A large crow, black as if dipped in tar, looked straight into the eyes. These birds are vindictive, cunning, but clever to the point of insanity. And that clever crow now saw the dreadful fear that sparkled so desperately in Changmi's eyes.

The girl couldn’t do anything else but immediately grab a stranglehold on the palm that she was holding. Jongin seemed to take some pleasure in contemplating her horror, smiling slightly.

The masonry of the roof was ancient, slippery, and covered with either mold or rainwater. The girl's legs were shaking, she felt her feet slowly slip down. Or was it just her imagination?

Her gaze went down, and she saw how much there would be to fall. She could estimate the height of the castle from the outside, and when she walked swiftly up the stairs, but now, when she was already standing at the very top: she clous feel it especially acutely.

Memories that she had never forgotten, but would have liked never to remember, flashed before her eyes again. It hurts to fall. But as a child, she fell only from the second floor. How many floors were under her now?

In panic, she turned her gaze now to the guy who stood surprisingly steady with a slight grin on his lips.

“Do you enjoy the view, chosen one?” he spoke louder than usual, because the whistling wind and deafening croaking knocked down all sounds. The girl would love to hit the insolent person, but it seemed that from any movement, she would fall off the roof. “Are you trembling? Are you cold?”

And he, perfectly understanding the whole situation, took a step towards her, and the girl felt her reeling. Her legs began to shake, and she herself was losing support in the form of a guy, now desperately grasping at him with both hands.

“Don’t move!” her voice was pleading and loud, but she didn't care at the moment. She just wanted this guy to teleport back.

An instant realization flashed through her head: she had touched him. A slight hoped sparkled in her eyes, to which the guy just scoffed. His ability was now hers for a while. The girl smiled confidently at him and closed her eyes as tightly as possible, and the first place that she could think of flashed in her thoughts: her house. Next to her mother, in the home world.

“I know about your abilities, flower,” his voice sounded close, but the girl tried to concentrate more on her memories. She assumed they knew more about her than they actually said. “Are you trying to teleport from here? Just not too far….”

His voice died away sharply, and Changmi still squeezed her eyelids tightly. She felt strange waves all over her body and weird pinching in her eyes. To her surprise, the wind stopped and didn’t deafen her anymore, and the crows could not be heard. She felt solid ground under her feet.

The girl smiled, but her joy was interrupted by another feeling: a strange sensation pierced her. It was like something was watching her, like she was in great danger.

The eyes opened wide by themselves. Jongin was still standing in front of her, whom she held tightly by the hand. He no longer emanated that playful mood, and he himself looked around with displeasure, which she did too.

Where are they? Realizing with horror that she was in the middle of an absolutely gray forest, among the thick fog that sent shivers down her spine, the girl panicked. The trees seemed to have lost all their colors: they had foliage, they had wide roots and thick branches, but all the grass and leaves that should have been green were completely devoid of color.

Not a sound. There was no sound in this terrible forest. No chirping, no sound of insects or even wind: just a choking and frightening silence enveloped them from all sides.

“Not bad for a first time, chosen one.” His voice echoed softly from all directions, as if the forest was empty. The girl shuddered from his voice, it seemed to her that he broke the unspoken silence in this terrible place. The guy snorted, returning his previous intonation. He folded his arms over his chest and leaned against a gray tree, looking straight at the frightened girl. “What now?”

His question startled her, and she just froze with open, afraid to disturb the silence of the forest. It seemed that someone was listening to them.

“Jongin, where are we?” she tried to say it as quietly as possible, but her voice still reflected from all sides, unexpectedly deafening her.

“Didn't you bring us here?” He smirked and looked up, and Changmi followed his gaze. The sky was black, as if it was deep night, but the girl was sure that it was a clear day on the roof. “I didn’t think that the cursed lands were a safe place for the chosen one.”

“Cursed what?” The naming itself scared Changmi, and she had no idea what was behind it. The guy shook his head slowly, reaching out and examining the watch on his wrist. Wait, modern watch?

“Cursed forest, wilderness, edge of darkness - what do the rebels call it?” After saying this, he sighed with displeasure, looking at the sky again, but this time apparently trying to find something specific. Changmi's head flashed through instant memories of the very first and seemingly distant conversation with Chanyeol.

I did not leave you to be devoured by creatures in the wilderness

Goosebumps ran down her skin. Looking around with fear, she could not get rid of this sticky and unpleasant feeling that she was being watched. That she was in danger. The forest was gray, without color, quiet, and the sky was black. How did she get them here?

“Jongin, but we couldn't be here because of me, while teleporting, I was thinking about home ...” the girl stammered, for a second remembering the safest place in the world. Her eyes stung unpleasantly, but she blinked away the instant tears.

“That's why,” the guy smirked knowingly, this time looking at one point in the sky, to which Changmi turned her gaze. On the very horizon, small streaks were visible in the sky, as if a faint ray of light was trying unsuccessfully to break through this darkness.

“What? Did you understand something?” She was still confused, turning to the guy. He was now looking at her with a sly smile.

“Chosen One,” Jongin stepped closer to her, each step echoing with a loud thud in the quiet empty space. The girl looked at him, as if spellbound, until the guy stopped right in front of her and held out his hand to her. “Now me and you are in the same boat in the middle of the most dangerous place in our entire world.”

Changmi thought she had misheard him. No, she wished she misheard him. She suspected it would end badly, but the most dangerous place? The guy smiled at her, and it seemed that he was not afraid of the whole absurd situation. Looking down, she bumped into his outstretched hand and held out hers with skepticism, expecting another trick.

“Wait, but why did we appear here?” The girl looked at him in bewilderment as Jongin took her hand and slowly pulled her in the direction of the recently noticed streaks of light in the sky. “I was thinking about …”

“Since you do not possess this power, but simply stole it,” the girl sharply raised an angry gaze, fixing it on the guy's back, and he smiled and threw a sly glance at her, narrowing his eyes slightly. “More precisely, since you borrowed it, you cannot completely control it.”

“But …”

“Simply put,” the guy interrupted her half a word. “You don't have enough radiation in you.”

“In what sense of radiation?” Her eyebrows flew up until she herself stumbled on a protruding branch of a tree. But Jongin ignored it, still leading the girl along.

After a couple of steps, the guy stopped and her with a slight grin. Changmi even flinched when he looked at her like that. She did not even know how much she could trust his words: his eyes glittered too suspiciously.

“Why do you think I, my brother, some of our courtiers and rebels have such powers?” the guy stood opposite her and measured her with a studying look. There was a feeling of déjà vu, the girl again felt like a doll from a shop window, which is being examined. She answered with the same look, crossing her arms over her chest. “We are mutants.”

Changmi snorted, turning away from him. It sounded completely unbelievable. She turned to the guy again, which did not even react to her frank laughter.

"Do you really think I'll believe you?" She raised an eyebrow inquiringly, and he smiled at her, shaking his head gently.

“Your choice. You are the chosen one,” now in his eyes mockery splashed, which made her frankly want to hit the guy again, but the situation was inappropriate. “The fact is that in every person born after that catastrophe, there is radiation. It's just so lucky that I have a little more of it than the rest, and I can, for example, teleport pretty girls to the rooftops.”

“Teleportation!” The girl shouted it too loudly, which made even Jongin look at her questioningly. She abruptly covered with her hands, looking around. The feeling that they were being watched resumed. Having swallowed viscous saliva, the girl turned to the guy and continued in a whisper. “Why don't you just take us back?

The guy chuckled at the remark, forcing the girl to frown. It was a perfectly logical idea, why is he scoffing? Goosebumps ran through her skin: the feeling of someone staring directly at her did not disappear anywhere.

“You remembered just now?” the guy sighed, and the girl just turned away frowningly, just not to meet his mocking gaze. And she regretted it. The gray around her began to press on her, and it seemed to her that something stirred in the bushes. And in this case, she could not refer to the wind. “Unfortunately, my powers are useless here. The forest itself is full of radiation.”

Changmi listened to the guy with half an ear until she could not tear her eyes from the already motionless bushes. She slowly backed up to Jongin, now the guy's presence was comforting her. The main thing is that she is not alone.

“Let's get out of here,” she whispered, hoping that something in the bushes would not hear them. But this something saw and heard everything - Changmi was sure of that.

Jongin understood everything without words, pulling her with him. He knew exactly where to go, and it didn't matter what situation he got into because of this stupid joke. Although the whole situation was much darker than he showed it in front of the girl.

***

The darkness did not dissipate, but it did not thicken either. It seemed that they walked for more than one hour, but nothing changed around: everything was also dark, gray and deafeningly quiet. On rare occasions, Changmi felt like she could hear her own blood flowing through her veins, but she started talking to Jongin during those moments.

The stirring in the bushes also stopped, but this sticky gaze straight into the back did not recede. It was still there. She might think that she was just going crazy, but the girl knew: this something is real.

Before her eyes was the broad back of a guy who occasionally turned to her with the same mischievous smile. Sometimes it seemed to her that he was not worried about anything at all. But, frankly, in a way, it instilled calmness into her: everything will be fine with them.

“How long do we have to go, Jongin?” her legs ached, my head hurt from the silence, and this something that followed her exhausted her. Now Changmi just wanted to sit down on the floor and shut out the whole world, but Jongin wouldn't let her: he was still pulling her hand.

“Until we get to that light on the horizon,” the guy cut off all her dreams of rest in one sentence. She