| Chapter 4 |

Baekhyun crawled faster and faster the moment he saw the light at the end of the small tunnel they had crept into. Lay was closely following behind him.

“Are we there yet?” Lay asked. Their voices echoed inside the tunnel.

“Almost there,” Baekhyun grunted. “I can see a light at the end!”

The pair continued crawling for a few more seconds until Baekhyun stopped abruptly. Lay crashed into his rear end.

“Hey, watch it!” Baekhyun tried to turn his head to look at Lay but the tunnel was too narrow to allow him to do it.

“Next time I suggest you give me a heads up before you stop all of a sudden.” Lay said, backing away from Baekhyun’s behind. “Does you stopping mean the exit’s there?”

“I think this is it. Something’s blocking the way out, though. It looks like this tunnel is hidden behind a painting, too!”

“Please hurry. I think I’m getting a cramp.” Lay said, his voice unusually calm for someone who was about to experience muscular pain.

Baekhyun hesitated then pushed the painting off, revealing a large rectangular room.

“Whoa.” He breathed, taking in what his eyes could see from the square of the tunnel's exit. “Lay, you got to see this.” Baekhyun peeked his head out of the tunnel to get a better view.

“I would,” Lay grunted. “But I have a big problem.”

“What’s that?” Baekhyun asked, not really listening as he scanned the room. No one else was there.

“Your .” Lay said, bumping his head slightly onto Baekhyun’s .

“Hey! My isn’t big!” Baekhyun retorted.

“I don’t care. Just get out. Cramp! Cramp!”

Baekhyun looked down for the first time and saw that there was quite a height from where the tunnel was to the floor.

“It’s a bit high, Lay.” Baekhyun said uneasily.

“Oh, come on.” Lay rolled his eyes. He was usually patient but he couldn’t take it anymore. “Sorry, Baekhyun.” He pushed the boy in front of him with his head and crawled out soon after Baekhyun hit the floor with a loud thud.

“What did you do that for?” Baekhyun whined. “I think I broke my wrist!”

“I’m sorry, but the cramp...” Lay touched his back and suddenly the cramp that was starting to hurt disappeared. He had no time to wonder why because Baekhyun’s groans of pain distracted him. The other boy was clutching his wrist, which had taken on a bluish color. “Here, let me…” Lay knelt down beside Baekhyun, who had a tear escape his left eye, and gently touched the bruised part.

“Careful!” Baekhyun winced when Lay touched him but the pain he was feeling slowly subsided. The bruise deflated and the color came back to his skin. “Wow, how’d you do that?"

“It just happens. I did the same thing to my friend, remember?” Lay finished healing Baekhyun’s wrist and they both stood up. “I also just healed my cramp.” he said with a smile.

Just then, the painting on the other side of the wall, opposite the painting they came out of, popped off and a boy's head appeared. The boy looked out of the tunnel and scanned the surrounding area until his eyes found Baekhyun and Lay. Baekhyun stared back at the handsome, princely face and a smile crept onto his lips.

“Suho!” Baekhyun called out, waving his hand in the air.

Suho squinted and saw Baekhyun and Lay running towards him.

“Baekhyun!” He smiled the widest smile he’d ever smiled at the sight of his friend. “Oh, boy. Am I glad to see you!”

“Is Xiumin with you?” Lay asked as they helped him out of the tunnel.

“Lay?” Xiumin’s voice echoed out from behind Suho. “Is that you?”

“Xiumin!” Lay looked through the tunnel and found Xiumin squirming his way out. “Take my hands.” Xiumin reached out and grabbed Lay’s hands and Lay began to pull, with Baekhyun and Suho’s help.

Soon, Xiumin was out of the tunnel and they were all standing face to face with each other, retelling their tales.

“And then Lay bumped into my because I stopped all of a sudden and then he pushed me out and I broke my wrist and he healed me with his unicorn powers!” Baekhyun finished, breathing in a gulp of air afterwards.

“I guess this explains Chen’s wound.” Xiumin said, looking at Lay.

“This explains a lot, actually.” Suho added. “But it doesn’t explain everything.”

“Did you ever notice the lights don’t move?” Kai asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I think we’ve been here a good couple of hours. That means the day should have moved on. But the light says otherwise. They haven’t moved.” He said, pointing at the circles of light on the floor.

“We must be inside some building.” Tao sat back against the metal wall, looking exhausted and defeated. Kai walked under one of the lights and looked up, trying to see what was above the ceiling, but it was too bright for him.

 “We’re going to die here, aren’t we? I’m so stressed out about this that I haven’t felt hungry for hours!” Kai said exhaustedly. “These glowing symbols aren’t even helping! If only we knew what to do to with these---,”

“Shh.” Tao held a hand up and went completely still. He looked at Kai as he put a finger to his lips, signalling Kai to stay quiet. Kai looked at him and immediately shut his mouth. They both listened.

Thud

The noise came from above them, beyond the ceiling. Someone was up there.

“Ho!” A voice emanated into the metal box they were in.

“That’s…” Tao said in a whisper, “not a ghost is it?”

Kai looked at Tao with an expression of disbelief. The boy who scared and intimidated him so much was afraid of ghosts?

“I don’t like… ghosts…” Tao whispered, completely frozen in his spot.

“Hyun!” another voice.

Then they heard more thuds from above, like footsteps. Tao gave a little jump. Kai was the one to put his hand up now, signaling Tao to stay still.

The thuds stopped. They listened very intently. A word here and there drifted into their cell. Then Kai’s expression changed.

“I recognize those voices.” He said in a whisper. “I know who they are!”

“So they’re not ghosts?” Tao asked in return.

“Suho, can you PLEASE do that water thing I saw you do?” Baekhyun asked for the nth time. Suho declined for the nth time. “I said please! Come on!”

“Baekhyun, I told you. We don’t know what these… things… are. We have to be careful. Make yourself useful and scan the room. We have to find out who took us here and then we have to get out of here.” Baekhyun frowned and proceeded to investigate the room.

The four boys had finished with introductions and retelling their tales and they were now investigating the new room they were in. Out of one prison and into a new one. For now, they’re all thankful their new confine is a whole lot bigger than their last.

It was only when they started to disperse to investigate when they heard a voice.

“Suhooooo!!!”

The four boys tensed and immediately started looking for the source of the voice. Suho had conjured up water from the air and was poised to strike at whoever or whatever it was that might look like a threat.

“You did it!” Baekhyun exclaimed, clearly amused by his friend’s display of power. Suho shushed him as the voice came again.

“Suho! Baekhyun! Over here!”

Baekhyun and Suho looked at each other, a name forming in both their minds.

“Is that…” Baekhyun began.

“Kai?” Suho ended.

The sky was getting brighter and the sun started rising. The two moons were nowhere to be seen in the sky. Luhan moved in his sleep. Something, or someone, was invading his dream.

Awaken…

Luhan rolled over.

…your powers…

Luhan’s brow creased. He moved again, this time hitting Sehun with a kick. Sehun didn’t seem to feel it.

…under… tree roots… symbol…. Mind and… wind…

Luhan put his arm around Sehun, hugging the other boy as if he was a pillow, and groaned. His brow creased once more and his forehead began to sweat.

Kai… contact Kai…

Luhan hugged tighter.

…friends are… in danger…

The voice started getting louder and clearer. And then Luhan saw his friend Chen with another boy of roughly the same height. They were both surrounded by red colored smoke, and they had no means of escaping. A really ominous feeling started to form in the pit of his stomach, a sickening feeling of fear and of death.

Luhan’s eyes shot open, rising from his sleep and sitting bolt upright. He frantically looked around him, expecting to see the clouds of red he saw in his dream, but he saw nothing except for the tree and the table and the endless sea of grass. He wiped his brow and looked at the boy beside him. Sehun was still asleep. Luhan sighed in relief. He carefully got up from the futon, careful not to disturb Sehun as he did. He walked towards the table and tried to remember what his dream was. He could remember a voice telling him to awaken his powers. Something about the tree roots and a symbol. Instinct told him to quickly go to the tree. He knelt down beside it and looked under the roots. He put his hand in and started feeling for whatever it was he was supposed to find. Then his hand touched something. He took it out and checked it. It was a smooth stone and something was etched onto its surface. A symbol.

“Well, what do you know?” Luhan said to himself. The voice, whoever it was, is helping them. Somehow. “What did it say again…? Mind and wind?”

The symbol on the ston; a series of circles, started glowing.

“What’s that?”

Luhan turned around to see a sleepy Sehun standing behind him and the stone in his hand glowed even stronger.

| Reunion |

[A/N]

UpVote for Baekhyun's "big" ? XDD

I hope you guys enjoying this journey!!

Much love! <3