Yixing harshly kicked on a door, causing Jiyoo to open her eyes. She looked around and noticed she was in an apartment building but not one she recognized. “Hey,” he yelled, “open up! It’s me!”

After a moment, the door opened and one of the boys from before appeared and looked at the two of them with a mixture of worry and relief. “You found her,” the boy said.

Jiyoo held onto Yixing tighter as she thought she remembered this boy doing cruel things to her before. Jiyoo began to breathe heavily as the boy approached the two of them. Noticing her panic, Yixing stepped away. “Don’t touch her, Jongdae,” he said calmly, “get Luhan and Minseok now.”

Nodding, the boy headed to the back of the apartment. As Yixing carefully let her off his back and closed the door, two more boys appeared along with Jongdae. Unsure of what might happen to her, Jiyoo crouched the corner and started to shiver as the boys approached her. Tears started to stream down her cheeks as the four boys looked at her. One of the boys cautiously stepped towards her but, as soon as he moved, Jiyoo shrieked and shielded herself from him with her arms. “No!” she screamed, “Don’t touch me!”

“Let’s take her to her room,” Yixing said and he walked over to her. He bent down and gently brought Jiyoo’s arms down. “Come on,” he whispered, “you’re safe with us. I promise. We won’t hurt you.” Jiyoo nodded her head and Yixing picked her up and carried her away from the door. When they got to her room, Yixing sat her down on the bed and the four boys looked at her again.

“What happened to her?” one of the boys asked.

Yixing sat down next to her. “Don’t know,” he said, “I found her like this in an alleyway. Luhan, can you take a look at her?”

One of the boys nodded and stepped towards her. Instantly, Jiyoo tightly grabbed onto Yixing’s arm and tried to use him as a shield. “It’s okay,” Luhan calmly stated, “I won’t hurt you. I want to help you.” Trust Luhan. As Jiyoo calmed down, Luhan placed both of his hands on her head and Jiyoo’s mind went numb. The room was still as Luhan closed his eyes to concentrate. After a minute, he removed his hands from her head and Jiyoo’s mind returned to normal. “There’s so much fear,” he then said.

At the word ‘fear’, Jiyoo began to cry again she could feel everyone growing tense. “Can you fix it?” Yixing asked.

Luhan shook his head. “The fear is located within her memories. All I can do is stop the pain temporarily but I can’t affect memories. Whatever that Inspirit did to Jiyoo, I can’t fix.”

Jiyoo heard Yixing growl and he quickly stood up and stormed out of the room. They tried to follow him but as soon as Jiyoo stood up, her ankle flared in pain causing Jiyoo to fall to the floor. Minseok looked back at her. Trust Minseok. “Are you okay?” he asked. She shook her head and pointed to her swollen, purple ankle. Minseok smiled sweetly. “I can fix that.” He tenderly touched her ankle and Jiyoo watched as the color returned to normal and the pain began to subside. She looked at Minseok who simply concentrated on her ankle and, after a moment, all the pain vanished.

She felt herself calm down and she stared at Minseok in awe. “How did you do that?” she asked, moving her ankle around and finding that she could move it without pain.

Minseok’s face turned bright red. “I’m a healer,” he stated, “among other things.” Jiyoo could tell that Minseok was embarrassed so she didn’t prod him any further even though she was even more confused than she was thirty seconds ago.

“Jiyoo! Help me!” a voice suddenly yelled. Without thinking, Jiyoo quickly got up and ran out of the room. Down the hall, she saw Luhan standing in the doorway of an open room where she assumed the voice was coming from.

As soon as she turned to go into the room, Jiyoo screamed and backed herself up against the far wall. Yixing was on fire. At least, she thought Yixing was on fire. On the top of his head, the shapes of two foxlike ears made of pure flames were cackling and, from his backside, a long, flowing, tail of fire flickered back and forth. His eyes were crimson and he had a set of fangs sticking out of his mouth and his fingernails looked more like claws. He was a demon. He looked like something that appeared only in her nightmares.

Minseok ran over to her and held her tightly as Jiyoo fell to the floor and sobbed into his chest. She could hear the others talking but everything was drowned out by her internal screaming. Footsteps approached the two of them but Jiyoo didn’t remove herself from Minseok’s chest. “Jiyoo,” Yixing said, stopping right in front of them, “look at me.” Jiyoo shook her head and closed her eyes. She didn’t want to look at him. Yixing knelt beside them and turned her head so it was facing him. “Jiyoo,” he said again, “open your eyes. You need to look.”

Slowly, Jiyoo opened her tear-filled eyes and found she was inches away from Yixing’s fire ears. Yixing grabbed her hand and slowly brought them over to his ears. She tried to fight him but his calm expression seemed to hypnotize her enough to stop. Within seconds, Jiyoo’s hand was placed over the fire. She was surprised when it didn’t burn. Jiyoo’s eyes widened in surprise and she pulled her hand away, unsure how to feel. “I won’t hurt you,” Yixing said as calmly and firmly as possible.

“What are you?” Jiyoo whispered, “Why are you on fire?”

“I’ll tell you later,” Yixing promised, cupping Jiyoo’s cheek and wiping away some of her tears. “Right now, we need to fix you.”

He stood up and Jiyoo looked past him into the room where she saw Woohyun sitting on the floor, bound in rope. He smirked as he saw Jiyoo, but his smirk quickly turned into desperation. “Jiyoo, help me!” he called out.

Jiyoo felt like something was tugging her over to him and she pushed Minseok away and bolted over to Woohyun, embracing him in a tight hug. She could hear the others yelling but everything in her head seemed to go quiet as she hugged him. Strangely, she didn’t want to let him go. She felt a hand touch her back and she flinched, turning her head around. She swatted Yixing’s arm away as she cried out, “Don’t touch me!”

“Please help me, Jiyoo,” Woohyun whispered in her ear.

Without a second thought, Jiyoo reached behind Woohyun and quickly tried to untie the rope around his wrists but someone yanked her away from him. She turned around and saw the same dark-haired boy she saw at HomePlus that she remembered from her nightmares. She screamed and backed away from him until she bumped into the wall. Everyone stared at her and her body started shaking. The scene before her seemed to be from a fantasy movie but it felt real. She was in a room surrounded by what appeared to be monsters, but she was the only one who seemed to be affected by the sight. “Who are you guys?” she finally asked the five boys standing around her and Woohyun.

The orange-haired boy was the first to react. His claws slashed across Woohyun’s face and he kicked his stomach. “What did you do to Jiyoo?” he yelled. He reached over and gripped Woohyun’s throat and slowly lifted him up into the air. Jiyoo screamed and tried to run over to help Woohyun but the dark-haired boy ran up to her and held her waist, so she couldn’t go any further. The orange-haired boy looked towards her and the other boy. “Tao,” he barked, “Get her out of here! She doesn’t need to see me kill this Inspirit.”

Jiyoo struggled to get out of Tao’s grasp to get to Woohyun but Tao held her firmly in place. Similarly, Woohyun tried to reach out for her but he was too far away. Suddenly, one of the other boys rushed up towards the four of them and pushed the orange-haired boy, making him drop Woohyun. “Sorry Yixing but I figured it out,” he said calmly. Everyone looked at him in anticipation. “He’s a memory manipulator. He can control Jiyoo’s memories by touch. That’s why he was reaching out for her.”

Woohyun laughed and spat out blood that had oozed out of his cheek and into his mouth. “So, you figured me out,” he chuckled, “and I guess that means you know that there’s no way to change her back. She’s stuck like this.”

“Tao, get her out of here,” Yixing repeated.

“What are you going to do?” Tao asked, “You can’t touch him!”

Yixing smirked devilishly and a large flame started burning out of the palm of his hand. “You don’t need to touch him to burn him.”

“Woohyun!” Jiyoo screamed as Tao grabbed her by the wrist and ran out of the room.

They ran to a bedroom and he sat Jiyoo down on the bed. Jiyoo began to sob uncontrollably. Woohyun’s screams could be heard from the other side of the apartment and Tao covered Jiyoo’s ears so she wouldn’t have to listen to Woohyun.

After a few minutes, the screams stopped, and Tao tightly held Jiyoo as she sobbed into his chest. “Luhan!” Tao called out. Soon, Luhan opened the door and rushed up to them. “She can’t stop crying,” Tao said, “Is there anything you can do?” Luhan nodded and closed his eyes. He anticipated Jiyoo hitting him away, but she did nothing as he placed his hands on her head. In a moment, Jiyoo’s breathing slowed down and her tears began to lessen. “What did you do?” Tao asked, loosening his hold on her. He smiled slightly when he saw her eyes grow heavy.

“I just made her sleepy,” Luhan replied as he helped Tao carefully place her under the covers of the bed, “Sometimes sleep is the best medicine.” For a while, the two boys watched as Jiyoo rested peacefully. Tao laid behind her and gently her hair just as he would often see Jiyoo’s mom do to her. Luhan smiled even though he was exhausted. “I’m going to help the others clean up. Can you watch her?” he asked. Tao nodded and Luhan left the room.

Tao propped himself up on his arm and he looked at Jiyoo. “I’m sorry,” he whispered, “I hate to see you hurting. I just hope that when you wake up, you’ll think everything was just a bad dream.” He lightly kissed her cheek and laid back down, wrapping his arms protectively around her body and soon fell asleep.

“Why is it that Tao can sleep with Jiyoo, but I can’t?” a voice said, causing Jiyoo to stir.

“Maybe because when you did it, it was in a erted way and when Tao does it, it isn’t?” said a second voice.

The first voice scoffed. “Says you!”

“Shut up, you two,” a third voice interrupted, “Let her sleep some more.”

Slowly, Jiyoo opened her eyes and saw Tao’s sleeping face a mere inch away from her own. Paying no attention to the others in the room, Jiyoo sat up, grabbed her pillow, and began hitting Tao in the face with it.

“Ow!” Tao yelled, waking up and trying to block the pillow with his arm, “What did I do? Man, I’m getting the worst case of déjà vu!”

The others laughed, making Jiyoo stop and blush at the scene that was playing out. “We were worried about you,” Luhan said, “We’re glad to know that you’re feeling well enough to hit Tao.” There was an awkward silence before Luhan asked the question that was on everyone’s mind. “Jiyoo,” he said, “what exactly do you remember?”

Jiyoo looked around, slightly baffled at the question. She pointed to Tao. “He’s Tao. He comforted me, but I don’t know why I was upset.” The boys breathed a sigh of relief then Jiyoo pointed to Luhan. “You’re Luhan. You helped me sleep.” Luhan nodded with a smile. “You’re Jongdae,” she continued, pointing to Jongdae. Her face contorted into confusion. “I don’t remember you, but I feel like you have something to do with water.”

Jongdae shrugged. “I’ll take it.”

She turned to the other side of the room and pointed to another boy. “Minseok,” she said, then she paused. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say, “You – you healed me. I remember being in pain, you touched it, and then I felt better.” Minseok blushed and looked over to the final boy who shook his head in a warning. Jiyoo turned her attention to him. “And Yixing,” she said, “you were on fire, but you weren’t. Is – is that right?”

In that moment, fire suddenly appeared out of Yixing’s head, his eyes turned red, and fangs came out of his mouth. Jiyoo gasped and held her pillow tightly. “Jiyoo, we need to talk,” Yixing said. Although she was quietly hyperventilating, Jiyoo nodded as calmly as she could. “We’re Outliers. Do you understand?”

She nodded. She remembered studying Outliers for a bit when she was in school. Outliers were those who weren’t fully human or had special abilities which explained what she was seeing then.

Yixing continued, “It’s time you found out about us. We need you to trust us, okay?” Once again, Jiyoo nodded. “Only Jongdae and I aren’t fully human. I’m part fire demon and Jongdae’s a water elf.”

“Mention Tolkien and I slit your throat,” Jongdae warned but when he saw Jiyoo’s eyes widen in horror, he quickly added, “But not you!”

Yixing cleared his throat to draw Jiyoo’s attention back to him. “You already know that Minseok is a healer. Luhan is a brain manipulator, and Tao is a shadow manipulator.”

Jiyoo nodded slowly. She wasn’t sure what to believe. Her reality didn’t consist of elves and manipulators. It consisted of normal people yet, five exceptions to her reality were surrounding her. Seeing her confusion and doubt, Tao placed a hand on hers and said, “We’re all trying to protect you. We would never hurt you. Do you think you can trust us?”

Trust Yixing. Trust Luhan. Trust Minseok. Trust.

Jiyoo took a deep breath and looked around at the boys. “On one condition,” she said, looking at Tao, “no more sleeping with me!”

Tao grinned. “Deal!” he cheered and kissed her fully on the lips.

Okay, I admit, I didn't proofread this chapter but now you know about EXO-M's powers! Xiumin has another power but I didn't mention it in here but I think I'll keep it a secret from you for now. It's nothing major but it explains something that's happened twice now.

RIP Woohyun. Burned to death. What a terrible way to die.

Don't forget to leave me your comments, questions, or suggestions! :D