Something churned inside his chest, wriggling beneath his skin like an overgrown worm desperate for escape. Sweat built up in his hairline, tickling his scalp and twisting his brows. His mouth struggled to take in air as if he were choking on something unseen. Gagging.

Baekhyun began to stir, sleep still in his eyes. The awful sounds coming from Kai caught his attention, bursting energy into the Light Force. In a moment he had jumped from his own bed and went to Kai’s side, shaking him until his eyes shot open wide, starling Baekhyun.

Kai’s breathing was heavy, now sitting upright as the two just stared at each other.

“What was all that?” Baekhyun asked, still in shock.

The Teleporter shook his head absentmindedly, trying to gather the vague memories left behind. “Bad dream.”

Baekhyun grabbed his chest, gathering his breath now that he’d stopped holding it. “You call that a bad dream? Forces align, Kai, you scared the out of me.”

The two composed themselves, Kai running his fingers through his hair after he tried for force himself upright with just his legs and one arm. The end of the nub at his left side was still sensitive, making it even more useless.

“What kind of nightmare was that?” Baekhyun finally asked in the silence, staring out the window and between the vines. “It looked like something was eating you from the inside out…”

Kai stared at his legs laid out along the bed, dirty and tired. “That’s basically what it was. Dreamt I was infected like Sehun. I haven’t said anything but… everyday I notice how much worse he looks. His skin isn’t right… his eyes are bloodshot.”

“He looks like a walking corpse…” Baekhyun added quietly.

“... Yeah.”

Silence. It became hard to speak again, like the silence had clung to their throats and refused to let go.

Finally, Kai asked, “What… what do you think is gonna happen to him? We’ve never actually seen what happened to someone who’s infected.”

Baekhyun turned, leaning against the window to look at Kai. “Right…” He thought for a moment, suddenly so aware of what they didn’t actually know. “Do you think… he wouldn’t become like those monsters would he?”

They stared at each other as if they were speaking without words. It seemed like the only logical train of thought, and they weren’t sure if they should say something or not.

“But Lay keeps saying he’ll die,” Baekhyun suddenly stated, though it were like he were trying more to convince himself.

“But is a Wraith actually alive?” Kai seemed less shocked by the entire conversation. If anything, he seemed so detached. The few moments prior during his nightmare was the most emotion Baekhyun had seen him express besides the tears from last night.

Baek turned his gaze to the floor, thinking hard. Wishing hard. Hoping to the Tree that they were wrong.

~  ~

Sehun left the small cottage, heart hollow. He wanted to get away from their grieving—it was too much for him to deal with. It didn’t matter that he left, though. He could still hear their weak cries even from outside. He fought his own tears, and yet every cry from Lully’s family and Chen inside seemed to pull another sob from deep within him, and every cry took a little more of his life away, it felt. Sehun couldn’t remember ever feeling more guilty in his life. And yet he was so torn. Was it a good thing that Chen found Lully’s family? Or was it just something else to break his already fragile heart?

Inside, Lully’s mother had reached out to Chen and pulled him into a hug, the two of them sobbing into each other's shoulders. He almost seemed to wither away in her arms. It had been so long even since he’d seen his own mother, and something about crying in another mother’s arms had turned him into a little boy again. It was the first time he felt safe to grieve in a long time.

Outside, leaning against the willow tree just outside Lully’s home, Sehun stared out into the woods not too far away. It seemingly came to him out of nowhere, the memory of the face he’d seen. A ghostly face that seemed to stare right through him. He stared back there now, wide-eyed and barely breathing. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought if he waited and stared hard and long enough, maybe she’d return to him.

“Waiting around for the dead like a child. You’re bound to die acting like that.”

His heart stopped, turning around to see whom the warped voice belonged to. It wasn’t human. Probably not even from this world.

There he stood, shrouded in some sort of darkness much like the Wraiths, the only light about him in his white-blonde hair. Even his eyes seemed dark and cruel.

“Didn’t Chanyeol tell you not to go sniffing around for corpses? I know he’s died but he had plenty of time to send the message,” the entity continued. He looked human but Sehun knew all too well that he couldn’t be.

“What the hell are you?” Sehun asked, having now turned around completely to face the man, staring him down and waiting to defend himself.

The man put a hand up, signaling that he meant no harm, a crooked smile on his face. He was far too used to being seen as a threat. “You asked for the dead, you got it. Pretty obvious I wasn’t who you were hoping to get a look at, though.”

Sehun stared back hard. Is this like what Chen and Tao saw earlier?

“Stop ing calling on the dead, Sehun. You’re causing more chaos in my end of the world and I have damn near enough of it. Besides, it won’t do you any good, you’ll only hurt yourself in the end. It’s not worth it.”

“Who are you?”

“No one told you about me? Surprised, honestly. Chanyeol seemed to know. Maybe some history books will remind you, though I doubt you’ll have time to read through one what with the Hell this place has been turned into.”

The Wind Force pressed his thoughts as far as they would go, but he couldn’t seem to recall anything. It felt like it must have been so obvious.

“Jaejoong, the one and only. Surely your teachers warned you all about me and anyone else like me. Which reminds me actually—”

“Wait, Jaejoong? You’re that that went bat in’ crazy? How the hell are you talking to me, then? The is going on?” Through gritted teeth, “And what the do you look like one of those things for, huh?”

Jaejoong rolled his eyes. “That’s the nature of being dead in the world of the living, Sehun. I didn’t very well ing choose to be this way.”

“How do you know who I am?” The younger boy was nearly yelling by now, full of so many questions and anger.

“As I explained to Chanyeol and just got done saying, that’s the nature of being dead. I can be anywhere and everywhere. And being a Necromancer helps with consciousness beyond death. Perhaps that explains more of it than anything.” He stopped, turning to look towards the house before returning eye contact with Sehun. “I came to tell you to go to Ruk.”

“Ruk?” Sehun asked, though he very well heard correctly.

Jaejoong gave him a crooked smile. “Yes. Might be nice going back home, huh? Anyways, you’ll find… something there. Something quite useful. As useful as I would be had your malicious Masters not stolen me from the living realm.”

“What do you mean malicious?” Sehun pressed.

“Go to Ruk.”

And he disappeared.

~  ~

“Ire-rene?” His little voice was muffled as he spoke into the book, her head rested atop his soft, curly brown hair.

“Yes?” she asked softly, smiling.

Lay thought long and hard about what he was going to say, his lips pursed and face scrunched up tight. “Does it hurt?”

“Being sick?” she asked, trying to get a look at his face.

He turned, looking back at her with sad little eyes. “Dying?”

Irene’s heart nearly stopped. She hated when he asked questions like this, though she knew he were too innocent to truly know better. But that’s what made it so much worse. She didn’t want him to know this sort of sadness, this sort of tragedy existed.

She looked down at him, frowning and a little heartbroken. “I won’t lie to you, it does. It hurts on the outside and on the inside.”

Lay turned his little body around, Irene setting the book beside her on the bed as he looked at her right back in the eyes, listening hard. He wanted so badly to understand. “What do you mean?”

“Well,” she began softly, “You know when you fall down and cut your knee, how it stings and hurts?” Lay nodded. “That’s when it hurts on the outside. But you know when you’re sad and you can’t stop crying?” He nodded again, brows pushed together so closely in concern she nearly began to cry just at the sight of it. “That’s what it means to hurt on the inside.”

The tot started playing with the collar of her night-gown, tickling her collarbone. She grabbed his hands to pull them away, suddenly overcome with sadness.

“Why does it hurt on the inside, Rene-ee?”

It almost made her uncomfortable, how hard he stared at her, like he was trying to look all the way into her soul and see right through her. Lay had such a hypnotic gaze, even for a child. She couldn’t deny him answers even if it went against her better judgement. It just wasn’t in her to keep things from him.

“Because, Lay… it hurts inside because I think of my mom and dad. And I think of you, too.”

“Me?” His little voice was so innocent, and it made something in her crack.

Irene nodded, fighting tears that were defeating her. “I want more time, sweetheart. I’m not ready. I wanna stay and watch you grow and—” A crack in her voice is what finally broke her, and the tears streamed down her face as if they were never end. Lay hadn’t seen Irene cry at all before, especially not like this. He started crying too,  wrapping his arms around her neck and nuzzling his face into her.

“I’ll save you, Renee. I won’t let you die. Promise!”

She had wrapped her arms around Lay’s tiny body, holding onto him tight and trying to compose herself again. She always told herself she would never let him see this side of her struggle, and yet here she was. And his promise, she counted on it more than she wanted to. More than she should have.

~  ~

He was sitting in her old bedroom. As much as he didn’t want to end up back here, he found that it was now impossible to leave. So many memories flooded into his mind. Memories he’d been wrestling with for years of his childhood to push away. Memories he never shared with anyone. They were too sacred and precious to him.

Lay knew he should have returned to the others. Should have been scouring through books to save Sehun, but his mind had been intoxicated by the past ever since they first stepped foot in Revelle. This place built him. Built his values and his dreams. But even more than that, it was the root of his nightmares.

~  ~

Sehun ran back inside the house, a little confused and hesitant. He wasn’t even sure if he’d really just had the conversation with Jaejoong, but there wasn’t much left in this world that could truly surprise him.

He found Chen at the dining room table in the dim lighting, a cup of tea warming his cold, shaking hands. His face was still puffy from tears, just as Lully’s mother’s and sister’s. The three of them were holding quiet conversation, talking about Lully he assumed. It was small, but it was the first time Sehun had seen Chen smile in more than a month. That familiar feeling of self-hatred was returning, suddenly.

“Chen,” he called from the doorway, pulling his cloak away from his mouth so he was sure to be heard.

The three faces turned slowly to look at him. It was hunting.

“We have to go back now.”

Lully’s mother reached across the table, putting a hand on Chen’s. “Please stay, just for the night even. You don’t know what your company means right now.”

The Wind Force took a deep breath, struggling with the situation already. “Ma’am, I’m sorry, but this is… this is really important. I have to take him and go back. We need him. The planet needs him.”

“Just for the night. Please stay with Lulu and I. I have so many things to ask you. Please don’t leave us yet.” She continued to plead, and it was clear Chen felt trapped. He didn’t know how to tell either of them no.

Sehun thought for a moment, returning Chen’s pleading gaze before he finally gave in. He couldn’t fight this situation. “Fine then. I’ll head back by myself tonight. But tomorrow, Chen. Tomorrow I’m coming back for you and you need to come with us.”

Chen nodded, though it almost seemed like he didn’t want to, and Sehun was sure it would be just as hard tomorrow as it was today to peel him away from this place. He’d already buried his soul deep inside the walls, and it was obvious he had no desire to leave.