(WARNING: This chapter may contain some very cliché moments. I am a er for clichés, and they happen to work to my advantage for this chapter.)

The boy clutched his head between his hands, an anguished moan escaping his lips as he slumped to the floor.

"Luhan, are you okay?" He heard someone ask. Vision swimming, he looked around for the source of the question.

"Tch, figures. Pretty Boy is looking for attention again."

"God Luhan is such a drama queen."

"I feel sorry for him...his parents are so neglecting..."

"Shut up! All of you just shut up!" He screamed, his head pounding like never before.

"No one said anything, Luhan," the flustered substitute teacher said. She took a tentative step forward, reaching out a hand to help him from the floor, but he swatted it away. The teacher screamed and looked at her now bleeding hand, and for a second Luhan was stunned. Had he done that? He looked down at his own hand and found that it was no longer a hand but a paw.

“Freak!”

“Look he’s getting all hairy!”

“Someone go get help. He’s dangerous!”

Luhan could only watch speechless as the voices in his head and the voices of his classmates blurred into static white noise. He was more concerned by the fact that his hand, no, now both of his hands had turned to paws.

“No,” he muttered, shaking his head in disbelief as the transformation into some sort of beast began to spread. He could feel his bones creaking and cracking, the pain of which brought him to his knees once again. His already blurred vision suddenly expanded and turned everything to shades of yellow, gray and blue. His teeth seemed to be growing and pushed his lips back in a snarl, as his canines grew longer and more deadly. He thrashed about, knocking over a nearby chair and desk, and made a low growling noise that scared even him.

Was he even the same Luhan any more? Was he even still human?

A shrill scream brought his mind back to the present, and he realized that all the voices had grown silent. The terrified faces of his classmates and substitute teacher stared back at him. He took a step forward, and almost immediately realized that he was on four legs instead of two. He turned quickly to face the window.

He had turned into a wolf.

Luhan woke, startled, and in a cold sweat. He was having that dream again. Sighing, he looked to his left, hoping that his sudden burst of movement didn’t wake Lay. He ran a shaky hand over his face, annoyed that for the sixth time in as many days, his sleep was interrupted by the terrible nightmare. He thought that such ridiculous things from his past wouldn’t haunt him – he was stronger, better, faster than he’d ever been in his life, so things from grade school should be the furthest from his mind.

Yet here he was, lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, willing his heart to slow to a normal pace and his body to stop trembling.

He listened for the other sounds in the house. As it were, everyone was sleeping. The room just next to the one he shared with Lay was Jinri’s. He quietly got out of bed, slid into his slippers, and left the room, headed towards hers. He knew she didn’t want him in her head, but she was projecting some awful thought waves, and he hoped that even if he couldn’t get a good night’s sleep, he could make sure she got one.

He silently entered her room, and she was tangled up the in the blankets, her limbs twitching in her sleep. He crouched next to the bed where her head was and brushed the errant hairs from her face. Even though she seemed to be having a tough time in her dreams, and it certainly showed on her face, he still thought she was pretty. He placed his hand on her cheek, and she flinched, presumably because of his cold hands.

It was easy to see into her dream. He only brushed the surface, however, fearing that she would sense him and kick him out. He still wasn't sure how she knew he’d been in there before, but he wasn’t going to try and figure it out now. He took his time in draining the negative energy from her, running it through a sort of mental filter before sending it back to her. His telepathic powers were something that even he had trouble understanding sometimes, though he knew enough.

By the time he was finished, Jinri looked considerably calmer. He glanced at the small clock she’d set up on the table beside the bed. It was already 4am, which meant he only had a couple more hours to attempt to sleep before he had to get up and get ready.

With one last look at Jinri, he left her room and head back to his own. He lay in bed once again, and thought about what he had just seen in Jinri’s dreams. Even though he had only brushed the surface, he saw some pretty heavy images, including some of him and the others. The one that stuck with him the most, however, was one of her as a little girl, playing with a ball in a grassy backyard. There was a familiar looking little boy with her, but as her own memories were fuzzy, his understanding of them would be as well.

Of course, it was all information he would keep to himself. She didn’t need to know that he had broken his promise (even with good reason), and none of the others needed to know as well.

With a sigh, he turned to lay on his side, letting the faint buzzing of the dulled thoughts of those around him lull him into his own dreamless sleep.

__

Jinri was shaking. The meal of egg-toast and bacon was churning in her stomach like an overzealous butter-maker and she was sure that despite the copious amounts of deodorant she’d put on that morning, she was going to sweat through her jacket.

“Hey, hey; calm down, Jinri,” Lay said to her as he slid into the car next to her. He patted her hand comfortingly and gave her a soft smile. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“Easy for you to say,” she muttered. “The last time I was on campus wasn’t exactly my best experience.” Lay hadn’t considered that, and furrowed his eyebrows in thought.

“If it makes you feel any better, no one knows about that incident,” he explained. “Luhan threw up a barrier before anyone could get close enough. As far as anyone knows, you’ve been sick for the past two days.”

“That's al fine and well, but what will happen when people see us getting out of the same car?” She asked, and then paused. “Why do you have a car anyway when Houdini over there can just teleport from place to place?” She jabbed a thumb at Kai, who was snoozing in the seat behind her.

“When was the last time you had to explain to someone that you and your friends had various supernatural abilities that may or may not be integral in saving the world from a deadly war against minions of darkness?”

“Touché.” She mumbled. Xiumin opened the drivers seat door at that point and got in. An exhausted looking Luhan took the passengers seat and Suho filled the last remaining seat next to Lay. “I’m assuming everyone else is taking another car?” Suho nodded in the affirmative and Xiumin drove away from the house.

Jinri looked out of the back window, impressed with the house she’d just come from. It was the first time she’d been outside since coming there (she didn’t count her little trip to see The Council). The house was old looking and beautiful, though she had the feeling that like the boys, it had some supernatural ability to make itself look smaller on the outside than it actually was on the inside.

The car ride was spent in relative silence. Jinri fumbled with her worn backpack and stared out of the window as the city gradually came into view. She’d had a feeling that they were on the outskirts of Seoul, but didn’t really know until the drive. It was 8:30 by the time they made it to campus, and Jinri had a half hour before she needed to be at the art studio. She thought about waiting for Kai, since they had the same class, but she hadn’t seen him get out of the other car. Figuring that he wouldn’t mind too much anyway, she made her way slowly to the art building.

“I know you’re following me,” she said suddenly, earning a look of confusion from a passing student. But her words had reached their target and Sehun appeared from around a bay of lockers. She paused so he could fall into ste