A/N: important info in the author's note at the end

Two weeks had gone by since N had returned home. Two weeks since he declared he would bring Bora and her sibling back. Two weeks since he’d made any progress. N felt like he was smashing his head against a brick wall.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself,” Hyuk tried to smile at the older, “I know you’ll manage to fix things.”

“I honestly don’t know anymore, Hyukkie,” N sighed. With no more said, N dragged himself upstairs to his room.

“Hyung,” Hongbin started to call after the older, but stopped at Leo’s signal. Now wasn’t the time to make N talk, he was too upset for the conversation to end well.

In his room, N lay on his bed attempting to fall asleep. Every time he started drifting off to sleep, he’d be reminded of stone-Bora sitting in the living room on the floor below. He’d said he could fix things, and yet two weeks had gone by with no progress made. N was still stuck at square one with no idea about what to do next.

Eventually, however, N fell asleep, too exhausted from the day and his problems to stay awake any longer.

N found himself in a village, very similar to the one he’d grown up in as a child. For the most part, everything was peaceful, something he was in desperate need of. But the longer N walked around the village, the more apparent the lack of life became. It wasn’t that there were no people, no people he could handle, it was that there were no birds or insects. Even the grass and the trees seemed void of life, or energy. They might as well be statues.

N jumped when he heard the faint sound of someone talking. The person was too far away for him to make out words, but he could tell it was a woman. For a moment, N entertained the idea that maybe it was Bora, but then reality swooped in and shattered that idea. Why would Bora be in a dream like this? No, this was someone else and N found himself worrying about who that someone else could be.

Despite his mind – and his fear – telling him to walk away from the voice, he started walking in the direction the sound was coming from, trying to find the source. Some part of him – his heart maybe? – was telling him that he needed to find this person. He wasn’t dreaming this place up randomly, there was a reason – and important one – for him being here.

“Hello?” N called, coming to a stop in front of a door. He could hear the woman chanting clearly now, but he couldn’t understand what she was saying. N tried to think of when he would have heard similar chanting, but he drew a blank. It kind of sounded like a witch’s spell, but it was in a language he’d never encountered.

Suddenly, the door was no longer in front of him and N looked around to find that he was now inside the hut.

“Welcome, Cha Hakyeon,” the same voice from before greeted him, “it’s a pleasure to finally meet you face to face like this.”

“Who are you?” N asked, turning to face the woman. She was dressed just like the women used to dress when he was human, confusing N a bit, and her long brown hair was pulled into two braided pig tails. Something about the woman’s eyes reminded him of Bora, Suji, and Jiwook.

“Look into my eyes again,” she smiled, “I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out.” N did as he was told only to recoil in fear and anger when he realized who the woman was.

“Song Mihyun,” he hissed.

“I apologize for making the werewolf bite you,” she bowed her head slightly, “it was not my intention to hurt you like that.”

“No,” N tried to keep his voice calm, “you wanted to kill Bora. Like I was just going to let you do that.”

“You truly do care for my daughter, don’t you?” Mihyun’s smile returned. If N didn’t know what he knew about Mihyun’s attempts to kill her children, he could have mistaken her for a loving mother. But he did know so he viewed her happy tone of voice and warm smile as part of a game. The only question was: what kind of game was she playing?

“What do you want from me?” he asked, still trying to be careful with his words and tone. It wouldn’t do to upset the witch. She’d already managed to possess Luhan from beyond the grave, what else was she capable of doing?

“I wish for you to find my spell book, Cha Hakyeon,” Mihyun told him. she opened to say more, to explain why he needed to find it, but N cut her off.

“Like hell I’d do that,” he scoffed, “you probably want to use it to do something to Bora, Suji, and Jiwook. You must have a spell in there that would prevent us from bringing them back. Nice try, but I’ll never help you.”

“Foolish boy!” Mihyun hissed, clearly angered by his accusation. With a wave of her hand, N felt himself falling back, falling into a black pit of nothingness.

He opened his mouth to scream only to wake up in his own bed, wrapped up in his blankets.

“What’s wrong?” Leo asked a few seconds later, throwing open the door, “I heard you screaming.”

“Mihyun paid me a visit,” N sighed, falling back against his pillows.

“What do you mean?” Leo asked, “why would a dead witch pay you a visit in your dreams?”

“She wanted me to find her spell book,” N explained, moving around so that Leo could sit on the edge of his bed, “I told her to go to hell and she got mad at me. She sent me falling into black nothingness and then I woke up.”

“Why would she want you to find her spell book?” Leo asked, trying to hide a yawn. He’d been just about to fall asleep himself when he heard N screaming from the next room over.

“She probably has some spell in it that would kill Bora, Jiwook, and Suji,” N hissed, “or a spell that would make it so we could never bring them back.”

“She’s the witch who created vampires,” Leo said, thinking about just what kind of spells could be hidden in the dead witch’s spell book, “If anyone has a spell to undo the sealing spell, it will be her. It might be worth finding her book.” N thought about this idea, too, trying to decide if it was worth their while or not. Thus far, they had no leads on how they could bring Bora – as well and Suji and Jiwook – back. This book could be the key to breaking the seal on the originals.

“If it’s a trap,” N growled, “I’ll kill you before she can lay a hand on you.”

“Deal,” Leo nodded, knowing N meant that.

A/N: now, I wonder where that spell book is hidden. well dear readers, i think i should tell you now: we're on the home stretch. not many more chapters to go (only six or seven more truth be told). now, do you want me to start posting a new chapter ever couple of days or keep going as i have been with one chapter a week? i don't mind either way, so i'm leaving it all up to you.