Author's Note: D= It's been forever, I'm so sorry. Uni has been killing me lately, and it's kept me from being able to torture my characters. But now I'm back, so let the misery circus begin. ;)

Ren's neck hair stood on end when he heard the gunshot ring out above him. There was someone nearby, someone within hearing distance. Perhaps even one of his friends. He briefly wondered where the gun Minhyun had given him had gone, but without his pack he knew it was lost.

Adrenaline suddenly rushing through him, he know he needed to act fast if he wanted to be found.

He got down on his hands and knees, figuring it was safer than walking in this darkness and began feeling around him again, desperately hoping to find his backpack, his flash light, anything. He called out as he searched, hoping that if he was just loud enough someone might come to his rescue.

“I'm down here! Someone help me, I'm down here!” His own voice sounded dangerously loud to him in what was otherwise dead silence and emptiness and when the echo died down the contrast of the noiselessness was pressing down on him. It made the voice come as all the more of a shock.

“They can't hear you. These walls are pretty thick.”
He almost yelped in surprise when he heard it, but composed himself. The only sound now was the fast thumping of his heart beating at double power.

"Who's there?" he hadn't heard anyone approach but he had been certain he was alone before. The knowledge that one of the Lurkers might have been watching him this whole time made him feel unbearably vulnerable.

"No one you need concern yourself with, boy. I'm just here to look after you." He heard a smile in the voice and a tone of maliciousness. He turned towards the direction of the voice and stared into the darkness, seeing nothing but gaining some sense of control from it.

"Where am I?"

"Only where you were before, boy, in the sewers. We just took you to a more... habitable place. So you could sleep off that nasty bump on your head."

He reached for the back of his head, and sure enough felt it was swollen and sore to the touch. He'd been too preoccupied to notice before yet there was blood clotting his hair and deep scratches on his scalp and neck.

"What have you done to me?"

"Knocked you out and took you here, you can see that for yourself, can't you?"

He gritted his teeth. The Lurker was humouring him and obediently answering his questions, but Ren knew full well that he wouldn't be told anything he didn't already know. This was just another game to him.

"Where are my friends?" he pressed on.

There was a chuckle. "Not here."

"Did you hurt them?"

"Define hurt."

"Kill them?"

"No, not yet. We've decided to let you all flail about for a while longer. You've been causing us all so much trouble."

New information. Ren unclenched his fists, which had been pressing painful nail marks into his palms, but the rest of his body remained high strung.

He was being made fun of, he knew that clearly, but there was nothing he could do against a foe so much more powerful than him.

"Why are you doing this to people?"

"Why not? People are boring if left alone."

His heart jumped into his throat when he heard the answer not from the darkness he was staring at but right behind him. He swivelled around, but by the time he'd moved the Lurker had already relocated himself again.

"Neat trick, huh?" he said from the right of him.

How on earth does he move so quickly, and so silently? Ren thought. Doesn't he breathe? Is my hearing just too poor to pick up on it?

"I bet you wish you were able to do that too," he may not have heard it before, but he felt the breath then close on his ear with the whisper. "Would you like to be?"

It was not the proximity that frightened him, or his disadvantage of vision, it was the fact that he couldn't move if he wanted to. If it had been up to him, he would have jumped back the moment he heard the offer, but it seemed it was no longer up to him. He felt it again, the gentle persuasion in his mind telling him not to flee, not to be afraid.

Just cooperate. We're all friends here.

"Or that? I could teach you to do that to. Make people pause, make them do and think what you want them to."

"Why me?" he asked softly, barely making a sound, but he knew the Lurker had heard him. "Why can you do this to me so easily? Why am I different?"

"You're just lucky like that." there was another snicker. "or unlucky, however you want to see it. Some humans are born of use to us, others aren't."

"There's something in your blood, dear boy. Something that calls to us, sings beneath your skin. It's telling us you're ripe for the picking, that you're just right for the likes of us."

“Just like JR?”

“Who?” He heard the smug tone and felt the grip on his mind weaken, as if the Lurker was trying to make him speak his true thoughts but without letting him go completely.

“You know damn well who!” he snapped. He didn't care that he was just an amusing spectacle, that he was playing into the Lurker's wishes. He just had a lot of anger that wanted out. “He was like me, wasn't he? You caused him so much pain just for your own amusements and now you're going to do the same to me.”

“There's more to it than just amusement, boy. Though I must admit you and your friends are very amusing.” He felt something strike past his neck, the cold graze of claws, and he knew he could do nothing to get away.

“We're starting a revolution, little one. And you all get to be part of it, isn't that exciting?”

“Do you really think we won't fight back?”

“Against you own kind?” Ren felt a wash of cold shoot down his spine. “Don't be silly. As long as we have cute little pawns like you,” the claws cut his cheek lightly, carefully, almost in an affectionate way. “pawns we can send out into the day to send out work for us, this isn't going to end until you're all friends or dinner.”

“And then when you're done with them you'll turn them into one of your own. You all, used to be us, didn't you?”

With a rush of air, he felt the Lurker suddenly draw away. “This is boring me. I'm done talking.”

“No!” Ren snapped. He wasn't quite sure what insolence would earn him, but he was too angry to care. “You're not leaving me here, I want you to take me to my friends.”

“What makes you think I'll do that? Do you think you've earned it?” There was a silence.

“Tell you what, though, I'll give you a shot.” Ren's heart jumped into his throat when he felt something smash into his chest. Without thinking his first instinct was to hold on. The familiarity of the shape sent his heart racing. It was the pack Minhyun had given him.

“Go on, kid. Go find them.”

Fingers digging into the backpack with fleeting hope, he tried to calm himself and think straight.

“This is a trick.”

There was a laugh. “Maybe, but what else are you going to do?”

Ren sighed. The he ped the pack and felt around in it desperately. Somehow his flash light was in there even though he was certain his last memory of it was in his hand. They really did want to make sure he'd find his way around here.

Hurriedly taking it out and flicking it on he wasn't entirely surprised to find the Lurker was gone. That was only part of the game, not letting Ren know his enemies. Double-checking to see if everything was present, and assuring it was, he swung the pack on his back and searched around him for an exit.

...

Woori's ears were ringing, but not from the gunshot. She was distantly aware of Minhyun saying something to her, but it wouldn't register. She couldn't tear her eyes away from the profoundly sad face of the girl before her, her eyes now closed in what looked like a blood-splattered sleep.

She hadn't any idea how long she stood there purposely staring at the hole in her head so as not to have to look at the hole in her body.

It wasn't until Minhyun came into her view as he swept the girl's hair from her face and tidied her up that Woori snapped back into it.

Minhyun folded the girl's limp arms over her chest and pulled her shirt down to cover as much of the gaping wound as possible, but to little avail.

Woori risked a quick glance. The unholy pulsating of the entrails in her ragged body had stopped, thank god.

She swallowed. “We should go. Keep moving, get to the others.”

Minhyun nodded. “Before it's too late,” he finished in a low voice.

“Don't!” Woori grabbed hold of his shoulder and spun him around. “Don't say that, not now! It isn't too late, they're smarter than than. We're all going to get out of here alive.”

Minhyun closed his eyes and sighed. “You're a lot more certain than I have the hope to be. I don't want to be the doomsayer here either, but I can't help but wonder. How can you still be so sure we'll make it out of here?”

“I'm not,” she admitted. “But what I am sure of is that any Lurker to get in our way from here on will end up with a bullet between their eyes and that's a damn good start.”

Despite everything, Minhyun smiled at that. “Let's rock and roll.”

Author's Note: Lookey there: cheerful optimism. That can only go wrong.