[title song: let her go]

chapter 5;

Baekhyun pushes the door open and Hyemi winces at the slow creek resonating throughout the house. Finally, Baekhyun lets go of her arm and she rubs her wrist, wondering if he'll leave some kind of bruise. Hyemi looks up from her arm and stares at the delapidated house she is currently standing in. There's something eerie about the place and her temples throb almost in warning. Hyemi's gaze sweeps across the worn out hall to the broken floorboards to the scorched walls and she somehow manages to find her voice. "Should we even be in here?" She asks, eyeing the dipped cieling above the tattered couches, warily. She's sure the house is going to cave in at any moment.

"Do you want answers or not?" Baekhyun asks, from behind her, his voice soft as if he's afraid his voice alone could topple the house's fragile structure. She looks back at him with wide eyes and he's staring at her with impatience, waving his hands indicating her to move forward.

She stays where she is because something tells her that this is such a Bad Place. Something tells her she shouldn't move forward. "Do I have to?" She asks, in an admittedly small voice.

Baekhyun just sighs before she feels light fingers brush down her spine, comfortingly. She squeezes her eyes shut because, if anything, that is not helpinig at all. "You have to ignore your instincts, Hyemi-ah. Don't worry, okay? I'll be right behind you the entire time." Baekhyun murmurs in a low voice, the anger, although still there, is overcome with a sort of gentleness she's really really missed. She lets out the breath she didn't know she was holding and steps forwards, cautiously.

Baekhyun's hands are ghosting along her waist as he guides her forward and she tries to focus on his touch instead of the increasing pounding in her head. Hyemi stares at the set of stairs in front of her and it's like her whole body is telling her that that is the one place she should not enter. Which means, if she's to ignore her instincts, that that is definitely where she needs to go. She bites her lips, pausing at the foot of the stairs, before glancing behind her, locking eyes with Baekhyun.

Baekhyun nods, reassuringly, and she sighs before taking another cautious step forward. The stairs squeak beneath her added weight and she pauses before she takes another step. Soon she's at the very top of the stairs, staring through a pitch black doorway right in front of her. She steps into the room and that's when she realizes that the light pressure around her waist is gone and it's dead, dead silence.

She spins on her heels and Baekhyun is gone. He's ing gone. "Are you ing serious?" She mutters out into the empty hallway, her voice echoing eerily. She steps forwards, deciding she really needs to leave this room when the door slams shut in her face.

"Hyemi-ah." A chilly voice calls from directly behind her. Hyemi pauses, her fingers gripping the doorknob tightly, her breathing shallow to her own ears. Hyemi tugs at the door one last time and groans in frustration when the doorknob comes off. She drops it to the ground and takes a deep breath, her skin prickling, before she decides maybe she should actually face the person behind her. She turns on her heels and isn't really even surprised to see a cloaked figure standing before her, a scorched and splintered baby crib beside them.

Hyemi stares at the person and her heart clenches and she has the distinct feeling that she knows this person. "Who are you?" She asks, her tone sounding surprisingly steady.

The person reaches up and Hyemi watches as they drop the hood back. It's a woman, maybe in her mid thirties, and she looks beautiful, despite the burns running up and down the right side of her face, disappearing beneath her collar. What catches Hyemi's attention, however, is her eyes. They're a swirling mess of brown upon green upon gold and Hyemi's seen those eyes before. On herself. She blinks, not knowing what to do, "Mom?" She whispers in disbelief.

"You're quick to catch on, darling." Hyemi's supposedly dead mother replies with a gentle smile. What the ?

"What is going on?" Hyemi exclaims, irritably, shock making her throw politeness straight out the window (probably along with her sanity).

"Your world is in grave danger, Hyemi-ah." Hyemi's mother says, her voice full of a kind of ethereal authority that makes Hyemi immediately meet her gaze. "And it's up to you to stop it."

"What--"

That's when Hyemi's mother waves her hand and Hyemi is hit with a crippling sense of pain centered around her temple. She drops to her knees, gasping, and when she thinks it can't possibly get any worse, it does. She sees a flash of images, thousands upon thousands of scenes of places she's never even known before. A river of clear, clear water and specks of gold, a young girl with eyes so cunning twisting through towering legs, a loaf of bread in her hands, a line of red cloaked men squished together in a thin, crowded street, a face, a handsome regal man who's eyes tell of dark dark secrets as his mouth twists into a pleasant and welcoming smile. Hyemi clutches her head as she watches a young woman stand in a beautiful meadow, the look of a caged animal coloring her features, she watches as the young woman stands before a tree, a great, gigantic, looming tree that seems to sway and glow with so much power. Hyemi stops struggling with the visions, then, when she realizes that the young woman's eyes had changed, replaced by a swirl of colors, replaced by the familiar. The scenes quickly morph into something Hyemi finds beautiful, into careful trekking through a hole in the forest, into the feeling of euphoria despite the angry distant shouts, into city streets and honking cars and a confusing language, into a man with a kind smile and even kinder eyes, into a tiny little fist and even tinier fingers reaching into the high heavens, into love.

Then it all falls apart.

Hyemi watches as the caged animal look comes back, as that loves turns to shouting matches, as she leaves in the middle of the night. a wry, purposeful twist to her lips, a babie's cry drifting in the wind. Then there's the man again, aged lines marring his once handsome face, and that's when Hyemi sees images of a dying planet, of anger and despair and resentment, and those familiar eyes narrow angrily at the man before her before she laughs right in his face. There's a fight and Hyemi can't differentiate arm from arm or head from head. All Hyemi knows is that there's a winged beast and a burning, blazing fire swallowing everything whole. The pain in Hyemi's head reaches a peak before everything goes black as night. Then an old, withered tree appears, its roots shriveled and its mighty branches drooping miserably, and Hyemi can't stop staring at it. She feels drawn to it.

She sits up then, realizing that everything is incredibly silent again. Her mother is staring down at her with the gentlest of smiles. "Was that your life?" Hyemi asks, her voice hoarse.

Her mother looks so distant, her eyes blank, "Yes, it was. And it'll be yours, too."

Hyemi knows those places aren't of Earth. So she stares up at the woman before her, her mother, and speaks softly, "What do you mean? That tree...where are you from?"

Her mother looks down at her with so little emotion that it makes Hyemi's heart twist painfully. "I ran away from my duties as a vessel for The Tree of Life. And now my home is dying. It's your job to fix it. I wouldn't want this of you, but you're the only one that can do it. You've already been chosen and they'll come for you either way."

Hyemi stares at her mother in disbelief, anger bubbling up in her chest. "Are you telling me I have no choice in this? I have to clean up your mess, no matter what."

She speaks in a solemn tone, her words making Hyemi shiver. "That's the way of my home, Hyemi. You must always pay for the deeds of your ancestors until they are forgiven."

Hyemi can't help but glare at her mother. "That's ed up." She hisses because it is. She's always been taught that your parent's deeds don't define you and Hyemi knows it's true, so many of her friends have shown her how true that statement was. But now she was going to be hauled to a completely archaic and ed up place and pay for her mother's mistakes. Her hands shake and she realizes that she's a little scared, because she doesn't know where she's going to be taken to, she has no say in the matter apparently, and she's ninety-nine point nine percent sure everyone in this new place will hate her guts.

Hyemi doesn't miss the glint in her mother's eyes when she speaks again, her eyes locked onto Hyemi's. "I'm sorry, Hyemi. I'm sorry for leaving you with my burdens. But I'll give you one last piece of advice before I go: do not trust anyone. Do you hear me? Do not trust any of them, no matter how welcome they make you feel, no matter who they are to you in this world. Trust only yourself. Rely on only yourself."

Hyemi nods as she stares at her mother and her mind feels like it's on overdrive. "Do you regret us? Me and...and Dad?" Hyemi suddenly blurts out, her mind swimming with the memories of her mother actually being her mother. She feels like she's breaking in two as she watches her mother's hard expression soften considerably.

Hyemi watches as her mother shakes her head ever so slightly before she looks away and Hyemi thinks she wants to cry. "I am going to send you back, now." Her mother says in a soft, pillowy voice. Hyemi nods, a litte weakly, and watches as her mother waves her fingers. Hyemi's eyes begin to feel heavy and she gives in immediately, deciding she really doesn't want to be here anymore. She hears a distant "Goodbye, my child" before she hits into something hard.

Hyemi gasps at the pain, her eyes shooting open and curses her mother for a moment because would a soft landing be too much to ask? Her vision focuses on the face hovering above hers and she blinks for probably the thousandth time before she sighs, sitting up. She feels hands helping her up, gripping her back carefully.

"What did you see?" Baekhyun asks, almost immediately, his eyes searching hers, his bottom lip caught between his teeth.

She stares at him for a long time, trying to process everything she had just seen. Her mother had been chosen as the 'vessel for The Tree of Life' and Hyemi isn't even sure what that means. All she knows is that now she's been chosen and it's her job to fix what her mother had ruined. Baekhyun makes a small noise of impatience and taps her left cheek lightly with his long fingers. "What's the Tree of Life? What...do you hate my mother?" Hyemi finally asks (or rather blurts out).

"You'll know more about The Tree in time, Hyemi-ah." Baekhyun says, his eyes lighting up in understanding. "And why would I hate your mother. I never even knew her." Baekhyun adds but Hyemi doesn't miss the guarded look in his eyes. "Did you speak to her?"

Hyemi nods, still staring at him. "She told me what she did. She told me that I'd have to fix it."

He smiles softly then and pats her knee, consolingly. "Don't worry, Hyemi. You're nothing like your mother. You can do this. And I'll be there to guide you every step of the way, Hye. All you have to do is trust me."

Hyemi stares past Baekhyun and his sweet smile and the way his nose wrinkles and flattens cutely, her mother's words running through her head like a mantra. Do not trust anyone. Trust only yourself. Rely on only yourself. 

Hyemi nods and whispers, "I trust you."

Baekhyun smiles, satisfied, as he wraps a gentle arm around her waist and leads her out of the broken house. Song Hyemi wonders if she had just lied to Baekhyun because honestly she's not entirely sure what Byun Baekhyun is to her. She's not sure if he's working for her or against her and it terrifies her more than anything else.

a/n: wellllllllllllllllllllllllllllll now you all know that this is taking a mama era powers kind of story arc so yay?

tell me all your thoughts and theories i would very much like to know tbh hahah

(((speaking of baekhyun he is literally my muse so i write about him too much, anyways i have a twoshot written and could you guys check it out please? yeah i am totally advertising fic right now but heyyy whatever. here's the link (i am uncreative when it comes to oc names i am sorry)!!!: http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/627109/all-the-time-in-the-world-romance-originalcharacter-exo-kai-baekhyun-byunbaekhyun-baekhyunxoc ps. it's rated m for woops)))

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