, “I’ll come back to help you.” With that, I bounded off towards the source of the other screaming. It wasn’t until a few minutes later when I realized the source came from within the cafeteria. I braced myself for whatever stood behind the door and rushed in. No longer muffled, I heard a familiar voice.
“Let go of me!” Kyungsoo cried out, his voice sounding strained and close to becoming hoarse. “Get away!” Behind the desperation was a layer of complete and utter terror. I watched quietly for a few second as he struggled to break free from four large guards before something clicked and I realized I should be helping him.
“Hey!” I shouted across the room but they paid no mind to it. “Hey!” I called again, angrier this time, as I marched over to them. My hand grabbed one of their shoulders and despite the guard being much more muscular than me, managed to pull him back if only slightly. It was enough for at least two of them to pay attention to me and I felt the sudden urge to back up. I took a few hesitant steps backwards until they headed for me. Still facing them, I quickened my pace slightly until I had backed up against a wall and they still didn’t relent. Panic took over me as I felt a sudden rush of energy coursing through my body before it seemed to condense in the palm of my right hand. On instinct I raised my hands to block the guard as he tried to grab me. Everything after that seemed to happen all at once. A ball of blinding light appeared to burst at the impact of his hand against mine. For a few seconds, everything was white. When I regained my vision, I saw that where the two guards had stood nothing remained but gray imprints of their bodies on the floor. I felt so queasy that I didn’t notice the other two guards turning their attention from a nearly energy-drained Kyungsoo and charging for me. I fell to my knees, unsuspecting of the hunters who saw me as their prey. When I finally noticed them, it was because suddenly their movements became stiff, too stiff to go unnoticed, and behind them I saw Kyungsoo’s fiery gaze burning into them. For the first time I felt genuine fear lock its claws into my body as the pair slowly petrified, a layer of solid stone covering their bodies just a few feet from the ghosts of their colleagues’ remains.

My eyes focused on a heaving Kyungsoo as he fell to the floor, lying on his back and gulping for air. Despite my newly developed fear of the man who suddenly looked so helpless, I crawled over to him. I was careful to not disturb the imprinted remains nor the petrified ones as I dragged my shaking body slowly across the floor.

When I finally reached him, I let myself collapse next to him. Our breaths were uneven and, mostly in Kyungsoo’s case, shaking. Violent spasms rippled through his body several times after I laid down. My eyes, though I tried not to, kept drifting over to the final resting place of the two guards I had killed. There’s no doubt about it, I killed them. Just thinking about it makes me want to throw up.
Kyungsoo let out one final shaking breath before speaking.

“I don’t think… we can control it…” He let his words hang in the air, it almost felt like I could touch them. There was no need to explain what it was. We both seemed to understand that we were brought here for a reason and seeing what we had just done, it couldn’t be a good reason. Not for us, not for anyone.

At that moment I remembered the other person, the one who had been screaming near my testing room. I shot up, causing Kyungsoo to eye me suspiciously or.
“We need… we need to go get them. They-they’re trapped, we need to-to help them.” I sputtered out. Kyungsoo sat up slowly, the lack of energy apparent.
“What are you talking about? Who-who’s trapped?” He asked, confusion etched in his seemingly hollow features.

“I don’t know, Kyungsoo, we need to go.” I begged, grabbing his hand and pulling him up. He wobbled slightly and I let him lean on me for support. It ended up with me practically carrying him on my back as I dragged him to the testing rooms. His breath become more and more ragged as we closed in on the destination and I felt his hand grip my arm tighter with each step. “Stay here.” I said, letting him lean on the right hand wall of the hallway, only a few steps away from the door I had been to merely 10 minutes ago. I knocked on the door and placed my ear against it. I heard muffled talking. I couldn’t be sure how many people were in there.

“I don’t think anyone’s in there.” Kyungsoo said, his eyes were wide as saucers as he clinged to the wall for dear life. I shook my head.
“I can hear someone.”
“Are you sure it’s not just your imagination?” He asked. I narrowed my eyes at him, questioning his motive for doubting my statement. He raised his hands in surrender causing me to involuntarily place my hands in a defensive position. He stared at my hands and I could see sadness inching its way into his gaze. I couldn’t blame him, he had just saved my life and now I was preparing to fight him, albeit not consciously. He opened his mouth to speak but didn’t get a chance to as he suddenly collapsed. I managed to call his name before my own body fell in on itself and I was lying on the floor with him once more.

I'm back from the dead but updates will be irregular now, I can't keep up with a schedule now that I'm about to start finals so please be patient! Slightly longer chapter to make up.