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Cold, damp walls.
.
.
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Burning white.
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. Loud voices.
.What are they saying? Hongjoong can't tell, not with the deafening ringing in his ear. He sits up to look around. He's wearing a bright white jumper, one that almost matches the walls around him. there's a heavy metallic collar jabbing into his skin. There they are, the voices again. He can barely start to make it out, it sounds like a name. Hongjoong looks at the metal door in the room, it swings open. A man in a bright yellow quarantine suit comes in with a trolley of utensils. He hears the voice again, this time he can make it out. "HONGJOONG!" He steps back in fear, his back pressed up against the cold soft walls. "Hongjoong wake up!"The bright orange haired man shoots up. His breathing is uneven, eyes wide open as he frantically looks around the room. It's not the white padded one from earlier, now this one looks like a large open room . full living things, everything seems to be well used. a soft orange light glows in from a window to his right. Hongjoong spots a table with some half eaten food on it and the soft couch he's on. Finally, he spots a familiar face, Seonghwa. A good friend for 10 years now, Hongjoong sighs in relief. "It was just a dream, Joongie. Are you alright?" Seonghwa asks softly, his voice melting over Hongjoong like honey. It's sweet and thick. "The others are waiting, we found another Unusual. He wants to fight with us" Hongjoong gives a prompt nod and stands up. "Give me the details. How did the mission go?" he asks as they begin to walk down the corridors. The walls were cold and grey, old dusty signs hung on the wall; all from long before they had gotten there. They turned a corner and opened the door to the makeshift meeting room. There was an old pool table in the center with a map of the area pinned down to it. Five boys sat around it, a sixth sitting in a chair. Hongjoong smiles at the boy as he pulls up a chair and sits across from the boy. The boy looks shy but strong. His build is sturdy and unbreakable, his chestnut hair nearly pushed back behind his ears. "Hello, my name is Kim Hongjoong. Yours is?" he starts looking at the boy dead on. The boy avoids eye contact. "J-jongho. Choi Jongho." Hongjoong gives a curt nod "Alright Jongho-" "Oh my god I knew you were cool! I'm a Choi too!" a boy with black hair with a white panel in the front pipes in, which in turn gets him a slap on the head by Seonghwa. Hongjoong gives a soft sigh. He shakes his head. "Alright Jongho, Welcome to Sanctuary, you said you wanted to be part of our team, correct?" Jongho nods. "Then you can start by telling me what happened out there" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sirens blare. People scream. All Jongho can see is a blur. A face slowly comes into focus. He has blonde hair, face sharp yet feminine. "Call me Yeosang for now" he says as he starts to fiddle with the cold collar around Jongho's throat. Jongho tries to pull away. "I'm not gonna hurt you" Yeosang said as he continued to fiddle with the other man's collar.Another voice cuts through the sirens. "Gears! Hurry it up! We can't keep them off forever!” "I'm working on it!" Yeosang shouts back.With not another second wasted the collar falls off of Jongho. "Stay close. We’re gonna get you out of here." "We?" Jongho asks, staring down at the man. Before he could ask more questions, he's pulled out of the white room into a dirty hallway. Four other men stand fighting off guards. "I got him, let's go," Yeosang says, the other men nod and quickly make their way down the hall. Yeosang's hand never leaves Jongho's.Suddenly another group of armed men come around the corner, blocking off the exit. "You know how to fight?" A boy with messy black and white hair asks. Jongho nods. "Catch."A knife is tossed to him. Jongho catches it with both hands, but trembles in his place. Yeosang leans in and whispers "We will protect you." Before Jongho has time to react, the five men are off. The boy with the black and white hair gracefully dances around the guards, knives following him, slicing and dicing. Next to him a boy with black hair tied back sends an electric shock down a wire whip, electrocuting a guard at his feet. Yeosang is with a tall boy with blonde hair and pink stripes in his hair. From his hands bolts of light come, he uses it to blind everyone in its path. Meanwhile, Yeosang uses a gun to shoot them with deadly accuracy. Jongho is about to shout out at Yeosang as he sees a man behind him is about to attack, but before he can say anything Yeosang swings around. His gun shifts into a gauntlet and he swings at the man, quickly knocking him to the ground.Before Jongho can realize, a man sneaks up behind him. They grab jongho by his neck and try to drag him back into the depths of the hallway. Jongho tries to scream but he feels a hand clasp over his mouth. The boy with grey hair whips around to see Jongho being dragged off. He shouts and all the boys ready themselves for another fight, but before anyone could do anything Jongho is gone.The man who was holding him looks at his now empty arms. Suddenly jongho reappears behind him, stabbing the knife he was given into his back. He falls to the floor with a deafening thud. Jongho is too shocked to notice himself being dragged out of the compound. The last thing Jongho can remember was what was plastered on the back of each of the man's jackets. 'Fireworks' ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He was still intimidating. "Wooyoung, will you show him around? I'm gonna do some work, the last rations were intercepted and I have to find out why, Seonghwa and Mingi, I need both of you with me" he said standing up. "Yeosang is cooking tonight" to which a Chorus of groans rang throughout the small room. "The rest of you are on break until dinner" Hongjoong said as he spun on his heels marching out the door. Seonghwa and Mingi quickly followed suit, the rest of the members all shuffled out of the room. All that was left was Wooyoung and Jongho. Wooyoung stood up pulling jongho up with him. He smiles. "Alright, Hongjoong already told you where some stuff was, but that's okay. I'll show you the quarters at least." Jongho was normally a shy, soft spoken man. His walls were hard to break through. However, the man Infront of him seemed to melt through his defense faster than any normal person could. "Okay…" was all Jongho said before Wooyoung tugged him out of the dusty planning room.Wooyoung drags Jongho around from room to room, showing off everyone's things, before he shows Jongho to what would be his room. It wasn't the nicest place, but it sure was better than the dinky cell Jongho had been rescued from. Wooyoung's mouth moved faster than his brain did, constantly stumbling over his words and having to rethink what he said. His feet were almost as fast as his mouth, Jongho had to almost jog to keep up with him. Finally, they made it to the courtyard. The air was crisp and the moon shone through the leaves of a barely surviving tree. It casts its shadow onto a small gravel path that winds into a bed of flowers and grass. There’s a dusty old bench and some outdoor training equipment scattered about. There’s also an old basketball court with a tattered basketball lying in the middle of it. Jongho's head whipped around when he heard a rustle in the bushes. "Chill, man. It's probably just a rabbit," Wooyoung says nonchalantly. Jongho shakes his head, his intuition screaming at him that it was something different. "You want me to check for you?" Wooyoung asks, a playful scoff in his voice. He reaches down and picks up a stick that had fallen off the small tree. He pushes the leaves aside, expecting to laugh at the fact it’s only just a rabbit that had gotten the younger so scared. But a laugh never came. There was no rabbit. In an instant, all Jongho could hear and see was a flash of electricity and a scream. Wooyoung drops the stick and shuffles back, eyes locked on the now dead creature. Jongho looks at it, and all of a sudden it makes sense why Wooyoung had reacted how he did. The creature was far beyond deformed. Whatever animal it used to be, if any, was completely unrecognizable. It's fur- no, skin-was a bright purple. Fleshy lumps on its back pulsed with something glowing. Jongho looked at the unmoving creature, too stunned to move.Yunho came bursting out of the doors they had just come out of. "I heard a scream, is everything okay?" he asked, panicking in his voice. Jongho turned to look at Yunho pointing at the creature. "What the hell is that thing?" Wooyoung mutters, standing up and brushing himself off. Yunho looked at where the two were looking and moved closer. "Careful, hyung, it might still be dangerous!" Wooyoung warns, making a few cautious steps closer as well. Yunho looked at it, poking it with the stick Wooyoung had used. There was no response. "Whatever it is, we should tell the others, something feels wrong" Yunho states. "No shit something feels wrong! Look at that thing, it's a monster!" Wooyoung yelps with a huff. Yunho rolls his eyes. "I'm just glad nobody got hurt. Come on, dinner’s almost done," he says, waving the boys back inside. The three boys made their way to the dinning hall which looked to just be a rundown cafeteria. The rest of the group had already sat down chattering and eating away. "What took you so long, hyung?" San asked, mouth already full of food. Yunho paused. "Well actually, there was something, '' he said softly as the three sat down at the table. None of them touched their food. "but, we should talk about it after dinner, '' he said. Hongjoong glanced over at Yunho. "Yunho, what is it? If it's something important you should tell us now" he said, raising a brow. "I don't wanna ruin anyone's appetite" he said. Hongjoong raised a brow but shrugged. "fine" he said bluntly. The rest of dinner was silent. Neither Jongho, Yunho, nor Wooyoung touched their food. After they had all eaten and cleaned up they sat back down at the table. "So, Yunho, what did you want to say?" Hongjoong said. The three boys looked at eachother and took a deep breath. "So I was showing Jongho the courtyard cuz you told me to show him around but then Jongho heard some rustling and I was like it's nothing Jongho but Jongho was like no it is something so I checked it out for him and he was right!" wooyoung said in one breath. The table was silent for a beat before hongjoong raised his brow and looked over at Yunho. "Yunho, will you translate for us?" he said. "I was going to go get Wooyoung and Jongho so they could come eat when I heard a scream. I thought someone might be hurt so I ran to see what had happened. Then I saw Wooyoung and Jongho looking at this creature. It was a mutated animal of some sort, I have never seen anything like it" Yunho said with a shiver. "Where did you see it?" Yeosang asked, tilting his head. "In the courtyard" The eight of them made their way to the courtyard to see this creature for themselves. they all crowded around the disheveled bush, only to find nothing. "I swear there was something there, we all saw it!" Wooyoung said to which both jongho and yunho agreed. "Is this another one of your pranks?" San asks. "Why do you always waste our time with your nonsense?" Yeosang groans. All of them turned to go back chattering about how Wooyoung always pulled these kinds of pranks. "Guys," Mingis low voice called out, stopping them all in their tracks. "Come look at this." He crouches down, looking closer at the area that had been pointed out to them prior. The boys crowded around the bush once more. "Look, the soil here is all damp and the branches are broken. Like something ran away," he continues, pointing to a patch of broken bushes. "Anything could have made that," Yeosang points out. "But look at the ground, it's covered with some sort of slime." Seonghwa tilts his head and looked closer. "He's right, there is." Each of them lean in to take a closer look, with Hongjoong being the last. He furrows his brows. "I want everyone back inside. From now on, if you want to go outside, you have to go with someone else. If you see another one of whatever this thing was, I want you to tell me immediately. Don't touch it, don't do anything, just go to me," Hongjoong commands as he ushers everyone back inside. The rest of the night everyone does their best to return to a normal mood, but it’s hard with the fear of the unknown looking above them. They all go off to try and do their own things. One by one, they made their way to their sleeping quarters. Yunho lies awake, tossing and turning, trying to find peace of mind. At least enough to fall asleep. He shoots up when he hears the door open slightly, beams of moonlight casting a silhouette on his floor. He forms a ball of light in his hand. "Wooyoung?" Yunho asks into the darkness. Wooyoung nodded as he quietly closes the door behind him. "I couldn't sleep," he speaks softly, clutching his blanket to his chest. "Can I sleep with you tonight?" Yunho nods. He couldn't say no to him, let alone when he looked like a child asking to sleep with their parents because of a nightmare. "Of course you can," he said warmly, scooting over to make room for the other on his bed. Without another word, Wooyoung slips into bed with Yunho, curling into the larger man's chest. Yunho smiles and wrapped a protective arm around Wooyoung, pulling him closer. After that, Yunho was finally able to sleep, feeling comfortable knowing he had someone right next to him.