She liked to think of herself as a ghost, always there but never seen. One might call her sad, but really she just enjoyed observing the people around her. Lully liked to see people without walls, see them whisper their secrets to the people they thought weren’t there. Most of the others were relatively oblivious to it, but Chen knew. He knew she was likely always watching and always listening. She knew everyone’s secrets. He thought this would bother him—it would bother anyone, but it was somehow comforting. Comforting to know there was someone who saw him for what he was, silently collecting all of his whispers unseen.

They’d become very close in their training days, though it were almost a secret. Chen would wait for her presence to fill a room. He didn’t have to see her to know she was there. Lully was like his own imaginary friend.

“Do you like talking to me better like this?”

“Invisible?”

“Yeah. Am I easier to talk to when you can’t see me?”

He nodded. “Yeah, it’s really nice, actually. I can pretend you’re not there. I can pretend I’m not confessing a thing to a soul in the world.” He paused, smiling faintly. “That’s what makes you the best kind of person to be friends with. It’s like you’re not real at all.”

“Oh, I wonder what that’s like?” He couldn’t tell, but her voice sounded weak.

Looking back on it now, he regretted those words. They were so careless, so self-centered. He never once thought of how it might make her feel. And how many times did he say things like that to her? How many times did he treat her like a tool?

Kai told him not to let his guilt eat him alive, but he couldn’t seem to get his head out of its mouth. There were so many things he didn’t like about himself now. So many tender moments that he ruined. And no matter how many times the others told him the girls dying wasn’t his fault, he couldn’t help but think of all the things he could have done to prevent it.

I’m sorry I didn’t think of you. I’m sorry I abused your friendship and I’m sorry I let you die. I’m sorry you had me for a friend… someone who only knew how to take and never thought to give you anything in return.

~  ~

“Stop it,” Baekhyun grabbed D.O.’s wrist before he could smash his fist into another wall. His knuckles were slathered in blood, eyes sunken in and dark. Without speaking, they agreed: Chanyeol wasn’t there.

D.O. sighed heavily, falling down into the ruins and leaning over his knees. He didn’t want to go back to the others without Chanyeol. He didn’t want to believe that the Wraiths had taken him. And neither did Baekhyun.

The silence was deafening, choking them. They couldn’t even hear the rain pounding down into the dry, cracked earth outside the remains of Elderoth Temple. Baekhyun’s eyes wandered around, seeing a memory of what a place it used to be. Vines hugged the pillars that stretched towards the sun. Crystals sparkled in the cracks of the stone, glistening and shooting stars on the walls of the temple. This place used to be a haven, and now it was a gray memory. A structure of sadness.

“Where else would the Wraiths have dragged him off to?” D.O. mumbled, exhaustion taking over.

Baekhyun searched for words. “I really don’t know…”

Silence again. They were both playing around the subject. Neither one of them wanted to be the one to say it. But at this point, it all seemed so hopeless.

“I don’t want to just give up,” Baekhyun finally admitted. D.O. turned to look at him, but he wouldn’t return eye contact.

D.O. made it his duty to be the level-headed one. “Honestly,” he started, breathing deeply, “he’s probably been bitten. More than once, if he wasn’t devoured. If he’s alive, he’s probably infected. And there’s no cure…” He didn’t like it. He didn’t want to say any of these things, didn’t even want to think them. “We can’t keep looking forever. Especially if there’s nothing to find…”

Heart heavy, Baekhyun nodded. “I know what you’re saying, but you have to understand. You’re asking me to go on without my best friend. You’re asking me to give up and leave him for dead—because for all we know he is still alive.”

“I do understand,” D.O. replied, though he sounded unsure of himself.

“Do you?”

But he didn’t confirm his statement. The uncertainty in it made everything clear. It really wasn’t okay to ask this of him. It wasn’t understanding and it was insensitive, but it was probably for the best. It was more than likely that Chanyeol was gone...

~  ~

Taemin’s eyes shot open wide, breath lost. He couldn’t remember the last time a vision struck him so fiercely before. Had one ever?

Jonghyun grabbed his arm, Luna running over as well. Taemin was frozen, taken by whatever it was he was seeing. A flurry of images sped through his mind, blinding him and thousands of sounds screeched in his mind. Reality was gone, he now a slave to this vision of the future.

“What’s going on? Is he okay?” Zhoumi called. A crowd was gathering. The other Legends ran to Taemin’s side, waiting for him to return to his regular state of consciousness.

Chen watched on, Li by his side. A nasty feeling filled the pits of their stomachs.

Gasping for breath, Taemin fell down to his knees, choking. He was doubled over, weight on his hands, arms shaking. Luna rubbed his back, waiting for him to catch his breath. He wanted to tell them exactly what he saw, the terrible fate awaiting them, but he couldn’t grasp the right words.

“The Tree’s gonna die,” he sputtered, vision still blurry.

Calls of confusion. “What do you mean the Tree’s gonna die? What did you see, Taemin? What’s going on?”

He shook his head, putting his face to the ground. He was so tired, so weak. The vision had so much energy and life from him.

“The whole planet’s gonna die…”

Li’s heart sank. Chen immediately felt guilty and ignorant. Every little reassurance he’d given to Li was now a lie. Every worry she had was legitimate, and his indifference was misplaced.

Panic began to set in. Taemin’s visions were inevitable. A final truth.

~  ~

“Do you remember what Taemin said?” Kai mumbled, eyes focused on the small, spinning top between his fingers.

Xiumin turned to him, brows raising. “Hm?”

“He said the Tree was gonna die. He said the whole planet was gonna die.”

Xiumin sighed heavily, a weak smile on his face. “And whatever Taemin sees comes true. If only he were still alive; I’d like to know how exactly I’m gonna go out.” It almost felt like a cruel joke.

“We’re fighting a losing battle, huh?”

He didn’t respond. It was obvious what the answer was, but it was easier to deny it. The only thing holding them together was the grand delusion that the light at the end of the tunnel was something other than hellfire.

~  ~

Kris was quiet, a ghost-like presence. Even after the plague of the Red Force, he was normally a light-hearted energy among the Legends. Yet here he was, shaken and miserable. Sehun couldn’t even get him to look at him. There was a rift there, a stone wall that stood silent and strong.

Per Luhan’s insistence, Sehun did little moving the night before, and they stayed at the manor for the entirety of the next day while Lay and Suho went fishing for more glow root. Sehun would have liked to go with them, growing restless and more and more frustrated with Kris, but Luhan remained strict with him. He wouldn’t risk anything.

“So, what’s his problem?” Sehun asked, staring at Kris from beyond the window. He was wandering around outside of the manor, hunched over and melancholy.

Luhan leaned over onto the bed. “He’s beating himself up. Blames himself for what happened to you. Probably thinks you hate him.”

Sehun scoffed. “Why the would I hate him? Did he sic the Wraith on me?”

The elder brother cracked a smile, shaking his head. “No, but either way. He feels personally responsible, because he’s your older brother and because I was unable to take on the burden of being the protector. Because he thinks that you never would have been infected under my watch.” He paused, looking to Sehun whose gaze was still focused on Kris out the window. “You have more in common with Kris than you think. He feels like the family up. He just hides it better than you do.”

He was actually surprised. Kris was the last person to get down on himself, the last person to feel such things. At least, that’s what he believed before. He was such a carefree spirit, it was hard to imagine he had insecurities.

Outside, two figures were making their way towards the manor, catching Kris and Sehun’s attention. As they neared, it was made clear they were Baekhyun and D.O.. “Why isn’t Chanyeol with them?” There was a sense of distraught in his voice and his immediate thought was to rush down the stairs, Luhan following after.

“What do you mean? What happened?”

They made their way down the stairs and met with the three at the door.

“Did you find him?” Sehun asked before they could say a word.

Their eyes went to the floor and Baekhyun shook his head.

Luhan looked from them to Sehun, studying their faces, his mind racing to put the pieces together. “What’s going on? What happened to Chanyeol?”

No one said a word.

“He’s not dead, is he?” Luhan asked, the realization of how much he’d missed while unconscious striking him hard.

“We didn’t find him. Not a body, no blood, foot prints, tracks—nothing,” Baekhyun finally answered, voice low and emotionless.

D.O. swallowed, not giving anyone eye-contact. “We couldn’t keep looking. It’s more than likely that the Wraiths…” he trailed off, not having the heart to say it.

Their expressions all became so sullen and dark. A heaviness filled the room, their air thick and hard to breathe. Sehun took a seat at the table without a word. Voice quiet, a whisper almost, Luhan said, “You didn’t find a body. He still might be out there… somewhere. We might,” he paused, not really believing this himself, “we might find him again…”

Wanting to believe it himself, D.O. replied, “Yeah… maybe.”

~  ~

Even more so than the rest of the world, this place was barren, black and destroyed. The rot looked like the discoloration on Sehun’s skin and the clouds were polluted and ashy. What was once a colorful haven was now a shadowy hell, unrecognizable and miserable. Just being in this place made them feel as though their lives were being shortened, stolen away from out of their mouths.

Black, thorny vines pulled apart the walls, the once intricate carvings decorated on them now cracked and weathered. The ground seemed to moan, the planet calling out in pain, begging to be given release.

Chen and Kai were breathless, the capital of their world now an unimaginable, post-apocalyptic wasteland. Tao’s expression remained unchanged. He made his way over to the gates, glass shattered and doors hanging off the hinges of the control booth. It was the aftermath of a minute war, and the body of the gatekeeper lying lifeless and bloodied on the floor left an eerie feeling behind.

“We’ll have to burn his body,” Tao stated, checking the controls as if he knew anything about how they worked. “Don’t touch him.”

Chen nodded, making his way over to Tao’s side as Kai kept a watch out for Wraiths. He could only imagine there was a nest of them there, and what was beyond the gate could only be worse.

“You really think we’ll be able to do this and come back alive?” Kai murmured, eyes jumping all around them as inhuman sounds echoed from beyond the walls.

“I’m not going where they Wraiths are. They won’t be able to touch me anyways.” Tao stepped out of the control booth, making his way to the entrance, allowing Chen to gather electricity to open them. “You guys can’t go where I’m going. That’s why I told you to leave after I’m through.”

There was a loud screech and the sound of running electrical currents. Kai raised his voice, “You’re going back in time? To when?”

The noise became louder and turned into a mixture of rumbling and wailing and buzzing. It was so loud it seemed to boom in their ears after the quiet that had consumed the area upon their arrival. It was an unnerving collection of sounds, and they wondered if they all belonged to the struggling motor or to something else.

Slowly, the gates began to open and the screeching grew louder into this savage, piercing shriek. A pack of Wraiths was waiting beyond to devour them.

“Tao, we have to go back! Chen, close the gates!”

“No!” Tao yelled to Chen, then looked back to Kai. “Let me through, close the gates behind me and get out of here! Don’t you dare come back for me!”

“But—” Chen went to argue.

Tao ran through the gate, the Wraiths closing in behind him. “Go! Now!”

Hesitating at first, Chen did as he was told, closing the giant gates on Tao before the Wraiths could escape. Kai ran to his side, grabbing his wrist and teleporting them back to the others at the manor.

Shadowy beasts with rotten, bloody fangs and reptile-like claws raced their way to Tao’s body, salivating saw-jaws foaming as they cried for his flesh. He counted eight of them and held his ground, raising his hand so that his sleeve would leave his fingers free.

Closer and closer, they were starving and powerful enough to snap his bones. One pounced, and the adrenalin took him.