“Cap-hyung,” muttered Changjo as he blew out the candle – wanting to save it for when they actually needed it.

“What is it?” muttered Cap, readjusting Niel on his back – his gaze forward and his expression emotionless.

“It seems like the morning has come,” stated the fourteen year old – peering out the window, the seventeen year old hummed, “It seems like it has.”

“Do you feel it?” questioned Changjo, peering at the older male.

“Feel what?”

“That something is wrong?”

Cap hummed and nodded, “I do. I just thought it was my imagination – I thought I was just being paranoid, that my mind was playing with me. However, if you’re feeling that as well, I know that is not true, that there really is something wrong here.”

Changjo nodded, peering at the older male, “What do you think it is?”

Cap shrugged, “I don’t know, but it probably has something to do with the fact we haven’t run into any monster yet – from what you’ve told me before, we should’ve run into over ten of them by now.”

“Probably more than that to be honest,” stated Changjo, his eyes traveling the length of the hallway that lay before them, “Something big is coming…”

Cap nodded, opening his mouth to speak, however the male was cut off by a groan coming from the injured male that had been unconscious on his back. Cap shivered as he felt light, warm breath caressing the skin of his neck.

“Niel?” questioned the older of the two conscious males.

“Ugh…” muttered Niel, turning his head and burying it farther into Cap’s shoulder.

“Niel, are you alright?” questioned the older male, jumping as the younger suddenly screamed again – however, unlike last time when he passed out – he did the opposite, he woke up, “Niel?”

“It hurts,” muttered Niel, one arm wrapping around the older male’s neck to balance himself and make sure he didn’t fall off the older male’s back; his other hand reached up and caressed his throbbing temple.

“What hurts?” questioned Cap in concern.

“My head,” whispered Niel, his eyes clenched tightly from the pain wrecking his head – it honestly felt as if his head was splitting in half, the pain was unbearable, “It hurts.”

“Hyung, we should check his injury now before moving forward,” stated Changjo, earning a glance from Niel, before the older clenched his eyelids together again, “It’s still bleeding.”

Cap paused before humming in agreement; he slowly kneeled down, gently setting the younger male against the wall of the hall way before turning to examine Niel’s face. He watched the younger kneed the heel of his palms into his temples, his eyes were clenched shut tightly, and his face was scrunched up from the obvious pain he was feeling.

“Niel, move your hands,” stated CAP, pulling out clean gauze to rewrap the younger’s head wound with.

Niel nodded, moving his hands out of the way, giving Cap access to the bandage wrapped around his head, the bandage had been a crisp white when they had woken up however many hours ago, but was now stained with dried and fresh blood. Niel winced as the last layer of the bandage came off, revealing the nasty cut to Cap to the first time.

“How did that happen?” questioned Changjo, horrified by the deep gash that was on the elder male’s forehead.

“We don’t know,” muttered Cap as he gently began to wrap the new bandage around the younger’s head, being sure to cover up the entire gash, “He was wounded like this when we woke up in the medical wing.”

Changjo inched closer, his eyes glued to the white bandage being wrapped against the older’s fore head, “You really don’t know what caused it?”

Niel nodded, opening his eyes – he stared at Cap’s face as the elder male concentrated on wrapping his wounds before turning to stare at the new comer, well, to him at least. “We don’t know…if you don’t mind me asking, who are you?”

“That’s Changjo,” stated Cap, “He like us, was one of the people brought in for the experiment.”

“Seriously?” questioned Niel.

Cap nodded.

“Are you the control then, seeing as how you are by yourself?”

Changjo shook his head, “I wasn’t by myself – I was with another boy named Ricky, he is a childhood friend of mine that ended up in here as well.”

Niel hummed, “Where is he now?”

“He is most likely where I left him,” stated Changjo.

“Changjo came up to the second floor to find the medical room – he was looking for bandages since his partner was injured after an encounter with a monster,” stated Cap.

“Is he alright?” questioned Niel, “What happened to him?”

“His leg was injured – a monster that had gotten ahold of him,” stated Changjo, guilt welling up in his stomach as he continued on with the story, “He couldn’t walk on it and I couldn’t just take him out to where it could possibly be dangerous – I had to leave him in the kitchen of the manor, since the coast was clear and I could barricade him in the closet to protect him. I feel guilty leaving him alone like I did, so I really just want to get back to him as soon as possible.”

The younger hummed, “I see.”

Cap tied the end of the bandage, smiling towards the younger male sitting before him, “There you go, I’m all done.”

Niel smiled, “Thank you.”

Cap then stood up, wincing slightly as he stood to his full height, his hand automatically finding its way to his injured side.

Niel looked at Cap in concern, “You’re injured as well?”

Cap hummed.

Niel’s happy and pain filled expression turned to one of anger, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t see the need to,” stated Cap, “Let’s not worry about it now – let’s get going.”

Niel looked towards Cap in worry, “What if it’s opened again?”

“Then I’ll deal with it later,” responded Cap, sticking out his hand for Niel – who grabbed his hand and stood up, automatically grabbing a hold of the elder’s shoulder as a wave of dizziness fell over him.

The trio then started their venture down the hall again, Niel holding onto Cap for balance as his vision continued to swim – it was slowly getting better, slowly. Changjo walked ahead of the older two, eager to get back to Ricky.

“Cap,” whispered Niel, so only the older could hear him.

“What?” responded Cap.

“I’m scared,” responded Niel, “You know how I screamed before passing out?”

Cap nodded.

“I had had a nightmare – despite being awake,” stated Niel, “I was in a dream like world...in my dream I saw someone kill one of my friends and our bully.”

Cap looked at Niel, “What did you feel before the nightmare?”

“I felt utter terror – I felt light headed, I couldn’t stop trembling, my heart was pounding, my vision was swimming and eventually became red,” whispered Niel, “I felt as though I wasn’t myself,” stated Niel in fear, looking towards Cap – the horror obvious on his rather pale face.

“Niel,” stated Cap, his eyes tracing the features of the younger’s face – avoiding the male’s eyes, “I think you might have gone insane – just for a little bit. It hadn’t been long enough for you to lose yourself, but you went in insane.”

Niel bit his lip, tears springing up as he did so, “I d-don’t want it to happen again…please make sure it doesn’t happen again…It was so scary.”

Cap looked at the younger, feeling defeated – he knew that even if he wanted to help the younger, he couldn’t – as far as he knew there was no way to prevent one from going insane, however, despite that thought he opened his mouth, “I promise you Niel, I won’t allow you to go insane.”

Niel smiled, “Good – then promise me if it comes down to me going insane, you’ll kill me before I get the chance to kill anyone else.”

Cap stared at the younger in shock, “I-I can’t promise that.”

“Please,” whispered Niel, staring into the elder’s eyes.

Cap stared at the younger, shocked to see the slightly insane glint in said male’s eyes, before nodding, “I promise you, I’ll take care of you before you have the chance to kill anyone.”

Niel smiled, wrapping his arms around the elder’s neck hugging him, whispered a silent thanks into the elder’s ear.

Changjo paused as he came to the stairs leading to the entrance hall – he peered out over the room in complete and utter shock before turning to look towards Cap and Niel who were hugging each other a little ways down the hall.

“Sorry to disrupt your moment, but you might want to come and see this,” stated Changjo.

The two looked at each other before making their way to the younger male – their eyes examined the room below, both felt their jaws drop in shock – there was a constant flow of motion at the bottom of the stairs, a little river made of monsters running away from something.

“Well, we’ve found the reason as to why we hadn’t seen any of them in the halls,” whispered CAP, peering over the room below – feeling fear slowly creeping up his spine – the feeling in his gut slowly grew – encouraging him to run and hide.

“What do you think they are running from?” whispered Niel, peering at the older male.

“I don’t know,” responded Cap, “What I do know is that we’re going to have something bigger than insane people and monsters to worry about, something bigger – something scarier.”

They felt the ground trembling and Cap automatically grabbed ahold of Niel’s wrist, pulling him to crouch down behind the desk that Changjo had previously hidden under to get away from two monsters that had been attracted up the stairs by Niel’s scream.

“Changjo, get over here,” growled Cap, his gut telling him to get the younger and run – run far away from the room.  Changjo, who had been out of both Niel’s and Cap’s reach, followed the duo a little reluctantly, crouching down behind the desk – his eyes trained to the kitchen where he knew Ricky had to be.  

As the group sat, crouched behind the desk - peering out over the first floor, watching in horror as they watched the monsters struggle to run away from whatever was coming – Changjo suddenly jumped out from behind the desk as a very familiar figure appeared in his sight – moving with the aid of two other males, one of whom had Niel running down the stairs to greet with tears in his eyes. The third male of the group that had suddenly appeared had warned Changjo and Niel to return to their hiding spot, so they did – joined by the other trio. However, even with the warnings and terrified expressions of the three males of the other trio, nothing would have prepared Changjo, Niel, and Cap for the thing that came into the room just seconds after they dove behind the desk – nothing. 

Three of four.