The red thread of fate《Zhanyi version》

Chapter 6

Unknown POV

Here I am, watching you like I had done years ago, watching the story replay itself in reverse, fate is cruel, but the joker in the game has started.

What would you do if you had a second chance?

Grab it with both hands tightly like you did last time.

You were unbreakable, yet bowed under the vow of Eros, God of love, a dangerous game of running away from your true self only to see it back in a mirror.

After all, what is meant to be will find each other, no matter; in what life as the soul stays the same, it always does.

It remembers what the mind has forgotten, and the heart has letten off.

***

Xiao Zhan's POV

To others, life might be a surprise box because you never know what the next thing you will get, but when I used to be alive, it was like a living hell, every day standing up, knowing in the back of my mind that there wasn't a reason for me to live, and every night going to sleep in total unknowing of what tomorrow had prepared for me and especially when I closed my eyes getting embraced tightly by the hollow darkness.

I also didn't know if there was even a tomorrow that included me, but what did it had mattered anyway because even if I hadn't died that night, no one would have noticed. After all, no one cared.

Wherever I go and leave, I was like a ghost; no one would remember me because I was nothing more than air to them, I was worth nothing, and that made them treat me like air.

I didn't hate society for it, but I hated them because they didn't know what suffering was; they had money to spend on useless things, not knowing how many lives of other people could have been saved with that money of theirs.

Everyone around the town knew about me and my suffering, but still, they acted blind to it, until that night, after that night they started to regret it; and for a moment, I had thought society finally knew what they did wrong until I realized they were acting as if, and if I hadn't met you, I would have thought that life was unfair and merciless.

But I know you weren't, and that was also my reason why I didn't become an evil ghost after I died because instead, I became your guardian angel; I was happy to know that you were destined to my soulmate, but the thought of me never really be able to be with you as a couple hurt.

Besides that, I knew I should be happy because I was lucky to have such a beautiful person as my soulmate not only by appearance but also by heart and every time I would fall into that pit of darkness again, I would keep reminding myself of you because you had always been my reason to live.

You saved me from becoming a soulless ghost wandering on this world, and you saved me from becoming an evil ghost; even if you didn't know you did those things, I truly appreciated it, and so did I try to be the best guardian soulmate I could be.

I tried everything to help you live your life to the fullest, I wanted to help you archive the things I couldn't, and maybe in that way, I could find my own peace at the end.

But you know what hurts?

The thought of you being in a happy mood because of someone else, someone you love that is not me.

I don't want to think about it, but I know that it will happen someday because it happens when we are lonely, we will do the things we might regret just because we want to stop fighting alone.

I don't want you to be happy because of someone else, but still, I know I couldn't do anything against it; you can call me selfish, egocentric, narrow-minded, greedy or whatever you like, but think about it yourself, would you be ready to watch the person you love the most.

Your other half, the missing part inside you, loving someone else while you can only stand by the side watching with tears inside your eyes blurring your vision while not being able to do anything at all except watching him building his happiness and yours crumbling down with the days that pass.

I kept walking over the street, morning dawn slowly crawling up at the horizon as I suppressed a tired yawn, ruffling a hand through my messy hair, thinking about you, I miss you, Wang Yibo.

After I passed a dark alley, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck suddenly standing up, and cold shivers went down my spine.

When I secretly glanced over my shoulder, there was nothing to see, not a shadow to be found.

Of course, after all, I was a spirit; no one should be able to see me except other ghosts; what was I even scared of?

The sidewalk was empty, and yet I resumed a quicker pace, almost running, but on a slower tempo, while my skin prickled from a weird feeling of someone watching me.

That's odd.

Why did I feel like I was being watched while there was clearly nobody?

I tried to concentrate and hear if there's another sound above my own footsteps, but I heard nothing.

For a second, I held up one beat of a step, and I heard it, the following footsteps that matched my tempo, I was being followed.

At that moment, I also came to the realization that the streets were way too quiet for this morning, and when I looked around, I saw that the whole city looked abandoned; why didn't I notice it earlier?

Without a second thought, I started to run faster, but before I knew what happened because I heard the footsteps running after me, coming closer and closer, I felt a knock on my neck, and when everything went black, I realized it was too late.

***

X POV

Love is like a maze; as long as you stay in it, you won't get lost, safe words whispered into your ear to let you stay, into that labyrinth to make your mind a mess and not remember anything.

Step with one foot into it, and you will never be able to escape again.

Word count: 1090 words