Of all the options [Y/n] was faced with, perhaps repeatedly banging her hands on the door and yelling "let me out!" was one of the more melodramatic ones. Regardless, the room had begun to close in on her. All she craved was some space. Her fist collided with the door a few more times before it swung open - she nearly punched Seishin in the gut thanks to her blind assault on the door but he grabbed her fist to stop her. He stared icily down at her, his eyes narrowing.

"Why was the door locked? And why are you so pale? What the hell's going on?" he muttered angrily, looking down the corridor before looking back at her.

"I take it they didn't tell you," [Y/n] responded with the same icy tone, "I need to talk to Mitzu."

"You're not talking to anyone until you tell me what the hell's going on, [Y/n]," Seishin muttered, staring down at her. [Y/n] attempted to push him out of the way however the tall blonde didn't budge. He raised an eyebrow at her. "Jeez, calm down, what's up with you? Why are you so mad?"

"Because I've been trapped in there for a day and a half," [Y/n] growled in response, "something about 'it's for your own good' or whatnot." [Y/n] was about to reveal why they hadn't told Seishin but then decided against it. Perhaps causing any further feuds between the boys wasn't the best of decisions. She instead stared at him intensely, her eyes narrow and burning with anger.

"I see," Seishin hummed, looking down for a moment before his eyes met [Y/n]'s once more. His gaze was more calculative than usual - perhaps because, for once, the situation wasn't under his control. [Y/n] figured he'd be trying to find a way to get everyone listening to him again - if whatever he planned to do worked in her favour then she wouldn't say no. "Who's been tending to you? Who locked you in here?"

"The only person I've seen is Mitzu, that's why I want to talk to him," [Y/n] responded calmly, despite her frame of mind being far from calm.

"So the others might not know either," Seishin mused. [Y/n] shrugged in response. "Fine, I'll take you to him." Seeing Mitzu suddenly didn't feel like such a good idea for [Y/n] once she realised she'd have to confront him - she was still very angry with him and had no idea how she'd keep herself from saying something she might regret. Regardless, she followed the blonde before her as he turned and began to walk brusquely in the direction of Mitzu's room. [Y/n] had to break into a jog every few paces to keep up with him.

When they arrived at the door with the gold plate adorning a certain name, the harsh knock Seishin inflicted on the wood could be heard throughout the whole house. Well, 'house' - [Y/n] didn't really know what it was.

The door creaked open and Mitzu's eyes widened as he saw who was at the other side. He ran a hand through his platinum locks, looking from [Y/n] up to Seishin, his expression changing from concerned to annoyed.

"Good morning," Mitzu forced out, "why is she out of her room?" he asked, talking to Seishin as though [Y/n] wasn't there. She bit her tongue, keeping in the many things she desperately wanted to yell at him.

"Because I let her out. Perhaps if you'd explained to me why you locked her in there we wouldn't have this problem right now," Seishin growled.

"How did you get the key?" Mitzu asked, his eyes narrowing. A small chuckle escaped Seishin. "Actually, don't answer that, I don't want to hear more of your smug retorts," he huffed. Seishin shrugged a 'suit yourself' sort of shrug. Mitzu's expression then turned to [Y/n]. "I understand that Seishin let you out but why did you oblige? You knew where I— where we wanted you, for your own safety," he said calmly, "but you ignored us and got him to let you out regardless. That really hurts my feelings—"

"You wanna know what really hurts my feelings?" [Y/n] shot back immediately. "The fact that, after everything I've tried to do - tried to be - and after all this confusion and... god, I don't even know, but after all this, you lock me in my room like I'm some sort of pest that needs to be contained." Mitzu's eyes widened and glazed over with a look of horror and sorrow. "You couldn't trust me enough to leave my own room. If it's about keeping me safe then why don't you just fix whatever the problem is? If Aytsa's going mad for my blood then get him to drink something for God's sake, just not me," she sighed. "Look, Mitzu, I really hope everything you did really was for my own good, at least in your head, but please never do it again."

"I..." he began, looking down as his eyes shone with a look of dejection and sadness, "I want to say I'm sorry, I really do," he began shakily, before he looked up again. The self-pity was gone, replaced by a slightly crazed look of anger, "but it doesn't shake the fact that you disobeyed direct orders. You're supposed to be perfect, [Y/n]. So why aren't you where I left you?" He took a threatening step forwards and [Y/n] took one back. He reached out for her but his wrist was snatched by Seishin, who looked rather unimpressed.

"Cut it out," he spat darkly. Mitzu stared at him for a moment before the hostile look in his eyes was replaced by one of nonchalant irritation.

"Why should I?" Mitzu retorted.

"Because surely this should've taught you something?" the blonde male sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "When you make decisions without consulting me, things go to shit faster than you can blink," he said. Mitzu's eyes narrowed at this but Seishin didn't seem to acknowledge him. "I understand why you all thought I wasn't supposed to be 'in charge' or whatever, but I'm hoping this might make you realise how stupid you all actually are."

"Oh? We're the stupid ones?" Mitzu growled, "when you hadn't even realised [Y/n] was trapped until this morning?" At this point, [Y/n] didn't want to hear anymore. Whilst the boys were both very focused on one another, she slowly backed away, before walking quickly down the corridor. With a quick glance over her shoulder, she saw only Seishin had noticed her exit. He simply acknowledged her with a small nod before going back to his argument with the angered male in front of him. [Y/n] turned to look in front of her again, but a little too late; she collided with something - or, more specifically, someone.

"[Y/n]?" Kori's eyebrows furrowed as he stared down at her. "I thought you were supposed to be in your room."

"Change of plan," [Y/n] responded bitterly, causing Kori to wince slightly at her sudden abrasiveness.

"You're different," he said quietly, "you're cocooned," he added. [Y/n] stared at him, her eyes clouded with confusion. "Perhaps you're developing... maybe all this anger will turn into something— something beautiful," he smiled, placing his hand on her cheek. [Y/n] immediately stepped away, a look of disgust on her face.

"Please don't touch me," she responded. Kori stared at her for a moment, his eyes dull, before a small laugh escaped him.

"Yes... yes, that's right... you're becoming a butterfly." [Y/n] stepped back as he stepped forwards, before he snatched her wrist to pull her closer to him. "But for now," he whispered, his lips brushing against her ear, "for now we need to keep you safe. You're at your most vulnerable right now, you know?" he giggled slightly.

"Kori...?" [Y/n] tried to say, but her words caught in her throat and his name came out as more of a hoarse whisper. "P-please, j-just let me go. I'm sorry for being rude just then but all this stuff about butterflies is... it's creeping me out."

Kori's grip on her only tightened. He began to walk off in the direction of his room, tugging her along with him. [Y/n] tried to pull against him, but nothing worked - he was much, much stronger than her. He tossed her into his room with ease, shutting and locking the door behind him. Only candlelight illuminated the room, setting [Y/n] on edge all the more.

"I know what I said about you needing protecting, but you also need to learn," he said softly, walking over to his desk, pulling a circular object off the side of it. "You should know you can't just speak down on us like that." He flipped something on the strange object and it quickly became apparent what it was - six slightly curved blades unfolded themselves and formed a lethal weapon. [Y/n]'s eyes widened and she backed away in fear. "Oh no, my butterfly, don't be scared," he giggled, "I'm not going to kill you, if that's what you're worried about."

"Y-you're... w-what is— what is that...?"

"Did no one tell you?" Kori hummed. "We all learnt our combat niches yesterday. Turns out all our most suitable weapons were already with us. I've got a couple of throwing knives, this, and a dagger," Kori giggled. "Seishin uses a kitchen knife, Aytsa uses a bow, Laion makes toxins and poisons with his plants, Mitzu has a mallet and a katana and Draka fights with his bare hands," Kori explained.

"Why are you telling me this?" [Y/n] asked quietly.

"Because I can, I suppose," Kori shrugged. His eyes then widened. "Ah, you led me off track," he laughed, looking at the shuriken in his hand, "I guess I should explain what I'm showing you this for, though your shaking tells me you've already guessed." He took a few steps over to her with a smile on his face. Despite her desperate urge to back away from him, she figured doing so would be entirely futile. She sucked in a breath and tried to stop her shaking, staying where she was.

"Kori, you and I both know you're not like this," she began carefully, "you would never hurt someone else. Please, don't do this," she whispered. He stopped - there was about an inch of space between them, but [Y/n] stood her ground. "Please Kori... listen to me. You're an intelligent boy, you don't have to resort to violence. It won't—" she was cut off by Kori's hand covering her mouth as he wrapped his arms around her in an embrace that was most likely meant to be comforting.

"[Y/n]..." he began, a soft smile on his face, "I love you." The words caught [Y/n] off guard. Her shaking stopped for a moment as her brain began to fill with questions, none of which reached any answers. "I didn't know what it was, but I realise now that I love you. And... well, I'm pretty sure the... the others... feel the same." His voice reached higher pitches than usual, forcing [Y/n]'s heart rate to accelerate slightly in concern. His hand applied a little more pressure to her mouth, causing [Y/n] to wince a little as her teeth were pressed into her lips. Then, her eyes shot wide, a sudden heat radiating from her back.

It took [Y/n] a moment to figure out what the hot sensation was. It finally dawned on her that it wasn't heat at all.

It was pain.

A muffled scream escaped the trembling female as she began to kick and struggle, only worsening the pain from the blades slowly scraping down her back. Kori's eyes narrowed at her resistance and he applied a little more pressure to her skin. Behind the scorching pain that ripped and tore at [Y/n]'s very being was a damp, cold feeling as her warm blood mixed with the air and soaked her clothes; the faint taste of iron in the air accompanied this. Focusing on these odd sensations to try and take her mind away from the pain, she began to notice faint black spots clouding her vision. Unlike the feeling of blood loss when she was bitten, this felt empty and exclusive - she was truly on her own. With this thought, she fell limp in Kori's arms.

* * *

A small giggle sounded from the other side of the door, slowly growing louder before morphing into an amused laugh. His hand reaching for the door, Nyais gave it another push. Still locked, he thought morbidly.

"The hell are you laughing at?" Nyais called, banging on the door a couple of times. He couldn't believe him - despite Nyais being fully healed, Rayne seemed to have decided it'd be funny to keep him locked in here for one more day. He figured it was because he was enjoying the chaos the boys had broken into without Nyais' subtle guidance. The worst part was, Nyais had no idea what was going on.

Footsteps approached the door and it unlocked, opening slowly. Nyais knew there was another locked door at the top of the stairs so he didn't try to fight Rayne - he figured he'd have more chloroform on him anyways and Nyais didn't exactly fancy the idea of being tortured. Despite Rayne's lack of brawn, he made up for it in his cunningness.

Rayne appeared from the other side of the door, monitor in hand. He strode into the room, confident as ever (not even bothering to lock the door behind him) and set the black screen down on the counter. "[Y/n]'s... in a bit of a situation," he grinned.

"What do you mean...?" Nyais asked quietly, his voice dripping with malice.

"Put simply, Kori just shoved a shuriken in her back." The nonchalance in Rayne's voice caused Nyais to not quite register what he'd said for a while, before suddenly the words made sense. Nyais grabbed the monitor, his eyes wide with fear, and turned it on - it was showing Kori's room. The boy had lifted the girl's top and was tending to her wound, holding a candle to it as he sealed it to stop the bleeding. Nyais could see that she was slipping in and out of consciousness, the odd cry escaping her before the pain sent her back into slumber.

"Let me out," Nyais spat.

"Hell no," Rayne responded with a grin, "you're staying here. I promised I'd let you out tomorrow, remember?" he giggled. Nyais glared at him. "Kori's not going to kill her so you have nothing to worry about."

"I know what you're doing, Rayne. It's not going to work."

"What I'm doing?" Rayne responded, his head tilting to the side slightly as though trying to emphasise his innocence, "I'm not doing anything. Well, other than keeping you here, but that doesn't have anything to do with her, does it?"

"It does; you know that as well as I do," Nyais spat, "you're not taking someone else away from me, Rayne," Nyais spat.

"I could say the same for you," Rayne responded levelly. The pair locked eyes for a while before Rayne picked up the monitor and prepared to leave. He opened the door and pulled the key from his pocket. "Not trying to escape?" he hummed. Nyais simply stared at him. "Wow, I was right. This really is as entertaining for you as it is for me," he giggled.

With that, he shut the door.

Sorry the chapter's so short! I'm hoping Chapter 19 will be a bit longer (maybe—?) I've got a discord server now! Come and join if you're interested - I love to talk to y'all ^^ - the link to it is in my bio so feel free to check it out. Next Chapter: Day 19 and a Dreadful Reality