[title song: time - hans zimmer]
[10k; will edit tomorrow i gotta get to work lol]

chapter 27;

She remembered the day Baekhyun had disappeared from her life, just up and left without a trace, phone disconnected, doors left wide open, everything gone, and texts unanswered.

She hadn’t known. Not until she went through half a day in class, jittery as she waited and waited for him to show up, her fingers shaking and her stomach churning for an indiscernible reason, one that isn’t clear until much later. Maybe she should have noticed, after she had skipped her last class to rush to his house. She should have noticed after she had stood there, hair tangled as she heaved for air, grip so tight on the open door of his house that it left red marks up and down her palms. She remembers how her jaw had fell wide open (“You’re going to swallow a bug, idiot.” Baekhyun would have said if he had been there, if he wasn’t gone) because there was nothing there. Nothing. No photographs covering the wall. No kitchen utensils. No colorful blankets. The furniture had been covered in plastic and there was a layer of dust over everything. She remembered how she had stepped into the cold, dark house, shivering as she stumbled past the dusty, empty shoe rack. Her steps faltered as she made her way to the stairs and up to his room, like so many times before. Except this time a chill would run up her spine and she remembers the dread that had knotted at the pit of her stomach. The television was gone. Her fingers trailed along the rough, familiar, baby blue wallpaper, until she was staring right at his bedroom door, horrible tightness clawing at her chest. His room was empty of everything except for his mattress and his desk, stripped down to its very skeletal essence. It was terrifying to see and as the sun set through his streaked window, she found herself sinking to her knees, panic settling in her chest as tears slipped down her face.

He was gone. She knew this, had a dreadful feeling that she wouldn’t be able to find him again, but she didn’t want to believe it, not when he had said the night before that he’d never leave her.

She refused to believe it, but maybe she should have noticed how everything had changed from that day onwards. She should have noticed how the teachers would miss his name when they’d take roll. She should have noticed the realtor selling his house giving her a confused look when she asked about the previous owners, about Baekhyun and his parents. She should have noticed how no one mentioned him to her, instead of assuming it’s because they didn’t want to upset her. She should have noticed the strange looks from her father from Day One. But she hadn’t, not until her father started sending her to psychiatrists and different clinics, not until her old friends would smile politely and inch away from her, not until she was told that he wasn’t even real by each therapist, one after another until she gave up on convincing them otherwise. Not only was he gone, but no one remembered him either. No one could explain her pictures of him. She learned to move on, or at least pretend to, and, maybe, she should have wondered why and how he had seemingly disappeared from existence, but she couldn’t, not when all she wanted to do was forget.

~.~.~.~.~

Hyemi’s taken aback and Sehun just blinks at her. “You okay, Hyemi?” He asks, frowning at her. Then his eyes widen, “I mean. Are you talking about the hunters that attacked us?”

“Uh, yeah.” She frowns right back at him, wondering why he doesn’t remember Wendy. Maybe he hit his head too hard during the fight, because how could he possibly forget.

There’s a pause before—

“You killed them.” Sehun’s voice sounds louder, layered over another voice in a way that sends shivers down her spine. She blinks rapidly at Sehun’s expression, the slight concern furrowing at his brows.

“What?” She outright stares at him now, a lump forming in . She thinks of those hunters, paling as she blinks at Sehun.

This time, Sehun’s voice is quieter, the underlying, deeper voice louder than before, echoing in her head so loud that it makes goose bumps creep up her arms and down her back, “You killed someone.”

The voice—she thinks it’s definitely not Sehun’s even though Sehun’s mouth is moving, following the words, because it sounds so otherworldly—reverberates in her head, pounding in her ears. It’s terrifying, the edgy tone he—Not Sehun—uses, an amused, almost wicked tone that makes the churning in her stomach worse, her heart caught in . It sounds like the person attached to the voice is both lightyears away and right up against her ear. She can almost feel hot breath against her cheek. But it’s so utterly disconcerting because Sehun’s mouth is moving; he is staring at her as if he is speaking.

Then she remembers the hooded figure, in the small room with the tea cup and the burning snake-like slivers.

She blinks, “It’s you.”

(You slips out of and she wishes she knew who you was.)

Her voice gives away at the second word, breaking at the memory of what she had endured in that room.

Sehun smiles, then, and it doesn’t match the concerned look in his eyes nor the crinkle between his brows. It is not Sehun’s smile, she knows this immediately. The smile is more lopsided, curling at the edges the same way a knife curves into a point.

She steps back, fear trickling into her voice, despite how hard she tries to hold it back, “It’s you.”

“Do you know who I am?” He asks, tone almost curious.

She stares at him, stares at Sehun before focusing on his lopsided smirk because that is Not Sehun. The smirk belongs to Not Sehun. She tries to think back on all her other encounters with that hooded figure and the panic only grows in her chest. She thinks of the vision with Amber, when she was chained to a wall and the hooded figure was there. She thinks of the way the hooded figure had spoken to her, the few times they had spoken. Her brain whispers an idea of who the hooded figure might be, but it’s a terrifying thought because she hadn’t anticipated it.

Her brain murmurs, Yeonma’s master, and she winces because she hadn’t expected him to be able to literally get into her head; she hadn’t expected the hooded figure, but she should have known. It was so ridiculously obvious. She should have known. Her fingers curl into fists as she stares and stares.

Not Sehun’s smile only grows more pointed, tips so sharp he could slice heads off with it.

“A monster.” She answers.

His smile stretches across his face, a ridiculous caricature of Sehun’s usual smiles.

And then he does the unthinkable. Sehun reaches for her and she flinches, scrambling away. Sehun’s eyes grow concerned, incredibly so, and she hates the juxtaposition between his mouth and his eyes, as if he’s two different people and she’s watching him teeter between two world, two personas.

His—Not Sehun’s— mouth is filled with jagged teeth, boxy and slightly familiar. “Oh, my darling Murderer. You’re drawing attention to yourself.”

She hears Sehun’s voice then, so much quieter than before, “Hyemi, are you okay?”

Her eyes dart away from his concerned eyes, land on blurs, blurs she knows is Jongin and Baekhyun and Jongdae and Yixing. She can’t quite see them, not clearly, but when she looks at Sehun, she can see the anxiety bubbling up in his eyes, the confusion. She can see him clearly.

She can see the wicked smile dripping from his lips. Not Sehun’s mouth is all teeth and dripping, too sweet, saccharine smiles, “How did it feel? Making your first kill, darling?”

“I didn’t—I’m not—” She stumbles over her words.

“You’re a killer.” He states before he tacks on, “Don’t worry, though, I’m proud of you for finally doing it. You’re doing so well.”

A shiver runs down her spine and she feels like she’s had the air knocked out of her lungs.

“I don’t—I am not.” She wants to scream it, but it comes out so, so quiet, like a whisper in the breeze. He snorts and she repeats herself, louder this time. “I am no—”

“Be careful now. Scream and they’ll think you’re crazier than they think you already are.” He says, laughing in amusement. The laugh sounds too familiar, a jarring sound that has her knees buckling as she clutches at ears.

“Shut up.” Her voice is so loud, more defiant, angry. He snickers.

“You’re terrible at this.” He’s still laughing and it’s echoing, bouncing off the walls inside her head, ha ha ha ha, and her head feels like it’s splitting in half. “I should have expected it. You were just as terrible at this the first time, too.”

Her eyes widen. “What d—do you mean by that?”

“It’s not time for you to know yet.”

And then she’s sinking to her knees and her vision goes blurry, uneven, until all she sees is blinding white and all she feels is a heavy weight sitting on her chest, making it hard to breathe.

~.~.~.~.~

She opens her eyes to Baekhyun lying beside her. She blinks rapidly, her heart pounding due to both her vision and their proximity, because no matter how many times she’s wakes up to him sleeping beside her, she always has the same exact reaction. Especially when his hand is resting at her waist, warm and heavy and so, so secure. She thinks he looks so beautiful, expression peaceful, so serene, his eyelashes brushing against his cheeks, hair tangled, and his pink lips slightly open. She takes a moment to appreciate it, appreciate the tranquility surrounding them in that moment, appreciate the way his fingers are curled against her waist, appreciate how warm and secure she feels, even if for just a moment.

She takes a moment to appreciate it before she sighs and turns her head away, taking in her surroundings. It’s so quiet and it takes her a second too long to notice that they’re in the clearing they were in earlier. She cranes her neck, careful not to disturb Baekhyun, and the car is right there. It takes her another too-long second to notice Yixing sitting in the backseat with the door thrown open, Jongdae’s head resting in his lap as he sleeps. Yixing is playing with Jongdae’s hair, fingers twirling, and she can just make out a faint glow from his fingertips, a soft and calming smolder that only seems to be amplified by the tranquil warmth she’s already feeling because of Baekhyun’s touch.

“Hey.” She turns onto her stomach, butterflies churning at the very pit when Baekhyun’s fingers grasp at her waist before traveling up to her back, right along her spine, and staying there. Hyemi props herself up on her elbows, rubbing at her eyes as she yawns. Yixing glances down at her and gives her a tiny smile, barely there and obviously strained.

“You should sleep.” Yixing murmurs.

She shakes her head, “I can’t.”

Briefly, she wonders if any of that was real, or if her strange vision trances have become so commonplace that Yixing doesn’t even think to question her about it anymore.

There’s a short pause before Yixing breaks the silence, whispers, “The memories. Was that you?”

“What?” Hyemi frowns, her thoughts slow on the uptake.

“The bar? Min Yoongi? The memories with Jongdae? All that other stuff? That was because of you, wasn’t it?” Despite it being a question, it sounds more like a statement. Yixing’s expression is hidden, smile gone.

(They’ll think you’re crazier than they think you already are, echoes in her head and she thinks that, perhaps, Not Sehun was correct on that front. They already think she’s crazy, though they won’t say it to her face, and that’s why he’s skimming over whatever happened yesterday and jumping straight to the visions Hyemi was actually present in, in a strange, hovering sort of way.)

“I guess you weren’t lying about being paid to make people feel a certain way. But a gang? Who would have thought?” Hyemi murmurs, her joke falling into a flat tone.

Yixing’s lip twitches slightly before he nods, “I had to make a living somehow, didn’t I?”

“I guess.” She says though her mind reels through the memories she’s seen of him. She thinks of how she had watched Yixing hurt that Mr. Min boy-man, whose full name she figures is Min Yoongi—a familiar name, though she can’t quite place from where. She thinks of the room they were in, of dark eyes, and then she finds herself reeling, focused on Yixing. She stares at him, back tensing as she pushes herself up further on her elbows, jostling Baekhyun by accident. He makes a soft whimpering sound and she ignores the way her heart twists at the memories his sleeping habit dredges up. “Wait, does that mean you saw Yeonma?”

Yixing shakes his head, “No, I don’t think so.”

“You didn’t see anything? Nothing strange or out of place?”

“Aside from the fact that I was reliving my own memories and emotions while watching the person I love die and I could feel your presence the entire time it was happening?” Yixing asks, raising a brow.

Hyemi reddens, glancing away, “Uh, yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to see the stuff with you and Jongdae. I mean. Like. I can’t control it but I still—”

“It’s cute how flustered you are. Don’t worry about it, Hyemi.” Yixing snickers, a soft, lovely sound that she’s glad to hear, especially after the horrible experience they’d—he’d— just gone through.

Hyemi glares but before she can say anything Yixing speaks up, “Oh! There was one thing.” Hyemi watches the way Yixing’s small smile slips from his face, his eyes darkening.

She can guess what he’s thinking about, what he’s remembered, and her heart nearly stops, “The funeral.” She whispers it, the words lodging in before tumbling out, her voice cracking halfway through the word funeral.

“I’ve—I don’t—Why was it there?” Yixing sounds confused, unsure of himself, almost scared.

“It wasn’t a memory?” Hyemi asks, frowning, though there’s relief too, for just a tiny moment.

“That’s the thing, Hyemi.” Yixing sighs, fingers stilling in Jongdae’s hair, “I don’t know.”

Hyemi blinks, her fingernails digging into the palms of her hand, “How—How is that possible? I mean, like, Yixing. We were in your head. Your memories. And that coffin was for—that funeral was—”

She glances down at Baekhyun’s sleeping face, so serene and peaceful, and she hates it because, for a moment, she can imagine him just like this, serene and peaceful in death rather than sleep. A lump grows in as she looks back up at Yixing.

Yixing’s eyes shine in the dark and she can see it on his face, the fact that he’s in tune with her emotions, that he’s just as scared, terrified, really, of that coffin, of realizing that that had been Baekhyun’s coffin.

“I know, Hyemi, but there—”

“He’s alive.” She interrupts him, whispering adamantly, and Yixing glances down at Jongdae’s sleeping face. She is reminded of Yixing, radiating dark anger and hurt and pain, so much pain, and the deep, almost primal desire to keep Jongdae from dying. “He is alive.” She repeats, tone fierce. “And he’s going to stay alive. I won’t let that—that funeral happen anytime soon. It couldn’t have been a memory if he’s not even dead.”

“But Hyemi,” Yixing’s voice is soft around her name and it terrifies Hyemi when he looks at her and she feels a calmness settling over her, clearly a product of Yixing’s power. She’s terrified of what he wants to say, what he’s trying to calm her down for. “Didn’t you see the person behind you?”

“You mean that other person when you said ‘neither of you should be here’?” Hyemi frowns when Yixing nods briskly, mulling over the memory of those words, of Yixing’s expression when he said that. “What did that mean, Yixing? When you said that?”

“I don’t know, I just—I had this feeling. It felt like I was seeing you two, but I wasn’t. You were both blurred at the edge even though I was looking right at you. Your feelings were so so far away, but they were so strong. It almost hurt to look at you, to feel your emotions. It felt like, at that moment, you two didn’t belong there. Like you never did.”

Hyemi blinks, rapidly, “What do you mean by—I mean, it makes sense I guess? I’m not from here? But—but who was the other person with me?”

Yixing’s frown just deepens. “You being from Earth makes your emotions stronger. Humans can barely control their emotions, not like us. But the other person—he—his emotions—they shouldn’t have been there, it doesn’t make any sense.”

Yixing shivers and Hyemi is frightened.

“Yixing, who was it?” She asks again, her attention focused on Yixing.

“Hyemi.” Yixing sits up straighter. He accidentally jostles Jongdae’s head and Jongdae wrinkles his nose, lips pressing into a thin line as he tosses and turns, murmuring something unintelligible, before burrowing his face against Yixing’s thigh, Yixing his temple to soothe him. In that moment, tension seems to grow between them and while Jongdae settles down, Yixing just stares at her, frowning.

“Yixing.” She murmurs, prompting him to continue.

“Hyemi,” Yixing sighs, though there’s confusion knitting his brows together. “The coffin didn’t make any sense. The funeral, Baekhyun, it didn’t make sense?”

“Why?” She asks, her own brows furrowing in confusion.

“I just—I knew it was Baekhyun’s coffin when I looked at it because of the symbol and the—the pain and feelings of that memory—vision, whatever it was. It just felt like Baekhyun and it was…it was so damn awful, Hyemi. But, logically speaking, it didn’t make sense, because when I looked up at you, he was standing right there, right behind you. Baekhyun was standing right behind you the whole time, Hyemi. Alive.”

“What?” Her eyes widen and she thinks of how her world had gone black before she could turn and see him, how there had been laughter behind her, despite how stern and concerned Yixing had looked, how foreboding his words had been. If that had been Baekhyun, then why did he laugh? Why hadn’t she seen him? Why was he standing by her side at his own funeral? “I don’t understand.” She says, rubbing her temple.

“You didn’t see him?”

“I couldn’t see him. I blac—”

“Hyemi?” Baekhyun’s voice cuts her off, his voice soft and gravely, worried.

Yixing blinks rapidly and they both watch as Baekhyun squirms, his eyes drooping with sleep as he blinks up at her. His hair is messy and his lips are pouty and she thinks he looks best like this, off-guard and almost sweet. “Yeah?” She murmurs.

He just moves the hand on her waist, wrapping it around her, and snuggles closer, making her stomach churn with nerves at the warmth radiating from him. He shakes his head, murmurs something indecipherable, before he settles down, nose rubbing against the base of . “Nothing.” He mumbles, his breath warm against her skin, making her shiver involuntarily.

He stops moving, after a minute, his breathing evening out, and that’s when she strains her neck to look up at Yixing.

Yixing doesn’t look confused anymore, more preoccupied with smiling down at Jongdae, his eyes falling closed.

“Do you think it was just a cryptic vision? A message, or something?” She asks, whispers really, the angle due to Baekhyun holding on to her making it hard for her look at Yixing properly.

Through her peripheral vision, she can see Yixing’s brows furrow in confusion, “What was?”

“The funeral, Yixing.” Hyemi reminds him, frown growing because he genuinely sounds like he’s forgotten what they’ve been talking about for the last ten minutes. It rubs Hyemi the wrong way, though she can’t figure out why.

There’s a long, long pause, before Yixing says, “It’s probably nothing, Hyemi.”

He still sounds unsure of himself, somehow, and Hyemi finds herself frowning into the darkness, butterflies fluttering in her stomach when Baekhyun grip on her tightens ever so slightly, his hands trailing sleepily from her waist, up her spine, and then back to her waist.

Hyemi doesn’t say anything and Yixing remains silent, as well.

“Just rest up. We have a long day ahead of us.” Yixing murmurs, after a long, long moment.

Eventually, Hyemi manages to close her eyes, her head still filled with questions, and Baekhyun’s grip around her waist tightens.

~.~.~.~.~

“Do you see anything?” The voice in her head echoes loudly and at first she thinks Yeonma but then she realizes that it’s not the same as Yeonma’s voice. It’s not echoing like it usually is, splintering into a thousand different voices the same way Yeonma’s does. Instead, it’s just one voice, soft and quiet, high-pitched. Familiar, almost.

She pauses, so abruptly that she hears Jongin yelp behind her as he runs into her back, though the sound and feeling of him slamming nose-first into the back of her head isn’t quite there, like an out of body experience, something distant that she is mentally aware has happened to her but, physically, she could almost pretend it isn't real because she doesn’t really feel her knocking against her back in the first place. Mentally, she’s on a separate plane of existence, and its disconcerting how she’s so aware of it. She looks into the trees, grey and barren, and there’s a ghost of green leaves, fullness and life she thinks is decades old, a memory of what once was. It’s layered atop the present, foggy and cloudy, clearly a memory inlaid over her vision, hard to get rid of.

“Do you?” the voice is louder this time, to her left instead of her right, and Hyemi turns searching through the mist, through the hazy memories.

She fumbles, squinting hopelessly (and she swears she hears a grunt of annoyance at her incompetence in the midst of her search), until she sees it—or rather her.

“...Soojung?” Unforgettable beauty and blonde hair aside, Hyemi would recognize that goddamn eyepatch (and what lay underneath) anywhere.

Soojung smiles not unkindly, though the hairs at the back of Hyemi’s neck still stand on end, goosebumps creeping up her arm, along her spine. Hyemi figures her body, her consciousness, is still wary of Soojung and her eye. Soojung’s smile, however, is still as beautiful, mesmerizing, as she remembers it to be.

Hyemi tries to think of something to say, the silence stretching on between them when—

“TESTING. TESTING, ONE, TWO, THREE. HELLO??” Another familiar voice breaks the strange, mesmerizing tension almost instantly, saving Hyemi from an awkward silence, and Hyemi knows exactly who it is, especially when Soojung rolls her eyes at the sound of the voice, despite the amusement creeping into her smile.

“Why are you shouting, stupid?” Soojung mumbles, glancing to her side.

Hyemi frowns, because, one, Amber is nowhere to be seen and that’s enough cause for wariness, and, two, Hyemi really doesn’t want to go through another memory journey thing filled with cryptic riddles with Amber and Soojung. Especially, not today.

She frowns at Soojung, watching as Soojung seems to be conversing to someone at her side, someone that Hyemi can’t see at all, but she figures it’s Amber.

“I don’t know how the reception works with this thing.” Amber responds in a tone that tells her that fact should be obvious.

“‘This thing’,” Soojung repeats, wrinkling her nose, “That's my eye you're calling a thing, you know.”

There's a slightly terrifying edge to Soojung’s tone that makes Hyemi wonder why in the world Amber purposely messes around with Soojung.

Amber just laughs, “I know. But, don’t worry, I’m calling it a thing with the utmost affection, darling.”

Soojung’s lip twitches upwards, but she’s still glaring.

Hyemi coughs, awkwardly, because the silence stretches on and on and Hyemi has a feeling that if their argument restarts, it will reach the point of no return and then she won’t be able to interrupt at all until they’re finished. Also, Hyemi is slightly terrified of Soojung’s glares and would like them to stop. “Not to interrupt or anything, but does anyone mind explaining why the hell you guys are here?”

Jongdae’s distant voice, raspy and a little loud despite the fact that it sounds like its coming from the other side of a long winding tunnel, is confused, “Um, what?”

“Nothing, Jongdae.” Hyemi mumbles, frowning as she watches Soojung watch her. Her smile tightens a moment.

“Oh! Jongdae is there? I’ve missed him! Tell him I said hi!” Amber sounds excited and Soojung’s tight expression turns stony.

“Do not.” Soojung mumbles, crossing her arms.

“You know, jealousy doesn’t suit you very well, sweetheart.” Amber says and Hyemi can practically hear the grin in her tone.

Soojung opens , to no doubt verbally rip Amber a new one, but Hyemi beats her to it because she thinks it’s best to stop it before it starts, at least so she can’t figure out what the hell is going on first, “Can we please stop with the flirting and get to the damn point of this?”

“We’re not flirting!” Soojung exclaims.

“No one's ever flirting here except for when you and Baek are being dramatically angsty.” Jongdae’s distant voice sounds offended, ringing out at the same time as Soojung.

“I wasn't talking to you!” Hyemi glares, cheeks reddening as she hears Jongin and Sehun laugh loudly at Jongdae’s words.

“You’re not?” Amber sounds astonished and incredibly bemused, “Yixing’s there, isn't he? You must mean him, then. He always gets so mushy with Jongdae, it's sickening.”

“Oh, my God.” Hyemi mumbles, fingers digging into her temples because she swears she can feel a headache coming on. She’s just surprised that the headache hadn’t happened earlier. She can hear two different conversations at the same time, one distant and one loud, but both there and distinguishable, and its ing awful. “Please, just shut up.”

And then they do.

For a brief moment everything is just utterly, peacefully silent. She is floating in silence with nothing but her own thoughts and it’s peaceful and she wishes it could stay like that.

But then Soojung speaks again, her voice soft, tinkling, reminding Hyemi of the Oracle’s room. “You're almost there, you know.”

Hyemi stares at Soojung. “Where?”

“There.” Amber speaks now, her tone ominous, serious. “Closer to the truth. To fully seeing everything.”

Hyemi grimaces, “You're a terrible Oracle. I could have told you that myself.”

“Woah, there's no need for the attitude.” Amber mumbles, only half-feigning hurt.

“Sorry, it's just—” Hyemi pauses, before she admits, “I don’t know what to do. I could really use some help right now.”

“Darling, all I can say is that you need to trust your instincts and—”

“And trust your visions. All of them. The planet is trying to guide you.” Soojung cuts Amber off, her eyepatch making her other eye, with it’s heavy makeup and dark, dark kohl, look incredibly eerie in the hazy cover of the forest. Hyemi can see a snake slithering up Soojung’s hazy leg; the top-side of the snake littered with grass and spotted mushrooms that are a magnificent electric blue color.

“Yes, yes, she's right. She’s totally ri—” Amber’s voice gets cut off then, static filling her voice like when a guitar string breaks while one is plucking out a song, a sudden abrupt flat, screeching note that sends cold shivers down through everyone’s bones.

The faint, hazy almost imaginary snake hisses against Soojung’s leg, the spotted mushrooms lining it’s top-side withering instantly, the electric blue color darkening into a dark, navy blue, shriveling right before Hyemi’s eyes. The atmosphere is immediately doused in ice cold, right down to her bones.

Something is wrong, Hyemi can see it in the way Soojung’s uncovered eye widens as she looks up.

“It's him.” Soojung says, the pale column of her neck stretching as she keeps staring directly upwards. Hyemi’s gaze follows her, but all she sees is dark clouds the color of viridian. “He’s found us.”

Hyemi doesn’t see a thing. “But—”

“We can't—we can't say anything, not when he's cracked down on—” Amber’s voice cuts off again, lilts up and drags out, robotic and filled with static that rings within the walls of Hyemi’s head. Amber coughs, chokes on her words, and Hyemi’s head snaps down, eyes pinned on Soojung and her worried, almost panicked, expression.

Soojung’s hazy image starts to shift, like a television screen, flickering out of focus, and Hyemi begins to panic, shaking her head rapidly because she can’t lose them, not when she’s lost and needs help and they’re about to give it at least a little bit of help to her. Hyemi steps forward, frowns because the hazy snake on Soojung’s leg bares its teeth at Hyemi before it disappears completely. Soojung, on the other hand, looks apologetic, her brows furrowed in concentration.

“Please, don't go.” Hyemi pleads and she vaguely thinks that she sounds pathetic, pleading like this, but she can’t help it. She’s at her wit’s end, now.

“Come to the castle. Come before they take the castle. You can’t let them take the castle, Hyemi. Some of the twelve, they’re here and—and there are things you don’t know yet. Things I can show you.” Amber’s disembodied voice, robotic, full of static, and distant, breaks through the fuzziness overtaking her head, like a beacon of hope in the despair filling her entire being. “You still have time, Hyemi.”

Soojung’s last words, however, before the hazy, half-there Soojung and the world she brought with her disappears, her single eye piercing, sticks with Hyemi, settles onto her shoulders, braces itself across her back, in her mind. It weighs heavily, “And don't go losing your humanity along the way. You’re going to need it now, more than ever.”

~.~.~.~.~

“.” Hyemi opens her eyes, rubbing her head, and she’s just glad she isn’t lying on the floor for once, that she’s standing upright, on her own two feet. Maybe, she’s finally got a hang of these visions? Her head pounds, a sharp pain shooting through her temple, and Hyemi groans. Or maybe her visions have finally gotten a hang of her and fully taken her over. She’s practically living out her visions now.

“You should really give us a heads up or something before you start going into vision mode.” Sehun says, his voice clear and slightly exhausted.

“I’ll make sure to pencil that request in next time the stupid tree asks before blessing me with stupid visions.” Hyemi snaps back. Sehun pouts and Hyemi instantly feels bad for snapping at him, “Sorry for the attitude, I have a headache.”

Sehun keeps pouting but he knocks his knuckles lightly against Hyemi’s arm, as if to say it’s okay without really saying it. Hyemi smiles weakly at him.

“What was it about?” Baekhyun asks. Only then does she register the way Baekhyun’s hands are rubbing soothing circles up and down her back through her thin cotton shirt. She melts into his touch a bit because it’s soothing and warm and when she glances at him through her peripheral vision, he’s smiling ever so slightly, his hand stilling as one of his thumbs rubs up and down, up and down, at the curve of her spine, right near the dip, lifting and dropping her shirt and making her feel dizzier than her vision had. Speaking of visions.

“It wasn’t really a vision, I think? It was more of a message, but there were vision-y aspects to it. I saw animals from back when then planet had life.” Hyemi says, tearing her eyes away from Baekhyun, because she’s unconsciously turned her full attention on him earlier rather than solely focusing on him through her peripheral vision. She settles her gaze on Yixing, glancing at Jongin, Jongdae, and Sehun periodically as she speaks, shaking her head as she focuses on the main point rather than the lizard creature. They don’t care about that.. “It was a message from Amber and Soojung.”

Yixing looks confused, “Who’s Soojung?”

Hyemi blinks, unsure with how to exactly answer that, but Baekhyun answers for her, “The Oracle’s Crystal.”

Jongdae nods, “She’s the blonde who’s always hanging around Amber.”

Yixing’s eyes widen in recognition, “Oh.” He purses his lips.

Hyemi blinks at Baekhyun’s response. She never knew that that was what Soojung was known as. It made sense, in a way. Soojung’s like a magic crystal ball, in a sense, and she thinks that comparison would be hilarious if it wasn’t for how frazzled and frayed Hyemi’s nerves currently are. She quickly blinks away the confusion though, speaking quickly, “Yeah, that’s her. I need to see them and we need to stop Yeonma from taking the castle.”

“But I thought we’d need to go back to that bridge and the Temple?” Sehun asks, blank expression twisting into confusion.

Jongin, on the other hand, pales, pausing to stare at her, “He’s gotten to the castle?”

Hyemi nods, tries to look reassuring. She’s sure it falls flat so she turns to look at Sehun, answering his question with as much confidence as she can muster.

“We need to do that, too, but Kris is part of the twelve. Kris, Junmyeon, Zitao, and Kyungsoo. They’re at the castle and they won’t let it fall. We can’t let them fall.” Hyemi reminds them, trying to skirt over the fact that she has no idea how she’s supposed to be at the castle, fight off Yeonma’s army, and then get back to the Temple and face Yeonma and Yeonma’s master and heaven knows what else along the way. Unless she learns how to be in ten places at once, she can’t really see it happening. But Amber had told her that there’s still time and she’s clinging to that fate. She’s going to figure out something, even if that means that all she can do at this point is gather all twelve boys like she’s supposed to in one place. No one seems to refute her, even Jongin keeps his mouth shut, watching her with a blank expression as he waits for her to continue speaking. “Let’s just gather the twelve first, okay?”

“And what about Chanyeol and Minseok? Luhan?” Jongdae asks and he sounds as tired as she feels. Hyemi freezes, blinking, before she quickly shakes her head, ignoring the dread curling at the pit of her stomach.

“We’ll figure that out when we’ve got everyone else.” Hyemi says, dismissively, before she stands up straight, pulling away from Baekhyun’s support. She knows being dismissive is dangerous, ignoring the blatant issue is dangerous, but they need to start somewhere, and Amber had said that she still has time. Hyemi’s going to cling that hope, even if it’s false hope, if it’s the last thing she does because it’s do or die time and Hyemi doesn’t know what else she’s supposed to do.

Luckily, no one argues, just goes along with it, but that makes her even more nervous than before. She can feel a sudden shift in the tension, a shift in the air and the group dynamic, and, judging from the way they’re all nodding, they don’t know what to do either. Her words are good enough. She shudders, her palms sweating, because the burden on her shoulders only seems to get heavier. Suddenly she is the leader of their little ragtag group that’s supposed to save the world. She is in charge.

Suddenly, all their lives are in her hands, have been for a while now she thinks as she remembers the look Jongdae had given her before going off with Wendy earlier, and she’s scared beyond belief. Her eyes drift from Yixing to Jongdae to Sehun to Jongin, skittering over Baekhyun she’s afraid to even look at him, and she is downright terrified. Her fingers are trembling and it takes a tremendous effort to seem somewhat unaffected by the gravity of it all as she says, as nonchalant as possible, “What’s the fastest way to get back to the castle?”

~.~.~.~.~

“It’s called an airboat.” Sehun says as they walk, tugging at his dark blue shirt, no doubt because of the sweat from the humidity swelling up all around them. Hyemi’s sweating, too, and it’s uncomfortably hot, like a sweltering sauna. She hadn’t noticed it before and wonders if it’s because of where they’re headed.

Hyemi tries to focus on Sehun’s words, but Baekhyun’s distracting her with his warm hand entangled in hers as he swings their hands between them, as if they’re on a casual stroll and not in a hurry to get to a castle that’s about to be run down by Yeonma and his army of possessed, creepy individuals. A blush creeps up her neck even though she’s sure her hands are gross and sweaty and she blinks rapidly when Baekhyun rubs tiny little circles into the back of hands with his thumbs, gentle and so, so sweet.

“—cities have them. They’re refurbished war ships from long ago that are now used for transporting food and livestock. Sometimes even prisoners. We should be able to get ahold of one easily since Jongin’s military and then with a little wind power I can make it go ten times faster. We could be there in less than half an hour.” Sehun continues and Hyemi mentally chides herself for getting distracted and losing track of Sehun’s words. She glances sideways at Baekhyun, frowning because she swears Baekhyun is smirking a bit, even as he looks on straight ahead, occasionally inserting commentary into whatever heated discussion Jongdae and Jongin are having.

She squeezes his hand, a warning as you will, and Baekhyun squeezes it back, throwing her wide, square grin that nearly leaves her breathless. She scowls.

Sehun blinks, “I swear I’ve piloted an airboat before, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“No, I totally trust your airboat driving capabilities, Sehun.” Hyemi blinks, instantly straightening out her scowl, “Besides, it’s the only think we got going for us right now so let’s go for it.”

“The closest city is too far.” Yixing says as he squints at the map in his hands, pursing his lips. Hyemi’s heart drops.

“Are you sure?” Baekhyun asks.

Jongdae peers over Yixing’s shoulder before he suddenly snorts and reaches over Yixing’s arms. Yixing watches, wide-eyed, as Jongdae turns the map over in his hands, straightening it out for Yixing. “Look at it again, Xing.”

Yixing blushes a soft pink, “Oh. I guess it’s not that far. It’s supposed to be straight down the trail, after the trees clear.”

Jongdae just grins, patting Yixing’s cheek gently.

Hyemi’s sighs, frowning at the way her heart is beating franticly in her chest still. It hasn’t stopped beating like this since see saw Soojung and Amber and she’s sure it’s unhealthy for heart rate to remain so fast for so long.

Sehun groans a little, craning his neck to look ahead, past the seemingly never-ending bare tree trunks lining the narrow trail they’re walking through. He pulls at his light blue shirt, fanning himself, “Let’s hope the heat doesn’t kill us before we get there.”

Hyemi grimaces, but Jongin’s the one to voice her thoughts, “Please, don’t talk about getting killed after everything we’ve been through.”

Sehun snorts, “You’re right. Don’t wanna jinx it.” He fans his face, “But it’s ing hot out here, guys. This is so weird. It’s never this hot out around this time of year.”

Before anyone can answer, they notice the trees have already begun to thin out. Hyemi walks faster, pulling Baekhyun along with her, to the point where she’s probably dragging him along, but she doesn’t care. The heat is sweltering at this point, sweat dripping down her back, and she frowns. It feels like one of those days when it’s hot as hell and she’d dress in shorts and a tank top and eat ice cream with Minah under the air conditioning. It’s almost as hot as the time the air conditioning broke, right in the middle of summer, and she’s never realized just how much she’s taken central air conditioning for granted, because there were literal heat waves in their apartment, despite the fact that they had thrown open all the windows and doors, including the front door. Hyemi remembers sweating everywhere and taking about three cold showers in the span of a few hours.

Just past the clearing of trees sits a city, the walls surrounding it looming over them. It’s different from Taeyeon’s Soshi City, that’s what she notices first, her eyes focusing on the soft brown walls, so light they almost look like dried up dirt or sand. The dried up dirt surrounding the city are also the same color. She steps forward, into the mass of light brown and she realizes that that’s exactly what it is. It’s sand, warm through her sneakers as her feet sink a bit.

There’s an open gate straight ahead, though it isn’t fully open. It’s open just a crack, travelers wearing light cloaks and merchandise in barrel carts scurrying in and out, the officers scattered across the wide gate stopping them to check their belongs and, what she assumes, are their papers. Who would have thought that passport like papers existed here, too?

The humidity, she notices, is gone, replaced by heat that’s dry. When she breathes, instantly feels parched, and her skin feels dehydrated. Her brain provides her a word for it: desert, but she wonders how they could have possibly gotten to the desert part of Exo Planet so quickly. How did the planet around them transition into this climate without them ever really noticing it?

The sky, however, doesn’t contain a blinding sun that she can barely look into and cloudless blue skies. Instead, the skies are a heavy, almost blood red, a dark scarlet color that leaves the world around them looking foreboding, a strange red tinge that is both dark and bright at the same time, the same way the Earth is at night, when it snows but the moon is shining brightly. It’s both dark and light and it unnerves her. The sun, or at least what she thinks is the sun because she isn’t sure if they even call that the sun here, is a deep, dark violet that borders on black. It only adds to the foreboding nature of the planet around them. It causes shivers to spread down her back, shivers that are clearly not due to cold weather since it’s so damn hot.

“I don’t like this place.” She murmurs. Baekhyun’s hand is gentle as it curves around her back, curling at her side as he pulls her closer.

“I don’t either.” He says, and she can hear the unease in his tone, the caution in his eyes.

She uses both hands to squeeze the hand holding hers and they lock eyes for a moment. She wonders if the dark part of this in between-dark-and-light place scares him, if it reminds him of his mother’s bloodline and that godawful neighborhood—his awful relatives. There’s certainly something there and she thinks she isn’t imagining the second where his entire being flickers out of existence, like a glitch of static in a video game, before it returns, clearer than ever. She’s still holding both of his hands, his cold hands warm and secure between hers, even as she pulls her body away from the hand around her waist, turning to see if the others have caught up.

She watches as they stare up at the city, at the sky, and she feels a sense of dread wash over her as Yixing curls his fingers around Jongdae’s elbow, Jongdae’s brows furrowing.

Sehun’s hair and clothes, especially his loose black shirt, flutters all around him, despite the fact that there isn’t a single gust of wind in the air. Clearly, he’s worried, his brows furrowed the same way Jongdae’s are.

Jongin’s dark eyes reflect the dark violet-black sun before he glances sideways meeting her eyes.

The heat is scorching against her skin, equivalent to when she’s sitting by a fire pit and the fire is blazing too close to her skin.

Like a fire, she thinks.

Like a fire.

A lightbulb goes off in her head.

(She’s hit with the image of a building being eaten alive by fire, a lanky-all-limbs boy with big ears on his knees, his clothes singed by wisps of fire, his hands smoking, the world around him—his entire world burning and burning and burning until there’s nothing left. The glow of the King’s Mark right after. The trembling fingers, the dried out tears, evaporating almost instantly.)

Then her eyes widen, just as Jongin’s expression turns pinched and Baekhyun’s grip on her hand tightens significantly. Yixing’s grip only tightens around Jongdae and Jongdae turns so, so pale, paler than he already is from recovering from his injuries.

“You don’t think…?” Hyemi trails off, unable to voice her thoughts.

“Chanyeol.” Baekhyun whispers it, beside her, and his hands are shaking a bit.

“I mean, maybe it’s not. Maybe the desert is nat—”

Yixing shakes his head, “The desert is natural, but the heat isn’t. It’s Exo Planet’s equivalent of late autumn here and the sun isn’t bright enough to allow it to be so hot. Besides, desert isn’t really the right word for it, because the landscape changes with the weather. During the cold months, this place turns into a giant field of snow and ice.”

“Oh.” Hyemi blinks, “Oh.” Hyemi glances between them, “I thought he just controlled fire. How did he—how is he changing the temperature?”

“With enough training, it’s possible to unlock new aspects of your powers. Chanyeol can manipulate thermal energy. It’s hard to do, but heat is a product of fire. It’s chemistry basically and definitely within his capabilities. He’s always been strong, that’s why the Kris put him in the King’s Guard.” Hyemi notices a slight bitterness to his tone. “It’s just. I knew Chanyeol had gotten good at heat manipulation, but I had no idea he had gotten this good.” Baekhyun looks up at the city in both admiration and trepidation and Hyemi glances up at him, her grip around his hand tightening.

“So,” Hyemi grimaces, “You’re telling me that chemistry exists out here, too? It’s not just some Earth thing?”

“Yeah.” Baekhyun says, his lip twitching a little despite the worry and anxiety swimming in his eyes. “Science is real, Hyemi. Surprise?”

“Shut up.” Hyemi mutters, glaring at Baekhyun, “You know I hate chemistry.”

Hyemi thinks of her chemistry final and vaguely wonders how she did on it. She wonders if she’ll ever get to find out how she did, if she’ll ever go back there to find out whether or not she failed her final (because heaven knows she didn’t ace it). It’s such a mundane thought, her chemistry final, but it makes her heart twist. It feels like it was lifetimes ago when she was back on Earth and Baekhyun had first made his appearance and, she thinks, it’ll feel like lifetimes before she steps foot back in her apartment back home.

Jongdae laughs, jolting her out of her thoughts—and she’s glad because she could feel her lips pulling down into a frown with each passing thought. Jongdae’s still staring at the walls of the city, “I can’t believe we’re destined to get into bad in every city we go to.”

Hyemi wants to call it an exaggeration, but honestly, it’s really not. She finds herself agreeing with the sentiment. She can already feel her skin crawling at whatever they’re about to encounter in there.

“Tell me about it.” Sehun grumbles, his hair fluttering over his forehead.

Hyemi snorts, even as she starts walking and they follow after her, tension growing between them the closer they get to the city.

~.~.~.~.~

The city itself feels like the inside of a furnace. Hyemi’s t-shirt sticks to her back and she’s sweating so much and it’s disgusting, but strangely it reminds her of the communal bathhouse saunas back home. Heat waves skitter all around them, making the world seem a bit hazy, the sand kicking up from all the people bustling about their business making it worse. It’s jarring really, to see how unconcerned the people within the city are. The guards at the gates ask for their papers in bored tones and when Hyemi panics a bit, because she doesn’t have any papers, Baekhyun steps forward and holds his hands out. There’s a flicker of an image and when she concentrates real hard, squinting, she can make out a passport-like papers with all their photos attached. The images scatter into static, like one of those really old analog televisions her father used to keep around, but the guards take them, one of them chewing on a tiny toothpick-like piece of wood while he shuffles through the passports, one by one, his eyes flickering up to meet theirs. Hyemi thinks it’s almost funny, because when she stops truly concentrating, the papers disappear and it appears as if the guards are shuffling through nothing.

For a moment, she wonders why Baekhyun’s illusions seem to be shoddy.

Her eyes widen when the passports in the guard’s hands brighten up, like the times her father had hit the old analog television just right and the static and black spots had just vanished, the imagery clearing up instantly. They look so utterly real that Hyemi vaguely wonders if she imagined the shoddy illusions from before. If she hadn’t imagined it, then why didn’t it work the first time?

She glances at Baekhyun and he meets her eyes, even as they all walk through the crowd of bustling people with extra limbs and strange skin colors, the makeshift marketplace around them reminding her of home as the store owners call out to them in a language she doesn’t understand, though it feels familiar—a feeling she’s sure is influenced by the tree.

Baekhyun smiles. For a brief moment, his image flickers in and out, from Baekhyun to something else she can’t quite make out. Then Baekhyun reaches out with a hand and gently, carefully, tucks a strand of hair behind her ear, his cool fingers lingering for a second too long, making her stomach churn and her cheeks turn red. She chalks it up to the hazy heat waves surrounding them as she tries to hide her smile, tries to ignore the way his hand resting at the small of her back makes her feel all jittery and warm.

The people around them edge past them, going about their business as if the world isn’t currently ed. It makes Hyemi nervous, somehow. Even as they walk, Yixing reaching back to grab Hyemi’s rolled up sleeve so she doesn’t lose them in the crowd, Baekhyun clinging to her waist with both hands, his body close enough to hers that it relieves some of the anxiety radiating out of her. She pretends not to notice the calmness washing over her, probably due to Yixing being able to feel her feelings and trying to help her stay calm. The crowd gets thicker the further they walk and Hyemi jolts back when there’s a pair of eyes in her face that are attached to long, long tentacle like tubes that attach to a larger body, it’s skin a pale and it’s smile wider than the Cheshire Cat’s. It murmurs something Hyemi assumes must have been sorry for sticking my eyeballs right in your face. Hyemi feels her back collide into Baekhyun’s chest and Yixing glances back, worried.

Baekhyun, she notices, is holding her securely, his lips inches from her ear as he murmurs, “You okay?”

She shivers, and this time for entirely different reasons. “Yeah. I just. That surprised me.”

Baekhyun rubs his cool hands up and down her sides as they continue, his chuckle at her expense low and throaty and right in her ear. She tries to pretend that the sound doesn’t make her squirm a bit, blinking rapidly as she pushes at Yixing, signaling him to continue as they push through the crowd, her grip on Yixing’s forearm tightening. She tries to contain her surprise at all the different types of creatures she sees, hidden beneath light cloaks. There are plenty of people who look human, as well, but there just as many that don’t. They all look relaxed, normal, like their world isn’t about to go to . She doesn’t know if she envies them or pities them.

They seem to be moving towards the source of the heat, at least she assumes so since she’s getting sweatier and sweatier and it’s a bit embarrassing since Baekhyun’s still gripping her waist with his cool hands while she’s a sweaty mess. She resorts to clinging to the back of Yixing’s shirt, too, just so he won’t have to deal with her slippery palms.

The thick crowd trickles out and then they’re walking into a building, the doorway opening into stairs.

“Watch your step.” Jongin calls out.

Hyemi stumbles anyway and Baekhyun steadies her. She blushes, “I’m fine.”

Baekhyun just hums and the sound is in her ear, travels through her nerves. She wonders why the he’s affecting her like this so suddenly, why the is he so close? For God’s sake, she has a damn world to save and then she’ll deal with all the feelings and stomach churning his voice and face and existence is causing her, so why does it seem like he’s working to make her deal with it now?

“Please, stop. You’re distracting me.” She mumbles, using her free hand to lightly push his hands away. His hands fall away and she grabs one of them anyway, sweaty, slippery palms be damned.

Baekhyun has the audacity to laugh. She glowers, though she is surprised he even heard her in the first place. But he steps back anyway and she can finally think straight. She can finally walk down the stairs like a functioning human being.

“The same could be said about you.” Baekhyun says and his voice.

She scowls, “Now is not the time.”

Before Baekhyun can answer, Sehun pipes up from up front, and she can makes out his grimace in the dim lighting as he glances back at them, “It really isn’t.”

Hyemi’s on the verge of saying shut up when they step off the stairs and there’s a door in front of them.

It’s so hot that Hyemi smacks her lips, trying in vain to bring moisture to her lips, dry. She feels thirsty, the heat waves around them so obvious that it looks like the whole stairwell is swimming.

Jongdae goes in for the wooden door, his hand reaching out, but Jongin pushes his hand away, “It’s going to be burning hot.”

Jongdae makes a face at Jongin as he fans himself, clearly irritated by the sweat anyway, despite his words, “I can handle hot, Jongin. Electricity is a thousand times hotter than ing Chanyeol’s weak f—”

Sehun kicks open the door without necessarily touching it, the breeze feeling wonderful on Hyemi’s skin. The resounding bang as the door literally flies off its hinges and slams into the wall across the room not only cuts off Jongdae annoyed tirade, but it also makes everyone freeze and give Sehun a look. “What?” He asks, raising a brow innocently.

“That was highly unnecessary.” Hyemi glances up at the women’s voice, a voice that sounds strangely familiar.

Jongdae blinks, “Sohee?”

Hyemi blinks, remembers the girl from her visions of Jongdae and Minseok. It’s Minseok’s sister. Her cat eyes, her lips, her nose, they all look exactly like Minseok’s, except her hair is long and straight and her gaze doesn’t have that strange, icy quality to it that Minseok’s does. They don’t shine and twinkle with icy observance the way Minseok’s do.

Sohee stares at them, the same way Minseok does, with blank, almost amused interest, but she isn’t the one to speak. Hyemi glances away from her and her scary resemblance of Minseok, her eyes falling on the person lying across the bed, bandaged and radiating heat waves that seem to blast through the room, burning Hyemi’s skin as if she’s standing out under the sun for hours. She can see his injuries, red and blistered, and his eye is a deep purple, almost black, like the sun outside.

Hyemi blinks. “You’re…alive.”

Relief washes over her, over the room, like a wave crashing ashore.

Chanyeol eyes them all, seemingly analyzing their injuries. “Looks like we have some stories to swap, huh, guys?”

a/n: HERE'S MY ANNUAL UPDATE. i'm kidding i've been writing a lot of this lately and I'm updating slow because the details need to be right and match between chapters so I'm just double checking things before updating! but i promise faster updates!!!!!!

tbh Things Are Happening and I'm excited!!!

i love you all so much my lil cupcakes, who's excited for the red velvet comeback because I AMMMM

xoxo