“W-what is it?” I asked, taking a step back.

“This can’t be real,” Luhan whispered under his breath, taking a closer look at the small ship. “It couldn’t have been here all this time, we would’ve found it!”

“What is it?” I repeated with increasing anxiousness.

“It’s an Anonymous warship; this one specifically used for kamikaze purposes.”

“What is it doing here?”

“That’s what I’d like to know…”

He rounded the small space craft, taking in every detail or marking. Just the thought that something belonging to these murders was so close made chills run down my spine.

“Phoebe…” He stood up from where he’d been kneeling and looked across the ship to me. I could see his face due to the reflection of the flashlight off the metal, and it looked insanely pale. “This ship wasn’t just left here from the war. It was put here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Look,” he motioned me over to where he was and pointed his flashlight at the ground. Next to him was a footprint, too large to be his own. “We’re not alone. And I have a feeling we haven’t been for quite some time.”

“Luhan, can we please get out of here? We’ll go back to Keunjib, tell Kris what we’ve seen-,”

“No,” he stopped me in panic. “We can’t tell Kris! Do you realize how angry he’ll be if he finds out we snuck away without permission?”

“But it’s for our own good. If Anonymous is here then we could spring a surprise attack and you guys could have the upper hand.”

He shook his head, “They’re smarter than that. They don’t want to attack yet. I can bet they’ve been watching us for who knows how long, then feeding the information to the mother ship. They have it all planned out.”

“So not doing anything about it is supposed to help?” I asked in exasperation.

“What can we do? I mean, we may just be overreacting. Maybe the footprint was left there from when they attacked last time and then ship really was just abandoned.”

“Either way I really think we should get out of here, just incase they decide to come back to get their ship,” I prodded, pulling him back in the direction we came.

“Fine,” he sighed. “Let’s go.”

We hurried back through the tunnel. I was practically pulling Luhan behind me, which made things difficult seeing as he had the flashlight.

“Wait,” he pulled back on my arm. “I want to look at these drawings one last time.”

“Luhaaaan,” I complained in annoyance.

“Please? I’ll be quick.”

“Fine,” I sighed, releasing him from my grasp.

“This one,” he pointed to one of the poorer drawings. “I want to know what it is.”

“It honestly looks like nothing.”

“You might be right,” he said, then began fiddling around with the bag he brought.

“A piece of paper and coal,” I remarked as he pulled them from his bag. “Right now is not the time to be practicing your Picasso skills!”

“My what?”

“Ugh, never mind. Just hurry up!”

Luhan surprised me when he put the paper up to the wall and began to rub it with the coal. He was actually a really smart guy! I probably wouldn’t have thought of that…

“We’ll take this back to Kris and tell him we found it etched into a wall in my room or something,” Luhan said, putting the supplies back in his bag. “If my suspicions are correct, then it’s some form of writing. Kris knows a lot of languages so my bet is he can translate it.”

“Okay, whatever, let’s go-,” I froze and pulled Luhan to a stop with me.

“What is it-,”

“Shhhh!” I listened intently. “Did you hear that?”

“No…” he answered at first, but then his face fell when the noise returned. It wasn’t just any sound; it was the unmistakable sound of voices coming toward us from the entrance of the cave. “Come on.” We slowly began retreating back into the cave.

We moved slowly through the dark. Luhan had turned off his flashlight for fear of being discovered. However, this enabled the voices to gain on us. Before we knew it, we could make out a dim light coming from around the corner.

“Hide!” he said so lightly that I almost didn’t hear him. I looked around, but there was no place to hide. Suddenly Luhan grabbed my shoulder and pulled me down to the ground. He dragged me into a small nook between the rocks along with him.

No sooner did he make his move than the light rounded the corner, revealing three darkly dressed figures. They wore cloth masks over their faces so only their eyes showed. Whatever they were saying was inaudible, though it was probably in a language unknown to my ears anyway. Even though the killers’ faces were not visible, it didn’t make them look any less frightening. Their deep, raspy voices faded with the light as they proceeded deeper into the cave to the ship we’d discovered.

“Let’s go,” Luhan whispered, but I refused to move.

“What if more come? Or what if they hear us?” I asked barely above a shaky whisper.

“We either take the chance or to wait here all night until we get discovered in the morning and then they kill us.”

“Fine,” I finally slid out of the small space and Luhan followed close behind.

We didn’t waste any time getting out of that cave. A wave of relief came over me when we finally reached its mouth, spitting us back out into the cold night air where I was happy to be. This time we didn’t hop across the rocks playfully. Instead we made our way across them silently. I held his hand so I could be sure he didn’t leave my side for an instant.

“What if they’re watching us right now?” I whispered as we made our way back toward Keunjib.

“They don’t want us. Not yet anyways,” Luhan reassured me.

“But what if they saw us leave the cave and want to kill us before we have a chance to tell the others?”

“Don’t think that way!” he shook his head. “We’ll be fine.”

I had never been so happy to see that dark, dismal looking building in all my life. The wind had picked up, and the door to the dining hall creaked on its hinges. Luhan and I took a second to go over and fix it. He was just reaching for the door when suddenly a hand came out from the darkness and grabbed his wrist.

“Luhan!” I screamed, pulling him from the hand’s grasp.

“Luhan?” The voice accompanying the hand asked in a surprised tone. The hand was soon joined by a body and face.

“Oh, Kris,” I sighed, placing a hand on my heart.

“Gosh Kris! You really scared me!”

“What are you two doing out here at this hour?” he asked, then raised an eyebrow at me. “The both of you; together?”

“Well… we were woken up by the door creaking, so we thought we’d check it out to make sure nothing was wrong!” Luhan covered quickly.

“And you both just happened to get up at the same time?”

“Yes,” I cut in. “I woke up when I heard the creaking, but when I heard Luhan’s footsteps outside my door I started to really get concerned, so I got up and found him in the hallway. We decided to check it together.”

“Well, everything is fine. I’m going to lock it shut so it can’t blow open again- um, Phoebe?” Kris began eyeing me again.

“Yes?”

“Why are you wearing Luhan’s hoodie?”

I looked down at the piece of clothing. It had totally slipped my mind!

“Oh, well when we got outside it was really cold, so he let me borrow it,” I answered nonchalantly.

“And I suppose that’s also the reason why Luhan has his bag with him?”

I glanced at Luhan who immediately began to stutter, trying to find an explanation.

“That’s what I thought,” he shook his head. “We’ll talk about this later, okay? Let’s all just get some sleep.”

“Sounds good!” I agreed. Luhan and I hurried over to Keunjib while Kris adjusted the dining hall’s lock. 

“I’ll see you tomorrow then,” Luhan said as the two of us climbed the dark staircase.

“Yes, sleep well.”

“You too… Oh and Phoebe?” he grabbed my arm softly.

“Yes?” I bit my bottom lip.

“Thanks for coming with me. It was a lot more fun having someone to explore with.”

“No problem,” I smiled. “Oh, I suppose you want your hoodie back, huh?”

“It’s fine,” he smiled back. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

When I got back to my room I snuggled deep under my covers, wishing them to keep out all thoughts of Anonymous. Hearing their voices, seeing their actual figures; it was all too similar to the few memories I had stored in my brain. I shook the thoughts away, trying to think of happy things, and finally fell asleep in the comforting fortress of Luhan’s hoodie.