The Ace (Stray Kids Kim Seungmin)

3

In the Pen, each night was unpredictable. It's like a game of dream roulette with three options: one of those spine chilling dreams, a normal dream, or nothing. Melody preferred nothing at all. It made life easier to just see sleep as nothing more than a time to rest both her mind and body.

Unfortunately for her, being an Ace meant she'd have those chilling dreams everyone abhorred more often than not. Maybe it was a problem on her part or maybe the knowledge made her wish she knew and saw less. She liked to believe nothing about the Pen would change but the dreams were constantly proving her otherwise.

This was one of those nights. With Rayne's words circling her head, she say it, heard it, felt it. All she could do was stare upwards in shock and awe as the sky fell. The ear-splitting screech of the first screen coming undone echoed before it finally fell, landing on her forehead. And, like dominos, when the first one fell, so did the rest.

Picking up the pale green hexagonal screen, Mel held it up to her eyes, scanning it in confusion.

"This can't be real," her voice sounded too loud and coarse to be a silly dream. One day, she noted, we won't even have a sky. The screen in her hands flashed momentarily before disintegrating into specks of green dust. The others did so as well.

Preoccupied by watching the dust, she wouldn't have noticed the metal box that was falling above her until Aira screamed through the air and Harri tackled her to the ground and, therefore, out of the way.

The metal box half her size fell with a dull thud, making the ground tremble with the impact of its weigh against it.

Harri groaned as she shoved Melody away from her.

"Don't get yourself killed, idiot. You're our only way out of here."

Mel's eyes narrowed in confusion. "There's a way out?"

Harri gave her one of her usual 'well duh' faces before picking herself up and extending her arm out to the latter.

"What? You plan on staying here forever? Look around you, Mel. There is no Pen anymore. We have to go."

Pulling Mel to her feet, she found the other four girls crowding around them, all of their gazes were planted on Melody, obviously waiting for her decision on what they had to do next. She felt like shrugging and begging them to just follow Harri or Aira. She wasn't fit to be a leader and they needed to go for the second best.

Unfortunately, when she turned to glimpse at the two girls, both were staring back. For the first time since Mel's arrival, even they didn't know what to do.

Another metal box collided with the ground, quaking it enough to make all of them fall. Glancing up, she watched as more boxes fell each moment and that was when something inside her clicked: the east wall was their only escape.

With the realisation, Mel jolted awake, panting heavily from her dream. The sun hadn't raised yet and the faint howl of the wolves still lingered outside. She scanned the four asleep bodies beside her before finding the only one missing at the hopelessly scratched and blurry window, staring out at the land invaded by the furry canines.

"Rayne, why are you awake?" Melody questioned, standing up and approaching her. "Did you sleep at all last night?"

The latter shook her head 'no' before slowly turning to lock her exhausted eyes on Mel's face.

"I wanted to be awake when the world ended. So I could wake you guys up... And save you."

Melody sighed, running a hand through her hair and releasing a soft sigh.

"We'll be fine,"she tried to convince herself. "Besides, you have me and I'm going to do all I can to keep us all safe, alright?"

She hated promising to lead everyone but at that point in time she could tell that was exactly what Rayne needed to hear.

"What woke you?" Rayne turned her gaze back to the window.

Mel shrugged, "I don't know. I just... awoke."

"You are shaking. Did you see it too? The end of the world?"

The ace sighed, picking herself off the ground and grabbing herself some water. Her mind was travelling at a two hundred miles per hour and she just couldn't keep up. For a moment, she considered telling Rayne the truth. After all, she was sixteen, old enough to understand.

But she couldn't.

She wouldn't.

"Ray," Melody spun around. "Look outside then look at us. Does anything look different to you? The world isn't ending, okay? At least not now. Just have some water and relax. Maybe you are dehydrated."

"I know what I saw, Mel. I've never had a dream so vivid, so real. I could feel everything, I could see it all. I'm not dehydrated. I'm not crazy. I saw what I saw."

"It was probably just a nightmare."

Rayne sighed, leaning closer to the window as her face contorted into a sorrowful frown. She extended a finger, running the tip slowly against the cool glass and Mel swore she heard her sniff. The Ace shook her head softly at the girl, opting to give her the cup of water she was holding.

But nothing could have prepared her for what she was about to hear as she felt her whole body stiffen.

"It wasn't a nightmare," Rayne mumbled. "You can't die in nightmares."