“What?” He let his nerves take over his face, as he leaned back to distance himself from her.

Confusion was the only thing on his mind. Everything had happened so fast within the past few minutes that the girl's words weren’t helping him understand anything at all.

“My name’s Ahreum. And I guess I should rephrase what I said,’ She took a moment to find the right words to not scare him even more than he already was, ‘I suggest that you listen to me so you know what you’re in f-”

“Why? Where am I? Who are you? Wh-what is this place?” The words came out fast and mumbled as he continued to blink rapidly at her.

The girl, Ahreum, tilted her head to the side as she examined his face once more. “I told you. I’m Ahreum, and … I want to help. If you’ll let me,’

His eyes began to frantically look around the room and into the hall. Her voice was strangely calm but it couldn’t drown the screams that surrounded them in the air. Taking a deep breathe to calm himself, he asked in a lowered voice, “Can you please just answer my question.”

“Ok,’ She muttered before standing up again. ‘If you haven’t realized it yet, we’re at one of many government facilities. I’m sure you’ve heard of them.” that caught Jongin’s attention as he swallowed hard, darting his eyes back at hers. “Supposedly we’re here because they want to ‘fix us’. As if we’re broken...” She couldn’t help but roll her eyes at the statement.

She continued to speak explaining the rules or maybe about how he was dragged in here, but he wasn’t listening, he couldn’t. Jongin felt his heart plummet to the ground, as sweat began to build, and all he could hear was his heartbeat racing faster and faster.

He wasn’t that naive. He knew where he was, or was going to be taken to, but the hope and wishful thinking in him that this was all a nightmare or anything for that matter as long as it wasn’t real, was strong. But now with those few words, everything came crashing down on him.

His mind went a mile a minute filled with sudden thoughts of fear, worry, sadness, and death.

Fear of what they might do to him. Worry about his uncle, knowing that he’ll be alone at home wondering where he went. Sadness that he couldn’t even say goodbye to him and the sudden ache in his heart just thinking about his mother and how much he missed her. And Death… he doesn’t know what they do to people like him here but by what he could see, he was afraid he might not be strong enough to last in here.

The room looked like it was spinning in slow motion and he was beginning to feel sick. This was his biggest fear. He heard too many stories and rumors about what they do here. Rumors that escalated from them treating their patients with the utmost security to find a cure, to brutality and just a prison to hold them in until they die. By the looks of it Jongin could assume the latter was more accurate, but he only ever wished he would never have to face this and now it was coming true.

He closed his eyes trying to breathe and calm his heartbeat before opening them and seeing a hand waving in front of him. “Are you ok?” He glanced up and saw worry on the girl's face.

“Were you listening to me? Are you feeling alright?” The only thing he could do was stare at her blinking slowly, attempting to stop the room from spinning and from seeing doubles.

The moment his vision became normal and his breathing less ragged, he asked the girl another question although he knew he would regret asking in the first place. “What are they going to do to me?’ He took in a shallow breath, voice cracking as he asked, ‘How did they find me?”

The girl looked at him with what he could only conclude to be pity and empathy, “They’re going to try to tear you down, until you break. And since you were brought in the middle of the night alone, and not on the scheduled raids, I’m guessing someone either caught you wreaking havoc or someone turned you in knowing you were different.”

Jongin leaned back against the wall shaking his head in disbelief, “You’ve got to be ting me… I can’t- that, that isn’t possible. I made sure no one knew.” he spoke quietly mostly to himself but the girl heard.

The numb pain on his head came back as he ran his fingers through his hair, only then noticing the dried blood on his forehead and lip and the dull stinging pain on his sides. He couldn’t think much of anything before he heard the girl speak again.

“What’s your name? I know this is a lot to handle and is quite scary to wake up here... I think everyone here can relate but-”

She quickly moved back, widening their distance from each other as a rock the size of his fist came crashing into their cell. Almost instantly Jongin felt buckets of sweat running down his body in fear, as both he and Ahreum turned to the cell across from them.

One of the old men who had been laying down was now barely sitting up against the bars having a huge scowl on his face. “Stop wasting your time child!’ he pointed to the girl. ‘Stop trying to coax the boy into thinking everything will be fine when we all know we’re screwed!”

At that moment, the man turned his attention to Jongin, “You’re going to suffer everyday by the hands of these people. You can forget about hoping to get out or survive this.’

The girl was speaking over the old man trying to tell him something but he wasn’t paying attention, the man’s words were running through his mind.

‘I’ve been here for twelve years already and so will you. Soon you’ll be wishing that you had never even been born. And if you’re lucky, they’ll finally end your suffering and kill you.’ The man let out a strangled chuckle, ‘And that’ll only happen if they actually favor you.’ Leaning back against the nearest wall and shutting his eyes, he continued. ‘Good luck boy, because you’re never leaving this place.”

Jongin was in a trance, blocking out every noise leaving only a buzz, letting the old man’s words sink in. I’m going to die here? I’m really going to die here?

He hadn’t even taken notice of Ahreum anymore until she began to squeeze his shoulders, making him avert his eyes from the man back to her. He still wasn’t listening to what she was trying to say but he took in mind that she looked worried again. Slowly the buzzing noise left him and he could hear the groans and cries of the people in the hall, and finally he heard Ahreum.

“Hey… Hey! Breathe. Breathe. It’s ok, don’t listen to that guy. He’s just trying to scare you even more. Just take a deep breath and breathe.” That moment is when he realized all this while he had been hyperventilating, body trembling and sweating badly.

He was having a panic attack.

She took a deep breath “Inhale and exhale. Follow me, inhale and exhale.” and he listened, trying to steady his breathing and heart beat again.

Although Ahreum had been kind to him so far since he woke up he couldn’t help but gently push her away as she continued to try, in what Jongin could only describe as comfort him, to not let the man’s words get to him that much.

He spared a glance at her knowing she was the only person he could possibly talk to, before letting out a sigh and letting his shoulders slump in defeat “He’s right isn’t he? They won’t let me go, will they?”

They were both silent for a couple of minutes. She looked to be collecting her thoughts before she spoke.

“Well you shouldn’t think too negatively. It only makes things worse in my opinion.”

…..

...

They say after denial comes anger. For Jongin it hit him out of nowhere.

His expression changed from being blank to one of annoyance and anger.

“You said you wanted to help me. Why? Why are you even talking to me? I literally just got dragged from my house to here, and you’re telling me not to think negatively?!”

“Can you just-”

“Can you stop talking to me! You’re not helping.” She gave him a look of slight disbelief before lightly scoffing and walking back to her corner on the other side. They fell silent for what felt like hours, letting the muffled cries of the prisoners fill the air.

During that time he observed the others in the cells and noticed their lack of living. Looking more dead than alive and that angered him more. No. that. Screw what the old man said, he may be right but I can’t just sit here and not at least try to get out. My uncle needs me. I can’t stay here. I can’t stay here.

He stood up and turned towards the bars and began to bang against them, ignoring the pain on his body. Jongin knew he was being an to the only person that seems somewhat calm here, especially after she helped him during his panic attack but he was pissed as he realized everything that’s happened. From one minute to the next he went from having a nice life to being in an unknown location locked up.

He continued to slam his body against the bars until exhaustion began to rise as he slowed down but didn’t stop. At least not until Ahreum broke the silence. “Ugh! Can you stop that! It’s getting annoying. You won’t break or even loosen the bars. Trust me several people have already tried in this cell alone. It won’t open unless you have the key.”

Jongin paused “You’ve tried to break the bars before?” She seems so calm and accepting of her surroundings, not bothered whatsoever so he couldn’t really picture it.

“Not exactly. It hadn’t been me but several of my past cellmates have tried, and now look where they are.” She said in a distant manner.

He was hesitant to ask but the question began to gnaw at him, “Where are they?” She gave him a look “They’re gone. Dead most likely.”

She said, “They all basically got themselves killed being irrational and going berserk the moment they realized where they were.” She took his silence as a sign to continue. “Not gonna lie I was hoping you were gonna be at least a little different seeing how composed you were in comparison to the others, and maybe actually last more than the usual four days in this cell. But I guess I was wrong, you’re only gonna get yourself killed if the guards see you. Although I’m no position to stop you.” She gave him a tight-lipped smile as to say, ‘you’re screwed and I don’t really care anymore’.

Jongin let out a sigh stepping away from the bars as the pain began to increase. “How are you so calm? How long have you been here that you don’t want to leave? I just want to get out.’ Lowering his voice, he continues ‘I have people that care about me, probably worried.”

She scoffed, crossing her arms as she stands to face him better, “Of course I want to leave. Everybody does, but it’s not so easy. And besides you haven’t even faced anything yet. This is literally the safest part of it. You don’t know what we go through every day.”

Jongin stayed silent as he didn’t know what to say. He turned back, leaning his head against the bars trying to clear his mind. How did this even happen? I made sure to keep my secret hidden so something like this wouldn’t happen. His eyes widened in realization before shutting his eyes really tight. He opened his eyes before closing them again, concentrating hard.

Ahreum raised a brow as she continued to watch him open and close his eyes and clench the bars. He continued this for quite some time, and it was quite amusing to her. Finally she asked“What are you doing?”

He turned to face her again with wide eyes, “What happened to my power. It’s not working.”

“Yeah, they inject us with some type of serum that inhibits us from using them, or else we would’ve been out of here already.”

“Dammit! I could’ve be out of here.’ He looks at her before casting his sight to the ground, ‘I could’ve escaped from them earlier. I was just too shocked then...”

He looked back at her before questioning, “Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier instead of just watching me.” She gave him a quite comical look of disbelief “I was going to if you would have let me speak earlier!” She huffs, meeting his eyes before tilting her head and asking, “What is your power anyways?”

He looked around slightly nervous seeing as he never told anyone about his power in fear that something like this would happen, but she must have noticed. “There’s nothing to lose any more if you tell me.” he let out a small sigh before mumbling “I can teleport.”

He already regretted telling her when he saw her eyes widen and open in shock. She reached out to him, dragging him to the corner of the cell before whispering “You can teleport?”

“Yes..?”

“”

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A/N:

Okay lol so everything in this chapter went a little fast in my opinion, but I at writing so that’s probably as good as I can get lol.

yea just to clarify for any confusion (cuz again I feel like it went fast) she was excited last chapter because she thought that he was different in a ‘calm (could probably last longer as a cellmate than past others)’ and that sparked a slight curiosity in her. So, she felt like helping him out and trying to tell him what he’ll have to deal with but he didn’t really want to listen.

Also, I haven’t continued this story in such a long time, and that was because of university and I kind of forgot… but now I’m on vacation so hopefully I’ll update some more, since I really do want to continue to write this~