| Chapter 8 |

Xiumin hurriedly backed away from the outline and called out to the others. Lay and Tao turned at Xiumin’s call and immediately ran towards their friend.

“What did you do?” Lay asked as he arrived beside Xiumin. The other boy just shook his head rapidly as he continued to gape at the gigantic double doors that were materializing before his very eyes.

Suho and the others joined the three and by the time they had come near, the door had fully materialized.

“Whoa.” Baekhyun breathed out. “That’s some door…”

All their eyes climbed upward, taking in the height. It was an arched double door nearly as high as the ceiling and was wide enough that even if all five of them stood in a line, side by side, there’d still be enough space for 7 or 8 more people to go through with them.

The majestic doors were covered in carvings. The largest carving was, Tao noted, the same circle of symbols he and Kai had found inside the metal room they had woken in. It spanned most of the door’s surface and the circle was cut in half where the doors would part when opened. Each half circle contained six symbols out of the twelve. In the middle of the circle was a carving of a tree whose many branches fanned out, crossing the borders of the circle of symbols, and crawling all over the expanse of the doors. The leaves looked like they were made of crystals as their shapes were not leaf-like but edgier, diamond shapes. Above the circle of symbols and the tree carvings, taking up the space of the door’s arch, were carvings of four women. They had no faces and they all looked identical. Their hairs flowed out in every direction, like the tree’s branches.

“How do we open that thing?” Xiumin asked, a tone of wonder evident on his voice.

“I don’t think we can…” Suho answered.

Then they heard the familiar sound of Kai’s teleportation. They all removed their eyes from the portal in front of them and turned to see a circle of boys shrouded in black smoke.

“They’re back!” Baekhyun exclaimed. His eyes immediately found the auburn color of Chanyeol’s hair. “Chanyeol!”

Chanyeol turned his head to see Baekhyun waving at him. Chanyeol broke into a grin and waved back animatedly.

The twelve boys merged and began recounting their tales once again to the new comers. Slowly, through their talking, they had formed two groups of six. Kris, Tao, Chen, Xiumin, Lay and Luhan stood facing Suho, Kyungsoo, Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kai and Sehun. They all shared smiles, all happy with their reunion, when they heard a loud moan emanate through the room.

“What’s that?” Kris said, whipping around to look for the source. Xiumin pointed at the doors and shouted a warning.

“It’s opening! Stay back!”

They scattered as the heavy doors were being pulled open by some unseen force. Bright light spilled into the hall they were in. Everyone but Baekhyun shielded their eyes.

When the doors fully opened, no one stirred. They all expected something, or someone, to come out but after a moment of waiting, nothing came.

When his eyes had adjusted to the light, Suho broke away from his group and took a look at what the doors hid behind them. Beyond the threshold was a long hallway, its walls as high as the walls of the hall they were in and the ceiling just as unreachable. Suho squinted his eyes to get a look at what might be at the end of the hallway but all he could see was a curtain of white light.

Baekhyun joined him, as did the others.

“There’s something in the end.” Baekhyun said. Suho turned to him, confused as to why Baekhyun could possibly say that despite the blinding light. Baekhyun noticed the look and shrugged. “I think it’s because I have the power of light?”

“Do we go in?” Xiumin said from behind Baekhyun. “We don’t know what’s at the end.”

“Do we have another choice?” Chanyeol asked. “I don’t see any other doors in here. Not even normal sized ones.”

“We do have another choice, actually. Through him.” Kris said from behind them and pointed at Kai. “We can teleport back to our homes. Back to normal.”

Everyone looked at him, every one of them feeling conflicted if they agreed with Kris or didn’t. Kris felt taken aback by their lack of support.

“Don’t tell me all of you want to stay here and continue in this dreamland!?”

“We don’t,” Luhan said quickly. He glanced at his friends, at Sehun, and then rephrased his statement. “I don’t. But I also want answers. Think about it, Kris. Who’s to say that once we do go back these things won’t creep into our normal lives?”

Kris was silent and so were the others.

“Besides,” Luhan continued. “I have a theory. I don’t think we’re in Earth anymore.”

“Which one gave that away? The abnormal two moons or the robotic spheres of energy ers that ambushed us?” Chanyeol said sarcastically. Baekhyun elbowed him lightly. “What? I was joking. I mean, it’s pretty obvious we’re not on Earth… at least, maybe not our Earth. This could be an alternate world.”

“I agree with him.” Luhan said, nudging his head in acknowledgement towards Chanyeol. “Or this could be a completely different world fashioned after our planet.”

“Okay, okay.” Kris said, raising his hands in the air. “Whatever world we’re in, it’s definitely a crazy one. As if the powers weren’t enough, we know there’re killer robots somewhere out there. We don’t even know if this whole castle or whatever this is is those robot’s lair!”

“He has a point.” Kyungsoo said. “We don’t know what we’ve gotten ourselves into and we don’t know what we’re up against.”

“And that’s exactly why we need to stay!” Luhan urged. “We need answers! Earth won’t have them!”

Kai interjected with a loud cough. “Guys, I don’t think going to Earth is an option.”

Everyone turned to face him.

“I just tried to teleport to my house but my powers didn’t work.” He said, his tone a little bit grim. “Then I tried Sehun’s house. Suho’s. Kyungsoo’s. The park outside Kyungsoo’s house. It didn’t work.”

“Maybe our powers are gone?” Lay said. Kai disappeared in a puff of smoke in response to Lay’s question and appeared at the other end of the hall, opposite where they were. He teleported again and reclaimed his position in the group.

“I just can’t teleport home.” Kai said in finality.

“We’re stuck here.” Kris put a hand on his forehead. “We’re stuck here with no way out.”

“There is a way out.” Luhan said. “Through this door and into the light.”

Everyone looked at him and his eyes glowed with a hidden determination, and they nodded in agreement.

Kris sighed and looked at Tao, who was beside him.

“You agree with this?”

“We don’t have a choice.” Tao replied, looking at the hallway in front of them. Then he looked at Kris. “It’s okay right? As long as we go through this together?”

Kris sighed and shook his head slightly. “Fine. Let’s do this.”

“You guys okay with that, right?” Suho said, addressing his group. He was replied with nods and yesses.

Kai hooked an arm around Sehun’s shoulders. “Together!” he said in a shout.

“Together!” the others replied.

Luhan glanced over at Sehun and saw that Sehun had been looking at him as well. The two shared a private smile.

Then they all faced the portal before them.

“Now or never.” Suho said.

“Now or never…” Kris repeated.

Everyone nodded and moved towards the threshold.

| Now or Never |

[A/N]

Okay, I really took some time writing this because I got stuck describing the door. I didn't know how to do it! I'd just read Dan Brown's INFERNO novel and how he described the architecture just blew me away. So I wanted to do it his way but then after a bit of seaching through writer forums, I learned that the description of something/someone in a story depends on the point of view. Since the boys are, well, boys... they don't need to describe the door too in-detail. I mean, they see that it's huge and that it's covered in carvings and they make out the carvings as the circle of symbols, a tree, and the four women

But I do hope you guys imagined it the way I see it. I actually drew the door on a piece of paper just so I can describe it while looking at it. LOL. My y drawing is below... XDD

Sorry for the lame drawing. HAHAHAHA XD Anyways, I decided to cut the chapter.. XD The NEW things in the story will be in the next chapter. XD