The whispers of our past《Yizhan version》

Chapter 7 (part 1)

Xiao Zhan's POV

The new scars burned on my skin like wildfire, I tried closing my eyes, ignoring the pain that kept creeping higher and higher, waiting for the sleep to take me, but it didn't work as the pain only spread further and deeper into my veins.

A tear escaped my eye as I tried to listen to my own unsteady breathing, listening to the disappearing footsteps of the monsters who created me; sometimes I didn't see the light in the tunnel anymore, but always would Yibo's face flash by again and again.

A soft knock on my window made me painfully turn my head, but my body ached so much that I wasn't even able to stand up anymore; I didn't even remember how I crawled into my own bed in the first place.

But as I looked at the window, I saw nothing more than a shadow seemingly shaking its head before disappearing.

"I once asked Yibo why he lived in the forest, Yibo told me he forgot, but Yibo never forgets; after all, he doesn't forget the ghost in his lungs or the skeletons in his closet. He doesn't forget when he wakes up screaming, and Yibo never forgets as he falls to his bloody knees, finished to the bones. He'll never forget, just as he never will forget you." I didn't need to turn my head to know it was him, the person who had held a knife at my neck countless times but never hurt me.

"Who are you?"

"Does that matter? It seems like you're still asking the wrong questions." He shook his head as he sat in the chair opposite of my bed, the chair that my grandma always sat on as she lulled me into sleep with the pain stinging, but she was gone.

"Who am I?" He cackled out a dry laugh.

"You're getting on the good road; you're Xiao Zhan, the boy who fell in love with a cursed one." Love, I indeed loved Yibo; more than I loved my own life because he is my life.

"In your past life, Yibo had saved you from death as he fell for you, somehow, but the thing about Yibo was that he is able to see the death date of people in their eyes, so Yibo committed a crime, he tried to run, only to be handed over by your own mother. You never knew about this, but you both get meant for each other, like two puzzle pieces." So that's why he felt so familiar as if I knew him.

"But you're a cursed one too." Almost as if I felt him smirk as he spoke up, quietly in a dangerous tone, "I never said I was a cursed one. I am a guardian of the forest, one to watch the cursed one even though they can't enter outside the place; being a guardian means to cut off all the contacts with the outside world, but while I grew up, I knew it was the destined path for me as the rules were ridiculous. I promised myself to help the cursed one who didn't deserve to be there, like Yibo; after all, love shouldn't be a crime." My breath hitched as I closed my eyes, the puzzles falling together.

"So that's why I was able to see your aura, but not Yibo's, isn't it?" Without words, I felt he was nodding.

"Then, why are you here?" He didn't respond as a peaceful silence fell down, and I wished things would go backwards in time, a time where I was still happy only to realize there was no such time.

"To take you away, only if you want, this is your only choice; if you decide to stay, you will never be able to find Yibo again, but if you go, you'll never get the chance to come back again." The words fell like heavy burdens, but it was not a hard choice as I had nothing left here, not after my granny passed away.

"So?" As I opened my eyes, I saw him standing by the window, my body aching, but my breath stopped for a second as I heard footsteps approaching.

And I started to plead with my eyes, as if he understood what I wanted he quickly approached me, taking me in bridal style through the window and melted into the background of the shadows.