• cards | nct 2018 •

twenty eight || dead end

A/N: i know im supposed to update on Wednesdays but take this early chapter as a new year gift haha

the mansion consisted of originally three floors, but the highest level was burned down to crisp, leaving only the two levels that were covered with soot and burn marks on the walls.

it was surprisingly in a better shape than hyeji thought.

ace, minus mark and renjun who was quite badly injured and along with johnny, entered the residence. it was eerily quiet and there didn't seem to be people present in the house except for the seven of them.

renjun remained at headquarters and it was decided he would guide us through with the in ears.

the front door creaked to a close as the last person, jeno, entered the mansion.

"not too shabby." johnny comments, and hyeji threw a glare at him.

"hey, calm down, hyeji. you know my powers are disabled." he grins, and she frowns and looks away.

it was true that his powers were disabled by an injection of sorts. the injection would only be used when absolutely needed.

"alright, let's split in groups of two and search the house." jeno announces, and the group immediately does as told.

since there was an odd number, hyeji and jeno, along with johnny, went together.

chenle and jisung went up to search the second floor while jaemin and haechan went to check on the first floor's right hallway, leaving the three to investigate the left hallway.

not letting johnny out from her sight, the three searched every nook and cranny of the left hallway but to no avail.

just as they were about to ask the others...

"jeno hyung? the second floor is cleared. no sign of joker."

jisung's voice came buzzing in through their in ears, and soon after came jaemin's.

"the right hallway is clean too. joker isn't here."

jeno and hyeji exchanged glances.

"so this isn't the place...?" hyeji whispered to herself.

jeno frowns, surveying the area they were in right now.

"no, not necessarily." he walks up to the end of the hallway.

"what do you mean?"

he lifted his hand and began knocking on the wall.

concrete.

he pulls away and turns around, his expression full of thought.

"don't you find it weird? this hallway..." he gestures towards the charred walls. "on the way here, at the main hallway, there were rooms at the side, yet when we turned into this hallway..."

"there hasn't been a single door."

hyeji nods in agreement after looking around as well. "you're right. it is weird."

jeno raises the watch wrapped around his wrist to his lips. "renjun, we're in the left wing hallway. we should be showing up in the gps now...can you check the house's blueprints?"

"alright. hold on a sec."

after a few seconds, renjun buzzed in again.

"that hallway you're in now...it isn't shown in the blueprints. it doesn't exist."

"doesn't exist?" jeno repeats, his brows knit together in thought.

"okay, then what does the blueprint say?" hyeji chips in.

"there shouldn't be an extra hallway there according to the blueprints. it says that there is only a wall..."

"only a wall.." hyeji mumbles, and walks over to where they turned into the hallway.

she begins inspecting the walls.

"wait, this..." she exclaims. "jeno, look. aren't these burn marks? it takes up the shape of a wall. the ceiling, down to both sides of the walls and to the ground..."

she pointed and traced the shape of the burn marks.

"yeah, it seems so," he blinks, and a look of realisation flashed across his features.

"so this place we're at now, the reason why it isn't shown in the blueprint..." he trails off, glancing at hyeji who nodded.

"it's a secret passageway. the wall concealing the passageway probably burned down in that fire."

jeno raises his watch to his lips again and spoke.

"all of you, head to the left wing hallway immediately. we've found a lead."

as soon as he brought his hand back down, he turns to look at hyeji again.

"so then, if this is a secret passageway, the question now is..." she trails off

"that's right, where does this lead to? it doesn't make sense if it's nothing but a dead end." jeno continues for her.

she walks back into the passageway and her knuckles began knocking on each wall.

"if there is a secret entrance, the walls would be hollow."

concrete. concrete. concrete.

there wasn't a single hollow sound, until...

"here." she knocks twice against the wall.

both johnny and jeno walks over to her.

"there should be a switch somewhere. if we can't find it, we have to blast this open somehow." jeno says.

"hmm, not really," johnny points to something higher up to wall.

"a crack has been formed. if you just..." he reaches out for the hole, and pulls it downwards. it quickly falls apart, and there revealed a door.

hyeji moves towards it cautiously and put her hand over the doorknob. she gasps in surprise.

"the knob isn't dusty at all. it's been opened recently."

jeno chuckles. "so, this is really the place we're looking for, huh?"

"seems like it's time to get our team leader back."

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A/N: new chapter coming out next year ;)