The night sky was a beautiful shade of red, cascading its color across the land. Luhan would’ve found it mesmerizing if he wasn’t so paranoid. It wasn’t so dark and Xiumin was there by his side, yet Luhan kept his guard up, his eyes unconsciously darting around the woods. He didn’t feel safe. He felt as if every dark place was going to close in on him and eat him up.

“H-how much longer are we going to be there?” Luhan asked, already feeling as if they’ve been walking for years when in reality they’ve only been walking for five minutes.

“Not much longer.” Xiumin smiled, his smile calming down Luhan for a split second. “I’m sorry if you’re feeling scared. I should really look for a new Labradorite, huh?”

After his encounter with what he believed was a vampire, Xiumin had confirmed that His Labradorite had finally lost its powers, thus having a close encounter with the mysterious man.

“It’s fine. It didn’t get to me.” Luhan smiled sincerely.

“But it could have...and it would’ve been my fault.”

“Xiumin, it’s fine. Really. Let’s get back to Suho before he starts to panic, uh?”

Xiumin sighed, his head hung low, but nodded. The rest of the way was spent in silence, and Luhan continued to let his eyes wander around the woods. He didn’t know if his mind was playing games with him, but he occasionally saw a shadowy figure up in some tree or standing a few feet away, as if trying to hide within the darkness.

It must be my mind, Luhan thought because every time he tried to get a good look at the figure it seemed to have vanished, like it was never there. Eventually they made it back to the stream, and Luhan believed he was free from his weird imagination, but when he looked back, the silhouette of a person -or thing could be seen behind a tree. Luhan looked away, finally deciding with himself that he had gone crazy.

“Nice timing of you guys to show up!” Chen stood next to everyone else, his hands on his hips.

“We have good news and some bad news” Xiumin said, paying no mind to Chen. “What do you guys want first?”

“Bad news. Spill.” Baekhyun looked at Xiumin like he was about to tell him some juicy gossip.

 “We saw a vampire- well Luhan says it was. Whatever it was is still probably looking for us, which is why we need to go hide.”

“What?!” both Chen and Tao gasped.

“But You had your Labradorite, didn’t you?” Suho’s eyes narrowed.

Xiumin bit his bottom lip and nodded ,” I did, but I think it doesn’t work anymore. Chen and Baek did drop it.”

“We’ll have to look for a new one later.” Suho ran his hand through his hair,” what’s the good news?”

“We found a cave.” Luhan gave a contagious smile. “We can hide in there.”

Luhan wore a content smile, his back pressed against the cold cave wall and feet sprawled out in front of him and near the warmth of the fire. To his left side, BaekHyun's head laid on his shoulder with his legs tangled on top of Luhan’s . On his right side, Kyungsoo had his head resting on Luhan’s lap and with Chen curled to his side. Unfortunately for him, they were all fast asleep, but Luhan could care less. It was a bit uncomfortable, but not enough to get him to want to move.

“Uh, you alright there?” Tao, who was drawing random patterns on the ground with a small stick he had found, was now pointing it at Luhan and the mess around him.

“I’m fine. It’s actually pretty warm.” Luhan said, wiggling his now bare toes.

“You shouldn’t have taken off your shoes. Do you know how many bugs there are?!” Tao grimaced.

“Shut up, you big baby. Luhan’s not afraid of bugs like you are.” Suho commented while Xiumin laughed and Tao’s offended expression.

“Fine, but when one’s crawling all over you don’t come crying at me for help.”

 “I would never. You’ll just start crying for me to get away from you.” Suho teased, and Tao looked ready to throw anything he could get his hands on at him.

“I’m done with you. I’m going to sleep.” Tao dropped his stick and walked over to Chen’s side, laying down, his face facing the wall.

“Don’t let the bedbugs bite!” Suho laughed.

Tao growled, but did not reply back. It wasn’t long before Luhan could hear soft snoring. The three boys didn’t talk, only staring out into the woods or at the fire in the middle of the cave. It was a peaceful silence,something that hadn’t happened since they ran away from their home. Luhan eventually started to doze off, liking how comfortable the silence was until there was a sharp pain at his hip. He let out a small yell, barely audible, but Xiumin and Suho had caught it. He breathed heavily, already starting to sweat.

“H-hurts.” Luhan whimpered, legs curling up to his chest. He felt tears bubbling up in his eyes at the sudden pain.

It wasn’t like this before. Luhan thought as he whimpered again. His vision was extremely blurry that he didn’t even notice Xiumin and Suho pulling him away from the sleeping bodies. He could barely manage to hear them talking frantically, but the buzzing in his ears replaced the sound of their voices. He knew they had taken him outside because of the sudden coldness that surrounded him. He felt warm hands at his hot cheeks patting them repeatedly, as someone yelled his name.  

“Make it go away…”Luhan whispered before he passed out.

Luhan awoke with the bright sun hitting his eyes. He squinted and hissed, not pleased at how much brightness was hitting his face.

“L-Luhan!” Xiumin gasped, helping Luhan sit up.

“Are you alright?” Kyungsoo asked, joining Luhan on his right side.

“We were so worried!” Suho ran out of the cave with Baekhyun.

 “Can we go inside. It’s too hot out here.” Luhan fanned himself. “Why Am I even out here for?”

“Well we thought you could use some warm sunshine on that cold body of yours.” 

“We thought you could explain that.” Suho looked at Luhan questionably “ You were fine, but then you started crying in agony. Are you okay?”

Luhan paused for a moment, flashes from last night swarming his head.

“I’m fine now. Thank you. It’s just...I get this strong pain at my hip sometimes. It comes and go. Don’t get too concerned about it. I’m totally fine.” Luhan assured them, “Where’s Tao and Chen?”

“They went to go get some water. They should be back pretty soon.” Suho answered, still not fully convinced.

“We should go join them. I’m starting to stink.” Luhan brought his shirt to his nose and sniffed it before pulling back with a disgusted expression. Suho paused for a moment, debating his choices before he broke out into a smile.

“I think we could