Location: Cambodian jungle 

Kai and Chanyeol. Of international K-pop fame. In the middle of a jungle. Really Nara?  

Rationality told her that Exo were probably touring in some fully air-conditioned stadium right now. Instinct though, screamed at her that she saw them. Those hours spent procrastinating scrolling through Tumblr weren’t for nothing. Heck, she could recognize Exo members by the side profiles of their left eyebrows, let alone a glimpse at their entire face! 

So the real question was…how was this possible? The idea of doppelgangers crossed her mind as quickly as she dismissed it. One doppelganger was possible, but two together, at the exact same time and place? Definitely fishy.  

“Did you see those guys over there just then?” She asked Aaron, who had his head down and was diligently searching for their ball amidst the dense growth of the jungle floor. 

“Hm? What guys?” 

“Those…” She broke off scanning over where the two figures had been. Nothing could be seen. 

“Um…never mind?” 

Had they vanished into thin air, or was her Wi-Fi deprivation so severe, it was inducing hallucinations of K-pop stars now? 

Aaron scratched his head, “I have an awesome kick and all…but I’m really starting to doubt the ball came this far. Maybe we should turn around and search again?” Nara nodded all too enthusiastically. She tried to push down the unease bubbling deep in her stomach and trailed behind Aaron with a furrowed brow, turning back the way they came. 

The further they walked, the more unrest she felt. The air was becoming gradually cooler, a temperature unusual for this time of the year. The trees were becoming sparser, as though they had been cleared by some artificial force. And it was too late before Nara realized that, slowly, the animal calls had died out until there was nothing except a faint, unnatural humming lingering in the air. 

Aaron broke their silence with a low whistle. “Is it just me…or have we never been to this area before?” 

“It’s definitely not just you.” Nara whispered, now studying their surroundings left and right with panic. When a glint in the distance distracted her, Aaron followed her gaze and squinted his eyes. 

“Again, is it just me or is there something super shiny and totally out of place in the distance?” He asked as he curiously stepped in that direction. 

“Wait Aaron, don’t –” 

It happened so fast she barely had the time to scream. A giant, twisted, plant-like tendril shot towards Aaron and he didn’t have time to dodge. The vine sliced across his shoulder, immediately spilling red onto his white t-shirt. Aaron cried out more from surprise than pain.  

Along with it rose a giant creature from the leaf-covered earth that it had previously been camouflaged within. It looked like nothing she had ever seen before.

What is going on.

She could barely make out a form, let alone features - just a huge mottled mass of twisted vines, leaves and thorns. The creature let out a vibrating screech, revealing a dark hole  lined with rows and rows of sharp teeth. The sight unnerved her to her core. Some monster belonging to a botched sci-fi movie was materialising right in front of her face. What the actual ? Is this real life?  

The creature’s limbs whirled as it hurtled towards them, moving like a giant, plant tarantula propelled by turbines. 

“Get down!” Nara screamed. They threw themselves to the ground, missed narrowly by the frenzied vines that soared overhead. The creature landed behind them and immediately swerved around to begin its attack anew. Nara pushed off the ground, dragged Aaron up by one arm and sprinted off with him in tow. 

There was no time to process the believability of all this. There was only fight or flight, and every nerve of her brain told her to run. The furious screeching behind her made her pump her arms even faster in desperation. Her lungs were beginning to seize – from the panic or from running the fastest she ever had in her 18 years of life, she didn’t know. She needed to breathe, she needed air, she – 

A snap! followed by a terrified yell sounded behind her and Nara whipped around to see Aaron jerked backwards with immense force by a thick vine was tangled around his middle, his mouth gaping in horror. 

“No! NO!” 

"Don't look back Nara! Don't -" Aaron's voice cut off in a choked gurgle.  

The creature aimed more vines at her and she threw herself out of the way, rolling into the muddy earth. They thumped on the ground to her left, twisting in effort to curl around her legs. Nara kicked and stomped as she scrambled to her feet, all the while screaming. More vines were flying in her direction even as the rest of the creature’s convulsing mass was still far behind.  

Aaron's limp form was somewhere, engulfed in that writhing mass, but Nara could only run, tears streaming down her face and dangerously blurring her vision.

She smacked face-first into a tall wired fence. It ran a boundary around a huge area of dirt ground absent of all forest life. A metallic, eggshell-smooth building stood at one side of the cleared plain, starkly out of place. It was something that belonged to the future, in sheer contrast to everything she had experienced and seen in the past few days. Beyond this fence, it was like another world.

This, this was the shiny thing we saw. She dumbly realised. 

But with the nightmare behind her, there was no time to consider the consequences. Heaving with all her might, Nara pulled herself up using the scratchy metal, scaling the fence with fumbling hands and shaking legs, fuelled only by sheer terror and the unparalleled will to survive. She landed on the other side with a speed that would've impressed herself on a normal day and was halfway through sprinting across the courtyard, attempting to reach the glimmering silver structure for refuge of some kind, any kind, when a distinct click sounded where her foot had just lifted off the ground. 

That was never a good sign.

With a searing roar something exploded directly behind her, blasting her forward and rendering her world a burning red, then blinding white. 

Then pitch black.