Lay was lost in thought once again. Luhan waved his hand over Lay's face but there was no response. "Do you think he will notice if we drew over his face with a marker pen?" Chen asked. Xiumin raised an eyebrow as he answered. "Yes Jongdae. He will." Chen pouted. "Can we try anyways? Pretty please?" he asked cutely. Xiumin shook his head. "Do you want to get in trouble with Kris?" he asked. "I'll do aegyo and get out of it" Chen said with a nod of his head. "Pfft. That only works with Tao" Xiumin told him. "No it only works with younger cuter brothers, not old steamed buns" Chen teased. "This punk..." Xiumin started only to be cut off by Luhan's squeal.

Luhan stared into Lay's eyes who stared back. "Gege..." Lay started. "Hmm?" Luhan asked. Luhan kept staring at Lay's face from that close distance. "What will you do if I kissed you suddenly?" Lay asked with a determined look in his eyes. Luhan blinked. "What?" he squealed and backed away when he realized just exactly what Lay had asked. "Yah! What is wrong with you both?" Xiumin asked showing up. "I'm serious" Lay said, leaning forward. Luhan backed away. "There's something wrong with you!" Luhan exclaimed. 

"Well that was exactly what I thought!" Lay said. "Have you lost it?" Luhan asked throwing random stuff at Lay. "No I haven't" Lay growled. "Or maybe I have. I don't know!" Lay said in despair. "There is something seriously wrong with you" Luhan admitted finally. "What exactly did he ask?" Chen asked curiously. Luhan looked uneasily at Lay. "I asked him what he would do if I kissed him suddenly" Lay said. "Wait what?" he freaked out realizing what he had asked. "Exactly idiot!" Luhan said, hitting him again. "You may have taken Layhan pairing a bit too seriously" Chen said. Xiumin hit him on the head.

"It's a girl, isn't it?" Xiumin asked. Luhan who had been cowering away from him suddenly appeared next to Xiumin. His expressions clearly betrayed curiousity on his baby face. "Why does everyone assume that?" Lay asked indignantly. He didn't mean to give that away. "Well you are talking about kissing. Unless you are suddenly batting for the other team..." Chen pointed out. "I'm not gay. Jeez..." Lay said defensively. "So it is a girl" Xiumin said. Lay nodded with a sigh. The guys all went "Ohhh......." 

"Tell us about her. Do we know her?" Luhan asked, sitting next to Lay. Lay shook his head. "A secret romance! How dramatic!" Luhan said. "You call yourself manly?" Xiumin asked him. Luhan gave him a look. "Focus baozi..." he chastised. "Yes sir" Xiumin obeyed and turned his attention to Lay. "So who is she?" Chen asked. The doorbell rang and everyone else groaned. "I'll get it" Lay said escaping.

"I have a couple of letters for someone named Zhang Yixing" the deliver guy said as soon as Lay opened the door. "That's me" Lay said. "Well, just sign here" the delivery guy said handing him a clipboard and a pen. "Sure" Lay said. He signed his name. He mentally chuckled as he nearly autographed 'Lay' instead of signing 'Zhang Yixing'. "There you go. Thank you" Lay said handing the clipboard back. "Thank you. Have a nice day" the delivery guy said giving him the letter and leaving.

"What did you get?" Tao asked appearing from his room. "A few letters" Lay replied with a frown. "Answer your fan mail later. Tell us about your mystery girl first" Luhan whined. "What's going on here?" Kris asked angrily. Everyone else bit their lip. Waking up Duizzhang from a nap was never a good idea. "Nothing" all of them except Lay squeaked. "Yeah tell him ge-" Tao's eyes widened as he saw what Lay was holding. Lay was shocked to find a letter written in blood from the envelope the guy just delivered.

We are coming for you
Tell Sera, we know

"Who gave you this?" Kris asked, snatching it out of his hand. "It came in the letter. There was no address or anything just my name on it" Lay explained. Kris inspected the envelope. There were just the words 'Zhang Yixing' written on it. No trace of anything else. "'We are coming for you', what would that even mean?" Xiumin asked. "Yeah. That one line doesn't even make any sense" Luhan said, inspecting the letter. "There are two lines there" Lay pointed out. "No gege, there's only one" Tao said. Lay looked at the letter and then at Tao. Why couldn't...?

Damn... This wasn't a normal letter...

"LAY!" Kris exclaimed running after the younger man who had just dashed out of the apartment in search of the delivery guy. The delivery guy was definitely a dreamwalker. He had to be. No one else in the real world knew that he knew Sera. Unless... He could also be one of the people from the club from those nights ago. He couldn't find the delivery guy anywhere on the stairs. He must have taken the lift. Both of them were on the twentieth floor and would take time in coming down to the seventh floor where their dorm was. Lay decided to run down the flight of stairs instead.

"Is the delivery guy who came in to deliver for EXO still in the building?" Lay asked the security guard in the lobby, out of breathe from the running. "Uh... no sir. No delivery guy came with the mail since morning" the guard told him. "He definitely delivered mail to our dorm. Are you sure about that? Maybe the other security guards saw him come in" Lay said. There was a tone of urgency in his voice which jolted the guard into action. "Maybe some of the other guards would know" he said, getting up to go to them. Lay nodded and followed.

An uproar started amongst the fangirls waiting outside got louder as they caught a glimpse of Lay talking to the security guards. "I only saw the guy go out. He must have come in before my shift. I only came in ten minutes ago" the second guard said. Lay nodded. He was about to run in the direction they had pointed to when Kris pulled him back. The fans started cheering at the Kray moment. To them it looked like a fanfic moment come to life. A troubled Lay being consoled by an equally troubled Kris and Kris knew that very well. So he smiled at the fans.

"Just smile and wave for now, I will talk to you later about all of this" he said with a grit teeth. Lay smiled and played along. They did a mini wave to the fans and went in. "If you guys see that delivery guy again... please let us know" Kris told the security guards. Lay highly doubted it would happen but he nodded supportively as well. "We will keep an eye out and let the guards know as well" the security guards said. "Thank you" Kris said with a smile. They bowed to each other and Kris led Lay back to the apartment, waiting till they were inside to start.

"What in the world were you thinking? Oh I'm sorry, you probably weren't!" Kris said angrily. "Kris, I-" Lay started. "Don't even try to explain. No wait, do explain why you have been acting this way. You were out of it for the past few days and when you do come back you run straight into the lion's mouth asking for trouble!" Kris yelled angrily. Chen gave Xiumin a look who said it must be an English thing.

Lay opened and then closed his mouth. What was he going to say? I think I might have done something in the dreamworld and now I have to pay for it? Oh and remember the girl, Sera, that I was telling you about? The one I said was my friend. Well the truth is I know nothing about her and both of us are probably being hunted by dangerous dreamwalkers. Oh and they are out to get us because we apparently pretended to be a couple and I don't know how but we managed to anger quite a few important people off. And she also kissed me and I have no freaking idea why.

That would sum it up rather nicely. It would also get him under observation for delusional tendencies, Lay thought sorely. Silence was golden in this case.

"It's probably an anti messing around" Luhan spoke up. Tao nodded. Kris looked at the duo and then at Lay who bit his lip. "If that really is the case, then we all better be careful from now on. I am going to tell the manager about this and you" he said pointing at Lay, "will be under my observation twenty four seven till I decide you are capable of taking care of yourself." Lay nodded and Kris glared at him.

"I think I'll go take a nap" Lay said. "That'll be a good idea. Go and rest gege" Tao said. Lay nodded and went to his room. "I'm not done with you!" Kris yelled but Xiumin shushed him. Lay went to bed, praying he would fall asleep quickly. He needed to talk to Sera. Like right now.

-x-x-x-x-

Lay appeared in Marin. He purposefully appeared here instead of Ghenjei because he needed a calm environment to think. He took a deep breathe and closed his eyes.

Sera, he called out. There was no response so he tried again.

Sera, this is important.

He waited, his impatience growing by the minute. He stared at his watch. The second hand was moving way too slowly. Lay growled. This was a very wrong time to think about emotions affecting the environment.

"You're early... What the heck?" Sera cursed as soon as she appeared. "Hi to you too" Lay growled. "Damnit Lay. You have been Marked!" she exclaimed worriedly. It was not just any mark. Sera knew that mark all too well. She immediately took his hand and a weird feeling spread through his body. Sort of like the Cleansing ability she had shown him to purify poisons but different from it in essence. "What's a Mark?" Lay asked, caught in the web of her nervousness. "It's a special ability wherein a dreamwalker uses an energy signature to literally mark out their target. No matter where you are in the dream world, you can be traced by the person who has put a mark on you" she explained, as she continued working on it.

"So the person..." Lay asked. "The mark is gone but I'm not sure if..." she said biting her lip. She bent down to the ground and closed her eyes. Lay watched as she sensed the area around them. "Someone's here" she said getting up. "We should hide" she told him. Lay nodded. "But how and where?" Lay asked. "Well we need to change into our disguises first. We can hide in the woods till they come" Sera told him. With one quick snap of her finger, their Gina and Dominique disguises were back on. "Since the mark was removed by the river they would think we probably went down along it instead of going into the woods. So that's our best bet" Sera said. "Lead the way" Lay said. Sera nodded and walked ahead.

She stopped suddenly and Lay nearly bumped into her. "They're coming this way" she hissed angrily. "That way" Lay said, creating another path. Sera nodded and took it. Lay disguised the new path created by growing more trees and plants at the entrance. Sera set up shields and wards around them so that no one could detect them. They shared a look and Lay nodded slightly indicating his job was done. Sera looked around once again making sure everything was done before giving her okay.

"Okay, bend down" she instructed. Both of them got to their knees. "This is a trick I learnt. Normally it needs more energy training but I think it is safe for you to learn it now" she told him. "What is it?" Lay asked. "Its an ability called Sensing" Sera told him. "Okay" Lay nodded. "Dreamwalkers use this ability to detect the energy present in a dream. Normally it's complicated but I will show you a simple version which you can use to detect if there are changes in the environment around you. The kind of change will give you enough warning in case of danger" she told him. "Touch any object around you and try to feel for its energy signature" Sera said. Lay put his hand on the nearest tree and started the process.

The tree yielded its signature pretty easily. Lay felt a complex network of energy veins operating within the tree. The energy worked in complex ways to create new life within the tree, helping it grow. "What is that?" Lay asked, amazed. "That is dream energy. It's also known as something that I will teach you about later. Now try feeling for dreamwalkers" Sera instructed. Lay nodded and tried again. This time he bent to the ground and felt the energy signature all the way to the shore. It was very complex and he didn't understand most of it but he could detect changes very close to the boundary of the shields that she had set up. "They are close by" Lay whispered.

All of a sudden, a guy appeared in the spot right next to where Sera was. The shields covered her and so he couldn't see her but if he bumped into her, he would know there was someone there. Lay pulled Sera towards himself and further away from the guy. "L-" she started to protest but Lay covered with his hand. "There's someone else nearby. Don't move and above all don't talk" he whispered into her ear. Sera nodded although she desperately wanted to protest being sandwiched between him and a tree. Lay followed the man's movements till he met another one. Lay's eyes widened as he recognized the man from the party.

"He's not here and his mark has been removed" the first buff guy said. The man from before nodded. "The mark from before is removed. I don't think we will find him here" the man said. "We'll continue searching down river" the first guy said. The man nodded. The first guy disappeared and the man looked around. His eyes stopped exactly as they landed on their hiding spot. Lay's grip around Sera tightened but she didn't protest, much to his surprise. He stared at the spot for a while and then moved towards it. Lay hissed as his hand passed the barrier. He pulled Sera away and held her as close as possible to himself to get her away from that man. On getting nothing, the man retreated and finally disappeared. Lay let out a sigh of relief and let Sera go. But she was still frozen in the same spot.

"I know that man" she spoke up. "Who is he and what does he want from you?" Lay asked. "I used to know him. Long story short, he is dangerous and I didn't expect him to find me" Sera said quietly. "Tell me something I don't know. What do we do about it?" Lay asked. "Just stay low for a while. Don't dreamwalk for the next few days. Like two or three weeks" she advised. "And even more importantly, don't come looking for me. He wants me and I don't want you to be in trouble" Sera told him. "I think I already am" Lay said before telling her about the letter. 

Sera bit her lip. "Who are these people and what do they want from you?" Lay asked her. "I can't tell you that" Sera said looking away. "Great. I'll add that to the list of things I probably should know but you refuse to tell" Lay said angrily. "Just stay calm okay? I promise you I will tell you everything. Just not now. You should probably go to sleep now and make up for this" she said. "Sera don't you dare-" Lay started but she had already put him in dreamless sleep. "I'm sorry Lay" she apologized. "But it's the only way to protect you" she said out loud.

Sera bent down to the ground. She sensed for the energy signature of Marin. She found what she was looking for in the heart of the river. It was right where it had always been. Sera let out a sigh. Marin had been her favourite place to come to. But it had served its purpose. It was embedded with her signature and he had traced it out. It was time to let it go. Sera pulled something akin to pulling the trigger and disappeared as the world shook. The river, the shore, the woods... everything collapsed unto itself. Every trace of the river Marin was gone. 

The spring that fed Marin in Ghenjei started to dry up as well. The water level went down till a little blue jewel was revealed. The jewel dissolved into thin air as the water dried up. The vines around started to spread across the fountain, slowly devouring it and erasing it from existence.

-x-x-x-x-