"I- I'm a.. An Elementalist." I blurted out, not even knowing what the heck was an Elementalist. I decided to lie instead of telling them what I really was. But the worst thing was, I didn't even plan out my lie.

"...An Elementalist..?" Yoona drummed her fingers on the table as she raised an eyebrow and Leeteuk blinked rapidly.

"But- You don't really look like one." He nodded while pointing at my ragged, dirty clothing, and I frowned.

"I.. Practiced too much?" I tried to think of more excuses, and stated my answer more like a question rather than a statement.

"But- didn't you say you were a human back-" Heechul moved in front and pointed at me.

"NOPE AH AH- I- UM- I-LALALALA-" I cut him off, gaining more suspicious stares from mostly everyone.

The mermaids looked at each other confusingly, and shrugged. I continued again, making up words by the second.

"Human..?" Yoona shook her head. "That sounds really familiar. Donghae?"

Donghae nodded and gave me a look.

I stared back, wondering what the heck was he doing, and he let out a deep breath and shook his head after that.

"...She's lying." 

My eyes widen, and I shook my head weakly. What could I do now? They have a mind- reader on their team, and a liar on mine. They were definitely going to kill me now, make me a slave and torture me and everything.

Yoona frowned and shook her head, while Leeteuk sighed.

"There's no need to lie, you know," Yoona nodded. "We won't harm you, no, of course not."

"Come on, voice a little? I can literally see the fear lingering in your eyes." Leeteuk smiled a bit, and he did look a little less intimidating.

"I... I don't trust you," I frowned. "You- You're going to kill me- I just know it- I- E-Even if you're not, you're going to turn me into a slave and torture me- I- I'm- Scared! Let me go- I want to go-" I begun to freak out, everything was blurry in my eyes, as my tears built up, and I tried standing up, but my legs were still numb, and I ended up falling down.  "-home. I WANT TO GO HOME!"

The group widen their eyes and started moving towards me, and it scared me even more. Images of them- hanging me, torturing me- burning me. I was starting to loose my breath as they were closing in, I crawled towards the wall we came from, and my back hit the wall as I screamed out cries of help, of wanting a home, of wanting the warm feeling I used to felt.

I was definitely scared in this world. Murders and sharp- claws and fangs flashed through my mine. I couldn't take it anymore. 

I sobbed tears, my face ugly as I look at their worried expressions.

Why- Why were they worried? My heart beat rate could've reached the top by now.

The mermaids closed in on me, Tiffany cupped my cheeks while telling me to.. calm down?

I couldn't make out the words they were saying- 

I remembered that tattoo- Donghae's tattoo- That tattoo was familiar, I've- I've seen it before.

Strangled cries of help the only thing I heard, stabs, kills and murders were the only things I saw.

I cried, and cried so much, my eyes hurt, my nose red, and everyone tried to calm me down. I looked horrible, I knew that, but I was scared. Scared of everything.

I'm not the person with lots of courage, unlike those main characters from movies and novels.

I was the person who envied them, praying everyday I could have that courage for once, not being scared of anything, fear nothing, and faced everything, instead of running away.

I looked at my hands, oh my hands that were stained with dried blood, with dirt. They were trembling so much- my lips were trembling too, my muffled cries were heard, my eyes were burning.

The only thing I remembered was dropping to the ground, looking at everyone with dried, salty tears as images of the tattoo flashed through my mind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

I woke up to the white ceiling, blinding my eyes as I rubbed them groggily, and sat up slowly, hearing a few cracks here and there. My body felt sore, and I couldn't remember anything. All there was there, floating in my head was that.. tattoo Donghae had flashed at the entrance, and me.. crying.

I frowned at that memory, mentally cursing myself for being so.. so weak. Useless. Like a kid lost in a mall.

I had let my guard down just like that- by.. by crying and wailing, and them helping me indeed twisted the embarassing thorn in my pride. I shook my head in attempt to forget about the memory but failed, and frowned. Why do I keep on remembering the embarassing things rather than the important things?

I sat up, and blinked at my sudden change of clothes. I was wearing a white dress that reached my thighs with shorts that reached my thighs. It was comfortable, yes, but I didn't fail to notice the scars around my body, revealed, unlike the ragged clothing I used to wear.

The dress revealed my big scar on my left shoulder, cuts along my arms and legs. It was quite a sight, but they didn't hurt that much as they did before. My body felt sore, and I stood up unwillingly, as my muscles tightened at every movement. 

The soft carpeted floor calmed me down though, I let my bare feet feel the soft fabric and calmed myself down. The room was supposedly empty, only consisting of a large, big mirror I was standing in front of, and the bed I was settled in. The mirror showed off my fragile body more, my hair was in a tangled mess, the ponytail wasn't exactly in the right place anymore.

I took off my hairband and adjusted it more, getting annoyed countless of times while trying to comb my hair using my fingers. My face was anything but pure, eyebags were seen and a small cut was also obvious on my cheek, but I shrugged it off, not even knowing where did I get that.

I was getting used to these cuts, they were turning into scars. But the large one on my left shoulder, that seemed to trail along my collarbone seemed to make me cringe as I remembered the past where I had been attacked by a wolf. I looked around some more, a beautiful door was set on my right, and I opened it, looking at the majestic, hollow hallway I remembered from where I had been wheeled in with Donghae.

I didn't know what to do. Escape? Or find help? What could I do?

I could definitely do anything, but both choices had so many ridiculous flaws I began to rethink my choices. 

At last, I remembered why I broke down, weak, crying and scared.

I would be their slave, tortured, handcuffed to a dungeon.

If I ran away I could avoid all this, right?

So I setted my mind on that, forgetting the kindness of the mermaids I had met, the nice vibe Kibum and Ryeowook had showed, the funny side of Heechul, and Donghae's nice, calm nature. Instead, I looked for ways to escape. The hallways were completely empty, and the echoes of my feet didn't actually help.

Knights that were lined up at each door were actually pretty intimidating, and scenes of them coming alive made my skin crawl, and I fasten my pace. I was met with two stairs that swirled to reach downstairs, and walked quietly, finally reaching the two main doors. Opening them with every ounce of strength I had, they obeyed, and I was met with the beautiful sight of the garden.

Except that now, it wasn't so beautiful anymore.

The fountain that had been beautiful spraying out clear water now spraying out red, water or blood, I didn't want to know. The flowers that had been decorated around the household all turned bloody red, except for their leaves and stem, which remained smoky black. Weirdly enough, now that I had been walking past, they weren't burnt, they dripped red liquid, which what I guessed as blood.

It freaked me out more, and ignored the flowers and reached the gigantic gates. I forgot one, important detail. How was I going to get past these doors. I recalled, Donghae entered with some mantra and his tattoo. I didn't have that, how could I actually escape?

Then I realised the sharp rose bush that had been the fence for the household, leaves were all rather smoky black, rather than apple green. I could see the sharp thorns, and I was completely dumbstruck on how the heck would I get past through there. I couldn't climb the door, it would take ages. The rose bushes were smaller, but they were completely lethal, and dangerous. 

But nevertheless, I'd like to try, and it was one big step, was it not?

So I looked around for materials, nothing could be used except I saw shears nearby, and ran to it, yanking it away from the other gardening tools and kept it for defense. I began to climb, my dress getting torn here and there, but not that I care. The shears served a great purpose too, it helped me cut off the big thorns, and I had actually used it to climb.

I thank the god that the rose bush wasn't that tall, but my white dress was now decorated with fresh blood, more from my arms and legs. I tried to balance my self when I reached the top, taking a deep breathe before trying to climb down. Once I was halfway, the shears I had used got caught up in the bush and I tried pulling it out, resulting into me losing my grip.

I screamed bloody murder, probably waking all the demons in the land I landed on my arse first, my body hurting as hell, I was wondering if I broke a few bones here and there. My shears landed beside me, missing my face by a few inches, and I tried sitting up again.

It hurts, everything hurts, but I couldn't give up. I surely did broke a few bones, every movement I make seemed to hurt, blood was oozing from every cut I had from the thorns. I took the forest path, using the usual tiled path would surely make myself seemed more obvious, and suddenly, I was starting to loose grip on my shears, my vision started to blurry, but I make haste, as I saw a cabin nearby, and stopping in front of there instead, fainting into an abyss with every part of my body hurting.