Wu Xie spun in circle and tried desperately to understand where he was.
Zhang Qi Ling was looking at this young man who seemed confused and lost.
What is the difference between life and death, heaven and hell, this life and the next, rested on the s...
Wu Xie stepped through the large archway and blinked his eyes. He had never seen anything like this. His head was immediately drawn upwards to the source of brightness lighting a room nearly as big as a theater, or more than the size of it. Oh god... the ceiling. Wu Xie's head was craned backwards as he looked up and saw what could only be a depiction of Gods and Goddess, the fluctuation shades of colors, the wispy shades of it and the golden rays of light bouncing of them couldn't be mere paintings... no human artist could achieve such brilliance. Wu Xie blinked and shook his head at his mind's wanderings. Of course it was a painting. Just then he saw a movement from the corner of his eyes and would swear that a cloud had drifted in a gentle wind he couldn't feel. It was like looking into heaven.
Finally tearing his eyes from the ceiling, he looked around trying to determine where he should be. Before he could discern anything else, he yelped and jumps up, trying to get away from the floor. Pitch-black tiles covered the large expanse, marbled with veins of even deeper black, smoking grays and, although he could never see them directly, bright flashes of red. Like the glowing fires of... Wu Xie shook his head and forced his breathing to calm. Although his mind told him it wasn't possible to see anything else in something so black—or in the bloody floor!—he felt like he was standing on a dark window looking down into... he weakly scoffed... hell.
A forced chuckle escaped his throat. "Nice theme for a courthouse." He looked around to see if anyone else was reacting to the courthouse's theme the way he was and found all of the faces to be just as concentrated on something Wu Xie couldn't see or didn't understand as they were when they walked up the step.
To his far left, across the open expanse littered with people, he saw of wooden double doors that nearly filled the length of the wall and scaled the seemingly endless height. Carved into the deep mahogany was yet another scene of epical proportions. Wu Xie stepped close, not because he couldn't see the images with amazing clarity but because he couldn't believe how beautiful and perfect and... morbed... the scene was. The top third of the doors showed images of heavenly palace. Gods and Goddess flew on floating clouds, swords, and other mytical creature. Wu Xie knew that if he wanted to, he would be able to count each of them. Clouds scattered throughout gave the carving a three dimensional look and to the right corner a large hand, strong and comforting, reaching down, palm turned up, as if it were beckoning Wu Xie forward.
Wu Xie was jostled from behind and his eyes slipped from the door while he stepped forward, trying to get out of the way of all the people walking through the open room. He swallowed down something that felt like nervousness and looked back to the doors.
The bottom third of the door held, unsurprisingly, a vivid and horrible image of hell. Huge fire pits blazed while giddy demons, monster, and blacken gods, their faces solemn, roamed the barren expanse. Tortured souls were dragged behind beastly-looking dogs and clawed at the edges of the smoldering pits only to be kicked back in by laughing horned guards.
"Excuse me."
Wu Xie couldn't breathe. The wood on the bottom of the door was darker, so much darker, and the screams, he could hear the screams all around him and he looked for the hand, weathered and wise, but there was no hope. He was drowning, burning, suffocating... forever.
"Excuse me!"
Wu Xie was jarred from the door and blinked, trying to locate his savior. Near the door, he saw a stone podium, he hadn't noticed previously, with an annoyed looking man behind it. The man cleared his throat once more, drumming his fingers impatiently. "Have you eaten?"
"What?" Wu Xie looked around and noticed that a line had formed outside of the doors. Letting his eyes follow it, he saw that it contained hundreds of people and spanned the length of the room. Some looked nervous while others were downright worried, their expressions pale and agitated while others stared ahead, looks of utter contentment and acceptance on their faces.
The man at the podium stared at Wu Xie intensely for a moment before he shook his head side to side slowly and Wu Xie thought he saw understanding flash through the deep dark eyes. "You don't belong here. You have to eat first. Run along."
"But, where..." Wu Xie began and then he knew exactly where the cafeteria was and couldn't believe how hungry he suddenly was. "Yes, of course." Wu Xie would have turned but something drew his attention back to the huge doors and this time he looked at the middle portion.
Wu Xie saw mothers having babies and fathers playing catch with giggling children. He saw women being dragged, screaming, into back alleys and children stalked at playgrounds. He saw men and women handing out food and offering comfort. He saw loving embraces and cold rejection. He saw the hungry and the sick, the well off and the greedy. He saw hundreds of souls, sandwiched between heaven and hell, loving and hating, living and dying. It was humanity, depicted in all its glory and horror, frozen in the wood and yet Wu Xie swore he could hear the laughing, crying, screaming, and whispering echoing in his ears.
His heart was pounding in his chest and his hands fisted at his sides to stop the shaking. He didn't understand. It couldn't be real... and yet an understanding tingled in the back of his mind but he couldn't grasp it and all he could comprehend was that once again he didn't belong... What was this place? Why was he here? How...
"Sir, you need to go eat. You don't belong here." The 'yet' was clear and like a light, Wu Xie panic was pushed aside. He looked up to thank the man but found that, once again, no one made eye contact with him, busy with their own reasons for being there.
Wu Xie sighed and turned toward the opposite side of the room where people were heading off to eat. He shoved his hands in his pockets and started across the marbled floor. The sudden hunger he felt consumed his senses so much so that he didn't question how he knew where the cafeteria was or why eating this meal was so important and he didn't see the dark-haired man leaning in the entrance way, the sun outlining his frame in an ethereal glow, while black eyes watched him closely as he made his way across the room.
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