Decimate

Chapter 1

At first Jongin was going to ignore it. The sound of the same footsteps had been following him for a while. But since the streets were busy at this hour, he figured that it wasn't all that strange.

Jongin crossed the street at the next lights, and tried to find his bearings again. He had passed his usual metro station, and he needed to find the next one.

That was when the clicking started. At first Jongin was sure he was imagining it. How could he even be able to hear it over the drone of traffic? He shook his head and tried to forget it. He should just go home.

But then he couldn't fight it any longer. The clicking persisted, and Jongin got this odd sensation in his spine, as though he was being watched. He turned around and stopped. People kept walking past him, chattering into their phones or nodding to the music coming out of their earphones. But then Jongin's eyes met a man.

The man was standing still in the stream of people and staring right back at Jongin. Jongin's cheeks flushed under his stare. He turned his back to the man, and kept walking, a little faster now.

A train station soon came into Jongin's view, and he made his way inside. The noise of the streets changed into echoes and the clacking of shoes against the tiled floor. Jongin climbed all the way up to the second level, overlooking the platforms.

He snuck behind a column, pressing as flat as he could against it. A group of tourists started to gather close to him, speaking in a foreign language. Jongin waited for the man to pass, hoping that it was all a mistake, and that he was imagining things. But the man didn't pass. The tourists soon left, as clock reached the hour and trains were departing. Jongin knew that there was nothing for it. When the next mass of commuters emerged from the platforms, he moved, bowing his head in an effort to blend in. The blaring of announcements masked any footsteps; the echoes bouncing off the walls hid any voices.

The mass of people came out onto the streets, and Jongin knew it was now or never. He ran. And as he did so, he heard two sets of footsteps springing after him. Suddenly Jongin was running blindly, forgetting every street he had once known in this city. But it didn't matter. All that mattered was that he would get away.

And then he saw a familiar street - he had run back to the vicinity of the metro station he always used. Close to it was an alley, and at the end of it an abandoned studio building. Jongin knew of it, because it stood opposite his dance studio.

Jongin rushed in through the door, into an echoing staircase. Yes, I know this place, he thought, relief flushing into his heart. He sprang up the last remaining stairs, and then he reached the door. It opened. He was on the roof. He slammed the door shut behind him and bolted it.

And once Jongin was standing alone on the rooftop, catching his breath, he knew that something was very wrong indeed.

I have to get away, Jongin thought. But where do I go? To Tao? Haha, no. Spain isn't big enough for two of us. To Sehun? Yes.

He would teleport to Sehun's place. Maybe he should warn Sehun. Edinburgh wasn't that far away, after all. But why warn Sehun if just Jongin was being followed? Maybe this had nothing to do with it. How could they know know about him?

Jongin concentrated on Sehun, on his home, with all his might. A bird took flight somewhere close by. Jongin felt the ground vanishing under his feet, and the deafening noise of London was cut off.