freedom nights || stray kids au

two

Jeongin had seen Chris looking at them, and it made him even happier. Though their leader wasn't looking at the fireworks and smiling with them, he seemed to be suddenly filled with determination. Jeongin nudged Hyunjin in the side. "Try again." Was all the maknae said, and Hyunjin gave the boy a small nod before heading over to Chris.

Chris was looking at his feet again. Hyunjin leaned down and placed a hand on the elder's shoulder, making Chris look up at him. He noticed how tired his leader's eyes looked, the helplessness in them was haunting.

"I'm so sorry I snapped at you Hyunjin. I just don't want to disappoint any of you. I don't want us to die when we have so much to live for." Chris told him, his eyes not leaving Hyunjin's.

"Then lead us to success. The nearest village can't be more than a couple of kilometres from here." Chris gave Hyunjin a small smile and he stood up, bringing the younger member into a hug.

"Thank you Hyunjin." He whispered in his ear, filling Hyunjin with relief and happiness. Chris stepped away and addressed the group.

"Let's head towards the nearest civilisation boys!" And with that, the nine members headed towards the exploding lights in the sky.

X

Chris had regained his confidence and, to no surprise, was leading the group flawlessly. They had been following the path of the fireworks for about an hour, when suddenly they heard a stick break. All of the boys turned towards the direction of the noise and stepped towards it hesitantly.

"Hello?" Chris asked the darkness, and suddenly two large round eyes appeared from behind a tree. They belonged to a small young girl who was no older than five or six, that had straight brown hair and gorgeous blue eyes.

"She's so cute." Seungmin whispered, and a couple of the guys shushed him.

"Hey!" Chris said, kneeling down so that he was the girl's height. "What's your name?"

"Audrey." She said softly. She was shy, but Chris was good with kids.

"Audrey, where are your parents?" Chris asked her calmly, but she broke eye contact with him and hid further behind the tree.

"They're in the village." She muttered.

"Did you hear that boys?" Chris said quietly, turning to everyone else. "The village isn't far from here!"

"No!" The young girl said, louder than expected, taking Chris by surprise. "You can't go there."

The leader's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "We can't? Why not?" He asked.

"It's dangerous. Nothing is as it seems." She said, and it felt as though those last five words were a phrase that she had been told religiously whilst growing up. "Stay here for one minute." She ordered, quickly running off into the bushes.

"Nothing is as it seems?" Changbin questioned.

"It almost seemed like a warning." Felix pointed out, and the boys nodded

"Now I'm afraid of what sort of people we'll meet in this village." Hyunjin said.

"I don't know. But whatever you do and whoever we meet, keep our identities secret. Don't mention anything about our lives unless I give you a signal." Chris told them, and they all nodded their heads in agreement.

"But Chris, we don't have a signal." Jisung reminded him, and the boys laughed a little.

"You've got a good point there. Any ideas?" The leader asked.

"We could tug on our earlobes." Jeongin suggested, and a couple of the boys looked at him strangely. "What? It's discreet and most of us have piercings. It's natural and subtle, but obvious once you're aware."

"Sounds good then." Chris confirmed. "We tug on our earlobes as a sign of confirmation or if we need help." The nine boys nodded, and Chris felt a sense of relief. Suddenly footsteps could be heard nearby, and the group all looked towards the tree where the girl had once been. "Audrey?" Chris asked hesitantly.

"I'm here." She replied, her familiar face peeking out again from behind the tree. But this time, she wasn't alone. A tall blonde girl stepped out from the darkness, revealing stunning blue eyes and a face of soft features. She looked to be in her late teens and, like Audrey, was wearing all white.

"Audrey, what have our teachers been telling you your whole life?" The older girl scolded her.

"Don't talk to strangers, I know." Audrey defended herself. "But look at them- do they look like outsiders to you, Flick?" The older girl looked up at the group of boys, and furrowed her eyebrows in thought.

"Hi." Chris gave the girl a small wave, and the teenager gave him a faint smile in return.

"Where did you all come from?" She questioned calmly, and Chris turned around to the others.

"We don't know." Chris answered half-truthfully.

"How did you get here?" The girl asked.

"We walked." Chris said, and immediately realised that he sounded like he was being stubborn.

"If you're going to be like that, nobody from our village will offer you assistance of any kind." She said firmly.

"No, no, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. We genuinely don't know."

"That's ridiculous. Nobody grows to be an adult without knowing where they came from." The teenager looked at the boys, disgusted.

"Tell her the truth." Seungmin said. Chris looked at him warily, tugging on his earlobe in a questioning way. Seungmin nodded, and their leader gave in.

"We grew up in a village with loving families until we were in our young teens. Then our leaders decided that our village needed young warriors, and they mercilessly took us from our homes and attempted to train us. The location and the manner in which we trained was absolute torture. It was killing us. So, the nine boys you see in front of you were prisoners that escaped. We took an abandoned bus and got the hell out of there. We drove for days and eventually arrived at a warehouse in which we made our home. We learned to survive with only each other and various things the previous owners had left for us. However, about four days ago, this group of bandits came and invaded our warehouse, taking everything we owned with them. They captured us, threw us into our bus, and drove us to the middle of nowhere. For the past four days we have been wandering aimlessly, but tonight we saw your fireworks and in them, we saw hope. That brings us to this current moment, where we are hoping to find help or refuge in your village." Chris explained, and the girl looked shocked.

"You may as well tell her our middle names and date of births while you're at it." Minho snapped quick-wittedly, causing Chris to shoot him a glare.

"It's okay." The girl said. "I appreciate you telling me your story. Unlike some people in our village, Audrey and I are extremely trustworthy. We may be able to help you."

"Thank you." Chris smiled genuinely.

"I'm Felicity, by the way. Though people call me Flick."

"I'm Chris, and this is Woojin, Minho, Changbin, Hyunjin, Jisung, Felix, Seungmin and Jeongin." The leader introduced each member.

"That's a lot of names to remember." Felicity laughed slightly, astonished. She also looked a little sad and Audrey was holding her hand comfortingly, however Chris decided to ignore it. "But that's okay. Follow me, I'll take you to our Queen."

"Queen?" A few of the boys asked in unison, and Felicity turned to look at them.

"Of course." She gave them a small smile before heading off into the bushes, Audrey and the boys following behind her.