The boy on the bed continued to quiver, looking at each of them with fear in his eyes as seven pairs of eyes scrutinize him. The headmaster halts his steps a good half meter from the latter before he opens his mouth, “Calm down, dear. You are in safe hands now.”

And although he feels anxious to lifts his face up, he feels himself overwhelmed with calmness, slowly sitting down properly, albeit still wary. Looking at the man that was on the bed, he had a bolo tie on his neck with a dove—or what looked like it—engraved on it, a victorian shirt, and black, slick pants.

The boy opens his mouth, wincing a little as he feels the bruise on his lip ache “Who—Who are you? Where am I?”” He asks, his voice hoarse and his throat burning.

The headmaster pushes a glass of water to him, the other taking it gratefully albeit still on guard “I am the headmaster of this academy, Jang Junsoo, or as I like my students to call me, Master.” He starts, “And you are in Grimoire academia, a place for sinners like you.” He watches as the boy widen his eyes, accusation swimming in them.

Rethinking what he said, he opens his mouth yet again. “By sinners, dear, I mean people who have powers. Like you, and like these guys.” He points to the figures at standing near his bed.

“I… I don’t..” He begins, stuttering, unable to voice out his thoughts. They were called Sinners? As in a person who committed a sin? He wasn’t one, he doesn’t even have powers—not that he knows of—which comes to the question how he got h—he used it. “I’m not…”

“Sinners have a mark on their left chest once they… once they awaken. And you, child, have one.” The boy clutches his shirt, the dull pain that wasn’t noticeable till now seemed to have worsened.

He lifts his shirt up only to gasp at the sight, an image was forming on the left side of his chest, and it was starting to burn more and more, the blood staining his already ragged shirt.

“Minseok.” The headmaster calls out.

“Yes, master?” He asks.

“Can you please?” He nods his head at the boy who was wincing.

Minseok nods, bowing before walking to where the latter is, cautious. “This won’t hurt.” He gently says, removing the boy’s quivering hands and gently pressing his palm on the latter’s chest, not minding the blood.

The boy looks at him wide eyed as he feels the burning reduce to a slight crisp coldness on his chest. He looks at the hand, trying not to panic at the ice covering the man—this minseok guy’s—hand. Minseok lets his ice covered hands travel to latter’s chest down to his abdomen. “This won’t heal it, but it will lessen the pain.” Minseok assures him, and it did.

“Speaking of which,” The headmaster cranes his neck, not noticing his inner turmoil “Call the others, and tell them to comeback this instant, tell them to go to Laura, she has a portal that leads here.”

“Yes, Master.” Luhan answers, excusing himself to call the others.

The boy looked at them one by one, curiosity in his tired, bloodshot eyes. They were wearing an expensive cut, midnight black blazers, a seal on the left side of their chest, a gray neck tie with a badge of sort attach near their necks.

Each one of them had different figures.

“If I may ask, What is your name, child?” The headmaster asks. His attention turning back to the headmaster, He looks at him, hesitant. “Jongin.” He starts, “Kim jongin.”

“And where did you come from, Jongin-Sshi?”

“I…” he begins, his mind  turning back to the scene he had encountered just minutes ago, fear bubbling in his stomach as he starts to pant heavily. Noticing this, Minseok looks at the headmaster before moving to where he was standing earlier, only to be replaced by the headmaster.

“Jongin.” The headmaster starts, putting a hand on jongin’s head. “Jongin, dear. Focus on my voice.” And jongin did, his pants making him dizzy, he looks at the older in the eyes, and notices the fear fading in his system.

He looks at his bolo tie again, Dove.

Calmness.

The headmaster notices his gaze and nods, “So you’ve noticed. My powers are hypnosis, or in a nicer word, Calm, tranquility, whatever you call it.”

Jongin nods, still unable to believe what was happening. He lets his eyes close for a moment before his stupor is interrupted by the door opening and panic surges within him yet again. What if it was him? What if they've come to take him again?

All eyes look at the person at the door, the other looking at them in shock as he wipes a liquid on his soiled handkerchief, tossing it at the nearby bin. Baekhyun noticed that it was stained in red.

“What is..” He looks at the headmaster in question when his eyes lands on the figure at the bed, silently gasping.

“Kyungsoo, you’re here.” The headmaster talks and that silences his inner turmoil and thoughts.  He bows his head to the headmaster, walking to where he is, glancing at his friends and smiling a little, before he looks back at the headmaster. “I see, that you’ve got it.” The headdmaster nods, opening his hand.

Kyungsoo nods at him, raising his left hand putting the seal that he had obtain, Minseok’s brows furrowing at the sight, it looked familiar.

“Thank you.” The headmaster nods yet again before turning back to jongin. He walks to where the others were, deeming the conversation finished, looking at the headmaster and jongin in confusion.

 

 

Jongin looks at the stranger, curious, he looked familiar. Like he had seen him somewhere before but that was impossible because Jongin… Jongin had been living there.

“Jongin,” The headmaster starts,  “I want you to calmly tell me what happened and where you came from so I—we know what to do. Take your time, you don’t need to rush.”

Jongin winces yet again at the memory, closing his left hand with his right thumb, taking a moment before opening his mouth, “I… I ran away.” He says, almost inaudible.

The headmaster nods, “What did you ran away from, child?”

“I..” Jongin’s hands begin to shake, “From them, from him. They… They were going to murder me. I heard them…” Jongin was already panting, a tear falling from his eyes.

“Who is them, Jongin?” The headmaster’s voice was serious, a hand gripping jongin’s hand tightly trying to soothe him with his powers.

“Deimos.” And as Jongin says the word, gasps could be heard. He lifts his eyes to look at the students that were in front of him, shock written on their faces. He looks at the headmaster, his jaw tightened and his brows furrowed.

“That… That can’t be..”  Luhan, if Jongin remembers it right, said. “they’re…”

The headmaster looks at him straight in the eye, “Child, what have they been doing?”

“I accidentally saw them… It looked like they were removing—extracting something from… from… taemin.” His voice cracks, remembering the grief his friend, whom he had become close with after 3 years of imprisonment, as they continue to torture him. Tearing up, the headmaster squeezes his hand for support “Every day, each one gets tortured… until.. until the cackling… he says he found it…”

“Each one, you say. You mean, there are a lot of you?”

Jongin nods, “I… They give us numbers” He looks at the hem of his ragged shirt, “029… that was me. I… I was going to be the n-next one but I ran away.”

Jongin closes his eyes, remembering the screams of agony every night for three years, worsening only a year ago when they—which he heard one night—found the solution. They had the ways… producing and extracting them that is. Jongin did not know what them means.

“I didn’t think i…” He bites his lips, cringing “I didn’t think that I had this… That I had a power… I just…” He shakes his head, unable to speak anymore.

The headmaster looks at him, sympathy in his eyes as, nodding. “It’s okay, child. You are in safe hands. Sleep, we will talk when you are in good conditions.”