Chapter 2; Crossing of paths 

 

 

 

 

 

The soft pads of Luhan’s feet were dirtied with each step he took through the unknown place, where heeps of dried decaying leaves and small pieces of litter were astrewn. There were stray newspaper cuttings that were being toyed with as the wind threw them recklessly from one direction to another.

 

Had Sehun been lying to him?

 

He did find a town and Sehun told him that it should be abundant with humans but there was not a soul in sight. Just the welcoming darkness of night, though there were dimly lit streetlights aligned at each side of the street, but they only made the dark corners seem as if they could pull you in.

 

Eyes wide and lips quivering, Luhan’s whole form was shivering from both fear and the cold. He hugged his coat closer and struggled to keep his legs from falling, continuing to trudge his way forward since he had no destination in mind.  

 

He eyed his surroundings, brick structures far larger than him towered over him. They intimidated him, making him feel much smaller and weaker. No matter where he went, he kept seeing the same things - big, small, tall, short. They were just different versions of each other with just a few alterations here and there. It was starting to get irritated.

 

The dead silence of the town, save for the constant sound of crickets chirping and crows cawing, made the uneasiness in him grow as time passed.

 

Why was no one out here?

 

Luhan could see the faint glow of flickering candle flames through the sheer curtains of some of the buildings. The shapes of people obstructed the light sometimes, creating shadows that darted about in a hurried fashion. Something must be keeping them inside. He could tell because through the picture books that Sehun had shown him, there were huge amounts of people walking about through a ‘night market’. The setting had the exact same colour of the sky, the only difference was the lack of stalls and people of course. This something had to make them so afraid that they would stay inside for protection.

 

Then a voice spoke.

 

“Found a pretty little one.”

 

Each syllable was pronounced with a short pause between them, a sickenly high pitched voice overlapped with a deep undertone. The voice, so horribly out of tune, made Luhan cup his ears out of reflex. His body responded later by stiffening by the mere thought of what would be seen behind him. Slowly craning his neck to face his perpetrator, who at the same time came into his line of vision, he balled his small fists.

 

A human figure stepped out of an alley he passed a few minutes ago.

 

A crooked smile. A twisted expression. A lengthy body.  

 

What is… this?

 

He felt all numb for a second with his eyes extremely dazed before regaining the strength to lift his limbs and start running in horror of the unknown.

 

“Don’t run away.”

 

Go away. Don’t come here.

 

Luhan screamed mentally. Small puffs of condensation came out with each breath he took. He could hear the sound of metal scraping on each other, the screeching of it piercing his ears. He gritted his teeth, concentrating hard on keeping his legs from tripping or falling.

 

“I just want to play.”

 

Its voice dropped lower and lower with each passing second while growling the sentence out, mischief lacing it. The sound of machinery churning became louder while it came closer with each stamp of its limbs. Its hysterical laughter rang out through the night. Both noises got louder and closer until-

 

“Caught you.”

 

Oh no.

 

Thoughts he shouldn’t even be thinking of ran through Luhan’s mind the moment he felt the icy grip of the monster’s hand. Its long fingers dug into his shoulder, he hissed in pain at that.

 

Luhan started struggling against its strong hold, only making pleasure swell within the monster from its prey’s desperation. A second hand wrapped around his ankle abruptly pulling him to the ground. A painful groan came from his hoarse throat as his jaw slammed against the cold cobblestone ground. Screaming ensued as he made a futile attempt of trying to clawing the flat ground to keep him from going any closer to it, but it was useless.

 

Sehun. The only thing he could think of was him. He needed to see him, he needed Sehun.

 

Tears cascaded, big fat drops dripping one after another. His cries echoed throughout the town but no one came to his aid. He clearly knew that there were people in those buildings, so why were they leaving him here?

 

Scrunching his face, his need to survive drove him to twist his body and grab its arm. The burn from the gooey substance coating it pained him to taste blood from biting his tongue. With a glance to his right, his eyes widened upon the sight of a long rusty pipe hanging loosely from its hinges.

 

He could reach it.

 

Tilting his head a little more to stare at his opponent, he needed to time it properly to be able to strike.

 

Three seconds.

 

That’s how long he needed to wait, so he counted.

 

But he couldn’t.

 

A second figure came into view, slowly descending from the tiled roofs. A cloud of smoke that was near his feet engulfed the area.

 

Luhan felt both limbs that were clutching him loosen and retract.

 

All chaos were centered on the faint sound of slashes in the background which mostly got covered up by the ear-piercing screams of torment from the monster. The repetitive slams were heard. Suddenly, everything abruptly stopped. Followed by the choking gasps, like a clogged up pipe only have a small opening for some liquid to spew out, then a loud thud. Dust enveloped the scene, then slowly started to fall.

 

The footsteps of slightly heeled shoes were heard, each having the same interval between them with an elegant feel from it. A shadow was seen amidst the white dust.

 

Out came a man who was wearing a black trench coat, not a crease visible on it, with a belt of the same colour tied around his waist. They were also joined with some dark jeans and a cane in his hand, the tip having a faint glow. His eyes hooded by the shadow casted by the tilted top hat of his, a stoic expression in place.

 

Saying that Luhan was scared would be an understatement.

 

He was terrified.

 

Luhan quickly scrambled to his feet to only end up falling down. He cursed his legs for aching in such a short period of time. A chuckle admitted from the stranger and he whipped his head to look at him.

 

"Sorry, my name is Jongin." He offered his hand to Luhan with a wide smile on his face, eyes crinkling. "What's yours?"

 

Luhan was unsure. This was a stranger and to see him be able to make a hundred and eighty turn of his earlier expression was unsettling. For all he knew was that he could turn out to be harboring a fake personality. Sehun made only one rule which he had to always follow - never talk to strangers. But Jongin seemed like a nice enough person. I mean, he even saved his life. That must mean he's a good person, right?

 

Luhan hesitantly placed his palm against the other's rough palm, who instantly wrapped his fingers around it. The smaller flinched with that action but quickly relaxed when the other loosened his grip but gave a small squeeze of reassurance. Pulling him up, Luhan almost fell from the sudden tug but managed to hold his ground.

 

With his head looking towards the ground, he muttered something that Jongin did not really catch. He bent down to Luhan’s height and turned his ear to face the other, “Why’d you say again?“

 

“Luhan... My name is Luhan.” He said his name twice just in the case Jongin couldn’t hear him like before.

 

Said latter ruffled his hair, laughing a little before saying, “Well Luhan, You don’t need to be so shy around me. Come on, let’s bring you back to HQ so you can wash up. You look….”

 

Jongin trailed off, thinking of an appropriate word that would not come off offensive. But Luhan did the job for him.

 

“...Messy.”

 

He snapped his fingers and pointed at Luhan, a smirk in place, " Bingo."

 

Chapter II end.

 

The little boy from the south finally found a town for his search to began, only for it to be intervened by an incident to later reveal someone that would prove to be special to him.