Chapter Thirty Three

Question: What do you do when your friends are fighting on the ceiling? First off, that shouldn’t even be possible; gravity says so (even though Ileana has learned that EXO is always full of exceptions).  Second off, how does one get on said ceiling to even begin stopping such actions? Different scenarios ran through Ileana’s head, but none seem to end well. She was out of ideas once more.

“Could you guys, I don’t know, stop fighting!” She shouted to the heavens where Lay and Sehun were battling out. Her shouts were heard to deaf ears considering they didn’t even flinch. She let out a frustrated sigh and walked further into the room, eyes on the ceiling.

Suddenly, her feet were slipping. She looked down and felt something weighing down on her side with increasing pressure. Then, she tumbled down and hit the wall to her left. Rolling over and looking straight ahead, she saw that Lay and Sehun had moved from the ceiling to the wall opposite of her…except they were standing straight and still fighting. Cautiously, she placed her feet on the wall and stood up. The room’s gravity had changed 90 degrees.

Before she could process how the heck gravity could change directions, the direction of gravity changed again and unfortunately, she was not prepared.

“Oww…” She moaned when her back landed hard on a different wall. She quickly sat up, but she felt herself slipping again. She slid down across the floor and that’s when she realized something worrisome with the wall she was approaching. There was an open window…to nothing.

She let out a small yelp as she tried to reposition herself in order not to be thrown out the window and fall to god knows where.  She wasn’t quite quick enough though to completely avoid the window, but she did manage to grip the edge of it and hang on for dear life.

“Change, change, change, change already!” She cried desperately, trying to pull herself back into the room. Her wish was heard when she felt the weight pulling her legs down decrease. She clawed her way up and out of the window and fell to the floor. Note, watch out for the windows.

She took in the room some more and tried to figure out what the heck she was supposed to do. That’s when something out of place caught her eye. It was a bulb-like object standing up from the other side of the current floor. The strange thing was that it was the only thing in the room that was circular, everything else was cubic. So, she decided she should take a closer look.

Sadly, the room had other plans. Just when she was about to crawl over to the bulb, the gravity changed again. She found herself able to adjust to the change and stand up on the new floor. She quickly walked over to where the bulb was but before she could touch it, you guessed it,the gravity changed once more.

She waited for gravity to change two more times before rushing over and gripping the bulb. When she did, it started to glow and then, Sehun and Lay fell from the ceiling and landed on her ground. She figured they might be half feline considering they swiftly landed on their feet.

So, half of her troubles had disappeared, but she realized she gained another slew of them when they turned towards her with a familiar look in their eyes.

“You have got to be kidding me…” She mumbled as they raced toward her.  She let go of the bulb and stepped back. It was still glowing and Sehun and Lay were still on the same plane as her.

She wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. When she saw a fist come her way, she decided it wasn’t the greatest. But with the help of the ever changing gravity, she fell and dodged the hit.  She was on her back when a foot appeared in her vision and was prepared to stomp down on her face. Squeaking, she rolled until she reached the other side of the room…and kept on rolling onto the next wall when the gravity changed again.  She quickly stood up and cautiously observed Lay and Sehun, who looked like they were ready to prance at any moment.

Sehun finally decided to take a shot at her but she moved out of the way in time. Little did Sehun know that Ileana was standing in front of one of the smaller windows. With his momentum, he wasn’t able to stop and he hit the window hard, his upper torso flew out and before he could catch himself, he was completely out of the room.  

Gasping, she ran to the window and stared out into the white abyss. “Sehun!” She yelled, trying to find traces of him, but there was none. She quickly jumped away from the window just as Lay was about to push her through. Something caught her attention from the corner of her eye and it was the elevator. Its doors had opened a little. She slowly turned from the elevator to Lay and realized what she had to do.

“No hard feelings, okay Lay?” She told him. He just tilted his head at her before smirking and launching himself at her.  At that point, gravity changed again. She managed to push Lay’s direction to an open window in the middle of the gravity change. Looking over, she saw that he was still gripping the ends of the window just as she had done earlier. Crawling over, she moved her shaking hands towards his.

“I’m sorry, Lay. I’m sorry.” She whispered as she pried his hands away from the ledge. He shot her a look of pure hatred before he fell and vanished from sight mid fall. With one deep breath, she leaned back from the window and saw the elevator with its doors wide open. She quickly stood up and ran to it. She jumped into the elevator from the side and immediately fell to the floor of the elevator.

She didn’t move to get up. She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands as the past tests ran through her mind. She was sore, tired and bruised, not to mention wet. Her emotions were taking a small toll as well, electrocuting Kai and sending both Sehun and Lay out of a window weren’t exactly what she had in mind for tests.

The elevator had moved upward as it did many times before and when it arrived to the sixth floor, the doors opened.

Taking a deep breath in, she stood up and faced the room. She slowly walked out of the elevator and the doors shut behind her.

The first thing that caught her eye was a large metal box frame with a thick plastic walls in the middle of the room. She could tell someone was inside of it, but couldn’t make out who. So, she cautiously walked over to the plastic box. Looking around it, she bend down and picked up the bottom of plastic. She pulled it up and entered the room.

Once inside, she was met with a blanked face Kai.

“You know Kai, we gotta stop meeting like this.” She commented dryly. Kai tilted his head at her and surprisingly did not try and attack her. But that worried her. If Kai wasn’t the threat, then what was?

Looking to the ground, she saw there was glittery dirt covering the floor. It didn’t stay there long though. The dirt actually started to move. She stared down at it in wonder as the dirt slowly started to form into a moving circle. The dirt continued to gather and it formed into a small tunnel.

Now she was getting real worried. The tunnel continued to increase in size and it was starting to create a strong wind. She gripped onto the thick plastic wall next to her as the wind starting to tug at her. Kai wasn’t so fortunate. He was actually stationed right in the middle of the soon becoming disastrous tornado.

She was now clinging onto plastic for dear life as the winds turned more violent. Kai, however, was standing casually in the middle of the dirt cyclone. She groaned when she realized what the test was. She had to get him out. She had to get Kai out of the stupid tornado. How she would go about doing this? Like she knew.

And she felt even more helpless when the winds blew so strong that her feet were having trouble staying on the ground. It wasn’t long before her feet were actually off the ground and were being in by the tornado.

She was shouting profanities here and there as her grip started to slip. She looked over her shoulder and saw that Kai was still perfectly fine and stationary in the middle of the tornado. She scowled a little but her face went blank when she realized she was getting closer to the tornado.

Looking up, she saw that the plastic wall was stretching and before she knew it, it ripped off the metal framing it was attached to. Her body flung itself right into the tornado. She screamed as she was tossed around and around.

She stopped screamed when something tightly grabbed onto her and pulled. Suddenly, she was no longer spinning and was sitting on the ground. Her entire body was shaking as she looked up and saw a curious Kai looking down at her. She gaped open and close, unsure of what to do.

“T-Thanks.” She murmured. Kai just nodded and didn’t give any other form of a reply. She looked to her hand and saw that she was still gripping onto a big portion of the thick plastic wall. She would have estimated that the portion was probably about a quarter of the entire plastic that made up the box. She observed the moving dirt surrounding them and was stumped.

She started playing with the plastic absentmindedly, willing ideas to come to her. But, there was no need because she apparently absentmindedly made a big makeshift parachute out of the plastic and the wind was starting to gather in it.

Realizing her mistake, she tried to tug it back. She was repeatedly cursing under her breath and then it hit her. Their way out, this was it. She tightly grasped onto either end of her parachute. 

“Kai!” She yelled, “Grab on!” After a few moments, she looked over her shoulder as she struggled with the plastic, “NOW!” Kai then slowly made his way over and tightly wrapped his arms around her waist. And that’s when she let the wind take the plastic parachute with her attached to it.

They soared into the air within seconds, going up and around. Her fear of heights quickly made her a panicking mess. Sure, she could handle people trying to kill her, nearly drowning and falling out of windows. But raise her in the air a little, and she was pathetic at best.

“KAI, DO SOMETHING!” She shouted desperately, her stomach feeling sick and tears stinging her eyes. One of the arms tightly gripping her loosened and they scaled up her arm. Then, they pulled hard on one of her arms holding onto the plastic parachute.

The pull was so strong and harsh, it swerved them out of the tornado and they were heading straight for a wall.

“KAIII!” She shrieked again. Luckily, Kai maneuvered the parachute again and they just grazed the wall. They fell slowly in small circles and they finally hit the floor. She immediately let go of the parachute and flattened herself on the ground. She took deep breathes in and out, trying to still her pounding heart and ease her anxiety.

She heard a familiar beeping sound and looked over to the elevator whose doors were slowly closing. She slowly forced herself to stand and made her way over with quivering legs. She looked over and saw Kai just standing afar and watching her. He lifted up his hand and waved. She finally got the message that she couldn’t take anyone with her during these tests. She was to always continue alone.

She finally entered the elevator before the doors closed completely. She slid down against the back of the elevator and plopped down onto the ground. She was slowly calming down. That test was probably the most difficult for her. She was just so thankful Kai was semi-conscious during the entire test. He wasn’t himself but at least he was actually able to listen and help her out. Without him…she didn’t even want to think about what would have happened.

The light for the 7^th button lite up and the elevator moved up accordingly. She stared at the doors before her. She only had 4 more tests. Just 4 more and then…she had to face the real challenge.

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Hi

How are you? I'm all right. I work all weekend, so I could be better. But enough about that! STORY TALKING TIME

How did you guys like this update? Was it all right? This chapter featured teaser #22 with Lay and Sehun and teaser #5 with Kai. And lemme tell you, I had to think a long time about Kai's concept with this teaser. I mean all I had to work with was plastic and dirt. Oh well, I think the tornado thingy works. 

Also, I read some comments saying "Holy smokes, these tests are ridiculouuuusss." (Not actually in these exact words but yeah.) To which I'm like: YES! And also...No... Because yes, I want the tests to be difficult but I want them to be somewhat realistically do-able. I mean, Ileana is not suppose to be a ninja. Sure, she gots some more brains than the average person( myself included in there). But still, I hope these tests seem difficult but not impossible. I mean everyone can run from an attacker...and a decent amount know how to swim...right? Kay, enough about that. Sorry Moving on.

Also, I thought I'll throw damsel Ileana in there too. She was having it too easy with the tests thus far and I wanted her to have a blank moment, hence her fear of heights coming out to play. (I'm kind of terrified of heights myself...guilty of self projection there.) OH WELL. 

To conclude: Kai is GOOD LOOKING

Okay, now that's out of the way. I have something serious to talk about. 

Should I....request a poster for this story? I read that some review shops actually count posters into their overall ratings (No, I don't plan to ask a review shop to review this story). But that got me thinking, is a poster really important? Do you guys think I should do it? I dunno. I'm open really. So, help me decide and do this polllll.

Thanks! And if you said yes, feel free to recommend shops :) 

Kay, that done. 

THANK YOU TO ALL MY SUBSCRIBERS AND COMMENTERS! You are far too kind. Honestly. You guys get me all hot and bothered and well, flustered. I'm just really happy so many of you are liking it. I mean, I didn't think I'd get more than 50 sub and well, I'm just overwhelmed. Sobsss, so happy I could dance like Baekhyun.


Kay, cool. 

Giveaway of the day: *throws stuffed unicorns* Cause they're cute and Lay's cute when he gets one.

Kay, I'm out. I work tomorrow morning. I need sleep. BUH BYE <3