Unlikely Circumstances (HuaLian)

chapter 3

   "What part of this discussion don't you understand?" He grunted, voice shaking with barely contained anger. His sister's head was on his lap, and he couldn't look down to see her because he refused to see her pale skin, some parts of it translucent due to a sickness he found no remedy for. It was only when he met this man, he knew what was happening to her. And the circumstance of it was not only wrong, it was deadly. It was a fatal thing, not a typical or even a rare illness. His sister was hit by a curse, and this man was its caster.

So, he glared.

   The man looked at him, gaze a little troubled judging by the eyes that were visible despite the cloth that covered the remainder of his face. He could feel the pity of his bandit mates reflecting onto his back, and he refused to take it. They were right, he was young. Younger than most of them, but he could manage because for this far, he had managed. This time, though, he wasn't the one he wished could survive. 

  "We don't have the treasure. Hell, I don't even know what it looks like. You have cursed the wrongest person you could ever have cursed. She did nothing wrong." He agonized, hardly able to state any more facts. He felt full, filled to the brim with his own emotions, anger, frustration, fear. And his brain had too many words scattered across it, too many plans, too many words, too many voices but never a proper way out. 

  Over his rapidly beating heart, he breathed heavy and shallow. He needed her. She had to wake up and she need not suffer. He needed to save her. But there wasn't much way out, so he placed her head down on the ground, delicately, carefully, afraid that he could hurt her or shake her awake despite knowing that she wouldn't wake any sooner, as she was nearing the death door itself. And he apologized for it, apologized that he made her hold the treasure that summoned a curse upon her.

   It should have been him, he thought, as he approached the man that casted the curse on her with heavy steps. He didn't look at his face, but his shoes, making himself feel more miserable. Just one more chance given by god, and he pleaded for it.

   "So heal her." He heaved, lifting his gaze and meeting the man's. He didn't know how many times he mentioned this already but his brain was a muddled up, messy thing, and so he repeated it again. "You've gotten the wrong person. We don't have it."

  "But it was the right person that I cursed." This man claimed, a careful tone in his voice though Hua Cheng didn't know of what use it could have been anymore. This statement made him freeze, staring incredulously. 

  "You'd fight for her, harder than you'd fight for your own life. It's a wonder the curse hadn't hit you as assigned in the first place." Said the man, almost as if he was thinking, calculating something.

   Because he knew what he was indicating, he tackled the man to the ground, his favorite sharp dagger already pressing against the man's artery.

   "I have," he croaked, then chuckling for a little before continuing, ".. cut off a hand clean using this dagger and I assure," he pressed onto the skin a little that it drew out blood, "that it is very sharp."

   He laughed some more, feeling completely out of it. And this man was not even scared, he was pulling off a strong front on him, but he didn't taunt him for it a bit. Instead, it almost looked like the man having a blade pressed against his neck was feeling a little sympathy at him. He knew, and they both knew.

   So tears streamed down his cheek while he laughed, falling onto the man's expecting face. 

   "The curse doesn't work like that. It won't break if you kill me." The man told him, as if he didn't know that already, though as if his mind could be read, the man said something he did not know. "Though it might finish her off too, if you kill me right now."