Chapter 21

The three humans came upon the castle; it looked like if he came upon the back of the castle. One would think that this is where the garden would be, but instead it had an execution area. This was where all of the criminals dreaded to go to, the place looked like it was once used for death games. The boys looked around it was quiet the wind that blew by shifted the sand slightly. “Why would that alley lead here?” Changmin wondered. It was then that a chuckle resonated out from the castle. The three boys froze and looked around, that chuckle was unfamiliar to them and it sounded near the castle. “What was that?” Taemin wondered. Key gulped, he had a bad feeling about this.

In the dungeons, the guardians were getting restless, especially Jonghyun, Onew, and Minho. They felt especially restless; Jonghyun was struggling against his restraints while Onew and Minho continuously charged at the heavy wooden doors, trying to knock them down. Then the door opened and the mysterious man walked in, a sly smile on his features as he walked up to Jonghyun and said, “It looks like three little rats have entered the execution field, and it looks like they are your protected. It looks like they’re here to find you.” The three vampires ceased their movements, completely unprepared to find out that their protected were near by and without protection. The mysterious man took out a long wooden instrument, it looked like a flute, smirking he said, “Let’s go greet them shall we?” He said before beginning to play that same hypnotic tune that brought them to this place from the beginning.

Changmin crept in more to the execution field, with the other two boys close behind him. It was still too quiet for comfort. A soft sound resonated throughout the area, it sounded almost mystical, but the three boys couldn’t hear the sound, but they did feel the wind pick up slightly. Changmin perked up, “back up, someone’s here.” He commanded. They ran back to the entrance and looked towards the middle, there stood a guard, or at least someone who dressed like a guard and with him were three vampire guardians, all of which the human’s recognized. Changmin’s look hardened, “this is who made all of those crazed guardians that Jonghyun was mentioning before.” He stated. Taemin wanted to run to his guardian, but the look in Minho’s eyes seemed to force him to stay where he was. Key looked at Jonghyun who was growling lowly like an animal ready to pounce on its prey. He concluded that this was his fault, all of it, from start to finish, and he needed to finish it, he needed to set things right. “Who are you?” He demanded. The mysterious guard smiled and said, “I am the captain who guards this castle, and you are trespassing.” Changmin rolled his eyes, “and you are a kidnapper, give back all the guardians you took.” The captain chuckled and replied, “Why should I? You have it well off not having to worry about protecting yourselves; you make these creatures do it for you. However, I am most interested in how you came to receive a guardian when you never received one in the first place.” He was speaking to Kibum, he looked at the younger with an almost disgusted look on his face. Key stood still; he now knew the reason of why Jonghyun was with him in the first place, it was because of a bet.

“A bet, that’s the only reason why I even, had a guardian, if I can call it that.” Key replied to the guard whose smirk widened as if to hide a laugh, “you are quite pitiful, the poor vampire probably hated your guts.” Key saddened, Jonghyun did lash out at him when he first brought him home, now he understood why the vampire stopped mid-sentence during their argument. Changmin looked at Key sadly and placed a hand on his shoulder, in hopes to comfort him, but it looked like nothing in the world could comfort the boy. The captain just watched, his smirk still on his face as he took out his musical instrument, “well then, I think I’ve heard enough, its time to end this little game.” He began to play and the three vampires leapt into action forcing Changmin and Key apart as they attacked.

Changmin didn’t want to hurt Onew, but he wasn’t lightening up, he figured that Onew was strong, but he didn’t really want to test his thoughts. “Onew snap out of it, get a grip!” Changmin called out to the vampire, but nothing seemed to work, it was almost as if the flute was the object that was controlling him, “Onew!” He called again, but the vampire just pounced on top of the human pinning him down on the ground.

Taemin was shoved against the wall by Minho. The human looked up at the vampire, “h-hyung you need to snap out of it.” He said a little helplessly. Minho however was not having any of it, he growled and pressed Taemin even closer to the wall.

Key was standing face to face with Jonghyun. The vampire was crazed, crouching low he began to circle the human letting out a growl from his throat. “Jonghyun….I’m sorry, this was all my fault. I am sorry for everything, I shouldn’t have accepted your offer, but you brought me happiness, happiness that I wanted to feel for so long. I don’t want to hurt you, but I know I deserve to get hurt because of this, I shouldn’t have been so blind and stupid…I guess this is why I am alone with no guardian. If you want to attack, I won’t stop you. Do what you wish.” Jonghyun charged to attack, but then something made him freeze, it was like Jonghyun’s mind was fighting his body to get back in gear. Key’s eyes widened when Jonghyun didn’t attack. The guard took out his flute again and then Jonghyun grabbed his head frusteration and confusion he had no idea what to do and then he swung his arm and Key went flying into the wall, the impact making him loose consciousness. Changmin and Taemin’s eyes widened they eyed each other and forced their crazed guardians off of them and charged for the guard grabbing the flute in the process.

The guard tsked annoyed, “give it back boy if you know what’s good for you.” Taemin clutched the instrument and said, “I know what’s good for me, but you don’t seem to know what’s good for you!” With a confident exclamation, he crushed the flute in half with his foot and it was like something cleared for the three vampires. They looked around confused, but not crazed, they returned to normal.