Downpour

GENTLY DOWN THE STREAM

The rocking wakes him.

Chan knows he didn't fall asleep, there was none of the sudden fatigue he'd felt before, but he definitely wakes up.

The ground tilts again, and he almost thinks he's back at the top of the building with the concrete buckling beneath his feet. But this rocking is calmer. It's almost rhythmic, rolling from one side to the other steadily.

Slowly, he opens his eyes.

There's none of the hope from last time, so there's no disappointment when he realises he isn't home. Instead, it only scares him how used to this he's becoming.

Falling asleep, and waking up somewhere completely new.

He isn't in the castle, or in the city.

He's on a boat.

Chan's in a small dark wood room, lying on the floor next to a huge cannon. Through the gap in the wall, the ocean stretches out as far as he can see, the waves gently rocking the ship.

One of his arms is slung over the cannon, so he guesses he'd fallen asleep whilst working it. His palms are stained black with soot in a way he knows is never going to come out.

Slowly, he stands up.

It's harder than he expected, the rocking unbalancing him, but after a few unsteady steps, he's fine.

It's hard to see in the dark room, the only light from the tiny holes in the side of the walls, but he can make out the faint outline of a ladder leading onto what he guesses is the main deck of the ship.

He stumbles his way towards it, occasionally catching his foot on the edge of a cannon.

It hurts more than he expected it to.

There's some part of him that embraces the pain, focusing all his thoughts on that and ignoring the haunting sensation of wind tugging at his clothes and hair as he falls down, down, dow-

Stop it, Chan. His thoughts almost seem to have someone else speaking them, shaking his shoulders and telling him to snap out of it. It was a dream. It wasn't real.

He starts climbing the ladder, wincing at the splintering wood.

No matter what he tells himself, it will still feel real.

There's a hatch that he pushes up at the top of the ladder, and as he suspected, the main deck is revealed.

Light streams through, making him screw up his eyes. It's much brighter than the room with the cannons, and the sudden contrast blinds him.

"Chan!" He hears someone say, and a hand is put in front of him. He grabs it, allowing himself to be pulled up. The initial brightness has faded slightly, and he rubs at his eyes, trying to adjust quicker.

"We were wondering where you were." says the owner of the hand, and Chan can finally see enough to make out who it is.

Hansol.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise him.

Around them, he can see other people, all doing various jobs. It's the various hair colours that catch his eye, distinctive bleach blondes and soft pastels.

He recognises them all from the castle.

He's always been good at remembering names and faces, so there's no mistaking Soonyoung fiddling with the sails, Junhui chatting idly to Jisoo, Seokmin's huge grin.

There are two men that he doesn't recognise, though the height of one indicates he's Woozi, that he assumes are Jihoon and Wonwoo.

Quickly counting them, he comes to a total of twelve.