Chapter One-1
Chase - Part 1
A single candle had lit the room when the dead fire's glow faded into the night's darkness. That same darkness now surrounded the bed and in closed on me, creating a stir of fear stinging my stomach. It was like a blade, twisting inside of me trying to force its way out. It was unpleasant.
The bedroom was full of whispering snores and sleeping half-breds. Key slept next to me in the small single bed, he was cramped up next to the wall and had been sleeping for hours. We both wore silk pyjamas to sleep in, the silk was white as snow and very comfortable to our milk skin. I looked up at his face where whiskers of twisted brown hair were jumping out in every direction, his expression was peaceful and happy which made me smile to myself. I held the candle closer to his face to see him smile dreamily in his sleep, but not close enough for him to feel the warmth of the flickering candle light. It relieved me to see him smile. It reminded me how he is always laughing and helping everyone, he's like an umma.
I couldn't imagine Key going to War. It was almost impossible to think that such a happy person could be involved with something as selfish as War. I couldn't imagine myself killing anyone either. As the thought sunk deep into place I guess no one would ever imagine an Angel to be in a warzone. Even if we're just half-breds. I realised my heart was beating out of time and I felt the blade sting me shamelessly.
Years ago, if we had touched a human, or made contact with a demon, we would have been sent to the Falls where you are summoned 'Fallen'. But now, the Queen demands us to go to War with everyone below our dimension. Everyone in this room will be going to War eventually, including the silent baby and Half-breds. I shivered and looked around at the dark corners of the rooms, placed the candle light on the wooden bedside table, then tried to sleep.
Time has never been something I could understand, but I knew for sure it was floating past me. I tossed and turned until I sat awake, too aware of the brewing war to sleep. The daunting thought of blood being spilt, Human or Demon, sickened me. Species killing species. It didn't help calm the growing twisting blade. It had not left my stomach in peace at all and was only drawing out more weight and stabbed my insides.
I found myself holding my breath, waiting for someone or something to erupt through the door. I almost expected attackers to kill me when I was sleeping, and it wasn't like hearing a historic murder story and freaking out about it. This was completely different; I knew demons would willingly enjoy to kill me in my sleep. I looked at the window, then the door. Back at the window, and the door once again. Nothing is there you stupid boy. Go to sleep.
I looked at the window again. The moon's shimmer disappeared and reappeared through the storm clouds. It was a dark and stormy night, like all of the scary stories began. The blade was only getting sharper and heavier and I tossed slightly in pain.
Still holding my breath, I stumbled out of the bed and cradled the candle in my hands. I took the candle to the window, seeing my reflection in the glass; my red hair was looking like a pig's nest. I had black bags under my eyes and a long crease across my cheek from lying on the pillow for too long in an awkward position. I looked at myself harder to notice the smaller things. My pale skin was glowing compared to the dark clouds outside, and next to the room's dark appearance in the reflection. My wings were still small and tucked behind my shoulders, flickering and sloping from tiredness. I noticed the way my hair curled up into all directions from not being combed and the way my teeth flashed when I smiled at myself. I looked up to my eyes. It was hard to look at my eyes, they were both completely different. My left eye, silver and mirror-like, was outlined by a green shadow and signified my mother's graceful beauty. My right eye, despite my tiredness, was a light clean brown and was outlined by a think black circle. It signified my mother's peaceful soul. Both I missed and dreaded.
I interrupted my thoughts and centred myself in front of the window where I watched the dark clouds flashing rain onto the window's glass. Pressing up closer to the glass, I saw a sudden blur of movement in the courtyard. It had seemed to be moving fast but delicately, like a horse running in a meadow. I watched closer, more details came into hand but the movement of the blur was instantaneous and foggy as if a cloud of mist was diffusing across the Palace's campus.
I don't know how, but I managed to toss myself onto the floor. I looked up to see Key, his smile had been swiped off his gentle face but he silently smirked when our eyes met. I crawled off the floor and looked around. All of the Half-breds looked up at us with their small eyes, waiting for a clue of what was happening. I felt my heart beating inside my head and I fell to the floor once again, this time the blade felt like it had exploded and I fell in pain. I saw six small worried faces looking down on me. I sat up silently, grabbing my Umma's hand for guidance.
We all ran to the window to see the commotion. Outside I could see majority of the emergency lights had been switched on and were now beaming. What had seemed to be a pleasant night, had turned into pure stress. Splashes of windows lit up as everyone rushed to see what was happening as strays of people were running across the long spider-webbed corridors. Sirens and more flashes came into view, but I could only focus on the small blur in the courtyard. It had become larger and more visible in the seconds that had passed and I still didn't know what to make of it. I still assumed it was a mist.
"Key Umma, what is it?" I mumbled into his shoulder, followed by a short, "You've lost me Tae."
"That, the blur..." He had looked up at me suspiciously when I spoke but I was interrupted by a loud clank from behind us. We all screamed and my wings were stiff and had propelled from their sleepy position. "Taeminnie?"
I looked down at six younger frightened Half-breds, their long gowns draping across the cold floors. " Hyemi, what's wrong?" Key placed his hand on the worried child's head. "What's happening to us, Key? Is Taeminnie sick?" They both looked me. Another clank from behind us forced me to turn, looking for candles to light. I needed to see what was happening. It doesn't make sense. As I stepped forward I could feel myself worrying about the dark corners of the room again.
"Tae-baby, are you sure you're feeling alright? You've almost fainted twice, and now you're seeing... things." Key reached out to me as another clank came from behind us.
"What is that noise?" I growled, partly annoyed but mostly scared. Now as the Half-breds were running around the room I sighed and felt my hand slap against my forehead weakly. I opened my eyes I saw Yuki and Hyemi holding each other, close to tears.
Calming myself, I closed my eyes once more. I dropped the candle waxes that I had found onto the bedside table. I opened my eyes to actually see what was happening as the emergency lights had come on in the room. Key was panicking and pacing himself from wall to wall, his wings as stiff as mine. The six girls had bunched up and were crying and whimpering in fear. Instinctively, I tiptoed past them all to avoid catching trouble and opened a door into the next bedroom, where the baby slept.
Two cots sat alone in the room. One empty while the other carried the new born baby. The wallpaper was a light bubbly blue and it relieved me to be away from the confusion next door. I walked over to one of the cots, picking up a sling from the shelf on the way. I looked down at baby's face, she had woken up from the emergency lights flashing above us.
"Hey there little one," I slowly slipped one of my hands under her head, the other balancing her warm body. I held her in my arms and crept along the cold floor boards, rocking her back and forth. The baby's skin was soft and warm, it was so delicate and precious. A long silent moment followed where I looked down into her eyes. They were bright green, both of her eyes were bright green. I stopped, looking up at my reflection in the window again, nothing had changed. My eyes were still completely different and showed my mother's past to the world. I longed for normal, beautiful eyes like the baby. The nameless baby.
The clanking had become louder as I walked through the door, several minutes later. Key and I looked at each other, "Should we go to the hallway to see what everyone else is doing?" We had whispered in unison, which wasn't surprising. Like Umma, like Adul.
In the slow moment that followed, the door had slammed into the floor and had smashed into a thousand pieces. Key and I had suddenly rounded up the girls and braced ourselves in front of them. I crouched over slightly to prevent the baby from inhaling the dust and wood chips from the explosion. The dust cleared momentarily and Minho appeared in the doorway, Jonghyun by his side. I wasn't sure if time had gone back to what seemed 'normal' or if everything was still in slow-motion because we all just looked at each other confused. Seconds passed, and we were still looking at each other.
"You could have just knocked, you know?" Yuki whimpered behind me. She mumbled something afterwards but it was lost in the sound of Key's laughter.
"You owe us a new door." He giggled again, this time I joined him. He held my shoulder. I could see in his eyes he was hoping all of the worries in the world had gone down like the door. Hoping.
"We have to go." Minho's voice was deep and meaningful. He stepped towards us, grabbing for my hand. "Why? Wait where are we going?" By the time I had finished speaking he was dragging me out of the room. I tugged but it was no use against his strength. "We're under attack Tae. The emergency lights are on, you know what that means." The happiness and giggles had disappeared when he spoke the first time, but now the air was just cold and emotionless.
"The south cabins have been broken into," Jonghyun added, still silently standing in the doorway. "We're going to the closest town. It will be safe there until they've sorted this out. If not we will be leaving."
"They?" I tugged against Minho again, still useless.
"Wait." Key rushed passed me into the bathroom, "We should bring medicines, and other needed items, right? Like pillows and blankets, it is Winter after all. And Baby will need things too." He called over her shoulder. Umma-like as always.
"Kibum, we don't have the time. They will be here soon." Minho had turned and had stopped dragging me away to stand still. "Who will be here soon, Hyung? Who is they?" He ignored my question and addressed my umma, "The kids can't come with us. Jonghyun and I have been assigned to take you two away when needed."
"When needed! You're not needed now, the kids need us now. Someone just broke into Palace grounds, they need us." Key stomped out of the bathroom and stood next to Yuki and Hyemi, who were still crying in shock.
"The Queen is coming." Jonghyun mumbled in Minho's defence, stepping into the room.
Everyone turned to look me. A great sorrow of emotions filled the room; forgiveness, sadness, fear and sympathy. I looked down and away from everyone's glaring faces. I was unsure what to do so I looked down into a pair of green eyes. The soft eyelids of the baby fell loosely and closed, not opening as she fell into an emotionless sleep. A long silence followed, and I was sure everything was moving slow motion again. Thankfully someone entered the room, disturbing the deadly silence. I looked up slightly, noticing the familiar features of the person in the doorway; Fully grown, delicate wings and long brown hair. Pale skin and big brown eyes. Long, think eyelashes and peachy lips. She was beautiful as always.
"I heard. Taemin you have to leave," Sunny stuttered, carelessly wandering over to me.
"Why were you listening to us, go away now Sunny, we don't want to have to hurt you." Jonghyun stood in Sunny's way, blocking our view of her beauty. A dozen of small whimpers came from behind us as his dark and echoing voice boomed. I almost felt myself whimper with them unprepared of what was to come. "We will go to get Yoona, then meet you at the barn." I whispered into Minho's shoulders. I had hoped he hadn't ignored me, or at least heard my plead before I tugged forcingly away from him.
(A/N: Hi~ sorry if this was a boring read, it is basically just so you understand a bit of what's happening. I just want to say that I'm not a hater of any of the characters in the story, I love them all! The story gets better I promise~ Thankyou so much for reading! ^-^)