Chapter 7 ~Trail of Memories~

There was too many shouts for Sehun to hear anything at all. But he strained his ears, hoping to hear the cute voice of Luhan. Instead the first thing he heard properly was a resounding fearful voice asking "Where the is Luhan!?" It was the first audibly coherent thing Sehun heard amongst the rest of the chaos of shouts once Tao had verified that Luhan was in fact, not amongst them. Sehun was panicking. None of them had their phones except him and Tao. Which meant that Luhan had no way of calling them and them helping in turn.

Suddenly Sehun thought of Zelo. Maybe if he came, there would be a way to find Luhan? Zelo knew his twin best, didn't he? Without realising what he was doing he dialed Zelo's number that he had got from Luhan. It took only one ring before Zelo picked up. The way he said hello said a lot of things,  Sehun thought.

"What's going on?" Zelo asked finally,  when Sehun only stuttered.

"D-did something happen to Luhan?" Zelo whispered worriedly.

"H-he's missing..." Sehun said softly, figuring it was better to say that than, "your twin was grabbed from my arms and I couldn't do a damned thing."

There was no sound from Zelo’s end, until a click, and then a different voice said, "hello? Yongguk ibnida."

Sehun cleared his throat.

"Where'd Zelo go?"

"He's having a panic attack. Where do we go to find you?" Yongguk said, his voice sounding gentle. Sehun wondered if it was for Zelo’s sake.  

"We're at a park by the Wonderland hotel. It's the one run by Go Seojin."

"I'll call again when we're there." Sehun heard another click and figured he hung up, but then he heard "come Zelo. It's okay, everything will be okay...."

Sehun hung up the phone, his face a pasty white colour. If he had known how many people were actually after Luhan he would have taken measures to make sure Luhan would only be in danger around him. That did not make sense, he knew. But if no one else had been targeting Luhan, Sehun would have been in control over who was able to touch him. Right now, he only knew that his deer was missing, and someone other than him was holding Luhan captive.

He came to his senses when someone smacked his face, hard. He blinked unable to see who it was in the blackness of the haunted mansion.

"What?!?" Sehun asked bewildered,  trying to force his eyes to accustom themselves to the dark.

"We're looking for Luhan, me and Baekhyun within the haunted mansion.  Kai said he was staying with you. Tao, Chen and Xiumin went to search the water park area. Suho, Kris and Lay went towards the amusement park. D.O will likely come with us, he's around somewhere." Chanyeol listed,  taking a breath.

Sehun blinked again, an obvious expression of confusion on his face.

"So where the heck is Kai then."

"He stayed outside, remember? He's afraid of ghosts." D.O responded with a snappy tone.

Sehun ignored him. Without waiting for anymore instructions,  he ran out of the dark room, ignoring the bruises he acquired as he crashed into the silent creepers of the haunted mansion.  

The sunlight hit him hard, and he had to blink for an entire minute before his eyes got accustomed to the bright sunshine. By then Kai had already run over to him.

"You're looking for Luhan, right?" Kai questioned,  his eyes wide.

Sehun frowned at him, his jaw twitching in annoyance.  

“Did you not get the memo or something?" Sehun snapped, his eyes flaring up angrily.  

"Calm down Sehun." Kai Sehun’s cheek, but Sehun’s eyes did not change.

"Yes. I'm looking for Luhan."

"Okay so a few minutes ago, before I got any memo or whatever,  I saw a really tall guy carrying a smaller boy in his arms. I saw the ginger hair, but it didn't occur to me to say anything because I didn't think it was Lu-"

"WHY THE ARE YOU ONLY TELLING ME THIS NOW???" Sehun shouted furiously. "Where did he go, Kai. WHERE DID HE GO!"

Sehun was besides himself with fury, and Kai blinked, a soft flush coming onto his cheeks.

"That way..." Kai mumbled, pointing in the general direction of the left.

Sehun sped away and Kai, not accustomed to being yelled at, did not have the heart to follow him. He was alone again.  Sighing, he started following Sehun's footsteps, going much slower than he did. Maybe he could help, right? Right, he told himself. He figured Luhan being kidnapped was worse than him being attacked. He rubbed at his neck as he walked, a sheepish expression on his face. Luhan was less capable of taking care of himself, Kai guessed.  'It's okay' he thought. 'It's all fine.'

~~~~~~

Woobin watched the little deer in front of him. He was still asleep, or rather, knocked out from the strong chloroform Woobin had pressed up against his face. A small tendril of hair was loosely hanging down Luhan's forehead making him look more innocent than Woobin wanted for his conscious. It had been awhile since Luhan was just sat there. Woobin hadn't bothered tying him, because he knew he could easily catch him. It would also make it easier to kill him if he wasn't restrained to one place and squirming.

Getting bored,  Woobin decided to wake Luhan up. He looked around but only had the ice water he had for drinking. He smirked a bit, his anger still bubbling under the surface. With a flair he threw the freezing water onto Luhan’s face and watched as it dripped down his shoulders. By the time it reached his s and hardened them from the cold, Luhan had already woken up, gasping, a soft whimper on his lips as he looked around to see only Woobin.

The shivers started soon after, and something in Woobin made him smile, enjoying that small bit of torture he could put onto the small boy. It looked like Luhan was trying to say something,  but his shivers intensified instead, small unintelligible sounds coming from his mouth.

Woobin took out his set of blades, playing with them in his hands, watching Luhan as the boy watched him. He raised his arm, chuckling at the flinch Luhan reacted with.

Without warning, he threw it towards Luhan, making sure it wasn't close enough to kill him, and delighted in the cut that graced Luhan's face from his aim.

"What do you want?" Luhan asked finally, his voice shaking as his body trembled from fear and cold.

"You dead." Woobin replied casually, getting ready to throw another knife. Luhan raised his arms automatically as the knife came flying at him. This time it cut his arm, Luhan’s silent tears becoming more pronounced. His mind wandered to the funny way his parents had been acting, and wondered if they knew. He grimaced at the betrayal he felt. His parents wouldn't have forced him into such a situation if they themselves didn't know more details.

"You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Woobin whispered, a blade suddenly near his neck.

He gasped as an image entered his mind. It played like a film, but it didn't make sense.  Sehun was there, and Sehun had a knife in his hand, a much smaller boy crying and begging to be spared,  and Sehun said those words. 'You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'  And then the boy died, at the hands of Sehun.  When the Sehun in his mind met his eyes, he screamed, beginning to thrash wildly, fearfully. It wasn't true...

Woobin not knowing what was going on in Luhan’s mind thought the scream was a plead for him. He ignored it though, his mind on how to chase Luhan to the edge.

"You should have just stayed out of it." Woobin began, not knowing if Luhan was listening. "You should have quietly lived instead of poking into someone else's business,  especially at such a young age."

Luhan stared ahead unseeingly, not paying attention.  "If it wasn't for your twin you'd have already been-"

A spark of life entered Luhan then, he jumped out of the chair, ignoring the knife that was dangerously close to his neck. "Don't you dare touch my twin." As if something woke up in Luhan, his eyes blazed angrily, protectively and he rolled away from Woobin, kicking him hard.

Woobin grunted, snorting in annoyance, getting up quickly to follow Luhan to the edge of the building where he had run to, not knowing just how high up they were.

"Congratulations." Woobin whispered softly. "You just dug your own grave."

~~~~~~

Go Bokdong tried to get up immediately.  He tried, but failed numerous times. He glanced at his watch nervously, it had been twenty minutes since Woobin had beaten the out of him. Bokdong got on all four, clenching his fist as he put pressure on his hands to give strength to his feet and stomach.

For a moment he wondered why it mattered. He knew that if he actually was successful in such a serious mission, he would no longer be a maknae despite his age. Not that he was so young either, but at least he would be shown respect. Woobin would need to bow on his knees in apology and mercy for beating him up like that. But everytime he tried to imagine himself staining his hands with blood, he couldn't do it. He was very good at intimidation, and had no qualms about beating someone else up or giving them a fright like he had done with Kai. But murder; that was something on an entirely different level. He actually pitied Sehun for being forced to grow up as a child of a leader assassin group. Even for Bokdong, not growing up with anyone raising him, it was better than the life Sehun went through. A father who had no issue about killing would have no care in the world to kill his own son too. He had heard it through the grapevine,  what Sehun’s dilemma was. It was either his death or Luhan's.  There really was no other choice.

Bokdong knew, as he gripped the nearby wall for support, that whoever did kill Luhan would only feel the success for a short time. Sehun’s father was sure milking the reward for all it was worth, and despite that, Bokdong had no idea what the reward was. Even Woobin, his outwardly scary persona would fail as soon as he realised that he had taken a life.

Bokdong blinked. Right. Take a life- Woobin was about to kill Luhan, and he was sat there, feeling the pain of someone still alive. Did he even have such a right? He forced his eyes shut and pushed away the pain of what he was sure was a broken rib. He felt at his neck and knew it was bruised. The blood he had wiped from his face earlier had begun to drip down his cheeks again. But now, he was too focused on moving.

Woobin liked high places, because it always gave him an advantage.  He once overheard him tell Jongsuk 'if they fall over on their own, how is it my fault?' Jongsuk, he remembered,  had no reply. His eyes had gone vacant and his face had lost colour. Instead he had said, 'did you eat? Let's go eat.'

Bokdong valued the loyalty Jongsuk had for Woobin, and the strength of his friendship with Woobin was staggering. He winced as he visualised Jongsuk giving him a beating if he so much as touched Woobin.  But really, Luhan was more important, surely Jongsuk knew that.

As Bokdong limped out of the alley, he scoured the sky for tall buildings.  His face paled as he thought of where Woobin could have gone. He quickly turned around toward where the Wonderland hotel stood brightly. Had he gone all the way back there?

An image of a struggling Luhan in Woobin’s arms came to mind. He shook his head.  Woobin would have never managed to get past security.  His eyes traveled closer to the park's skyscrapers. When it landed on the parking lot, his mind provided him with a resolute yes.

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