~*Chapter Four *~

After a nap you got up and wandered around the garden since the weather outside was beautiful and you longed for some fresh air to put you at ease. You couldn’t stop thinking about the psychiatrist’s words and they planted a seed of doubt in your head that you could not shake away. You couldn’t stop thinking that all of Baekhyun’s words were nothing but a fairytale that he had made up in his head and you felt completely deflated. You hoped that it was real, but once the cruel hammer of reality had come crashing down, you couldn’t help but notice how extreme and unrealistic it all sounded. Was it really possible for such a paradise to exist? You let out a sigh and sat under the big apple tree that provided you with the necessary shade since you weren’t particularly fond of the sun’s harsh glare on your skin. You closed your eyes and embraced the sounds of summer birds tweeting in the distance and the far-off sound of the other patients making the most of the sun. You leant your head back against the trunk of the tree and drew your knees up to your chest.

“Hey,” Baekhyun smiled as he approached and sat down next to you. You looked at him to acknowledge his presence and then closed your eyes again.

“What’s up?” he asked innocently, nudging you lightly.

You couldn’t answer; you couldn’t look at him the same way now that your head was filled to the brim with doubt.

“Why won’t you answer me?” he pursed his lips in to a small pout and drew his knees up to his chest, just like yours, hugging them tightly.

“Are you lying to me?” you asked, avoiding eye contact.

“What?”

“Are you just making this entire thing up?”

“Why would I do that?” he asked, narrowing his eyes in to a small scowl.

You picked at the grass beneath you and shrugged your shoulders, pursing your lips.

“So you don’t believe me anymore?” he asked, standing up, trying to catch your eyes.

“Yes- I just… I don’t know…”

“I thought you were different, Semmi,” he looked away, extremely hurt. “I thought you actually believed me,” he his heel and walked away, shaking his head leaving you sitting under the tree.

“Baekhyun, wait,” you pleaded, rising to your feet, but he didn’t turn back, he just carried on walking until he got inside and you stood there exasperated. This was the opposite of what you wanted. You just needed to know that he was being legitimate; you couldn’t live your life on ‘ifs’ and ‘maybes’. You let out a huge sigh and sat back down, running your hand through your hair. Well done, Semmi you thought to yourself, way to lose your only friend.

You sat there for a while, replaying the conversation in your head and you regretted every word you said. You wished that you hadn’t doubted him. Seeing the hurt in his eyes made everything so much more believable, but the doubt still remained.

You sighed again and wandered back inside since the sun had hidden behind the clouds and a small chilly breeze was lingering in the air. You hoped that you’d find Baekhyun in the Recreation Room but he wasn’t there. He must have gone back to his room you thought, pulling out your book, resuming your usual space on the sofa. You tried your best to concentrate on the words in front of you, but you still felt terrible and all you could see was the hurt in Baekhyun’s eyes and you could hear the pain behind his voice clearly in your mind.

***

Two days had passed since you had last spoken to Baekhyun. You were even more depressed now than you were before meeting him. You missed meeting up with the strange boy every day to talk about the adventures you were going to have and you cursed your psychiatrist mentally for even planting that bad thought in your head.

You hadn’t even seen him since that day outside and you were beginning to worry about him. You looked everywhere, from the Recreation room, to outside, to the canteen and the storage rooms. You even almost got yourself in trouble when you wandered around restricted sections just to look for him.

You gave up searching eventually and returned to the Rec Room where you wandered over to the bookshelf to take your book. However, the space in which it normally resided was empty. You began to panic as you pulled all of the books out in a desperate search, finding nothing. Devastated at the loss of your book, you pulled out a random factual one and sat down on the sofa close to tears. The only good thing left in your life was gone, the one thing you had left of your parents was gone.

The book happened to be about ships and you strangely found yourself reading it with much enthusiasm. You learnt about all the parts of the ship and about different famous ones that had sailed to all sorts of places around the world. It was strangely interesting and compelling and by the time you had finished reading it, two hours had gone by. You looked up and it felt strange to be back in reality again. However, your eyes widened when you saw Baekhyun sitting at the table on the opposite side of the room, drawing in his book. You wandered if he was remembering well and you suddenly felt a pang of regret and you felt terrible for leaving him alone.

You thought of what to say in your mind and when you were finally pleased with a conversation starter, you nodded to yourself, got up and wandered over. A couple of steps before you were able to reach out and tap his shoulder, something caught your eye. You looked over to the wall where two shadows were being cast. Yours and Baekhyun’s. Yours was standing still, mimicking you, but Baekhyun’s was also standing, wagging its finger. You stared at it and then to Baekhyun who was still seated.

What the hell?

You looked hard at it and it appeared to be crossing its arms over its chest. You were about to reach and touch it but it quickly resumed position as Baekhyun turned around and saw you. He scowled before abruptly getting up and storming off. You stood still, in shock of what you had just witnessed.

His shadow moved without him.

He was telling the truth.

He was talking to his shadow.

There was such a thing as magic.

Everything was true.

You went to run after him but he had already disappeared and you waved your arms about in annoyance. You wanted to apologise for everything and to tell him you believed him now and that you were stupid to ever doubt him. You knew it was going to be hard to find him in this place again, especially since you had no idea which room he was staying in. You needed to prove to him that you believed him and that you were sorry.

You racked your brains for something, anything to do. Then it came to you.

I’ll cut his shadow.

You knew it was going to be very difficult to get hold of a sharp object in this asylum. You were going to have to break so many rules and if anyone found out, you’d be in serious trouble. But now, you didn’t really care. Everything was real and you needed to get out of here.

You looked up at the clock and you saw that dinner was being served in twenty minutes. You racked your brains for a plan and smirked to yourself once you had formulated one.

***

The dinner ladies were busy in the rush of serving food and everyone was calm, gathering around the tables in the canteen eating peacefully. You weaved in and out of the small crowd, trying your best to remain unseen until you reached the door to the kitchen. You desperately hoped that there was nobody left in the back of the kitchen, otherwise you were in deep trouble. You kept one eye open as you creaked the door open, slipping soundlessly inside without being detected. You glanced around and saw nobody, the dinner ladies were still busy serving and you tiptoed around, looking for anything remotely sharp.

You searched in drawers and found loads of different utensils- but no knives. You were beginning to lose hope until you found a draw that you searched through and found a large pair of scissors gleaming at you. You took one last look over your shoulder before grabbing the scissors and hiding them under your shirt, in between the band of your pants. You shuffled back out of the kitchen as quickly as you could and went straight outside where you found a patch of bushes and soft earth that you dug up and buried the scissors under.

You didn’t want to risk anyone finding them on you at all so you thought it best to keep them out here where nobody would think to look.

Now all you had to do, was convince Baekhyun that you believed him, and to get him outside so you could help him cut his shadow.

_____________________________________________________________________

A/N: Congratulations to EXO on their 1st and 2nd wins~wahh! So proud~~^^♥

Thank you for commenting and subscribing and I even got an upvote! WOW thank you so much everyone, I'm glad you like this story, I was so excited to write it, thank you~♥♥♥