“Right here, you and me now, let’s stop time. Follow me.” -Exo, "Run"

Tao had eventually gotten used to Luhan being in the Halo with him after nearly a week.

At first he had thought he would hate it: seeing his little brother be used as a toy, but he never did, so he was surprisingly happy with the fact that Luhan was an Angel now. As the days quietly walked by, Luhan became more fit, his ribs were no longer visible and he was beginning to loose some of the muscle that he had had back in the Commons. Tao saw him mostly every day, walking around with his Dancer when the two weren't in bed eating snacks and watching movies with each other.

As far as he knew that was all they had done. Minseok had told Tao that he didn't exactly like it here in the Halo, that he hadn't ever wanted to be a Dancer because he despised what they stood for. Least to say after learning bits and pieces about the elder they had grown to be somewhat friends. He was surprised he hadn't met the elder before but figured that Luhan was the only reason he came out of his room either way, so he didn't think much of it. The two were friends so he trusted to Minseok to tell him what he needed to know and didn't pry when he was uncomfortable telling him something.

However what Minseok had told him was scary to think about.

Ever since the day after his last visit to the Pit, he had been able to feel everything in his room. The girls had piled on him one morning and for once Tao felt himself wincing. There were other incidents, like when he stubbed his toe on the edge of his bed and tripped over his own feet and face planted into the hard floor. After telling Minseok about it and asking why it had changed the man explained that it was probably Sehun's way of punishing him. However, both Zitao and the elder knew that if turning off the special ventilation in his room was punishment, it wasn't much, and the elder was capable of much more than that, so he better be wary, and keep his eyes out because Sehun was probably plotting something similar to his last act all over again.

So far, he had been lucky and he hadn't even seen a glance of Sehun but his stomach was always churning with nerves and when he walked alone in the hallways every so often he felt as if the walls were closing in on him. It was terrifying, but now he had to stay even stronger because Luhan would be around and even though he knew the younger wouldn't mind, he still didn't want to seem weak in front of him.

It was another one of those days again, were Luhan and Minseok weren't around so Zitao was left to fend for himself.

Zitao decided that today he would be brave. It'd been a few days since he'd last bathed, to nervous and scared to have to walk back to his room . But this time, he finally realized that he didn't have to get dressed when he went back to his room, he could just take his clothes with him and stay in the bathroom until he dried off enough to get dressed and haul himself back to his room. So he did, and after sitting up against one of the walls and trying to avoid all of his reflection he leaned his head back and just sat there in utter silence. There wasn't even the sound of water draining from the tub and he couldn't hear anything out side of the room he was in so he was left in peace, if he closed his eyes and fell away he could almost pretend that he was back in his room where he liked to pretend nobody could hurt him.

He didn't realize how peaceful he felt until he heard someone call his name out. His eyes shot open and he looked to the entrance where he found Rin standing, her eyes crossed, a look of somewhat concern masking her features that were normally calm. "Hey Rin."

"Hey panda." They just sat there, Tao sitting on the floor, his hair messy and still wet, his chest bare as the room was too foggy and he hadn't felt like putting on a shirt just yet, and Rin just standing there in her normal attire of a t-shirt and skinny jeans. For a while they just stared at each other, but after a long pause the girl spoke up, asking him how he felt.

"I'm fine," he said, but when she raised an eyebrow he thought he might have answered to quickly. "I mean, I could be better, but I feel fine."

"Don't lie to me," she replied and Tao just stared. "Don't think you're fooling me with this act you've been putting up all week, I know what happened," the last words were barely a whisper but Zitao heard them anyway. "I'm pretty sure everyone in the Halo at least knows your name by now."

Tao sighed and closed his eyes, resting his head against the mirrored wall once again. "Just let me pretend Rin, it's not like I want to think about it."

No matter how far into the back of his mind he tried to push it, he could still feel the pain from that night. He could remember the look that had been lingering in his Dancer's eyes, and every time it showed up in is mind, he could feel spiders crawling all up and down his body. When it happened, when the memory came back to him, he would curl in on himself in his bed wrapped in his blankets and surrounded by pillows, or sometimes he would join Luhan and Minseok in watching a movie in order to distract himself. Around some people, he didn't feel comfortable.

For once, he began to feel strange when the girls were around, although it was mostly just Taera who made him feel suspicious. She had gone quiet since that night, and when the two saw each other alone, he would be greeted with a glare that didn't go away until they were out of one another's sight. The girl was cold now and Tao didn't know how to feel about it, so he tended to just avoid her as much as possible.

If there was anyone else that made him feel safe and comfortable in his own skin, it was Rin. He had seen her more often, though he couldn't tell if it was just by coincidence or if she had been purposely seeking him out only to see what he was doing, to see if he was alright. Most of the time, she would just walk by him smile, say hello, and go on. It was something that felt strange at first, but by now he was used to the girls avoiding him like has was some kind of plague.

Rin was the only exception, but even she didn't show up in front of him very often, which was why here being in here now was a sort of surprise to him. But he was glad, he missed having the upbeat aura of the three girls always bounding around him.

"Mimi's worried about you," he heard her whisper. "Which makes me wonder why she's been trying to keep away from you, but there's no telling with that girl."

"It doesn't matter anyways, I wouldn't blame her if she didn't want to be around me." Rin just shook her head at him and gave him a look that told him he needed to stop shaming himself. She knew that that was all he liked to do nowadays when he wasn't around that kid and his Dancer.

"Don't say that-"

"Not even Sehun, who is supposed to want me, wants me anymore."

"That's a lie, Sehun just-"

"Sehun me, Rin, he  me," Tao seethed, looking up at her fiercly from where she stood still by the doorway. "And I could feel it, Rin, I always thought that I wouldn't mind, but it's this place. I hate it, how it makes me want him even though I know I shouldn't."

"Tao..."

"And you know what?" He gave her a sardonic glance before staring into his own gaze across the room. "I'm actually glad he hurt me like that, out there in the Pit where everyone could see. I could feel what he was doing, how it ripped me apart and I bled the whole time. I like how I hated it, how I hated the pain but had to accept it," he just stared at his reflection, neither of them speaking because they both knew he wasn't done. But Tao took a moment to swallow his pride and sit in the silence. "I liked it," he whispered. "I'm glad he did that to me because it made me realize how stupid I've been this whole time, thinking that for once I could actually have something in my life that wouldn't bring me pain. And every night I thank him for hurting me like that, because it put me in my place, and that was exactly what I needed. I needed to realize that I am no more of a person than he is. I needed to realize that before I could even think about anything else."

Rin just seemed lost when he looked up at her again, so he took his shirt form beside him, and brushed by her, shaking the water out of his hair with his hand. He didn't hear from Rin for a wile after that, he didn't even hear from her, and for a while everything was calm again.

He didn't regret anything that he had told her, even if half of it was lies.

Anything related to Sehun was something that Tao would always regret at some point or another. Never in his life, would he think to thank the Dancer for doing all of that to him, Tao wanted to say it was reasonable, but the more he thought of it, he would rather have been beaten or whipped. Because was going too far... right? There was a certain inner turmoil that Tao had been going through, one which he didn't like to talk about, because everyone always told him what he thought was wrong.

Tao had deserved to be punished, he knew that much. He knew that he shouldn't have ever snuck out and that at some point he would probably be caught doing so, but what he always wondered about was how far punishment would be for such a crime. Luhan told him that it was stupid to even think about because it wasn't like Tao had done anything but break a few rules that hadn't even been stated. "There's no reason to be punished for having good intention," he would tell him and Minseok would nod his head and tell him to stop worrying about something so trivial, but he couldn't.

For some reason he couldn't stop thinking about it: how he made one stupid mistake a few times and was infinitely punished for it. Most of the time he thought about such things because he was angry. He was angry at Sehun for dragging Luhan into this place. He was angry at himself for being the reason he had done so, and he was angry at Sehun for him as well, but he figured out that he was the least angry about the last reason. It didn't even bother him anymore because he knew it was the punishment he had deserved. He should have expected for something like that to happen, but when it finally did, all he could do was cry about it and wallow in self misery at how Luhan was here and it was such a bad thing.

Minseok told him not to worry about Luhan anymore though, he had people looking after him, who loved him and were willing to take care of him and make sure he wasn't hared in this terrible place, and that was why Zitao just let his situation be. He wasn't happy about it. However he knew that the Halo was better for him than the Commons. He just had to accept it.

It'd been a week and four days since that incident and something unknown hovered in the air.

He still couldn't accept the fact that Sehun may actually be done with him, he knew there was more, and that since the Dancer had already showed his true side he didn't have to be wary or pretend. At some point or the other something was going to happen, and after that Sehun really wouldn't need to hesitate.

Laying in his bed, he feared that if he moved, the strange, dangerous aura floating in the air would choke him. His mind was blank for once; he was too scared to think. Something was off today, and the Angel couldn't explain it, but it made him tremble.

Of course he was right. There was a high possibility that nobody else could feel it, how hot the air was, and how every shadow seemed to be taunting. He felt as if he was walking on a tightrope and that if he were to fall there wouldn't be a soft cushion at the bottom to lighten the fall.

Just as the day was ending he got his hopes up that maybe he was mistaken and nothing bad was lurking around the corner, but just as night began to filter in through his windows, that hope fell down and was obliterated into shards of nothingness.

Breakfast had been slept through and lunch had been avoided, so it was the least to say Zitao was starving. His back ached and he had lost feeling in his legs from staying in bed all day long, so when he stood to walk to the door, he groaned. He walked slowly, and wondered if maybe he should invite Luhan and Minseok to dinner since they always ate in their room. He tried to not think about how he wanted them there just in case something went wrong. All day he'd tried to ignore it, and as much as it went away and the day faded, gingerly taking that off feeling with it, he still couldn't help but be suspicious.

Dinner went smoothly and Zitao didn't have to eat alone, at some point during all the laughter and smiles he forgot about being scared and let everything go. He wished the two could stay longer, but Luhan had begun to yawn and nod off, his head resting on Minseok's shoulder. Tao and Minseok sat and talked quietly for some time but when they both ran out of things to say, Minseok excused himself and picked the little Angel up bridal style to carry him away to sleep. The other wished he could've stayed longer, he'd been lonely since the incident in the bathroom with Rin as he had mostly stayed in his room in order to avoid humanity- not that most of the people here were humane anyway.

The hallways were quiet and Tao sighed when he reached the hallway which held his door, just wanting the day to be over with. Although he did nothing besides worry about what had obviously been nothing was exhausting. He smiled at the thought of sleep only for his jaw to drop when he walked into his room. He immediately wanted to run away upon seeing the Dancer which sat on his bed, staring out the window. Even if Tao couldn't see the man's face he knew exactly who it was.

"I see you're finally back," he said.

Tao ran, not knowing what else he was supposed to do. He didn't want to sit there and take whatever Sehun tried to give him. Just at the beginning of the week hadn't he been cursing the Dancer and mocking him with "See if I ever let him touch me again"'s yet now he was running away like a coward. None the less he was terrified. He knew it was going to happen, that Sehun would get what he wanted, and that Tao himself would have to let him because it was his job but for just this fleeting moment he would let his breath escape him and his legs burn as he ran away from his new life.

It didn't take long for tears to streak his face, and his heart to be ripped from his chest. What did I ever do to deserve this kind of life? He tried to think of a different kind of life. One where the stars were brighter and the grass was actually green, but he couldn't think about anything else besides the fact that arms were wrapping around him and he was being dragged along the floor back to his room.

He was by no means quiet. He sobbed and screamed and cursed at the Dancer. Spouting a thousand 'no's at no one as he kicked his feet along the floor and tried to escape the man's painful hands. When he was dragged back into his own room and bound to the bed he still screamed, even when he was gagged with his own shirt just like the first time, he still tried to scream, when his voice finally began to fail him all he could do was cry though. A part of him had hoped that someone would come to his rescue, he knew for a fact that at least someone would have heard his yelling, but there was no one there for him on the darkest of nights.

a/n: Long time no see guys. Sorry this took forever, I had no idea what the hell to write about... It's basically a filler chapter, yeah sorry, I'm disappointed in myself, this could have been so much better but it isn't (it also could've been longer but it isn't). Uhmm I hope the long wait hasn't scared anyone off ㅋㅋ Bye the way I have a question so.. poll... (I've been contemplating it, but I wanted your opinions. It won't take place of Tao's chapters, but will be more of bonus chapters in the story just to get to see what he's been doing, how he got here, what the hell his relationship is with Luhan, how he feels about Tao, etc.)

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Okay. Bye. Have a good day^^

ps. Hopefully Yifan will show up in the next chapter (its about time right XD) WHO'S READY FOR SOME TY TAORIS /) ^ O^)/)