red is vibrant and blazing. an all-consuming colour that demands attention, focus. red sets fire to the grim shadows of the forest. red glows as a reflection in her eyes. irene comes to her senses next, blinking, feeling the panic in he pulse with every beat it skips. she breathes, think it can help normalize the abnormality of it all. that they were a couple of feet away from a new world, and they don't know what to do.

none of the fantastical tales of adventures comes to mind. it draws a blank. but irene recalls plucky main characters, but this isn't a make believe story written from bored authors who wished for a different timeline. this is life; this is reality.

xiumin speaks first, says what everyone is to astonished to croak. "are you sure?" or ask in this case.

good question. the answer on the tip of her tongue is expected. no, of course she's not  sure. she's paler than moonlight, but what is that, anyway? she's read the books, knows it's something silver and maybe the moon itself is made or cheese. she doesn't know, but what irene knows is that she's terrified. the kind of scared that rattles bones. her knees buckle, and her stomach somersaults. 

the unknown beckons, and the scarlet of the apple does, too. its still there nestled in dirt so dark. did snow white feel a similar tug when the witch handed her a poisonous apple? because irene feels something pinch at her heart. 

"no," she answers honestly but steps forward like a lie. "but one of us should, right?" what do they call it again: when one door shuts, another opens. people go through open doors all the time. this giant hole in Chanyeol's secret lair is just another version of that. 

is what she helps convince her heart to stop galloping. doesn't work, though. the muscle is ballistic, mad and crazy but oddly courageous wired somewhere there. the sensation is small, but irene sense it.

wendy blurts, "unnie, it's not safe. who knows what's out there." 

"she's right," chimes joy. "totally not a good idea." and when she turns down an idea, it really is awful. 

"yeah, irene. you don't have to." chanyeol scratches the back of his neck. nails rustle through hair, on skin, and that continuous sound fills the abyss. 

irene thinks of the snaps of twigs she's read about in adventure novels. is it the same as heels on concrete or marble? that incessant tapping triggers memoirs of daily life, of the morning rush to work. except it isn't a rush. where they live everything is timed and orderly and... predictable. 

she's predictable.

so, she hordes air and that slice bravery in her chest and walks into the outside world. she doesn't smell anything, breath in, but when she allows herself the comfort of breathing, she can only describe the scent as... foreign. paragraphs tell her of morning rain. maybe this it? 

"are you dead?" yeri breaks the quiet. 

no. actually, she's the furthest thing from it. for what seems like the first time, she feels cold. a prick all over her body, jabbing then tugging. Like her skin was shrinking, and she can no longer fit inside. she rubs her arms, generates friction in the absence of warmth.

"No, I'm okay." but she's not sure, and irene has every right not to be. she's somewhere she's only read about. somewhere their government banned them from because it's dangerous and full of disease. 

the apple tucked between roots says otherwise. still red and the only mar is xiumin's ravenous bite. 

"well, if irene can do it, I can, too!" kai strides with valiant ease through the shattered wall, staggers on ground not as solid as what he's used to. "woah, I can barely see anything," he says this looking straight into the grove of tree trunks and branches. they can't see a few feet in front of them. the woods are a maze. 

nor can they hear much. it's practically daunting how silent the outside is.

maybe she is dead. 

she steps back, realizes they're not really prepared to go any deeper. "we should go. we don't know what's out there." 

more darkness probably. and the things that lurk in it. she feels with an arm outstretched behind her, is relieved when yeri and joy help her back inside. kai looks tiny where she was. she can only imagine how nonexistent she must have been. and that is almost a vision of beauty to be so surrounded in nature. 

"kai," hollers chanyeol, "we can come back another time. i know how to close and open the barrier, anyway. let's go."

all safely back inside, the mad scientist presses a few sequences on a keyboard and the holographic barrier resurfaces. the forest disappears from view, obstructed by the reflection of hues. irene stares back at herself but sees where she stood, practically swarmed by trees. 

her fingers quiver, regret a faint afterthought. she touched nothing but the cold remains, clinging onto the back of her shirt as she walks home with wendy and joy. it only disappears or changes to warmth as she lies in bed, making canvas of the ceiling and painting what she recalls: trees, shadows and the bitten apple. 

she falls asleep to this. yet her dreams are white.

— — —

morning is the usual ten steps and work is all the same. sequencing novels by author, by genre. everyday is the same as the last. everyday is a routine. except last night was different. last night was a parallel universe. for less than a few minutes, irene was outside were trees exist and touch the sky or she hopes they do. she didn't see it—the sky. but she imagines it's the kind of blue that no one gets tired of. not mundane but a friend you never tire of. 

her mind isn't on the dinner of mashed potatoes and string beans. nor is it on the clatter of utensils on plates. it isn't on Suho when he asks how her day went. as if her day can go multiple ways. there's only one route, and they take it everyday. 

"uh, irene," he tries again because he's speaking, and she's not listening.

startled, irene drops her spoon on the table. "yes?" she finally looks at him, wide eyes and all. 

suho drops a gaze to the spoon then back on her face, eyebrows wrinkled, "are you all right? you've been quiet."

all her life, she's always been a woman of few words, though. never complains. never debates. irene sits and looks pretty. does what she's told. her family raised her to follow in the footsteps of silence. always following but never a leader.

"mhm, i was just thinking of a few stories." a white lie is most believable and harmless. 

"you pay too much mind on fiction," he comments with a laugh. 

everyone says that about her, patronizingly so. her mother calls her a daydreamer, but dreams are folly and only for those desperate. they aren't desperate for that is beneath them. thoroughbred and well-bred, her family doesn't need dreams of vast oceans kissing the sky. they're content with their life without smelling the salty sea and watching birds caw. 

what are birds, anyway? 

a part of her wants to tell him, but that won't do them any good. suho is loyal to the city. he won't allow her and her friends to venture beyond the electronic barrier. she thinks he won't understand because he doesn't come with a sense of adventure. so I
irene keeps everything to herself, jots it down in a mental journal no else can read or see. just her. so much for marriage having no secrets. 

this is their life—this is her life. 

so, even though it's a terribly bad idea, irene makes the most of it. again, she finds herself in chanyeol's lair later that night as suho sleeps. as the population does. everyone from the night before is there. xiumin even managed some supplies: flashlight he stole from somewhere. most likely his family because they have a stock of all sorts of weaponry from decades ago. a museum or a remainder the world was perilous hence why they're stuck in some giant cage with no way out.

apparently.

"these could help." he tosses one to each. 

irene can barely wrap her fingers around the baton, blinking numerously when she does. she can't believe she's going again. but she's excited. deep down in her heart, she can't wait. the fear of the unknown remains. it's a tight coil around her neck as she tries to swallow that persisting blade of bravery. coughing and almost pink in the face, she almost chokes.

chanyeol steadies fingers over buttons and levers and looks over hunched shoulders at them. "are you ready?"

"not really, buuut... go on." yeri scrunches her nose, stands close to joy in case she wants to back out.

everyone saves their breath, locks it in lungs ample of anxiety and expectations. the purple sheen of the barrier blitzes bright and reflects in their dark eyes. stumbling back, wendy grabs onto irene's frame. shivers race through until the shield drops, vanishes and the smell of something... foul hits the air.

joy reacts first, gagging. "what is that?" 

"it wasn't like this before, right, Irene?" voice muffled, kai has hands over his mouth.

she sniffs, bites back the bile building in the back of and nods. the stench buries into her nostrils, burns through her system and lingers, crafting a home there. pungent or what she associates the word with. somewhere in walls of text, she read about death having a smell. maybe it's something like this, but she says nothing. figures the topic of death is far from appropriate.

the eldest and bravest, xiumin shines the flashlight into the wilderness and picks up nothing. his apple is still there. untouched but so out of place. 

"besides the odour, it doesn't look so bad to me." 

"well, it's not like you can see smell," debates joy matter-of-factly.

kai hops through the border, startling everyone. xiumin almost reaches out for him but stops when his hand touches air colder than he's ever experiened. 

"c'mon, guys. we can't back out now! we'll just look around for a bit and come back. besides, what can be out there, anyway?" his arm stretches. "monsters?" 

as ridiculous as it is, kai makes a point, and irene hates that she does. so many tales had monsters lurking in them, but she didn't find their existence reputable. there was no such things as fire-breathing lizards. there was no such thing as flying horses. what were they, anyway. she couldn't imagine such creatures. 

yet, who knows. 

"kai's right," quips chanyeol, adjusting goggles on top of unruly hair. "we always wanted this, right? we shouldn't back out now." and he's the next to cross over, gasp loud when his feet stick a landing.

"do you believe in them?" wendy whispers to Irene. "in the monsters?"

she doesn't but a part of her wants to believe there is more out there. "no. they're just stories, remember. all fiction." With a hint of truth every here and there: like the trees and the squelch of mud when xiumin runs out and picks up the discarded fruit.

"well, I'll only go if you guys do!" yeri declares, clutching to joy's arm. "i've been cooped up with yeol long enough."

there's a distant hey.

they turn to Irene, eyes fixated and expressive. each reflects the light from kai's flashlight. irene spots the apprehension, sees it on her own façade through wendy's pupils. she's the one who knows the most of make believe stories. and perhaps that won't help anyone in the end, but... irene flickers a gaze to chanyeol's bunker, where's he's forced to hide then at the mass of shadows that reek of the unknown more than anything.

"let's go."

just maybe the odour wasn't the stench of death but of freedom. 

— — —

here, dodging thick roots growing through the earth, irene doesn't know where to go. there is no destination with her name on it. no library waiting for her to sort books. no path designed to take her there. deep in the marsh of a dense forest, they are free to do whatever they want. they can take any alley, any route and no one can tell them no. 

"no, I think we've been through here before," except yeri. "i swear that boulder covered in vines looks familiar." she aims her flashlight at it then it malfuctions, blinking rapidly before slicing off.

they stop and huddle around the boulder. tired, chanyeol rests against it as irene skims the pads of her fingers over the jagged facet. interesting. it looks like cement but feels the exact opposite.

"great," mutters joy, waving her own flashlight like a baton. "we're losing power. we should just head back. all I see are trees!" when she stops spinning the light, it lands on a spot in the distance. 

orange and blazing, and it can't be?

irene looks past her, eyes narrowed. she only hears her pulse ricochet. 

"stay still," she warns, accidentally scaring joy by her grave tone alone.

"what, why?!" the younger screams, flailing in place and losing the light between the veil of tree trunks. 

"i thought i saw something there." irene extends an arm forward.

chanyeol gaits towards them, fighting the vines draping on his head and shoulders. he's much too tall. "

the smell is worse here, don't you reckon?" his nose sniffs the air.

"that means we should definitely check it out!" exclaims Kai, rushing ahead but not going too far because he's as nervous as the rest.

wendy scowls. "are you insane? why go near the ominous?" 

"oh, please, wendy, you don't even know what that means!"

xiumin sighs, shaking his head. "children, please..."

as the arguing continues to escalate, irene stands back and lets herself be the witness. the one who observes and will throw in her two cents when asked. she never does anything, otherwise. but she doesn't focus on them. her attention drifts to where she saw... orange—an orange ball of something. and she knows what it is. and that makes her more curious than frightened that they aren't alone. paranoia reveals its ugly head when she hears the snap of sticks not too far away. so, that's what it sounds like: nerve-wrecking.

"Guys..." she starts, eyes roving in a quiet panic. "guys," she tries again but nothing. her voice is too airy to be picked up.

the growing presence gnawing at the back of her head grows and terrorizes to goosebumps irene can't bring herself to ignore. she hugs herself, rubbing her arms but the warmth never comes. relief is slaughtered when the rustle of dried leaves get louder. 

"guys!" she screams but it doesn't break them up.

a group of strange looking people with colourful hair on top of giant, four-legged animals do. They thunder and burst through the curtain of obsidian, something orange like irene saw moments ago dancing on long, wooden staffs: fire.

the weaponry in Xiumin's ancestral stare back at them, sharp and pointed and threatening. but not as intimidating as the glares from people who look too much like them but too different all at once. how unsettling to see humans where humans aren't supposed to thrive. 

"what the hell!" joy cries as they're surrounded and outnumbered. 

"shut up!" hisses Wendy, terrified anything they can do or say might wield their death.

"that's right," a rough voice barks, visage coveted by a large hood. "shut up. we'll do the talking here!" 

xiumin has everyone behind him, nose wrinkling. irene curls fingers into his arm as she looks at each person, at each creature they're on. bigs eyes, long faces can only mean...

"are those horses?" she accidentally whispers. her friends hurriedly hush her.

"what did i say about speaking?" the same voice growls.

"minho..." 

A new sound filters, wafts into the air. softer and arguably feminine. another animal encroaches from the middle. tall and blacker than the woods itself. beautiful.

and yet, irene doesn't see anything else but red.

//

author's note: sorry this is late like six months late i think idek when i last updated but yeah sorry for the wait! and thank u so much for just reading this it means a lot. btw i made a new twt so follow me @ kangbe0ms bc i need friends and im not ashamed to capitalize on the new people i can meet who read this ^^ ok bye have a good new year!