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yeon narae pov
My back was aching. An agonizing pain drummed in my head, causing me to wince. I heard voices, but it all sounded like I was underwater.
Underwater...
"Ahhhhh!" I screamed and woke up, panting and perspiration dripping down my entire body. My legs felt like they were jelly. I was trembling and my hair was damp.
"Where am I?" I groaned and looked around, my vision spinning. I gagged, feeling nauseous. My stomach churned and I put my weight onto my hands. "Oh, God..." I clenched my jaw when I looked at my aching wrists.
They were chained. The hard, cold metal was gripped very tightly around my small wrists. If this keeps up, I would lose circulation within an hour and die very, very slowly.
I sniffed the air. It was musty, and the air smelled like a combination of metallic blood and swamp water. I grimaced and curled into a ball.
I thought I was a detective. I thought I could save the world. I sighed, tears brimming my eyes. I tried sucking them back in, but the tears wouldn't stop crawling down my cheeks.
I sniffed, wishing to wipe them away, but my heavily chained wrists prevented me from moving, even just a little.
"H-hi?" An uncertain, soft voice echoed throughout the cells. "Are you...okay?"
I whirled around caught sight of a young boy with a hamster-like face. He had shining eyes and dark hair.
"I-I...uh, who are you?"
"J-Jisung. Park Jisung. The guards just tossed you in here, maybe a couple hours ago...Chenle and I were scared, we didn't know who you were, where you came from, why you were even here..." The boy's lip trembled. "Chenle is my friend. He's in the cell across from me."
I looked up and searched for the cell. There was another boy, maybe a bit older. He was curled up, sleeping. He had a pale face and his breathing seemed steady and calm, despite all the pandemonium that was going on these days.
"I-I'm a detective," I stuttered. "I was with somebody, a sidekick, but some weird thug took him away. I was alone, then I was dreaming or something. It was horrible. It was a nightmare. Then, it seemed like I died, but...I'm alive?"
Jisung looked at me with shocked eyes. "The Sanguis Forest? Did you and...your sidekick really go into the Sanguis Forest?"
I nodded bitterly. "It's terrifying. You're in a trance and go through these weird stages...the memories are vague, but I remember that I was...underwater and that I was dying."
He gasped. "I can't believe it! You survived the Sanguis Forest! Most people, adults, would die trying to investigate it. I can't believe it!" His eyes were as wide as saucepans.
I sighed. "I may have survived it, but the experience was not at all pleasant," I gritted my teeth when a sharp pain shot up my head. I grimaced and squinted my eyes, wishing I could grab my head. "Ow..."
"Ah...! Are you okay?" Jisung looked at me with concerned eyes. "It's probably the side effects from the forest. I heard stories from my older h-hyungs...about people who went...into the forest..." Tears started streaming down Jisung's face uncontrollably.
"I-I'm sorry," he murmured and bit his lip anxiously. "I'm in...a really traumatic stage right now...half of my friends were just taken away to the 1:27 to start training."
"Wait, there's more of you?"
Jisung nodded glumly. "Yes. There's Renjun hyung, Jeno hyung, Donghyuck hyung, Mark hyung, and Jaemin hyung is probably dead by now-"
It seemed as if lightning just struck in my head, but not because of the pain. "Wait! Jaemin? You mean, Na Jaemin?"
Jisung looked at me weirdly. "Y-yes, Na Jaemin. Why? Do you know him?"
"He's my sidekick! He was just taken away by the 1:27 to start-I don't know, training?"
Jisung's eyes lit up. "So Jaemin hyung is alive? I thought he was dead!" Jisung smiled and laughed. "It feels great to know that all my friends are alive, but we're all going to die, sooner or later..." His eyes darkened again. The smile didn't last long.
A wave of familiarity washed over me. "Wait, say your hyungs' names again?"
"Mark, Renjun, Jeno, Donghyuck, Jaemin, Chenle, and me."
"Oh. My. Gosh. Jaemin wrote about you guys in his journal! He was alive all this time and is missing you so badly right now, oh my gosh...and you guys have some sort of deadline, don't you? They're going to..."
Jisung sighed and nodded. "Yes, I know. Hang us on a pole and slowly kill us with poison-tipped arrows. I know. Not a really good way to die when you're still a minor."
"H-hey, don't worry! We're going to bust out of this place, you, Chenle, and me. All of us. We're going to find your hyungs, arrest the 1:27, and bring peace to Sanguis for once, got it? I'm not going to let you guys become toast for those cold-blooded murderers. We still need to live, there's so much ahead of us, we can't just give up and give in to the 1:27, right?"
Jisung's eyes started lighting up again, and this time, they stayed hopeful for longer. "Right!"
