A/N: this is one long chapter...sorry OTL but i couldn't find a proper place to just cut it off...hope you like it anyways

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"How are you doing?" Chanyeol asks me for the twelfth time in this hour.

"Never better." I wheeze out half heartily.

He says nothing else after that. Honestly, I'm grateful for just this amount of worry from him. Knowing how he could be the complete opposite. After he realized that I was really freezing he brought the fire back to his hand and held it out for me. For some reason he seemed awkward holding it out. 

Although the fire was very warm and calmed my sniffling, it hadn't stopped the sneezing or coughing completely. After a couple that left me gasping for air, he stops in his tracks and stares at me. I stare back with a raised and lowered eyebrow. Then he swiftly takes off his coat and hands it to me, leaving him with nothing but a black short sleeved shirt.

"No, no," I hold my hands out, rejecting the coat. 

"Take it." he urges and pushes the coat towards me again. I frown and shake my head.  Then he gets a sour look on his face. "Just take it while I'm being nice."

For a second longer I look him over before hesitantly accepting the long coat. Once it's out of his grasp he turns on his heel and walks, as usual. I stare after him then shrug my shoulders. I walk some paces behind him and start to slip my arms in to the sleeves of the coat. 

I'm more than grateful when my whole body is enveloped in the warmth of his coat. It's as if I'm surrounded by fireplaces. A soft hum vibrates through my throat with a smile. Again, he stops in his tracks and looks at me with a blank face.

"Is it that serious?" he speaks, a bit irritated.

"Uh-huh," I nod my head vigorously with a broadening smile. "It's so warm and comfortable."

He continues to stare at me blankly. Then I see a slight twitch of the corner of his lip. A twitch of a growing grin. But it disappears just as quickly and subtly as it had come. The same shift and twist of his heels sends him walking. I skip up behind, feeling a lighter mood from the warmth covering me and a sign of some happiness on his face.

"Hey," I call to him, still skipping along.

"Hm?" he acknowledges without opening his mouth.

"Who are you?" 

He hesitates before answering. "You already know who I am. Chanyeol."

"No, duh. I know you're name." I roll my eyes. "I mean what are you? Who were those others that were like you?"

"Why do you want to know?"

I scoff. "Why wouldn't I want to know? I'm stuck in a place that I have absolutely no knowledge of whatsoever. Plus, supernatural stuff has happened. Things I never imagined were possible. Not to mention the fact that something ridiculously huge is going on."

I pause here and wait for an answer but there is none, so I continue speaking.

"Though I am a bit freaked out and scared about the things I've seen in only a matter of a few days, I'm still quite curious. Curious about every little thing. From the reason and way I got here to what those creatures were. The big furry beasts and those screeching monsters. I want to know you more than them though."

At my last words he gives me a sideways look.

"Not for any reasons outside the fact that I'm stuck with you and you aren't trying to kill me." I say quickly before he gets any ideas.

This time it's his turn to smirk and roll his eyes. "Who says I'm not trying to kill you?"

I stare thoughtless at the fact he's pointed out. Then shake it off with a dry laugh. "Ha, funny joke."

He snickers and shakes his head till once again we are in silence. I'm bored out of my mind but at least it's still warm in this coat. A coat that I've been struggling to keep on. The sleeves are much too long and completely cover up my hands. The thing refuses to stay up on my shoulder so I'm always shuffling and shimmying it back up, trying my best to hold it in place over myself.

"Damn this damned coat." I hiss under my breath when it slides down my shoulders and I trip over the hem of the coat.

"What are you swearing about?" a hint of laughter in his usually dark voice.

"This coat wont stay on." I complain while adjusting the coat that refuses to co-operate with me. I mumble some more as I fight with the clothing.

"Stop, before you rip it." he huffs and shoves my hands away from the coat and down to my sides.

He proceeds to yank the coat in to place, causing me to loose my footing and stumble some steps towards him. I stare up at him as he buttons the coat up, attention set on the task. When he gets up to the top button he realizes I'm staring and stares back. That moment from the dream flashes in my mind making me flinch and jerk away from the gaze and his hold violently.

"What was that?" he asks, clueless to the vision that startled me. I shake my head, refusing to look at him. "Whatever."

Hours upon hours later we come to an empty and run down building much like the one I arrived at when I first came here. Except this one is much smaller and not on such a higher scale as that other one once was. A sigh of relief escapes me as we continue to approach the place. Hopeful that there will be something, anything, that we could put to use.

I peek around, following close behind him, checking for any signs of others. Wishing that there aren't and that if there must be someone here that they won't be harmful to us. More specifically me seeing as I'm the more helpless one. Not noticing a thing, I focus on the building. At the entrance, Chanyeol carefully pushes the door open and peeks inside. I struggle to peek around him who is blocking the door way until he enters.

Our feet make light creaking noises on the old wooden floorboards. I examine the unsteady floor with unease, wondering if it's such a good idea to be walking on them. Feels as if they could give way at any moment. There's no telling what's under this floor either. It could be a far drop or some creepy basement. A shudder runs through my body as I pull my attention away from the danger of the floor to an empty area.

Where did he go off to? I scan the open area that is empty except for old furniture and dust. A sitting set that might have once been red is now dingy and coated in a thick layer of dust. Coffee table set in the middle of the formation of couches and lamp tables. To the farthest right wall there is a wide glass cabinet with items inside and on top of it.

Forgetting about Chanyeol's whereabouts, I make my way over to the cabinet. On top of it there are books and a box. I pick one of the books and shake the dust off, scrunching up my nose from the debris that starts to float around. With a cleared off book, I open it and examine the markings. The same kind of markings that I remember from that one book that Chanyeol had. Now I come to the fact that it must be their language.

I continue 'reading' the language as if I could understand it then place it back down among the others.  My attention is then captivated by the box sitting on the edge of the cabinet. Carefully, very carefully, I lift up the lid. What I see inside makes my eyes go wide and round. It's filled with jewels and bright trinkets. The shininess of the items in the box are a big contrast to the dustiness of it's environment. 

"Wow~" I breath out as I graze one of the items with my finger.

"What are you doing?" a sudden voice startles me.

I gasp, drop the lid of the box that closes with a soft thump, and clutch at my chest before spinning around. There, at the entrance to a narrow hallways stands Chanyeol with a suspicious look on his face.

"Good heavens, you scared me." I take a deep breath to calm down my racing heart.

"What were you doing?" he questions again, leaning to look at the cabinet behind me.

"I was looking at the cabinet." I reply once my heart returns to regular speed. "Books and a box. A box filled with jewels."

"What?" he shakes his head and walks towards me then past me to the box on the cabinet.

I walk over to stand next to him as he opens the box. Sure enough his expression mimics mine when I first saw the items inside. He reaches in and pulls out a round red ruby then squints his eye as he peers deeply inside of it. A frown sets on his face as he pulls it from his eye.

"What is it?" I ask curiously, reaching to take the ruby for my own observation. But he removes it from my reach. 

"Hey, I want to see." I nearly whine and reach again only to have it pulled out of my reach again. 

I glare at the side of his face as he replaces the item and picks up a book. The same book that I dusted and 'read'. This time, as he reads, an expression grows on his face. Not a good one. A darkening one. I frown and come to his shoulder to read along. I look up to his face and from the book to figure what parts he's on, but it's no use.

"What is it?" I demand more forcefully.

"It's nothing." he concludes, a face that was darkened suddenly returning to normal.

"What do you mean, 'it's nothing'---?" I begin but get cut off.

"There is a room down the hall that is suitable to sleep in. A bed and blankets. You should get some rest." he says, not looking at me and instead shuffling the other books to knock the dust off.

"I'm not tired." I boldly lie, knowing I'm absolutely exhausted. The curiosity doesn't want me to sleep. Not now.

"Just go and rest. You're going to need it. We've still got a ways to go." then he turns his back full towards me, signaling that he's obviously finished speaking with me.

I do the most childish thing, sticking my tongue out at him, since I know I can't do anything else. With one last wish to be able to beat the answers out of him, I turn and make my way down the hall. The first door on the left is the only one that's opened so I figure that it must be the room he spoke of. I enter to a small space that is scarcely filled save for a small bed, a desk with a chair, and an wooden closest. 

The comfortable looking bed draws me towards it. Making me realize just how exhausted and tired both my mind and body are. It doesn't go through my mind twice that I have no idea who's bed it belongs to. No, I stumble right on over and flop on to it. In a matter of seconds my head starts to feel light with the ease of the cushion underneath me. My mind goes silent as I quickly drift off to sleep.

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A few times I awoke through the night. The first time, I woke with a blanket over me. Though my mind was still a bit fuzzy, I don't remember pulling over a blanket. I was much too tired to do so. The second time, I was without a jacket but the covers were over me and a small fire was lit in the middle of the room. Just enough to keep the chill away.

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I wake up to a dark room, feeling like my body is on fire with pain. Literally, my body feels as if it's on fire. A thick layer of sweat coats my body as I lay completely still wishing for the pain to go away. A pain originating from the sides of my stomach. My heart beats furiously in my chest, panicking.

"Cha-" I open my mouth to speak but it immediately begins to hurt. I try again with more effort but this time my throat constricts, cutting off my primary passage for air supply.

Now I'm completely panicking. Despite the pain wracking my body from head to toe, I sit up and get off the bed. Each little centimeter of movement hurts like hell. As if I knew what hell felt like but I'm sure it's similar if not the exact same. In crippling pain I try to head for the door. Trying to keep on my feet as the room spins and my legs seem to give way.

I finally make it to the door and reach for the handle. As my hand wraps around the copper piece my hand comes in to my blurry vision. I squint my eyes, trying to focus in on the blur in my sight. Every few seconds it clears up then distorts again, like a camera lense that is trying to capture a shot. 

It's really irritating and only gives me a few short seconds to tell that my hand has gotten worse. Meaning that more than likely my body looks even worse. It sure feels much worse. I ignore the image of myself looking grey and sickly to exit the room. Even with my constricted throat I try calling out for him.

I get down to the opening of the hall expecting to see him somewhere in the area but he's nowhere in sight. More panic as I back up in to the hallway to search another room. Hoping he's just resting in one of them. The first door right across from mine definitely tells me that he had been here. Evidence of his presence from the still crackling fire in the middle of the room and the bag he had stuffed things in before we left that other house. But he isn't here at all.

'Where is he?' I question in my head as I enter deeper in to the room. 

I'm immediately drawn to the bag lying next to the bed. I continue to stumble over in pain until the bag is right at my feet. Gently, I bend down to pick it up off the floor. My body must be weaker because picking up the bag was difficult and painful. I drop the bag on to the bed to open and go through it. I rummage through it until my hands grab a hold of a soft cover.

When I lift my hand out of the bag it reveals to be the notebook I had first looked through those days ago. I don't bother trying to look through it again and replace the book, instead grabbing on to something a bit smaller but a book as well. It looks more like a memo pad than anything else. I open this one and strain my eyes once more to focus on the little letters.

My sight focus just long enough for me to take in a whole page. A page covered in sketches made with a pen but drawn perfectly. Markings of his language drawn next to each one. I curse under my breath when I start to try and point out what exactly the drawings are and my eyes blur out. Suddenly it comes right back, giving me time to completely take in the sketches. 

One of the sketches registers in my head right away as the phoenix mark on his brooch. There are more next to it. One a dragon with fire, another like an ice flake, and many more. For some reason I get the feeling that these symbols go to some person as the phoenix goes to him. On the page right next to it I see a picture of that flying beast that had caught a hold of me. At the image my blood starts to boil and not because of this sickness. More because it's that beasts fault that I'm in such bad condition.

Just as I'm thinking this I hear that horrid shriek echo around me in to my ears. I jump and look around, thinking that I was just recalling those sounds. I know this is not the case when I hear it again and drop the pad to cover my ears. My eyes stare around wildly, hoping it's just me recalling that noise they made. They can't be here. Not here. He said they wouldn't come back.

My whole body jumps with the sound of breaking glass and a huge blurry image dropping in through the window. Though my eyesight isn't clear, I don't need it to make out the shape of large dark wings and a body standing in between them. In total shock I just stand and stare, only trembling.

"You don't look so well." a cold and heartless voice speaks in a low rasp. "I knew I'd be able to find you. My scent is heavy on you now from those scratches."

A chilling silence as he breaths in rasps.

"Where did that fire boy go off to? Did he abandon you?" he asks with an evil chuckle. "Must have. You're just going to slow him down."

I want to say something defiant to the beast but my lungs won't allow it to happen. So I'm stuck with a pinched mouth.

"Well, enough chit-chat for now." he concludes with a sigh. "I'll just let 'him' speak with you."

'Him?' Who's 'him?' I wonder in fear as my feet come to there senses and I make a run for it. I turn on my heel and jet out the door and down the hall. Each landing step sends the worst pain through my body. I figure that as long as I get away from this thing that I'll at least still be alive to feel any pain.

A loud and deafening shriek makes me want to turn and see where it is but I keep running. 

"There's no point in running, little girl!" I hear it shout from the room.

I keep running anyways. Who knows, maybe I'll get lucky. Not likely.

Out in the cold dark night, I rush through the small opened field and in to the trees. Another loud screech tells me that it is following me. It's just like the first time I was chased by it. Already, I know it's going to get me. The sound of its wide wings gets heavier as it approaches close. This is it.

Right at those last thoughts I feel claws grip in to my shoulders. Somehow my lungs are released and I'm able to let out a scream of terror and pain. It's claws dig even deeper as I'm lifted clear off the ground.

"CHANYEOL! WHERE ARE YOU?!" I shout at the top of my scorching throat.

A ball of fire lights up somewhere in the trees under my feet. It's him. 

"You're too late!" the beast cackles down and swerves out of the fireballs line. 

It's too late.