“K…Kai,” I mumble, feeling my way around me. I find hard, cold bars, and I know I’m trapped. Caged, just like Kai was.

I find him beside me; his ears perk up as I shuffle towards him. The ground is dusty and I cough a little as I try to inhale. There’s very little space between us now, and I rest my head on the floor beside him, watching him intently.

“Kyungsoo?” he asks. I give a small nod.

“We didn’t make it,” I tell him, tears streaming down my face. I know they’re bloodied tears. Kai looks at me with his wide, yellow eyes, and I smile weakly at him.

“There’s still hope for escape,” Kai tells me. I raise an eyebrow, gasping in pain as I do so. I touch a hand to my head, hissing when I feel a deep gush running just above my eye.

This must be where the wizard hit me.

“How? How can we escape?” I ask, disbelieving. Kai stands up and stretches, shaking. The floor is cold and I try and get up, but I am shivering.

The wizard hasn’t taken my body yet, and I’m not sure why he’d even want it after all I’ve been through. My head has a massive slice across it; one of my arms seems to be broken. My face is swollen with nail scratch marks running down my cheeks.

“I’ve been here a while,” Kai tells me, sitting next to me, pushing his paws through the bars.

“There’s a book of spells lying in the library, I know exactly where it is. I forget the words exactly, but there’s a spell. A spell to swap my spirit back into my body.”

I nod.

“I tried myself, but the problem is you can’t utter the words if you’re the one that was changed to begin with.” Kai states calmly.

“It’s both a blessing and a curse. The wizard cannot return himself back to his old body, and I can’t steal my body back from him.”

“I see,” I say, dragging myself across to the back wall. There’s deep scrapes along it, and dried blood.

Kai’s blood, I realise.

“He hasn’t taken your body yet because you’re injured,” Kai explains.

“He kept me here for a week, feeding me and looking after me. I hated it. He told me I’d be trapped here forever.”

“Maybe not,” I tell him hopefully.

I scan the room. It’s small, dark, and the bars are packed far too tightly together for me to get through. Kai may be able to squeeze, but I don’t want him to hurt himself from the strain. I look up.

There’s a small window, and there’s no bars on it. Big enough for Kai!

“See that window,” I tell him, pointing upwards.

“If you can climb onto me, you might be able to leap up there.”

Kai purrs in excitement.

“I think I could make it!” he tells me.

“I’ll go to the library and rip the page from the book. When the wizard next comes around, you can say the words to change us back.”

I nod.

“There’s just one thing,” I whisper to Kai. He looks up at me in surprise.

“What?”

“Where does the wizard’s spirit go?” I ask. Kai ruffles his head at me, flicking his tail against my leg.

“Back to his body, I think,” Kai responds.

“The original body he was in before me. It’s rotting in the cellar.”

I nod, picking Kai up. I place him on my head, and I stand, as straight as I can, by the wall. I let out a surprised squeal as Kai’s weight lifts off my head, and I fall back down to the ground, completely weakened by what little I did.

I see Kai’s tail flicker in the windowsill.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can, Kyungsoo.”

“Alright.” I respond, my eyes fluttering closed.





When I awaken, I peer further through the bars. I find a small desk on the other side, and the wizard appears to be draped over it, scrawling away at something or other.

“Oh, so you’re awake,” he says.

His voice sounds exactly like Kai’s, and it scares me.

“Where did your friend go?”

I shake my head.

“None of your business.”

“Oh, but it is,” he says ominously.

“You’re not thinking of escape, are you?” he drawls.

“You’ll never get out of here. Not the both of you, anyway.”

My eyes widen at this.

“What do you mean?” I ask, surprised.

“You need to choose your friends wisely, boy.”

The wizard taps his finger on the end of a glass jar, and I see it is filled with an odd liquid of some sort. Something brown and putrid, with a horrible smell.

“The time will come when you realise your mistake,” he whispers ominously.

“But tell me, Kyungsoo. Who do you really trust?”

The wizard leaves the room, his fingers curled around the jar. I see him take a swig as he passes through the door, looking back at me and flashing me a row of perfect, straight teeth.

I trust Kai, I don’t trust him. I imagine he only saved me before because he didn’t want me body to be too bruised and battered when he finally took it over. Kai was human once, this man was always a wizard, always preying off others.

I trust Kai.

Kai returns later with a yellowed page in his mouth. I hold my arms out and he jumps into them, howling at the sudden impact.

“I’ll fix you,” I tell him.

“I’ll fix you and you’ll be able to go home.”

I memorise the incantation on the sheet, my eyebrows creased in concentration. The next time the wizard comes back into the room I grab his arm through the bars, pulling him towards me.

I start reading the spell off, and the wizard lets out a dark, low, chuckle. I see the light leave his eyes, and a look of amazement cross his face.

“Kyungsoo! You did it!” Kai shrieks.

“I did!” I say with a grin.

Kai walks over to the desk, pulling a key from the top drawer. He turns it in the lock and runs across, holding me tightly in his arms.

“Thank you, Kyungsoo!” he breathes into my ear. I smile, taking my place beside him.

He leads me back down the corridor, back down the stairs, through all the odd rooms, until we approach the front door. It seems Kai has already collected the key to it, and he pushes it open.

I turn around, smiling as I look back at the strange house.

“Goodbye,” I tell it. I hear a scream coming from the bedroom, but I ignore it, pushing Kai down the garden path.

THIS ISN'T THE END. ONE MORE CHAPTER. And now, let the trippiness begin... *evil laugh*