He cracked his eyes open letting the moonlight seep in, the pain was like wildfire spreading across his torso but somehow that pale glow calmed him.  There were shadows all around him but he knew that Joonmyun was there.  He tried focusing on his voice among all the others.

            “We have to go, we have to take him…”

            “Why argue, we don’t have time…”

            “Look at him!”  Jongdae wanted to smile; it was cute how much the older boy was worrying.  The pain intensified, ripping through him, he tried to scream but all he could hear was a disturbing gurgling noise.  Then the world went black.

            The past few days had ended with a late practice.  The boys were working hard to build up their stamina.  They’d need it to perform the intense choreography while singing live.  Chanyeol, Baekhyun, Kris, Joonmyun, Tao, and Jongdae had grouped off for the day and were ready to crawl into bed.  They were crossing through a park as a shortcut.  The moonlight filtered through the leaves illuminating the way. 

The tranquility was broken when Baekhyun started to whine. “We still have house work we need to do when we get home!”

Kris smiled, “That’s okay we’ll just make the maknae do it.”

            “No fair! I had to practice my wushu today, I need rest the most.”  Tao started to pout when Chanyeol spun around,

“How about we race and the last one through the park has to clean.”  Jongdae didn’t like this plan, he was easily the worst dancer of the bunch and to make up for it had to practice twice as hard.  Joonmyun saw the look of despair on his face.

            “That doesn’t sound fair.  How about we all clean, it’ll only take us ten minutes and then we can all sleep.”  The boys looked deflated, “Well do you want to race for fun?”

Chanyeol, Baekhyun, and Tao looked at each other smiling; Kris laughed “I’ll take that as a yes”

 The three boys lined up and Chanyeol shouted “On the count of three.  One, two, go!” and sprinted forward.  The younger boys scrambled after.  The remaining three laughed at the sight of the boys dashing through the park. 

Joonmyun patted Jongdae on the back “Well I better make sure someone is with them when they get out.  See you at the dorm.”

            “See you hyung” he called after him.  Kris and Jongdae jogged along when they caught sight of Tao veering off from the other two.

            “Damn it.  I better go after him Jongdae.  Don’t fall too far behind.” Kris sped up, chasing after the younger boy.  Silently he hoped Tao wouldn’t move farther in to the wooded area and softly cursed as he did just that.   Tao’s talents included wushu, shopping and aeygo but that kid could get lost in his own bedroom.  Kris jerked to a stop when he saw Tao tense up and turn around.  The look on his face was strange.

            “Dui zhang do you feel that?”  He lifted his hand to where the light filtered through.  Letting it wash over his up turned palm.

            “Tao…”

            “It’s like it was here, waiting.  Waiting for me to come in this direction but then it moved.  It went somewhere else.”  Tao shook his head trying to get his thoughts in place.  Kris didn’t like the tightness in his chest.  His next thought stopped his breathing all together.

“Tao, I left Jongdae alone to follow you.”  Without speaking they turned and ran in the direction they had come from.

Joonmyun laughed at his hoobaes who were currently doubled over gasping for breath.  A pair of lights came around the corner.  They belonged to a black car that came to a screeching halt close to the guys.  The door flung open and Daimen stepped out of the vehicle.   Daimen was a produce that Exo had jokingly nicknamed “savior”.  It was him that had come up with their new concept just as they were about to lose all hope of a comeback.

“Hey Daimen, what are you doing here?” Chanyeol asked.

“What are you doing here?  Why didn’t you wait for the van to take you home?”  He looked past them, “Where are the rest?” the questions came out rough.  Joonmyun hadn’t seen Daimen act like this before. 

“We’re really tired.  We decided to just walk home.  It’s really not that far…” Daimen walked past him scanning the park. His eyes lit up with panic.  Joonmyun followed his gaze and saw two figures running towards them.

Kris yelled across the park “Is Jongdae with you guys?”  The fervor in his voice made Joonmyun’s heart race.   Before he could answer a blood curdling scream ripped through the quiet of the night.

Jongdae breathed in deeply, the night air was calm and clean.  It had been quite a while since he’d had time to himself.  Now was the perfect time to just think.  His skin prickled up as he noticed something he hadn’t before.  There was no noise, no animals, no insects, not even the wind.  It was as if the whole park was too scared to breathe, so it held it and waited to exhale.  This sudden awareness made a shiver run up and down his back.  It felt like the space around him shifted.  He could feel his heart pounding and the moisture from his breath in the air.  At this point he was at a full sprint, fear surging through his body in hopes that he hadn’t noticed too late.  He heard something crash through the trees behind him, proving that he had.

            Daimen, Joonmyun, Chanyeol, and Baekhyun took off towards Kris and Tao.

“What are you doing here?” Kris asked.  Daimen ignored the question; instead he looked around at them.

“Where’s Jongdae? Why didn’t you wait for your manager?”  He sounded calm but his eyes gave away his worry. “Let’s go look for him, we can talk later.  But everyone has to stay together.” They all nodded and set off back into the park.  It wasn’t long before they noticed an area where all the foliage was broken and twisted.  Daimen pulled ahead, the rest tried to keep up but soon he was out of sight.

“Where the hell did he go?  Why is he even here?” Kris was using roughness to cover his panic. They could tell by the odd, musky smell in the air that wherever Jongdae was he was in trouble. Daimen burst out of some nearby bushes. They could see he was carrying Jongdae with his blazer wrapped around him.  He stepped into the light and they could see the blood smeared into Daimen's shirt.  They didn’t know how bad but since there was no color left in Jongdae's face they assumed it was pretty bad.

“Joonmyun get out my cell phone and dial the first person.”  Daimen said shifting the limp boy in his arms.

“We have to go, we have to take him to a hospital now.”

“Kris get my phone out.  We can’t waste anymore time.  We’re all in danger by staying here. “All the anxiety had left Daimen’s voice.  Kris nodded moving forward taking his phone. “Let’s go. Kris put it on speakerphone when it starts ringing.”  They all followed him, shocked into silence.

“Where are we going?” Joonmyun asked.

“Back to the dorm”

Joonmyun put himself in front of the older man.  “We have to go to a hospital...”

Daimen cut him off, “Why argue, we don’t have time. Kris is it ringing?”  He nodded, “Your driving.  The keys are still in the ignition.  Chanyeol take the phone.  I need everyone to stay quiet.

They moved to follow orders buy Joonmyun continued “Look at him! He needs medical attention or he’ll die.”

Daimen’s face hardened “He’ll die if we go to a hospital.  His only chance is the dorm.”  He quickened his pace as they closed in on the car.  Chanyeol jumped as the phone made a loud clicking noise.

“You told me only to call if it was serious.  Well it is.  I need you to meet me at the boy’s dorm.  Bring extra clothes.”  There was a loud sigh on the other line before a beep that the call had ended.  Tao and Chanyeol helped Daimen into the car before piling in. 

Baekhyun put a hand on His leaders shoulder “Let’s trust him hyung.  It’s weird but I fell like it’ll all be alright if we follow what he says.”  He hoped he was right.

They arrived at the dorm to find the door open.  They stepped in, fighting the intimidating presence that washed over them.  Daimen stepped past, breaking up the tightness that overwhelmed them and headed straight for Jongdae’s room.  Kris looked at the guys, worry etched into their faces.  He was especially glad that the rest of the group was in the building next door.  Daimen stepped out alone.

Joonmyun moved forward “What about Jong…”

“We need to leave now.  I’ll tell you what you need to know but we can’t stay here tonight.”  The look in his eyes tugged at his heart.  He knew now that Baekhyun was right.  All they could do was listen to their savior and leave.  It felt like the air in the house was changing, Kris took that as a sign and ushered the boys outside. 

Kris stopped, “You are much stronger then you think.  I know you’ll fight hard and we’ll see you soon.”  He said into the empty room.  Closing the door behind him, he jogged to catch up.

Daimen turned to them “Might as well wake up the rest, there are some things we’ll need to discuss and I don’t want to repeat myself.”

Tao cleared his throat “What happened to him?”

“He was attacked.” Daimen stepped into the other building, the boys trailing behind him.