Niel sat curled up against Chunji’s side – the elder was dozing off where he was leaning against the wall. Changjo and Ricky were out of it, in the deep depths of slumber. L.Joe was sound asleep where he was sitting by the window. As for Cap, he was still very much awake – rummaging through the last bit of furniture, looking for any supplies they could use.

Niel sighed, looking over at Chunji, smiling as he saw the elder male looking as if he was trying hard to fight off sleep, “Hyung, just go to sleep – I’ll get you up if anything happens, alright?”

Chunji smiled, groggily peering at the younger, nodding. Niel smiled happily as he watched the older, curl up further – pulling his knees up flat against his chest and resting his forehead against his knees.

“Sleep well hyung,” whispered Niel.

Chunji in response muttered something through his sleep induced haze; the words were incoherent and slurred together. Once he was positive the sixteen year old was asleep, he stood up and moved into the next room where he was greeted by the sight of Cap leaning against the edge of one of the left over desks in the room, holding his side – pain obviously written all over his expression. Niel could tell the older was trying to hide his pain, so he returned to the bedroom – retrieving a bandage and disinfectant before moving back into the room. He walked up to Cap, who had yet to notice him, and lifted the elder male’s shirt – automatically making the older flinch away.

“What are you doing up Niel?” questioned Cap, his eyes automatically flying open upon the younger’s touch.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” questioned Niel, “I’m tending to your wounds since you refuse to acknowledge that you have them and since you refuse to even clean them and change the bandages regularly.”

“You should be sleeping though, why aren’t you?” questioned Cap.

“I don’t want to,” responded Niel.

“You don’t want to or you can’t?” questioned Cap, knowing the younger better than the male thought he did.

“I can’t,” muttered Niel.

“Nightmares?” questioned Cap.

Niel nodded, “I was nearly asleep, but then the nightmares crept up on me and made it impossible for me to sleep.”

Cap hummed.

“Take your shirt off,” stated Niel, getting a curious glance from CAP. Niel, having an idea of what crossed the elder’s mind, rolled his eyes and lifted up the bottle of antiseptic cream and bandages, “Take it off so I can see your wounds.”

Cap laughed lightly, taking off his shirt happily. As soon as the fabric passed over his shoulders and was set on the desk beside him, Niel got to work on unraveling the old bandages from around the wounds. Once he got to the male’s skin – his eyes zeroed in on the wounds and he tried hard to ignore the muscles that were visibly tensing with every breath the older male took.

“Like what you see?” questioned Cap, smirking playfully – earning another eye roll from Niel.

“Not at all,” stated Niel, acting as if he didn’t understand what the older male was referring to, “These wounds are really deep – I’m pretty sure some even cut deep into the muscles. Also, it’s swollen and pink at the edges – from what it looks like, it’s infected.” The younger looked up at the older, meeting his gaze with an angry one, “How could you let it get this bad?”

“I didn’t think it was this bad,” responded Cap, wincing as Niel’s fingers gently brushed against the open wounds. Goosebumps rose up on his skin as the cold antiseptic was spread over the wounds, as Niel’s fingers ghosted against the skin, “Hey, Niel, do you want to talk about your nightmares?”

Niel shook his head, “I’d like to just forget about them.”

Cap hummed in understanding, before pausing as he realized how close his face was to Niel’s, since the younger was leaning forward to wrap up the older male’s wounds with clean bandages. Niel paused as he felt the elder’s warm breath caressed the cold skin of his cheek – the two staring into each other’s eyes.

“Cap,” muttered Niel.

Cap’s gaze moved from Niel’s lips to his eyes, “What is it?”

“I feel like the longer I’m here the more I’m losing myself,” whispered Niel, earning a curious glance from Cap, “I feel like I’m changing – that I’m not myself anymore. Each hour that feeling is growing stronger and the nightmares are growing longer…I’m scared hyung, what is going on? What is wrong with me?”

“I don’t know,” stated Cap, frowning as he brushed some of the younger’s hair behind his ear, “I don’t know Niel, but it worries me too.”

Niel sighed; leaning against the older’s bare shoulder in defeat as he tied the bandage in place, “Please, just hold me this once – I know it is weird, but I really need it.”

Cap hummed quietly, wrapping his arms around the younger’s waist – his chin resting on the crown of the younger male’s head. His hold tightened around the younger as he felt the sixteen year old trembling – as he felt warm droplets of water make contact with his skin.

“Don’t worry Niel,” whispered Cap, “You are safe with me.”

“You’ll do as you promised right? You’ll keep your promise, right?” whispered Niel, needing the elder male’s reassurance that he wasn’t going to become a murder. Despite the elder’s encouraging words, he knew what was coming and he knew what he would become.

Cap sighed but nodded, “As much as I hate to, I will keep my promise. I promised you that.”

Niel smiled, wrapping his arms around the older male's neck before suddenly pulling away and wiping away his tears, “I’m sorry hyung.”

Cap smiled and shook his head, “It’s alright. I understand you needed to let it out. After all, all night we’ve been focused on running, but now that we have a break, your mind had time to think about it.”

Niel smiled and nodded, “I think I’m going to try to get some sleep now.”

“I could make you a bed in here,” stated Cap, “That way I could wake you up if you started to have another nightmare.”

Niel smiled, “I’d like that.”

A couple of minutes later, there was a make shift bed made of extra blankets and pillows laid out on the floor for Niel – who was shocked at how comfortable the little bed actually was. As soon as he was situated in the little bed made by Cap, the elder male happily placed a blanket over the younger’s form, wishing the male pleasant dreams.

“I hope you have happy dreams and not those nightmares you keep talking about,” muttered Cap, caressing the younger’s cheek as the younger finally slipped into the dark depths of slumber. Despite the elder’s wish for good dreams – the young fifteen year old was yet again being plagued by nightmares he was unable to wake himself from, that he felt like he was living.

As the younger slept, Cap rummaged through the last couple of drawers – looking for anything useful, which he did in the form of a letter from one of the past specimen. The letter read:

I’m really beginning to worry about Min Jun-hyung. He’s been refusing to sleep recently – he has horrible eye bags under his eyes and he’s been trembling nonstop and the scariest of all the things he’s doing, he’s been staring off into space. He’s really just looking at a wall – his eyes staring at nothing, but his eyes showing complete and total terror. I’m worried about him since he hasn’t been acting like himself recently and it terrifies me – the glint in his eye especially. As I watch over his progress as he sleeps now, I can see the pain and the terror continuously flashing up on his face. My body is exhausted, but I’m too worried about him to sleep – especially as he lies right by my side. Please Min Jun, be alright. Please don’t leave me.

-          Lee Junho

Cap flinched as he found another letter written by the same male; however, this one was splattered with dried blood – which had stained the white parchment.

Minjun lost himself – there was no way for me to bring him back, so…so I killed him. I had no other choice but to do so because it was either he killed me or I killed him. I stabbed him and he stabbed me – I’m dying as I write this similar to those before me, before anyone who reads this. Minjun has already passed while I’m still here…suffering. I thought I would regret killing him – I do, after all, he’s my lover, but after much thought, I honestly don’t regret it. He would’ve wanted me to kill him before he could become a murder; I knew he would’ve – if he had known that he was going insane.

It always starts the same – you have nightmares and they progressively get worse and worse until you are unable to tell if it is a dream or a reality – whether you are awake or asleep. It’s terrifying to watch, but I don’t have to worry about it anymore….not after he stabbed me.

-          Lee Junho

Cap stared at the male’s words – they sounded so familiar, the situation itself sounded so familiar it scared him. He dropped the paper and his eyes rose to look at the male sleeping in the room with him – the male looked oddly beautiful in the pale light of the candle; his hair splayed out on the pillow as if forming a halo around his head, his long eyelashes moving as his lids twitched due to whatever dream he was having – whether it was good or bad, and the most attractive part of the male’s face – in Cap’s eyes - was the boy’s large lips which looked entirely too kissable.

Cap shook his head, now was not the time to be admiring the male’s beauty, especially not in the situation they were currently in. There was some sort of beast just two rooms away – if that – and if the monster did not fall for the little illusion they all would be beast food and the other seven males that were somewhere else in the mansion would be doomed to the same fate or to one that was worse. Plus, on top of that – the six could possibly be trapped in a room with someone who was insane.

Despite all of those things being bad, the one thing that was hitting Cap the hardest was the fact that he had started to feel something towards the male he had promised to kill if it came down to the male actually becoming insane and Cap honestly didn’t know if he could keep his promise anymore. Then again, he didn’t know if he was just feeling the way he was towards Niel because he was lonely or if he honestly did like the younger male.

Shaking his head yet again, he moved towards the younger – seeing that the male was having a nightmare – waking the boy up and handing the groggy fifteen year old both letters he had found, refusing to make eye contact as he stated, “I think you might want to read these.”

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! ^^

To those of you whom wished me a happy brithday - thank you. ^^