As soon as Kibum's legs felt steady enough to be able to carry him he stood up, left Jin on the bed and rushed down the stairs, ready to explode at whomever he met first. Unfortunately for them, Jinki and another girl with short brown hair whose name he couldn’t remember became his first victims as they were standing in the entrance hall by the doors discussing something quietly.

“You really do plan on killing me, don’t you?!” he shouted as soon as he saw them, startling both. They turned to look at him with confused expressions. “Or do you want to me?!”

“Kibum, what-” Jinki started as Kibum arrived at the last step.

“I JUST GOT SNIFFED BY SOMEONE I COULDN’T EVEN SEE!” he yelled, stopping in front of them and the other two flinched. “SO WHICH IS IT, MURDER OR ?!”

“K-Kibum, calm down.” the girl said. He gave her the most vicious glare he could muster. “What happened?”

He opened his mouth but Jinki interrupted him with a raised hand.

“And please do not yell.”

Kibum shifted his glare to him and cleared his throat.

“I. Just. Got. Sniffed.” He explained as if to a five-year-old.

The pair glanced at each other, looking even more confused.

“And this ‘sniffer’, you don’t know who it was?” Jinki asked.

Kibum rolled his eyes. “Oh, no he is a very dear friend of mine. OF COURSE I DON’T KNOW!”

“Kibum, will you please calm down.” Jinki sighed.

Kibum huffed angrily and crossed his arms, looking at the other two expectantly. “So?”

The girl fidgeted nervously. “We need a better description of the accused if we’re going to clear it up.”

Kibum closed his eyes for a moment, rubbing his temples, and took a deep breath to calm down. His head was starting to hurt somewhat incredibly.

“I just really want to know what is happening here. First you tell me that you’re not human, which I have to say I believe by now, then there is a lady in the mirror saying strange stuff and then there is that sniffer. What do you want from me, really?” his voice sounded small and he felt so lost in that moment that he almost started crying. He wanted to go home at once. He didn’t know what was going on, he hadn’t known ever since he woke up in this crazy place. He opened his eyes to look at them accusingly.

“Wait, lady in the mirror?” the girl said, staring at him with what looked like hope.

“Yes, she was in the mirror. Inside.” Kibum clarified, irritated.

The girl turned to Jinki. “You don’t think…?”

Jinki nodded. “Most definitely.”

“Then the one who sniffed?”

“It’s him.”

Kibum wanted to scream at them again. Why couldn’t they speak in a language he understood and not in codes? Was it so hard for them to simply tell him who this oh-so-important ‘he/him’ was?

He swallowed down all the things he was about to let out and cleared his throat again.

“Will you please explain?” he said sourly and scowled.

They looked at him in surprise, as if they had forgotten him for a second. Kibum scoffed.

Keep calm.

“Let’s go sit down first.” Jinki offered and they led the way through the dining hall into the kitchen without waiting for Kibum's answer. He followed them, frowning in irritation, and they sat down by the kitchen isle. Kibum sat himself down in the seat facing them and put his arms on the top, waiting for their explanation.

Jinki took a breath. “So-”

The kitchen door flew open and Jinki sighed. Kibum turned to glare at the one interrupting this important moment. A boy with black hair and a cute round face Kibum faintly remembered from the day before stood in the opening, grabbing the doorpost with both hands to break his speed.

“Sungmin, what-” the girl started.

“Nicole! We’re looking for- oh!” he exclaimed as his eyes fell upon Kibum, who was still glaring at him, and turned his head.  Kibum faintly registered the name of the girl next to Jinki. “I found him!” he shouted over his shoulder.

Within milliseconds what seemed like everyone had swarmed behind him and Taemin sneaked under his arm, rushing towards Kibum.

“How could you disappear like that?” he pouted and came to a stop beside him. “We looked everywhere for you.”

Kibum turned his gaze to him.

“I’m sorry.” He muttered and glared at the tabletop even though he didn’t feel sorry at all. Well, until Taemin took his hand and sat down next to him. Kibum's cheeks reddened a little with guilt, but still he stubbornly looked down.

“Okay, everyone get back to what you were doing!” Kangin called from the back “We know where he is now.”

The mass of people let out a unanimous sigh and left one by one, until there were only Kibum, Taemin, Jinki and Nicole left. Kibum saw Jinki give Kangin a thankful nod before the other turned around to leave, being the last of them.

“As I was about to say,” Jinki started as soon as the door shut, “you now know about the curse, right?”

Kibum nodded, tightlipped. It was hard to admit but either he would have to be insane or they really would have to be cursed, judging by all the strange things he had seen. He liked the second option a lot more. Plus, he knew he wasn’t insane.

“The lady in the mirror is most likely a woman named Sekyung.” Jinki continued.

“We actually didn’t know she was still here, but she must have been trapped in there when the curse was cast.” Nicole added and leaned forward on her forearms. “Probably due to that her powers are stronger than the other two’s.”

Jinki nodded, looking at her. “And-”

“Wait. Wait.” Kibum said and held up both of his hands. They all looked at him. “What do you mean by powers?”
“I told you this was the Lightwood mansion, didn’t I?” Taemin piped up. “Lightwood was a… sorcerer you could call it.”

“Yes,” Jinki agreed, “and Sekyung and he was his pupils.”

Kibum groaned silently. “Would you please stop being so secretive about this he?”

Nicole wrinkled her nose apologetically. “Sorry, but we don’t really want to tell you his name if he hasn’t decided what to do with you yet.”

Kibum started and Taemin grabbed his hand again.

“I’m sorry?” He spluttered glancing at the boy, his thoughts immediately going through one bad scenario after the other. “What did you say?”

“You are not in any danger, though.” Jinki assured him and turned to Nicole. “He must have noticed it too, that’s probably why he smelled him.”

Nicole nodded but Taemin looked confused.

“So he decided to let him live even though he is… you know…” he asked Jinki.

Kibum tensed up, looking between the three of them with big eyes. He knew it. He fricking knew it! They had been about to kill him!

They all noticed him freeze and looked at him worriedly.

“Kibum don’t take this the wrong way.” Nicole said quickly. “He doesn’t usually kill people.”

That just made it worse.

“And he wants to kill me for some reason?”

“Wanted.” Jinki said. “He wanted to kill you.”

Kibum glared at him ready to explode again. “Is there any difference?!”

“Well, he didn’t.” Taemin said simply. Kibum tried to glare at him but failed. He didn’t want to be angry at the personification of sunshine next to him, he liked him too much. “There is something about you… we all feel it.”

Kibum scoffed and turned to Jinki who he could glare at. “Don’t tell me you think I will break your curse or whatever.”

They all looked at him with hopeful eyes and he raised his eyebrows in disbelief.

How would the hell would he be able to break a curse?

“Were you all some kind of sorcerers before, then?” Kibum asked to get them on other thoughts. He didn’t want them to start making plans or something like that. They might even think of sacrificing him.

They all shook their heads.

“Only Lightwood, Sekyung and he had powers. We were just ordinary servants.” Nicole said.

“Although we got some now because of the curse.” Taemin added.

“Then why were you cursed?” Kibum asked, confused. He didn’t understand why they were like that to begin with. You didn’t curse someone just for fun, did you?

They looked at each other with sad expressions.

“We don’t know.” Jinki said. “But we know it was Lightwood who did it.”

“Why?”

“We think something happened between Lightwood and him and that’s why he decided to curse him.” Taemin sighed.

Kibum frowned. It didn’t seem fair. “But why did he have to take it out on you too?”

Jinki shared a glance with Nicole.

“He didn’t have enough life-force to cast the curse all by himself so he took ours.” Jinki said. “That’s why we are the same as him now.”

“Oh.” Kibum said, his shoulder sinking. It wasn’t fair in the least.

They fell into silence after that. Kibum was trying to take in everything he had been told but found it almost impossible. It was a bit hard to wrap his mind around it all. From where he came from magic and things like that only existed on TV, created with smoke and mirrors. Where he lived technology was leading his world and he hadn’t ever had to worry about supernatural things.

Kibum's chest felt strange and suddenly he waned to get away from the others. He stood up feeling a little dizzy.

“I’m going to go lay down.” he mumbled and disappeared before the others could utter another word.

He needed Jin. Jin, who was his only hold of something that seemed real. He didn’t want to stay here anymore. His intuition was screaming at him to get out as fast as he could.

He ended up lying in bed for the rest of the afternoon trying to make up his mind about what to do. Would he run away? Could he run away? Or did he want to stay? Kibum's head was so jumbled up and indecisive that he just wanted to rip his brains out and never think again.

When Taemin and Minho came to get him for dinner he gave them the excuse that he still wasn’t feeling too well with his cold and that he wanted to sleep. They agreed reluctantly and Kibum was left alone with Jin purring beside him, thoughts still spinning around in his head getting him nowhere.

He actually did fall asleep after some time and awoke to darkness and silence. He assumed it was sometime after midnight, judging by the moon outside and the quietness of the house and sat up, rubbing his eyes groggily. Looking down at his wrinkled clothes he realized this was the best time for him to run away if he was ever going to get out of this place.

“Jin.” He murmured into the darkness and his cat perked his ears still lying curled up by the pillow with closed eyes. Kibum poked him and he stood up, stretching. “We’re getting out of here.”

Jin gave him an irritated look and jumped down from the bed. Kibum stood up and made his way to the door, Jin following obediently behind him. He opened it just a crack to peek out. It wouldn’t surprise him if they were patrolling the corridors, but it was eerily empty and quiet. He slipped outside and silently made his way towards the stairs. The shadows that were everywhere made him shiver. He couldn’t discern which were real and which were created by the supposed curse and he quickened his pace. He didn’t know what they could do to him and he didn’t want to experiment on it either. To his relief he didn’t meet any misfortune on his way down to the big wooden doors and he let out a breath of nervousness as he put his hands on the handles, wondering if he would be able to push the massive wood open.

Just as he was about to put all his strength into opening them he stopped. He didn’t know why but he just stopped. Jin sat by his feet and meowed quietly, looking up at him, as he stood stock-still.

What would he have if he went back?

Kibum grimaced. Was this really the time to think about that? But his thoughts continued going in that direction.

His parents were long gone, leaving him a run down apartment and he had to work three jobs to make it through the day. None of his relatives were really keen on the idea of taking him in, as he was big enough to work. Why would he need to go to college, they asked. He didn’t have any friends either. He had always been a little different from the others, with his taste for colourful clothes and blond hair, and the ones around him had always kept their distance. It only increased after the death of his parents.

Kibum closed his eyes and let out a defeated sigh, turning around and leaning his back against the doors.

He thought about everyone he had met in only the three days or less he had spent in this mansion. He hadn’t befriended anyone as easily as he had with them before as well as after his parents died, which was five years ago. He had absolutely no friends back in what he called real civilization and no relatives that wanted to know of him either. He had been alone and he had liked it. Until he had come to this place, where he was treated as any family member. He realized that somewhere deep down he actually felt really lonely and that he didn’t want to loose the feeling of familiarity and hospitality he had here.

There was also that man. His eyes had somehow seemed sad and begging, like he was in pain. Kibum wanted to know more about him and he wanted to know what was hurting him so much. There was something about the man that raised his curiosity and interest and since Kibum had a curious nature he couldn’t leave before he had solved it.

Suddenly he knew he was going to stay. It became clear to him that it had already been decided as soon as he had put his foot inside this place. There would never be an escape, just the illusion of it.

He opened his eyes again and looked at his cat.

“Jin,” he whispered, “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Then he bent down and picked him up to go back to his room, where a whole other life would start.

Will it be worth it?

A/N: Okay, I don't know what happened with this chapter TT_TT It just feels strange.

I'm sorry this chapter took some time, I was actually going to upload it three days ago but some things happened and I only had the time today :( So sorry!

I don't have much else to say today... :/ I hope someone liked it at least!

Thank you to all the subscribers and commenters (if I can call you that, haha) and I hope you have an awesome whatever time it is at your place! ^_^

Bye! <3