Chapter seventeen

 

Tick....

 

 

 

 

 

Tock......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tick.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tock.......

 

 

 

 

 

‘’What happened to your hand?!’’ Kyungsoo screeched and immediately grabbed a hold of Baekhyun wrist (the one Baekhyun had managed to keep hidden for the whole day until now) and held it up. Baekhyun immediately grabbed his wrist back and pushed it down.

‘’It’s nothing, really.’’ He quickly brushed off and looked back at the two roommates in front of them as the four made their way back to the dorms. It was already past three and Kyungsoo and Baekhyun had just finished their last lessons while Chanyeol and Jongin had been waiting for them.

‘’What do you mean it’s nothing? Look at it!’’ Kyungsoo exclaimed and pointed at the bandage. Baekhyun noticed how Jongin’s eyes glanced at them before turning back to Chanyeol. They played it smart and didn’t mix themselves into the ‘talk’.

Kyungsoo grabbed his bandaged fingers this time and pulled them up, causing Baekhyun to flinch.

‘’See, it hurts too, now what happened?’’ The former asked sternly and let go off his fingers.

Baekhyun shook his hand. ‘’Nothing, I’ll explain another time.’’

 

‘’... Yeah right.’’ Kyungsoo gave him an eyebrow before picking up the pace and running forward to walk next to his roommate, leaving Baekhyun behind.

 

While Kyungsoo started his talk with Jongin, Chanyeol slowly slowed down to walk next to his own roommate.

‘’Are we gonna try again?’’ He whispered as soft as he possibly could.

Baekhyun nodded.

 

 

They reached their rooms within seconds and quickly entered their own room.

 

The book was still on the ground, on the exact same spot where Baekhyun had last touched it that night. The pin laid next to it.

 

Baekhyun quickly changed into something more comfortable before the both of them sat down on the ground again, this time with changed positions.

 

‘’Are you sure I won’t get burned?’’

‘’A hundred percent.’’

‘’But what if I do get burned.’’

‘’Chanyeol, I know what it takes to burn you, and it’s not a particular kind of metal.’’

 

Chanyeol slowly nodded and looked down at the golden book. He bought his trembling, pin-holding hand closer to the lock and slowly touched it. A nervous laugh escaped his lips when he didn’t feel anything.

‘’I’m not burned.’’ He said, feeling enlightened and unburdened.

‘’Of course you’re not burned, just push it in.’’ Baekhyun rubbed his face before leaning his elbows on his crossed legs, cupping his cheeks.

 

Chanyeol nodded and pushed the pin deeper into the lock, sticking his tongue out in concentration.

But it didn’t work.

 

He tried to dig it in deeper.

 

And deeper.

 

 

And even deeper.

 

In the end, there was nothing left besides the tiny piece Chanyeol was holding in his big fingers, having accidently burned of the rest. He chuckled.

‘’I don’t think it’s gonna work.’’

Baekhyun snorted as well and straightened his back. ‘’Well that means we’ll be needing a key.’’ He said and stood up.

 

‘’What are you doing?’’ Chanyeol asked, his eyes following his roommate.

‘’We found the book in the bookcase, so that must mean the key must be somewhere around there too.’’ Baekhyun said as he tiptoed to look at the highest shelve.

 

He suddenly felt Chanyeol’s arms wrap around his knees, carrying him off the floor. Baekhyun didn’t ever bother to ask and brightened his eyes, looking at the dark gap he made not even 24-hours ago. A weird sensation spread through his whole body knowing he had to go in again, but pushed it down.

He crawled inside the gap, further than yesterday, and slowly felt his legs slipping out of Chanyeol’s grip as his body was lying on the shelves.

 

The reason Chanyeol carried him up instead of looking inside himself (which he easily could) was because Baekhyun had the ability to see in the dark, and Chanyeol hadn’t. Also because Chanyeol really lied to carry the light-weight up.

 

He looked inside, almost immediately stopping a weird looking lump in the wall. He frowned, questioning himself how he couldn’t have seen that yesterday, but then again, he was further inside right now than then.

He grabbed the lump and dug his nails in it. It was solid, stuck to the wall. Baekhyun scraped his nails across the odd thing a few times until he saw something shiny appearing.

‘’Hey, I think I’ve found something!’’

‘’What? The key?’’

‘’I don’t know.’’ Baekhyun scratched harder. The shiny object inside the lump because more and more visible, but it didn’t look like a key. It didn’t look like a key at all.

‘’What are you doing?’’ Chanyeol asked in his usual deep voice.

‘’Trying to scratch... the wood off of this thing...’’ Baekhyun muttered as he scraped his sharp long across the lump. The shiny object because gold and oblong  and his nails started to slide across it with ease. It was surprisingly clean – despite having been covered with wood for God knows how long. He stopped scratching and stared at it.

‘’What is it?’’ His roommate asked, having heard him stop scraping.

‘’I don’t know.’’ Baekhyun breathed out. ‘’It’s gold and solid, oblong and really smooth.’’

‘’It’s a ?’’

‘’For ’s sake, Chanyeol.’’ Baekhyun muttered as he in his lips, trying hard not to laugh. Meanwhile Chanyeol laughed his guts out.

‘’I can conclude it is nót a .’’ Baekhyun said with a smile that was hard to get off his face.

He waited until he heard Chanyeol stop laughing before he touched the thing. It was more movable now and Baekhyun was able to push it inwards and rock it to the left and right. But instead of doing any of that, Baekhyun pulled it, hard, trying to get it out of what what’s keeping it attached to the wall.

He heard something crack, but it didn’t give in.

 

He pulled again, harder this time, feeling how it gave in more and more.

 

‘’You know, those sounds don’t really sound that good if you ask me.’’ Chanyeol stated and Baekhyun’s grip around the object loosened. His head fell down as he silently laughed, feeling how all his strength suddenly left him.

‘’Chanyeol, I’m trying to get this thing out of here, you’re not helping!’’ He shouted with a laugh. He could practically feel the other smirk before he tried again. It had already gotten to the point where it was literally hanging out of the wall and looked like it only needed one more pull to get it out.

Baekhyun wrapped his long fingers around the gold lump and pulled for the last time before he was thrown against the wall. He had it. There was a second of delight before the wall cracked. A large rift craved into the wooden wall with an immense noise, traveling down to the wooden platform he was lying on.

Fear filled his insides as he tried to push his body backwards, already feeling Chanyeol’s hands wrap around his ankles, but there wasn’t enough time.

 

 

Tick....

 

 

 

 

 

Tock......

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tick.........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tock.......

 

 

 

 

 

There never was enough time.

 

 

 

 

The platform teared apart and Baekhyun fell down into the deep darkness, down on the cold ground that dusted up as soon as his body hit it. Baekhyun opened his eyes, only to see a shelve falling down from the light. It hit his head before he lost conscious.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘’Baekhyun!’’

 

 

 

 

 

‘Curiosity killed the cat, Baekhyun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘’Baekhyun!’’

 

 

‘Curiosity... killed... the cat.’

 

 

 

 

 

‘’Baekhyun! Can you hear me!?’’

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One by one, Baekhyun’s eyes slowly opened – his ears focusing on the deep, concerned voice only as it drowned out the soft and sly one. He was surrounded by darkness and for an odd reason, he wasn’t able to brighten his eyes.

Something warm trickled down his forehead, dying his hair, but Baekhyun already knew what it was.

 

He slowly turned his head to the side and the light that shone through the gap, he was able to make out it was the shelve that came falling down right on top of his head, the pointy edge having fresh blood on it. He hadn’t been out for long, that was already a relief.

Very slowly and even more carefully, Baekhyun pushed hoisted himself off the ground, only to be greeted by a heavy, incredibly painful migraine attack, pushing him back down. But Baekhyun didn’t give in and pushed himself backwards with his feet until he felt his back hitting the wall behind him. He let his head fall back.

The blood trail trailed down his temple, but Baekhyun couldn’t really care about that and panted, looking up at the gap.

He didn’t hear Chanyeol anymore and the sly voice in his head returned.

 

‘Curiosity killed the cat’ it kept repeating.

‘Curiosity killed the cat’ Baekhyun didn’t understand why it was saying that, and his head was in too much pain to figure it out.

 

He blinked a couple of time, his eyes twitching and flickering in the dark, tiny light sparkles flickered inside his black eyes and after a few tries, they fully lighted up. It gave him a huge headache, but it was worth it as he was able to see again. He looked around to see where he had fallen and noticed he was in a squared room, three stone walls, covered in an immense amount of dust. The length he had fallen was at least a meter or four and loose shelves hung from the ceiling, waiting to fall down.

And then there was a gap, a tunnel. A long, unbelievably long tunnel; so long that even Baekhyun’s hawk eyes couldn’t see the end. Chill air came from it and Baekhyun shivered, feeling uneasy. It didn’t just feel wronged, it screamed. It screamed at him to enter, to go and take a look inside – and if he had to be honest, Baekhyun did  want to take a look inside.

He looked back up again and wrapped his bare, cold arms around his knees, pulling them up to his shivering chest.

 

 

 

It was odd.

 

 

It was odd that there was a tunnel beneath their apartment.

 

 

Not only because they lived on the fifth floor, but because it was made when they just arrived.
It was made by Chanyeol and him.

 

 

Unwrapping his thin arms from his knees, Baekhyun held the wall a he slowly stood up. His knees trembled when a sudden, chilly wind hit his legs.

He took a step forward and raised a shaking arm, goose bumps all over it and the hairs standing straight upright. A scintilla light sparkled in his hand before a small ball shot out of it, heading into the dark tunnel. Baekhyun let his arm drop back to his side as he watched the ball go further and further into the tunnel until it hit something and exploded.

 

‘Must’ve been a wall’ he thought, meaning it could be a labyrinth down there. It was possible, but it didn’t mean it indeed was. Baekhyun raised both hands this time, holding them close to his chest right above each other. A small ball emerged in between, floating between his hands.

The moment his upper hand left the ball, a thin smoke string stuck to his fingers as they slowly neared his forehead. Baekhyun closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before he pressed his fingers against his temple.

The string immediately entered his mind with the speed of light and his eyes flew open with sudden brightness. The ball shot out of his hand and Baekhyun was pushed backwards due to the force.

Dust rose up and Baekhyun fell down, back into his own body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

‘’What do you mean Jongin’s not here?’’ Chanyeol raged  in front of their neighbour’s door. He didn’t bother to listen to whatever Kyungsoo replied with and ran back to his own room, kind of oblivious to the fact Kyungsoo followed him.

He was panicking.

 

He was panicking really bad.

 

He should’ve never let Baekhyun go inside the freaking bookcase.

 

He ran a hand through his hair as he tiptoed to look through the gap, but it was too dark. The darkness only made him worry even more, knowing Baekhyun, he probably would’ve at least lighted up the place.

‘’Baekhyun!’’ He tried yelling again.

 

‘’Chanyeol, what’s going on?’’

Chanyeol’s head snapped to the side, towards Kyungsoo who looked around in confuse, a concerned frown on his face as his hand trailed across the wall, staring at the gap.

‘’...’’ Chanyeol opened his mouth, but his mind was still battling with itself, trying to figure out whether it was a good idea to tell Kyungsoo or not.

It wasn’t like he actually had a choice.

 

Kyungsoo big eyes glistered. ‘’Chanyeol?’’

‘’Baekhyun fell in there.’’ Chanyeol spitted, pointing exaggeratedly at the gap.

‘’Baekhyun fell what?’’ Kyungsoo’s frown became heavier with more confuse, eyes darting from Chanyeol to the gap as he took a step closer.

‘’Long story, very long story. I’ll explain later, but I don’t know what to do now, he’s not responding to me.’’

With a little knowledge of what was going on, Kyungsoo tried to come up with something. ‘’Have you tried minding him?’’ He looked up.

Chanyeol nodded. ‘’Yeah, but he’s not responding. I can’t burn through the ing wall, Kyungsoo.’’

Kyungsoo eyes became wide. He had an idea.

 

‘’Step back.’’ He ushered Chanyeol to stand behind him and spread his legs. He aimed for the wall next to the bookcase and punched it down in one go. The wall collapsed immediately and they stared into the darkness.

No light.

 

‘’Baekhyun!’’ Chanyeol yelled and was about to run past Kyungsoo, but the last second, the latter held him back and raised both his hands, stepping down hard on the ground. Stairs appeared and Chanyeol ran down.

Kyungsoo didn’t see much aside in the darkness from Chanyeol crouching down beside a body, Baekhyun’s body. Instead he looked up at the distance the latter had fallen.

It would be a miracle if he was unharmed.

 

‘’How is he?’’ Kyungsoo asked when Chanyeol walked past him, Baekhyun lying limply in his arms. The boy had his eyes closed and mouth ajar, on his head was a dark wound and dried blood covered the whole side of his face.

Chanyeol didn’t answer and was quick to lay the boy on the couch, running into the kitchen. Kyungsoo made his way to the couch and crouched down beside his head, looking at the other’s twitching eyes. They didn’t look as peaceful as they did when he was in Chanyeol’s arms. They pressed themselves shut tightly, yet it was like he wanted to open his eyes so badly.

Chanyeol came back with the first aid kit only second later and Kyungsoo moved aside, watching the other take out a wetted towel to clean away the blood.

 

His eyes slowly drifted off the scene to the dark gap, were in the midst of all, a tiny scintilla flickered before it disappeared in the darkness. Kyungsoo frowned.

‘’Did you see that?’’ He asked in a silvery voice. Chanyeol looked up for a second before his eyes turned to where Kyungsoo’s eyes were directed to; the gap. He shook his head and looked back down at a still unconscious Baekhyun.

‘’No.’’ He curtly replied.

Kyungsoo didn’t stop staring at the gap.

‘’We should go an take a look what’s in there tomorrow.’’ He spoke slowly.

‘’Yeah, tomorrow.’’ Chanyeol absently responded before he carried Baekhyun off the couch to his bedroom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Behind his closed eyes was light, a lot of it. Not because he activated something, not because he was angry; because he was trying to control the ball he send off in the tunnel.

He could control it, it had his eyes, his will and his mind. It was strong and fast, flying with the speed of light through the tunnels.

 

Just like he already thought, the route was complicated, and going in without knowing what was down there could have led to becoming unable to escape.

 

Like a map printed in his mind, Baekhyun remembered the exact route the ball took before it joined more light and disappeared.

It was only then his eyes snapped open.