About ten days later…

'What are you doing here?' Sehun's whisper made Mei drop the fan she was holding in front of her face. 'Oui?' She asked, faking an accent and hoping the beauty spot would fool him.

'Cut it out, I know it's you, Mei… and Kai, you can take that mustache off, it's not fooling anyone.'

Mei sighed dejectedly, pulling the shades off. 'What gave it away?' She demanded. Her disguise had been perfect.

'Baekhyun…'

She turned her head around to see Baekhyun, Chanyeol, D.O, Kyra, Tao and Raina walking out in a single file from their hiding place.

'Leave.' Sehun folded his arms over his chest. 'Now.'

'But we're just trying to help…' Baekhyun told him, smiling charmingly.

'I mean it.' Sehun continued glaring at them until Baekhyun let out a loud sigh. 'Fine… do what you want. Let's leave, people. Spoilsport!' He stuck his tongue out at Sehun before walking off.

Kyra apologized, 'I'm sorry. He said this place was famous for its good food.'

Sehun looked like he'd snap but D.O appeared over her shoulder, glaring at the cub, so he desisted. 'That's okay.' He muttered with ill-grace, waving them off before turning to glare at Kai and Mei.

'Do I even want to know?'

'I'm rooting for you!' Mei raised a tiny flag she'd snagged from the amusement park Sehun had taken Tiffany to, waving it around. 'Fighting!'

'Leave.' She sighed at his curt order, then nodded. 'Fine, I'll leave. But make sure you kiss her, okay? She likes that and…'

'Mei!' Kai gave her a push to force her to move because Sehun's continued absence was making Tiffany suspicious, so she was glancing around. 'Just move.'

'Remember, kiss her!' Her whispered instruction rang through the restaurant as Kai all but carried her off. Her last sight was Sehun smacking a hand over his face before Kai put her down.

'Do you think she heard us?' She asked Kai, loosening the scarf she'd tied around her neck as part of her disguise.

'I think she heard that last part.' Kai took off the fake mustache he'd been sporting, pulling off the monocle and blinking rapidly. 'Geez, it's hard to wear these things.'

'You looked kind of cool with that though… very old school. Now, if you had a top hat and a cape…'

'Mei, we're supposed to be inconspicuous.' Kai laughed at her description. She sniffed. 'Well, I still think it'd look cool.'

'Yeah, yeah… let's go.'

They started chattering as they made their way back to the girls' hostel. 'Okay, see you later. Night.'

Kai waved her off, and she made her way inside, wondering how she'd pass the time. Tiffany was out on her date, Angel out with her parents; Raina was hanging out with Kyra because they were bestfriends and Lily was busy with the shop, as usual. And so, Mei was alone.

Luhan – and in fact, all his brothers – had been increasingly busy. Sehun and even Kai had missed a classes and Raina had told her Lay, Tao, Baekhyun and Chanyeol were the same. It was like they were taking turns doing something and weren't resting all that much because almost all of them were sporting eyebags to compare with Tao's. When she'd asked Kai, he'd told her to ask Luhan, who'd told her he'd explain everything the next time they met.

Unfortunately, that next time wasn't going to be until tomorrow. He'd told her he was busy tonight with 'night duty'.

'There's something we need to talk about.' He told her just this morning, 'but until we do, I want you to be very, very careful. Don't go anywhere alone and if something, anything strange happens, tell me immediately, okay?'

She'd agreed to it but she was unsure if her nightmares counted as unusual. She'd had these kinds of dreams before, when she'd been younger. She'd wake up, terrified and feeling like something was pressing down on her, making her unable to move or make any sounds.

'Sleep paralysis,' Aria had told her, ' is very common. Most people mistake it for someone or something paralyzing them – makes for a good horror story around the camp fire – but its nothing unusual… the brain is pretty much shut down in sleep so your muscles can't move, is all.'

True, it had been some time ago and the nightmares had suddenly started up again last week but it could be because of that horror movie marathon she'd had with Tiffany; really, nightmares couldn’t count as unusual.

But he'd asked her specifically.

She picked up her cellphone, wondering… she was meeting him first thing tomorrow – he'd promised to pick her up from the hostel and they'd spend the day together… she could tell him then. He was busy tonight, it'd be silly to disturb him about her dreams.

She bit her lip, eyeing her bed a bit apprehensively.

Tiffany was going to come in late, probably. Maybe if she switched beds – and kept the night light on – she'd sleep better. She wanted to get a good night's sleep tonight so she'd look good in the morning – after all, the nightmares had kept her up late a few times and she didn't want to meet Luhan with eye-bags decorating her face.

Decided, she picked up her pillow and her plushie – Cuddles – and set it on Tiffany's bed, going to the toilet to change and clean up before slipping under covers. It was a little early to be going asleep right now but beauty sleep was important.

Smiling in anticipation of the morning, excited to see Luhan again, she closed her eyes. Even though they'd been together for so many months now, every day with him felt like heaven and she missed him every time he wasn't around…

Her eyes opened to complete, impenetrable darkness.

She blinked a few times, waiting for eyes to adjust before she realized, with a start, what was happening.

No… she protested in her mind. No, she'd switched beds tonight, she'd kept the night-light on, why was it happening again? Why?

She tried to sit up, putting all her strength to move herself but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't budge an inch. She looked despraingly into the darkness, feeling the pressure on her wrists that was keeping her restrained, unable to move a muscle as it kept her glued to the bed.

She tried to scream, to make noise but her cords choked up, like something was blocking her airway and then something was pressing against her chest, pushing her down, sinking her further and further into the bed. The springs creaked in protest and she tried to cough, to make a sound but it was impossible.

As she struggled to move her body, she felt a distinctive touch against her legs, fingers sliding up her limbs before the quilt – which was covering her nearly up to her chin – started sliding away.

Terror shot through her. She wasn’t alone in here, in this room. This wasn't any sort of sleep paralysis, there really was something here, climbing over her, choking her.

Just as she realized that, fingers tightened against , crushing it horribly and whatever that thing was materialized. A dull red, soulless and dead as the darkness that surrounded her, peered straight into her eyes and she screamed, terrified.

She woke with a start, sitting up, heart thundering, a scream still lingering on her lips. The night light blinked innocently, bathing the room in a warm, golden hue that was so different from the darkness of her horrifying nightmare. She swallowed, breathing heavily and leaned back against the headboard.

This had been worse than before – it had felt so real, she could still feel those fingers tracing over her legs, crushing her trachea. She coughed, more to hear herself, to make sure she was awake, than anything else. Pulling her legs up, she waited for her heart to settle down before deciding she had to tell Luhan now.

'I'm scared… I keep having this nightmare and I thought you should know about it…' she typed, hesitating before hitting send. Relaxing a little, she decided to get some water and headed towards the toilet, picking her glass from the side table.

As she opened the tap to fill the water, she avoided looking into the mirror. It was showing the room behind her, dull compared to the bright toilet light, and she didn’t like it. Just then, her cellphone beeped and she smiled, relaxing even more. Luhan had replied. Hurriedly, she straightened and her eyes landed on the mirror.

The glass fell from her fingers as she stumbled backwards because that darkness, that… that shadow was…

The door behind her swung shut and lights wents out, locking her inside the toilet.

'NO!!!' she screamed at the top of her lungs, eyes fixed on the dull red that was approaching her, the darkness thickening to that almost tangible viscosity and oh God, she had to get out or she'd choke up again and…

 Fingers… no, claws, brushed the back of her neck, almost caressing, lifting her hair. Screaming again, she swung around, fear giving her the strength to yank the door open. It was dark outside, the night-light gone and she didn't stop, rushing straight to the door and stepping out into the corridor. She had to get out of here, she had to find Luhan.

Luhan… she nearly sobbed, help me…

She'd been running along the corridor for a couple of minutes before it hit her – the corridor in her dorm wasn’t this… unending. The more she ran, the farther the stairs seemed to get. She slowed to a stop, and the dream like quality of the corridor settled into more soild forms, the ground underneath her feet suddenly feeling more concrete.

She looked around the empty corridor, heart settling a little. She started walking more sedately towards the stairs, hoping whatever that thing was, it wouldn't follow her.

She sensed, somehow, that it was feeding on her fear so she needed to remain calm and find Luhan so he could explain what the hell was going on and then, she'd give him a piece of her mind because if he'd known something like this was going to happen…

'Mei…' Luhan's voice suddenly whispered in her ear. Joy warred with disbelief inside her and she swirled around.

Her words died in because there was no one in the corridor. No one.

She swallowed, heart suddenly jumping in and just like that, the darkness started seeping out from the underneath her room's door. She blinked, slowly stepping backwards and trying very, very hard not to panic.

But it was impossible because it spread, extinguishing every little ray of light that was in the corridor and covering everything in darkness. She swallowed, turning quickly and briskly heading towards the stairs.

Don't panic, don’t panic…

Her footsteps quickened. As she hurried towards the rapidly approaching stairs, some devil of mischief made her look back.

The darkness was on top of her, rising like some huge, gaping void and she could hear screams echoing inside it.

Yelping, she jumped on the stairs and threw all caution to the wind, running for all her worth. Her years as a track star meant she was pretty damn fast and if she kept up, she'd be out of here in no… time…

Gaping darkness stretched in front of her when she reached the bottom of the stairs and emerged on the very same corridor she'd left. Manic laughter and torturned screams echoed out of the darkness. She turned and ran back up, screaming when she glanced down and found claws of darkness following after her, swipng at her feet.

There was nothing but impenetrable darkness upstairs, pressing in on her from every side and she pressed herself into a small ball, curling into the wall as it started swallowing her up.

Her body started shivering, cold travelling up and down her spine and she whimpered, scared. Something brushed against her feet and she jumped up, trying to get away. But she had no idea where she was going. Her feet felt like they were trudging through immaterial fog or water or something like that and her hands swiped blindly into the dark, trying to find any sort of purchase as she stumbled around, looking for an escape.

'Mei…' Luhan's voice echoed in her ears again and she screamed, slamming her hands over her ears. No, he wasn't around, this thing was trying to manipulate her. Oh God, she had to get away from here and if this was a nightmare, she had to wake up. She had to…

Her hand hit something concrete and she jumped at it, relief crashing through her. Anything solid in this abyss of nothingness was nothing short of a blessing. She smacked her hand against it again, trying to figure out if it was a door and if she could yell for help.

Her ring hit the surface and the brittle sound that echoed told her it was a window. She was in the corridor and here was only one window in here – it looked out into the garden. The garden was outside and outside meant she could get away.

She hit the surface harder, forming a punch so the ring would strike first. Fingers, claws swiped at her, making her bleed but she ignored the pain, striking again and again until the glass shattered and blessed moonlight spilled inside.

The darkness contracted as if burned suddenly, the ground felt solid underneath her feet. She didn't wait to think, just cracked the glass open more and climbed out, onto the ledge. Cool wind hit her, the concrete freezing underneath her bare feet but she didn't let that stop her, gingerly feeling her way around so she could hang and drop down.

She was on the first floor, hopefully she wouldn’t break her leg if she took care to land on the soft ground rather than the marble tiles that marked the entrance. Shimmying as much as she could, she let go and landed, horribly, on her ankle.

Her foot twisted underneath her and for a moment, all sounds disappeared as a shrill sound rang through her ears, dazing her. The pain was almost too much but she stood up because she couldn't let the darkness get to her again.

Unheeding of the injury, she started running towards the gateway. The absence of the night-guards didn't register until she was out of the hostel and rushing down the road.

A horrible laughter echoed all around her when she stopped, fear, pure, unadulerated fear swamping her. She watched, horrified, as one by one the street lights started going out, the darkness closing in on her…

The blaring horn, accompanied by the flood of headlights startled her, blinding her thoroughly and she could only raise her hands to block the light as the van headed straight towards her.

The body that collided into her made her lose her breath and she landed with an 'oomph', her elbows getting terribly scraped against the road.

The pain, combined with the throbbing ache of her twisted, probably broken, foot was finally too much and she passed out.

…………………………

'Mei…' Luhan shook her again, fear making him almost insane. What had happened to her? She was covered in cuts and scrapes all over, her arms and legs bleeding at numerous places, her nightsuit torn and…

Those were finger marks around her neck.

'Mei… wake up, baby! Mei!' He put his forehead against her, pulling her closer to his chest and trying to settle his heart. She was breathing, her heart was beating, she was alright. Whatever that nightmare was, it had probably scared her too much…

He'd gotten her text right a little while ago and had immediately changed his route, rushing towards her. It was just him and Suho on duty right now – the others were joining them later – and they'd decided to focus their security around the mates because Evil was likely to target them. So, he'd been relatively nearby.

Still, it had taken him around ten mintues to get here and he'd taken the turn to find the most horrifying sight. His heart was still unable to settle down.

If he hadn't gotten her out of the way… if he'd been even a second late… God, he didn't even want to think about it.

'Mei, sweetheart… please open your eyes.' He tried to keep panic out of his voice, one hand digging into his pants to pull out his cellphone. He went into messaging section and sent the 'emergency' draft. It was set to be sent to all the Legends and would alert them that he needed help.

They'd get here when they would. In the meantime, he'd carry Mei to the nearest hospital – or head back to the HQs, if that was nearby – because some of these wounds looked downright nasty and he had the most horrible feeling it was Evil's doing.

He was just about to stand up when the growling reached his ears.

Cold fury burned through him as he straightened, eyes flashing a bright red in stark contrast to the dull red gaze of the Abyss hound that was growling in front of him.

Evil was going to pay for this. No one, but no one, hurt his mate and lived to tell the tale.

…………………………….