13. Waiting To Be Found

  Baekhyun watches the Tom and Jerry fight for two seconds with a judging expression before he turns aroung to pretend he doesn't know either of them. Holding the strip of paper in his hand, he looks around in the aisles. Meanwhile, Chanyeol keeps teasing Kyungsoo about his height and how he can't reach the things high up on the shelves. Kyungsoo retorts in his very own way, using his hands and legs, making Chanyeol yell in pain dramatically. So, that's why Baekhyun decides to never have seen them before and just like the people around watching the two of his fellow mates, he watches them embarrassing themselves. Leah was right to worry about them making a scene.

  Just at the thought of Leah, a rush of panic washes over himself. Baekhyun frowns at the way the feeling intensifies. He glances at the other two with wide eyes and sees it in their faces too. His fingers leave the trolley he has been pushing for only ten minutes now. Chanyeol's phone rings in his pocket, giving all the three of them a shuddering shock. Baekhyun arches his brows when Chanyeol frowns deeper at the caller ID. The tall guy shows the other two the bold name on the screen before pressing the phone to his ear.

  Sehun.

  The three of them huddle together out of instinct. Chanyeol's wide eyes widen even more. "Run? Why? She's in trouble?"

  Baekhyun's shoulders fall at the question Chanyeol yells into the phone. Kyungsoo and he share a glance before their faces drown in concern. Chanyeol keeps the phone, his eyes big. "We gotta leave," he says in a whisper. "We have to go far."

  "What the hell are you talking about? We can't leave Leah here," Kyungsoo argues.

  "Leah is not in danger. We are," Chanyeol tells them, grabbing their arms and subtly tries to run but also tries to remain unnoticed. "People are trying to hunt us down. They went to Leah's place. Sehun was talking to her. She left the call on hold while talking to those men so he knows," he explains, knowing very well the guys will only heed to his words if he does so.

  "Where are we supposed to go?" Kyungsoo asks Chanyeol and looks at Baekhyun.

  "Just...away," Chanyeol says, impatiently. "Maybe back to that jungle. That was a safe place."

  "No, according to Leah, it was right beside the garage she was in just today." Baekhyun clicks his tongue. Dread starts to own him. The calm of the supermarket is disturbed by the noise of cars pulling up on the sidewalks. Baekhyun's eyes go wild at the sight of them through the glass doors of the market. Great, now they can't escape through the front. But there has to be another exit. As if thinking the same, they all start running towards the stock room near the dairy section in the back.

  "Hide. Just hide," Kyungsoo muttered, turning the knob stealthily. The interrogation rang in the air. Chanyeol panicked, his breaths being heard. They slipped inside the dark room and locked the door. Kyungsoo planted a finger on his lips, telling them to keep quiet. "There has to be an exit here," he says in a hushed tone. Chanyeol nodded along. Baekhyun spotted a dim light in the corner from a torch but since the other two were crouching low behind the shelves, they didn't catch it. Baekhyun immediately stopped on his way and pulled the two by their shirts to look at the white ray.

  He hears a string of curses from Chanyeol's mouth. Hushed but still prominent in this chilly air of the storage room. 

  The light goes off.

  Baekhyun starts sprinting towards it. He just suspects something at the end of the light. He suspects a reason and an escape route. Chanyeol and Kyungsoo follow and it only takes half a second to cover the distance. Baekhyun catches the glint of that same light again before it disappears. He wondes if his curious eyes are just looking for something to feed themselves for the suspense. There's a hole on the ground, an automatic lid closing by the second. Baekhyun kneels down instantly and begins pushing the lid back. the smell of steel and concrete hits his nose.

  "Help me," he grunts before the guys get down to push the lid back with all their strength. But the strong metal keeps moving from the other side. Baekhyun tries to glance inside. The light he had seen before from down there hits his face. "Help us!" he desperately cries at whoever is down there. "Please."

  "What are you?" The feminine voice asks. The torch points at Baekhyun's face through the slit the lid has kept. The clock inside him ticks like a timer on a bomb. He can't stop it but tries to ponder what she meant. "What are you?" she asks again.

  "Wolves." He answers. "Get us out, please."

  "I'm sorry then." she says. "I can't break rules."

  Chanyeol and Kyungsoo grunt at the same time, trying to keep the lid in a standby position with all their strength. "Open it. Just open it." Kyungsoo desperately mumbles under his breath. "What the does she mean?"

  "She's a vampire. Wolves have feud with them," Baekhyun explains softly before leaning towards the gaping hole again. "Just get us out. You have nothing to do with us, I promise." He tries to convince the girl. "We're on our own."

  "I can't help you!" she yells at them. "I'll be banished."

  "Please!" Kyungsoo exclaims at the girl, not in a tone of request however. "I can't hold it any longer," he shakes his head, sweating profusely even under the air conditioner. Baekhyun's eyes flew open when he heard with his heightened hearing the faded voices behind the door they had locked. As if sensing so, the girl clicks her tongue. In a dilemma now, she starts to look around for answers.

  It's a brisk and unnerving search for some red button under a shelf when she tells them they can go with her. But no promises, she clears first when she gives the button away. Chanyeol finds it first with his long hand and presses on it silently. The lid opens back and Baekhyun pours himself in first. The ladder leads to somewhere he has no idea about but he can see the prominent rays of the troch in the girl's hand. Her dread filled face speaks that she doesn't know what she is doing. She is most probably thinking she'll regret this later. Baekhyun starts climbing down. The hole is narrow, he hopes none of them are claustrophobic. As if to test the depth of the pit, he balls up the shopping list in his hand and throws it below. He waits for a sound.

  His heart drops when he hears the paper ball two seconds later. The girl is still there, below them, climbing down as fast as possible. Baekhyun watches the closing lid of the hole through the gaps of Kyungsoo and Chanyeol's bodies. The storage room door unlocks with a click. Baekhyun feels the pressure on his shoulders as footstep flood in. The girl hasn't turned her torch off, the light is shiing through the half closed lid. She is way down and can't hear a sound. Baekhyun thinks this is it. They get caught right now. He sweats and grows pale. The golden frames of glasses on his nose slip down the slanted hill and right before he can catch it, he has lost his favorite pair of glasses to some ten feet hole. The sound is huge enough.

   Kyungsoo curses at Baekhyun.

  "There are voices down there," they hear a gruff tone from above. Chanyeol looks down at Baekhyun in panic, as if waiting for his instructions. Baekhyun doesn't know why they chose him as the one to decide but without any choices, he keeps on climbing down, encouraging them to not stop.

  "There!" Someone points from above at them. "You see the light?!"

  "They have something green," Chanyeol mumbles to the two of them.

  "," Kyungsoo mutters. "Baek, they're gonna shoot us with those. They halted the lid."

  Baekhyun doesn't remember much of what happened next. There is a mere second in which he accidentally lost his grip on the ladder. He thinks this is it. Waiting for his head to thud against the hard floor, he flails his arms to hold on to something, only to fail. He remembers Chanyeol and Kyungsoo and the horror in their eyes as they watch their friend fall. He remembers the golden of the girl's hair and her shocke