Darkness...

That seems to be the only thing I live by. That's all.

How did it become like this?

I wake up to the stinging pain in my spine and sit up slowly. I brush my hair out of my face and slowly try to rise to my feet. "Ah!" The pain spreads throughout my body and I drop to my knees. I look around the room at the others who are still asleep.

It's always like this. This is our life, if it can even be considered that. 

Last night is a daze in my memories, like most nights. The pain tells the story of what that man did to me.

 My master sold me for the night to the merchant who lives only a couple houses away.

I never get the choice to say whether or not I want to go so I never object.

We are all merely puppets at the hand of our master. He controls us  and treats us like we have no mind of our own. We are just merchandise that make him money to spend on alcohol and women.

"Jeongmin. Are you awake yet?" I softly call out to the boy on the opposite side of the room. My throat hurts so badly, like I had swallowed salt water. The boy shifts slightly and sits up.

"I am now. What do you need?" Jeongmin replies groggily as he rubs the sleep out of his eyes. I look down at the floor and shake my head.

"Nothing really..."

Jeongmin sighs and and slowly rises to his feet with a contorted face as the pain hit him too. I giggle slightly at his expression and and wait for him to come over to me.

"Yah! Don't laugh at me. Your face looks twice as funny!" Jeongmin whines and pouts at me, trying to make the atmosphere a little lighter. When Jeongmin reaches me I pull him down and wrap him in a hug. He hugs me back tightly and pats me on the back.

"Hyung, Do you think we'll always live like this?" I ask him in a whisper. Jeongmin pulls me out of the hug to look at my face with a questioning look.

"Well, you never know Kwangmin-ah. Maybe someday someone will find out what's going on and they could free us, or perhaps we could find the guts to run away and escape, you know?" He says as he stands back up and pulls me up along with him. My eyes grow wide as I think solely on the second scenario Jeongmin mentioned.

Run away...escape..

It's not like I haven't thought of this before. Running away from this place, but...where would I run away to? I only know what my master and the other boys have told me. I don't know that much about the outside world.

"Jeongmin, If I ever...ran away, would you come with me?"

Jeongmin looks back at me, almost like he was scared I actually considered it. He lays a hand on my shoulder and sighs. His dark eyes stare into mine with a soft glimmer.

"Kwangmin, I don't know if that would be a safe option. If master ever went looking for us and caught us...we'd be dead." Jeongmin explains to me, but smiles slightly. "But if you do decide to runaway, I would surely follow."

We heard a grumble come from one of the boys near us and we became quiet.

"What are you talking about running away?" The boy asks us as he sits up. "Isn't that dangerous. You'll be killed."

Jeongmin and I look at one another. "You can't tell anyone. Besides we haven't said we'd surely run away." Jeongmin says to the boy.

The boy narrows his eyes at us. " I wouldn't tell anyone. I want to escape as much as you two do." He says as he scoots over to where we are standing. "My name is Minwoo. He tells us. "I want to be a part of your escape plan if you do decide to run."

My eyes grow wide as he says this. "Look we haven't even said we are going to. We were just discussing it." I try to explain to the boy, but he doesn't seem to be listening.

"We have to! I can't stand to stay here like this for the rest of my life, can you? I can't live like this. Boys our age aren't supposed to live like us!" He begins to argue as his soft eyes begin to water. Jeongmin sighs thoughtfully and looks around at the other sleeping boys to see if anyone might have heard our discussion. He then looks over at me for a silent confirmation. I slowly nod and he looks back at Minwoo on the floor.

"Look, If we ever do decide to run for it. We'll make sure to tell you. Then, we can all leave this life together." he says as he helps Minwoo off the floor. Minwoo smiles and hugs Jeongmin and I.

"Thank you, hyungs. Please don't make us stay any longer than we have to." Minwoo says as he skips off his spot on the floor where he was just sleeping. Jeongmin pulls me over to a corner of the room where Minwoo wouldn't hear us.

"We have to leave." Jeongmin says as he holds tightly to my arm. My breath seemed to be caught in my throat as he said this. I didn't think we would have to leave so soon.

"R-Right now?" I ask him with a shocked expression. I could feel my body begin to shiver with the fear of actually attempting to escape this place...and master.

"Yes. Now is the perfect time while everyone is asleep. No one would see anything." Jeongmin tries to convince me while staring at me expectantly with wide eyes. I think about it for a few minutes when Jeongmin's stare gets to me.

"Okay... I guess you're right, we should leave as soon as possible.  I'll go get Minwoo so we can plan." I say as I head over to the small boy laying on the dirty floor crowded with the other boys. I prod the boy to open his eyes and silently motion him to come to where Jeongmin and I were just standing. He gets to his feet once again and follows me over to the corner. He grins slightly, looking a little excited.

"So have you guys decided you're going to run?" He asks us plainly like he had been expecting us to give in to the plan. Jeongmin and I nod simultaneously and a more broad grin sneaks onto the smaller boy's lips. "Okay! Great, now all we have to do is make a plan of how to get out and without getting caught." He says like he's the head of this operation. I look over at Jeongmin and then back at Minwoo, wondering if either of them had anything in mind.

"Uh, well does anyone have any suggestions?" Jeongmin asks as he looks around once more to check and see if there are any eavesdroppers. Minwoo looks deep in thought for a few moments. He must have thought about escaping countless times. I'm sure all of us here have, but we never actually thought of any good plans that we could carry out. Minwoo's head snaps up all of a sudden, as if he's got an idea. Jeongmin and I look at him expectantly with wide eyes.

" There are locks on this door right now right? I wonder if anyone has every tried picking them?" Minwoo said looking curious about this. He looks around the entire room to try and find something to pick the lock with. I, along with Jeongmin, help out also as we crawl around the room.

"Guys, I think I might have found something." Jeongmin calls from a corner of the room across from me. Minwoo and I dash over to him, careful not to wake the other boys. Jeongmin holds out his hand and reveals a small rusty nail. Minwoo takes it from his hand and runs over to the door.

"Be careful! I whisper behind him. He merely nods and squeezes his arm through the small opening beside the door. He carefully inserts the nail into the lock and jostles it around until we hear a marvelous sound.

Click!

"Ommo...It actually worked...What should we do now? Just make a run for it? Should we carefully sneak out?" I ask worriedly, but excitedly, speeding up my speech with every word. Minwoo looks behind us to see if anyone is awake and carefully pushes open the door. The morning sunlight blinds us momentarily as the world seems to open up to us for the first time. We stand there, not making any movements, not running, or sneaking.

"I'm scared..." I said weakly as I stare out at the open street. "What if we die out there?" Minwoo looks up at me seriously.

"Hyung, it's better to die out there free then to live a life like this one."He says as he turns to look back at the street. "I'm leaving first." Minwoo says as he steps out and looks around the deserted early morning streets. He motions for us to follow him and we cautiously step out behind him. "Let's go this way" he says confidently as he points in a certain direction. Jeongmin and I wordlessly follow behind the younger boy.

Minwoo seems to be the more courageous one out of us. I trust him to lead us wherever we go. I just hope he makes the right decisions, seeing he's younger. I wonder where this will take us? A new life? Our certain death? I can only hope it's the first option.

We just keep walking, like we are part of this community. Like we belong here. All of a sudden a loud, angry yell was heard some ways behind us.  

" HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?! WHERE ARE THEY?!" Then some crashes and innocent screams from the boys left behind in the shelter. We all turn around to see what the commotion was. Truthfully I think we all know what happened.

Master's coming for us...

We all start sprinting then, knowing that if we don't hurry and get away, master will make sure our punishment is worse than death.

"Hurry! Come on!" Minwoo yells at us as he starts running at a faster pace. Jeongmin and I do our best to try and keep up. We ran as far as we could, as fast as we could.

Then the tears started flowing from my eyes, the tears that I haven't felt for many , many years. I am truly  scared right now, as I know Jeongmin and Minwoo must be. The thing we feared would happen if we tried to escape must be coming true.

We turn a corner and take in the air we need as we rest for a few moments. Then, our running continues on and on.

The gate...

The gate is in view as we run towards it with all of our energy. The way out of this place, out of this life. We are almost there.

So close!

A shadow-like figure jumps from a spot from behind a tree, like it was waiting on us. It blocks our path of the gate and hastily makes it way towards us. My fear grows stronger as I think of who this might be. The figure stops in front of us and we all stop in our tracks, complete fear overtaking us. I can't see the face of the man, the shade of the tree towering above us hides the features of the stranger.

"Excuse me. Where are you going?"

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A/N: Okay, so here is the second chapter finally! I had it saved in my computer forever but I kept forgetting to post it.

If there are any mistakes or if you don't understand anything please don't hesitate to tell me. I appreciate corrections or questions.

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