| Prologue |

‘…and today, a unique phenomenon will occur. According to scientists and astrologers, the planets will align at exactly 7 in the evening today! A lot of people are already preparing for the event by picking the best spots to gaze up at the heavens! In other news...’

I can’t be late again. Kris is going to kill me.

I turn off the TV and exit my room in a hurry. I brisk-walk towards the bus stop, a two minute walk away from my dorm, and the wind greets me with a cold touch to my face. I live near the beach area, so the air is always fresh and cool. I love the wind. Most people would complain about how cold it gets but I don’t mind at all. The wind and I are best friends.

I arrive at the bus stop, which, luckily, only has two people waiting for their own buses. I hate having to shove and push my way through people just to get into my ride.

Bus 121, bus 121, bus 121… I always get the bus numbers mixed up. Bus 121, Bus 211 and Bus 112 all pass by this stop, it just gets confusing at times. The other reason I get it mixed up is because I just moved to the area two months ago.

Ah, here it is! The bus rolls down the empty street towards me and stops in its usual spot in front of the bus stop.

I hop onto the bus and choose a seat by the window. I glance at my watch as the bus starts moving.

5 : 49 PM. Great, a few more minutes to spare.

Kris’ condo unit isn’t far from where I live. It usually takes me about 5 minutes to get there by bus.

The bus runs along its route, taking me on a scenic trip by the beach side. There are a couple of people camping out on the sand.

“Probably the best place to see the planetary alignment tonight, right?” I hear the woman behind me say. “I wonder how it will look like? It’s not like an eclipse, is it?”

“I don’t know. But I wish I could just lounge around by the beachside, too! Problem is, I live 30 minutes away and my husband isn’t the romantic type!” her seatmate groans. I smile while listening to their conversation.

Kris’ condo unit’s huge gates appear in my peripheral and I prepare to disembark. The bus stops and I step out and walk into the unit’s grounds. Then someone yells my name.

“Luhan! Wait up!”

I turn to see Tao running towards me.

“I knew it was your baby face I saw in that bus! But did you change your hair color? Getting bolder now, aren’t we?” he says, stopping in front of me, barely breaking a sweat from the little sprint he just did. He eyes my hair, inspecting it and giving little nods of approval as he does so.

I immediately run a hand through my now light brown hair, smile sheepishly and change the subject. “We haven’t even started practice yet and you’ve already given yourself a bit of exercise!”

“What? You call that little jog exercise?” he shrugs the comment off. “Come on, we’re almost late!” he slips past me and starts leading the way.

“Little jog… that was an Olympic-level run!” I say as I walk after him.

Tao is a really nice kid. Most people would get the wrong first impression from him. His sharp eyes are very intimidating and people would think he’s the type that’s cold and cruel but he’s really the type to walk down the beach by himself or express how much he likes a beautiful view, maybe even get a little teary-eyed from it. I find it cute. He’s the youngest in our group of six. He’s also a Wu Shu master… so we try not to get on his bad side. He’s really good with a sword and a bo staff. I envy this of him because every time he does his practice sets he looks like someone who came out of one of my favorite video games.

We reach Kris’ building (2^nd on the left) and enter the elevator. I press the button for the 6^th floor. As the elevator nears Kris’ floor, I can hear the music we’re supposed to be practicing to get louder and louder. The elevator doors open and the music just hits us like a wall of sound.

“I think they started without us!” Tao shouts over the music and proceeds to press the doorbell.

Kris’ parents partly own the condo building compound. He transferred from Canada a few years back and they gave him a place in this building. Since no one else has rented the other rooms in the other floors, we tend to practice with really loud music.

“I don’t think they’re gonna hear the doorbe---,” I start to say but the doors open and Kris appears on the other side of the threshold, cutting me off mid-sentence. The music stops playing.

“Come in. I thought you were going to be late again, Luhan!” he says, ushering us in. “And is that a new hair color?”

“Not anymore!” I say, laughing a bit too nervously as I pass by him, ignoring his latter remark on purpose. Kris can be really intimidating sometimes. Unlike Tao, who just looks intimidating, Kris is kind of frightening both in and out. I blame it on his freakish height. He’s two to three heads taller than me. And he rarely smiles, but when he does, it never fails to make me smile as well. Mainly because his upper gums show so much when he does.

“Kris Ge. I, uh, got you this.” Tao holds out the small brown paper bag he's carrying with him. I can’t see what’s inside but Kris’ face lights up as soon as he opens it and sees what’s inside.

“You did not!” Kris exclaims, closing the paper bag without taking the content out.

“I did. I happened to be passing by the same street yesterday, so I thought…”

“Thank you so much! I’ll wear it on the day of the contest!” Kris speed walks to his room and disappears behind the door. Tao is the only person I know who has managed to pierce through Kris’ tough exterior. Maybe tough isn’t the word… he just likes to act cool all the time but I don’t tell him that it’s always so obvious when he does.

Tao and I enter the living room to find Xiumin in front of the sound system, a donut in his hand. The furniture is already pushed aside so that there’s this huge space in the center of the room for dancing.

“Where’s Lay and Chen?” I ask, looking around.

“Ah, it’s you Lulu! I thought it was Chen.” Xiumin says, looking away from the sound system. “They’re both not here yet. Well, you know how Lay can be forgetful most of the time… But I made sure to text him five times today.” He waves his phone in the air a few times, wiggling his eyebrows.

I giggle at the thought and move into the center of the dance space to practice a few of the moves with Xiumin.

“Is that a new hair color?” Xiumin asks over the music. I ignore the question, pretending that I didn’t hear it.

Then I hear the doorbell ring. Someone was pressing it like crazy, the rings come before the first ring finishes. I hurry and turn off the music.

“Open up! Hurry!” I hear Lay's voice.

Kris and Tao rush to the door and as soon as they open it, Lay pushes past them, rushing inside with Chen beside him, his arm slung around Lay’s shoulders.

“What happened?” I ask as they pass by the living room and head for the bathroom. I immediately assist both of them, slinging Chen’s other arm on my shoulders.

“Some freak on a bicycle crashed into me by the gates. I skinned my knees and got scratches on my arms but that’s about it. Kind of hard to bend my legs, though. I always think that if I do move them, the teat will just get wider!” Chen explains, wincing as we advance steadily but quickly to the bathroom. He hisses as we set him down on the toilet bowl. “Luckily, Lay arrived just as it happened.”

“What's worse is that the biker didn't even stop to say sorry.” Lay says absent-mindedly behind me as he began opening the cabinets and drawers. “Where's the first aid kit again...? Ah, here it is.”

Xiumin, Tao and Kris are at the door, watching as Chen rolls his pant legs up to expose the wounds.

“Wow, those look pretty serious.” Xiumin says, wincing as if he could feel how the wounds hurt.

“I’ve been through worse.” Chen gives us a smile but the pain was still obvious on his face. “Is that a new hair color, Luhan?”

“Okay, okay,” Lay pulls me aside. He positions himself in front of Chen and starts applying first-aid. “Move along. I’ll handle this.”

“Anything I can do to help?” I offer.

Lay just shakes his head. “I’m good. You guys start without us. Besides, I did a two-hour dance practice session last night.” he replied, ending the conversation.

“Ow! Careful!” Chen exclaims as Lay applies the medicine.

Lay continues to dab at his wounds without listening to Chen's winces and hisses.

Kris ushers us all back to the make-shift dance practice room and we start getting into our positions. The music starts and we all dance along and lip synch to the song. We finish our first set when we hear Lay call us out, once again sounding urgent.

“What now?” Kris groans. “Lu, go check it out will you?”

I nod and wipe sweat off my forehead as I head for the bathroom.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, peeking inside. Chen’s left knee was fully bandaged but his right knee doesn’t show any sign of it having wounds at all. “Wow, what kind of first-aid did you do?” I asked looking at Lay.

“I didn’t do anything!” Lay says, almost like a whisper, his eyes wide open. “I didn’t… it just…”

“It started fixing itself up!” Chen says. “It was amazing! I felt this kind of euphoric surge of energy inside of me and then I didn’t feel any pain anymore! And my wounds started vanishing!” He shows me his arms and it was all smooth, clear skin. No wound, no scratch, nothing.

“Are you guys playing a trick on me?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. But something inside me tells me this can’t be a trick. I saw the wounds, I saw the scratches. It was there. It was real. Have I been playing too many video games?

“Maybe I’m some kind of mutant!” Chen exclaims. Obviously, he’s not as worried as Lay is about what happened.

All three of us head back to the living room. When the rest of the group sees us, they stop dancing and look at Chen.

“What happened to your…? I thought you were hurt?” Kris asks, turning the sound system off. A hint of annoyance was audible in his tone. “Are you playing another one of your tricks to get out of dance practice!?”

“No! No!" Chen waves his hands in front of him. "I swear, I really did get hit by that freak bike rider! Lay saw me!"

Lay looks like he’s in a daze. He always does, but this time more than usual. I look down at my watch to check the time.

6:59 PM

We’ve lost too much time and we haven’t even done a second set of practice yet. It’s already dark outside. I leave them as they bicker about the situation and head for the terrace. I look up to see the sky filled with stars like I've never seen before. I’ve also never seen the sky this clear before. Maybe it’s because of that planetary thing I saw on the news earlier today…

Then I hear Xiumin scream. I whip around and rush back to the living room to see the weirdest thing I have ever seen in my life.

“Help!” Kris shouts, a few feet off the ground, floating up towards the ceiling. “Hey, someone get me down!”

Lay jumps and grabs his legs, trying to anchor him down but it wasn’t working. Tao joins in.

Xiumin is backed up against a wall, which is now covered in ice. There was a weird bluish glow around him and I could feel the temperature go low.

Chen is discharging what looks like electricity from his hands. He was trying so hard to contain it but it didn’t look like he could control it.

I didn’t know what to do. My mind went blank. My heart started racing. My whole body tensed.

7: 00 PM

Then I heard it.

We need… need you…

I hear the words as if someone was whispering it to my ear. 

…in danger… world is in…

In my head. A voice inside my head. The temperature is now unbelievably cold and my teeth chatter. I get down on my knees and start breathing heavily. Chen and Kris' screams start to sound muffled. My vision starts to blur, and a blackness starts to creep in from the edges.

My head starts to ache now; a slow, creeping pain.

…Help us…

Then the darkness takes me. Then silence.

| Prologue, Luhan Point of View |