As the ten guys made it towards the end of the dark and cold tunnel, feelings of uneasiness started to build. It had been too easy coming all the way here and there were still no guards in sight. Something was definitely weird. But they kept on walking, everyone were set on saving the princess no matter what. And therefore they were all keeping their eyes opened and their defenses up. With all kinds of powers, they had a great chance of surviving even if they had to face the most dangerous of species.
 

Zi Tao was ready to stop time if he had to, if there would be too many guards for them to handle or if they would walk into a trap of some sorts. He didn’t need to use his power anytime soon though as they finally reached the end. Everyone stopped with shocked expressions as they saw nothing but a dead-end. Not a door or passageway whatsoever.
 

“What now?” Chanyeol asked as despair took over. “We’ve gone this far just to find nothing?”
 

“How can you say that?” Baekhyun answered back as he observed the wall closely. “There must be something here; wouldn’t it be strange with a tunnel with nothing in it?” He continued as he knocked carefully on the dirty stone wall in front of him, searching for any kind of secret button or anything of that sort.
 

“We have to hurry! I can’t take another minute being away from my lovely princess!” Xiu Min said in a somewhat feverish and obsessive way that annoyed the others.
 

“She’s not yours!” Chanyeol blurted out heatedly, but got cut off as Yi Xing hushed them both.
 

“Quiet you two! We don’t have time to argue right now. Help us instead of bickering!” Yi Xing said firmly as he started to search at the bottom of the wall.

Zi Tao stood with his back against the others as he guarded them all. He didn’t want them to be ambushed and had decided to keep his guard up. Joon Myeon had to keep Sehun safe from Lu Han who tried his best to be as close to the younger as possible, even while helping the others. Wu Yi Fan, the tallest in the group, searched the top of the tunnel with the help of the second tallest, Chanyeol. Jong In, on the other hand, yawned tiredly and shook his head at the sight of the other guys.
 

“Well, there must be some way to get inside…” Jong In let out as he rested with his back towards the wall. He accidentally hit something on his right side, which made one of the other walls to start moving. The others backed away quickly, everyone but Chanyeol who stumbled forward and fell. With widened eyes, they saw as Chanyeol fell towards the ground inside a small room, a muffled sound came from underneath him afterwards.
 

But what really caught their attention was the creatures that crawled everywhere inside the cramped room, eight-legged and in millions of different kind of species. Spiders.

“Ouch! How long are you going to be on top of me?!” A very familiar voice called out, squished underneath the heavy body of one of the giants, Chanyeol.
 

“Until you fall for me, maybe?” He teasingly let out before a hand smacked his arm, making him soon get up from the ground and pulling the girl up with him.
 

“This isn’t the time for your little love confessions or whatever it is that you do!” Joon Myeon said in a serious tone as he pushed the giant away from the princess. “How are you? Are you hurt?” He worriedly questioned.
 

“I’m alright…” Jiao Lin answered while drying the last of her tears away. She had stopped crying a while back, after the shock had taken over her completely. “Just take me away from those horrible creatures…” She shakily let out, still weak after crying so much.
 

Zi Tao hurriedly made his way passed the others so he could get close to the princess. He swiftly lifted her up in his arms and carried her. Xiu Min gritted his teeth at the sight of the princess in the younger’s arms, but even though the jealousness was strong, he couldn’t do anything about it.
 

“Let’s hurry!” Baekhyun called out as he lit up the tunnel once again with his powers. Chanyeol followed closely behind but was soon pushed back to walk last in the line, since he also had powers that could light up the darkness.

Yi Fan and Jong In decided to take the lead after Baekhyun, both ready to fight if they had to. Yi Xing kept on asking Jiao Lin about what she had been through and if she really was okay. She told him about everything that she could remember, about the middle-aged woman that had acted like she was a fortune teller and how she had lured Jiao Lin to follow her. She told him about the spider tattoo that decorated the lady’s neck and how frightened she had been while being locked inside the pitch-black room full of spiders all by herself.
 

Jiao Lin was kind of happy that Zi Tao carried her, even if she was a bit uncomfortable. But her legs felt awfully weak and she knew that she wouldn’t get far by walking by herself.
 

“Shouldn’t we be at the end of this tunnel by now?” Sehun suddenly asked with worry after a while.
 

The others thought about the younger’s words and could kind of agree. It was way too weird that it felt like they had been walking for eternity already, and still no sight of the opening. When they arrived in a huge room they hadn’t been in earlier, they knew something would happen.

“So, you have finally arrived.” A woman’s voice called out, making everyone get into a defensive position.
 

“Show yourself!” Chanyeol fearlessly let out, getting a slap on his arm from Baekhyun. “Ouch! What did you do that for?” He soon asked the guilty one; who didn’t get to answer back as the woman suddenly revealed herself.
 

“I’ve been waiting for you. But that didn’t mean that you could just take the princess with you.” She said as she narrowed her blood-red eyes. “It would have been better if you had just left her…”
 

“Never!” Xiu Min thoughtlessly let out, flustered and angry at the unknown woman. He got held back by Joon Myeon before he could do the mistake of attacking her head-on.
 

“Ooh… that’s a feisty one.” She chuckled in amusement. Her gaze travelled from person to person until she finally stopped at a certain guy. “Well, isn’t it Zi Tao. Hwang Zi Tao…” She soon let out with a smirk, her eyes fixed on the black dressed guy.
 

Zi Tao furrowed his eyebrows as he felt confused of why she knew his name. He definitely didn’t recognize her and therefore couldn’t remember ever meeting the woman before. Wu Yi Fan stared first at the woman and then on Zi Tao. In what way do they know each other? He thought to himself, but he saw on Zi Tao’s puzzled face that he was clueless about who this woman was too.

“Who are you?” Chanyeol once again spoke loudly, this time avoiding Baekhyun’s fist successfully.
 

“Me? Oh, haven’t I told you? I’m your darkest nightmare…” The woman threateningly said as she snapped her fingers, making hundreds of warriors appear out of nowhere. “I’m Lin Cui Fen, but I’m confident that you won’t be able to remember it when I’m finished with you.” She snickered.
 

“Ah, but we were just about to go. So don’t mind us-“ Baekhyun started but got cut off.
 

“But I’m afraid I can’t let you go now.” Lin Cui Fen let out in a poisonous kind of way before glaring at the princess that was still in Zi Tao’s arms. “And you my dear, will never get away from me again.”
 

At those last words, Jiao Lin was carefully put down on the ground before Zi Tao stood in front of her as the bodyguard he was. It was his job to keep her safe and he didn’t intend to stop now. What did she mean by that? Jiao Lin asked herself as she feverishly tried to think about when she would have met the woman before. And what did she mean by ‘again’?

Author's note:

Wah! This is starting to get really exciting! Don't you think? xD

It feels like I'll be able to update quite often, especially since a lot of things will soon happen ^^ Even though I'll soon start school :P

Please subscribe and comment, it really motivates me to do a better job :D

/Angela90s