-Shinhye’s POV-

I sat at the other end of the long table, facing Hyo who was at the other end while Taemin sat on his right side. It was eerily quiet as I sat there, forcing the food down my throat. The moment Taemin returned, he told me all about the plan and how it should go. Suho agreed with him, thankfully. If he wasn’t there, I doubted it that they’d trust him. I saw his thoughts and I saw Chan Yeol and his volatile self. After what has happened, I’ve assumed that they would rely on their own power to find me instead of entrusting it to some stranger.

I was jittery all over. Taemin said that the moment the sun sets, the island will go down on total annihilation. D.O. would be useful for that. I was proud of him for being able to get his emblem. I still didn’t have news about Sehun. He was the last one in the list and he’d better do well like his hyungs. They will plunder the castle after that. It was a risky tactic especially that Hyo was someone formidable and shouldn’t be taken lightly. I’ve been trying to make him choke on his food for a moment now, but nothing is working. I guess the suppressant Taemin gave me was too weak for the potion Hyo made me drink although I could still move the fork in front of me.

“How do you like the surface?” Hyo asked.

I smiled. “Great. Taemin took me on a tour.” It was ridiculous having that kind of conversation with him. It was stupid, too.

To my utter surprise, he smiled a genuine one. “I’m glad it is to your liking.” He looked at Taemin then. “You should take her to the back cliffs to see the ocean.”

This pretentious little moron. Does he think he can fool me with his sweet words and smiles? Kai tried that with me. Not even close. I just smiled to myself, thinking what a dork he was. I glanced at the window and saw that the sun was half gone.

Taemin followed my gaze. “Beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked me. ‘Just a few more moments and you’ll be out of here.’

“It is,” I murmured when suddenly, I noticed how the chandelier above us was swaying from side to side. Hyo ate quietly while Taemin and I looked up. I shifted gaze to the window when I caught a glance of something dark coming from the horizon. The silverware began moving on the table as I stared right into the window. A sandstorm was coming, but what was the floor shaking? I shrugged. D.O. knows what dramatic means.

Winds speeding from over three hundred miles per hour began gaining towards us until the glass all around us broke, making sand and wind enter the room. The bright afternoon sky began to darken like it was night. I felt Sehun nearby, his stone on the cuff shining brightly. The earth still shook and when the sand settled on the floor, I saw why. Something was underneath the earth, combing through the vast land from where I could see it at the shore. It wasn’t long before it tore at the forests and the hills and then I felt D.O.’s life force.

Taemin looked at me then at Hyo who was still calm even as he set his fork down. Hyo looked at me, too, which pushed me to pretend that I was panicking as well.

I stood up. “What is going on?”

Before anyone could answer, the cuff glowed red. Chan Yeol… Along with it, the surroundings became crimson as a dragon made of fire passed by the window, surrounding the manor in a spiral motion.

Hyo looked at me. “Is this –”

I shook my head. “I didn’t do any of these!” I answered.

His eyes glinted unpleasantly. “You’d better make sure or you will regret it.”

Taemin looked at him. “I will sound the alarm!” he shouted then ran off.

Just then, the broken windows creaked open and I saw Sehun crouching by the window pane. “S-sehun-ah?”

His eyes widened when he saw me then he broke into that tender smile I was so fond of. “Shinhye,” he said breathlessly.

I stood there, motionless for a second before I glanced at Hyo. He followed my gaze and glared like he usually would. I missed him. I missed him so much that I found myself filling with tears when I saw him there. I felt safe and home when I saw him. Nothing else mattered.

He stepped into the room, reaching his hand towards me. “Shinhye, let’s go.”

I glanced at Hyo’s menacing figure as he approached. I froze. For the first time, he scared me, not because he might hurt me but because he might hurt Sehun. That just wouldn’t do.

“She’s coming with me!” he hissed to Hyo. He looked at me then. “Isn’t that right, Shinhye?”

I swallowed hard. What the hell was I doing? “S-se –”

I was pulled to the side as Hyo grabbed my arm, dragging me across the room as he placed a blade to my throat. I felt lightheaded as I felt the blade graze slightly against my skin, cold and hard.

“The moment you move,” Hyo began, “…she dies!”

Sehun dared a step forward.

“I’m warning you.”

Intimidations just don’t work on Sehun. He took another step. “You lay a hand on her, that’ll be your end.”

Hyo withdrew the knife, threw it at Sehun. Before I knew it, I was staring at the floor as he hauled me like a sack of whatever across his shoulder then made a run for it.

“Yah! Let me go!” I growled at him, pounding with my hand on his back which seemed to be made of rock with a bit of padding. “Hyo! What the hell?”

He climbed what seemed to be a never ending flight of stairs while Sehun followed from behind. A couple of purists came up and stopped him. Oh damn! It’s so cliché!

“SHINHYE?!” I heard Baekhyun’s voice from under the floor.

“Bacon!” I called back. “Up here!”

Hyo stopped running and set me down on a cushioned surface then I heard a heavy door slamming shut. He faced me then. “You traitor!”

“I’m not!” I insisted.

“Do you think I’ll still believe you?” he snarled at me then started removing his shirt. “Now you will see what you’ve wrought!”

Uh-oh! This couldn’t be happening. I willed the door to open, but it wouldn’t. I backed away until I was leaning against the wall just beside an open hole for a window. I glanced out. It could be a three hundred-foot drop from where I was standing. I can’t jump and I sure as hell know I can’t levitate. I may have healed physically, but the experiences I had in the dungeon somehow impaired my powers.

“Stay back!” I warned him, but he continued to take steady-paced steps towards me.

He reached over without a word and grabbed my neck, slamming me against the wall. I groaned in pain. I don’t think I’ve fully healed. My back felt as if my spine would shatter to pieces. I pushed him away when I got the chance and bolted for it, but he grabbed my hair. Curse my long hair. He pulled me back and landed a hard fist against the side of my face, sending me reeling across the flat surface of a divan at the corner of the room. I didn’t get the chance to catch my breath when he suddenly crashed his mouth against mine.

Repulsed, I bit at his lower lip then kicked him on his middle. He cursed then again, his big hand found its way across my face, struck me then began tearing at my clothes, wiping his bloody mouth in the process. I heard the first ripping sounds around my shoulder as he hovered over me, pinning me to the divan.

“Stop!” I growled, fighting back despite of my weak state. Tears sprung from my eyes. “Please…”

“You’re begging now.” He laughed maniacally.

It was followed by heavy rapping on the door and I could faintly hear my name being called frantically from the other side.

Hyo looked at me then. “You hear that? You’re going to make them hear you begging until I kill you!”

I screamed, trying to push him away. I’ve never been so scared for my own life. “Help me!”

“That’s it. Scream!”

I clawed at him, this time getting his eyes. I’ve endured the pain as my fingernails turned into blades, slicing four lines across his cheeks. He grasped my arm and pushed it against the cushion then struck me across the face again. This time, I couldn’t take it anymore. He did so again, repeating the same routine over and over again until I just couldn’t move. From my periphery, I saw Taemin holding a jar then threw it at Hyo. He said something, but I couldn’t understand. The last thing I saw was Taemin, flying over to the wall as Hyo struck him. I was doomed. I just knew it.

-Baekhyun’s POV-

“Stay back!”

The moment I heard Shinhye scream from the other side of the door, I felt my insides turn cold and my blood curdled. He can’t touch her. He shouldn’t. That just wouldn’t do. It was followed by a dull thud and a groan. It continued even as I pushed on the heavy door, trying so hard to open it, but to no avail. D.O. arrived and saw what I was doing.

“Is she in there?” he asked me frenetically, knowing the possibilities as well.

I nodded and tried burning the door down, but it was enchanted and it wouldn’t budge. He tried to do other things as well, but every single time we did, the barrier only seemed to be getting stronger by the minute.

“What are we going to do? Nothing’s working!” D.O. snarled.

“Shinhye!” I called from where I stood, but I felt a cold hand seize my heart when she suddenly screamed from the inside, agony and fright edgily echoing from her tone followed by groans and cries.

“STOP!” she implored in a sob and a shriek.

I pounded at the door as hard as I could, kicking on it, releasing light orbs to incinerate the hard material.

“I’m going to get Kai!” D.O. yelled over as he ran down the stairs, phasing as he did so.

“Help me!” Shinhye begged. She had never been so helpless before that even in the worst state, she could still defend herself, but now, after she had gone through, both emotionally and physically, I didn’t think she had the strength to fight anymore. Everyone has their breaking point and to her, this was it. Until such time she regains her strength, she wouldn’t be able to function well. As a machine, overused and exhausted, she also needed to rest. The Shinhye I knew can do anything on her. She didn’t need help, but now she did.

“Scream!” the man inside the room said.

Anger rose like bile from my system, but it was short lived, replaced by agony when I couldn’t hear her anymore, but I heard something break and another person spoke.

“Let go of her now!” It was Taemin.

The leader laughed. “You’re in it, too?” He paused. “You are an ingrate!”

“I don’t care what you think of me. You have to be stopped.”

“You insolent rat!” he growled. Shortly after that, something slammed against the wall and then eerie silence. Somewhere outside, I could still hear the island being ravaged by the other three.

Kai appeared, looking frantic. “Where is she?”

“Inside!” I answered. He was about to teleport when green light glowed from under the door and into the tiny spaces around it. Shinhye’s life force and something stronger than that surrounded us then just like that, it disappeared and the door swung open. D.O., Kai and I entered the room in a hurry. I saw Taemin on the floor, out cold.

“Hyung…” Kai murmured as he pointed at the direction of the far wall. On top of the divan was Shinhye, unconscious and lying limply on it, her arm and head falling off of it, but that wasn’t what froze us all on our spots. Her clothes lay in tatters, barely covering her and she was spattered with too much blood. Lash scars were all over her, healing already, but it didn’t make things better for her. What have they done to her?

No one else was there. The leader of the purists was gone, but I couldn’t care less. I ran to her side and tried to shake her awake. “Shinhye!” I called, taking her by the shoulders. A snagged breath escaped her slightly parted, swelling and bleeding lips. “She’s still breathing.”

D.O. came behind me and took over, wrapping her in sheets. He carried her and handed her over to Kai. “We need to go.”

“What about Taemin-ssi?” I asked.

“Grab him,” D.O. said and the five of us teleported from the tower.

We appeared by the shore where the boat was. Almost everything was destroyed.

Sehun came around when he saw us. Kai handed Shinhye to him, still unconscious, and took Taemin from me. He disappeared and returned after a few seconds, telling us that he left her under the care of a woman near the shores of the main land. It was over for the purists, but Shinhye wasn’t waking up either. Sehun just sat on the corner, hugging her limp body to him, quietly glaring at the ground until everyone else came around.

D.O. sank down on the sand while Kai leaned against the tree. I just watched Sehun and Shinhye, unable to help the tears that feel from my eyes. That bastard violated her. It was unforgivable, but what can we do now? It was over. It’s done.

“Where is she?” Suho hyung asked, looking around together with Chan Yeol who appeared equally nervous. “Did y