I want to apologize to you all for the late chapter as RL has been stressful and hectic. I want to sincerely thank all the readers who had stick around for so long. And I'm really thankful for the comments I have received. I don't have much time and capacity to reply to them all but I am thankful to you all.

We are now in the final stretch so chapter lengths might be erratic and unfortunately the update time might be a little bit longer due to RL so bear with me. All or most questions will be eventually answered. But I do promise this will be finish before the year ends.

Sehun is drumming his fingers, impatient. Kai has been gone for too long and there have been no news from Suho who took a few of theirs out. Clear footsteps has Sehun turn his head to the right, Kai has arrived and in his arms is an unconscious Taemin.

The look on Kai's face is grim, striding past Sehun without a word, ignoring the smug look on Sehun's face. He went straight to the room where Nickhun is waiting for his arrival.

Nickhun looks up from his book, his eyes gleeful when he sees Taemin in Kai's arms. “Did you have any trouble with him?”

Kai frowns, “Where do you want him?”

“In the middle of the circle,” Nickhun directs him. “Right there.”

There was a large summoning sigil in the middle of the room. Kai does as Nickhun instructed and deposits Taemin on the floor, gently as he could allow. As he looks at Taemin's sleeping face, he felt the urge to reach out to him. His hand hovers over the strand of hair near Taemin's eye, wanting to brush it away.

“That will be all for now. I'll call you when I need you.”

Nickhun's voice startles Kai from his stupor, retracting his hand back. Kai stands back up properly with a cough in his throat. Luckily it seems Nickhun doesn't notice Kai's earlier action or that he couldn't care less so the embarrassment slides off easily. And yet there is an unease in the back of Kai's throat.

“What are you going to do with him?” Kai asks, his eyes glancing at Taemin whose lying close to his feet.

“I didn't know something like you is concern for a mere human,” Nickhun says, nonchalant. “And isn't it too late to ask?”

Kai clenches his hand, Nickhun is right. “But still...”

Nickhun heaves a big sigh. “Rest assured, he's going to be just fine. And don't worry, you and your friends will be well compensated.”

It doesn't reassure him but Kai doesn't speak again. Nickhun is a dangerous being, someone more dangerous than possibly Minho. But somehow he got all of them under his thumb that even Xiumin would grudgingly bow his head in submission.

“Was there anything else?” Nickhun asks. “After you leave this room you won't be able to enter, not even with your powers.”

The summoning sigil that Kai found in Taemin's room sits folded and heavy in his pocket. It was something he planned to give to Nickhun, to ask what it is. But with the way Nickhun is tightlipped, barely even give any additional information than what is necessary has him holding back.

The hand falls to his side and Kai shakes his head. “There is nothing else.”

As he leaves the room, his mind is plague with worry and second thoughts. Second thoughts of turning back to the room to take Taemin away, to beg and spew apologies after apologies. But those thoughts are cut off when the door he exited from are loudly closed shut.

“So that's that, huh?” Sehun says, waiting for Kai in the hall. “I wonder if they'll give enough for all twelve – no – nine of us. I kept forgetting...”

When Sehun didn't get a response from Kai, he frowns. “Don't tell me... you're still hung up on him?”

Kai shakes his head vehemently. “No, of course not. What -”

“That human is the reason why you're acting out like this,” Sehun sneers. “Anything that concerns that human causes you to be irrational. Thankfully after this, we don't have to worry about him any longer.”

The tone in Sehun's voice causes dread to seep down Kai's spine, looking at him with a frigid gaze. “What do you mean by that?”

Sehun doesn't seem to realize Kai's mood as he scoffs at his naïve words. “Isn't it obvious? Whatever they're gonna do with that human is probably not good. And if you're lucky, maybe they'll give you their leftovers.”

If Sehun's earlier words causes Kai to feel unease, then what he had said causes him to take a step back, looking at Sehun like he's never seen him before.

Just for that reason, Kai turns back to the room where he left Taemin. Where he left Taemin to whatever dark fate that man had in store. He tries to open the door but it wouldn't budge, tries to teleport but felt himself stuck in place. In his desperation he tries to wrench the door with all his might but the door wouldn't budge, not a single inch.

“Kai! What are you doing?!” Sehun yells, shocked at Kai's uncharacteristic behavior. “You heard what Nickhun said; once you leave, those doors wouldn't open.”

Kai lets out a frustrated yell, dropping to his knees. The magnitude of his failure and what he did to Taemin weighs him down like a ton of bricks, lost and hopeless.

“I can't,” Kai gasps out, his head leans against the door. “I can't... leave him. Taemin -”

“I can't leave him.”

“Seriously Jongin?!”Sehun looked at him impatiently, the corner of his lips turned into a sneer. “Why not? All he does is nag at you. He even snitched at us for skipping class and going to the pc cafe.”

He felt unsure, turning to look at the direction where he was supposed to meet Taemin. But Sehun intercepted him and it was not something he could leave and postpone to another time.

“Junmyeon-hyung wants us to try one of those rituals from that book Minseok-hyung found,” Chanyeol explained, he had came with Sehun to find him. “He said that the conditions for the ritual are perfect tonight. We have all that we need but we needed twelve people for it.”

He gave a dubious look at Chanyeol's words. “It's a waste of time and it's fake.”

“Didn't you borrow the book for a while and read it in class?” Sehun goaded. “Besides, it couldn't hurt to try. And if it doesn't work we're planning to burn it and get plastered.”

He had borrowed it for a while to look through it. Minseok said it appeared right next to him out of the blue but most of them believed he stole it from a bookshop or something. The book looks very old and detailed like a tome. Most of the words are ineligible and couldn't be read either by it's condition or an unknown language.

He got a turn to have the book for himself for a while to look over it before giving it to the next person. This actually caused him and Taemin to have a fight about it. Taemin had taken one look at the book and told him to throw it away. Taemin had never been happy with what he does. Either from his choice of clothes or the people he hangs out with, even his choice of literature. Taemin is just jealous.

It led to shouting and a page being ripped out from the book. When he has to give the book to Baekhyun for his turn, he says it was already liked that when he got it. Luckily no one doubted him and it wasn't an important page. But he still couldn't find the missing page, suspecting Taemin had thrown it out.

Not knowing it might lead something more dangerous.

He shook his head to get out of those thoughts. “Where are we gonna do this?”

“The abandoned resort through Suyong pass,” Sehun said. “ Minseok and Lay are gonna drive us so we're splitting into two cars. Luhan, Yifan, and Zitao are already there waiting for us. So are you in?”

He wants to go but he knows Taemin is waiting for him. Taemin wanted to have a movie night with him. Had wanted to make it up to him for being so hard on him, to resolve whatever misunderstandings they had. They had been close ever since Taemin moved into the apartment complex by himself, for having someone in the same building close to his age. But as they started to get older they drifted apart, finding their own friends and their own priorities. This was his last chance before -

“Let's go.”

Kai gasps, catching his breath at the lost memory. “What...”

“So you had one of those.”

Kai looks up, Sehun is staring at him with an undecipherable expression. “What did you see?”

“I saw you...” Kai shakily stands up. “And Chanyeol, I was there and -”

“It's not complete then, what you saw,” Sehun sighs. “I get those sometimes but it doesn't really mean much in the long run.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Isn't it obvious, they're lost memories of when we were human,” Sehun explains. “Kyungsoo had experienced the whole ordeal and came up with a few theories on it. One of them is our bodies last ditch effort to bring us back to humanity by showing us selective memories. The other theory is memories that were still left in our hearts are disappearing one by one. The reason why we consume humans to fill the emptiness that couldn't be filled.”

“So... I was human,” Kai says, clutching his head. “I had a life... with Taemin...”

Or at least that's what those scenes in his head played were and the feelings being conveyed. He remembers Taemin's smile, the warmth they basked in, the sweets they share. But he also remembers the sadness and disappointment in Taemin's eyes, the fear he exudes. Whatever happened between them had forced them to separate and turned Kai into this.

Kai tries to open the doors again with fervor, tries to teleport with no avail. Until all the fight left him, bangs his fist against the unmovable doors.

“Why...” a tear unknowingly dropped on his closed fist. “Why didn't I listen to you...”

“You're regretting it now after how much we come so far?!” Sehun scoffs, unconcern for Kai's turmoil. “Isn't it too late? Even now all you still think about is that human. It won't matter much after today and there won't be anyone to help you.”

“Help.”

Sehun looks at Kai strangely for repeating his word. The dull look in Kai's eyes had brighten and even sparked with renewed hope.

“Baekhyun,” Kai says. “Where is he?”

At that Sehun frowns and shakes his head. “No, don't even drag him into this mess.”

When they were discovering their own powers, nobody knows what Baekhyun's powers were as his powers were intangible. It was only through trial and error they discovered that Baekhyun's abilities were enhancements, to increase other's powers and even use them himself.

With Baekhyun's help, maybe Kai would be able to teleport behind those doors and save Taemin.

Kai turns on his heels and teleports on the spot before Sehun was able to convince him otherwise. Left alone Sehun curses out loud, kicks the door frustrated. “Should have killed him when I get the chance!”

It was at that moment Chanyeol had turned the corner to see Sehun staring at the closed door, frustrated. “Something happened?”

Sehun shakes his head, “Forget it, it's nothing.”

Chanyeol tilts his head, looking at Sehun carefully. “Is it about Kai again?”

Sehun rolls his eyes. “Who do you think?” The answer is enough for Chanyeol to know who it is.

Chanyeol leans on the wall next to Sehun, looking up at the ceiling. “Do you regret it?”

Sehun purses his lips and sigh. “If I did, what can I do about it?”

Before Chanyeol can answer, clear clacks of shoes walking towards their direction through the empty hall caught their attention. Sehun got up from his position to look. “Kai, that was fast. You found him?”

But upon seeing the person's face, Sehun unconsciously took a step back. Alarmed by his fearful composure causes Chanyeol to tense.

The crisp sounds of footsteps approaching them never seems so ominous until now as Minho stalks with a furious gaze that could kill. The shadow of his frame behind him warps wildly with a glimpse of what his actual demonic form. Crackles of dark flames spots across his attire, a wisp flew away from the flames, catching fire to the tapestry display on the wall, immediately setting alight.

No where to run and hide, too intimidated to even move from their spot. If death and pain are personified, it would be Minho, whose fury knows no bounds to all who stands in his way.

“Where is he?”