Chen rolled to his side, in the process he got a mouthful of dry sand into his open mouth. With a jolt he woke up spitting the sand out, ‘what is this,’ he wiped his tongue, pausing as his eyes fell upon his sleeve. His eyebrows furrowed as he stood up, falling against a rough stone wall as he started frantically patting himself down, lips pulled down with shock. A musty smell of dust and stone invaded his nose as his sense heightened, the blurry film of sleep disappearing immediately. ‘What am I wearing?’ What Chen had gone to bed wearing was a grey shirt and black pants, what he woke up wearing was a soft black suit, he ran his hand up his arm, stopping when he reached something metal. There were thick metal straps running along his shoulders, grunting he pulled at the collar, only to find a strange necklace around his neck that was the same style as the straps. His gaze moved from his perplexing clothing to his surroundings, the floor was coated with a dull brown sand, and he was surrounded by tall dark walls that looked like they would never end. The walls also held strange drawings similar to that of a maze. Pressing his fingers to the cool stone he traced the drawings, there was no beginning and no end to the maze, it simply was, and that terrified him but he didn’t understand why.

 ‘We’ve got another one!’ Chen frowned hearing voices echo through the hall he was in, spinning to face the voices he saw two guys running towards him, one was wearing a black suit much like his own, the other however had a pure white suit, not stained by the sand they were kicking up. Chen backed away from them confused, he had no idea who they could possibly be. ‘Hey! Wait!’ He didn’t know what to think of them, they both looked intimidating, probably because they were extremely tall and both had stoic dark expressions. He found it strange, he could have sworn he had never seen them before, so why would they be calling for him? Was this a dream? Maybe he could fly if he tried hard enough.

 ‘Who are you?’ Chen leaned against the wall, folding his arms as he grinned at them. ‘I’m Chen.’

 ‘Chen?’ The one wearing white halted to a stop as soon as he got close before he glanced at the one wearing black. ‘He’s chinese too!’ The one wearing black bowed, his catlike eyes underlined with dark circles.

 'Hello, my name is Zitao, you can call me Tao, my friend is named Sehun,’ his face broke out into a childish smile breaking his intimidating facade.

  'Yeah, I'm not Chinese, I'm Korean, I'm in China right now for school so I have another name.’ Chen laughed and smiled back, he didn’t fail to notice the smile drop off of Tao’s face, or the hesitant glances shared by the two males.

 ‘Right,’ Sehun sighed, his face almost expressionless if not for the faint scrunching of his eyebrows. Tao’s lip jutted out in a faint pout as he looked at Sehun as if debating with each other Sehun responded by rolling his eyes before looking back at Chen. ‘Look, Chen, you’re not in China.’

 ‘Yeah, right, like I just disappeared,’ Chen snorted and pushed himself off of the wall. ‘This is a really weird dream,’ his gaze flickered up, all he could see was black. It didn’t look like ceiling, it definitely wasn’t the sky, all that was left was that his dream didn’t account for it. Because he had to be dreaming. That would explain why they didn’t look familiar, after all the people you see in your dreams you have seen once before, your brain doesn’t create people to put into it. For all he knew he could have seen them when he was a toddler.

 ‘This isn’t a dream,’ Sehun stepped forwards, leaning back on his foot for a moment before throwing his fist forwards, punching Chen.

 ‘What are you doing!’ Chen grimaced, falling against the wall as he pressed his fingers to his cheek, wincing from the sharp pain if this wasn’t a dream he would guarantee that it would bruise. ‘Are you crazy!’

 ‘It hurt didn’t it? Dreams don’t hurt,’ Sehun growled out, and frankly Chen’s impression of him was getting worse by the minute. First he punched him, then he mouthed him off and the kid didn’t even use honorifics.

 ‘Or course it is, lucid dreams can have pain. I must be lucid dreaming,’ Chen fixed his coat, frowning at the smooth texture, he was never rich enough to afford something like this, maybe it’s a repressed desire, like what Freud was always on about. Chen’s frown deepened, lips pursing, what could the maze mean then, if the coat symbolized his want for power, or freedom, could the maze be what he thinks is holding him back?  

 ‘It’s not a dream Chen, believe me, we’ve been stuck here for awhile.’ Tao walked to the wall before tracing one of the intricate patterns. His eyes slowly fluttered closed as he heaved a heavy sigh, his forehead pressed against the slick walls. ‘This isn’t just an image, it’s a map, we’re in a maze, and we can’t get out.’