It was dark and damp. Kai could smell rusting metal when he awoke. He got up on all fours and shook his head.

Where am I…?

He breathed in a large amount of air by accident and started coughing. He managed to sit upright and prop himself up on the metal wall. He looked around. There was enough light streaming down from 12 holes on the ceiling. The room was square. Just a square. No signs of any doors or windows. The holes above were too small for him to squeeze through. Even if they were, he would have no way of reaching them. There was nothing in the room except for him…

“There’s no way out.” A voice came from the shadows on the other side of the room. Kai released a shout. He immediately stood up and raised both his hands, balled up into fists, in front of him.

“Wh-who’s there…?” His voice cracked a little. He cursed himself in his head for sounding so pathetic.

“Don’t worry. If I meant you any harm, I would have done it when you were unconscious.” The voice still came from the same direction.

Kai was doubtful, but the voice had a point. He lowered his hands and squinted, trying to see who was behind the shadows.

“Where are my friends? Did you bring me here?” Kai said, moving sideways into a shadowed part of the room.

“No, I didn’t. I’ve lost my friends, too.”

Kai didn’t say anything. He couldn’t think straight.

“Look.”

Kai raised his head and waited for the voice to finish talking.

“We’re both in this predicament and we both have no way of escaping. So I think it’s best if we both at least tried to help each other.”

Kai thought for a moment, and once again, agreed that the voice was right. There was no possible ways of escape. The man wouldn’t have stayed here if he had found a way out.

“I agree. But… show yourself first!”

Kai heard a shuffling noise and then footsteps. The figure stepped into the light and Kai could see him clearly.

Dark hair. Slanted, sharp eyes. He was lean and muscly. Kai could tell by the ripples in the shirt the boy wore. The way he stared at Kai could kill. Kai gulped a little and stepped forward himself, allowing the other boy to see him.

“Now what?” the boy said.

“Uhh.. I don’t… I don’t know…” Kai hated not knowing what to do. He was always confident. He always knew what to do. But that night changed him.

He had been inside his house when suddenly he wasn’t anymore. He had appeared in front of his friend Chanyeol and saw that he was engulfed in flames. Shocked, he reached out to try and help him but he disappeared again and reappeared in front of D.O. They were in the park and the ground around his friend looked like an earthquake had just happened. D.O. looked as frightened as he was, as frightened as Chanyeol was. Then, like before, he disappeared and appeared in front of Sehun. He was on the roof of a house, Sehun’s probably, and the wind was so strong and violent he knew he was going to be blown away but then he disappeared again before that happened and appeared before Suho. He was in the shower. Awkward as it was, they didn’t seem to care because there were globules of water everywhere. Before Kai could say a word, he once again disappeared and knew that he was going to appear before Baekhyun next. Sure enough, he did. But the moment he saw his friend, a blinding white light engulfed both of them. And then there was darkness.

The next thing he knew was he was trapped inside this metal box with a complete stranger.

He eyed the other boy, expecting him to say something; to suggest a plan of action they could do. But the boy just stood there, looking at the ground.

Kai followed his gaze.

There were symbols etched onto the metal floor. 12 of them. Kai noticed that the rays of light hit each of the symbols.

“I had time to look at this, while you were unconscious.”

Kai looked at them one by one.

One looked like a unicorn head. Another like those scorpion tattoos people get on their arms. Another one looked like an hourglass. They were all different.

“And I’ve had time to think about the events that occurred before I came here.”

“Events?” Kai raised his head.

“Yes. Weird things started happening before I came to be here.”

“Me, too! I mean… Me and my friends!”

The boy looked at him with that same stare. It unnerved Kai to no end.

“Tell me what happened.”

Kai told him everything that happened. It took a few minutes to explain everything and Kai knew for sure that the boy wouldn’t believe his story or would laugh at him.

He didn’t.

“I see,” was all he said.

He continued looking at the symbols on the floor. Then he said:

“Something of the sort also happened to me and my friends. If I’m right, there are 6 of you. 5 friends you appeared before, and you.”

Kai nods, not following where this was going.

“There are also 6 of us. Look at the symbols. There are 12.” He points at the symbols on the floor.

“So, what you’re trying to say is…”

“Yes. I can make out the symbol for water. And… Ice, I think… Maybe wind…? And then… time…?”

The boy was pointing to one symbol after another, skipping those he could not define.

Kai helped him define some of the symbols. After deliberating, they managed to name some of the symbols, matching them to their experiences.

Time. Fire. Water. Ice. Wind. Earth. They knew there was lightning, healing, teleportation, flight, light… and then there was this other one. With the circles.

“Now that I think about it. Luhan never showed any signs of possessing any powers. This must be his symbol.” He pointed at the one with circles.

“His symbol…?” Kai asked.

“Yes. If I’m right, each of us is connected to these symbols. Your friends would be fire, wind, earth, light, water… and you, teleportation.”

“And yours would be…”

“Mine, would be this.” The boy pointed at a symbol.

The symbol that looked like an hourglass. The symbol of Time.