“Are you sure you’ve gotten enough sleep?” asked Sunggyu, watching Hoya as the younger sat up and rubbed his eyes, the younger smiled and nodded.

“I’m positive,” stated Hoya, “You two can rest now if you’d like – I’ll take the lookout duty.”

The two males hummed in response and Sunggyu settled in on the couch that was previously inhabited by Hoya and Woohyun got settled in on the other less comfortable couch – since he had previously offered Hoya’s couch to Sunggyu, seeing as how the older needed more rest than he did.

With the decision being made, Hoya settled in near one of the many bookshelves in the room – his eyes glued to the hidden door – the only entrance and exit – in worry. He hardly blinked as he continued to just sit there and stare while the other three slept soundly, their breaths echoing through the quiet room that they had lightened up by lighting a few candles.

Hoya sighed as his mind started to wonder, a feeling in his gut telling him something had happened to the two people he wanted to protect. He could feel that something had happened to either Sungyeol or Sungjong – most likely Sungyeol. That something was up, but he just didn’t know what and it worried – terrified – him. If he loses Sungyeol, if Sungjong loses Sungyeol, he won’t know what to do with himself.

“Hey, you alright Hoya?” questioned Dongwoo, causing the younger to jump about a foot into the air from shock.

The younger nodded, placing a hand over his pounding heart, “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” questioned Dongwoo, having noticed how the younger had paused before he responded, “You don’t really sound sure.”

Hoya sighed, “I’m not sure.”

“Want to talk about what is bothering you?” questioned Dongwoo.

Hoya sighed again, caressing his temples gently – feeling a dull ache from all the thoughts and worries swimming through his head, “I feel like I needed to find Sungjong as soon as I can.”

“Why not Sungyeol?” questioned Dongwoo.

“I’m positive something happened to him,” whispered Hoya, “That he and Sungjong were separated.”

“Why didn’t you tell Sunggyu and Woohyun that then?”

Hoya shrugged, “Sunggyu hyung looked completely exhausted and Woohyun has been so cranky - he needs sleep.”

Dongwoo laughed.

Hoya smiled weakly before continuing, “Plus, I didn’t think it’d be smart to go after my cousins – after all, we don’t know where they are and with whatever is out there, it’d be more likely for us to be killed than to find them.”

Dongwoo hummed in understanding before stating, “You never know, what if we did find them?”

Hoya smiled, “All my worries would vanish.”

“What would happen if you only ran into one of them?” questioned Dongwoo – for some reason, whenever he heard of Hoya’s cousin he got a sense that something was wrong and he was worried about that because he was worried that Hoya would blame himself for something that happened to his cousins.

“Then I-I…I don’t know,” whispered Hoya, “I feel as though we’re only going to meet one of the two, but there is a piece of me that is staying hopeful, saying that we’ll meet both – that both will be okay.”

Dongwoo hummed, falling into silence as he thought about his next words carefully, “What if neither male was there?”

Hoya thought about his response for a couple of minutes before finally speaking up, “Then I’d know they’re in a better place – whether it is in the afterlife or outside of this hell house.”

Dongwoo nodded in understanding, falling into silence – not really knowing what he should say next.

He didn’t have to say anything though as Hoya simply just leaned and rested his head on the older male’s shoulder, whispering, “I’m scared about meeting up with them – or just one of them. What if the other is g-gone? What do I do then?”

“You protect and support the one that is there,” stated Dongwoo, “Not only for their sake but for yours’ as well.”

Hoya smiled weakly - the elder's words kind of snapping him out of his rather panicked state, “That doesn’t sound that bad.”

Dongwoo smiled, “I’m not as stupid as you three think I am.”

“I never said you were stupid,” stated Hoya.

“But you thought it,” stated Dongwoo, knowingly as he smiled at Hoya who looked at him in shock and embarrassment, “Don’t worry about it though, most people say that about me. It’s something I’ve come to accept considering I can be stupid sometimes – well, a lot.”

Hoya chuckled at the older’s words – feeling his worries fade away – he felt himself getting the break he felt he really needed.

A couple of hours or what felt like a couple of hours later, Sunggyu woke up from his little nap on the couch to find Dongwoo and Hoya laughing together happily – the duo could easily be mistaken as a couple, or so Sunggyu thought, seeing as how they were curled up - cuddled up - against each other. Sunggyu smiled while watching the nineteen year old and eighteen year old interacting with each other, and knew that something had happened between the duo while he was asleep – he had never seen Hoya smiling so broadly and it was a nice change, a nice sight; especially since the younger had such a beautiful smile that seemed to light up the whole room.

“What happened while I was asleep?” questioned Sunggyu, peering at Hoya in curiosity.

Hoya smiled widened even more as he peered at the elder male, “Nothing too significant hyung.”

Sunggyu smiled, standing up and moving towards where Woohyun was sleeping to wake up the grease ball as he spoke to the younger male, “You seem awfully happy compared to before I went to sleep – something obviously happened.”

“Dongwoo-hyung took care of my worries hyung,” stated Hoya, knowing that the older could read him like a book, “That’s all it is hyung.”

“Really?” questioned Sunggyu, raising his eyebrow.

Hoya smiled and nodded, “Really.”

Sunggyu looked at him suspiciously, “Really?”

“Really,” Dongwoo and Hoya confirmed yet again, looking at Sunggyu with broad smiles.

“Alright,” stated Sunggyu, “If you say so. Anyway, what is our next plan of action?”

“We get to the first floor?” stated Hoya, “If we get there we should be able to camp out there for a while – hopefully catch another group of specimen as well.”

Sunggyu nodded in understanding, “We can get to the first floor from here –while you two were asleep, I went out to examine the area – there is a door on the first floor we can get through.”

Hoya looked at Dongwoo and they discussed the pros and cons of the plan and both ended up agreeing to the plan of getting to the first floor of the mansion – which lead to Sunggyu waking up Woohyun and explaining the plan to him. The eighteen year old agreed to it, not able to think of a better plan.

With minimal discussion, the four were on their way – packing up the little supplies they had remaining – but even a little was enough for the time being. As the small group snuck down the stairs – being careful not to alert anything of their presence, if there was anything dangerous nearby that they couldn’t see.

They soon got to the bottom first floor library and quickly moved to the door that seemed to have been broken down – peeking out into the hall, they got the shock of their lives, tens – possibly hundreds of monsters stood huddled together, as if they were terrified of something.

Hoya looked at the others, his anxiety slowly growing again as he sensed something big heading their way, “We need to get out of here as soon as we possibly can.”

“Why?” questioned Dongwoo.

“There is something coming this way,” stated Hoya, the four males flinched as a beastly roar echoed through the halls.

“That is the thing that you’ve been sensing this whole time, isn’t it?” questioned Sunggyu.

Hoya nodded, “I’m positive that it is.”

“Let’s get going,” stated Woohyun, stepping out into the hall filled with monsters.

“What are you doing?” whispered Sunggyu, in shock and fear – terrified that the younger’s idiocy was going to get them killed, "You're goign to get us all killed!"

“Getting out of here,” stated Woohyun, stepping out farther into the hall, shocking the trio still in the library, he turned towards the three, “Look, there are so many of them here they can’t sense us – so as long as we sneak through here without drawing one’s attention to us, we should be safe.”

Sunggyu stepped out next, looking around as Hoya spoke up, “Let’s hope you’re right Woohyun.”

“Lead the way,” stated Sunggyu, peering at the younger male.

With that the four set off into the monster filled hall, staying crouched under the monsters’ line of vision, making it so that they wouldn’t be spotted by the monsters who they had learned were unable to move their heads. As they passed through the hall, the males formed a chain, Sunggyu was holding onto a belt loop of Woohyun’s pants, Dongwoo was holding onto Sunggyu’s jacket, and Hoya was holding Dongwoo’s hand – not one male wanted to get lost in the mass of monsters made from mutilated human bodies.

There was only one thing that was worrying the four and that was, what exactly was coming for them – for the monsters and why?

By the time they reached the entrance hall of the mansion, there was no sign of anymore monsters or of the beast that had scared the said monsters. Hoya peered around the corner of the broken down door and into the entrance hall, his jaw dropping as his line of vision landed on two mutilated forms of monsters - upon closer observation, they learned one was killed by a human, the other by the beast.  

“Where do we go now?” questioned Sunggyu, looking around – he felt uneasy, as if there was something watching them from within the shadow that filled the room.

“Let’s go into that room,” stated Hoya, pointing towards the room just behind the monster that was clearly killed by a human.

“Why that room?” questioned Woohyun, “Why not some other room?”

“There are footprints leading into that room,” stated Hoya, “My guess is whoever killed this monster is in there.”

“Or a psychotic murderer could be in there,” stated Woohyun, “Better yet, an insane person!”

Hoya sighed.

“Trust Hoya,” stated Dongwoo, encouragingly, automatically grasping ahold of the tense atmosphere and smoothing it down a bit, “Hoya’s the person who has made it so that we’ve survived this long – and as a group of four. Without him, we would have gotten nowhere – or eaten, so trust Hoya just a little bit longer, plus, I think we all can agree – our chances of surviving are greater in there than out here in the open – with something watching us.”

Woohyun opened his mouth to speak, but soon closed it again as he couldn’t come up with the words to say – so he simply just nodded, motioning for Hoya to lead them on, and so, Hoya did just that.

“It’s a kitchen,” stated Sunggyu, aiding Hoya in thoroughly searching the room, he threw open the door to the closet, ready to attack if something was there – however it was empty,  “Something had been in the closet – whatever it was had been bleeding.”

Hoya hummed, standing by the only other door leading out of the room – other than the door to the entrance hall, “This door is locked.”

Sunggyu sighed, “So, are we going to stay here?”

Hoya nodded, “Why not?”

“Well, in that case, we better start barricading the doors,” whispered Dongwoo.

Hoya nodded and the four started finding things they could use to barricade the door that lead to the entrance hall – making sure the door was locked before they started barricading it. Just as they finished they heard rustling and movement on the other side of the supposedly locked door. The four dove behind the island just as the door flung open and two voices could be heard whispering to each other.