Highway to Another Dimension || Skz

Chapter 5: Questions

"Okay, so . . . basically, y'all don't remember what happened last night, right?" Felix asked.

The rest of the group nodded.

"That is probably because I kinda drugged you guys," Felix said, twiddling his fingers without looking at the other 3.

"What?? What do you mean 'I kinda drugged you guys'?" Hyunjin exclaimed, moving further away, or as much further as he could.

"Shh, let him finish," Chan said, his lips pressed into a tight line, though his tone wasn't any less puzzled than Hyunjin's.

"I drugged you guys because it wasn't safe for you to be conscious at the time. That's all I can say right now," Felix said, looking straight at them. His eyes showed no signs of falsehood. However, they weren't exactly convinced.

"Unsafe how?" Seungmin asked. "Is it related to that alarm that started blaring through your and Chan's phon—"

Felix put a finger to Seungmin's lips. "Yes, yes, now be quiet! They might hear us," Felix reprimanded. His face contorted with worry. He quickly grabbed the tin foil he had brought in earlier and aggressively ripped off chunks of it and taped it to the walls nearest to the door.

Hyunjin sighed and stood up and went to the window. From there, he could see some bird exhibits in the zoo. But how was there a view of the zoo if they were at Felix's house? Not to mention, if they were drugged and taken away because of the alert that clearly told them to not be in the zoo, then what were they doing here??

Hyunjin groaned and leaned against the wall. "Felix, you better explain how I can see the zoo from here," Hyunjin demanded.

"That's because we technically didn't leave the zoo," Felix replied.

"Why is your house in the zoo?"

"See, here's the thing; this ain't my house." It's not like I even have a home either, Felix thought sadly but shook his head out of it.

Chan held up his hand. "Felix, I'm giving you 5 minutes to explain what is going on, and if we don't like your explanation, we're leaving." As Chan finished speaking, Felix took out a photo album and the card that Seungmin had seen before they blacked out. It was the same birthday card, and the sight of it made Seungmin even more suspicious.

"For real this time, I'll tell you," Felix paused, "Everything." Felix opened the photo album and saw that the dates were written in for some of them. The oldest ones were from around 30 years ago. A small Felix was smiling, holding a bunch of strawberries. He looked to be around 7 years old. The other pictures in the album had faded edges. The monochrome colors bled into the binding of the album. Seungmin noted how old everything looked, as well as how the album looked very worn out.

"This was when I was a kid. Yeah, it was a while ago. Way before any of you was born. This photo album was the only thing I could retrieve from my house before I ran away from my burning house." Felix paused. "That day, my family went out for a stroll in the clearing near our farm. I was left in charge of the house. I left it for a bit because I needed to buy some household things from the supply store, and when I came back and stepped through the front door and hung up my coat, all I could smell was the dry smoke, pouring through the hallway. I panicked and thought that someone had broken in and had thrown their cigar near the bushes, causing this fire, when I realized that the fire had engulfed the majority of the house. The smoke was hidden behind the roof of the house, so while I was leisurely walking, the house was burning without me seeing any of it.

"All I remember is being glad that none of my family members were in the house when it happened. I quickly grabbed the box nearest to me and ran, not stopping to look back. What I didn't think about was what my family would think. They didn't know I was alive. All the knew was that I was told to stay in the house and watch over it. They probably thought I died, because when I read a newspaper that I managed to snag from a diner, my obituary was written. How they managed to find photos of me at such a young age, that I'll never know."