Black Magic

Lock Down

Chapter 11: Lock Down

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Kyungsoo jerked and rolled out of bed with a startled yelp.

His back hit the cold hardwood floor and he stayed there, staring up at the high beams of the ceiling through bleary eyes.

His muscles hurt, a tale-tell soreness that told him he'd stayed out much too late last night.

Kyungsoo grit his teeth and sat up, wishing to possess just a fraction of that infallible energy he'd had yesterday. He ran a lazy hand through his sleep-mussed hair and blinked around the room, trying to determine the reason he'd jolted awake so suddenly. He half expected to hear Kai's low laughter drifting through the air, but the sun was already breaking the horizon and everything around him was silent and still.

He'd had no nighttime visitors then.

Kyungsoo fell back to the floor with a whump and stretched his arms above his head, relishing the pull of his body and the memories of the previous night.

Ah, last night.

He'd never felt so alive as in the moment his feet had finally met the earth. Kyungsoo had moved in and out of the shadows with all the grace and agility of an expert thief. Smooth, silent, his feet scarcely touching the ground as he skirted around buildings and across darkened grounds.

Kyungsoo had stayed out past curfew just because he knew he could get away with it.

And now his muscles were sore and it was time to get up and had he really slept the whole night through? Really?

Kyungsoo craned his neck, searching, just to be sure he was actually alone.

He was about to stand and flick on his bedside light for a more thorough inspection, but something caught his attention, momentarily distracting him.

While he'd been stretching, his fingers had brushed against an unexpectedly solid object.

An unexpectedly solid object that shouldn't have been on the floor next to his bed.

Kyungsoo sat up and pulled the thing closer, turning the light on to reveal a neatly wrapped package.

There was no writing on the crinkly brown paper to give away what the package contained. After a suspicious glare, Kyungsoo gave into his curiosity and began ripping into the parcel.

A bundle of soft fabric fell into his lap, accompanied by a note covered in a familiar scrawling handwriting.

Sorry they took so long to get here. The seamstress thought the order had come in as a joke. She didn't even have green cloth in stock.

You better appreciate all I went through to get these made.

-Kris

P.S. - No fighting. Mess these up and you're back to purple hand-me-downs.

Kyungsoo snorted, a small grin on his face.

He scrambled off the floor and spread both of his gifts across his mattress. One of the cloaks was made of a thin, airy material; a summer outfit. The other was thick, and as Kyungsoo swung the heavy fabric over his shoulders, he felt as though he were slipping on a new identity.

It felt nice. Right.

He paced toward his full-length mirror and studied his reflection. The cut of the cloak accentuated the line of his shoulders better than any of Kris' hand-me-downs ever had. The green fabric fell just below his knee caps, designed to be long enough to touch the tops of his winter boots and maximize heat retention.