Byunghee halted in his step, driving Taemin to pause just a few steps further than Byunghee. Taemin turned and gave the older a look. "Hyung? What are you doing? Let's go." Taemin insisted with impatience frown on his face, tilting his head slightly towards the direction they were walking to. 

They had somehow managed to slip into the fort using a small hole at the back of the fort, seemingly big enough for a human to pass through, well more or less with a bit of struggles. Well, more like Byunghee who was stuck there while Taemin easily crawled through the hole with his skinny frame. Taemin ended up had to pull Byunghee who was stuck by his hips all the while complaining about how Byunghee should lose some weight and Byunghee retorted with, "Yah! I'm not fat. This is all muscles!" grumpily.

"Don't you hear that?" Byunghee asked back, eyes darting around, trying to locate the source of the sound. A distant screaming. A very painful one at that.

"Hear what?" Taemin asked. The hallway they both were walking through was empty and definitely quiet. But... There was some muffled sound his ears could pick up after a while of focusing. Distant and muffled sound of screaming.

Byunghee's frown loosened when he finally hear clearly that voice. He couldn't be mistaken. He could hear Mir's voice. Mir was screaming. Mir was... In pain. Without saying anything he rushed forward in the opposite direction, following his instinct because he knew that when it came to Mir, he could rely on his instinct. He could spot the younger from miles away. He won't be mistaken. It is Mir and he will get the boy back.

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"GET AWAY!" Mir shouted, shoving the three people surrounding him away. He scrambled to his feet and backed away from them, sticking his back onto the wall. One hand held out, palm flat, signaling to all of them to not come closer to him. "No! Stay away from me." Mir warned with his deep and fast breathing, one hand still holding his pounding head. At least the pain wasn't as severe as just few seconds ago.

"Mir. Wha-" Hongki was speechless with Mir's sudden attitude towards them. Mir was acting like they were danger for the boy. As if they were enemies.

Except that Hongki was wrong. Mir was acting like this wasn't because he think of them as enemies. But, because he think of himself as an enemy. As danger. His hands were trembling. Out of fear and out of wanton. A strong want. A want to... To kill those people. To just tore those limbs, shredded those flesh into pieces. To see blood splattered around him. "No..." Mir hugged himself. His whole body shook violently as he tried to contain that strong want. It felt like he was a drug addict. Except that his high was the human flesh.

'A bite. Just a bite.' Gasping, Mir's hands flew to his ears. No. He didn't want to. But his stomach churned in hunger to the point that it was painful.

"Mir..." Mir stopped shaking. His whole body started to calm down at that voice. Slowly, he looked up and see the face that he had been missing for who knows how long. He didn't bother to count the day. "Mir..." Byunghee called again. It felt surreal to finally have Mir right in front of him again. But, the boy was sick. Byunghee could see it. Mir's wide, used to be bright shiny eyes now were red, glossy and weary. His whole face pale and even though he wasn't shaking as violently as just before he called the boy's name, he still could see the light tremble of Mir's small frame. That was why he found himself couldn't take even a step closer to the younger. As if something was nailing him on his very spot. His body won't listen to his heart even when his insides were yelling for him to take the boy into his embrace. Into the safety of his arms as he would use even his own life to protect his dongsaeng.

Mir wanted to shout out that he felt it. He felt that he was turning. It was unexplainable, but he really did feel it. He wanted to tell them. To tell all of them. Byunghee, Taemin, Hongki, Seulong, all of them so they would get away as far as they could from him because even he himself didn't know what he could do. What he will do. But as his lips parted a bit, he froze. Dark spots covering his eyes slowly and he felt numb making his whole body tingles. He felt cold and chill to his bone but he was sweating. Profusely. And he never know what happened next as he fall limp on the floor. The last thing he registered was Byunghee's voice shouting his name. 'No. Please stay away.' And everything was dark and cold... And numb... Was this... How death feels like?