“Zhang Yixing, can you hear me?” A dark, ominous voice asked, seemingly simultaneously coming from all and no directions. Yixing sat up on the damp floor and groaned in pain, rubbing the back of his head where the soreness stemmed from. In too much agony to answer verbally, he nodded and hoped that whoever had spoken to him could see him. They could. “Good. Now, I trust you know why you’re here?” Yixing nodded again. “Speak, child. Tell me why you’re here – just so I know you know.”

      Yixing groaned again, but he resorted to answering anyway (he could tell that whoever was speaking to him wasn’t intending on letting him get away without replying). “To kill Kim Minseok.” Who this Kim Minseok was, he didn’t know. Where he was? That was something else that he didn’t know.

     “That’s right, child. You’re going to kill him – unless, of course, he kills you first.” Without warning, a bright ray of light pierced the darkness surrounding Yixing and a tiny collection of objects materialised by his feet. He crouched down to examine them carefully and consequently saw that they were not just any objects, but weapons: a sword, a knife, a mace and a scythe. “You must choose your weapon carefully, for you have only one chance to prove that you’re worthy.”

     He was too tired to be motivated to fight, even if the result of not fighting – or fighting poorly and losing – was death. “Do I really have to?” He sighed, not thinking that perhaps his refusal to carry out the task would provoke the one speaking to him.

     It did provoke them. “Of course you have to! How dare you question me?!” The voice bellowed, rumbling like thunder.

     “Fine,” Yixing sighed again and cautiously picked up a weapon at random; it happened to be the dagger. Without even looking at it properly, he replied “Alright, I’ll take this.”

     That seemed to anger the other even more. “No!” The voice roared furiously. “Your life is on the line! Minseok will be here and ready to destroy you at any moment! Do you not care at all? If that’s the case, then maybe you don’t deserve the prize after all!” The voice seemed to soften after a moment. “You must choose carefully, child. Think about your weapon choice with caution – it could determine your destiny.”

     Yixing rolled his eyes and pretended to think about his choice of weapon, though he wasn’t even intending to fight; he was so exhausted that death was beginning to look like the preferable option. He picked up each weapon carefully, scanned it with his eyes, and gently placed it back down on the floor. After doing this once with every weapon, he picked up the dagger again. “I choose this.”

     It seemed that the owner of the mysterious voice was aware of Yixing’s pretence, because they let out an audibly sigh. “Very well, child. Oh look, your enemy has arrived – and not a moment too soon.”

     As they spoke, a boy – perhaps a few years older than Yixing – appeared in the darkness, carrying a massive scythe. “Zhang Yixing, I presume?” He seemed reasonably friendly – however that didn’t mean that they weren’t going to fight each other.

Yixing nodded at him in response. “Kim Minseok, I presume?”

Minseok grinned at him. “That’s right. How do you want to do this?”

Yixing assumed he was talking about fighting; what a strange question to ask though. “To be honest, I’d rather not fight at all.”

 His adversary’s smile widened. It wasn’t an evil, sinister smile; it was a kind, genuine one. “I know – same here. But I guess it doesn’t matter what we want. We have to fight until one of us is dead; it’s the rules.”

“Yeah.” Yixing agreed and shifted into a fighting position. Minseok did the same and raised his scythe.

     “You may begin your battle now, my precious little children.” The voice spoke in a sickeningly kind way that both the boys sense wasn’t entirely genuine – what choice did they have though? They couldn’t just refuse to fight; they suspected that they’d both be killed for that.

     Minseok made the first move and darted towards his opponent, his scythe raised and ready to strike. Yixing stood there dumbly, actually planning to let his rival slice through him. But his instincts took over his body at the last second and he jumped out of the way a moment before Minseok swung his weapon, meaning that he narrowly survived the attack. Damn. What is wrong with me? Yixing questioned himself.

     “Hey, I believe it’s your turn now.” Minseok’s voice interrupted his thoughts and he looked up at him with a confused expression, so Minseok decided to elaborate. “Since neither of us want to do this, we’re going to do it fairly.”

Yixing nodded in agreement, but hesitated afterwards instead of making a move. “If I go near you – anywhere near you – you’ll be able to get at me easily.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted? I mean, you don’t exactly look like you particularly want to win, no offense.”

“None taken. It’s true – or it I think it’s true. Somehow I- I don’t know…” Yixing trailed off, pondering what was happening to him when suddenly his instincts took control of him again. Without warning, he took aim and hurled his dagger across to his rival, who struck at it with his scythe, causing the knife to bounce off it and land in some unknown corner of the darkness.

     “Nicely done, but not good enough.” Minseok commented. When Yixing didn’t move, he spoke to him again. “Go and get your dagger back then – it wouldn’t be fair otherwise.” He waited patiently and watched as Yixing searched in the darkness for his dagger. “Have you found it yet?” He asked after he’d been waiting for several minutes. Yixing elicited a surprised yelp then and turned round to face his adversary with a pained look on his face. Worried, Minseok sprinted over to him. “Yixing, are you alright?” Then he looked down and saw the blood gushing out of his enemy’s bare left foot.

“Help,” Yixing whimpered. He sounded terrified. “I was wrong. I don’t want to die. It hurts and- Oh God, there’s so much blood.”

Xiumin rushed forwards to catch him as his eyes closed and his knees buckled. He reached him just in time to stop him from hitting the floor, but he knew that there was no way to help him now. “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything.” He stayed there, kneeling on the floor, cradling his rival’s limp body as it bled.

     “Just leave him, child. He’ll be dead soon. You win by default on account of your opponent’s ridiculous clumsiness.” The voice commanded, but Minseok ignored it and refused to leave Yixing’s body.

“I didn’t want to win like this.” He whispered through his inevitable yet inexplicable tears.