He didn’t want to wake up. Not now, not ever. This was the best sleep he had ever had, and to think he was sleeping out in the open. Something about sleeping right underneath the stars appealed to him, made him sleep better. Or it was something else.

Luhan moved in his sleep. Something was disturbing his sleep.

Awaken…

Luhan rolled over in his sleep.

You need.. to awaken… your powers…

Luhan’s brow creased. He moved once again, this time hitting Sehun with a kick. Sehun didn’t seem to feel the assault and resumed sleeping.

Luhan… under the… tree’s roots…

..roots… symbols…. Your symbols…. Are there….

Luhan put his arm around Sehun, hugging the other boy as if he was a pillow. His brow creased even more.

He is wind… You are… the mind… Psychic…

Luhan hugged tighter.

…contact… Contact the others… Kai… need.. Kai…

Luhan rolled over again, his back to Sehun now.

Your friends are in danger.

The voice in his head was becoming clearer, stronger and louder.

The lightning and the earth. Save them.

Then an image of his friend, Chen, flashed in his mind. He was with another guy and they were both surrounded by red colored smoke.

Then Luhan’s eyes shot open. He began looking around. No one was there except Sehun, still asleep beside him. He noticed he was sweating and breathing really hard.

What happened…? Chen…

He tried to remember what he saw in his dream, but everything was a bit hazy now.

He quickly got out of the futon they were sleeping in and took off his shirt. He headed for the tree and hanged his shirt on one of the branches. He got down on his knees and started checking the tree’s roots.

The tree’s roots… he said in his mind, trying to remember what the weird voice was telling him.

After a few seconds of searching, his hand touched something that wasn’t dirt or root. He grabbed on to it and pulled it out. It was a stone slab and it had a sort of drawing on it. He crouched down one more time to search for another one. His fingers found the second one fairly easily and then he pulls it out. It was a slab similar to the first one but this one had a different drawing on it.

He stared at the stones in his hands.

The voice was right. He told himself. Maybe this is our way out of here.

He sat upright and leaned his back against the tree. He had forgotten he took off his shirt and was surprised when the wood touched his skin.

Now what was the other thing the voice said…

He looked down at the stone in his right hand. It had a drawing of circles on it and a sort of abstract eye in the middle. Being a gamer in when he was younger, he figured this was his symbol. Eyes usually signify psychic powers.

“Psychic…” he whispered. The symbol on the stone started shining and then it shot a ray of light to the sky. Luhan had let go of the stone as soon as it started glowing and had backed away. A few seconds passed and the light died down.

“What was that?” Luhan turned around and saw that Sehun was now up.

Beakhyun was crawling faster and faster the moment he saw the light at the end of the small tunnel they had gone through. Lay was following close behind him.

“We there yet?” Lay asked.

“Almost… there!” Baekhyun stopped suddenly. Lay almost crashed into him.

“Warn me next time you decide to stop! I almost bumped into your …”

“Lay, there’s a painting here! But I can see through it!”

“Then push it off and let’s get out of here!”

“Okay. Here goes.” Baekhyun reaches out his hand towards the transparent painting in front of him and was surprised to touch something solid. He exerted a bit of strength and the painting popped loose from the wall, revealing an exit for the two boys. Beakhyun inches forward and leans over the edge, peering at how high he has to jump down.

“Well..?” Lay asked impatiently.

“Well… It’s pretty high…”

“Just jump! I think I’m getting a cramp!” Lay said.

“Fine. Just wait a bit.”

That very moment, the painting directly opposite Baekhyun popped off of the wall and Suho’s head appeared. The face of his friend surprised Baekhyun so much that he crawled forward without thinking and crashed down into the floor. Lay immediately followed suit but got out the tunnel in a safer manner.

“Ow!” Baekhyun was now sitting on the floor, checking the palm of his right hand. It was bleeding.

“Baekhyun!” Suho shouted from the other side of the room. Suho scrambled out of the tunnel and as soon as he got down ran towards his friend.

“Suho!” Baekhyun greeted his friend as he stood up and then they hugged each other.

“Who’s there?” Xiumin called out, his head now appearing at the tunnel’s opening.

“Xiumin!” Lay immediately ran towards the other tunnel and assisted Xiumin in getting down.

“Lay! Am I glad to see you! Are you okay?” Xiumin hugged his friend as soon as he got down the tunnel.

“Yeah, I am. And you?”

“I’m okay. I almost froze me and Suho to death a while back though…”

“Yeah, I know. You almost froze me and Baekhyun, too.” Lay said, releasing their hug.

“What do you mean?” Xiumin asked, puzzled. He cocked his head to one side. Lay smiled, relieved to see a familiar face after everything that’s happened.

“I’ll explain later.”

Then a voice sounded in the room, a voice that caught Baekhyun and Suho by surprise. It was a voice they recognized.

Tao and Kai were stumped. They had no idea what to do. 7 symbols were alight now. The one with the circles, the one Tao said was for Luhan, was glowing.

“This is hopeless.” Kai sighed. “Are we just going to wait for all of these to light up? How long will that take us?”

Tao remained still.

Thud.

Tao heard it. His head immediately looked at the direction the sound came from, his ears trying to listen to any more sounds that might come.

“If only we…”

“Shh.”

Kai immediately closed his mouth and looked around. Tao had put his finger to his lips. Kai remained completely still.

Kai could now hear it, too. There were faint voices coming from above. Kai looke up.

“Ho!” the voice echoed in the metal room.

“That’s not… a ghost… is it?” Tao said slowly and softly.

Kai looked at Tao with an expression of disbelief. The boy who scared and intimidated him so much… is afraid of ghosts?

“I… I don’t like ghosts…” Tao whispered.

Kai prevented himself from laughing.

Then they heard another voice echo down into the room.

“Khyun!” Then there were footsteps.

They were sure these sounds were coming from above. The holes in the ceiling were delivering them the sounds. Whoever’s making all this noise is definitely on the other side of the ceiling.

Kai’s expression changed.

Ho…? Khyun…? His mind started racing. He tried to remember the echoes. Now that he focused on them, he could tell whose they were.

“Those are my friends! Suho and Baekhyun! I'm sure of it! We’re saved!!” Kai exclaimed, running to Tao and grabbing his hands.

“Ah.” Tao let out a sigh of relief. “So they’re not ghosts.”

Kai could see Tao’s eyes were watery. Kai smiled at the sight.

“What? It’s not funny!”

“You were in a room just like ours? On the other side of that tunnel?” Xiumin pointed to the tunnel that Lay and Baekhyun had come out of. Lay nodded. He had explained how they got out of the room. From the symbols to the mirror, to the room starting to freeze over to the painting and the tunnel. He found out the same things happened to Xiumin and his friend, Suho.

“Let’s go.” Lay motioned for them to go join Baekhyun and Suho.

When they reached the other pair, Lay immediately noticed Baekhyun’s bleeding hand.

“Here, give that to me.” Lay said, reaching his hand out for Baekhyun’s.

“Suho, this is Lay. He’s the one I was with in the other room.” Baekhyun put his bleeding hand on Lay’s open one. Lay nodded at Suho’s direction and smiled as acknowledgement.

Baekhyun’s hand was on Lay’s now. He didn’t know what to do, exactly. The last time this happened was with Chen. But before Lay could think of how to go about using his healing powers on Baekhyun, the wound started stitching itself up.

“That was easier than I thought.” Lay thought out loud.

Suho and Baekhyun stared at the wound. It creeped Suho out a bit, seeing his friend’s skin move like that.

“Wow, how’d you do that?” Baekhyun exclaimed.

“I don’t know. It just happens.” Lay shrugged. Baekhyun checked his hand, rubbing his thumb over the wounded part. It was as smooth as ever. No scar. No sign at all that he had been wounded, except for the dried up blood.

“Wicked.” He smiled and thanked Lay.

“This is Lay, by the way.” Suho reached out a hand to Lay for a handshake and Lay took it.

“This is Xiumin.” Lay said, introducing Xiumin. “Xiu, this is Baekhyun.”

Xiumin smiled and shook Baekhyun’s hand. That exact moment they heard a faint shout. They all turned around to look for the source. Suho had conjured a ball of water out of nowhere and raised both his arms up, ready to use his newly found powers if someone tried to attack them, as if he had done this countless times before.

“Suhoooo!!!” the shout came again. Baekhyun and Suho looked at each other.

“Is that…” Baekhyun began.

“…Kai..?” Suho ended.