Fall Down (Stray Kids Seo Changbin)

Fifteen

"Paige."

The voice was distant but strong nonetheless. She was sure she had heard it but detaching herself from the prisons of sleep and peace were harder for her than she wished to admit. Fear, stress, restlessness and adrenaline. If she could describe her life with just words, those would fit perfectly.

When was the last time she felt so peaceful and as if there wasn't someone watching over her, wondering whether to slit her throat or go straight to the heart.

Sleep and rest were two different concepts despite the constant confusion. You can sleep for hours upon hours and yet feel like death but if you rest for hours and hours, you'll feel energised, excited. Happy. You can rest without sleeping and you can sleep without resting.

And that's what Paige does. The last time she rested had to be before Luke's passing. She was twelve at the time and she remembered on that day Richard told her people are out to kill her and to watch herself. She lost the ability to rest at twelve. But she slept. And almost every night.

Now she was on the borderline of rest. She was right there. All she needed was to take one more step into the abyss of temporary amnesia.

"Paige."

This time the voice was accompanied by a slight shake. Then another. And another. It continued until she was forcefully ripped away from both the abyss and the prison.

She fluttered her eyes open with a hint of annoyance before making out Lincoln's figure staring down at her.

His hair was a stringy, gelled up mess due to not washing it yet. His suit was a train-wreck with his tie tight in one side and loose on the other. Some of his buttons had been unbuttoned at the top, just enough to exhibit the edge of his blanket of chest hairs.

Lincoln looked a mess and seeing that first thing after waking up was indeed a shocking sight but Paige had seen worse. She saw him right after Janey's passing. She remembered how she realised then and there just how much one could love a girl and she felt terrible.

"We're here," he slightly smiled at her before taking a few steps back so he wasn't in her face anymore.

She took that time to look around the bus they had been in. Most of the seats were empty. Only Lincoln, Paige, Hyunjin, Han, Felix and I.N remained in the bus. From what it seemed, Hyunjin and Han had also been asleep and just woke up before she did. And Felix and I.N came out to wake them.

She stood up and followed Lincoln out off the bus. To her astonishment, ahead of her was an abundance of stacked buildings. Saying the mansion was gigantic was an understatement. It was astronomical. It was your average modern home, except ten times bigger, with white walls, with a few grey streaks here and there to add a more three-dimensional effect to it -- not like it wasn't already obvious though. Ivy adorned the leftmost wall, adding mother nature's touch to it. The patio was slightly raised and made of oak wood planks, another natural touch.

A pair of towering spruce doors served as the entrance. They had patterns Paige couldn't quite make out engraved in them like tattoos. She stood in a daze, hypnotised by the building.

"Gorgeous, isn't it?" Lincoln voiced out upon seeing her reaction.

"Beyond that," she managed to squeak out on her third attempt. "But... isn't this a bit too flashy for a hideout?"

He shrugged and ran a hand through the stringy nest glued to his scalp.

"If you were a member of the Society and the Head along with a bunch of your best agents ran away, where would you think they'd hide? In a public area? Or a private area?"