Soft sounds could be heard, but with closed eyes, she could only see darkness. There was movement in the room and footsteps could be heard. They were distant at first, but came closer as time ticked away. Her eyes twitched softly and she understood that it was time to wake up. To once again take a glimpse at her surroundings for the umpteenth time. The surroundings that never changed.

Slowly her eyes fluttered and opened. Her dark lashes gently beating with the rhythm.The room was white, with bright lamps shining. Every time she opened her eyes, they ached and what she saw were blurry images. It always took a moment to get used to the view and adjust to it. Though the room was quite large, it was cramped with devices, machines that were supposed to do various things. What they did though, was a mystery to her. She didn’t care. She wasn’t supposed to care.

“Log 365. Date XX41, 08, 17. Vitals are okay. Subject responses to stimulus. Growth going well…” The male voice started to fade again and blended with the other sounds in the background. The voice belonged to one of the many figures that came to check on her many times a day. All of them wore white coats. All of them recorded a log in the computer before they left her alone again.

The only thing she could hear now was a murmur and the beeps and soft roars of the various devices in the room as she drifted off again. Right before her consciousness faded, she heard a few last words. This time, it was a female voice. “In three days, it’s already been two years.” Then the familiar darkness embraced her again.

* * * * *

The next time she found her way out of the darkness, wasn’t because of the familiar sounds of footsteps and purring machines. There were different noises. Noises she didn’t recognise. An unknown feeling crept up to her and tingled over her skin, while the same tingles sparked in her stomach. She didn’t recognise this feeling and she hesitated for a moment before opening her eyes. Something that had never occurred before.

Once she regained her vision, the unfamiliar sight took her completely off guard. For the first time since she had been in this room, the lights were off. The machines weren’t snoring softly as they were supposed to and as she was used to. Instead they slowly fell apart with sickening cracking sounds. That wasn’t the only thing though. The lights were off, but the room was lit by something completely different. Something unfamiliar that told her instincts to run away and fast.

She couldn’t though. The fire crept closer to her, followed by the ominous puffs of black smoke. Her hand slowly raised as she placed it on the glass tube that surrounded her. The glass tube that was around her as long as she remembers. She had never been out of it. She wasn’t supposed to. She had never even considered it. Slowly the hand was pressed against the tube with more pressure, until her fingers were completely stretched and the whole surface of her palm touched the cold glass. Her other hand joined the first one, right beside it.

The uneasy tingling had increased as the hairs in her neck rose. A shudder went through her spine and slowly she started to tap against the glass with the palm of her hand. Soon she tapped with two. The frequency and the power she put into each tap increased, until her slender fingers curled up and her hands balled into fists. She was no longer tapping the glass, she was pounding it. She had to break it. She had to run. She had nothing left but to trust her instinct and it only seemed right. She had no time to think.

* * * * *

“Creepy.” A young man muttered under his breath as he approached the building. The fire had spread over the whole place and he was sure that either everyone had left, or they were burnt alive by the flames. His brown orbs were fixated at the building and the violent flames that were eating it, like a raging demon.

“Gikwang-ah. Stop spacing out. The rest is inside already.” He heard a voice call to him in his ear.

A hand ran through his dark hair and with a sigh he nodded, knowing that the  owner of the voice was observing them and he was within his sight. As Gikwang was walking towards the building, he took note of another presence near him. The figure was walking soundlessly behind him, obviously trying to sneak up on him.

Two seconds did it take for him to notice it was dashing at him. Without turning around his head around to see the figure, he stepped to the side. He watched a delicate female figure land right on the spot where he was standing moments ago, crouching to the ground with her back turned to him. The next movement was a spin of her leg to launch a kick. Gikwang spun along with her movement to intercept her leg and pulled it up with his right hand, as his left arm wrapped around her waist. He threw the girl over his shoulder and continued walking

“I win. Again.” He simply noted.

Even though she wasn’t looking at him, she knew that he was smirking brashly.

“Lee Gigong, drop me. Now.” The girl hissed as she drummed her fist into his back.

“You’re such a sore loser.” He retorted dryly. “Lunch tomorrow is your treat.”

A little pressure from his left arm was enough to push her legs up and throw her completely over his shoulder. A yelp could be heard as the girl was suddenly thrown over the male’s shoulder. She landed and rolled to get back on her feet again. With a jerk, the girl turned around to scowl at the male who still walked towards the building.

“Damn it. Fine. I lost this time. I thought the smoke covered up my scent though.” She muttered.

Gikwang paused his steps. This time, the male turned his head a bit to look over his shoulder. With a mocking grin, that he knew would piss his friend off, he sent her a wink. “You underestimate me, Banolim.”

“Gikwang, Baeri, get your act together. We’re on a mission for God’s sake.” They heard the voice again through the ear devices.

“Hyunseung and Yoseob are inside anyway, Doojoon-ah. We’re just extra’s.” Gikwang responded with a sigh.

“Where’s Chaima by the way? She was supposed to stop the fire.” Baeri joined.

“She’s working her magic.” Doojoon replied.

It was true. In a matter of seconds the fire rose from the burning building, only to leave its ruins, and gathered around a figure in front of it. She was holding an orb of fire in her hands and more gathered. But instead the orb got smaller and smaller, until it was the size of a marble. The marble sized orb disappeared in a puff of smoke. Even from a distance both Gikwang and Baeri could see the satisfied smirk on their friend’s face as she dusted her hands. She turned around to wave at them and it was returned with a thumbs up from Baeri.

“Good job. Are Hyunseung and Yoseob inside?” Gikwang asked.

“Yeah. Yoseob used a barrier spell to protect them from the fire. Junhyung and Dongwoon are inside as well.” She responded.

* * * * *

“Finally the fire’s gone.” The shortest male among the four noted with a sigh. The male raised his hand and with a flick, a light around him and his friends blinked to completely disappear afterwards. The smoke was still lingering around and the burnt material smelt in a way that made his nose cringed. When he felt a hand on his shoulder to stop him from walking, he halted and turned his attention to the taller dark haired.

He was gazing intently with full concentration. Yoseob sharpened his senses to observe as well. He didn’t find anything though. It was completely silent aside of the occasional cracking and falling chunk of stone or wood. Wait, no. There was something else. Yoseob’s ears perked up and he finally heard what his friend had noticed, or what he assumed it was. A tapping sound. It was rather loud, but quite far away.

“Let’s go.” Yoseob heard his taller friend say.

Without any words he followed and the two others followed as well. They walked through the abandoned and collapsing hallways until they reached a rather big door. It was rather large and considering the heavy security, very important. They were sure the sound came from behind it. But the building was supposed to be abandoned.

“Dongwoon-ah. Take it down.” Hyunseung told the gravity manipulator.

With a nod said tall raven haired walked towards the door. A push was enough to open it, as the rest of the force was provided by the multiplied gravity that pulled the door down. With a heavy impact the metal doors collapsed. The sound of shattering glass could be heard behind the screen of smoke and dust. The room was pitch dark and had fallen completely silent as the four waited for the smoke to fade.

Without warning though, even when the smoke hadn’t cleared up yet, Hyunseung stepped forward. The others did as well and started to search for things that could be useful to bring with them to the headquarters. They started to rummage through the mess and remains of what used to be a laboratory. Yoseob found a hard drive and took it, while Junhyung gathered all the scattered folders he could find. Dongwoon gathered samples in test tubes.

Hyunseung was still roaming around, looking for the source of the sounds he had heard earlier. When he heard a piece of glass scratching on the tiles under his shoe, Hyunseung halted for a moment to look down. His eyes wandered over the shattered pieces of glass that were spread over the floor, mostly to his right. The farther he looked to his right, the more glass he could see.

As he took a few steps forward, he could also hear movement right in front of him. A few more steps was all it took, to see a small stream of blood flowing his way. His eyes followed the trail as he moved forward. Soon he saw a shivering foot, that was attached to a bare leg. His eyes moved up to see a fragile figure in the shadows. What was weird though, was that he couldn’t feel the presence.Again he stepped forward until he came eye to eye with the figure. He found out that it was a girl. What’s more, she was unclothed, completely , as she sat in a pile of broken glass. There were cuts over her delicate limbs and she shivered slightly. Hyunseung’s eyes locked with her brown orbs. There was no sign of fear in them. Her eyes were completely blank. He couldn’t see nor feel any emotion from this girl.