Lei shoots out flames from every extremity she has. Out of her hands, feet, and everywhere where she knows how, flames come out in spurts, and soon, whatever was holding onto her foot releases its grip. With panicked , she finds her way back to the surface. Once there, she turns desperately to look for Baekhyun, and—thank the heavens—she finds him flailing in the water, kicking at something below the surface. Without another thought, Lei shoots fire from her hands and aims it at whatever lay under the water. The water is useless in quenching her flames, and Baekhyun stops struggling when the fire nears him.

“Stop!” he sputters out quickly. Lei stops shooting the flames, but she does so with hesitance. “Come on, Lei. This way.”

They swim towards the opposite wall and grab at the wall for support. Unfortunately, this wall is more human skull than it is dirt, and Baekhyun can’t make a plant grow with bone. In response to this, Lei holds up a hand above water and forms several balls of fire that she throws around the room. Though they’re resistant to water, something about the murky liquid in the room makes them fizzle out quicker than anticipated.

“Do you see her?” Baekhyun asks Lei, and she shakes her head no.

But speak of the devil, and he or she shall appear.

The girl’s head rises out of the water with an inhuman sleekness, shocking Baekhyun and Lei and forcing them to back themselves against the wall of skulls. Whatever she is, she seems real enough with her straight, black hair that covers most of her face—except for the rotting hole in her cheek. It’s this part and the way her cheek looks like a real wound that scares Lei. She always believed ghosts to be hazy figures that look more like smoke than actual flesh.

“Be quiet,” Baekhyun whispers to Lei—as if she isn’t already quiet.

“Would that make her leave?” Lei hisses back.

“It’s worth a try—”

SPLASH! Something falls from the ceiling. The ceiling. With horror, Lei watches as the foreign object starts to float towards them. Before it can get any closer, it abruptly lifts its head. Its head. Lei screams and throws all the fireballs she can manage it. The thing—it’s not human if its eyes are black because humans don’t have black eyes—looked at her with the widest grin she’s ever seen. Its smile is so wide that it can’t have possibly been or is human.

“Lei!” Baekhyun starts to scream too, but Lei doesn’t stop for him—not if there’s creatures falling from the ceiling—so she shoots fire at everything that moves.

She does this for as long as she can hold because when she stops, the creatures grow closer. Then Baekhyun starts to scream louder.

“What is it?” She turns to him, preparing for the worst. Fortunately, there isn’t a demon on top of Baekhyun and trying to kill him, but he holds on desperately to the wall of skulls, crying and screaming at once. When he glances over at Lei, she nearly faints at the sight of blood slowly dripping out of his nose. “Oh my, god!” She wants to rush over to him, but the creatures start advancing whenever she stops her fire. “Are you okay? Baekhyun!”

Baekhyun shakes his head and points to something behind Lei. When Lei turns around, her attention is immediately drawn to the glowing flower that Baekhyun had made on the wall. The creatures and zombie-looking people swarm over it, tearing it apart with their hands and teeth.

“That hurts.” Even with the growling coming from the other side of the room and splashing water, Baekhyun’s soft whine penetrates through the air. “It really,” he chokes, “hurts, Lei.”

“I can make it stop,” Lei proposes. She thinks about shooting a ray of fire towards the plant, but then their source of light would depend entirely on her, and she doesn’t know if she has the strength to manage that for more than a few minutes.

“No, don’t. The water’s already too warm.”

Lei looks down around her, and sure enough, the water is to the point of steaming.

“It’s getting h-harder to breathe.”

But there’s nothing Lei can do about that. She’s having trouble regulating her breathing, and her legs are sore from continuously kicking upward to keep afloat. Meanwhile, the creatures have gained their confidence and start to slowly inch their way to her and Baekhyun. Still, she decides that she’s not going to die in a cave, so she keeps throwing balls of fire at the creatures until she’s cornered with Baekhyun at her side.

“Do you think,” Lei says in between gasps, “that demon possession hurts?”

“You tell me,” Baekhyun mumbles. His nose continues to bleed, and the face he makes tortures Lei despite her not being the one who feels his pain.

Baekhyun clutches onto the skulls at the corner while Lei backs into his chest. The creatures are so close that she can see each of their finer features. One of them is missing an ear, another appears to have its jaw ripped off with guts hanging down against their neck and dripping fresh blood, and at the center of it all is the girl from earlier—the one with a chunk of her cheek missing. Lei begins to cry as they come closer towards her. There comes a point where Baekhyun can’t move back any further, and Lei can feel his pounding heartbeat on her back.

Around this time, the plant that Baekhyun had made on the wall falls into the water. As the room dims and dims, Lei starts to choke on her own breaths. The creatures are all now beginning to smile widely to the point where it’s inhumanely grotesque.

Just when Lei thinks she’ll witness the afterlife firsthand, a distant scream echoes throughout the room.

“Get back!” The voice belongs to a woman.

Startled, the creatures simultaneously turn towards the voice, giving Lei room to breathe. Perhaps the voice belongs to a guard who can save them. Sure enough, in the distance, an outline of a figure comes closer and closer until Lei can make out a boat. The creatures begin to screech, scarring Lei’s ears but at the same time comforting her. If these creatures can die, then it will only give her hope. Praying, Lei closes her eyes to distance herself from this terrible world with terrible creatures.

“Who goes there?” The same voice reaches out towards Lei. She opens her eyes, and the magnificent sight of a woman donning a full body suit made of metal greets her. It’s something out of a movie. “Are your bones in shape?” The boat that the woman is on drifts closer as the two men on the boat with her begin rowing closer and closer, hitting the creatures along the way. “Get on!”

The woman, with an otherworldly strength, lifts Lei out of the water and then Baekhyun. Poor Baekhyun stumbles into the boat while Lei’s legs give out from under her.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” the woman yells as she unsheathes an impressive blade spanning at least a few feet. She swipes at the creatures who swarm at the boat, and although Lei’s fire could not kill of them, the woman’s blade does the trick.

“I’m P-Prince Baekhyun,” Baekhyun sputters in between heaving breaths. “Prince of Yosul.”

“Yosul?” The woman’s voice is loud and hearty. She turns towards Lei and Baekhyun with a frown. Her beauty is undeniably there, and her hair is the most striking shade of platinum. Perhaps it’s the way her features are soft and innocent while in her hands is a deadly, blood-coated weapon, but the woman’s presence threatens Lei. “For what reason would a Yosul prince be found in the depths of the catacombs? Do you have a score to settle, boy?”

“N-N-No!” Baekhyun shakes his head at the woman’s suggestion. “Of course not. We found ourselves lost.” He points to Lei. “That’s the Princess of Helios.”

“Princess?” The woman laughs heartily as the two men row faster. “A true princess can fight her way out of anything, yet I had to save you two.” When they reach a section of the room with a lower ceiling without light, Lei snaps her fingers to summon a fire. At the sight of the small flame, the woman gasps. “You have the power of light.”

“Light?” Lei scoffs, but she hides it with a cough. “No. It’s fire.”

“Fire is light, no?”

“Fire is only useful in burning things.” Lei shrugs. Throughout her life, this has been said to her. Fire is terrible; fire destroys. “Light…is something beautiful.”

“It is nothing but a word.” The woman laughs again. Her lungs must be strong from the way her laughter pours out of . “And such is ‘perspective.’ Or so some men from hundreds of years ago say. Do not give anyone the permission to tell you what it means in your heart. A person’s name is just a name until you love them.”

Lei frowns at the strange, yet understandable logic. “I suppose.”

“Where are we?” Baekhyun asks. Lei looks around to see that they’ve approached what appears to dry ground—sprawling with tents and people. Their clothes are unlike anything Lei’s ever seen, but she supposes that’s to accommodate for the environment in the catacombs.

“The largest camp in the catacombs,” the woman says, “but we have no other name for it other than home.”

“Why—” Lei cuts herself off when she sees a group of men holding a screaming man down. The man being held has a broken leg with the bone sticking out, and another man holds his hand as if to comfort him. “Um,” Lei snaps backs to reality, looking away from the desperate scene, “why is there a camp down here?”

The woman curls her lip upward. “The war, children!”

“War?” Baekhyun nudges Lei, but Lei already knows what this could mean.

“Um, miss.” Lei taps the woman’s shoulder when she turns to speak to someone.

“Yes?” The woman turns back around. Her voice, whether she intends it or not, booms and resonates against the catacombs walls. “What is it?”

“What’s your name?” Lei asks, and after a second of thought, she adds, “What year is it?”

“I am known as Captain Emily.” The woman flashes a grin and straightens her form so that she appears even taller. “Most people use the title M when they speak of or to me. And where do you hide yourself, child?” She laughs again, throwing her head back for effect. “This is the year of 1376.”

“Oh my, god,” Baekhyun mumbles, and M catches it.

“Boy!” She points to him almost accusingly. “If you truly hail from Yosul, then you must know that I have no care for your people and reputation but make it your obligation to keep it civil here! I do not tolerate blasphemy.”

Baekhyun raises his hands in defense. “I’m sorry—”

“Apologize to God and not to me, boy!”

“We apologize to the heavenly father,” Lei answers for Baekhyun. She then bows towards M. “We apologize for the trouble as well. The war has been harsh, has it not? Several thousand casualties. It can’t be easy.”

“Indeed.” M nods, but she keeps her eyes narrowed at Baekhyun. “Why don’t you two go to the well just farther north? Fetch some water for the injured as payment.”

“We shall.” Lei immediately agrees, grabbing Baekhyun and walking towards the general direction of wherever north may be.

They walk past several people who give them no second glance—even if Lei stares at them too long in awe. A part of her knows that these people are no longer alive because it can’t be 1376 if only an hour ago it was 2018. Yet, as people bump and touch shoulders with Lei, she thinks that she’s going crazy or that perhaps she’s dead too. Sure, she’s encountered the spirits of dead relatives, but being surrounded by an army of the dead is something completely new to her. It’s so unreal that is must be a delusion. Baekhyun arm under her grip reminds her, however, that she’s not entirely over the moon yet.

“Lei,” Baekhyun says in a lowered voice, “what is going on?”

“I have a good idea, but it’s not exactly pleasant.” Lei keeps turning around to make sure her eyes aren’t lying to her. “In 1376, there was a holy war in which people believed Helios was hoarding secrets in the catacombs. Conspiracy theorists mostly and just really crazy people waged a war. And since it was 1376, it was basically the medieval period, so people wore armor and crap. A lot of men died, and some women—people thought they were crazy or possessed by the power of God—rose up to the challenge and accomplished a lot of things.”

“M.” Baekhyun nods, but a frown stays on his face. “So what is this? People haven’t reached peace and that’s why they’re here?”

“Maybe, but those people were dead.” Lei quiets her voice to make sure no one but Baekhyun hears. She has heard rumors of strange results of telling dead people that they are dead, and she can’t deal with that right now. “M knew that. I’m thinking maybe during the holy wars, they encountered dead spirits too. Or maybe there’s another war in the afterlife.”

“Ew,” Baekhyun mumbles. “I hate wars.”

“We have to get out of here.” Lei pulls Baekhyun farther along—only to be stopped by a small child.

“Flowers!” the child shouts in glee. He picks up the small flowers following Baekhyun’s footsteps, and although Baekhyun winces each time the child does so, he keeps a smile on his face.

“Let’s just keep going,” Baekhyun says through gritted teeth. “I don’t like it when kids do that.”

“I thought you liked kids.” Lei continues to stride past the large encampment. Although she and Baekhyun are still in the catacombs, it doesn’t feel like that due to the amount of people and lights there. “You were always visiting the orphanages.”

They reach a hallway where people are exiting with buckets of water, and Lei waits behind an elderly woman carrying a vase.

“I love children,” Baekhyun answers, “but I don’t like it when they hurt me.”

“It’s not their fault they’re hurting you.”

Baekhyun scoffs. “Don’t try to justify the inflicted pain.”

Lei smiles at those words. This isn’t the first time she’s heard that logic of how when people feel pain, they feel it and that it shouldn’t be deemed as weak because it is present and it is there. Still, she didn’t expect him to use that argument. In fact… Lei stares at Baekhyun’s side profile, wondering what he could be thinking. Certainly, he can’t be thinking of anything normal Yosulians would think about.

“Baekhyun,” she asks as the line moves up a few steps, “why are you so…un-Yosulian?”

“Why am I not representative of my people?” he rephrases the question for her. A smile tugs along his lips as if the question is ridiculous. “That’s a good question, but I don’t know. I was just sort of born this way.” He shrugs. “What about you? Why aren’t you representative of your people?”

“Is that supposed to be an attack on my character?”

“I think we just came to a conclusion.” As Lei rolls her eyes, Baekhyun laughs. “Really. I thought Helians were supposed to be kind, welcoming, and definitely not hot-headed. You’re a contradiction of all those things.”

“I suppose it’s just how I was made to be,” Lei grumbles. Again, this isn’t the first time she has heard said to her. Her mother. Wendy. Her brother. Random people with the audacity to bring it up. Throughout her life, Lei has always sort of been the black sheep. “It can’t be my fault. It isn’t.”

“Believe me, I know the feeling.”

Waiting in the line feels like an eternity, and as time passes, less and less people trickle out of the room where a well must be. Less come and go too; Baekhyun and Lei are the last one in line. Upon reaching the room, they find that there is a well.

Lei grabs a spare bucket in the corner of the room, ready to take a share of water (though she’s not sure if the water is well enough to drink with it being water from the catacombs), when screams erupt in the distance. She drops the bucket in surprise and looks at Baekhyun in horror. Baekhyun—being the true Yosulian he is—nearly hits his head on the low ceilings of the room when he jumps back. He regains composure only by clutching at the wall.

“Get down!” Lei instructs him as she shuffles behind the well. Baekhyun follows her just in time for the torches in the room to go out by a draft.

“What’s going on?” Baekhyun whispers loudly. The screams are ear piercingly loud, and the sound of clashing metal accompanies them along with forceful orders from a hearty voice that could only belong to Captain Emily.

“I have no idea,” Lei lies. History is the only class in which she ever paid attention to what the teaching was actually saying, and as a result, she knows what happened in the Holy Wars of the 1300s. There was an ambush—whether it was from the supernatural or the opposing side is still unclear—in the catacombs where people drowned in the underground river, and a large amount of people died. Lei remembers Captain Emily being one of these casualties, but she doesn’t dare to scare Baekhyun with information like that.

As they huddle together in the blanket of darkness, the sound of Baekhyun’s breathing disappears for a few seconds here and then. Lei has to grab onto his arm to make sure that he’s still beside her—and not snatched by a ghost or something else.

“Why are you doing that?” Lei can barely hear herself talk, but she doesn’t want to risk being caught.

“It stops me from hyperventilating,” Baekhyun whispers back.

For another few minutes, the screams continue until they fade into groans—and then there nothing. It is so quiet that it’s unbelievable. Just a few minutes ago, it was bustling with the sounds of the wounded, chattering children, soldiers yelling orders, and commoners talking and laughing amongst themselves, but now it is dead silent. Lei is almost afraid to say something in fear that the silence is a trap with the intent of drawing out survivors.

Baekhyun taps Lei’s shoulder. “Do you think it’s safe?”

“Shut up,” Lei answers, summoning a small flame by her thumb. The source of light is small, but it illuminates the room enough. When the light reaches Baekhyun’s face, Lei sees that he’s…calm. Unlike her, his face isn’t moist with a nervous sweat. By this time, it seems as if he’s regulated his breathing. “Do you want to go check?”

“You’re coming.” Baekhyun is already making another one of his glowing flowers. He makes a large, white rose that illuminates the room better than Lei’s shaky flame. “Let’s go.”

Lei really doesn’t want to, but she really doesn’t want to sit behind the well by herself either. So, she rises on shaky legs. By her feet is the bucket that she dropped, but it’s not a bucket anymore—rather, it is pile of rotting wood. Shocked by this, she runs over to Baekhyun who is already more than a few paces away from her.

Once in the hallway, Lei grabs onto Bakehyun’s sleeve. Unlike her, his strides are confident and sure. It’s as if there isn’t anything in the dark waiting for him…

“Why are you walking so fast?” she hisses. Her back tingles with fear, and at this point, paranoia has taken over her body; she can’t shake the feeling that someone is watching her.

“Because I want to get out of here,” Baekhyun says in a loud voice. He waves the flower above his head. “Hello? Is there anyone here?”

Lei pulls harder on his sleeve. “Baekhyun! Shut up!”

“Hello?” Baekhyun ignores Lei’s pleas and waves the flower higher. Its light illuminates the area where there once was an encampment. Once was. As Baekhyun moves the flower so that its light reaches even some of the darkness corners of the room. “What the—” Baekhyun mumbles to himself. Lei’s eyes grow wide when she notices the same thing he does.

All traces of the encampment are completely gone. Though only a few minutes ago, there were at least hundreds of people and bustling sounds, there aren’t any now. There aren’t even piles of dead wood or canvas from the tents. Disturbingly, there is a full body suit of armor lying a few feet away from where Baekhyun dares to stand. Thankfully, there isn’t a skeleton within it, but the eerie feeling still strikes Lei as hard.

“We need to get out of here,” Baekhyun mumbles. He bends down to take another handful of dirt in his hands. Once he makes another glowing flower, he throws it and the stump of dirt as far as he can into the distance. It lights up more of the room before landing into the murky water with a SPLASH.

“Let’s go.” Lei nods, already tugging at Baekhyu