The Monster Under The Bed

11. He's Dreaming

Autumn is gently pulled out of bed and Leeteuk helps her to steady on her feet.

"I'm going to take my hand away, okay? Don't scream, or I'll knock you out. Got it?"

She nods and his hand slowly drops.

"What the hell?" she hisses, immediately backing away from him.

"Shh," he puts a finger over his lips, then smirks, "You don't want to wake little Zitao, do you?"

She glances at the boy in the bed, still sleeping peacefully. His face was burrowed in his toy, muffling his snores.

"No."

"Then you need to follow me," he whispers.

"Not a chance."

"Just outside the house. It won't be long, I swear on my son's life."

She blinks and shakes her head.

"Don't be stubborn Autumn, or Zitao will suffer."

A shadow appears behind the young boy's still form. It takes her a few moments to realize it was Kyuhyun, hovering over him.

"Okay okay," she whispers, waving her hands in front of her.

She follows him outside. Once they're out there, he tilts his head up to the sky.

"Ah, this is refreshing," he comments.

"What do you want?" she snaps moodily.

"Oh yes, that," he sighs, "I'm concerned about your response to my son earlier."

"Why are you concerned? I responded how any girl would've to a strange man coming in the washroom while she's bathing," Autumn snaps.

"That's not what I was talking about exactly," he responds, "You're very hostile to him and I in general. What have we done to invoke that response from you?"

"I don't trust you."

"Why not? Because they told you not to trust us?" She can hear the sarcasm in his voice, "We all make mistakes. They're included."

"I can make my own opinions," Autumn grunts, then continues with a lie, "I can read auras, yours is not good."

"What do you see in mine?"

She glances at him and tells him the colors.

"Black, orange, and a bit of... Blue?" she says the last word like a question. He was sad?

"What does blue mean?"

She shakes her head to snap herself back to reality.

"It usually means despair or sadness," she answers honestly.

"I see. Black."

"Evil, darkness, call it what you want," she replies simply.

"Do the boys have black in their auras?" he asks.

She ponders it for a second. When she had first met Chen, his aura had been entirely blue with just the smallest bit of orange. She hadn't checked any of them after that, so she wasn't sure. But he didn't need to know that.

"Yes."

"I thought so. What does orange mean?"

"It just means you have powers," she shrugs, then shivers as a cold breeze drifts through the night.

"You can tell if someone has powers?" he sounds surprised.

"Yes."

"Do the boys know?"

"No, they never asked," Autumn tells him slowly.

"Who did you get this from?"

"Y-- My boss," she stutters.

"You sound unsure."

"No, I'm sure."

"What is 'Y--'?"

"My boss's name was Yvonne, but I caught myself before I said it because I know you don't know who she is and I didn't want you to be confused."

Leetuk hums, and she can tell he doesn't believe her.

"Do you mind living with ten boys?"

"Yes and no. Sometimes it gets annoying, but I wouldn't want to leave them."

"That's too bad, because you know you can't stay here forever, right?"

"I know, but I can't leave Z yet. Suho said I could stay until Z can handle being on his own, and then I could go with the girls from SNSD."

"How will you know when Zitao will be ready?" Leeteuk deadpans.

"I'll just know," she replies, then yawns, "Sorry, I'm really tired."

"Go back upstairs now then. I have no more questions."

"Okay."

She yawns again and teleports back to her bed. She climbs in next to Zitao once again and drifts back to sleep, this time uninterrupted.

🔼🔼🔼🔼

Chanyeol crouches miserably in the tiny hole he was locked in. It had probably been less than a day, but it felt like an eternity. His long limbs were cramped up and ached to walk around and stretch themselves.

He missed his friends and he wonders if they had realized he was gone yet.

Chanyeol feels tears coming to his eyes and he blinks them back furiously. He refused to cry. There was a reason he was always happy.

🔼🔼🔼🔼

Yixing is swirling through the darkness. When he lands, he is outside the mansion. He can hear his friends inside having a party. He smiles happily and goes in. He is greeted warmly, with smiles hugs, and claps on the back. Autumn is talking to some girls, he recognizes them as Sooyoung and Hyoyeon. She and Suho must've decided Zitao was ready to be left alone. She was smiling and laughing with them.

He turns around and bumps into Chanyeol. The other boy smiles and opens his mouth.

"Wake up," a deep voice booms, it wasn't Chanyeol's. A sharp pain in his ribs causes him to double over in pain. Chanyeol had punched him. Like that, everyone began ganging up on him. He is pushed around and to the floor.

"Wake up."

Yixing moans and opens his eyes to black. It takes him a few moments to realize that he had just been dreaming. His hands were still tied in front of him, the blindfold still over his eyes.

"There's food directly in front of you," the voice says.

Yixing reaches out with tied hands and feels around in front of him. His hands grasp what he thinks is an apple. Further investigation tells him that's exactly what it is. He eats it slowly.

"You're a pathetic sight," the man scoffs, "Hurry up. You need your energy to heal Luhan."

He obeys out of fear of being beaten. When he's done, he is immediately yanked up and dragged somewhere. The air smelled different, he was no longer in the cabin.

His hands are placed on someone's bare flesh. There was something hard and pointed to the side.

A bone.

Yixing has to contain his nausea at the thought. The other boys had done some pretty bad stuff to the girls Jongin kidnapped. But they had never beaten one so badly that their broken bone was sticking out of their body.

He takes a deep breath and pushes the bone back into Luhan's body. The boy's cries told Yixing that he was awake for the whole thing. He winces, the process of healing him was going to hurt. A lot.

He braces himself for the Luhan's screams, then starts to heal him.

🐢🐢🐢
Authors note
Okay, posting before school starts. It was supposed to be up yesterday in honor of my friend's CC_is_a_penguin birthday!
Happy (late) Birthday babe!