We held our ground, staring at each other as if silently asking 'what now?' and my only answer was 'I have no idea'. After finding out that one of the people we thought was trying to help us actually betrayed us, the wise thing was to leave the room before anyone catches us so we did just that after deleting the history and any evidence of our disturbance. I honestly did not know what we could do. I whimpered on the inside at the thought of waiting here doing nothing while they could be doing who knows what with Minseok. “We have to do something,” I broke the eerie silence.

They nodded in agreement. I caught the calculating look in Sehun’s eyes and cocked my head to the side as if asking what was on his mind. “I’m just wondering, why would they go through all of that to just betray us like this, especially if that was their priority from the very begininning. Why not just take us all? Why Minseok hyung only?  This doesn’t add up,” he reasoned. He did have a point; all we knew so far was that only Mr. Woo betrayed us, not the others. I thought about the others, they were pretty nice to us. 

“Oh ,” realization dawned on me. “They could have taken him just for bait, to get us there,” I proposed. “I don’t care, we’re still going. We’re getting Minseok out no matter what, and we’re not wasting any more time, we’re leaving tomorrow,” Jongdae demanded.

“What’re you boys up to?” Mr. Woo came into our room, looking around as if he was searching for something. When we didn’t answer he took it as an invitation to come inside. “Have you guys seen a key lying around here? Quite big, rusty.”

“No,” we answered automatically.

“Alright, if you do see it, tell me,” he was turning to leave when I asked him what it was for. “Now that’s none of your business,” he gave me a smile that sent a shiver down my spine and spun around to leave. We watched him as he walked out of the room and turned to look at each other. “Everyone’s sleeping here together tonight, no matter what. I’m not risking another one of you being taken,” I finalized and walked out of the room to gather everybody up.

The next morning was hectic, everyone running around, trying to get backpacks to find and fill, eating up and doing as much as they could so that it wouldn’t seem suspicious. I informed Yongguk about our decision and he agreed to join and help us gather everything up in case we couldn’t go back.

“You guys know what we’re walking into, right?” I asked, everyone was huddled into our room, making a final decision.

“I know it’s soon, I know we didn’t prepare and I know we’re not sure of what’s happening with Minseok right now but I am willing to take the risk. We can’t allow anyone else to get hurt or taken, we can only trust ourselves. If someone doesn’t feel like going or doesn’t want to, you can leave this room now.”

No one said a word.

No one got up.

I smiled.

“Let’s do this.”

We worked until night on the plan of getting out, drew a blueprint of the house and it’s exits and trying to find a way to get out without anyone suspecting anything but with no avail so we agreed on going out the window when-

Ba dum.

The loud heart beat got me dazed as I let go of the pencil I was holding.

Ba dum.

The loud heartbeat got my own increasing, worry flooding my veins. “Does anyone else hear tha-“

Ba dum.

The sound echoed in my ears, almost vibrating.

“What the hell is that?” Kris asked as the heart beats kept going.

“I don’t hear anything,” Yongguk frowned, studying our confused faces. 

Henry's words repeated into my mind like a vision, the thought of him making me feel a pang of grief. My jaw dropped.

“The heart!”

The sound of car doors closing announced the presence of others outside. I looked out the window to see one of the teachers come in with about 6 more people. My eyes drifted from their faces to the suitcase each was holding. “They’re moving in?” I exclaimed, horrified. “It’s like they know we’re leaving,” Kris murmured.  Kris’ words stunned me into silence. “What if they actually do?” I queried. “Then we need to hurry the up, no one’s stopping us from getting Minseok,” Jongdae necessitated clearly.

“Does that mean the heart is here?” Yixing asked, childlike innocence hidden in his eyes. “What the hell is it doing here?” Joonmyun inquired, resulting in the majority of us shrugging, the others silently asking more questions. The constant heartbeat kept me uneasy, making want to find it helluva lot faster.

“We could split up, or rather should. It would seem suspicious if all of us were to walk out that door anyway and if the heart really is here, it makes our process a lot faster,” Kyungsoo reasoned and I nodded. “But why would they bring it here? How stupid do you need to be to bring what your ‘enemies’ are looking for, right to them?” Sehun questioned, frowning in disbelief. “Oh! That’s right! None of us know about your whole ‘able to hear the heartbeat’ thing, I only learnt about that when I was told by you guys and Henry,” Yongguk reminisced. “’Us’? What do you mean?” Kris’ face turned hard. “I- oh,” Yongguk’s face paled considerably. “I’m sorry guys, I knew about them working with Youngmin, I just didn’t think bringing it up after you found out already would do anything,” he apologised sincerely. Kris was about to start again, his neck and ears red from anger when I raised my hand.

“Not now, we can talk about this later right now we need to split up and find the heart and/or find Minseok,” I interrupted and thought about it thoroughly. “Tao, you come with me and Jongdae, you too Sehun, Kris you too and Jongin,” I ordered. The others were confused as to what they were going to do but no one objected to the splitting. “We’re going to get Minseok.”

I watched Kris float out of the window, completely ignoring the rope we put there, and landed with grace. I made sure Chanyeol was holding tight when I held onto the rope and patched myself onto the window sill, blowing a deep breath. “Hold me tight, ye?” I winked to ease the tension and step by step went down the wall of the house. On the last few steps I lost my footing and slipped, my body falling but my hands holding onto the rope tightly, skidding down, causing my skin to burn. I winced in pain but landed without too much difficulty. I flicked my hand as if there was water on it and grimaced at the damage on my palm. I looked up to find worried faces staring down on me. I held out a thumbs up, “I’m alright” I thought, the thought travelling to each of them. The power I used to do that triggered a throb, a soon to be headache. ‘Never again’ I thought to myself.    

The guys went down one by one, each carrying a backpack in case of any consequences we wouldn’t expect. Yongguk gave me his phone, telling me that he’d call when it was safe for them to leave or us to come back, or if we needed help to call. I nodded downheartedly, looking over the guys once more as if they were my younger brothers. The thought of not being able to see them again clogged my throat. I shook my head dismissively when suddenly a thought occurred. “The door!” I turned to Jongin and Sehun, my eyes wide. “Guys!” I whispered/shouted. They turned back the second they were about to close the window and opened it again.

“There’s a door somewhere in the house, quite big and it just looks old. Mr. Woo was looking for a big rusty key this morning; remember how we couldn’t open the door?  Make sure you find that key and give it to him, and look innocent! Then if he dismisses you for any reasons, my suspicions are confirmed, he’s hiding the half in there, watch him and watch where he puts the key and go in there, and get it. If it’s not there, keep looking for it, don’t get caught. If he asks where we are, tell them we went to find some clothes. If you find the half, get the hell out of there and take it somewhere safe. Remember, this is basically a game of hot and cold, the closer you are, the louder the heartbeat, the further you are, the quieter, okay? Now tell the rest what I told you because I couldn’t tell them all, it would take too much energy. Good luck Suho, lead them well,” I thought. “Suho?” it was like he said it back. I looked up in surprise and he was just as shocked that I heard. “Yeah, it means guardian,” I looked at him with a faint smile, not having time to spare to think about the whole him talking back thing. “Let’s go,” I whispered. I looked back up to see Baekhyun looking out the window in worry, my lips quivered as if it was the last time we’d be able to meet again.

“We live pretty far so this is going to take about 3 hours, get ready for an agonising trip,” Yongguk buckled up and fired up the car. The drive was agonisingly long. I looked out the window and watched as the people seemed to pass by like a flash, I watched their happy faces, their smiles making me wish that was me. I watched as a group of friends laughed, their steps showing they were a little tipsy, their hair messy and looking like they were having fun only crossing the street. The light turned green and we sped off into somewhere a lot less exciting, much less people, much less light. The car camouflaged into the darkness and we drove into it for about an hour and a half, the large building finally coming into view. I finally got a good look at where we were, it was right near the sea, close to a light house. I studied the electric fences around the large building, making it look as if it was a prison.

Was the fence there before?

I remembered Jongin teleporting us to the park. I looked around for the park and couldn’t find it. I smiled wearily, Jongin did a good job. How did he remember?

The closer we got to the taunting building the louder my heart beat, sweat forming on my forehead. I breathed deeply, my chest heaving and my palms dampening. The trauma the place caused was starting to have effect. I watched as the others went rigid, their faces hardening. We stopped quite far from the building but close enough so that Jongin could teleport us in there. “I’ll stay here so when you come out I’ll be ready, I’m not that useful so,” Yongguk pat my back in an encouraging way while his face read ‘you can do this’. I nodded strongly and jumped out the car.

“Let’s do this,” my lips formed a crooked smile and Jongin held onto my hand. “Let’s do this,” he repeated, a grin plastered onto his handsome face. We held hands, now forming a little circle. I looked around to see the other guys’ faces, and I only saw determination. They washed away that fear that way creeping up their spines and replaced it with the will to find Minseok. I looked at them like a proud mother. My eyes lingered on Sehun for a bit as he looked up and shot me a small smile. Next thing I know we’re in a dark pit. Darkness, everywhere. It was as if we were lost in an abyss. Darkness. Silence. I looked over to see the guys and only caught the look of pure fear on Jongin’s face before we were right back to the exit of the building.

We did it!

I looked over to Jongin, my grin large on my face; however it dropped as soon as I saw his. Shock. That was all his face displayed and his hands were shaking. “I almost killed us all,” he whispered, almost a whimper. My face contorted and I looked at him questioningly. “Well you didn’t and that’s all that matters right now, you actually got us this far, exactly where we needed to be so let’s go,” Sehun glanced at the door and pushed it vigilantly. The door creaked as if it wasn’t used for years, the sound reverberating around wherever we were. The memory of us was foggy and I only remembered adrenaline rushing through my veins, Baekhyun’s scream announcing where the door was, his scream piercing through my ears. And that was all, the rest a blur. 

“It feels like it was years since we last came here,” Tao sighed deeply, and I looked over to him to watch as his face hardened, probably not too keen in showing how scared he was. “Should we freeze time now?” I asked. Kris shook his head. “If Tao uses all his energy as we go in and we can’t find Minseok in that time then he’ll go out, we’ll have to carry him around and he won’t be able to use his powers to protect himself or anyone else in case he or we really need it,” he explained. I nodded at his reasoning, and watched as Kris took initiative and walked into the place we were so badly trying to escape.

Never thought we’d be breaking in.

He poked his head in and looked around. He looked back at us, his face twisted in suspicion. “The lights are all off,” he motioned for us to come to look and he was right, it was completely dark with the exception of a few emergency lights on, only adding to the unnerving feeling. I shivered as soon as I came in, but it was warm outside.

Minseok! He used his powers! I frantically looked around for any sign of him whatsoever but couldn’t find anything, any indication of human presence. “Let’s go,” I whispered and began walking into the hallway.

Hallway… Was there a hallway here before?

I shrugged the accusation off and continued stalking around the hallway, looking for any sort of door. “Come on guys!” I whispered to them as they were lagging behind. “This doesn’t feel right,” Jongdae stated. So I wasn’t the only one who thought so. “I know but we have to keep going,” I walked a little faster, in the corner of the hallway there was a dim light. I speed walked towards it, the dim light gradually getting brighter until I reached the room. I gaped at the doorframe, staring at the icicles on them. I reached towards it; it was melting bit by bit but otherwise looked like it was new. He tried to escape. Did he succeed? I heard a crash and my head snapped so quickly towards the sound of the source that I’m pretty sure I almost got whiplash. I backed up instantly to the wall and watched as the others followed my lead, Jongdae’s eyes still stuck on the icicles. I lifted my finger onto my lips then slinked towards the door that looked like it led to what was supposedly the main room. It was giant and white, filled with all types of futuristic equipment. De ja vu.

 I watched as a person dug through a drawer, as if they were in a hurry. I pointed towards my wrist to Tao and the person froze, everything froze but us. “Great job,” I whispered, not feeling comfortable with talking out loud in that place. I went over to the person to find that it was a woman.

Sandara!

Relief filled my whole body and I indicated that he should unfreeze time. The others looked at me disbelievingly but Tao did so anyway. As soon as time unfroze Dara looked up and let out a large gasp, her hand on her heart and she stumbled back a few steps.

“Oh my god, oh my god. Thank the lord you are here, you scared the absolute hell out of me but you made it just in time, they’re trying to control Minseok! Brain transmitters are supposed to be impossible but it is, with a two-way radio communication called telemetry, or remote control, one can send wavelengths round trip to a brain transmitter in a person’s head. The wavelengths flow through a person’s brain, then returns to a computer where all aspects of a human being’s life are uncovered and analyzed. To allow brain waves, measured by electroencephalograph, to be analyzed by a computer instead of through a printout offers new possibilities of interpretation. The charting of mental thoughts, vision, hearing, feelings, and behavioral reactions can lead to an analysis of the foundation of personality. They altered it and made it possible to even control all of that, wait how did you just pop up?” she spoke in a hushed voice but quickly.

I was officially terrified.

“Now we need to hurry it the hell up,” Jongdae demanded and Dara lead the way quietly but not before getting the syringe that was supposed to be used to extract any unwanted substances in your system. We sped off to where the room where Minseok was, going too many rights and lefts that I just gave up on memorising it. “Stop right there!” a scream filled the silence, making us stick to where we stood in shock and in horror. “Ta-“ I turned to scream for him only to watch his body fall onto the ground. A scream bubbled up in my throat and a gurgle escaped, my eyes widening as I watched him drop. I caught the dart in his arm.

Of course they’d go for him first. Kris’ viewed in shock as Tao landed with a thud then he snapped. He ran full speed at the shooter, kicking and punching all over the place. The rest of the guards picked him up while Kris tried to fight them off and let out a vicious roar, his eyes no longer human. The click of the gun caused silence to immense, the man’s finger on his trigger. I raised my arms up quickly and pulled back an invisible string, the gun falling out of his hands and onto mine.I caught it effortlessly and fiddled with the position until I got it pointed at the guard that was trying to shoot Kris. I cast a quick look around to notice that the rest had their guns on each of us.