The Love of Blood and Magic

twenty seven

The group walked through a very dark forest. It had been a four days after leaving the inn and the town. They had gotten directions from from a faerie a ways back on where the entrance for hell is so they were looking for it. They had had their doubts that she was lying but it didn't look like it so far.

"Do you think she was lying?" jeno asked for the millionth time.

"No i don't think so," winwin answered.

"How can you tell?" 

"well for one the farther the direction she pointed us in we are going its been getting darker and darker. And two, its been getting quieter and quieter as we've been going along," winwin pointed out. 

"you have a point," haechan murmured looking around on the ground for any sign of a clue to the entrance. 

"Whoa, is haechan actually agreeing with someone?" mark said sarcastically from behind where jeno was. Jeno didn't know what it was but something was different about those two ever since they had shared a room together at the in. Haechan seemed more relaxed around mark and mark seemed, well... soft... for the small faerie. well he wasn't gonna worry about it, it wasn't his business anyways. 

"hey guys do you know-" haechans sentence was cut off as he disappeared down a dark hole in the ground. 

"Haechan!" yelled mark who went running over as soon as haechan had disappeared. 

no answer. Mark yelled again. still no answer. 

Finally a cry came from down in the blackness. 

"Chill bitch, i was trying to get used to my surroundings," haechan yelled.

"Are you okay though?" 

"Yeah, but you should see the view though." 

"How far down is it?" jeno yelled down.

"not that far but its really dark on the way down so be careful!" haechan yelled back.

"who wants to go next?"

"I'll go," lucas said and slid down the hole. they heard him land at the bottom of it then heard "holy shit man" echo up.

"i'll go next," jeno said and slid down the hole. It wasn't a drop straight down it was more of like a really steep dirt slide. He slid down it and landed at the bottom right next to lucas. 

"whoa," jeno said standing up and brushing himself off. 

"yeah man, it's pretty cool," lucas said pulling jeno out of the way as winwin whizzed down the slide thingy. 

After they were all down they focused on getting off the little ledge they were standing on. Jungwoo spotted a small staircase leading to a large open floor area. 

"we can go down there," jungwoo said pointing to the staircase. 

"I mean it's the only choice we have unless you can figure out another way," jeno said taking the lead and going down the staircase. He heard a rustle of wings behind him and looking past the others heads he saw jungwoo with large white and silver wings on his back flying down to the floor.

"you can fly?!" lucas yelled. 

"of course dummy he can fly, he's an angel," haechan answered.

"i wasn't asking you," lucas said scowling at haechan. 

They made it down to the bottom of the stairs and began walking on the flat, grassy, dusty space. they had been walking for a couple of minutes when a large shape loomed out of the mist. 

"what do you think it is?" mark asked.

"if i didn't know better i'd say it's satan's castle," winwin responded.

Jeno started walking faster at that only to be held back by lucas. 

"Jeno we should think this out strategically, instead of marching in there and demanding to know where jaemin is," winwin reasoned with jeno. 

"Ok, fine," jeno huffed, his vampire eyes glowing red in the dull lighting. 

They planned for a few minutes then they were ready to go inside the castle. Jungwoo opened his wings up and grabbed lucas under his arms and flew him up onto the wall of the castle, then he did that with the rest of the group. Once they were all up there they headed for the nearest door to get inside of the castle. they had to get to the opposite side of the castle to a tower that stuck up. Thats where mark had said they were probably keeping jaemin. When jeno asked how he knew mark replied, 'books' and dropped the subject. They crept along the corridor in the castle and didn't meet anyone until they got to the door on the other side of the room. There they met a maid with cleaning buckets and rags that were full of fresh blood. Jeno sniffed the air around the buckets and wondered why the blood smelled so familiar. when he heard marks small "jeno" from behind him. it came to him.jaemins blood. 

"what have they been doing to him, whatever they have done to leave that much blood..." jeno let that thought trail off, he was gonna kill them. 

They hurried along lucas and mark in the lead sniffing where the trail of blood had come from. They were lead into a servants passageway and they started spiraling up a staircase, there was a small door on the side of the wall where the blood scent was strongest. Jeno shoved his way through the two werewolves, and pushed the door open. 

There in front of him was a broken, bloody pink and blue hair elf. And he wasn't moving. 

~cliff hanger...~