The boys sat in the hospital wing silently as the old man checked the oldest boy for the gate that opened. They sat there silently, allowing him to do the check up in peace.

“He’s not breathing because the gate seems to have opened in his heart,” Said the old man, smiling at the boys, trying to calm them all down, “However, if he doesn’t wake up in twenty-four hours, the Miro people will be doomed, as I said before he is the only light user left, plus, he’s now our leader, we lose him, we lose our life.”

The boys looked at him worriedly, but the old man waved off their gazes, “Don’t worry boys, I’m positive that he’ll wake up. After all he has the drive to.”

The old man smiled and the boys did as well, however one of the boys frowned, looking back, over both his shoulder and the old man’s shoulder to look at his older brother in worry. The person who he had grown closest to in the past three weeks grabbed one of his hands gently, drawing the younger male’s attention from his older brother and to his closest friend.

Minhyuk looked over at Kris, his eyes showed his worry and confusion, however Kris smiled gently at the younger male and the confusion in the younger male’s eyes vanished and the worry weakened, however it was still there.

The old man was the last into the hallway; he closed the door behind him as he exited. Once he got into the hall, he looked up and smiled weakly to the boys who were standing in front of him. The group was silent until one of the boy’s curiosities broke the silence.

“What is the history of the Miro people? What brought them to live here in the mountain?” asked Youngwon, looking at the old man who smiled widely at him.

“That my boy is for another time.” Said the old man, “I’ll tell you the story once you all are here…Well, not exactly all of you since two of you all know the story already.” The old man then fell silent, ignoring the looks he was getting, “Ah…I sure it getting late…Let’s go to bed. I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

The old man then walked away, leaving the boys in silence.

“We might as well go to sleep since we’re already locked in the school…” muttered Soohyun.

The other boys nodded and headed to their rooms.

“Daehyun, your training is complete.” Said the man who was known as Kyu, “I’ll send you home in the morning…however, right now, I have another thing to tend to…”

Daehyun watched as the older male suddenly walked out of the room of the little temple like building. Where did the older man go? He himself doesn’t know, but judging from the look on the boy’s face, something urgent came up.

The younger male sighed and curled up on the mat he was given to sleep on, closing his eyes he focused what powers he had into his hearing, listening out for sounds of danger, since it seemed like something was awaiting with in the mountain to attack not only the sanctuary, but the actual civilization that lies under the mountain. As he listened in, he heard the moan of hunger from a giant beast, the sound came from the west of the sanctuary, which was where the shrine was located over head on the surface, putting more of his power into it, he heard the creatures that roamed the fog, the monsters whom were once humans. He heard what each and every one of them said, he understood each and every one of their words, and he understood what their “master” was saying.

“The boy is the leader now…”

“Why didn’t you kill him on the surface?”

“Ma’am, we didn’t kill him then because there wasn’t a chance to…he was always on the run and always fighting to protect those around him, to protect those mere humans and that boy whom you sense he has an odd relationship with…”

“You all failed to kill him though…” hissed the feminine voice that rang through his ears, the voice was hoarse and high pitched, it made his head hurt. His head began to throb and he knew the headache was going to develop.

“I know ma’am…” said the obvious leader of the minions, his voice was deep and husky, it was so soft that it was merely a whisper, “The reason we didn’t finish him off as you wished was because we couldn’t…plus we came up with a plan.”

“Which is?”

“When his last kei gate opens we strike…” said the leader of the minions, “That time is now, my lady, we need to strike while he is practically dead, we need you permission my lady.”

“Kill him…” hissed the large creature, her voice echoing through the earth as a tremor, “If you fail this time and don’t get killed by him, you will get killed by me…”

“Yes, my lady, we’ll go there tonight.”

Daehyun’s eyes shot open and his concentration was broken, he had to get to the school to warn the others. He had used too much of his energy listening into the brutes’ conversations to warn the others of the oncoming danger telepathically, so he’d have to do it physically and used the hand to hand combat he learned to use.

Standing up, Daehyun moved swiftly to the door, staying on his toes to make as little sound as possible as he ran through the large hall like room where the other half-breeds like him, slept. He made sure to stay in the shadow so that the leaders didn’t see him running through the halls, so that they wouldn’t see the panic in his eyes. He knew it was highly unlikely to get into the school at this time of night, but he was going to at least try to get there before they attacked, or arrived.

The eight other boys lay in different rooms, all staring up at the ceiling, all boys feeling dread rising in their gut. They all were feeling uneasy, but not one of the boys knew why. As they laid there Minhyuk suddenly got the feeling that he needed to stay beside his brother, so he got up and entered the halls quietly, trying hard not to alert the gaurds that patrolled the halls of the school at night because he knew if he did, he’d be thrown right back into his room. He silently walked through the abnormally dark halls of the school, he knew that something was wrong, so he quickened his pace to get to the room which held his brother, he silently slipped into the room, suddenly hearing their mumbling in the language he didn’t understand.

Moving into the room he saw there were three of them around his brother’s bed, his brother was breathing deeply, showing that not only the last gate was open but he had survived it all, however, he knew that if those three attacked the older male now there would be no way he’d survive it because his heart was beating faintly as it. Minhyuk ran to the bed automatically drawing the attention of the three and causing more to appear. The boy fought as hard as he could with all the monsters that were swarming around him in the room, he took a deep breath.

“I really didn’t want to resort to this, but I have to.” Hissed Minhyuk, fire burst from his hands and turned all of the monsters it hit into dust also triggering the sprinkler system in the roof that was meant to put out fires, which it did. The alarm blaring through the building woke up the old man and made the others all jump out of bed and rush to the medial wing to see burnt furniture and Minhyuk shield his older brother, scrapes covering his face and arms.

The other seven jumped into action as they saw the monsters appear and fight back, the old man walked in to see the floor covered in their dust.

“Boy’s they’re attacking the city, we need to go help them…” said the old man.

The eight males nodded.

“I need a few of you to stay here and keep watch on him.” Said the old man, “Minhyuk, don’t volunteer, you’re coming with me for sure.”

The younger male sighed and nodded.

“I’ll come with you as well,” Said Kris, looking at Minhyuk, who eyed him worriedly.

“I’ll come as well.” Said Seungjun, “You’ll need as much help as you can get out there…”

“Min Jun, come with us as well.” Said the leader, “JeBim, Minseok, you two stay here, okay?”

The two boys nodded and the man looked at Youngwon and Soohyun, “What are you two going to do?”

“I’ll go,” Muttered Soohyun, “Youngwon?”

“Then I’ll stay here,” Said Youngwon.

“Alright then, let’s go.” Said the old man and the five who decided to go out and fight with him left, leaving Minseok, Je Bim, and Youngwon with Minhyun, who was slowly becoming stronger.

When Daehyun made it to the school he saw hordes of monsters trying to reach Minhyun, the monsters were being led by the leader of the minions, how did Daehyun know? He could tell by the monster’s voice, it stood out over the moans of the other monsters. Daehyun fought his way through the horde and moved towards the group of six who were solidly defending the school.

“Daehyun!” called Soohyun, catching sight of the younger male first.

The fifteen year old smiled and stood beside Soohyun as soon as he got to him, the old man looked over to them from where he stood, “Which is the leader?”

“What?” asked Daehyun, not hearing the old man over the moans and groans of the monsters.

“Which is the leader?” asked Soohyun.

Daehyun looked through the horde, trying to find him, he pointed when he caught sight of the male, “Him, the one with the extremely pale, nearly white face.”

The old man nodded and moved forwards, “Their attack should end if we take him down.”

The others nodded and covered for the old man, not allowing any of the enemies close to the school.

Soon the leader vanished into dust, the minions all vanished as well, stopping their attack and obviously retreating.

Suddenly Daehyun heard one of the minions, “We couldn’t get to him since leader-sshi was destroyed…however we do have three boys we can use as bait…one of whom is the boy you were talking about.”

“Good…”

“Daehyun?” called Soohyun, seeing that the younger male suddenly fell to his knees, holding his head.

The old man turned to the two, “You heard them, didn’t you?”

Daehyun nodded, “How many people were inside?”

“Minseok, Jaebim, and Youngwon were in there watching Minhyun, why?” asked Soohyun, kneeling down beside the pale Daehyun.

“They have them…” muttered an extremely hoarse voice that hadn’t been heard in about three weeks.

“What do you mean by they have them?” asked Kris.

“The minions have Jaebim, Youngwon, and Minseok…” muttered the weak male, it was obvious from the way he was panting and holding his head, he shouldn’t have been standing.

“What are we going to do?” asked Minjun, looking at the old man, “Better yet why did they take them?”

“Because I woke up…” muttered Minhyun, his voice a mere whisper, “They were supposed to kill me while I was unconscious, but obviously that didn’t work, so they had to resort to something to bring me to the Shrine, where the leader rests…”

The others nodded in understanding, Seungjun then broke the silence between the group, “What are we going to do now?”

“We’re going to give Minhyun a day or two to gain his strength back…” said the old man, “We’re also going to let Daehyun rest a bit, since his body is still adjusting to his new abilities as well. Once they’ve both adjusted fully or well enough, we will head to the shrine that lies above the surface of the mountain…”

“In other words…” muttered Minhyun, his eye lids heavy and voice cracking as he spoke, “We’re going to enter a tunnel that lies hidden in the ‘castle’ where the grand superior lives…”

“Wait, we have to wait two days to go after them?” hissed Minjun, the old man nodded, “Why can’t half of us go now and half of us go later?”

“The only way you can get into the ‘castle’ is if the grand superior opens the door, and in order to do that, they must open it with light, which none of us can possibly do at the moment,” Said the old man.

“Can’t you do it?” asked Seungjun looking at Minhyun, “Your gates opened, shouldn’t you be able to use your powers now?”

“I can, but I’m still weak as is my Kei…” muttered Minhyun, “I’m powerless for the moment…”

“You’re kidding…” muttered Minjun, looking away from the oldest male.

“Anyway, let’s go in…Daehyun and Minhyun need to rest.”

The other boys nodded and they moved into the medical wing where Minhyuk had his older brother lay down again, as soon as his head hit the pillow, the pale oldest male, of the kids, fell into a deep slumber. The old man had Daehyun lay down on the bed beside Minhyun’s as well. Soohyun sat beside the younger male on the bed, since the younger wanted him to, while Minhyuk and Kris sat on the edge of Minhyun’s bed. Seungjun and Minjun stood along the walls; all eyes were glued to the old man.

“Daehyun, you should be able to sense and connect with the three’s mind…” said the old man, “Now that you’re lying down and since you’re communicating with humans, it shouldn’t drain your energy as much…”

Daehyun sighed, nodding, he closed his eyes, however he couldn’t connect with the three, “I can’t do it…”

“Maybe you drained more energy than I thought you did…” muttered the old man, he sighed, “Did you ever hear the monster that lies in the mountain?”

The younger male nodded, “It kept talking to the minions…I heard them and came here to warn you that they were coming for Minhyun, so obviously I was a bit late…”

“Did you hear something recently?” asked the old man.

“I’ve only heard that they took the three and one of them has some sort of connection to Minhyun.” Said Daehyun, “Other than that, I haven’t heard them.”

The old man frowned, and walked towards the door, “Daehyun, rest up…I’ll be back when morning comes…with it I’ll bring the tales of my people…the history of my people...however in  order for me to tell you about them, you need to be connected with the three so that they can hear it…”

Daehyun nodded, and pulled the blanket up to his chin, “Are they going to be alright?”

The old man shrugged at the third youngest, who was the youngest in the room since the youngest two were taken to the shrine, “With that monster being there, trying to get Minhyun to come to her…I don’t know…however, for the time being she’s still resting so there is nothing she can do to them…So rest up, so we can get to them before SHE wakes up completely…”

“Who is she?” asked Seungjun, Kris looked at Minhyuk, only to see that the younger looked down at his hands, obviously knowing who she is.

“You’ll find out at dawn…” said the old man, “All of you are to sleep in here tonight…we can’t have anymore of you being taken…”

“What about you?” asked Minjun, “I’ll be safe, I’m just going to my room, trust me, I can handle myself well.”

The others nodded, watching as he left the room with his head down, his eyes and expression showing that he was deep in thought. As soon as the man left all eyes fell on Minhyuk, even Daehyun’s half lidded, sleepy ones.

Minhyuk, feeling their stares avoided the topic they wanted to speak about, “Let’s sleep…”

“How are we going to do that?” muttered Soohyun, “There are seven of us and five beds…two won’t have a bed.”

“Seungjun-hyung and Minjun-hyung can have their own beds…” muttered Daehyun, looking at Soohyun, “You can share with me and Kris and Minhyuk can share the last.”

The other boys looked at each other silently; they stayed in silence until Minhyuk spoke, “Is that alright?”

The others all nodded and they moved into the beds they claimed, all curling up under the blankets, slipping into a dreamless slumber filled with worry and fear. 

I'm going to try to finish this story up in the next two/three chapters. Possibly an epilogue.

The quality is slowly vanishing...

-Lane