Caratland [Seventeen FF]

-52-

Junhui poV:

A while passed after Hansol ran into the portal. Me and Jeonghan had to force Seungcheol to stay by us so that not more people are put in risk. Soonyoung and Chan these idiots. If they all don't return safely...

We were sitting in front of the portal, our eyes focused on the dark purple coming out of it. We were all worried for everyone in there. Suddenly the portal changed the colour back to green for a small time, spitting out Hansol, Seungkwan and Minghao, who landed uncomfortably hard on the floor.
"Guys!", I exclaimed happily of the return of half of them. We quickly went to them helping them up. I gave Minghao a big hug, just overjoyed to see him in the reality again. After he realized that I was hugging him, he quickly pushed me away.
"W-What are you doing?", he asked, his cheeks turning pink as he held his right arm.
"Are you fine?", I asked, ignoring his reaction, but then my eyes switched to his arm. It was a big fleshy and bloody burn wound spread all over his upper right arm. "What happened to y'all?", Jeonghan asked as shocked as I was, while he was helping Seungkwan up, who also hurt his arm.
"Chan", Seungkwan breathed out, while getting up, "He's the culprit behind this."
"What?", Seungcheol asked in disbelieve.
"He wanted him and Soonyoung to get devoured", Minghao continued.
"Why would he do that?", I asked also shocked over the bad news.
"That kid went totally nuts in there", Minghao replied.
"Where are the other ones?", Seungcheol asked still worried.
"They were right behind us", Hansol finally said something too. We all looked back to the portal, which was still pretty dark.
"Let's get you some help first of all", I said, turning to Seungkwan and Minghao.
"I won't budge a bit as long as they didn't return", Seungkwan set his point determined, turning to the portal. Minghao didn't say something, but I could tell from his expression that he was thinking the same.

After we calmed down a little we sat in front of the portal still waiting for the other ones to return. Seungcheol seemed as if he was still deep in his mind, probably triggered by the memories from the guy, who shared the same fate as they are about to. Jeonghan seemed to be the only person to be in the right mind to think properly.
"Explain us the thing with Chan a little better", he told Minghao to let them think about something else, before they would break their head from thinking to hard.

He then went on explaining us everything from the moment they entered the portal, to the moment where they found Soonyoung tied up, till the last part, where they escaped the living nightmare. I couldn't imagine being just in one of their bodies in that moment. The things they saw and lived... I would've never been able to be as courageous as they were.

"The portal guys!", Seungkwan suddenly shouted. We all turned to it and it got even darker. It was black now and it was... shrinking. The portal got smaller. We all couldn't believe our eyes. All of a sudden Seungcheol stood up and ran towards it, but like we heard, there was a shield, protecting the portal from the rest of the storage. He hammered against it, but without any results. We also stood up, Jeonghan trying to calm Seungcheol down. My heart sank into my pants and my palms started sweating heavily. They have to come out. The portal got smaller and smaller and every bit the portal shrunk, so did our hope of them getting out safely. We patiently waited, but seconds felt like hours and suddenly... the portal was gone. There was nothing. The little light that came out of it went out. Only a gray cement wall remained. No one said something. It was all quiet. We were all in disbelieve. The portal was gone, like the only way out of it. I stopped breathing for some seconds as my heart skipped a beat. They can't be... no they can't be dead... can they?
I approached the wall, but the shield was gone too. I saw many people die in front of my eyes before, but it felt different this time. As if someone had snatched my heart out of my body.
"Why are y'all so quiet? They aren't dead, right? Jun, say something!", Minghao asked in disbelieve, still not processing what's happening. He grabbed my collar and started shaking me. I looked into his eyes. He was angry, sad, in fear. He yelled at me, but I was speechless. They are gone... Just like that. A tear left my eyes as my mind crossed that thought. They were gone... gone... forever gone...

Just when we were about to give all hopes up something bright appeared over us. I looked up and it was a bright beige portal. Is it possible...? My hopes started rising again, everything in me getting excited as I kept my eyes fixed to the top. Suddenly I heard a numb scream that got louder with every second, until all of a sudden three guys fell from the sky, directly hitting me and Minghao as they fell on us.
"Soonyoung, Jihoon!", Seungkwan screamed loudly running towards the pile on me. They got all down from us.
"I'm sorry, Jun and Minghao. Didn't know you were under us", Soonyoung excused, scratching the back of his head embarrassed.
"Are you kidding?", I asked rhetorically, jumping on both the guys, while giving them a big happy hug. Since the others were as excited as me Hansol and Seungkwan did the same, not caring about the weight that piled up, while we laid on them.
"Guys, I can't breathe", Jihoon squeaked, making Soonyoung laugh.
"Hey, let them breathe at least", Jeonghan interfered, pulling us off the two one by one.
"Don't y'all do that ever again!", Seungkwan whined, showing his teary eyes.
"Yeah, we were damn worried!", Hansol agreed.

While we were happily celebrating the return of our friends, I noticed another one standing in the corner, who didn't participate in any hugging. It was no one other than Chan, who looked on the floor as if he was ashamed. Seemed as if I wasn't the only one to notice him as Minghao hissed next to me.
"What's that psycho doing here?", Minghao shared his feelings towards him, as he snapped while glaring at Chan. Now everyone turned to look at him too. We all had different feelings towards the youngest after Minghao told us everything.
"Let's worry about that later. Let's do something relaxing first like eating. I really can't afford any more stress or adrenaline kicks", Soonyoung said, while getting up. "Also we need to treat some wounds", he added, looking at Seungkwan and Minghao.
We all agreed and made our way out of the iffy storage, leaving Chan behind.

"But guys, isn't something weird?", Soonyoung suddenly said. We were right in front of the hotel, as we all turned to Soonyoung.
"Hey, don't scare us!", Seungkwan warned him.
"No, it's just that-", further Soonyoung couldn't talk since he suddenly collapsed and totally blacked out. Jihoon could only barely prevent him from hitting the floor. Ah, right. His little handicap...