“What the hell are you doing?”

"Well, since I’m sure of my theory now, how about you invite me in?” the tall blonde said with a lazy smile.

I furrowed my eye brows but hey, it was a chance to see if he had the mark or not thus I allowed him. “Luhan where is my- what the hell. What’s he doing here?” Xiumin halted on the last few steps on the stairs when his eyes averted from me to Kris and back to me again.

“I found this guy sneaking around our house and apparently his ‘theory’ is correct or whatever so he’s going to explain what in the hell he was doing,” I simplified.

“Right, I’m Kris.”

“Kris? That’s one foreign- name you got there,” Minseok snorted. “Look who’s talking sir ‘xiumin’,” he shot back.

“The . How’d you know my name? My nametag says Minseok.”

“That’s what I’m here to talk about, I know about all of you,” he replied nonchalantly. “You need to be more detailed with what you’re saying because that just sounded weird,” I advised. “Okay then, I know about your powers then, I know about everything. Why you have them, everything,” he said yet again as if it were nothing. “And how exactly would you know that?” Xiumin inquired.

“I have one of my own,” he said and raised his left sleeve to reveal the sign that I saw two days ago, the bird looking one. “What the ?” Chanyeol screamed from the other side of the house where he was speed walking to get to us. “Ah, so you’re the possessor,” Kris nodded towards Chanyeol’s sign.

“Okay we need to sit down and talk about this because I seriously can’t take this all in.”

“That’s so creepy! You just followed us around and watched us?” I screeched. “At least I didn’t sneak in through your window, ahem.”

Basically he explained how he was following us around for the past few days to make sure whether we had the signs or not. I didn’t understand why it was so important that he had to follow us around in secret but hey, I snuck into someone’s house and attacked the other, so I was in no place to judge. Baekhyun at that time made his entrance with one of my shirts on, a perfect fit. Also, a t-shirt.

His sign was on full display now and I was smirking visibly. “I told you all. I was right about eye-liner dude and I was right about this Kris guy! Teaches you guys not to doubt me!” I laughed hysterically.

“So, you’re light?” Kris yet again asked as if it were the most normal thing to ask. Baekhyun stayed rooted to where he was standing. “What?”

“You’re light are you not? Quite the powerful one I heard,” he leaned back onto the couch. “I’m Kris.”

He explained yet again how he knew everything but didn’t explain why. Or even why we had them.

Once everyone was gathered and sat around the living room he begun.

“Basically, there are these things called voodoo dolls, ever heard of them?” he asked. We all nodded. “They’re real. There is this group of people who keep them secret from everyone, and try to get rid of them, they couldn’t. They found out that the real voodoo dolls they had had something special about them. Whoever was their owner would have a power. But the thing is they couldn’t just give them out because voodoo dolls are voodoo dolls, they’re dangerous. They had to give them to those who needed it and those who needed the powers, the ones who were valuable to this group. This group obviously has relatives; their job was going to be passed down to someone of their heritage. That’s where we come in. We’re all somehow related to those people. We are needed. So they intended to keep us alive. However, there are people who know about them, know about us, and tried to kill us. 4 of us have already died. There’s 12 left. Chanyeol, your uncle was a voodoo keeper, he probably told you why you have what you have,” Kris assumed.

When Chanyeol shook his head Kris continued explaining.

“Chanyeol, those people tried to kill you by setting your house on fire, your family were sadly in the house but in order to keep you safe the keepers gave you your own power, fire, in return of you having your own voodoo doll. That’s how it happened to basically most of us; our powers are somehow related to how we could have died. Some of us, not. Luhan, you probably know by now, I’m Chinese, like you. You of course know about the war.”

I nodded solemnly.

“We could have died, our families risked their lives to keep us safe but the keepers gave us the voodoo doll so we could have those gifts to protect ourselves. Another two are like us, I have yet to find them though. Minseok, Kai, Baekhyun, Kyungsoo, you’re all the same too. Any questions?”

“Why are your and Chanyeol’s marks on your left wrist while everyone else’s is on their right?” I asked.

“Because we possess creatures, I know you know about this though, Chanyeol. I possess the dragon,” he said and for a moment I felt awed. “Wait so what’s your power?”

“Flight, but since my dragon is a dragon, she obviously has fire.”

“Wait what? You can summon your dragon?” Chanyeol asked, shocked. “Yeah, don’t worry though; your phoenix will come soon enough.” 

We cleared a few more stuff up and it somewhat made sense. I mean, we had powers, who was to say this isn’t true?

“Wait so are we going to find the other 5?” Kyungsoo questioned. “Yup.”

“Why’s it so important that we find them?” Kai asked this time. “Because we need to find those damned voodoo dolls and keep them safe, someone out there somewhere is obviously going to be looking for those real ones too, humans really are hungry for power. We basically can’t die. Only those voodoo dolls can kill us,” he concluded and we sat in silence to add everything up.

Someone’s trying to kill us? I wondered. I shuddered.

“Wait so if someone say stabs us, we would still live?” Kyungsoo asked. “Yes.”

“Lord, this is too much,” Baekhyun groaned and rubbed his temples.

“Also, they call us EXO. E because we’re the fifth generation of keepers and XO stands for Xavier Oh who was the founder of this whole group and everything.”  

“That’s creepy as . We’re basically invincible until those voodoo dolls are found,” I thumped my head onto a cushion.  “Yes that’s why you especially need to quiet the down. You were throwing things around telepathically the day Chanyeol’s house was on fire, who knows? Maybe I wasn’t the only one watching, we need to be extra careful,” Kris rested his arm on his knees and rested his chin on his clasped hands. I blinked and took a look around the house as if it were some instinct. I met Kris’ thoughtful gaze with my own confused one. “Finding you guys was too easy. The rest of the guys are hiding well,” he explained.

“Did you like sniff us out or something? How were we ‘easy’ to find?” I asked. “Well, one thing is that some of you had no intention of covering your mark up, second thing is your aura. It’s something I was trained to be able to see, each of you have a colour. Ordinarily people have an almost peach-ish colour while yours are different. Luhan’s is purple, Minseok’s is white, Baekhyun’s is yellow, Kai’s is black, Kyungsoo’s is green and Chanyeol’s is red. It is possible to mask your aura if you’re skilled enough, which I am not. I can only hope that those who so badly want to find us are lacking in skill, or rather do not know about this at all, it would be quite helpful,” Kris responded.

“You speak like an old man.”

Kris’ face remained a poker face for a bit before he turned to Jongin with an almost demonic look.

“You’re annoying,” he countered. “That’s lovely, thank you.”

“Does that mean you’re sleeping here too? We don’t have many places to sleep, I hope you like floors cus’ you’ll have to get cozy with them for the night,” Xiumin sighed and trudged to the kitchen. A few hours later and all the guys were in their beds and trying to sleep but I could only guess that they were doing the same as me. Thinking. Thinking about how all of that was possible. Thinking about not only what could happen tomorrow or the day after but years later. The creaks of the beds kept me awake, my thoughts kept me wondering and almost in a daze. I envisioned what could happen to us and all those images that were being created in only my mind were setting off a sense of vulnerability deep inside me. For a brief time I overlooked my special abilities and focused on the harm that it could bring.

Voodoo doll…

Those two words sat uncomfortably on my tongue and saying it out loud gave a bitter feeling and made it feel as if there was a pit in my stomach. My heart pounded in my ribcage, the beats echoing in my ears as I breathed heavily through my nose.

“Can’t sleep either?”

I gasped loudly at the sudden voice and turned to look at Baekhyun who was seated on my bed wearing an almost embarrassed expression. “No,” I breathed deeply and rubbed my eyes as I sat up straight, now facing Baekhyun. “I can’t say I didn’t know about any of this or any of you because that would be lying. Truth is, before my parents passed away my dad wrote me a letter explaining quite a few things and when I turned 18 my uncle gave it to me. It was shocking to the say the least, I could’ve lived without knowing but that would just be ignorance. I’ve been living in fear for the past 4 years, having nightmares all the time and secretly hoping I would never meet any of you. But I sadly did,” he confessed. I gave him an odd look. I was always the exact opposite; trying to find others like us to convince myself we were normal, it was silly but I always believed it would help.

“Yeah I know what you’re thinking, here,” Baekhyun fished a paper out of his pockets and handed it over to me. I looked at it uncertainly but his nod of encouragement led me to opening and reading the letter.

Dear Baekhyun,

It’s me! Daddy! You probably don’t know me though.

I am your father who loves you so very much.

I am writing this letter to you because I know my future. My future was planned for me ever since I was your age. 18. I feel like this is the right time for you to know about everything. Don’t get mad at uncle Minho for not giving it to you before, I told him to only give it to you now.

I’ll explain from the beginning. I play a very important role. I save people every day. I’m not a fire fighter. I’m not a police man. I won’t tell you what I am. I’ll leave that for you to figure out.

You are special Baek. And by now you probably know why. Yes, I know about everything. I need you to know you are not alone; there are others just like you. I read something once, quite interesting actually; it said ‘those who come together may strengthen themselves but make a bigger light for the enemy to see’. Be wise Baekhyun.

You’re not like me exactly. My fate was decided ever since I was 18. You have to control your own life and head where you want to go. I have to die to protect my family, my dongsaeng, my hyung, I have to sacrifice myself. My job requires me to go to extremes to protect the people I love at all costs. And I am so very sorry Baekhyunnie. I’m sorry for passing the burden on to you. I’m sorry I won’t be able to see you grow into the handsome young man I know you’ll be. I’m sorry I won’t be able to see you get married. I’m so very sorry Baekkie. I hope you’ll see my light one day, and maybe yours will ever surpass my own, who knows?

Stay strong.

I scanned the quality of the paper. The ink was smudged in some words, water? Tears? I pictured Baekhyun’s dad crying and writing this. I sighed deeply.

“I hope you know we’re all here for each other, but what I don’t understand is why you regret meeting us?”  I looked up at him.

“’Those who come together may strengthen themselves but make a bigger light for the enemy to see’,” he recited. “I only just understood. The other guys are hiding. I’m light, get it? ‘Make a bigger light for the enemy to see’? It means I’m going to somehow lead the enemies to their hiding places or something bad is going to happen and it’s going to be thanks to me. My father is no idiot; he wouldn’t put that in there for nothing. It has to have a meaning behind it. ‘Be wise Baekhyun’ I’m no good for you guys. My father is obviously trying to tell me something.”

“Baekhyun, don’t think of it like that. You only now thought of this, later on there will be a better explanation. It’s been 4 years since you got this, I think you could risk the chance of this being wrong and only being a theory. You can wait longer. You have to stick with us, for all we know someone could be out there right now watching us and you could be putting yourself and us in danger. It’s too late to leave now, we’ll be safe together, don’t worry,” I smiled weakly and his mouth quivered, two tears falling down his face. I leaned closer to him and hugged him. “We’ll be fine,” I whispered, not sure if I was trying to convince Baekhyun or myself.

We dozed off soon after that, sleep finally coming as a blessing.

 ☠

His hands were interlocked together with his chin resting comfortably on top while his elbows were placed on the tabletop.

“No intel yet. They’ve done a pretty good job at it,” a man spoke with a low, gruff voice.

He chin and raised his hand, dismissing the other with only a flick of his hand.

He looked to the side of the room at the painting.

 “Could you be hiding there?”

 ☣

Wow.

Haven’t updated in so long ;-;

Ugh school is such a drag. If I didn’t write like half of this before school started I don’t even know when the next update would’ve been.

Hehe, question.

How old do you guys think I am?

Sub, vote and comment! THANK YOUUUU!