Upon arriving at the hotel room, I immediately collapsed on one of the two large beds. It happened to be beside the window. I settled myself comfortably on the mattress and peered through the glass. I took in the magnificent view of the tall buildings in Estin. The lights glowing from the inside of the skyscrapers contrasted beautifully with the darkening background.

Right now, it was a little past midnight on July 12. By logic, Annual Dominance Week had already begun, although it didn’t legitimately commence until the morning. I was exhausted from our long flight and ready to die off. I would've been in my coffin by now if there was still more time to wait. Luckily, we finally reached our hotel.

During the Annual, the attendees had to log themselves in at the front desk of their hotel. It’s basically a checklist of all the people required to be present, which was pretty much everyone. Once you had logged in, it was confirmed that you were indeed here and the Administration wouldn’t hunt you down. Mind you, I wasn’t kidding. If you weren’t checked two hours before the event began, meaning you weren’t planning on going in the first place, the government officials in your area would fine you and force you to take a plane to Estin.  

I didn’t know why that was necessary. Maybe some people were just too tired and lazy to attend. For example: me. There was no specific reason that I had to go. The officials were so fortunate, in my opinion. They didn’t have to leave their post. They could cozy up in their homes without a bother, which was completely unfair.

The Annual started off as eventful as last year, and the year before that, and also the year before that, and so on. In short, we did the same thing every year since we gained dominance. All we had to do was confine ourselves in Estin for seven days and we were free to do as we please.  There were fairs, amusement parks, shopping centres, and celebratory fireworks per night.

Most people here were anticipating for this week. The reason is probably because it's the only break they had in the 365 days. Sure the weekend was still there, but summer vacation, winter breaks and those didn't exist. To keep the consistency of work and education throughout the year, the working and school hours were reduced but any breaks you dreamed of having were eliminated.

After listening to the long and boring speech of freedom and rein and mental purity from the Administration Head, I left the City Square with my friend Eunmi.  Eunmi and I usually hung out during the week of the Annual, but she had overprotective parents that let her spend time with her friends alone for two hours. The remainder of her day was spent accompanying her mother and father

“Alright, it’s our tradition to head to the fair on day one,” Eunmi said peppily, grabbing my hand only to burst into a light jog. We had two hours without a minute to waste, and she knew it.

“I have a sudden craving for cotton candy,” I stated. “We’re getting that before we try the games.” She smiled as we continued our pace.

“Sudden craving?” She laughed lightly. “You always seem to say you want one before we even get to the fair.” Her laughter became contagious and I found myself grinning along.

“Can’t deny my inevitable love for those delicious clouds of joy.” She suddenly looked at me with relief and softness.

She spoke with a gentle tone, “I’m glad you’re starting off happily this year. You always seem to be down after the speech.” It was on our first year of the Annual together, we were both mere ten-year-olds, when I told her about the incident with my parents. I was in tears after the speech and she calmed me down, letting me explain my behaviour. Even though plenty of time had passed since, I couldn’t help but feel painstaking sadness when the loss of lives were mentioned.

But for some reason, this year I was feeling much better.

“No use brooding over the past. Enjoy while you can,” I replied.

We reached the entrance of the fair and immediately searched for a cotton candy stand. It wasn’t hard to find because there’s hundreds scattered on fair grounds. Eunmi and I picked our candies before paying and proceeded to stroll around.

“This is pure bliss,” I said, displaying my pleasure through expressions. Eunmi gave me a why-are-you-so-strange face.

“I don’t want to say anything offensive about your weird for cotton candies.” I pretended to be hurt while tearing another piece of the puff in my hand.

“I think you just did,” I responded, popping it into my mouth. She halted and pointed her index finger at something. My gaze followed her arm until it reached her finger to realize that she was directing it to a ring toss stand.

“You want to play?” Eunmi nodded enthusiastically. I myself targeted a small brown teddy bear resting on the shelf. “I see something I like. I’m game.” She let out an excited “Yay!” as we bee-lined to the counter.

---

“We got super lucky today,” Eunmi remarked with a satisfied smile. She was clutching a purple bunny plush she won from the ring toss and was currently draining out a milkshake. I was doing the same, except with a brown teddy bear. We actually won quite a few coupons for food and spent most of our time snacking. So far my day had been going fantastically, but alas, all good things must come to end.

“Shoot, it’s been two hours,” Eunmi informed with a dismayed voice. She quickly lifted her mood. “I had a lot of fun today with you, dear. More than we had before.” I beamed at her, masking my sour thoughts that I was going to be by myself.

Her cellphone by her ear as she called her parents, she waved at me while walking away.  Just like that, I was ditched in a lonely abyss of me, myself, and I.

I sighed out of disappointment and urged my legs to move. I came to the point of roaming aimlessly around the stalls and stands, feeling bored out of my mind. I approached the polar end of the fair, an action I took quite often. Although, somehow it appeared different this time. Since the fair was near the border of the city and an incredibly dense forest, there was a chain-link fence surrounding it. There was always a door leading to the immense greenery and it was firmly locked at all times. This time, however, it set slightly ajar with no lock in sight, as if someone was inviting me in.

I glanced around, confirming that the coast was clear. This area was usually deserted with hardly any stalls in sight because no one really bothered to explore this far. Of course they had better things to do.

I widened the doorway and silently crept through, swiftly shutting it behind me. Picking up my pace to avoid being caught, I trekked through the trees absentmindedly. It wasn’t my brightest move because, due to my ignorance of the world around me, I had managed to trip over a heavy object only to land face first into the dirt. My teddy flew out of my grasp.

“Where did all my luck go,” I thought out loud. I wiped my face with the back of my hand then dusted my knees after standing up. “I bet Eunmi jinxed it by saying we got lucky.” I snatched Sugarball off the ground and proceeded to clean him as well. Yes, his name was Sugarball. Yes, he was a boy.

I turned around to find the culprit of my embarrassing moment. I spotted a grey metal on the forest floor, trying to miserably be hidden between the blades of grass, but instead sticking out like a sore thumb. I crouched down to take a better look and identified it as some sort of latch. I tugged on it, not expecting anything to occur. To my surprise, it lifted off the ground by about an inch. I pulled with a doubled amount of strength and the metal kept on rising. It took the shape of a square and was similar to a manhole cover.

I recognized it as some kind of passage that lead underground. Once the manhole was fully opened, it would have bars that formed a ladder going deeper into the ground.

“Is this really heavy or am I just weak,” I asked rhetorically. The metal manhole was agape, but not enough for it to expose what was inside, nor did it leave space for me to enter.

I did some hard core yanking on the latch for fifteen seconds before it suddenly flew open. It landed on the other side of the hinges with complete ease, just like turning a page of the book. Peering in, I concluded that my prediction was correct.

Although it resembled a pathway to sewage, it was clearly not the case. The dark hole was illuminated at the end. No unpleasant stench wafted out. Even the walls of the tunnel were obviously made of marble that felt smooth to the touch. I presumed it was safe to go in.

No sane mind would be stupid enough to do such a thing. They’d return as soon as they could. Heck, they probably wouldn't have exited the fair in the first place. Not me though. There was literally nothing in Estin I hadn't seen before because I'd explored everywhere.

Curiosity got the best of me when I grabbed onto one of the metal ladder steps. Descending to the bottom of the hollow pit felt like an eternity but it was probably just several feet. I placed my feet onto the marbled floor and stared at what was waiting before me.

The ceiling was only a couple of feet higher than my head, which made me wonder how short the people here really were. In front of me was a narrow hallway that was dimly lit by lights along the walls. It seemed to be only going downhill, meaning that this trail went farther down than I thought. My only instinct was to follow it.

For two minutes, I walked the pathway with anxiety growing within me. I began to think that maybe it wasn’t a good idea. If there’s one thing my history teacher taught me, it was that the rebellious didn’t always win in the final battle.

My thoughts were interrupted when I approached the end of the hallway. Two options were given to me: to take the room on right, which was open so I could freely enter, or to continue down the second hallways that took a slanting left turn. I peered into the room and let out a silent gasp. My eyes widened as I soaked in the sight.

Unlike how it was in the past 5 minutes, the ceiling in this room was extremely high. Computer screens wallpapered the whole chamber. In the very centre rested an enormous globe made of stainless steel.

“I guess work is done here. You checked on all those things right?” The throaty voice made me freeze in my spot. My breath hitched in my throat and I was unable to move. The person was rounding the corner and was coming towards the entrance. The entrance where I was currently standing.

“Yes sir, all of them are in their cages.” It was a different voice this time, more feminine and pitched.

“Good. You can take the keys and lock up until we come back tomorrow.” The clanking indicated that keys were being shifted.

“Yes, sir.”

“Ah, it’s so annoying that this has to be done for the whole week. Can’t wait until the Annual is over.”

Their voices sounded merely a few feet away from me. My brain processed the situation I was in and urged my legs to escape. In state of panic, I quietly moved down the second hallway as fast as I could. I didn’t turn to look back.  

Let me just tell you that there was literally no end to these hallways. Saying from first-hand experience, after this hallway finished commenced another one.

“Whoa,” I murmured. This corridor was seemingly endless. There were shiny steel doors lined along both walls, each several meters apart, all with numbers on them. I would assume there were thousands of these doors judging by the length of this certain passage.

I paced forward with light footsteps, looking at each of the doors. I debated whether or not to enter one. I finally concluded that, since I was already here, I would figure out what was in here. Somebody said that the ‘things were in their cages’ and I’d been wondering about it. What had they been discussing? Were there animals in here? Birds, perhaps?

I stopped in front a door with a large four in the middle. I inhaled deeply and released my breath. My hand found the red button labeled ‘OPEN’ and pressed it.

“What the heck is up the hallways in place,” I said in a low tone because I was faced with, yet again, another corridor. “They’re everywhere.”

Fortunately, this was a short one. The opposite side was glowing and I proceeded towards it. As I went closer, the brightness increased. It came to the point where the light became blinding. I didn't see the narrow door frame I was walking through, clearly because I couldn't see at all, and my outstretched elbow painfully knocked into it. A yelp escaped my mouth and my stuffed bear jerked out of my hand, landing on the floor for the second time today.

“Sugarball!” I exclaimed, trying to search for it in the impossible condition. Suddenly, the glaring brightness decreased by many notches. I finally spotted him.

“Ah, there you are Sugarball. Stop trying to run away from me,” I mumbled to myself, picking him up with a satisfied smile.

“Sugarball?” a voice asked, followed by a chuckle. It belonged to a male, no doubt. I snapped my head toward the source of noise and my face expressed utter shock.

I was standing in a gigantic room and before a huge glass extending from above to below, left to right. It separated me from the stranger behind it.

From what I noticed, the man seemed to be in his late teenage years or early twenties. He was wearing black skinny jeans, a pair of white and black sneakers, and a simple white hoodie that was ped, exposing his black tee. A smirk graced his face as he gazed at me. I found myself mesmerized by him. He was truly good-looking, I wasn’t going to lie. The man ran his fingers through his black hair that was already slightly unkempt, which added to his charm.

“You okay?” he asked, bringing me back to reality.

“Yeah.” I nodded. “Yeah,” I repeated, and mentally face palmed. I was making an idiot out of myself, and his chuckle proved it.

“So,” he started, “Sugarball?” I gawked at him. I guess I gave the idiot impression to begin with.

“My bear.” I gestured to my hand clutching it. His grin spread wider and he gave me an amused look.

“Your bear is brown.”

“Haven’t you ever heard of brown sugar?” I snapped in a somewhat frustrated manner.

“You aren’t very creative with names, are you?”

“Hey, other people would be naming their bears Mr. Stuffy or something like Oscar or Teddy. But me? I named him Sugarball, after a natural sweetener. That’s beyond creative.”

“You’re really weird,” he stated simply.

“I’m weird? What about you?” I retorted. “You’re the one talking so casually when you’re trapped behind a piece of glass.” I flash of hurt appeared on his face and I immediately regretted saying that. I was being insensitive. No one would just willingly hang out alone in a room that felt like a jail cell.

“Don’t you…” He seemed hesitant but he continued with his sentence. “Don’t you know where you are?” His confident tone had changed to a gentle one.

I shook my head and stared at his handsome face questioningly. Was I missing something? Was it really that important?

“Do you know what I am?” What he was? Why would he ask a peculiar question like that?

“What do you mean?” I enquired suspiciously. “What are you?”

“I’ll tell you once you get me out of here.”

“No, tell me now.”

“First get me out.”

“Not until you answer.”

“Then will you please get me out?” His eyes were pleading, so I sighed.

“It depends on your next words.”

“You have to get me out, seriously.”

In the spur of the moment, I agreed. “Fine! I’ll get you out. Just tell me what you are. Are you a criminal? Did you kill someone to get jailed?”

He was reluctant to answer but he did anyways, but what came out of his mouth next stunned me in my place. In that moment, I wished that my assumption had been correct. Killing someone would have been better than his honest reply.

“I’m an angel.”

I stared at him bewildered. My blood boiled angrily and my heart beat rapidly as I processed what he said. So he was one of those. And to think I actually thought he was cute. Well, he was, but those thoughts were drowned out by my loathing feelings against him. His race captured my mother and turned my father insane, ultimately killing him. He was one of them.

Enraged, I turned around, ready to stalk out of the chamber for good. But his pleading voice made me halt mid-step.

“You said you’d get me out! Please free me.” His tone sounded borderline desperate and I couldn’t stop myself from lining my vision on him once again.

“I said that before I found out you’re an angel,” I snapped furiously. “You guys are the worst.”

It was his turn to fume. He shot me a menacing glare, a complete contrast to his personality earlier.

“You have no right to accuse us as the villains here.” His infuriated voice sent a shiver down my spine. It was as venomous as the glower he was sending me. “ You mortals are the people that locked us up here. You’re the cruel ones.” He stepped closer to the glass. “I could’ve been peacefully going about my daily life at home, but no. Instead, I’m here. Trapped in a cage.”  He clenched his fists and pounded on the glass but no damage was done. I became terrified at this new form.

“Do you know how long I’ve been here?” he continued. His voice shook in fury as I stared at him perplexed. “Years! Several years. Here in this same room by myself. It’s amazing I haven’t gone mad yet.” He laughed at his own joke ironically, yet still looking beautiful while doing so. “Or maybe I have.” He leaned his head onto the glass while his vision was fixated on the ground.

“And you know whose fault it is?” he said, not bothering to lift his head. “Humans.”

My previous heated temper returned to me. “We were hurt too! “ I fought back. “We lost lives. My father and I too; we lost my mother.” My voice cracked when the phrase left my mouth. I hadn’t noticed that I was tearing up until now. My emotions were overcoming me. I shut my eyes and tried to calm myself down.

“You lost your mother?” the angel said quietly. My eyelids lifted to watch him transfix his gaze onto me.

“She was taken,” I croaked, “by the angels. I don’t know if she’s dead, but I have a feeling she is.” He sighed heavily.

“Hey, I’ll tell you what,” he spoke softly. “If you can release me, I’ll try to help. I’ll see if we can find your mother.” My body unconsciously moved towards the glass.

“How can I trust you?” I asked, my volume matching his.

“I guess you’ll just have to.”

My father’s words suddenly echoed into my mind. “At the end of this world,” he said, “humans were the ones who were corrupted.” He told me to give the angels a chance. He said they meant no harm… He had better have been right because I was making a decision based on his proclaims.

“Okay. How do I get you out?” He smiled upon hearing this, his handsome features brightening once more.

“There’s a keypad on your right. You enter the password and it sets down the glass.” I listen to him and stand in front of the numbered keypad. The only aspect left is to determine the password.

I concentrated intensely on the numbers, trying to relate anything that could open the glass. I stared deep in thought as the keypad’s screen illuminated a green glow. It had five slots, indicating that it needed a five-numbered password.  His room number was four. Maybe that had something to do with it? I knew that the angels’ identities were logged in case one of them went missing. His birthday was recorded, so could that have been it?

“When’s your birthday?” I asked, eyes still focused on the technology.

“May 6th,” he replied. “Why?”

“Your birthday could be the pass– ” My words were left unfinished because a small click could be heard as the screen went black. I whipped my head around and stood speechless as the heavy glass descended from the ceiling and under the floor. Once it reached its very bottom, the handsome angel stepped out.

“How did you do that?” was his first sentence to me after I became his saviour. I gaped at him with a puzzled expression.

“I don’t know. It happened on its own. I didn’t do anything,” I explained. Right then, loud voices could be heard from the outside of the metal door.

“Didn’t I tell you to check on 394 specifically? I told you that one was being troublesome. I wish you’d do as I say properly for a change.”

My emotions became a jumble of worry and panic. I had no idea how I was going to escape this place, especially now that I had an angel to take care of. They would notice for sure.

I guess the angel realized I was freaking out because he called to me.

“Hey! Hey, calm down. I can get us out of here. Don’t worry.” I looked at him with relief, but next with doubt.

“Wait, what can you do?” His infamous smirk returned. I caught myself admiring him.

“We aren’t useless you know. Angels have powers.” He showed me his right wrist, which had a tattoo that resembled the sun. “I have the power of light.”

I snickered. “Light? What will you do, turn on a light bulb to guide us through darkness?” He frowned at my lame attempt at a joke and rolled his eyes.

“Yes,” he responded, sarcasm dripping from his tone. “While I’m at it, I might as well take away your ability of sight as well.” I gasped as I understood that he was the one producing the light when I first entered.

“So it was you! You almost blinded me!”

“Yeah, yeah. Now come on, I’ll turn us invisible.” When he took a step towards me, I instantly took one back. We might have become only slightly more comfortable with each other, but that didn’t mean I didn’t still despise him. Angels were ugly creatures, that’s how they would ever be in my eyes. However good-looking they were, their hearts would always be hideous.

“I can never fully trust you,” I said through gritted teeth, my eyes staring at him sharply.  He paced backwards, knowing he was getting too close for comfort.

“I’m sorry that you can’t. But if you really want us out, you’ll have to trust me for now. I told you I’d help you find your mother any way I can, but in order to do so, you’ll have to help me as well.”

I sighed in defeat. “If you have powers, how come you never used them to escape?”

“The glass and the walls were barriers. I could only use my powers within them but it would not affect anything beyond.”

“So how can your power of light turn us invisible?” I needed to know what I was getting myself into.

“You see,” he informed, “light is what gives us sight. Most living beings can’t see in the dark. I can manipulate light to omit ourselves from their vision. That’s how we can turn invisible.”

“Alright,” I said nervously. “Just don’t get me killed. And don’t touch me.” Out of the blue, he began to laugh. It was a melody I disliked yet found pleasant. That was probably the reason I disliked it.

“Don’t get too conceited,” he retorted. “I was never going to.” My face flushed at his comment and I irritably locked my eyes with some other object.

“Hurry up, honey.” I swiftly spun my head to him.

“Don’t call me honey as if we’re buddies.”

“It suits you. I noticed you have a thing for natural sweeteners. Am I right, honey?”

Despite my words, I was couldn't help but feel flattered by the nickname. It struck me that, even though I was the one that freed this angel, I had no clue to what his name was. I made eye contact with him and said my name confidently before asking for his.

“Byun Baekhyun,” he introduced himself with a grin. “By the way, I’m still going to call you honey.”

    Author's note:

      Chapter 1, here it is! Hopefully it was a good introduction. Please anticipate for more to come! I apologize for any errors.

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