“The Seven?”

Rayne looked at the men, her head tilted as she absorbed what they told her. Minho kept his eyes averted, but nodded his head. “Yes we call it ‘The Seven’ because it happens every seven months, starting on the seventh day and lasting for a week.”

She took a notebook and pen from her bag and wrote the information down. With her pen poised above the paper she turned her curious blue eyes on the man. She could tell that it was hard for him to talk about it and as she turned her eyes to gaze at the others she could see their reluctance to do the same. Rayne could hardly blame them, but from their reactions, the slightest signs of fear, their reluctance to mention something abnormal, their defensive postures she knew that what she would learn this day would be nothing but truth and something she knew she could use for her next story. “The Seven” being the perfect title as it seemed to be the basis for the entire thing.

“Can you tell me what happens during ‘The Seven’?”

“The thing, the entity I guess, that we unleashed that night is able to manifest fully, powerfully, but we start seeing it the month before, almost as if it’s taunting us, letting us know that it’s still around. During ‘The Seven’ the people closest to us whether a dancer, or a manager or even just someone we don’t know begin to have accidents. No one seems to know how these accidents happen, but they write it off as being just accidents, but we know the real cause, the reason behind it. The entity always makes its appearance either before or after the accident occurs.”

Minho felt a chill race down his spine, even thinking about set fear to chilling his insides. He fought the urge to rub warmth into his arms when he felt the chill bumps prickle their way across his skin, he fought the shudder that passed through him. He didn’t want to show his fear, he didn’t want it to dampen the determination he was feeling to rid them all of this plague.

He, at last, lifted his eyes to look at Rayne. She was studying him, but not with disbelief and he felt a wave of relief when he could see in her eyes that she believed him. He took a moment to take in her appearance and he realized that she was a very beautiful woman, from the silky white-blonde hair that cascaded around her shoulders to the sapphire blue of her eyes framed with dark slashes of lashes. Her skin was clear and like white porcelain, her cheeks slightly pink with a natural blush. Minho knew from their ride from the airport that she was a small person, petite and remembered how she had felt pressed against his side as the escaped the clutches of their fans.

Rayne watched as he studied her, then shook himself and she wondered where his thoughts had been, what he thought when he saw her child-like appearance. It was food for thought, but it was something she would push to the back of her mind for now. “How long has this been going on?”

Grateful for the distraction of his thoughts, Minho focused on the now, the problem they still had to face. “Three and a half years.”

“Can you tell me about the night you set it loose?”

Rayne listened as the men, in turn, took her through the night that they had unleashed something evil. All the while she took notes, asking questions here and there when she need to clarify something or wanted more details. However, as she listened, she felt the fear that these men had felt, felt their determination to see an end to the nightmare. She was rather curious about something.

“How is it, being idols, that you’ve managed to keep this information from becoming public knowledge?”

The one she remembered being called Key scoffed at the question. “You should know that people like a good ghost story, would do anything to see a ghost and that’s exactly why we haven’t said anything except to those select few we have asked for help. If our fans got wind of this they’d never leave us be and although that aspect we’re use to we still don’t like them around during ‘The Seven’ because we don’t want them to get hurt. That thing targets anything that gets close to us.”

“So there’s a good possibility that I’ll become a target.”

His eyes widened at her delightful tone and Minho gazed at her in disbelief. She wanted to be targeted? Had she not listened to anything that was said? He shook his head, she knew the risks involved he was sure. He could tell by the excitement shining in her eyes that she was determined to experience ‘The Seven’ as not only a researcher and someone there to help them, but as someone on the outside who could quite possibly be targeted. As much as Minho found himself disliking the idea of her purposely putting herself in danger, he also knew he was selfish enough to allow her to put herself in that danger if it meant putting all this to an end.

The two thoughts warred for dominance in his heart, but this thing had to end in any way they could stop it. Minho felt something protective rise up in him and felt himself shift a little closer to her. As determined and selfish as he was to end this he knew that he was going to end up protecting this little wraith of woman from the danger she seemed so willing to place herself in. He didn’t understand the urge to protect, didn’t know why he felt that way towards her when he had never felt for any of the others who had taken the time to try and help them, but right at the moment he was unwilling to analyze it.

Minho got back to the problem at hand. “There’s something strange about this time though.”

Shifting the notebook and poising the pen to write Rayne waited, but he said nothing. “What do you mean strange? Is something different this time verses the others?”

“Yeah…you remember I said that we usually start seeing it a month before ‘The Seven’? Well this time we haven’t seen it at all. It’s almost as if it’s gone, but we know better. We may not have seen it, but we can still feel it, still feel the fear that it blankets us all with. We know it’s still there, still waiting, watching, ready to strike if we let our guard down.”

Rayne thought about it a moment, thought of what that could mean. “Maybe this is the end time.” They all gave her quizzical looks. She gave them a reassuring smile and clarified. “What I mean is maybe this time it’s biding its time, building its energy up for a final attack in hopes that it’ll finally win the battle that started over three years ago. You’ve said that you normally start seeing it the month before ‘The Seven’ and that when it comes time that accidents begin to happen. From my experience, that means that it was gathering pockets of energy specifically for those attacks and manifestations, now it’s…hibernating for lack of a better word, storing more energy instead of manifesting as normal. It seems as if this time it means business. I don’t know what that could mean for you or for those around you, but I’m going to try and help you rid yourselves from it.”

“How are you going to help us? No one else has been able to do it.”

Rayne glanced at the youngest man, at his hopeful brown eyes, the soft curves of his youthful face before she turned to Minho and took in his expression, an expression that mirrored his fellow idol. She took a moment to really look at him. He was handsome, tall she knew, the tallest one of the five, well built as well from what she could see. His eyes were wide, deep brown, his nose meshing perfectly with the rest of his face, the tilt of his lips hinting at a boyish smile she wondered if she’d get the chance to see.

The thought stopped her and she averted her eyes. She wasn’t here for romance, wasn’t here to worry about whether one of them smiled or not. She was here for a reason and she would do her job and move on as she always had. Rayne glanced back at Minho and the expression in his eyes seemed to mirror her thoughts and it made her heart face.

Clearing she pulled her eyes away and glanced at the other four who were sitting there patiently waiting for her to answer. She cast them an easy smile trying to put to ease some of the fear that saturated the air in the room. “I want you to take me back to where it all began.”

A shudder ran through Minho. “How is that going to help?”

“I might now be of any help at all, but it’s worth a shot. We’re going to reenact the night you five set it loose and with luck we might be able to figure out the root of why it’s still here, why it lingered even then, why it waited for a chance to use the energy you created to bring it forth. If we can figure out why this spirit hasn’t moved on, why it had decided to linger in a world it no longer belonged, then maybe we can use that information to send it on its way.”

Murmurs of softly spoken questions filled the room as the five Shinee idols discussed the idea. Rayne waited patiently knowing there was no sense in pushing them. She had seen, when she mentioned the idea, the fear that had flickered to ignite in their eyes. Seeing that she knew that they didn’t want to go back to the beginning, but she felt that it was a good place to start. The beginning could be the answer they needed to remove the plague that haunted them like a nightmare.

Finally the murmurs died into silence and Minho glanced up at her and she could see the decision in his eyes even before he nodded. “We’ll take you to the house where we set it free.”

Rayne nodded in return. She took in the expressions of the five men who had put their complete trust in her. She hoped that she didn’t fail they, that she could help rid them of this thing. Her curiosity was piqued and she wanted this experience so that she could write her next book, but above that she wanted to rescue these men…especially, she found, the one who had brought her here to begin with. She only hoped that she would be able to do so.