So, HI! I'M SO SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER! That's probably because it's 6,730 words long ^^ hahahaha. I'm totally serious by the way. It's that long. it's 15 pages on Word. My whole story is currently sitting at 107 pages and around 51,140 words. Innit that some'in? I was also in a play on Saturday so last week i was running and learning lines. I did great on Friday! Saturday night i tripped and kinda fell on my face..... But they thought it was planned so it was alright ^^. On another completely unrelated note, I can now solve a Rubik's cube! woot! Luhan's prowess inspired me to learn and I can do it in 5 minutes without a cheat sheet. I'm so proud ^^! weeeee! lol anyway... Comment Review time!

@YYSdyno: Well, Hi there new person!! As for your question about who is the main? Not any specific one. They will all be featured throughout but certain events will only work with certain members. Like for instance there is no way I could put Gikwang into this chapter in a way that would work. However, Doojoon won't show up for the majority of these early chapters which is explained slightly in this chapter a bit if you look for it.
@Kwonnieskitty: Thanks ^^ If they put it online I'll try to find the site and tell you guys so you can watch us if you want ^^ If not I'll just search YouTube after the fact and embed the video. Less than two weeks away now *nervous laughter*
@zanne96: Thank you!!!!! Are you gonna clean up the confetti? *hands you a broom* If you clean it up you get a cookie.
 

Alright so enough of that nonsense.
 

This is your one and only warning. The bolded sections are intense. Probably too intense for those 15 and under. if you can't legally drive in the US you may want to skip those sections. It won't really affect your reading experience if you do choose to skip them. I didn't make the scenes too descriptive, but they still might upset you. Have fun reading it anyway! I had tons of fun writing it.

Added warning: If cutting bothers you please, please, PLEASE skip the bolded stuff. I don't want anyone feeling uncomfortable or spiraling out of control. :( Don't force yourself through it. Just skip and be happy :) I can send you a cookie~

The sharp smack of tennis shoes on a stone floor.

Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.

Darkness all around. Just enough light to see the floor.

Creeeeeeeeaaaaaaaak!

A door opening. The smell of brimstone. A chill settles in the air.

"I know you're in here."

Left. Run right. No, straight, then double back around.

"You know you can't keep running forever."

In front. Turn around and back track.

“Why do you even bother trying?”

Right. Stop. Listen. Breathing to the right. Turn Left and sprint. Please don’t trip.

“This game is getting old, Lae Lae.”

Ba-dump, ba-dump, ba-

Heart skips a beat.

Before you stood your master in his black leather jacket and black skinny jeans. Cobalt black eyes stared down at you out of a bleached-white face. A victorious smirk was scrawled across his lips in a terrifyingly foreboding manner.

Smack!

Red flashed behind your eyelids. The floor was cold in contrast to the flare of heat across your opposite cheek.

"I will admit, you made me give chase for far longer than the others. Most of them just curl in a ball and cry. Or beg for mercy, of course." He crouched down near your face, but you didn't move a muscle. "But you can't do that can you," he said snarkily while trailing a finger lightly over your stinging skin. You flinched away drawing a bout of cruel laughter from the thin lips of your master.

Still snickering to himself, he grabbed a handful of your hair and pulled up, hard. A feeling like needles jabbing into your skull brought you to your feet as quickly as possible. Standing even as tall as possible, you were still at least a foot and a half shorter than your tormentor. Giving another sharp tug on your hair, he leaned down in your face and said, "20 minutes you made me chase you. You get one hour of punishment for every minute you made me run around my own house playing hide and seek. In case your feeble mind can't comprehend that, you have 20 hours of pain and training ahead of you." He leaned toward your ear and let the hand clutching your hair trail through the locks down your back to pull you closer. "Maybe if you're good," he whispered lowly, "I'll let you have a break near daylight to feel sorry for yourself and sulk." You could feel his smirk on your skin as easily as you could hear it in his voice, and it made you shiver in terror. He chuckled darkly and pecked you on the lips before throwing you over his shoulder easily and walking upstairs.



"Hyung! Something's wrong with Laeri!"

"What do you mean? Calm down and tell me what happened. Start at the beginning."



You were dropped onto a hard floor in a room that was full of instruments of torture. From whips and bludgeons to blades and needles. You stared around in horror and fear. "Did I say you could just lay on the floor? Get up!" your master snarled viciously. You shakily got to your feet and looked nervously at the ground. "Go sit on the table." You glanced around and found the mentioned object before walking over and sitting on the edge with your hands folded in your lap. You were shivering so badly that you could hardly stay balanced on the table top.

"Good girl." A hand gently caressed your injured cheek, causing you to involuntarily flinch away. Your master gave a grim chuckle. "What's wrong? Does my baby not want to play?" In a span of about 2 seconds, you were slammed flat onto the table with your hands pinned down in a death grip above your head. "Too bad," the sadistic man said while harshly tying your wrists to a peg at the top of the table. "Because I'm feeling in a very playful mood."
 

"Well, I was going to get Laeri and bring her to breakfast, but when I went in to wake her up, I don't know. I think she might be sick. Her face was hot and sweaty. She was thrashing around some, too, which made her covers fall off the bed"

"Oh, is that all?"

"Yeah so I thought I sh-"

"YOU LEFT HER ALONE IN THAT STATE?! She could be having a seizure or something!"

"Ow! Hyung stop hitting me! I'm sorry, but I didn't know what to do!"

"Aish, go get Yoseob and meet me at her room."
 

Your master wandered over towards the wall of knives, and you felt your heart drop into your stomach. He picked up what looked like a razor blade and walked back to you. You struggled violently against the ropes binding your wrists as he approached. He only laughed sadistically at your helplessness. “You know, it’s always intrigued me how you little humans get rid of stress and emotional pain. Some eat their pain, almost literally, and swell up like balloons. Others decide to mutilate themselves with razor blades, letting their blood run freely out of their body until it ends their lives. Do you know how to do that?” You shook your head hard while tears ran down your face. Your breath was coming in terrified gasps now. “Well, lucky for you, I don’t either, so this will be a learning experience for both of us.” He dragged his knuckles up your arms before turning them so both your wrists faced up. “Now let’s see. This razor is pretty sharp, so I should only have to push a little to make your blood come out. But where’s the fun in that?” He grinned maliciously down at you and pressed the blade into your skin.

You screamed bloody murder in your mind.

“Hyung, hyung!”

“What, Dongwoon, what?”

“It’s Laeri! Something’s wrong.”

“WHAT? Go! Lead me to her!”

“If I wasn’t scared out of my mind, I’d tease you about how cheesy that sounded.”

“If you don’t start running, I’m gonna beat you.”

Your wrists stung as blood seeped down from the crisscrossing cuts that now littered your arms. You were still crying, but your tears had dried up. “Aww, the poor baby can’t cry anymore. Well, I can fix that,” your master claimed eagerly. He dug his fingernails into to slowly healing cuts and made them start bleeding freshly again. You couldn’t feel your hands anymore as it felt like someone was pressing a hot iron against each of your wrists. “Is this helping with your pain?” your tormentor asked. “Does your emotional pain feel released?” His grin was scary enough to make you whimper from more than pain. “I feel much better after cutting. Of course, I never cut alone. It’s much more fun with friends. Wouldn’t you agree?”

You sniffled and whimpered silently, trying not to start crying again. That would only encourage this type of torture to continue. “Let’s play with a new toy, shall we?” Your master nuzzled his face against your wrists and ran his tongue over the cuts, collecting up the warm red blood. You flinched and pulled against the ropes again, trying to get away or at least make him stop. The heat from his mouth made the cuts sting even more.

“You’re not playing very nicely, Lae Lae. Bad girls get punished. Just remember that.” You whimpered again in response, not that he could hear it. He walked over to a box in the corner and pulled out what looked like a long rod with two metal prongs at the end. “If your going to behave like a caged animal, I’ll just treat you like one,” your master said as he pressed a button, making sparks fly between the metal spikes.

“This way. Hyunseung is probably already waiting for us.”

“Does he know what’s wrong?”

“I don’t think so. He mentioned something about she might be having a seizure.”

“Wait. What?”

“Well, she was kind of feverish, and she was thrashing around in her bed.”

“Dongwoon, go faster.”

“Why? What’s wr-“

“GO!”

You watched the electricity jump between the spokes with severe apprehension. You knew that it was a cattle prod, but those didn’t seem to hurt cows all that much. However, cows have notoriously thick hides. You didn’t want that thing anywhere near you.

“Did you know that ranchers use cattle prods to condition a certain response in their herds?” Your master smiled malevolently. “Let’s see if it can apply to humans as well, shall we?” He pushed your shirt up to your ribs, exposing the sensitive skin of your stomach. Holding the device just an inch above the target, he scolded, “You don’t struggle. You do NOT try to get away from me. I’m your master. If I want to touch you, I will and you will submit.” He tapped the prod against your skin. You could feel the electricity jolt through your body. Every nerve screamed out in pain until the numbness set back in. There was now a large red welt on the right side of your stomach. “Should I do it again or test our progress?” he asked with a glare that pinned you to the table. Tears flooded your eyes, but you refused to move. He leaned over your face and up the tears that were trailing down your cheeks. You wanted to just turn away and scream, but you held down the feeling and stayed completely still. “You have learned well,” he praised with a smirk. “Good thing, too. I’m not very found of that particular instrument. It’s not very artistic. Believe it or not, I don’t care to mark up my girls at all. But this is how you learn. At least with the razor, I get to do what I want.”

You sniffled again and vaguely hoped that he would just let you go cry in a corner somewhere instead of continuing the next 17 hours like this.

“But there are plenty of ways to do damage without leaving a mark.”

“Hyunseung, why are you out here?”

“Some genius forgot to leave the door open.”

“Oh! Sorry hyung. Please, don’t hit me!”

“Someone just open the freaking door!”

“Hyunseung, I’m worried about Laeri. Do you know what’s going on with her?”

“Hang on.” “Okay. I don’t have a clue. She appears to be asleep. Dongwoon, pin down her arms please. Carefully! I just don’t want her to accidentally hit herself or one of us.”

“Hyung, she looks really scared. Why is she crying?”

“She might be having a night terror. That’s the most likely bet.”

“Hyunseung, I’m going to go call Anna, and see if she can come help us.”

You felt your lips quiver in fear as the tears started out fresh again.

“Oh, come on now. We’ve only just begun! You can’t be ready to quit yet!” You closed your eyes and tried to staunch the flow of liquid over your cheeks. “Now, what should I do with you? Hmm, your crying has been rather noisy lately. Even though you’re a mute, you aren’t very quiet. Let’s make you quieter.” You didn’t quite understand what he meant by that. You were half afraid that he was going to try to cut your tongue out, which made a whole new batch of tears threaten to come forth. You understood his intentions only after his hands sealed around your neck. You quickly tried to take a breath, to no avail. “Now, I forget. How long can humans go without air?”

Your chest contracted as your body tried to force air down to your lungs. Your throat burned from the strain and hurt from being grabbed so tightly. The fuzzy, low-oxygenated feeling was starting to set-in in your head. Then, black spots dotted your vision.

“Hello. Anna?”

“Hello? Who is this?”

“It’s Yoseob. We met a couple days ago.”

“Oh, Hi! So what’s up?”

“Well, we kind of have a problem with Laeri and-”

“What did you bastards do to her?! I warned you!”

“No! No, no, no. We didn’t do it! I promise! And if we did cause it, then we weren’t aware of it! I just don’t know what to do, so I called you for help.”

“Oh. Well, what’s the problem?”

“Hyunseung said it might be a night terror, but we aren’t sure.”

“It’s probably a night terror. She had those quite a bit when she was with us even. Do you need me to come over?”

“I think so, yes.”

“Ok. I’ll have Tristan call his warlock friend and ask him to blink me over.”

“Thank you, Anna.”

“I’m not doing it for you.”

“Lae Lae.”

“Wake Up~.”

You blinked your eyes open slowly. Your master grinned down at you. “Good. You’re up. You were out for almost 2 hours. I thought I might have accidentally killed another slave. But you’re a strong one aren’t you? I’ll bet you are. Now, I just have to test my theory.” He wandered away to another side of the room. When, he returned to your line of vision you stared in horror at the leather cat-of-nine-tails.

“I don’t like leaving marks on my girls, but there’s just something about the way it feels when the leather hits skin and bone. And the sound! That beautiful, melodious ‘crack’! And the blood like red satin over skin. But the smell is what really gets me. The mixed smell of iron and leather. Nothing could possibly compare!”

Anna popped into the foyer with a young warlock. “Thanks babe,” she said with dismissal before waving off the young warlock. The pouting brunette disappeared with a ‘pop’ and a puff of smoke. She looked around for a moment at her new surroundings. “Yoseob?” she called out uncertainly. He was at her side in a matter of seconds.

“Good. You’re here. Please, follow me.” He grabbed her hand and started leading her up the stairs and down the hallway.

“How is she?” she asked, her voice full of worry for her friend.

“I don’t know,” the blonde said with frustration. “We can’t get her to pull out of it or wake up or anything. Hyunseung had to ask Dongwoon to pin her arms down, so she wouldn’t hurt herself.”

Anna sighed. “She’s having a big one then. I can probably get her to pull out of it, but when she wakes up, it isn’t going to be pretty.”

“But she was doing so well yesterday! We were all impressed. She was smiling and laughing all day.”

Anna nodded and gave Yoseob a pitying smile. “She has up days and down days, Kind of like a bipolar person. But with her it isn’t moods, it’s her actual mental state. She has better days when all her defenses are up.” Anna ran her free hand through her hair nervously. “I hope she doesn’t regress too far this time. If she does, she might not even respond well to me. It’s happened before. She ended up curled in a ball in the corner for two solid days before she even let me near her.”

Yoseob looked at her in shock. “Two whole days? Is that safe?”

“Probably not. She didn’t eat. Or even try to communicate. It’s like she just shut down.”

Yoseob sighed. “I really hope she doesn’t do that. Is there any other ways she could act?”

Anna looked thoughtful for a moment. “Sometimes she gets fixed on something. She becomes over cuddly and childish. Basically, she’ll act like a little kid with separation anxiety on the first day of preschool. You can hope for that, but she doesn’t know all of you well enough to react that way in my opinion.”

“Well, we can still hope,” Yoseob said as he opened the door to Laeri’s room.

Your back stung with every movement as the shredded skin failed at protecting your nerves and muscles. You could do little more then sniffle and try not to breathe. “Aww, maybe my baby isn’t as strong as I thought. I guess I lost my bet.” For added effect, he clawed his fingers down your back. White-hot pain flashed behind your eyelids as your nervous system screamed as loudly as you wished you could. He did it again and again until the black void overtook your vision again.

“Hyunseung, this is Anna. Anna, this is Hyunseung,” Yoseob introduced. Hyunseung nodded at Anna from his place near the head of the bed where he was dabbing a cold cloth on Laeri’s face.

“How long has she been under do you think?”

“At least an hour that we’re aware of. I can’t tell you if she was going for a long time before Dongwoon found her,” Hyunseung said with a pained look. He wasn’t used to being this helpless in a situation.

“If she’s been out for longer than an hour, I should be able to wake her up,” Anna said confidently.

“You can?”

“I should hope so. I did share a house with her for almost half a year.”

“Please? I can’t do anything.”

“Ok. Dongwoon, let her go. Don’t worry, I’ve got her,” Anna instructed as she moved to sit next to Laeri. She waited until Dongwoon let go and backed over to the wall before she easily pulled the unconscious girl up into her lap. Rocking slightly, Anna pinned Laeri to her tightly and murmured softly in her ear. “Come on, Lae. Come back to me.”

You were laying on your side on a cold stone floor with your hands bound behind your back and a blindfold over your eyes. Everything hurt. With every movement, dried blood crackled across your skin. Warm, wet blood was still streaming down your back. You heard footsteps on a flight of stairs, and you forced yourself to remain still. “Lae Lae. I know you’re up. Your heart rate just went up.” He banged something against a metal bar, and you realized you were in a cage or cell of some sort. You edged your way back to the opposite side of the sound. When your back hit the bars, you curled your knees into your chest. Just then, a clang came from behind your back, sending you scrambling toward the other side. Moving with your hands tied proved difficult especially while blindfolded.

Another ‘bang’ sounded from behind you, and you started for the other side of the enclosure. This time you stopped about halfway, as far as you could tell, and curled into a ball with your forehead resting on your knees.

“Laeri?”

There was a creaking of a door opening.

“Come on, Lae. Wake up.”

You heard footsteps come to a stop in front of you.

“LAERI!”

You came to with a gasp, looking around terrified. Hyunseung, Dongwoon and Yoseob were in your room, but Anna was the one holding you. You turned into her and started shaking uncontrollably. She brushed a hand through your hair as you started sobbing roughly. “Shush, Lae. It’s ok. I’ve got you. It was just a bad dream.” You shook your head. You couldn’t stop shaking, but you managed to calm the sobbing down to a normal level.

“Is she gonna be okay?” You stiffened as your brain finally caught up with the fact that there were other people in the room. You tried to burrow further into Anna to hide.

No one's PoV

“She’s okay with me, which is a good sign, and she responded with a head shake.” Anna gently pulled a blanket over the shaking girl in her lap. She squeezed the girl closer until she heard a sigh and felt a dead weight. “Alright, I think she’s out now.”

“Is that really a good thing?” Dongwoon asked worriedly.

“It’s ok because she couldn’t stop shaking, so she needs a reset. That’s actually why your body will make you pass out. It gives the body a chance to shutdown and restart to bring everything back to how it’s supposed to be. She’ll stay out for maybe five to ten minutes, and then she’ll come to again.” Anna gave a slight sigh. “I know you guys have questions, so if you want to ask them, now is the time.”

“Does she do this all the time?” Hyunseung asked, ever the worrier.

“Pretty frequently. You’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it, though. I can’t always just dash right over.” She gave Yoseob a pointed stare. “I came this time because I’m probably the only one who knows how to handle her without traumatizing her.”

“Do you have any tips?” the blonde asked.

“When she wakes up, we’ll work on seeing who she trusts and who she doesn’t. Does she know what any of you are yet?” Anna asked looking between them curiously.

“I don’t think so. I know she doesn’t know what Hyunseung is. She’d probably have a panic attack. She might have suspicions about Gikwang, but as of right now, I don’t think she knows what he is. He just makes her uncomfortable anyway. She might be close with Junhyung. He doesn’t tend to hide things,” the maknae worked out almost to himself.

“I think she has at least a bit of an idea about him,” Hyunseung piped in. “She tried to hide it, but last night she tensed a bit when he came in the room. Then, she relaxed but ignored his existence for the rest of dinner. She doesn’t know really anything about Doojoon. He doesn’t do so well with broken souls. I think it hurts his heart to see someone utterly reject any form of kindness. We’ve been trying to push her towards Dongwoon in the event that she does find out what we are and panic, but I think that he comes across as a little overenthusiastic. I think she’s leaning more heavily towards Yoseob and myself. Yoseob isn’t as much of a problem as I am I’m afraid.”

“Don’t you dare tell me what any of you are. If you do, I’m going to turn into an over-protective monster, and I’ll refuse to let any of you near her. Then, I’ll kidnap her and take her home with me because I trust my master. No offense,” Anna appeased.

“Slight offense taken, but I understand that you care for her,” Yoseob allowed. “I do have a question though. What do you mean by becoming an “over-protective monster”?”

“Well, we’ve all had bad masters more often than good, and we tend to generalize our experiences to that entire species without meaning to. So if I find out what you are I might go super protective without reason. That wouldn’t be terribly helpful to Lae plus I’m no good with secrets. If you think my reactions are excessive, hers will be much worse, and I’d rather not give her any clues as to what you are,” Anna explained.

“Here’s a good question: what do we do when she wakes up?” Dongwoon said with an anxious glance at the blond curls peaking out from the blanket.

“First of all, she’s going to panic. And look like she thinks you might eat her.” Anna took on a thoughtful look and asked, “Have you ever tried to approach an injured animal? Like a baby deer with a hurt limb?” She was met with a blank stare and a couple nods. “Try that approach. She’ll startle very easily so don’t approach her too quickly and try not to look intimidating. Make yourself look smaller. Don’t be loud. When in doubt, don’t say anything. I don’t suggest asking her questions. She probably won’t respond anyway. Don’t touch her unless she okays it. Like when you want to pet a person’s dog, so you hold your hand out to let it sniff you first.” Again, one blank stare and two nods.

“So what if she won’t trust any of us near her?”

“Well, read her body language. If she’s being particularly protective of a specific part of her body, then she’s probably faced a memory involving some sort of pain there. I’ve seen her clutch her wrist to her chest before, an obvious sign of trauma. Just avoid that place specifically until she lets enough of her walls down to let you touch. Then, you can either show her you mean no harm or you can continue to not touch showing you have no interest. Either way will make her calm down. You’re just going to have to be persistent until she finally breaks down her defenses.” Anna gave a sad smile of pity to the three depending on her.

Just then, Laeri started to stir. “Careful now. She’ll be confused for a minute.”

Laeri woke up slowly blinking. She moved her head around in confusion until her face suddenly blanked. Then, all the terror from before swam over her features. She covered her face and started shaking again. “Shh, Lae it’s okay. No one here is gonna hurt you. And if they dare to even try I will kick their so fast they won’t know what hit them.” Laeri simply curled into herself further. Anna frowned deeply and sighed. “It was a bad one today,” she whispered toward the boys, quietly enough that Lae couldn’t hear. She absentmindedly a hand down her back. Laeri froze stock-still before scrambling back and away from Anna. She looked around the room with a scared rabbit expression and backed herself up to the headboard next to Anna. “That’s what I was talking about with the wrist thing,” Anna whispered again. “Now’s your chance to attempt an approach if you want.”

The three looked at each other before Hyunseung finally stepped forward and walked around to the side of the bed Laeri was sitting on. He perched himself carefully on the edge of the bed and just watched her for a bit. He looked uncertainly at Anna for help.

“Laeri, are you okay?” Anna asked her friend calmly. Laeri glanced at her then nodded stiffly.

“Laeri?” Hyunseung tried. “Honey, will you look at me?” She shyly glanced up, but her eyes darted away immediately. Frowning, he held out a hand. Laeri started and shrunk back closer to Anna. Hyunseung looked to Anna again for help.

“Lae. Come on. Try to be brave for me,” Anna pleaded. When Laeri just continued to stare at the hand like it was disembodied and holding a knife, she sighed. “Sometimes a slight push is necessary.” She grabbed Laeri’s arm and pulled it into her lap. Laeri fought violently against the hold and tried to pull away. Anna was unrelenting and turned the girl’s wrist over, gently trailing her fingers over the skin there. Laeri stiffened and started shaking again while giving the impression of whimpering. She tugged lightly to try to free her hand but gave up with a stern glance from Anna. Anna continued to trace her fingers along the veins on Laeri’s wrist until she stopped shaking and trying to escape. Then, she reached over for Laeri’s other arm. Laeri hesitated at first and held her arm away, but eventually handed over her other wrist to receive the same treatment on that side. “Sometimes just showing her that you won’t hurt her will push her into opening up.” She nodded at Hyunseung to try again while turning Laeri to face him.

He held out his hand again, and while Laeri didn’t scramble away in fear, she did start the whimpering motions and curled into herself more. Hyunseung frowned deeply at Anna. She sighed and said, “You’re going to have to be more forceful. She’ll probably struggle against you, but if you don’t give in, she will. Then, you show her that you mean no harm, and she’ll calm down.” Anna dropped her arms from around Laeri and snuck away just a bit. Hyunseung looked at her nervously, but after a sharp glare, he took a deep breath and forcibly dragged Laeri next to him. He locked his arms around her thrashing limbs and tucked her head under his chin. She gave a few more half-hearted struggles before she reduced herself back to shaking. Hyunseung gently a hand up and down her back until she started struggling again and pulling at her hair. She shook her head violently and curled away from the brunette who stared at her in confusion. “She did that when I tried to touch her back, too. It must be one of the triggers from her memory. Just do like I did with her wrists. Force her to relax.”

Hyunseung looked at Anna with despair, unconvinced with this idea. Anna sighed and pressed her own fingers against the panicked girl’s back, rubbing slightly rougher than she normally would. Laeri’s mouth started moving again with silent whimpers, and she shrunk back closer to the brunette again. Hyunseung looked uncertainly at Anna and very, very carefully grazed his fingertips along the shaking girl’s back. She tensed up and her face closed down, but she otherwise didn’t move. Her eyes were shut as tightly as possible, and her breaths were coming out rough and ragged. After a few more minutes, the muscles around her eyes had relaxed greatly, and her breathing was only slightly noticeable. Hyunseung managed to calm Laeri down steadily to the point where he was able to drag his entire hand down her back with little more than a flinch on her part. She stared blankly ahead and gave no other indication that she knew what was going on.

“Is the blank stare normal?” Dongwoon asked anxiously.

“For the most part. It usually means she’s trying to sort out her emotions. She’s trying to establish reality from memory,” Anna explained to the best of her ability.

“That makes sense. Is this what you warned me about?” Yoseob asked curiously.

“It’s similar. You handle the other ones about the same way, but she just goes into a blank stare while her emotions run rampant on her face. She won’t just wake up out of it either. She usually takes a while to slip back into reality, and generally, she becomes weepy. You can handle it the same, though. I would wait until you see her starting to shift back into reality and just hug her tight until she stops shaking. She will probably shut down for the rest of the day. When you learn her triggers, I would suggest avoiding them and make sure you all know the triggers that are learned. The less stress you put on her, the better.” Anna sighed. “Hyunseung?” The brunette looked up from where he had been playing with the momentarily calm girl’s hair with a ‘Hmm?’. “I understand that you’ve been taking very good care of my girl. Give her chamomile at night to help her sleep better. I don’t have anything else I can think of to advise you.”

He nodded understandingly. “Well, she seems calm right now.” Said girl nuzzled slightly closer to the brunette, looking tired. He looked at her in surprise at the suddenly affectionate gesture. “Should we try to see if she’ll open up to one of them?” He gestured with a tilt of his head toward the other two.

“I would say so. The more people you can get her calm around, the better.” Anna stared down the two who were still cowering by the wall. “Who’s going to volunteer?” Dongwoon looked at Yoseob and something flashed between them. They both raised a hand to shoulder level.

“Kai bai bo!” they said in unison. Yoseob threw out scissors while Dongwoon went with paper.

“Woonie volunteers,” declared the victor.

“That was a very mature decision, you two,” Anna deadpanned. They smiled sheepishly at her. Dongwoon glanced nervously at Laeri before moving cautiously around the bed. He stopped at the corner and looked at Anna, obviously refusing to budge without further coaching. “Just remember: approach calmly and quietly and try to look unintimidating,” She said with an eye roll at his childishness.

With Laeri’s back to him, he slowly moved around to where she would be able to see him. He froze as pools of blue caught him. Staying still for a few seconds, Dongwoon did not even dare to move until he was sure Laeri wasn’t going to panic immediately. He glanced at Anna who gave him an encouraging half-smile. He moved father away from the easily startled girl and towards the headboard where Anna was. He slowly sat down on the bed cross-legged with his hands tucked under his legs. “Hands open and where she can see them. If you hide you hands, it looks suspicious,” Anna instructed. The maknae immediately had his hands open in his lap. Laeri looked up at Hyunseung and clutched at his shirt slightly as if he was going to push her towards the other.

He smiled softly down at her and wrapped his arms slightly tighter around her to reassure her that she wasn’t going to be forced anywhere else. With a playful glance at Dongwoon, he leaned down and whispered loudly to the girl, “You know, you don’t have to be afraid of him. He’s the maknae, and I’m the all-powerful ruler of this castle. He’s severely outranked. I think you might even outrank him.” Dongwoon gave an indignant pout, but Laeri slowly retracted her hands from Hyunseung’s shirt.

“I think we’re passed the most difficult point, now. She should be able to relate you guys more to her current experiences,” Anna said positively.

Dongwoon looked at her with hope. “Really? That’s a relief.”

“Dongwoon,” Hyunseung said sternly. “Remember not to get too overexcited. You might scare her again.”

Laeri pulled her head up and pulled slightly away from her current protector. Hyunseung immediately loosened his grip but didn’t fully let go, waiting to see what the girl was up to. She glanced around at everyone in the room, and it was like whatever spark of courage she had built up was just sapped out of her. She didn’t move from her current position even when Hyunseung attempted to coax her to come back closer. Anna smacked Dongwoon on the arm, receiving a confused look. Anna gestured for him to attempt to get closer to Laeri. He glanced between her, Hyunseung, and Anna a few times until he finally took a deep breath and shuffled forward just a bit. When there was no negative response, he moved forward a bit more. After repeating this process several more times, Dongwoon had ended up sitting close to the statuesque girl and Hyunseung.

Dongwoon fidgeted for a few minutes while Laeri watched him closely. He lifted one hand out of his lap before quickly dropping it again. Continuing this failing motion a couple times, Anna eventually had to smack his arm again to get him to stop chickening out. With this encouragement, and the threat of another slap (this time aimed at his head), Dongwoon cautiously reached out and brushed a hand through Laeri’s hair. She turned slightly more into Hyunseung, but didn’t make any other attempts at escape. Dongwoon went to repeat the action but stopped with his hand hovering in the air to look at his hyung. Hyunseung nodded at him and nudged Laeri to turn back towards the maknae. She sat up again and allowed herself to be guided toward Dongwoon. Surprisingly, when Dongwoon spread his arms in an open gesture, Laeri moved towards him and allowed his arms to gently settle around her. While Laeri looked uncharacteristically calm, Dongwoon was stiff as a board. Anna set a hand on his shoulder. “You realize that she’s making you look bad right? Loosen up a bit. I think she’s going easy on you ‘cause she feels bad for you.”

Dongwoon gave her a glare for her taunting, but he did start relaxing. His hand hesitated over her back. An encouraging nod from Hyunseung prompted him to gently trail his fingers down her back. She tensed for a moment but, after a deep breath, settled. Her hesitating, however, led to more hesitating on Dongwoon’s part. Laeri nuzzled into Dongwoon’s shoulder as permission, eliciting a gasp from the shocked boy. He restarted the motions he had stopped earlier while Laeri stayed as calm as she could, leaning into his body slightly. Hyunseung and Anna talked quietly to each other while Yoseob moved over towards their side of the bed. He was about to sit down next to Hyunseung, in the opposite corner from Laeri, but Anna shooed him toward the other side of the bed. The blonde glanced unsurely at the two who were basically cuddling and bit his lip. When Hyunseung also shooed him, he decided to be a good boy and follow instruction.

As he saw Yoseob approach, Dongwoon nudged Laeri who then twisted around slightly to watch the blonde’s movements. Under the scrutiny, Yoseob paused, but then continued moving until he was sitting in front of Dongwoon with Laeri’s back to him. She wriggled around in the maknae’s hold until she could see the blonde clearly and blinked sleepily. His lips quirked up in a half-smile and he said, “Someone’s looking a little sleepy, now.” He slowly brought his hand up and swept her hair away from her face, so he could see her bright blue eyes in all their shimmering glory. She tugged lightly at the maknae’s sleeve to loosen his grip around her and immediately crawled into the blonde’s lap, snuggling into him as her eyes drifted shut. He froze for a second in pure shock but quickly regained his thought processes and wrapped his arms around the already sleeping girl in his lap. “What do I do now?” he asked nervously, evidently very confused.

“Well, now you’re stuck with her until she wakes up,” Anna said with a snort. “And she’s going to sleep for the rest of the day, probably. She tends to do that after an attack. Don’t even try to get her to let go. If she feels you leave her, she’ll wake up, and it won’t be good if she wakes up all alone,” she finished sternly. Yoseob’s eyes were wide with panic which prompted a round of snickers from those around the room.

“Don’t worry, hyung! You’ll be fine. We’ll bring you something to eat. On the bright side, you can catch up on your sleep now,” Dongwoon said encouragingly with a smile.

Hyunseung also attempted to help by adding, “It won’t kill you to bond a little with her. You heard Anna. She’ll probably sleep through till tomorrow. Just pretend to be a teddy bear until she wakes up.”

“Oh yeah. She’s gonna be embarrassed when she wakes up. If you haven’t noticed, she doesn’t like touching, so when she wakes up, she’ll immediately turn bright red and get as far away from you as possible. It doesn’t matter if you’re awake or not. She won’t leave the room until you wake up though. She usually just hides in a corner, so if you can’t find her, look in corners and small places where she could hide under something,” Anna explained cheerfully. “Can we go eat something now? I was called away before I had a chance to eat breakfast.” Dongwoon’s stomach growled, as if on cue. “And I see I’m not alone. So, Food?” Anna asked playfully.

“Yes, we can go eat, and you’re welcomed to stay the entire day if you want to keep an eye on Laeri. You could even spend the night here if she wakes up before it gets too late. Would you be okay with sharing a bed with her?” Hyunseung asked.

“Of course! We only did exactly that for like 6 months. And thanks for the hospitality!”

“Alright. Yoseob, I’ll send Dongwoon back with something for you okay?” Giving an affirmative nod to the eldest, Yoseob backed himself against the headboard and scooted down to get comfortable without the girl in his arms even stirring a little bit. “If she’s magically awake at that time, just tell Dongwoon, and I’ll make him bring back something for her, too.” The blonde nodded again and closed his eyes, trying to relax enough to nap.

Hyunseung reached over and brushed Laeri’s hair out of her face, smiling softly, before ushering the other two out of the room and closing the door quietly. As they began walking back Anna suddenly started. “I almost forgot something,” she said absent-mindedly. “Don’t ever call her Lae Lae. It won’t end well.”

So?

Was it all you wanted and then some?

Did I scare you?

Does it scare you that I like to write things like this?

I like to read things like this too. But no scary movies. I draw the line there.

Anyway

I updated yay! And little miss Roku!-I'm-a-cat-Nyan! out there should be happy too. If she's out there. I'm not gonna tell her i updated because it's a good test to see if she did go find it on here. I need to ask her what she wants her pen name to be... That way i can refer to her by a name.

Are you guys glad that Anna returned? The "blinking" term is a reference to Charmed. If you've seen the show you know exactly what blinking is and you can probably guess who has made an appearance in the story. But I mean it's really hard for them not to what with all their promotions. I mean they just fit into this story so easily. I can't resist.

So for the sign language today I'm just gonna give you the alphabet. Are you guys actually learning these? maybe i should quiz you? i just might start doing that. it sounds fun.

So just follow along with the shapes as well as you can. If you have trouble remembering some, make little sayings or something. For X you make a hook like a pirate and pirates know that 'x' marks the spot. There are only this many words *makes the sign for q* that have a 'q' in them. T, M, and N are similar. the number of fingers before your thumb can represent how many times each letter touches the ground. a,e, and s are similar but i dont have a trick for them. 'a' kinda looks like an apple if you turn it.

Onto the french!!!! BTW in french we are reading a severely abridged version of Le Fantome de L'Opera and it's awesome but christine is always running away and raoul is always crying which is just annoying. and Pauvre Erik! i actually am sympathizing with him at the point we're at. but you guys just want to learn a sentence so   Je veux aller chez moi. (jeu veu ah-lay shay mwah) I want to go home. I tried to be more useful french today

Completely unrelated note: If you listen to TVXQ's Catch Me with headphones does it freak you out too? the computerized super low voice scares the heck out of me if i'm listening with headphones and i'm not expecting it.

well i'm done for now.

bye!

Catch me if you wanna.